World History:The Earth and its Peoples

Chapter 28

The Crisis Of The Imperial Order,

1900-1929

Objectives

• Understand how the First World War led to revolution in Russia and the disintegration of several once powerful empires.

• Be able to describe the role the war played in eroding European dominance in the world.

• Understand why China and Japan followed such divergent paths during this period.

• Describe how European and North American society and technology changed in the aftermath of the war.

Origins of European Crisis

WW I Cause !?– Archduke Franz Ferdinand– Gavrilo Princip– June 28, 1914

Underlying Instabilities– German power

• challenge to Britain and France– Ottoman decline

• “sick man of Europe”• ‘unstable borderlands’

– nationalism• Austria-Hungary• Balkan wars

– Russian ‘Slavic’ influence

– alliances• balance of power

World War I Alliances

Origins of European Crisis

Nationalism– uniting force

• inspiration; cohesion• Ex: France, Germany

– dividing force• multi-ethnic empires• Ex: Austro-Hungary, Ottoman• revenge for past injustices

– 18th century wars short• few casualties

Alliances– Triple Alliance - 1882

• Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy– Entente - 1904-07

• Britain, France, Russia

German Schlieffen Plan

The ‘Great’ War: 1914-1918

Expectations– short war w/ few casualties– Victory: fastest and boldest

• early German victories

Reality– Russian 2nd front– Western Front

• 300 mile long ‘stalemate’• military technology

– machine guns– poison gas

• trench warfare– Goal: war of attrition

Result– mass slaughter

War On The ‘Homefront’

Rationing– control of resources

Women– ‘duration’ opportunities– greater independence

Civilian Hardships– German rationing

• 1000 calories– African colonies

• higher taxes and output• soldiers for war effort

United States– neutrality– spectacular war profits

The Middle East

Ottoman Empire– secret German alliance– Russian land aim– Dardanelles closing

• Gallipoli - 1915• Arab uprising - Faisal (1916)

• Jewish question– Theodore Herzl

• Zionism– Palestine

• strengthen allied cause– Balfour Declaration

• Jewish homeland in Palestine• Iran and Iraq

– Indian ‘irony’