The Three Emperors’ League (1872)
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78
The Dual Alliance
The Triple Alliance
The Reinsurance Treaty (1887)
The Franco-Russian Alliance (1894)
Deterioration of Anglo-German Relations
The Anglo-French Entente (1904)
The Anglo-Russian Entente (1907)
The Triple Entente
COUNTRIES TAKE A SIDE
• Shocked Francis Joseph blames Serbia, feels serb gov’t knew of the plot
• Believed that Serbia wanted south Slav empire
• Wanted to deal harshly with the Serbs
• Needed German backing first• Kaiser Wilhelm II told Austria
that Germany would support any action they saw fit
• Essentially giving Austria a blank check to do anything.
AUSTRIA ANSWERS SERBIA
• Austria sends Serbia a severe ultimatum or final set of demands 7/23/14
• Serbia must end all anti-Austrian agitation and punish and Serbian official involved in the murder.
• Dismiss all officials hostile to Austria-Hungary• Allow Austrian officials into Serbia to investigate the
Archduke’s murder themselves• Serbia agrees to all of the terms except the last, rejecting it
as an infringement on Serbian sovereignty.• 7/28/14 Austria balk at Serbia and declare war on the Serbs
July 28, 1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
July 30, 1914 – Russia prepared to defend Serbia
August 1, 1914 – Germany declares war on Russia
August 3, 1914 – Germany declared war on France
August 3, 1914 – Germany invaded neutral Belgium
August 4, 1914 – British declared war on Germany
Ready Since 1905
Response to possibility of a Two front war
France on the West
Russia on the East
Paris in Six Weeks
March Against Russia
German first assault, February 21, artillery bombardment,
-five months of fighting causes
-430,000 German dead
-540,000 French dead
-Germans bleed French white but, not to death and hurt there military in the end
THEY
SHALL NOT PASS
FRENCH HOLD THE LINE.
-FORCE GERMAN STALEMATE
-CREATE PROBLEMS FOR GERMAN HIGH COMMAND
Tennenberg
German army quickly isolates and destroys the Russian forces, at the end of August.
Galicia Austria, ends the war for Russia
OTTOMAN EMPIRE SIDES WITH GERMNY. CLOSE DARDANELLES TO ALLIED SHIPPING
BRITAIN GOES TO OPEN AREA AND WINDS UP STAYING FOR A YEAR AND LOSING 65,000 MEN
American Neutrality• Wilson—neither threatened vital
American interest• American against the war Pacifists,
Isolationists, Socialist• Edward M. House and Robert
Lansing– Wilson’s pro-British advisors
• William Jennings Bryan– Against pro-British tilt
• Germany had no advocates in government
• British blockade of Germany– Violates American neutrality, Wilson
protests
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
British navy blocks German coast and starves people
Germany counters with U-boats
British Big naval advantage countered by hidden boats
Submarine Warfare• Unterseeboot (U-boat)• Lusitania (May 1915)
– 1198 killed, 128 Americans
– Germans had warned the passenger was a target
• Bryan resigns when Wilson refuses to criticize both British blockade and U-boats
• Sussex pledge (1916)• 1916 preparedness measures
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
German Escalation
• Russia’s imminent collapse• Germany concentrates on Britain and
France– Renew U-boat war
• "Zimmerman telegram“• American declaration of war: “make the
world safe for democracy”
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved
American Intervention
• Russian revolution (1917)– Vladimir Lenin and Bolshevik Party
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)– Publication of secret Allied treaties
• German 1918 offensive• American Expeditionary Force (AEF)
– John J. Pershing
• Allied 1918 offensive• Armistice 11-11-1918
(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved