Unit 1 - The conflictive beginning of the 20th century. The first World War (PPT).pdf

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1. UNIT 1
THE CONFLICTIVE BEGINNING OF
THE 20TH CENTURY. THE FIRST
WORLD WAR

2. 1.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: MAIN CAUSES
2.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: OUTBREAK AND PHASES
3.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: PEACE AND CONSEQUENCES
4.RUSSIA: FROM THE TSAR TO THE USSR

3. 1.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: MAIN CAUSES
Constitutional and parliamentary
political systems: separation of powers,
parliaments, individual and collective
rights, political plurality, etc.
•England and France: greater
democracy.
•Greater suffrage.
•Social laws (education, labour,
etc.).
•German Empire: constitutional, but
Kaiser as authoritarian ruler.
•Universal suffrage.
•Social protection (education,
pensions, etc).
•Southern Europe (ESP, ITA, POR) à
Greater difficulties because of weak
economies.
•Electoral fraud, despotism, etc.

4. Authoritarian regimes: still behind
regarding the application of liberal
measures, and even close to the Ancien
Régime.
•Astro-Hungarian Empire:
•Some reforms, but the emperor
held enormous power.
•Secessionist movements within
the empire.
•Russian Empire:
•Absolute power of the Tsars.
•Block of reforms.
•Turkish Empire:
•Began to break up. Nationalist
movement.
•Sultan forced to several reforms,
but stopped by WWI.

5. 1.The Armed Peace
1870-1914 → Not open war, but growing
tensions and great efforts to
manufacturing weapons and the military
structure in Europe.

6. Causes
1.Diplomatic conflicts and territorial rivalries since the
Franco-Prussian War (1870):
a)System of allegiances and the formation of blocks
b)Recovery of Alsace and Lorraine by France
c)Distribution of power in the Balkans (Austria and
Russia wanted a growing influence in the region, as
well as Serbia, annexation of Bosnia by Austria-
Hungary in 1908, Balkan Wars (1912-13), etc.
2.Economic competition.
3.International policy and colonial clashes: control of
certain colonies overseas (ie. FR and GER for Morocco)
4.Growth of nationalisms.
These reinforced the creation of the international blocs and
presented an unavoidable conflict between them.

7. Balance of power in Europe à Changed after the unification of Germany and Italy.
Germany: Realpolitik with Bismarck; Weltpolitik (world dominance) later →
Political and military allegiances.
2.The German Empire and the creation of two confronted blocs

8. BISMARCKIAN ALLEGIANCE SYSTEM (1871-90)
•Kaiser Wilhelm I, Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck.
•system of allegiances for maintaining peace in
Europe, benefiting all the great powers and
protecting Germany (allowing it to strengthen).
It needed to isolate France.
•Three Emperors (1871-8): Russia, Austria and
Germany.
Ended because of rivalries in the Balkans
(Russia Vs Turkish, but Austria had interests in
the area).

9. WELTPOLITIK (1890-14). Kaiser
Wilhem II → Expansionism in
Europe and colonies. Bismarck
stepped down. Rupture of
relations with the Russian
Empire. Formation of blocks
towards WWI.
- Triple Entente (1907): Russian
Empire, France, United Kingdom.
Franco-Russian Allegiance
(1894).
- Triple Allegiance: Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy.
Changed during the war: Italy
neutral, Ottoman Empire and
Bulgaria important.

10. 28
th
June 1914 à Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in
Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist (Gavrilo Princip).
2.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: OUTBREAK AND
PHASES
1.The spark of War and the beginning of the
conflict

11. Austria accused Serbia à Ultimatum (impossible to meet)
Serbia could not accept the ultimatum à Declaration of war on Serbia (28
th
July)
“The history of recent years, and in particular the painful events of the 28th of June last, have shown
the existence of a subversive movement with the object of detaching a part of the territories of Austria-
Hungary from the Monarchy. The movement, which had its birth under the eye of the Serbian
Government, has made itself manifest on both sides of the Serbian frontier in acts of terrorism,
outrages and murders.[…]
This culpable tolerance of the Royal Serbian Government had not ceased at the moment when the
events of the 28th of June last proved its fatal consequences to the whole world.
[…] The Royal Serbian Government shall further undertake:
[…] (3) To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Serbia, both as regards the teaching body
and also as regards the methods of instruction, everything that serves, or might serve, to foment the
propaganda against Austria-Hungary;
(4) To remove from the military service, and from the administration in general, all officers and
functionaries guilty of propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy whose names and deeds
the Austro-Hungarian Government reserve to themselves the right of communicating to the Royal
Government;
(5) To accept the collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Government for
the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the Monarchy;”

12. Russia declared the war Vs Austria for
protecting Serbia, Germany on Russia
and France, Britain on Germany and
Austria because of the German invasion
of Belgium, etc. è The whole system of
allegiances of the Armed Peace came
into action.

13. The outbreak of the conflict presented a war never seen
before.
Unprecedented territorial extension, forms of combat,
offensive weapons (machine guns, flame throwers, toxic
gases, mines, tanks, airplanes, submarines, etc.).
Unseen consequences and transformations during and
after the war.
During the war: war industry as main priority, huge
numbers of young men to the front, women to required
economic sectors, intervention of governments in the
economy (rationing, trying to control high prices and the
black market.
2.The Great War or World War

14. 1915
1917

16. PHASES OF THE GREAT WAR (1914-18)
War of Movements
Trench warfare
Crisis of 1917 and end of the war.

18. Germany: Schlieffen Plan → Flash
victory over France so they could move
all their troops to the East and defeat
Russia.
Crossed Belgium and Luxembourg, but
stopped near Paris (Battle of the Marne)
thanks to the British help to the French.
•Russia attacked the Eastern German
boundaries, and were defeated. But
German army divided.
•Balkans à Austria was stopped
against Serbia.
3.The War of Movements (1914)

20. 4.Trench Warfare (1915-16)
Defensive positions → Fixed fronts from
Switzerland to the North Sea è Very little
advances, very high casualties (introduction
of chemical weapons).

22. Large war massacres: Battles of Verdun and Somme.
1916 (Feb-Dec) à Battle of Verdun.
Germans offensive trying to break the French front
à Germany unsuccessful.
1916 (Jul-Nov) à Battle of the Somme.
British and French attacked German lines (also for
reducing pressure on Verdun) à 1 million dead.
During this phase, the war became global and was waged by land, sea, and air.

23. A witness tells: ...We all carried the smell of
dead bodies with us. The bread we ate, the
stagnant water we drank… Everything we
touched smelled of decomposition due to
the fact that the earth surrounding us was
packed with dead bodies....
"From that moment all my religion died,
after that journey all my teaching and belief
in God had left me - never to return."
A French Lieutenant reports: ...Firstly,
companies of skeletons passed, sometimes
commanded by a wounded officer, leaning
on a stick. All marched, or rather: moved
forwards with tiny steps, zigzagging as if
drugged. […] It seemed as if these
speechless faces cried over something
appalling: the unbelievable horrors of their
martyrdom....

24. •1917 à Bolshevik Revolution in Russia è Withdrawal
from the war and renounce over territories (Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk, 1918) è Germany stronger because
closure of one front.
•1917 à United States enters in the war.
5.The 1917 Crisis and the End of the War (1917-18)

25. •1918 à Defeat of Austria in the Eastern front.
Armistice of Austria-Hungary and Turkish Empire.
•German defeats in the Western front à Revolts of
German soldiers, internal problems è Armistice:
11
th
November, 1918.
Abdication of Wilhelm II è Weimar Republic.

26. 3.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: PEACE AND CONSEQUENCES
Armistice: 11
th
November, 1918
Paris Peace Conference (1919-20): peace terms,
war reparations, new map of Europe,
conditions over the defeated, etc. USA:
Wilson’s 14 points à Not revenge. Desire of
peace.
Several treaties: Treaty of Saint Germain with
Austria, Treaty of Trianon with Hungary, Treaty
of Neully with Bulgaria, and Treaty of Sèvres
with the Ottoman Empire.
1.The Paris Peace Conference
Prime Minister David Lloyd George (Great Britain), Premier
Vittorio Orlando (Italy), Premier Georges Clemenceau
(France), President Woodrow Wilson (United States)

28. TREATY OF VERSAILLES:
With Germany.
•France (supported by
European powers):
large compensations
from the Germans.
•Final decisions about Germany:
§Total blame for starting the war.
§Huge war compensations.
§Dismantling the army.
§Give up their colonies.
§Alsace and Lorraine à Back to France.

29. Humiliation for the Germans è Paved the way to increasing nationalism and future revenge.

31. 2.The consequences of the War

32. THE NEW MAP OF EUROPE

33. ·

34. Turkish Empire
•Reduced to modern-day Turkey.
•Parts to Greece.
•Establishment of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and
Palestine.

35. Austria-Hungary
à Disintegration.
Austria: lost
possessions and
became a
republic.
Hungary:
independent
state. Part to
Czechoslovakia.

36. Balkans à Serbia head of Yugoslavia (Serbia + Slovenia + Croatia + Bosnia).

37. Poland and Romania à For isolating
Soviet Russia.
Territories Russia ceded in the Brest-
Litovsk Treaty à Independent.
Finland, Baltic republics.

38. Material losses only in the western front
SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC CONSEQUENCES
•More than 10 million soldiers.
•Millions of wounded and mutilated.
•Millions of civilian casualties.
•Effect on the birth rates and available workforce.

40. ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES
Impoverished nations → Destruction of cities and towns,
crops, industries, etc.
Debt → More difficult for the nations to recover → Inflation.
Neutral countries (SPA, ARG, BRA) → Benefited → Raw
materials and food to the warring nations during the war.

41. USA
Consolidation of power. Industrial rise. Loaned countries.
Due to the material losses and loans given by the USA
during the war, most European countries experienced
critical problems and were forced to link their economy
to the USA, which became the main economic power.

42. LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Predecessor of the United
Nations.
Headquarters in Geneva.
For guaranteeing peace and
cooperation.
Failed:
•US was not part
•USSR excluded
•GER and ITA left.

44. 4.RUSSIA: FROM THE TSAR TO THE USSR
1.Russia before the Revolution: the Russian Empire
Pre-revolutionary Russia (Early 20
th
century):
•Political situation: autocratic regime.
•Supported by local bureaucracy, a powerful army and the Orthodox Church.
•Absolute power of the Tsar.

45. Pre-revolutionary Russia (Early 20
th

century):
•Agricultural base of economy.
•Large landowners, poor peasants.
Semi-feudal regime.
•Lack of industrial development
(late 19
th
, St Petersburg and
Moscow). Little railway and heavy
industries.
•Social characteristics:
•One of the least developed and
poorest in all Europe.
•Peasants and factory workers
suffered hard working conditions,
low wages, long working days, and
paid high taxes.

46. Pre-revolutionary Russia (Early 20
th
century):
Political parties:
-Kadet (Democratic Constitutional Party). Bourgeois liberalism.
-Esers (Social-Revolutionary Party). Peasant revolution.
-Russian Social Democratic Party. Marxist and working-class militants.
-1912: Mensheviks à Moderate. Allegiance with Kadet for overthrowing the
Tsar.
-Bolsheviks à Revolutionary.

47. Early 20
th
century: the tsar (Nicholas
II Romanov, since 1894) started
losing power:
1.Social dissatisfaction: high taxes,
scarce rights and periodic
shortages of food.
2.Colonial defeats: in 1905 the
Russian Empire was defeated by
Japan, what was interpreted as
an international humiliation.
3.The appearance of political
parties and proletariat
organizations, which were
severely repressed.
2.The causes of the Revolution and first attempt

48. THE 1905 REVOLUTION
§1905 à Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War è Revolts à Harsh repression (Bloody
Sunday in St Petersburg, Odessa, etc.)

49. Battleship Potemkin

50. §Workers, peasants and soldiers organised in
Soviets (councils) è Strikes and
demonstrations
§Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party,
divided into the Mensheviks (moderate
socialists) and the Bolsheviks (radical
Marxists) gained more importance.
§1906 à Tsar agreed to elections by
universal suffrage (Duma) and an
agricultural reform.
§Never fulfilled. Autocracy reinstalled.

51. First World War → Scarcity, discontent, etc. Also, military
defeats è Discontent è February Revolution (Julian
Calendar. March in Gregorian Calendar)
23rd February (7th March), 1917 à
•Huge demonstration in Petrograd (St. Petersburg),
general strike and riots in military barracks.
•Soviets by workers, soldiers and peasants demanding
better working conditions, higher salaries, political
reforms and the withdrawal from the war.
3.The bourgeois revolution of February 1917

52. The February 1917 revolution...grew out of prewar political and economic instability,
technological backwardness, and fundamental social divisions, coupled with gross
mismanagement of the war effort, continuing military defeats, domestic economic
dislocation, and outrageous scandals surrounding the monarchy (Alexander Rabinowitch).

53. The situation escalated à
End of Tsarism: abdication of Nicholas II in March.
Creation of a Republic (power between the
Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet).

54. Menshevik control of the
provisional government (Lvov
and Kerensky) à Moves
towards a parliamentary
democracy (constitutive
elections), political and social
reforms.
But still in WWI.
Slow progress + war + poverty
è Popular discontent.
4.The provisional government

55. Bolsheviks à Wanted no participation
in WWI è Demanded resignation of
the government.
Vladímir Ilich Uliánov, Lenin à April
Theses
•All power to the soviets (as supreme
political power).
•Communist ideas.
•Peace with Germany.
•Land to the peasants.

56. 1) In our attitude towards the war, which under the new [provisional]
government of Lvov and Co. unquestionably remains on Russia’s part a
predatory imperialist war owing to the capitalist nature of that government,
not the slightest concession to “revolutionary defencism” is permissible. […]
2) The specific feature of the present situation in Russia is that the country
is passing from the first stage of the revolution—which, owing to the
insufficient class-consciousness and organisation of the proletariat, placed
power in the hands of the bourgeoisie—to its second stage, which must
place power in the hands of the proletariat and the poorest sections of the
peasants. […]
5) Not a parliamentary republic—to return to a parliamentary republic from the
Soviets of Workers’ Deputies would be a retrograde step—but a republic of
Soviets of Workers’, Agricultural Labourers’ and Peasants’ Deputies
throughout the country, from top to bottom.
Abolition of the police, the army and the bureaucracy.
8) It is not our immediate task to “introduce” socialism, but only to bring social
production and the distribution of products at once under the control of the
Soviets of Workers’ Deputies. April Theses. Lenin

57. 5.The October Revolution
25th October, 1917 (7th November) è Bolshevik (with soviets and Red Guards)
uprising in Petrograd à Kerensky overthrown.
Assault of the Winter Palace.
Quickly spread.

59. New government à Lenin (workers’ government) è Revolutionary measures:
•expropriation of land and division among
the peasants.
•factories taken over by workers’
committees.
•Brest-Litovsk Treaty (1918).
•creation of the Comitern (Third
International) to coordinate communist
parties globally.
•New Economic Policy (NEP): gave the state
control of the most important sectors, but
admitted some capitalist practices, such as
national trading and small land properties.

60. “The most equitable settlement of the land question is to be as follows:
(1) Private ownership of land shall be abolished forever; land shall not
be sold, purchased, leased, mortgaged, or otherwise alienated.
All land, whether state, crown, monastery, church, factory, entailed,
private, public, peasant, etc., shall be confiscated without
compensation and become the property of the whole people, and pass
into the use of all those who cultivate it.
(2) All mineral wealth, ore, oil, coal, salt, etc., and also all forests and
waters of state importance, shall pass into the exclusive use of the state.
All the small streams, lakes, woods, etc., shall pass into the use of the
communes, to be administered by the local self-government bodies.
(6) The right to use the land shall be accorded to all citizens of the
Russian state (without distinction of sex) desiring to cultivate it by their
own labour, with the help of their families, or in partnership, but only
as long as they are able to cultivate it. The employment of hired labour
is not permitted.
(8) All land, when alienated, shall become part of the national land
fund.”
Lenin. Decree on Land.

61. Elections in November 1917 à 25 % for Bolsheviks è Lenin dissolved the Assembly (fear
of counter-revolutionaries) è End of political pluralism.
"[Because] the proletariat is still so divided,
so degraded, so corrupted in parts ... that
an organization taking in the whole
proletariat cannot directly exercise
proletarian dictatorship. It can be exercised
only by a vanguard that has absorbed the
revolutionary energy of the class.“
V. Lenin

62. TSARISTS AND LIBERALS
WHITE ARMY
BOLSHEVIKS
RED ARMY
(led by Trostky)
Early 1918
Rebellion Vs Soviet gov.
6.The Civil War (1918-21)

63. Civil War à Misery, food shortages, political reprisals, etc.
War communism à Collectivisations, nationalisations,
harvests to the State.
Summer 1918 à Romanov family executed.

64. 1921 à Red Army defeats the White Army è Communist Party (Bolsheviks) in power à
Prosecution of political rivals, repression of counter-revolutionary activities (Cheka).