Topic 8.2 Notes – World War I

How World War I Became a Global Industrial War

The assassination in Sarajevo mattered, but AP loves this distinction: it was the trigger, not the whole cause. Europe was already tense and unstable.

• Nationalism pushed states and peoples in different directions:
  • France wanted revenge for losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871.
  • Germany wanted prestige and a bigger global role.
  • Russia backed Pan-Slavism, so it saw itself as protector of Slavic Serbia.
  • Serbia wanted to unite South Slavs, which threatened Austria-Hungary, a multinational empire full of restless ethnic groups.
• Alliances made any local crisis bigger:
  • Triple Alliance = Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
  • Triple Entente = France, Russia, Britain
  • On a map of Europe in 1914, you can see how these blocs turned a regional dispute into a wider crisis, especially once the Balkans were involved.
  • These alliances raised the stakes, but war was still a choice. They did not force automatic fighting.

Europe’s alliance blocs in 1914

• Militarism and war plans made diplomacy harder:
  • Europe had mass conscript armies, rail schedules for mobilization, and a naval arms race.
  • Germany feared a two-front war, so it built the Schlieffen Plan to beat France fast, then turn east to Russia.
  • Once mobilization started, leaders felt they had to move quickly or fall behind.
• Imperial rivalry added distrust:
  • Germany’s Weltpolitik aimed at a larger world empire.
  • The Moroccan Crises of 1905 and 1911 deepened tension with France and Britain.
  • Ottoman decline and the Balkan Wars made southeastern Europe especially explosive.

The July Crisis and the Outbreak of War

A Balkan crisis became a continental war because leaders escalated it step by step.

1. June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Young Bosnia assassin. The plot had connections to members of the Black Hand, but Princip himself belonged to Young Bosnia.
2. Germany gave Austria-Hungary a blank check of support.
3. Austria-Hungary sent Serbia a harsh ultimatum.
4. Serbia accepted most demands but rejected ones that violated its sovereignty.
5. July 28: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
6. Russia mobilized for Serbia.
7. Germany declared war on Russia and France.
8. Germany invaded Belgium.
9. Britain entered over Belgian neutrality and the balance of power.

Belligerents

• Central Powers = Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
• Allied Powers = France, Russia, Britain, later Italy, the United States, and colonial troops

How Technology Turned War into Stalemate and Attrition

After the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, the quick war failed. The Western Front hardened into trenches from the North Sea to Switzerland. The trench scene below is the kind of front-line environment that made the war so deadly and so hard to move.

World War I trench warfare on the Western Front

The Eastern Front stayed more mobile, with Tannenberg as the key German victory over Russia.

• Machine guns and heavy artillery favored defenders and caused huge casualties.
• Barbed wire and trench systems made breakthroughs extremely hard.
• Poison gas at Second Ypres in 1915 terrified soldiers but did not win the war.
• Tanks appeared at the Somme in 1916. Early tanks were clumsy, but by 1918 they helped more.
• Airplanes were used for scouting, dogfights, and bombing.
• Submarines attacked shipping and civilians. The Lusitania is the example you need to know.

Attrition battles

• Verdun = bleed France white
• Somme = massive losses for tiny gains
• Gallipoli = failed Allied attack on the Ottoman Empire

Total War, Social Upheaval, and Revolution

Stalemate forced governments to mobilize everything. Total war meant armies, economies, and civilians were all part of the war effort.

• Governments used conscription, censorship, propaganda, rationing, war bonds, and economic control.
• Britain’s Defence of the Realm Act expanded state power.
• Germany’s Hindenburg Program pushed the economy harder for war production.

Home life changed fast:

• Women entered factories, transport, nursing, and clerical jobs.
• Shortages, inflation, and hunger grew worse.
• Suffrage advanced, especially in Britain and Germany.

Discontent followed the same pattern across Europe:

• French army mutinies after the failed Nivelle Offensive
• Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916
• Russian Revolution in 1917, then Brest-Litovsk in 1918
• German naval mutinies and revolution in 1918

How the War Reshaped the World

The war spread through empires and overseas fronts.

• Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire
• Arab Revolt under Sharif Hussein with British backing
• Japan seized German possessions in China and the Pacific and issued the Twenty-One Demands

The United States entered in 1917 because Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare and sent the Zimmermann Telegram. The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 had already angered Americans, but it did not bring the U.S. into the war at the time.

Germany’s 1918 spring offensive failed, the Allies counterattacked, and the armistice took effect on November 11, 1918.

The war shattered old empires:

• German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires collapsed
• New states included Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia
• The mandate system replaced some German and Ottoman rule
• Modern Turkey emerged from Ottoman collapse
• Europe was weakened, and the United States became a major world power