UNIT 6 - Imperialism and the First World War (Presentation Part 2).pdf

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1. UNIT 6
IMPERIALISM AND THE
FIRST WORLD WAR

2. 1.IMPERIALISM: DEFINITION AND CAUSES
2.IMPERIALISM: THE DIVISION OF THE WORLD
3.IMPERIALISM: CONSEQUENCES
4.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: MAIN CAUSES
5.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: OUTBREAK AND PHASES
6.THE FIRST WORLD WAR: PEACE AND CONSEQUENCES

3. 4.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).
5.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. 6.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.