history
The Collapse of the Imperial Order, 1900-1929
Lecture 19
New Technologies and the World Economy
What led to the outbreak of the First World War?
“Two major changes undermined the apparent stability. In Europe, tensions mounted as Germany…challenged Britain…and France. And the Ottoman Empire lost territory to nationalistic movements in the Balkans.”
Origins of the Crisis in Europe and the Middle East
As the Ottoman Empire declined, nationalists calling themselves Young Turks tired to create a new Turkish nation.
1.By the late nineteenth century the once-powerful Ottoman Empire was in decline and losing the outlying provinces closest to Europe. The European powers meddled in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire, sometimes in cooperation, at other times as rivals;
2. In reaction, the Young Turks conspired to force a constitution on the Sultan, advocated centralized rule and Turkification of minorities, and carried out modernizing reforms. The Turks turned to Germany for assistance and hired a German general to modernize Turkey’s armed forces.
Origins of the Crisis in Europe and the Middle East
Nationalism, competing alliances, and inflexible military plans based on railroads turned an assassination into a cause of war.
1. The three main causes of World War I were nationalism, the system of alliances and military plans, and Germany’s yearning to dominate Europe;
2. Nationalism was deeply rooted in European culture, where it served to unite individual nations while undermining large multiethnic empires. Because of the spread of nationalism, most people viewed war as a crusade for liberty or as revenges for past injustices, and people also believed that war could heal the class divisions in their societies.
Origins of the Crisis in Europe and the Middle East
Nationalism, competing alliances, and inflexible military plans based on railroads turned an assassination into a cause of war.
3. The major European countries were organized into two alliances: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia). The military alliance system was accompanied by inflexible mobilization plans that depended on railroads to move troops according to precise schedules;
4. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, diplomats, statesmen, and monarchs quickly lost control of events. The alliance system in combination with the rigidly scheduled mobilization plans meant that war was automatic.
Origins of the Crisis in Europe and the Middle East
Nationalism, competing alliances, and inflexible military plans based on railroads turned an assassination into a cause of war.
Stalemate, 1914-1917
Europeans greeted the outbreak of war with joy.
1. The nations of Europe entered the war in high spirits, confident of victory. German victory at first seemed assured, but as the German advance faltered in September, both sides spread out until they formed an unbroken line of trenches (the Western Front) from the North Sea to Switzerland.
Stalemate, 1914-1917
After a month-long German advance into Belgium and France, armies stalemated in a line of trenches along the Western Front, suffering huge casualties.
2. The generals on each side tried for four years to take enemy positions by ordering their troops to charge across the open fields, only to have them cut down by machine-gun fire. For four years the war was inconclusive on both land and at sea.
The Home Front and the War Economy
On the home fronts, civilians suffered severe shortages and women entered the workforce, while the United States grew rich on profits from war production.
1. The material demands of trench warfare led governments to impose stringent controls over all aspects of their economies. Rationing and the recruitment of Africans, Indians, Chinese, and women into the European labor force transformed civilian life. German civilians paid an especially high price for the war as the British naval blockade cut off access to essential food imports.
The Home Front and the War Economy
On the home fronts, civilians suffered severe shortages and women entered the workforce, while the United States grew rich on profits from war production.
2. British and French forces overran Germany’s African colonies (except for Tanganyika). In all of their African colonies Europeans requisitioned food, imposed heavy taxes, forced Africans to grow export crops and sell them at low prices, and recruited African men to serve as soldiers and as porters.
3. The United States grew rich during the war by selling goods to Britain and France. When the United States entered the war in 1917, businesses engaged in war production made tremendous profits.
The Ottoman Empire at War
The entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war did not tip the balance.
1. The Turks signed a secret alliance with Germany in 1914. Turkey engaged in unsuccessful campaigns against Russia, deported the Armenians (causing the deaths of hundred of thousands), and closed the Dardanelles Straits.
2. When they failed to open the Dardanelles Straits by force, the British tried to subvert the Ottoman Empire from within by promising emir (hereditary governor) Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca a kingdom of his own if he would lead a revolt against the Turks, which he did in 1916.
The Home Front and the War Economy
In the Balfour Declaration, Great Britain promised Jews a “national homeland” in Palestine.
3. In the Balfour Declaration of 1917 the British suggested to the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann that they would “view with favor” the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. Britain also sent troops into southern Mesopotamia in order to secure the oil pipeline from Iran, taking Baghdad in early 1917.
Double Revolution in Russia
As Russia weakened, Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in November 1917.
1. By late 1916 the large but incompetent and poorly equipped Russian army had experienced numerous defeats and had run out of ammunition and other essential supplies. The civilian economy was in a state of collapse and the cities faced shortages of fuel and food in the winter of 1916–1917.
2. In March 1917 (February by the old Russian calendar) the tsar was overthrown and replaced by a Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky. On November 6, 1917 (October 24 in the Russian calendar) Vladimir Lenin’s Bolsheviks staged an uprising in Petrograd and overthrew the Provisional Government.
The End of the War in Western Europe, 1917-1918
Goaded by German submarine warfare, in 1917 the United States entered the war on the Allied side, and Germany began to retreat.
1. German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare brought the United States into the war in April 1917. On the Western Front, the two sides were evenly matched, but in 1918 the Germans were able to break through the front at several places and pushed within 40 miles of Paris.
The End of the War in Western Europe, 1917-1918
The war ended on November 11, 1918, with the defeat of Germany.
2. The arrival of United States forces allowed the Allies to counterattack in August 1918. The German soldiers retreated, many sick with the flu; an armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.
Peace and Dislocation in Europe, 1919-1929
The war caused millions of deaths and injuries and millions of refugees.
1. The war left more dead and wounded and caused more physical destruction than any previous conflict. The war also created millions of refugees, many of whom fled to France and to the United States, where the influx of immigrants prompted the United States Congress to pass immigration laws that closed the doors to eastern and southern Europeans.
2. One byproduct of the war was the influenza epidemic of 1918–1919, which started among soldiers headed for the Western Front and spread around the world, killing some 30 million people. The war also caused serious damage to the environment and hastened the build-up of mines, factories, and railroads.
Peace and Dislocation in Europe, 1919-1929
France, Britain, and the United States dominated the Paris Peace Conference, refusing to listen to other voices.
The United States refused to join the League of Nations, thereby weakening it.
The Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany but did not weaken it, thus becoming one of the big failures in history.
When Austria-Hungary and Russia fell apart, several smaller nations arose in Europe, creating another source of potential conflict.
1. Three men dominated the Paris Peace Conference: United States President Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French Premier Georges Clemenceau. Because the three men had conflicting goals, the Treaty of Versailles turned out to be a series of unsatisfying compromises that humiliated Germany but left it largely intact and potentially the most powerful nation in Europe.
2. The Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart. New countries were created in the lands lost by Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary.
Peace and Dislocation in Europe, 1919-1929
After the Bolshevik victory in the Civil War, the Russian economy was in ruins, and Stalin took power.
1. In Russia, Allied intervention and civil war extended the fighting for another three years beyond the end of World War I. By 1921 the Communists had defeated most of their enemies, and in 1922 the Soviet republic of Ukraine and Russia merged to create the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Peace and Dislocation in Europe, 1919-1929
After the Bolshevik victory in the Civil War, the Russian economy was in ruins, and Stalin took power.
2. Years of warfare, revolution, and mismanagement had ruined the Russian economy. Beginning in 1921 Lenin’s New Economic Policy helped to restore production by relaxing government controls and allowing a return of market economics. This policy was regarded as a temporary measure that would be superseded as the Soviet Union built a modern socialist industrial economy by extracting resources from the peasants in order to pay for industrialization.
3. When Lenin died in January 1924 his associates struggled for power; the two main contenders were Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Stalin filled the bureaucracy with his supporters, expelled Trotsky, and forced him to flee the country.
Peace and Dislocation in Europe, 1919-1929
After the German hyperinflation of 1923 was resolved, the world economy began to prosper in 1924.
1. The 1920s were a decade of apparent progress behind which lurked irreconcilable tensions and dissatisfaction among people whose hopes had been raised by the rhetoric of war and dashed by its outcome. The decade after the end of the war can be divided into two periods: five years of painful recovery and readjustment (1919–1923) followed by six years of growing peace and prosperity (1924–1929).
2. In 1923 French occupation of the Ruhr and severe inflation brought Germany to the brink of civil war. Currency reform and French withdrawal from the Ruhr marked the beginning of a period of peace and economic growth beginning in 1924.