The First World War: The Industrial Powers

CollideBy Morgan and Rosie

How Did The War Start? Well the war actually started

with the industrial revolution!

The Industrial Revolution started with Britain. They saw promise in coal beds that stretched from England to France. So, they decided to manufacture these goods and use them. Eventually, France and Russia followed suit, with The United States and Japan soon to follow.

The U.S. and the world were looking at their depleting food surplus and decided to secure another way of getting food and minerals, by buying it from other countries.

These countries bought from one another and traded on routed called “lifelines”. Which they essentially were and they guarded them fiercely. As long as these routes weren’t threatened countries would get along.

But countries were constantly expanding and invading weaker territory and it was impossible to avoid attacking one another.

In the summer of 1914, this rivalry for territory led to the first world war. Underlying this was the change in character between Britain, France, Russia (The Triple Entente) Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary (The Triple Alliance). Also, France and Russia had began to increase and expand their military and Britain began to send the army onto Europe.

Germany saw this as an approaching threat. As it sat in the middle of the continent, Germany could not invade anywhere else without starting a war. Germany realized that if they started a war France and Russia would be their top two enemies. So, they decided that they should attack France when it did not expect it, then run back and defend Germany from Russia.

Another thing that sparked the war was the assassination of the Austria-Hungary Archduke to the throne, Franz Ferdinand. This alone would not have caused the war, but other crises and assignations and the military solution chosen by countries did.

Germany convinced its people that it needed to go to war to improve standard of living. It told them that the world was expanding and Germany was being left behind, and they needed to start a war in order to increase their borders and standard of living.

The outbreak of war was greeted with great enthusiasm because war had been greatly romanticized over the years of peace. So when warfare opened in 1914 it was easy to recruit the necessary troops in all the countries involved.

WWI was the first industrialized war where technology was used for the mass slaughter of soldiers. Machines such as the tank and machine guns were the beginning of this principle. This being true, only countries with a strong industrial base could sustain themselves throughout this war. Austria-Hungary and Russia could not sustain the high cost of the war, but as long as they did not destroy their economy, they continued to fight.

Britain entered the war when Germany invaded Belgium, who had been declared neutral. But by the time Britain had organized it’s troops the German force had already moved into France. The first major offensive of the allies was from the French who attacked the oncoming Germans with little success, taking 600,000 casualties. The Germans then moved towards Paris making a gap between the first and second army, which the British and French used to disrupt the Germans advance.

• The two adversaries tried to outflank each other and eventually, the front line moved north and ended up spanning 400km from the coast of France to Switzerland. After coming to a stalemate Germany turned it’s attention to Russia.

The Russians had previously tried and failed to invade Germany as a distraction to pull troops away from the war in France. Russia had more luck in Galicia where the desertion of several thousand Slavic conscripts had brought the Austria-Hungary army to it’s knees.

The allies planned two major campaigns for 1916

The first from the Russians that launched an offensive on Austria- Hungary it threatened Berlin and Vienna before grinding to a halt. When the Russians tried to repeat this later, it was unsuccessful and proved to be their last involvement in the war as they were sucked back into an internal revolution. After losses of millions of men the war had lost a lot of its appeal to the public.

The second allied campaign took place along the Somme River, British forces attacked along a narrow line of 40 km the British lost 50% of their soldiers on the first day of what proved to be a six month battle they only 10 km of land but couldn’t break the German lines. By the end of 1916 only the German, British, and Canadians could afford to continue, as everyone else had run out of resources.

America was quite happy to stay out of the conflict until German U-boats started destroying the American cargo ships bringing supplies to Britain. But after the destruction of 850,000 tons of cargo and the deaths of many crews, president Wilson declared war against Germany in 1917.

The Entrance of American forces was counteracted by the retraction of the Russian forces due to an internal political revolution.

Russian RevolutionThe Romanov dynasty was overthrown to

be replaced by two provincial government. Later in the year another revolution brought Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power. Lenin's platform of peace was popular and slid the provincial government into revolution Russian troops were pulled from the war but the government did have to give up some of their western territory. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3rd 1918 signaled Germany’s victory in the east.

The US wouldn’t be able to actively participate for nearly a year, but having access to the resources from America gave the allies a almost certain victory. Also with the entrance of the US came a list of ideas about why they were fighting.

Allies

1.)To drive the Germans from occupied territory

2.)Reorganize Europe along lines of self determination for the minorities

3.)Return Lorraine and Alsace to France.

GermansThe aim on the German side was to reach a

point where they could be economically self sufficient by expansion of territories.

Wilson’s 14 Points• Open covenants of peace in which there shall be no private

international understandings of any kind.• Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, except by

international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

• The removal so far as possible, of all economic barriers, and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations.

• The reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

• An impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon the principle that the interests of the populations concerned must be considered.

• The evacuation of all Russian territory, and Russia to be given the opportunity for the independent determination of it’s own political development and national policy.

• The evacuation and restoration of Belgium.

• All French territory freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine should be righted.

• A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy to be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

• The assurance that the peoples of Austria-Hungary be accorded the freest opportunity for autonomous development.

• The evacuation of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro; the restoration of occupied territories and the assurance of free and secure access to the sea for Serbia.

• The assurance that the Turkish portions of the present ottoman Empire be given an opportunity for autonomous development and Dardanelles be permanently opened.

• The formation of an independent polish state which would be assured a free and secure access to the sea.

• the formation of a general association of nations for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. All states must undertake to deal collectively with any threat to peace whenever it occurs

After Russia’s retreat Germany turned it’s attention back to France where it plowed through the country heading for Paris. They got within 14km of Paris before they ran out of resources and were forced to retreat but this sent the army into disarray and caused a series of strikes and mutinies back in Germany. The Kaiser abdicated on the 17th October and new leader Friedrich Ebert came to power this brought about talk of armistice terms which were signed and agreed to on November 11th.

The Fallout • The war cost 10 million dead, 21 million

wounded of the 68 million troops deployed and it destroyed an entire generation of young men.

• Financially it devastated a years

harvest in the food bank of

Europe causing much

starvation as well costing

the world over 330

billion dollars.

In 1919 the leaders of the Allies gathered in France which led to the treaty of Versailles. Through this, the treaty between Germany and Russia became null and void meaning Germany had to retreat back to its 1914 territory, Alsace and Lorraine were returned into France’s territory, and Poland received a corridor in which it could reach the sea through Prussia. All this brought an end to the conflict.

THE END