HIST 1312 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I. Thinking About the Past Outline of Current Lecture II. America and the Great Wara. Neutrality and Preparednessb. The Road to Warc. The Fourteen Pointsd. End of the War and ResultsCurrent LectureAmerica and the Great War- Austria-Hungary encompassed many nationalitieso One of the nationalities were the Serbs in Bosniao Serbia, an independent country, wanted all Serbs to be a part of Serbia so they wanted Bosnia to break off the empireo 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 politicso He was a member of the Black Hando Black Hand wanted the heir to be assassinated because he was going to give the Serbs inBosnia 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, Bosniao This was the start of the WWIo At first, this issue could have resolved peacefullyo 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 assassinationThese 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. Serbia did not agree to the terms and Austria-Hungary declared war (July 28, 1914)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 problemo German forces quickly invaded Belgium and Franceo The war then turned into a stalemate – with bloody, indecisive battle succeeding one another 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 o 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 maskso 10 million soldiers and uncounted millions of civilians were killed- Neutrality and Preparednesso 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 regimeo 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 Waro 1916 – Germany announces the suspension of submarine warfare against noncombatantso The “preparedness” had seemed to work  “He kept us out of war” became Wilson’s slogan for reelectiono 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 sunko March 1917 – British spies intercepted and made public the Zimmerman Telegram 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 Mexican-American Waro US also did a lot of business with Britain and France by selling them materials for the warand loaning out money US was afraid that if Britain and France lost the war that they would not be able to pay them backo April 2, 1917 – Wilson asked Congress to declare war; Congress decided to declare war- The Fourteen Pointso Spring 1918 – first American troops landed in large numbers in Europeo November 1917 – Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government and withdrew Russia from the war Lenin published secret treaties on how the Allies planned to divide up conquered territoryo 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 theseas, free trade, open diplomacy (an end to secret treaties), the readjustment ofcolonial 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- 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 waro 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 Resultso Treaty of Versailles (June 19, 1919) – ended WWIo Germany got the blame for the war and was forced to pay reparations even though it was not only Germany’s faulto Germany eventually paid off reparations in 2010 ($785 billion)o Casualties vary (military) 8 million killed 7 million permanently disabled 15 million seriously injuredo Large parts of Europe were destroyedo 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