final Flashcards
July Crisis of 1914 Thesis
Thesis: On 28 June 1914, Black Hand Serbian nationalists assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The resulting demands made by Austria-Hungary ultimately led to the First World War. While the assassination of Archduke Franz certainly acted as a spark for war, the piles of dry tinder had been decades in the making.
Four sets of long term causes that led to war:
1) Alliance systems, or old diplomacy
2) Imperial Rivalry (new imperialism)
3) War plans and Arms Races (militarism)
4) Domestic political and social crises
2) Imperial Rivalry (new imperialism)
- Imperial Rivalries lead to constant tension (new imperialism, Africa)
- Colonies are seen as an essential outlet from emigration
- While this rivalry played out in China, Africa, and the Middle East, the most destabilizing moves came from Austria-Hungary
- By the turn of the twentieth century, Austria-Hungary could best described as big, backwards, poor, weak, fragile, and above all, desperate
- Austria-Hungary embarked on a destabilizing foreign policy, felt confident in doing so being backed by Germany
- Occupies and annexes Bosnia in 1908
- Almost resulted in war, Russians back down due to Germany, but would not happen again
3) War plans and Arms Races (militarism)
- You have to preempt the enemy war plans by going first yourself
- Each country created their own plan predicated on rapid mobilization and not allowing the enemy to get a step ahead
- The most well known of these plans was the Schlieffen Plan created by the Germans
- The plan called for taking out France and Russia separately in detail, beat France first
- Countries like Russia sought to counter this
- Plan 20, get to the frontier as quickly as possible and attack the Germans
- Massive Arms Build up
- In addition to the well known Anglo-German naval race, countries enacted massive army spending measures
- The Germans enacted the Army law of 1912, the French had the Three Year Law in 1913, and the Russians had the 1913 Russian Great Army Program
4) Domestic political and social crises
- Preceding the first world war, there was a population explosion everywhere in Europe
- A healthier and more numerous society set off the “age of masses” in Europe
- Mass politics became a factor
- Masses of people felt like they had loss their power and wanted a voice
- Manfiests in the rise of radicalism, anarchists, and communists
- Lots of internal pressures building up, powers view war as a good thing to bring quarrelling classes and genders back to together
5) July Crisis
- The Two Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913 had seen Serbia double in size
- Serbia saw an opportunity in war with Austria-Hungary in that it could trigger the alliance with Russia and crush Austria-Hungary once and for all
- After multiple failed attempts, Serbian nationalists finally succeeded in assassinated the Archduke on 28 June 1914
- Austria-Hungary delayed taking action, but finally gave an ultimatum to the Serbs on 27 July
- Made outrageous demands, felt protected by Germany’s “blank check”
- Demands provokes the July Crisis of 1914
- Russian partially mobiziles on 30 July
- Austria mobilizes 31 July
- Russia responds by announcing their own full mobilization
- Germans mobilize, declares war on 3 August, enter Belgium on 4 August
- Germans thought it would be a quick war
Treaty of Versailles Thesis
Thesis: There is no doubt that the Treaty of Versailles was a harsh peace. While not unprecedented given Germany’s own imposed Treaty of Best-Litovsk with the Russians, the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh penalties on Germany and reduced it to an indebted country unable to defend itself. Moreover, the treaty was imposed on the Germans with no room for negotiation.
1) Context for the treaty due to the cost of the war
- 8 million soldiers killed, 20 million if you include civilians
- 20 to 40 million wounded
- 10 million disabled for life
- $200 billion in direct war costs
- $150 billion in direct costs like lost profits and disrupted trade
2) The Peacemakers
- Initially the peace was set to be dictated by the four victorious powers
- United States, Woodrow Wilson
- France, Georges Clemenceau
- Great Britain, David Lloyd George
- Italy, Vittorio Orlando
- Ultimately, it came down to the big three after Orlando threw a fit and walked out early after not getting territorial promises
- Russia was not invited because it had dropped out of the war early
3) Wilson
- Wanted and open and transparent world
- Issues his fourteen points during the talks
- People can determine their own fates
- Open and fair conveants, no more secret treaties
- No more war, instead could talk it out in the League of Nations
- Disarmament
- Self-determination
- Appears idealistic, Wilson was trying to counter Bolsheviks and further revolution
- League of nations was doomed given the Republican isolations in Congress
4) Clemenceau
- The French rejected Wilson’s idealism out of hand
- Argued a soft peace won’t protect from Germany but a hard peace would
- France had suffered more than any other nation given location of battlefield
- Perspective: Americans are leaving, British are distracted by overseas Empire, Russia was no longer a help, France has to rely on itself
- Wants German territory
- Wants reparations
- Wants to put legal limits on size and capabilities of German armed Forces
- Above all, he wanted revenge on Germans by punishing them and wanted to weaken Germany so France would be safe
5) David Lloyd George
- Took a position between France and the Americans
- He tried to mediate a halfway point between Clemenceau and Wilson
- Above all, he wanted to strengthen Great Britain
- Wanted German overseas colonies
- He also wanted to make Germany pay, but not so much as to damage the German economy otherwise it could not trade with great Britain
6) Treaty Outcome
- Article 231, the war guilt clause, placed the blame for the war on Germany
- German Empire dismantled
- Large swaths of German territory loss in addition to the loss of overseas colonies
- Military capped to 100,000 men
- No Heavy ships, tanks, aircraft, submarines, or heavy artillery
- German military academy, general staff, and conscription abolished
- Huge amounts of reparation payments of either currency or cash in-kind
7) Result
- The treaty was hard to enforce
- The British increasingly accused the French of being too harsh, vindictive, and whiny
- Damaged world economy
- In reality for Germany, not so bad given inflation. As revisionist historians like Niall Ferguson have noted, inflation lessened the long term impact on Germany. If anything, Germany found itself in a stronger position after the war and in a position to quickly rebuild for the Second
July Crisis Paragraphs
1) Alliance Systems, or old diplomacy
2) Imperial Rivalry (new imperialism)
3) War plans and Arms Races (militarism)
4) Domestic political and social crises
5) July Crisis
