Stalemate and Slaughter

McKay 895-899, Palmer 17.86

You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees.Wilhelm II Addressing German soldiers departing for the front in WWI (August 1914)

The Alliances• Triple Alliance /Central Powers

– Germany/ Austria-Hungary/ Italy

• Italy refused to fight for Alliance (Germany started the war)

– Ottoman Empire joined– Triple Alliance became The

Central Powers

• Triple Entente / Allies– France– Great Britain– Russia

• After Russia withdrew from War the US joined in 1917

– Triple Entente became known as the Allies

Introduction• The Schlieffen Plan

– German plan to German plan to conduct a 2 front conduct a 2 front warwar

– Good rail lines– First defeat France– Use a sweeping

motion of tremendous army thru Belgium

– Follow victory in France with a win against Russia

– Russia was expected to be slow to mobilize

• What is inherently shortsighted about this plan (especially Belgium)?

The War on Land 1914 – 1916• Germany attacked France

(Aug)– 78 infantry divisions opposed 72

French, 5 Brit, 6 Belgian– Early efforts were successful

• But then Russia attacked Germany from the east & pushed toward Prussia

• Germany responded by moving troops from France to east Prussia

• France detected the weakening of German lines and counter attacked

• So much So much for Schlieffenfor Schlieffen

Battle of the Marne (1st)• Fought from September 5 to 12,

1914• Changed the whole character of the Changed the whole character of the

warwar• Germans were forced to retreat• Each side shifted to flanking

strategies• France was able to maintain supply

and communication lines• Germans were unable to control

port cities• Germans did win on the eastern

front (battle of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes) where over 200 thousand Russians were captured

• But idea of quick war is dashed• Trench Warfare beganTrench Warfare began!!!!!

• Armies became almost immobile

• Western Front– Dug out

thousand mile + line of trenches

• No machinery to advance (tanks came at the end of the war)

• “Over the Top”• War became a

Stalemate (along fronts)– Never gained more

than 3 miles in 1915

• No Man’s Land

Trench warfare

Western Front

Gallipoli• 1915• Britain and France attacked

Turkey at the peninsula of Gallipoli– Objective was to take

Constantinople (not Istanbul yet) to free wheat blocked in the Black Sea, re-establish communications with Russia, and stop Turkey from advancing on Russia

• Churchill's planChurchill's plan– The “soft underbelly soft underbelly of

Europe”• After almost a year and the loss loss

of 145,000 of 145,000 men the campaign was abandoned– Symbol of futility & stupidity Symbol of futility & stupidity

of war of war

Let’s Review• Wilhelm II new policy to make Germany a world

power• Bismarck-controlled alliance b/t Germany, Russia,

and Aust-Hungary• Bismarck foreign policy objective• Who was in the Dual Alliance• Telegram in which Wilhelm praised Afrikaners defeat

of British• Territory annexed by Austria-Hungary which caused

1st Bosnian Crisis of 1908• What happened in the Sarajevo Crisis• What is meant by the term “Blank Check”• Germany’s plan to fight a two front war

The battle of the Somme (July-October 1916)• British offensive which highlighted the highlighted the

futility of WWIfutility of WWI• Weeklong artillery bombardment was

used to soften up German resistance• Germans remained underground and

relatively unaffected by the bombardment

• Brits lost 60 thousand on 1st daylost 60 thousand on 1st day• Advanced only 1 mile after week• After month they advanced only 2.5 miles• 1st used of the tank by Brits

– Had little impact (too few)• After four months the death toll was

staggering– Germany 500,000 casualties– Britain 400,000 casualties– France 200,000 casualties– British Poet Siegfried Sassoon

• I am staring at a sunlit picture of I am staring at a sunlit picture of Hell.Hell.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

• We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off…still the little piece of convulsed earth in which we lie is held. We have yielded no more than a few hundred yards of it as a prize to the enemy. But on every yard there lies a dead man.

The Somme

The War in the Air & at Sea• Airplanes used for recon in beginning• Later used mounted machine-guns

– Germans- 47 thousand planes– Brits- 55 thousand– Flying Aces- new romantic war image emerged

• Britain and France imposed a naval blockade against the Central Powers

• Germans used U-Boats effectively• Battle of Jutland- only major naval battle (draw)• International law (1909) dictated that materials

entering ports of belligerents categorized in 2 classes– Contraband

• Munitions and war-oriented raw materials– Non-contraband

• Foodstuffs, cotton, medicine• Britain ignored protections on non-contraband

The War at Sea• Submarine warfare• Germans relied on submarines to

disrupt British shipping• Germany declared the waters around

Britain a war zone and proceeded to sink ships at an alarming rate

• The Lusitania– British passenger liner was sunk

with 118 Americans aboard May 1915

– Ship that did carry munitions of war manufactured in US

• Germans had published warnings in NY newspapers to Americans

• America protested the act and a brief hiatus was taken by the Germans against passenger craft

• Attacks resumed soon after with an attack on the Arabic in August

• Further protests by America caused Germany to reduce attacks for two years

Secret Treaty of London• In the face of the stalemate both

sides looked for allies• Ottoman Empire joined Germany

and Austria-Hungary (out of fear of Russia)

• Bulgaria also joined (Serb haters)• Italy joined the Allies

– Formally a member of Triple Alliance but had drifted away

• Secret Treaty of London 1915– GB promised Italy

• Trentino, south Tyrol, Istria, city of Trieste, Dalmatian Islands from Austria

– Libya, Somaliland from Germany

– Small portions left over from the partition from the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire• Allies made plans for a final partition of

the Ottoman Empire– Britain would take control over

Mesopotamia– France would take control over

southeastern Asia Minor– Russia would take control over

Kurdistan and Armenia

• Germany worked to stir up discontent by minorities within its enemies borders– Promised an independent Poland

(embarrass Russia)– Stirred up Ukraine– Got sultan to also be caliph and declared

a holy war against the Brits in N. Africa– Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist,

asked for German munitions• Five-day Easter Rebellion of 1916 was crushed

Zimmermann telegram• Aggravated relations b/t US

and Mexico in 1916• Relations with Germany were

deteriorating• German foreign minister Arthur

Zimmerman sent a telegram to German minister at Mexico City– If U.S. went to war with

Germany, Germany would form an alliance with Mexico

– Mexico would get back its “lost” territories

• Britain intercepted the telegram and informed Washington

• Pushed the U.S. toward the Allies and away from the Central Powers

Disruption in the Ottoman Empire• Allies worked to stir up discontent by

minorities within the Central Powers– Hope was given for an independent independent

Arab nationArab nation• British Colonel T.E. Lawrence led an

insurrection in the Hejaz (Jordan) against the Turks

• Balfour note of 10/31/1917– British promised support for the British promised support for the

Zionist movement & the idea of a Zionist movement & the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine Jewish homeland in Palestine after Ottoman Empire fell

– condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of existing communities there

• even thou this conflicted with their promise for Arab nationalism

– I wonder if this will lead to some problems down the road? Theodor Herzl

Balfour note of 10/31/1917• Foreign Office,

November 2nd, 1917.

Dear Lord Rothschild,I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerelyArthur James Balfour

Armenian Genocide• forced mass evacuation & systematic murder of mass evacuation & systematic murder of

nearly 1 million Armeniansnearly 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire• Turks, fearing they sympathized with Russia,

ordered their deportation in 1915 supposedly to be resettled in Syria and Palestine

• in atmosphere of crisis and hatred hundreds of thousands died

• Teskilati MahsusaTeskilati Mahsusa– Special organization used to force Armenian Special organization used to force Armenian

evacuationsevacuations– Filled with freed murders and criminals

• did not provide facilities or supplies • prevented deportees from supplying themselves• allowed others & participated in robbing, rapping

& kill of Armenians• Surviving Armenians became a scattered

population• Small Armenian Republic remains today

(independent after 1991)