Lets blame WW1 on a country!

• Germany
  • Problems within Germany
    • Prussian militarism
    • alliance with Austria-Hungary
  • France
    • Early Issues through 1870
      • Revanchism: the French idea of revenge against Germany
      • Franco-Prussian War was in 1870, and resulted in a German victory.
      • Alsace Lorraine: was won by the Germans. Its important because is has strategic location and iron resources.
      • Reparations: the French had to pay 5 billion gold francs, "Well you started it!" They were tricked by the Ems Dispatch
      • Versailles: the Germans crowned Kaiser Wilhelm II in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.
    • Later Issues
      • The Reinsurance Treaty: kept France isolated
      • The Triple Alliance with Italy, A-H, and Germany
      • These two alliance systems make up Bismarckian diplomacy, but Kaiser Wilhelm II "drops the pilot."
      • The Kaiser allows the Secret Reinsurance treaty to lapse, so the Franco-Russian alliance forms.
      • Causes the Germans to face a 2 fronted war
      • Schlieffen Plan (attack France first)
      • Issues of mobilizations
      • The Blanque Cheque to Austria
  • Great Britain
    • High Seas Fleet
    • Risk Theory
    • Wilhelm II wants an alliance with Great Britain
    • Uncle Peetie or Kind Edward IIV
    • Britain and splendid isolation
    • Gibraltar is the British Lifeline
    • British German economic concnetration
    • Imperialism
    • Jameison Raid, Boer War, and Kruger Telegram
    • Capetown to Cairo Railway
    • China, Pacific
    • The Belgian neutrality Treaty 1839- relates to the Schlieffen Plan
• France
  • French Issues
    • All the Issues with Germany mentioned above
    • Internal issues
      • Dreyfus Affair shows French militarism
      • French are allied with Russia
      • Entente Cordiale with Britain, tested by the Moroccan Crises
      • Instability of the 3rd Republic (1874-1914) there are 50+ governments. If they are weak internally, then countries can go to foreign policy and try to blame other countries
      • Triple Entente
      • Illusory Greatness
• Austria-Hungary
  • Internal Issues
    • Ausgleich or 1867
    • Magyar Nationalism
    • Slavic Nationalism
    • Austroslavism: germanize the slavs
    • Franz-Ferdinand wants a Magyar Solution for the Slavs, and the Serbs don't like this idea
    • They are the weakest power
      • lost majorly in these wars:
        • Crimean War 1854
        • Italian Reunification War by the French 1859
        • 7 weeks' war got beaten by Prussia
      • They also are in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy (the Treaty of London 1915)
  • Inner Zone Outer Zone fro each other. Low Exports, No colonies
  • Militarily weak (decent army)
• Russia
  • Warm Water Port
  • Expansionism
  • Third Rome
  • Constantinople represents these first three desires
  • Pan-slavism unites and rules the Slavs
• Ottomans
  • weak and crumbling
  • target for expansion mainly for Russia
  • Politically backward
  • Young Turks take power in1908 which is a catalyst
  • 1861 was this Emancipation of the Serfs
  • industrially and agriculturally underdeveloped.
  • Unhappy Intelligentsia who hate the Autocracy
  • The Russo Japanese war has exposed Russian weaknesses.
  • Russo Japanese war overexposed Russia's weakness; it changed the expansionist focus for the Pacicifc Balkansl
  • Alliances (1894) Prove in 1847, 1897 Russia joins Entente
  • Austria annexes Bosnia also wanted Serbia.
  • Serbia was hacked with Russia mYugoslavism
  • unite and rule all south slavs
  • Serbian annexation gives serbia a WWP. this leads to Russian wold power
• Bosnia
  • Austria has had a protectorate since 1878
  • In 1908 is the Trukish Revival, which modernizes on western mondel.
    • 1908 The Buchlaw Conference
      • Austria annexe Bosnia
      • Austria annexeds Serbia
  • The 1st Balkan Crisis
    • Austria annexes Bosnia, who Serbia also wanted
    • Serbia, backed by Russia, advocates for Yugoslavism which would unite and rule all the South Slavs (a minority in Austria)
    • Serbian annexation of Bosnia gives Serbia a WWP
    • The Serbs are Russia's Little Sons
  • 2nd Balkan Crisis 1912
    • Russia helps form an alliance system against Austrians called the Balkan League.
    • The Balkan league attacks the Ottomans and wins.
    • Serbia takes land on land on the Adriatic from the Ottomans
    • The West says hell no and creates an independent Albania
    • Russia is in the process of rebuilding the military (ready in 1917)
  • 3rd Balkan Crisis
    • The assassination of Franz-Ferdinand: (Ass)ˆ2 of (F)ˆ2 = (WWI), by the Serbian Black Hand backed by Russians
    • Occurred at a parade in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
    • The Austrians quickly discover Serb Complicity, and now they want to crush the Serbs
    • They need reassurance from the Germans, so the Kaiser issues the Blank Check
    • Austria Hungary extends an ultimatum to Serbia:
      • Russia can't deny the Serbs thrice, so they potentially mobilize
      • France also issues a blank check to they mobilize
      • TOW FRNT WAR ERMERGERD SCHLIEFFEN!!

US Entry in 1917

• Why is the US not in the war?
  • The US is isolationist is set by George Washington's Farewell address.
  • There is a large German minority in the US, so Woodrow Wilson getting into the war might endanger his election.
  • He was also a liberal pacifist who thought that going to war needed to have a strong moral cause.
• These objections erode for 3 reasons:
  • The Zimmerman Note (though it may have been planted by the British)
    • The Germans see that a long war with the west has made the US a de facto ally.
    • any of the US economic production helps with war efforts, but only benefits France and Britain.
    • Arthur Zimmerman is the German Foreign minister who makes an offer to Mexico to ally with the Germans. If Mexico allies with the Germans, and the Germans win then Mexico will get back all the territories lost in the Treaty of Guadeloupe-Hidalgo, which includes New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, but not California.
    • The Americans are outraged by this in conjunction with Pancho Villa and the unofficial border war with the Mexicans.
  • In February 1917 the Russians depose Nicholas II and establish a provisional Government along Classical Liberal Lines. Wilson had objected to aiding the Repressive Regime.
    • The Romanov fall eases Wilson's mind about allying with the Allied powers
  • In July 1917, the Germans change their strategy again and decide to resume unrestricted submarine warfare
    • History of German Strategy
      • 1914: Schlieffen Plan
      • 1915: KO Russia
      • 1916: War of Attrition at Verdun
      • 1917: Unrestricted submarine warfare to starve the British.
    • The Germans know this would bring the US into the war, but they calculated that it would take a year and a half for the US to send significant forces to Europe.
    • They hoped to starve Britain out of the war before the US could arrive.
    • Since Lusitania, the Germans had built up their U-Boat fleet and were increasing their sinkage of British Merchant ships.
    • In the summer of 1917 the British ships are being sunk faster than they can build. By August 1917 Britain has 6 weeks of food left.
    • The US Navy invents the Convoy System
• The War in 1917
  • The US joins the war as an "Associated Power" in April 1917.
  • British
    • In the Western Front the British become desperate because of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and try several offensives that all fail.
    • Battles include the 2nd Battle of the Somme, the 2nd and 3rd Ypres and Cambrai.
    • The British makes tanks and break through the German lines with 400 Tanks, who get lost, go in circles, and run out of gas, leading to heavy losses and no gains.
  • France
    • In Spring 1917, the French under General Nivelle fail in massive offensives after which the French poilu began to mutiny. The French army barely manages to stay together, Hereafter, Nivelle tells the government that the French Soldiers can only fight in defense.
    • In France, 1.8 million people die.
  • Russia
    • On the Russian Front the Czar and his troops are steadily pushed back. They are starving with no ammunition and poor transportation.
    • The soldiers begin to desert and mutiny, and in February 1917, the Czar is overthrown and replaced by the provisional government who stay in the war due to allied threats and Sykes-Picot
    • The longer Russia stays in the War, the more unstable they become. The Germans employ brain warfare and smuggle Lenin back into Russia, further destabilizing.
    • By October 1917, the Bolsheviks of Lenin and Trotsky overthrow the Provisional Government and immediately sign an armistice with the Central Powers.
    • By January 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is concluded. Russia cedes the Baltics, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine to independent status. The Two Front War is No More.
• 1918
  • The German forces rush from Russia