HIST 1312 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I Thinking About the Past Outline of Current Lecture II America and the Great War a Neutrality and Preparedness b The Road to War c The Fourteen Points d End of the War and Results Current Lecture America and the Great War Austria Hungary encompassed many nationalities o One of the nationalities were the Serbs in Bosnia o Serbia an independent country wanted all Serbs to be a part of Serbia so they wanted Bosnia to break off the empire o The emperor did not like this idea as all of the other nationalities would wanted independence if he gave it to Bosnia Gavrilo Princip a pro Serbia became involved in politics o He was a member of the Black Hand o Black Hand wanted the heir to be assassinated because he was going to give the Serbs in Bosnia more independence and then they would not want to break apart from the empire June 28 1914 Serbian nationalists assassinated Archduke of Franz Ferdinand heir to the throne of the Austro Hungarian empire in Sarajevo Bosnia o This was the start of the WWI o At first this issue could have resolved peacefully o However Austria Hungary saw this as a chance to crush the Serbia National movement They gave Serbian government an ultimatum allow Austria Hungarian authorities into Serbia to investigate the assassination These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Within a month Britain France Russia and Japan Allies joined fighting against Germany Austria Hungary and the Ottoman empire Central Powers Germany assured Austria Hungary it would fight with them Russia had strong connections with Serbia France had an alliance with Russia Britain went to war with Germany for invading Belgium s neutrality Local dispute quickly became a major world problem o German forces quickly invaded Belgium and France o The war then turned into a stalemate with bloody indecisive battle succeeding one another o o Serbia did not agree to the terms and Austria Hungary declared war July 28 1914 From English Channel to Swiss Border were 500 foot long trenches with each side having barbed wire and artillery This caused both sides not to make any progress With the emerging of submarines airplanes machine guns tanks and poison gas came unprecedented slaughter Poison gas chemical weapons became a widespread weapon in WWI However poison gas could be effectively encountered with gas masks 10 million soldiers and uncounted millions of civilians were killed Neutrality and Preparedness o o Americans were sharply divided during the war British Americans as well as many other Americans sided with the Allies German and Irish Americans sided with Germany Immigrants from Russian empire opposed any aid to the czar s regime In 1914 Woodrow Wilson declared neutrality However naval warfare began to affect the US German submarine warfare was used against ships who were leaving and entering British ports May 1915 German submarine sank the British liner Lusitania was carrying a large cache of arms off the coast of Ireland killed 124 Americans American public opinion desired to go to war By the end of 1915 Wilson had embarked on a policy of preparedness a crash program to expand the American army and navy Road to War o 1916 Germany announces the suspension of submarine warfare against noncombatants o The preparedness had seemed to work He kept us out of war became Wilson s slogan for reelection o However almost immediately Germany announced its intention to resume submarine warfare against ships sailing to or from the British Isles and several American merchant vessels were sunk o March 1917 British spies intercepted and made public the Zimmerman Telegram o This was a message by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman calling on Mexico to join the oncoming war between America and Germany Germany promised to help Mexico reclaim the lands it lost during the MexicanAmerican War US also did a lot of business with Britain and France by selling them materials for the war and loaning out money o US was afraid that if Britain and France lost the war that they would not be able to pay them back April 2 1917 Wilson asked Congress to declare war Congress decided to declare war The Fourteen Points o Spring 1918 first American troops landed in large numbers in Europe o November 1917 Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government and withdrew Russia from the war o Lenin published secret treaties on how the Allies planned to divide up conquered territory To ensure the country that the war was being fought for a just cause Wilson published the Fourteen Points These were the clearest statement of American war aims and of his vision of a new international order Among the key principles were self determination for all nations freedom of the seas free trade open diplomacy an end to secret treaties the readjustment of colonial claims with colonized people given equal weight in deciding their futures and the creation of a general association of nations to preserve the peace League of Nations o International bonding of nations Idea was for countries to discuss differences instead of resulting to war US never joined the League of Nations because Congress believed that the League would infringe on the sovereignty of the US and believed that the US would lose control of its military Established the agenda for the peace conference that followed the war American troops turned the tide of the battle American troops repulsed a German advance near Paris November 9 German Kaiser resigns November 11 Germany sues for peace The End of the War and Results o Treaty of Versailles June 19 1919 ended WWI o Germany got the blame for the war and was forced to pay reparations even though it was not only Germany s fault o Germany eventually paid off reparations in 2010 785 billion o Casualties vary military 8 million killed 7 million permanently disabled 15 million seriously injured o Large parts of Europe were destroyed o War was followed by widespread famine and worldwide epidemic of influenza Infected 500 million people worldwide 50 100 million killed 3 5 of the world population