ww1

• event on 28 june 1914 that catapulted the start of WW1


  Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the Austro-hungarian throne) and his wife Sophie were both shot dead in a car in Sarajevo by bosnian-serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip
• paradox WW1


  begining 20th C europeans thought historical plateau of progress/civilisation

  
  

  at the same time european states maintained massive resting armies in peacetime (+ obligatory military service)
• Austria-Hungary formed in what year? Approximate population?

  1867

  +- 52 million people

  + linguistically complex
• why did Austria and Hungary form a dual monarchy?

  Austrian empire defeat in Austria-Prussia war - verge of collapse

  
  

  Compromise saved the Habsburg Monarch and transformed Austria into a dual monarchy
• How did Austria-Hungary function?

  • Hungary received full autonomy within the empire, yet accepted that for foreign affairs(war and IR), the empire would act as a single state

  
  

  • No common prime minister, cabinet or parliament, no common citizenship

  
  

  • A common customs union, coinage and postal service (to be revised every 10 years)

  
  

  • A "gemeinsamer Ministerrat": crown council in which ministers of foreign affairs and war,and prime ministers met under the presidency of the Monarch
• imbalances within Austria-Hungary


  German- and Hungarian-speaking groups constituted only 42.93% of the total population

  
  

  heightened nationalist sentiment

  
  

  1908: annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary (rejected Croation/Serbian claims - promoted bosnian identity)

  
  

  assasination = direct threat to Austrian stability
• how was Franz Ferdinand a moderate

  he wanted to include the slavic regions into a federal model
• Step (1/4) of breakdown of diplomacy in July 1914

  Austria - Hungary sends humiliating 48h ultimatum to Serbia
• Step (2/4) of breakdown of diplomacy in July 1914

  28 july: AH declares war on Serbia; Russian mobilisation
• Step (3/4) of breakdown of diplomacy in July 1914

  Germany declares war on Russia

  German troops take control of Luxemburg ( pre invasion France/be)

  Brits promise to support France via Naval coast protection
• Step (4/4) of breakdown of diplomacy in July 1914

  Germany declares war on Belgium and France; and violates international law, by invading Belgium = casus belli for Britain and France who enter war
• The Central Powers


  two powerful: Germany and Austro-Hungarian Empire

  Italy

  Bulgaria

  Ottoman Empire
• The Allied Powers


  Russia, GB (UK+Ireland), France
• why was GB reluctant for war

  isolationist policy; war had to be declared by parliament
• Triple Alliance


  Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
• Triple Entente


  Britain, France, Russia
• Italy beginning WW1


  Triple Alliance but blames AH for violating treaty

  joins in 1915 cus promised austrian + ottoman territory and african colonies
• Romania beginning WW1


  good econ relations with Germany

  wanted Transylvanis (romanian-inhabited part of AH)
• Greece and Serbia beginning WW1

  were bound by alliance of mutual support (1913); Greece remained neutral until entry of Ottoman Empire into the conflict
• Japan beginning WW1


  Japan hoped to acquire German concessions in China & North Pacific
• US beginning WW1


  US ended neutrality after German sinking of the British liner Lusitania (1915; 128 Americans died)and German sabotage of munition depots in US (1916-1917); German telegraph regarding Mexico-Texas
• why did the Ottoman empire join WW1

  war as an attempt to break free from France and GB debt
• Bulgaria beginning WW1


  • Internationally isolated; blamed by Russia and France for its part in the end of the Balkan League (which was meant to protect the Balkans from Ottoman expansionism)

  
  

  • Germany and Austria-Hungary best suited to help Bulgaria settle its territorial claims on other Balkan countries
• big events of 1914

  • Germans violate Belgian neutrality (Treaty of London, 1839); Great Britain abandons its isolationist tradition and enters war on the side of the Allied Forces

  
  

  • Germans fail to take Paris, trench warfare begins in France

  
  

  • Germans defeat a Russian offensive in East Prussia; take over Poland

  
  

  • Ottomon Empire enters war on the side of the Central Powers; closes the Turkish Straits to the Allies
• big events of 1915

  • Italy enters the war on the allied side

  
  

  • British launch the Gallipoli campaign against Ottoman empire (withdraw in 1916)

  
  

  • Armenian genocide; purging Ottoman empire from non-Muslim elements

  
  

  • German campaign of submarine warfare: sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania
• big events of 1916

  • German offensive at Verdun & Allied offensive on the Somme; no breakthroughs

  
  

  • Western front: Stale-mate between invading Germans and French and British defenders

  
  

  • Eastern front: Germans make significant progress agains the Russians

  
  

  • Battle of Jutland, Denmark (British and German fleets)
• in what kind of offensive strategies did France and Germany believe in?

  rapid offensive strategies
• Von Schlieffen plan


  based on fear of encirclement (Russia and France)

  
  

  - gamble: russia needs more time to mobilise

  - germans send reinforcements to defeat France

  so: invade Liège
• Battle of the Marne


  1914

  
  

  Germany's advance into france halted by France+GB

  "race - to -sea" tried to outflank each other all the way to the north sea

  stale - trench war

  Germany's quick plan failed
• Two main battle lines of the armed stale mate

  august 1916

  
  

  West: accomplished nothing

  East: Russia weak, losing territories

  The Balkans: small allied force seized city
• March riots


  1917

  strikes, food riots, army sent in repression

  troops join demonstrators

  tsar replaced by prov gov of libs
• growing rift in Russia in 1917

  mensheviks (minority)

  bolsheviks (majority - more radical)

  
  

  revolution vs reform

  mass party vs leadership party
• October Revolution (Russia)


  lenin called for redistribution

  gov protects priv property

  bolsheviks take power

  withdraw from WW1
• resistance to war ( within the US) from:

  Irish Americans - weak GB = irish independence

  german americans - fear public opinion turn

  
  

  pacific church leaders and feminist movements
• why and when did USA enter WW1?

  german activities violate USA neutrality (submarine warfare + german secret agents in USA)

  Dec 7th 1917
• Woodrow Wilson asks congress for:

  " a war to end all wars"

  "to make the world safe for democracy"
• Allied powers army increase after USA involvement

  from 130 000 to 3,5 million soldiers
• when were american troops sent over to Europe

  spring 1918

  -> breaking of stale-mate in France
• Soviet Russia after WW1

  surrenders to Germany

  lost 25% territory

  lost 30% of population

  lost 50% of coal and iron

  lost 30% industry
• Woodrow Wilson's proposal for peace

  the Fourteen Points