The Great War and its legacy News Reports Eurobond debate Combine national debt into Eurobonds remove individual credit ratings for countries End to eurozone crisis because ECB has been buying up individual debts to save economy Allow for greater develop in periphery Greece Portugal Encourage by a lot of EU members Germany is largest opponent o Make it harder for Germany to borrow money Rest of the world needs stronger EU to buy their exports safe investments Government have more jurisdiction over social networking England Against validity for human rights IRAN against it for human rights reasons Results from riots in Egypt and Tunisia Spanish government legally responsible for controlling national deficit 318 350 parliament members voted in support formally debated and voted on Friday budgetary discipline into Spanish constitution Spain has been suffering from economic recession resulting from excessive borrowing it will reassure markets that Spain will keep finances under control Help Euro zone The Great War Outline Why did war break it Once it broke out why was the war so long and destructive 4 phases of war 1 Phase of Illusions 2 stalemate 3 slaughter 4 revolution and peace how and why Europe lost dominant and US rose to super power status after WWI People thought Germany would become most dominant not US Best colleges there auto industry what was legacy of US denial of that new found dominance War to end all wars 14 million deaths Late 19th century European dominance Why did WWI start April 1912 British French Naval Agreement July Crisis of 1914 The Spark that Started the War o The assassination of the Archduke Franz ferdinand and family next in command Heir to throne of the austro hungarian empire Assisanted 28th of june 1914 in Sarajevo man who assassinated just wanted serbian independence not a World War Started the July crisis Kaiser Wilhelm II Germany pseudo democracy essentially a monarchy though Believed in War as necessary right of passage Early july 1914 austro Hungarian AH empire decides to take hard line stance Vienna sends envoy to Berlin to seek support July 5th Viennese envoy meets with German Kaiser who grants AH a blank check 23 July AH empire delivers ultimatum to Serbia accusing Belgrade of the Assassination Viennese delay weaken legitimacy of their response waited a month after the assassination Serbian govt was NOT involved in assassination and tried to work with Vienna but that s not what Vienna wanted they wanted to start hostilities war with Serbia o 28 July AH empire formally declares War on Serbia o 30 July AH orders general mobilization o 31 July Russia starts mobilization even though nobody had declared war on them they just wanted to be prepared b c soldiers wouldn t get to frontline on time Aug 1 Germany independently declares war on Russia and mobilizes France mobilizes as well Many important people weren t even their because it was a random weekend in august August 3 Germany declares war on France even though France wasn t even involved in the original conflict People CELEBRATED the start of the war WHY Strong belief in Social Darwinism bastardized form of Darwin s survival of the fittest popular in Vienna Hitler believed in it firmly Politics operated like biological world in order to get better people had to get suffer weak had to be killed for better to rise up War is a biological necessity False belief that soldiers would be home by Christmas Shlefin Plan operational strategic weakness Germans thought France would give up and they would be having dinner in Paris supposed to capture paris and behead france very quickly HOWEVER number of issues o No plan will survive the first engagement of any battle because then the war uncertainties takes over just gives you a false sense of security Plans need to be changed on the ground often and its stupid to stick to original plans o Plan completely ignored political strategies WAR Military History Tactics how you physically get yourself off the boat and on the beach without getting killed Operations How you are going to get the beach of France strategy how US and Britain going to get onto continent to defeat nazi germany grand strategy main priorities and means o no calculations w fact that Belgium had army of their own and that theyd be resistant Belgium between germany and France o meanwhile Russia was successfully mobilized in east and moving to eastern border of Germany Didn t leave time for troops to leave France and protect Germany from Russia and Russia successfully invaded Germany Were able to hold off the Russians in the end and Germany began fighting a defensive war against Russia rather than an offensive war against France General Erich von falkenhayn became German leader for the rest of the war Smart man who correctly reaized that it was not going to be a short war and that many people were going to die and he began to make preps for total war Walter Rarthenau successful industrial business manager and Falkenhayn asked him to provide his business success to help war effort and led to continuance of war Phase of illusions ended very quickly 1914 of stalemate 1915 Early tanks made little difference although there was more movemtn on estenr thatn western front Turned into bloddy stale mate by 1915 Increase in of countries in war but no actual movement Life and death in the trenches lots of great literature because spent lots of time waiting in trenches and they were well educated men of slaughter 1916 of revolution and peace 1917 18 Phase of stalemate 16 11 2011 03 23 00 16 11 2011 03 23 00