HIS 102 1st Edition Lecture 28 Outline of Last Lecture I. The “so what” question-why is the great war important?II. The trigger-murder in SarajevoIII. Wider background: context and settingIV. Diplomatic developmentsV. Anglo-German naval rivalryVI. “Flashpoints”A. Morocco, 1905B. Bosnia, 1908 VII. Final Acts, Balkan Wars, 1912-13Outline of Current Lecture I. What made it “Great”?A. Total war1. Not a matter of just sending off troops and continuing regular day-to-day life2. Massive materials needed3. State expands enormously4. Everyone in society has to contribute to the war efforti. Rationing and shortagesB. Naval warfare1. Submarine warfareC. New Zealanders, Africans, Chinese, Canadians, Americans all fought in the warII. Allies vs. central powersA. Allies: France, great Britain, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Romania, Portugal, japan, USB. Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, BulgariaIII. The western frontA. Schlieffen Plan: mobilize fully and press hard against France in the West and then pivot East to take on the Russian army B. “race to the sea”: by late 1914, both sides had dug in from the English channel tothe frontier of Switzerland (475 miles long)C. War was decided on the Western Front1. Each side using trench warfare with barbed wireThese 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.i. Land in between trenches was called “no man’s land”2. Right from the start, it’s a stalemateIV. Other frontsA. Eastern front1. A war of movement2. Hundreds of thousands of horses3. Germans and Austrian-Hungarians against Russia4. Germans start off strong5. By 1915, Poland is Germany’s6. Greatest losses in the war by Serbia (lost 15% of population)B. Alps1. Italians try to open another front in the alps2. Fails, Italians don’t fight successfully C. Gallipoli1. British attack central powers by taking out the Ottomans-fails, disastrous2. Ends up replicating the Western front-trench warfareV. The nature of the war: stalemate, attrition, and vast carnageA. Pound other side with bombs and guns for hours/days1. Eventually run across no man’s land to attack enemy-generally failed2. Machine guns prevent plan from workingB. Battle of Verdun1. An offensive initiated by Germans2. February 1916-July 19163. 2 million men took part, almost half died4. 23 million shells5. Nobody makes any gainsC. Battle of the Somme1. Also lasts about 5 months2. First 24 hours, British suffer 60,000 casualties; 420,000 British casualties in allD. Stalemate1. Try to break with new technologiesi. Germans introduce a gas March 1915, chlorine gasii. Later introduce mustard gasiii. Gases don’t win any battles, just tortures troops from both sidesiv. British introduce the tankv. Both sides experiment with aerial warfarevi. Germans introduce the submarine; British blockade German ports and try to starve Germans out2. By late 1917, Russian monarchy falls and the Russians withdraw from the war3. Sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and have to hand over massive concessionsi. Allows Germans to mobilize all defenses in the Westii. American entrance into the war (1917, but not on the ground until 1918) send military resourcesVI. The end: November 1918A. German generals tell Wilhelm that they need to surrender to alliesVII. Some consequencesA. Hardships on everyone1. Mutinies in French armies by 19172. Sacrifice is so great and unthinkable that the war leads to revolution, Russian,German, Austrian-Hungarian governments are overthrownB. Heavy Prices1. Even the victors don’t do welli. Britain pays for the war by borrowing money (increase in national debt by 13 times) they were bankrupt by the end of the warii. French invaded by Germany in 1940, accepted occupation by 1940 because can’t fight backC. Thought that human story is one of progress and guided by reason and rationality is shattered by the war, leads to thoughts of deep pessimism in
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