World History: The First World War

The First World War, the Great War, has earned itself as one of the darkest parts of modern history. It is estimated that 40 million people were killed by the First World War, both military and civilian, through a mixture of conflict, genocide, disease, and starvation. The First World War was not the first global war, nor was it the first total war, but it was the conflict which shaped how we view both global and total wars. This war broke the old world, and set the stage for a new one - however bleak. As the First World War has been so thoroughly discussed we cannot cover everything, and bear in mind what we will discuss today is more of an overview. The origins of the war are so hotly debated that the books written about it available in the University of Edinburgh's library cover at least three shelves. Also, as I am not a military historian, we will not focus as much on the battles and fighting, although we will discuss them regardless.

Origins

As already mentioned, the origins of the war has been hotly debated, and these debates range from who 'started' it, and are the long or short term factors more important in the outbreak. James Joll, for example, holds that more short term factors were more important, whereas Christopher Clark holds that the long term factors were more important. Regardless, we have to discuss both. Following the defeat of France by the Prussians in 1871 it left France isolated diplomatically, so they made an alliance with another diplomatically isolated state - the Russian Empire. This would begin the treaty system where European states made alliances with the intention of these alliances deterring war. By 1900 two alliance blocks had formed: the Entente, (consisting of France, Russia, and Britain), and the Central Powers, (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Other alliances meant that when war broke out more states became involved. Britain's treaty with Japan and vow to protect Belgium, as well as Germany building ties with the Ottoman Empire, were just some examples. The rise of nationalism was spelling disaster for the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire, something especially troubling with its neighbour Serbia adopting Pan-Slavic ideas, supported by Russia who saw itself as 'the defender of the Slavic peoples'. This was exacerbated by two events: in 1903 a coup in Serbia brought to power a more expansionist government, and in 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia enraging nationalists. The crumbling Ottoman Empire led to two wars in the Balkans, the first in 1912-3 to kick the Ottomans out of the Balkans and the second in 1913 to reduce the size of Bulgaria. The Balkans were a powder keg, but it was not the only powder keg in Europe. Since coming to the throne in 1888 German emperor Wilhelm II wanted to put Germany on equal footing with the British and French Empires. Not only did Germany challenge France's claim to Morocco so Germany could get 'a place in the sun' there was also a rapid increase in naval power. Overseen by Alfred von Tirpiz Germany's navy greatly expanded influencing Britain to expand its navy in an arms race. Although ended by Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg in 1911, the arms race was decided in 1906 when the British launched HMS Dreadnought giving them the technological advantage.

Franz Ferdinand and Sophie

These long term factors then fed into one event, which Christopher Clark compared to 9/11 in its importance. On 28 June 1914, while visiting Bosnia's capital of Sarajevo, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinand, and his pregnant wife, Sophie, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a pan-Serbian nationalist part of the group Mlada Bosna. The assassination not only sparked anti-Serbian riots in Sarajevo, but also what is now known as the July Crisis. The July Crisis was the event which allowed war to break out, but it was all behind the scenes. This was such the case that Austria's main paper ran a headline about the growing conflict in Ireland the day before war broke out! Although Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph was glad that his more progressive nephew would now not inherit the throne, he could not stand that Serbian nationalists, likely supported by the Serbian government, had struck at Austria. At the start of July Wilhelm threw his support behind Austria stating that they would back whatever Austria did in the now infamous 'blank check', and Chief of General Staff Moltker wrote that 'Austria must beat the Serbs'. Meanwhile, states began mobilising their armies and navies as diplomats went to work. On July 23 Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia - accept all ten points or war will be declared. Serbia accepted all but one, that Austro-Hungarians would lead the investigation into the assassination, and even then it was very last minute. You can see on the ultimatum prime minister Nikola Pasic had ticked each demand, but hastily crossed out the investigation demand. Even Wilhelm conceded that Serbia's response 'eliminates any reason for war'. Regardless, July 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia starting a domino effect as European states became involved - by August 6 Britain (and the Empire), Russia, France, Serbia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary were at war. As British foreign secretary, Edward Grey, said 'The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime'.

The War Begins

An army recruitment line in London, 1914

Fighting began quickly and, contrary to accusations that it was a European war until American entry, it was immediately global. British and German troops clashed first, not in Europe, but in Africa when the British and French invaded Togo and Kamerun on August 6. Japan allied with the Entente and began invading German territories in China and the Pacific, and New Zealand occupied what would become the Solomon Islands. German and British ships further fought one another off the coast of the Falkland Islands early in the war. Germany intended to use the Schlieffen Plan, first created in 1907, to solve the issue of fighting a war on two fronts; it was a bad plan, but it was their only usable plan. The Schlieffen Plan involved invading France through the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium to bypass French defenses; quickly knock out France by taking Paris before they could mobilise their forces and colonial strength; and then turn their attention to Russia, hopefully being pinned down by Austria in the meantime. Despite streamlining the plan by leaving the Netherlands neutral the plan failed. For one, Austria invaded Serbia leaving the Eastern front unguarded, and Germany was hoping that Britain would not want to defend Belgian neutrality, but they did. France and Russia further mobilised faster than expected, and British expeditionary forces managed to land in France by early-August. In what would come to characterise warfare in this period, the fronts soon became bogged down in trench warfare. However, France and Britain quickly hoped to strangle the economies of Austria and Germany, and successfully blockaded them with their navies. Frightening the powers was Ottoman entry on the side of the Central Powers - distrustful of Britain and France's exploitation of the empire, allying with their enemy Russia, and overtures from Wilhelm meant they sided with the Central Powers.

German troops on the way to Belgium

Although there was some resistance to the war, populations were positive towards it being swept along in nationalism and jingoism. Of course, there were splits in society. The Second International saw a split between the Marxists and democratic socialists over support for the war - while members of the German Social Democratic Party voted in favour of war credits, others in the party, like Karl Liebknecht, opposed this and were imprisoned. Generally, the mood was in favour of the war. Many suffragette movements dropped their militancy in favour of supporting the war effort - several in the Women's Social and Political Union advocated giving white feathers to men who weren't fighting in order to shame them into enlisting. Most states did not have to bring about conscription for several years due to the initial wave of support for the war - in British popular memory boys under the age of sixteen were told to have a walk around the street and come back older. Even minorities were willing to enlist, seeing that engagement in the war would prove their worthiness of rights. A 500-strong Maori Contingent, the Te Hokowhitu A Tu, originally tried to join, but were initially rebuked as 'the Maoris should not take part in the wars of the White Race against a White Race'. They were eventually shipped out to Europe in February 1915. The general consensus was that the war 'would be over by Christmas', largely as people looked to European wars over the last century which were short, such as the Franco-Prussian War and the Crimean War. As stated by Eric Hobsbawm, the American Civil War should have been the war which showed the face of modern warfare.

WW1 and Warfare

Entente troops at Gallipoli

The First World War can be seen as the first 'modern' war, and the last war of, what Hobsbawm describes as, the 'Long Nineteenth Century'. Although the often used phrase, 'lions led by lambs', to describe the leaders and soldiers is simplistic, and quite ahistorical, there is some truth to it. It took too long in many fronts of the war for tacticians to adapt to new warfare. New developments in the form of barbed wire and machine guns meant that tactics had to change, and this led to trench warfare. Particularly in Britain and France, trench warfare is what we think of when we think of the First World War, although it was prominent in other fronts. Guarded by barbed wire and machine gun nests it emerged as a way for Entente forces to hold the German lines as they took Amiens and started towards Paris, and for the Germans to hold the territory they took while being attacked. Trench warfare was brutal. Erich Maria Remarque in his famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front, based off of his own experiences in the Western front, shows the drudgery of trench warfare - stuck in squalid conditions and facing shelling from enemy artillery. Disease spread rapidly throughout the trenches - it is no surprise that disease killed more people than actual fighting. In 1915 First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill hoped to avoid trench warfare and take the Central Powers from below. He hoped that landing at the Dardanelles allied forces could move up the Turkish coast and take Istanbul, hopefully knocking out the Ottoman Empire. The Gallipoli Campaign is most famous for the birth of Australian and New Zealand national identity as ANZAC first appeared, and the death of 8,000 Australians alone inspired a national myth to emerge. Indians also fought at Gallipoli, 3,000 fought and around half were killed. The Ottoman forces still had many casualties, again largely through disease, as trench warfare erupted instead of Churchill's desired push to Istanbul. Future Turkish president, and 'father of the Turks', Mustafa Kemal Bey made his mark at Gallipoli by fending off the Entente forces. In January 1916 the campaign was called off as the Entente forces were ravaged by war and disease. The Ottoman forces also suffered, but their connection to supply lines managed to mitigate some of the poor conditions. Although, the Gallipoli Campaign, and the promise of Austrian land, influenced Italian intervention on the side of the Entente - similarly trench warfare broke out on the Italian front.

Troops in German East Africa

The First World War was not simply a case of bringing in new weaponry and failing to adapt. We regularly see innovations being developed, and tacticians working around it. Although it is also due to these innovations that the First World War became so destructive. As early as 1914 tear gas was used to slow down enemy troops, the Germans tried and failed to use bromide against Russian forces outside of Warsaw in January 1915, and at the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917 mustard gas managed wreck havoc on soldiers. Similarly, tanks and planes were first utilised in the war - planes were first used for reconnaissance and later for battles. All Quiet on the Western Front depicts the characters betting on who would win a dog fight, and one of Germany's 'ace-of-war' with 80 confirmed victories was the pilot Manfred von Richthofen, the famous 'Red Baron'. Transport and communication meant that the line between the front and home, in areas unoccupied that is, became increasingly blurred. Soldiers could get access to newspapers and letters from home quickly, and mostly had access to a supply of food - often though at the expense of the civilian population. Even 'backwards' Russia managed to use railways to move around troops and send orders, although German and Austrian advances following the Battle of Tannenburg did hinder this by threatening the railway connections. Guerrilla warfare was even utilised. Although causing great casualties and inspiring his African forces to go AWOL, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa (modern Tanzania) led a guerrilla campaign hoping this would tie down Entente forces. Called 'Safari ya Bwana Lettow' by his troops, the East African Schutztruppe managed to last until 1918.

Domestic Fronts

With so many states taking part across the world we cannot talk about one singular domestic front. During the First World War we see the entire blurring of civilians and militaries as entire societies and economies went towards the fighting of the war. Propaganda was produced to bolster national unity and support the war effort - the image of Lord Kitchener saying 'We need you' became one of the most famous propaganda posters, which in turn inspired the Uncle Sam variant. Unfortunately, propaganda was also used to demonise minorities within the nation. German propaganda encouraged Germans to avoid Japanese businesses, and many were interned in Ruhleben camp outside of Berlin. Similarly, after US entry propaganda demonised its sizeable German population which, in turn, encouraged Prohibition - many breweries were German-owned so drinking alcohol became a way to help the enemy. Russian Tsar Nicholas II renamed St. Petersburg to Petrograd to make it sound less German, and the British monarchy changed their name to Windsor for this reason as well. Propaganda was also used to encourage buying war bonds, to fund the war effort, and even donate cutlery to be turned into bullets. Even Daylight Savings Time being implemented was a result of the war - states needed to maximise food production, especially Germany and Austria suffering thanks to the naval blockades.

Women in an artillery factory

Where you were in the world determined how the war affected you. If you lived in a German or Russian city you would experience famines due to food shortages as what little food was diverted to the frontline - these shortages were caused by blockades in Germany, and the loss of arable land to invading forces in Russia. Meanwhile, in Japan, life would largely go on unaffected, while you might be occupied by foreign forces in Belgium. The war further caused great demographic shifts. With men off to war suddenly huge areas of the economy became vacant, so women filled in the roles. Female employment skyrocketed during the First World War as many middle and upper class women entered positions which were traditionally barred women - this ranged from bus conductors to armament factory workers. Leading feminists, like Emmeline Pankhurst, encouraged women to enter the workforce and support the war effort based on a mixture of nationalism, and the hope that entering work would dispel notions of female inferiority. Similarly, with the industrial boom to fund the war effort, and racism in the South, encouraged African-Americans to begin moving to the North, which began the 'Great Migration' changing the demographics of American cities. This was not limited to the US. European powers relied heavily on colonial troops, and people rapidly moved across the world. Throughout the war the people of Flanders met troops from the German, American, British, French, Portuguese, and their own empire, and their accounts show bewilderment of the diversity of people from the empires. Jane de Launoy's diary presents a racist depiction of North African and Arabic troops. 

Brutality of War

In popular memory we are left with stories of how brutal the war was on all fronts, ranging from All Quiet on the Western Front to even The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien fought at the Somme, and the destruction he saw made him romantic for a pre-industrialised age where this level of destruction was impossible. It is no surprising, as shown by Irina Davidian, why so many Russian soldiers resorted to drink to cope with the war. To try and break the British naval blockade, and also to starve out the British, Germany would order its U-boats to undertake 'unrestricted naval warfare' which involved sinking all ships around Britain. Land battles were also brutal. We have already discussed Gallipoli, but it was just one of many drawn out battles to claim thousands of lives. The first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916 was the most devastating day for the British Army in all of its history where it sustained 57,470 casualties, of which 19,240 were killed. Most of those killed in the war were working-class, and a staple of the conflict was that colonial forces would more likely be killed. In Britain, the thousands killed became known as the 'Lost Generation'; and this legacy still impacts Britain today. Consequently, you often see the leaders of the armies - such as Alexander Haig, Erich von Ludendorff etc. - presented as bumbling fools leading thousands to their deaths.

The Enemy Within, and the War against Humanity

Sinking of the Lusitania

It is a myth that until recent wars that civilians were never considered a target, but the First World War meant that whether it was an intention or not, they would be affected. As stated by Eric Hobsbawm, during the Napoleonic Wars Jane Austen could write novels which make no reference to the conflict, but in World War One this was far from the case. Even though propaganda dramatised the 'Rape of Belgium' to turn America against Germany - former president Theodore Roosevelt said that for this the US had to seek justice for them - but there was a serious war against the population. In response to resistance German battalions responded by executing potential offenders. Famously, in 1915 German submarines sank the British cruise liner the Lusitania which caused outrage for the civilian casualties - especially in the US as 128 of those killed were American citizens. However, Germany was not the only state to commit atrocities. British Lieutenant Godfrey Herbert in 1915 had the survivors of the U-27 submarine summarily executed, and the blockade of German ports meant that vital food and medicine supplies were stropped. Somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 people died of disease and starvation as a result of the blockade. All sides were willing to execute civilians deemed untrustworthy. States were further keen to watch 'the enemy within'. The earlier mentioned cases were just some examples. Minorities deemed to have 'foreign ties' were placed under surveillance, and even colonial forces were treated with distrust. For helping 200 soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium meant that British nurse Edith Cavell was shot by a German firing squad to international condemnation in 1915. Opponents of the war were also imprisoned internationally, many of whom were socialists. Among those arrested for advocating an end to the war including George Bernard Shaw in Britain, Eugene V. Debs in the US, and Rose Luxemburg in Germany.

An Armenian death march

A fear of betrayal and war against humanity intersected in the form of genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in the Ottoman Empire. The embracing of a particularly Turkish and Islamic identity in the 1800s meant that Christians within the Empire became increasingly mistrusted, and this became exacerbated by the outbreak of war. Due to Russian, with its Armenian populace, and Greek entry Christians were seen as having sympathies with those outside the Empire, and a domestic threat. The Young Turks themselves fought the Armenian armies raised by the Russian Empire, so this inspired the implementation of the Deportation Law following the Gallipoli Invasion. Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks were uprooted from their homes, including 200 prominent Armenians in Istanbul from 15 April 1915, and marched to guarded villages in the Syrian desert. This soon became a death march with many being killed via abuse from their Ottoman guards, or they died thanks to a lack of food, water, rest, and medicine. Those who were lucky found refuge in the multi-religious and multi-ethnic Beirut and wider Lebanon, but most were not as lucky. It is estimated that over a million Armenians; 250,000 Assyrians; and over 350,000 Greeks were killed in these death marches. Even today, Turkey, the successor to the Ottoman Empire, denies that a genocide took place, arguing instead that it was simply a 'massacre'. Many Armenians fled to the United States thanks to the genocide where they still live today. Unfortunately, this would not be the last instance of ethnic cleansing to happen in the First World War.

The End of the War

The Arab Revolt

On the centenary of the end of the war we wrote a post about it which I highly recommend reading here. By 1917, all combatants were desperate, and the strain of war was taking its toll. In 1916 Irish revolutionaries rose up in Dublin in the Easter Rising tired of Britain's rule; the ensuing British brutal retaliation destroyed Dublin and started turning Ireland against Britain. With the amount of people volunteering to join the military drying up many states after 1916 started introducing conscription causing a public backlash - a railroad strike organised by the Industrial Workers of the World in Australia brought New South Wales to a standstill. Desertion became prominent, especially in Russia, and executions for desertion turned more people against the war; in April 1917 there was a wave of mutinies within the French army. Empires began crumbling. As early as 1915 the Amir of Mecca Sharif Husayn made contact with British high commissioner in Egypt Henry McMahon offering an alliance - for Ottoman Arabic land he would fight the Ottomans for the Entente. This was difficult because by 1917 the British and French had vowed to carve Ottoman possessions between the two of them, and also promising to open up Palestine to Jewish settlement. Regardless, in June 1916 Husayn's son Faysal attacked the Ottoman garrison at Mecca sparking the Arab Revolt. Aided by Captain T.E. Lawrence, 'Lawrence of Arabia', swept across the Arabian peninsula, through Gaza, and up to Damascus. Meanwhile, discontent following the death of the elderly Franz Joseph meant that the disparate parts of Austria-Hungary started becoming increasingly independent, and a Czech legion was even formed in France. Finally, a strike by women over bread in Petrograd spiralled into the February Revolution in 1917 which deposed Nicholas II, a topic for next time, and issued in a provisional government under Alexander Kerensky which tried to continue the war. German generals, who now ran the government, Erich von Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg wanted to see Russia out of the war thanks to the earlier success of the Brusilov Offensive, so they spirited Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin into Russia. The ensuing October Revolution resulted in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk taking Russia out of the war. However, a new power had just entered: the United States.

Signing the November Armistice

US president Woodrow Wilson had wanted to keep neutral, but German submarine warfare and Entente propaganda made the American public sympathetic to the Entente. A desperate Germany, wanting any ally they could find, sent a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the Mexican government offering to help Mexico in a war against the US to seize lost Mexican land. British spies managed to get the Zimmerman Telegram, and leaked it. In reality, with Mexico having no clear way to fight the Entente, and being in the midst of a revolutionary period, it would not have sided with the Central Powers. However, it, and the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, infuriated the American population, and Wilson declared war. Wilson was hostile to European diplomacy, and was determined for a lasting peace so created his now famous 14 Points calling for an end to secret treaties, self-determination for (European) peoples, peace, free trade, freedom of the seas, and an association of nations. He thought this would make a stable world, and oppose Lenin's recently issued call for peace. Ludendorff and Hindenburg rightly feared that they would lose the war if America managed to mobilise their economy. In an effort to finally knock out the French, and managed to push their way through northern France. However, it did not have the desired consequences. The German supply lines were stretched, so that when the Entente undertook their 100 Days' Offensive their lines folded. Meanwhile, Faysal's forces swept up to Damascus and the Italian navy managed to wipe out the Austrians. In October German sailors mutinied at Kiel sparking the end of the German Empire. An armistice was signed on November 11 1918 bringing the war to an end.

Aftermath

Hitler on the far-right during WW1

The following peace treaties, including the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, shaped the world. From the aftermath of the war various new states came into being including Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Finland. Wilson's desire for the 14 Points were cast aside at Versailles as the victorious Entente wished to punish Germany - France and Belgium both seized German land, Germany was forced to accept war guilt, and had to pay 132 billion gold marks in reparations. Much to the anger of Japan, and the young Vietnamese nationalist who would become Ho Chi Minh, imperialism and Wilson's own racism meant that racial equality was ignored. The remnants of the German and Ottoman Empires were annexed as 'mandates' - a euphemism for colonies. Wartime censorship, and the movement of peoples thanks to the war, allowed the spread of Spanish Influenza which killed up to three times as many people as the war did itself. Similarly, many states were dissatisfied with the aftermath of the war. The German far-right would claim that they were 'stabbed-in-the-back' by Jews and socialists, this myth would help propel Hitler to power in later years. Japan, angered at being treated as a secondary power, would also go down a path towards militarism. The seeds for the Second World War would be planted during the First. Erwin Rommel, Hitler, Tojo Hideki, Mussolini, Charles de Gaulle, Rudolph Hess, and Churchill were just some of the main figures of the Second World War who would fought in the First. A generation of writers and artists, including a key figure of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes, would continue to reflect on their experiences of the war. Finally, in the aftermath of the war it was widely described as 'the war to end all wars', but, as we have seen, wars have continued to devastate lives over the last century. Echoing the somber words of Eric Hobsbawm, the First World War was not the end of wars, it was instead the beginning of the short and bloody Twentieth Century.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes, 1914-1991, (London: 1994)

-Martin Gilbert, First World War, (London: 1995)

-Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to War in 1914, (London: 2012)

-Santanu Das, (ed.), Race, Empire and First World War Writing, (Cambridge: 2011)

-Hugh Cecil and Peter Liddle, (eds.), Facing Armageddon: The First World War Experienced, (London: 1996)

-David Stevenson, 1914-1918: The History of the First World War, (London: 2004)

-James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, Second Edition, (London: 1992)

-Samuel Hynes, A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture, (London: 1990)

-Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty! An American History, Fourth Edition, (New York: 2014)

-William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Sixth Edition, (Boulder: 2016)

-Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Trans. A.W. Wheen Fawcett Crest, (Berlin: 1929)

Next time, we will be looking at the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union. Thank you for reading, and I hope you found it interesting. For other World History posts we have a list here, for other blog posts please check our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

2018 and History

Some Gilets jaunes protesters

2018 is coming to a close and 2019 is soon to arrive. Over this last year we have seen many events occur which find their origin in history, as well as anniversaries of major events which shaped the world that we live in today. Of course, so many things have happened across the year so I cannot go over everything, and as my speciality is limited to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries we naturally cannot cover everything. As a result, we'll cover several key events and anniversaries that has happened across the last year.

Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa, and the Legacy of Mandela

In February South African president Jacob Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. This became even more important with 2018 also see the passing of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and the one-hundredth birthday of Nelson Mandela. Nelson and Winnie were two of the many individuals who took part in the anti-Apartheid protests across South Africa. In 1948 the National Party under Daniel Malan instituted a policy named Apartheid which legally separated white South Africans from non-whites. This policy was not entirely new - racial discrimination and segregation existed long before the National Party - but now a government was in power wanting to explicitly expand segregation and prejudice. By the 1970s the government had gone as far as to create the 'Homelands' granting 'independence' to black African peoples in order to strip urban black Africans of their citizenship. Many different organisations emerged in order to oppose Apartheid including the African National Congress (ANC) of which Nelson, and later Winnie, became involved in. In June 1964 Nelson Mandela was put on trial and initially sentenced to death, but this was reduced to life imprisonment. Thanks to the ANC in exile Mandela became an international martyr and attention came onto his activist wife Winnie. Anti-Apartheid activism wasn't just limited to the Mandelas and the ANC - a variety of organisations took part ranging from the Pan-African Congress to the Communist Party. Following Mandela's imprisonment a new generation of activists emerged with new organisations, including Ramaphosa and the National Union of Mineworkers (formed 1982). By the late-1980s the Apartheid state was collapsing: a shift in the economy undermined Apartheid; domestic opposition increased; international sanctions destroyed the South African economy; the state's attempts to preserve Apartheid had destroyed its own economy; and Mandela's imprisonment continued to make him a martyr. February 11 1990 Mandela walked hand-in-hand with Winnie, and four years later the first multi-racial election took place which brought an end to Apartheid and brought Mandela to the presidency.

After a century of racial discrimination, and with the Mandela presidency focusing more on reconciliation than social justice, followed by fifty years of Apartheid had continued to leave South Africa's black population impoverished. Nelson's and Winnie's honesty in politics, as well as strong stance on social justice, had inspired a new generation born after the collapse of Apartheid. This issue was compounded by the intense corruption of the successive ANC governments under Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. Amidst a corruption scandal Zuma resigned in favour of Cyril Ramaphosa. Ramaphosa has effectively used the legacy of Mandela by positioning himself as the successor to Mandela in order to rebuild the lost trust in the ANC. Time will tell how if this works out in his favour. 

Korea

Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in crossing the DMZ

Throughout this year relations have been changing between North and South Korea. In March the two Koreas in the Seoul Winter Olympics participated as one team and in April the leaders of the two states met and symbolically crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Following the end of the Second World War and the defeat of the Japanese Empire - which had formally ruled Korea since 1910 - the Korean peninsula had been divided along the 38th parallel. In the North a Marxist-Leninist government was implemented by the Soviet Union under Kim Il-sung while in the South a capitalist government was implemented by the United States under Syngman Rhee. Initially it was intended that the two Koreas would be united but Cold War tensions soon prevented this. Meanwhile, Syngman Rhee and Kim Il-sung both moved to solidify their own position - an uprising of Jeju island was brutally crushed by South forces as an example. Both wished to unify the peninsula and war broke out in 1950 as the North invaded the South. Kim's forces found quick success and almost succeeded in conquering the South until a US-led coalition with UN support landed. Initially the plan was meant to push the North back across the 38th parallel but unexpected success emboldened the US who now wanted to directly pushback communism. This made the newly declared People's Republic of China fearful that this would embolden them to push into China so the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yalu River. Chinese forces pushed the UN forces back and three years of stalemate followed costing the lives of 2.5 million Korean civilians. A peace treaty was signed at Panmunjom between all the combatants except for the two Koreas - to this day North and South Korea technically remain in a state of war. Currently the DMZ remains heavily guarded and is one of the most fortified regions in the world.

Since 1953 relations between the two states have not improved. Kim Il-sung and Syngman Rhee ruled in Pyongyang and Seoul respectively in two authoritarian regimes. One a Marxist-Leninist authoritarian regime, the other a capitalist authoritarian regime, meant that unification became a distant memory - even when South Korea became a multi-party democracy in 1987. Relations remained sour between the two states since 1987, especially thanks to continued American presence in the South and the North's testing of nuclear weapons in 2006. A regular occurrence since then is that the North tests weapons causing the South to adopt more recalcitrant positions which in turn causes the North to test more weapons. Earlier this year there seems to be a break in this trend - 2019 might see relations improve, or this thaw come to an end.

100 Years since the end of World War One

Londoners celebrating the end of World War I

This November saw 100 years since the end of the First World War - one of the most brutal and destructive conflicts in human history. The assassination of heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on June 28 1914 in Sarajevo led to the European powers declaring war on one another - France, Britain, and Russia on one side (the Entente), and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other (the Central Powers). Immediately it became a world war - British and German troops first fought one another in West Africa and their fleets quickly did battle at the Falkland Islands. Britain's Dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - were brought into the war and Britain's alliance with Japan (as well as Japanese interests in China and the Pacific) brought it into the war. The Ottoman Empire, angered by Britain and France intervening in its affairs, joined the Central Powers as Italy unexpectedly went against its alliance with the Central Powers to join the Entente. By 1917 a stalemate had occurred and support for the war, which was very popular in 1914, had started to waver. The Central Powers even at this stage seemed to be in a position to see victory - revolution broke out in Russia in March bringing down the tsarist regime and in November a second revolution brought Russia out of the war. However, US entry into the war the same year made Germany fearful of American power accompanied by the slow disintegration of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian armies thanks to ethnic divisions. The Ludendorff Offensive aimed to quickly knock out France before US troops and resources to arrive to reinforce the Entente - it almost succeeded but doing so weakened the German lines, cost them their best soldiers, and depleted their resources. Soon enough the Central Powers collapsed and November 11 1918 a ceasefire was declared. After four years of fighting over 16 million were dead, a flu outbreak devastated the world, and soon enough conflict began once again. The war changed the world as we knew it - empires collapsed, the tragedy of the violence caused a demographic change, and new politics emerged. These legacies remain hotly debated today. In Britain the poppy has become a symbol of remembrance and in recent years has become subject to debates on national identity. Activist and World War Two RAF pilot Harry Leslie Smith, who tragically passed this November, wrote on Twitter: 'Instead of wearing a poppy for #Remembrance2018 we should wear our shame because as a human race we've learned nothing since 1918.' Wars are currently destroying Syria, Yemen and Iraq funded by Euro-American governments - we have to ask ourselves, have we learnt anything since 1918?

Meiji - 150 Years On

150 years ago one of the most important events in Japanese history took place. Japan for centuries had been ruled by shoguns - to summarise samurai warlords - with the emperor as a puppet. Then in 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry forcibly opened Japan to foreign affairs leading to a series of treaties - named the Unequal Treaties - which exploited Japan. Young samurai from Choshu and Satsuma were angered by the shogunate's seemingly lack of action and bowing down to foreign demands so in April 1868 they issued the Charter Oath. They vowed to 'restore' the emperor to power and fight back against foreign exploitation. The shogunate was overthrown, the emperor 'restored' (he remained very much a figurehead), and a process of 'modernisation' began. Japanese rulers knew that they had to reform society in order not to be conquered by Europe, but they debated how much society had to be changed. The old samurai order was abolished but should they allow capitalists? They looked to Europe and America for inspiration but how much inspiration should they take from the West? Within a generation Japan had become an industrialised imperial empire but these debates continued. Some have suggested that the bombings of Pearl Harbor, and later Hiroshima and Nagasaki, had their roots in the Meiji Restoration. It in undeniable that the era of the Meiji Reformers greatly shaped the future Japan. Recently, the emperor, Akihito, had announced that he plans to abdicate in 2019 - the first emperor to abdicate in centuries - and Akihito's reign had been involved in dealing with the legacies of pre-war, and wartime, Japan. He has repeatedly criticised the government's refusal to acknowledge war crimes throughout the Japanese Empire as well as readily accepting that he was to be a mortal and a figurehead - something his father Hirohito struggled to come to terms with.

1848-1968-2018

Since November in France we have seen the Gilets jaunes protests which have attracted over 300,000 participants. Emmanuel Macron's proposed fuel tax would have affected ordinary French citizens much more than the big companies who contribute most to climate change - wearing yellow vests protesters met in Paris and soon other grievances came to attention. Thanks to Macron's unpopularity, his approval rating is below 25%, the Gilets jaunes has attracted support from across the political spectrum. These protests have been France's largest since 1968. Across the world in 1968 we saw widespread protests: there was a spike in anti-Apartheid protests across the world; Catholics protested against discrimination in Northern Ireland; the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia broke out against harsh Soviet rule; students in Mexico, West Germany, the US, and UK clashed with police; race riots broke out in the US due to the assassination of Martin Luther King; and there were protests against military rule in Brazil, Pakistan, and Franco's rule in Spain. French students also protested in May 1968 which dwarfed that of the Gilets jaunes. Students and their teachers initially protested against harsh treatment of students by the police which expanded to target consumerism, capitalism, and American imperialism. Soon workers became involved with various wildcat strikes - 11 million workers ended up taking part in the protests. Communists and socialists became heavily involved but there were deep divisions among the left; the protesters adopted Maoist and libertarian socialist thought, although some protested for the imagery and not the ideals. Students jokingly said that Jimi Hendrix was leading their protest and graffiti read 'Je suis Marxiste - tendance Groucho' (I am a Marxist - Groucho tendency). The 1968 even created fears that there might be another revolution and caused a quick election. Just over a century before that Paris, and Europe, saw a major revolution.

1848 saw a series of revolutions sweep over Europe beginning in Paris which has since been called the 'Springtime of Peoples'. Crop failures deeply affected the poorest and when you're hungry you begin seeing the faults in society. Royal absolutism, power of the nobility, and serfdom created disaffected working, and middle, classes which led to revolution in 1848. In January a failed revolt broke out in Sicily but the most important one broke out in Paris in February. Discontent was growing over Louis Philippe's power, a limited franchise, and economic disparities. Paris was also home to major socialist thinkers including Louis Blanc and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - one of the first and major anarchist thinkers. Revolt broke out in Paris and soon swept across Europe where they got support from different peoples over different ideas. Liberalism, socialism, and nationalism were hotly debated across Europe. It was during the revolts that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto. In the short-term the revolts failed. There were deep rural-urban divides, clashes between national identities, and fearing socialists moderates ended up siding with conservative forces. In France the Second Republic was declared which was soon brought to an end via a coup in 1851 by Louis Napoleon, the nephew of Napoleon, who declared himself Napoleon III. However, in the future the reforms that were passed thanks to the revolts, and the impact of the revolts helped bring about what the revolutionaries of 1848 hoped to get themselves.

Karl Marx - 200 Years On

This February we saw 150 years since the publishing of The Communist Manifesto as well as the 200th birthday of Karl Marx in May. Inspired by a variety of writers, most notably Hegel, Marx as a journalist caught the attention of the Prussian government, and later governments of states including France, for his radical socialist views. To briefly summarise Marx's views he was a proponent of dialectical materialism - where two opposing ideas clash which transforms or dissolves them. He also was a proponent of historical materialism - looking at how human societies develop over time and comparing societies based on these developments. Marx and Engels also argued for socialism; they praised capitalism for mechanisation and destroying feudalism but they also viewed it as exploiting workers who they saw as the true wealth producers. The ideas of Marx would go on to inspire thousands through history ranging from political thinkers like Vladimir Lenin and Angela Davis to artists like Pablo Picasso and Hayao Miyazaki. 

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Left to Right: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko

This year we saw the unfortunate passing of two of the major cultural creators of the twentieth century - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Lee and Ditko were two of the heavyweights at Marvel comics and together the two created Spider-Man and his entire mythos. With Jack Kirby Lee ended up creating most of Marvel's major characters including the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Dr Doom, and Ant-Man. Before Lee, Ditko, and Kirby came along comic book heroes were meant to be flawless individuals that young people could look up to and be inspired by - to this day Superman is still referred to as 'the big blue boy scout'. Marvel came along and made heroes real - they had money and family problems, they failed, got mad, had arguments, and struggled with their own power. Marvel was also keen to reflect reality. Published during the height of the Cold War heroes often clashed with Russian opponents given powers by nuclear weaponry. Stan Lee was a keen supporter of the Civil Rights Movement and was keen to reflect that in X-Men, and Black Panther was one of the first black characters to have their own comic line. Lee and Kirby, less so than the shy and retiring Ditko, put their bold personalities on display - 'Stan's Soapbox' discussed everything from future comics to his support for racial equality. Marvel has since become one of the world's major cultural icons.

Brazil and Bolsonaro

In October far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil. Bolsonaro has stated that he would rather have a dead son than a gay son, that Afro-Brazilians were not 'worth procreation', that the dictatorship should have killed instead of tortured, and that 'not an inch' of the Amazon will be protected. In particular, this year he praised Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet - the same year that the relatives of some of his victims got justice when some of Pinochet's murderers were put on trial. Bolsonaro was a paratrooper in the military during the dictatorship. With this post we'll look more at Brazil's dictatorship rather than how Bolsonaro came to power. In 1964 left-leaning president Joao Goulart began nationalising land, however, Brazil's traditional elite were land owners. During the Cold War, especially following Castro's victory in Cuba in 1959, nationalisation policies were viewed with distrust and even Goulart's moderate reforms were seen as a prelude to a socialist takeover. The military, supported by the US, intervened and ousted Goulart beginning a dictatorship which would last until 1985. Unlike the later Pinochet regime Brazilian military generals kept up a facade of democratic politics; there were two legal parties, the pro-military ARENA and the 'opposition' MDB. There was a joke that the only difference between the parties was one said 'Yes' while the other said 'Yes Sir!'. Torture was a tool widely used by the military - the confirmed people to be murdered was much smaller compared to neighbouring dictatorships thanks to this. Former president Dilma Rousseff was just one person to be tortured and imprisoned during the regime's rule. In 1979 the Amnesty Law was passed - individuals could research human rights abuses if supervised. It was thanks to this law that Brasil: Nunca Mais, a book detailing all the human rights abuses, was written and later published shortly after the dictatorship fell. However, at the same time the Amnesty Law allowed human rights abusers to be immune to prosecution if they testified.

In 1985 the military fell but the impact it had lasts in Brazil. It took until 2014 for an investigation to happen about the human rights abuses and with Bolsonaro now elected the future of this investigation is up in the air. Furthermore, the regime most affected the poor and ethnic minorities - indigenous peoples were disproportionally affected by the regime - and it seems the same could continue under Bolsonaro. There is a glimmer of hope. Under the regime a strong counterculture movement emerged among student groups which managed to embrace feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmental activism under the nose of the military. Ipanema and Copacabana have become world famous for its thriving LGBT culture, especially the beach, and you may be surprised to hear that this really took root under the military's rule. Under Bolsonaro's fist a thriving counterculture movement could emerge once more to resist him. 

Frankenstein - 200 Years Later

The Monster in the Universal adaptation

On a lighter note to end this post I thought it would be good to end with a cultural icon - Frankenstein. Published in 1818 by a 20-year old Mary Shelley Frankenstein, Or the Modern Prometheus has since become one of the most important novels of all time. As a fan of both the horror and sci-fi genres I owe a lot to Shelley - Frankenstein is one of the first horror novels and laid the groundwork for the sci-fi genre. Locked indoors by bad weather while touring Europe with her husband, the poet Percy Shelley, they played a game of telling stories and she later had a nightmare. She combined the two forming Frankenstein. The story focuses on scientist Victor Frankenstein who aims to copy God by creating life: he sews together corpses and using a brain he brings to life his creation, the Creature. Now brought to life and excluded from society he demands a bride to bring him happiness, and Victor and his Creation have to face their bleak existence. Since 1818 Frankenstein has had several new editions and has been adapted countless times. In 1910 a 12-minute loose adaptation was produced by Thomas Edison and is now readily available on YouTube. The most famous one is perhaps the 1931 Universal adaptation featuring Boris Karloff, pictured above.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. Thank you again for reading and it's time to say bye to 2018 and hello to 2019.

History in Focus: The End of the First World War

Londoners celebrating the end of the war

November 11 2018 will mark 100 years since the end of the First World War. Within four years 9,911,000 soldiers had been killed on top of millions more civilians through war, famine, disease, and genocide. The First World War drastically changed the world we live in and is seen as a break in particularly European history - Eric Hobsbawm characterised 1914-1918 as the end of the 'Long Nineteenth Century' and the start of the 'Short Twentieth Century', or 'the Age of Extremes'. Today we'll be looking at how this bloody conflict came to an end, but first we have to understand the origins of the war, and the early fighting. Due to the sheer size of the end of the war, not to mention the war as a whole, we cannot mention everything so if I do omit something important please do mention and I will do an edit to add the points you mention.

The War: 1914-1916

A painting of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand

The origins of the First World War are complicated and hotly contested - both over whether we should consider long term or short term causes, and who started the war. The late-nineteenth century saw the world's power shift: Japan's rapid industrialisation and victory over Russia in 1905 had placed it on the world stage, the Ottoman Empire had started declining thanks to foreign debts and nationalist movements which they tried to counteract with the Tanzimat reforms, and German unification, and defeat of France in 1871, had tipped the balance of power in Europe. Through various treaties two military alliances soon emerged by 1914: the Entente comprising of France, Britain, and Russia, and the Central Powers comprising of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. However, these military alliances were not exactly set in stone. Various international scandals made a possible European wide war appear on the horizon - in a German War Council meeting in 1912 General von Moltke said 'I consider a war inevitable - the sooner, the better.' In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia upsetting its neighbours and especially Slavic nationalists. On June 28 1914 heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his pregnant wife, Sophie, were assassinated by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip of Mlada Bosna. Austria blamed Serbia and sent them an ultimatum with Germany backing Austria - Austria would invade if Serbia did not acquiesce to Austrian demands which would have virtually removed all of Serbia's autonomy. Russia started backing Serbia as it saw itself as 'the protector of Slavs' as nations started mobilising. Due to an alliance with Russia France started mobilising, also they feared German power. By the end of July/ start of August Austria, Germany, France, and Russia were at war. Years beforehand Germany had developed the Schlieffen Plan - the aim was to cross over Belgium which would bypass the French lines allowing Germany to quickly knock out France so they could focus on Russia. Belgium refused to allow Germany to pass through its borders so Germany declared war, however, Britain had been guaranteeing Belgium independence since 1839. Thanks to this, and a fear that German victory would threaten British economic interests, Britain entered the war. The First World War had begun. Thanks to diplomacy of the 1800s the British king, German kaiser, and Russian tsar all happened to be cousins - in the case of Germany and Britain first cousins.

War was largely welcomed in 1914. People eagerly signed up to fight, Britain did not need to introduce conscription until 1916 there was so much popular support for the war. Britain's colonies eagerly entered the war where the Indian National Congress supported it hoping that this support would allow greater autonomy to India after the war. However, support for the war was not total - the German far-left, such as Rosa Luxemburg, were arrested for their opposition; the Afrikaners of South Africa and French of Canada saw their country being dragged unwillingly into war by the Anglo-population; and the Bolsheviks in Russia virulently opposed a 'bourgeois war'. It should be noted in the early days war had widespread support. Despite having European origins, and being ostensibly a European conflict, it soon became a world war. Britain and Germany fought first in Togoland and Kamerun (modern Togo and Cameroon) before they met in France; Australia and New Zealand soon took over what is now northern Papua New Guinea; New Zealand took German Samoa; British and German ships fought around the Falklands; and Japan soon entered to seize German possessions in Asia and the Pacific. Other nations soon entered the war. The Ottoman Empire hoping to regain its hold over former territories lost to Britain, France, and Russia with its army initially being led by one of the Ottoman's leaders, Enver Pasha. In 1915 Bulgaria joined the war on the side of the Central Powers and Italy did so on the side of the Entente. Italy's treaties with Austria and Germany were defensive so as the two other powers had officially sent to declaration of war it gave them a blank check to opt out of the war. The Entente sent secret feelers out to Italy hoping it could divide the Austrian army, and wanting to limit Austrian power in the north Italy accepted.

Entente troops at Gallipoli

Fighting was brutal. Britain used its navy to blockade Germany so the German navy throughout the war made attempts to break this blockade. The Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916 involved the German navy hoping to lure the British into the sea around Jutland to destroy parts of it - this would make it easier for the German navy to challenge its British counterpart. Both sides claimed victory - Germany sank more ships but it was not enough to challenge the naval blockade. By the end of the war this blockade would cost thousands of German civilian lives and wreck the economy. Germany knew that France and Britain would rely heavily on their global empires, and resources from the America, so tried to threaten Entente sea lanes. German U-boats threatened to sink ships carrying arms and supplies to the Entente, May 1 1915 a German submarine sank an American merchant ship called the Gunflight off the coast of Sicily. Most famously a few days later the U-boat U-20 sank the Lusitania causing 1,198 peoples to drown, of which 128 were American. The conservative paper Kolnische Volkszeitung praised it saying: 'With joyful pride we contemplate this latest deed of our Navy. It will not be the last. The English wish to abandon the German people to death by starvation. We are more humane. We simple sank an English ship with passengers, who, at their own risk and responsibility, entered the zone of occupation'. On the continent the war was bloody. After Italian entry into the war Austria faced foes on three borders, in 1914 alone they only could use a third of their military to fight Serbia and faced large casualties taking Belgrade. Russia made large gains initially in Austria and Germany taking huge areas of Galicia, however, their under-equipped army soon were roundly trounced by Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the Battle of Tannenburg. By May 1915 Germany had managed to push into Russian Poland capturing Warsaw. In the Western Front trench warfare took root in northern France. Heavily fortified trenches defended by barbed wire, artillery and machine gun nests meant that thousands could potentially be killed or injured taking small strips of land. When not going 'over the top' soldiers had to wait out in unhygienic and squalid conditions. Bad weather turned the trenches to mud causing soldiers to contract 'trench foot' due to the damp. Under Enver Pasha the Ottoman army managed to threaten Russia's southern border but his own irresponsible leadership caused many casualties and the Russians pushed the Ottomans back at Erzurum. The Entente hoped to quickly knock out the Ottomans to free up Russia's southern flank, so Britain's Winston Churchill devised the Gallipoli Campaign - using ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) and other Commonwealth troops the Entente would go through the Dardanelles before pushing up to take the capital of Constantinople (Istanbul). However, poor planning and communication allowed the Ottomans to counterattack, heavily reliant on their Arab troops, leading to trench warfare on the Gallipoli peninsula; disease and the heat devastated the Entente forces leading to the Campaign to be abandoned in January 1916.

Atrocities were commonplace in the war. Germany was willing to execute thousands of French and Belgian civilians on the suspicion that they would threaten the German war effort. This soon became a major component of Entente propaganda, and the German High Command, OHL, tried to suppress reports of it. Germany did not have a monopoly on war crimes. British ship HMS Baralong became infamous for killing surrendered German sailors, or ramming lifeboats, and since the Battle of Ypres in 1915 all sides readily adopted poison gas against their opponents. During the Russian invasion of Galicia the Ukrainian and Jewish populations faced intense censorship, deportation, massacres, and for Jews the banning of their language. To the south genocide happened. The Ottoman government had long distrusted its Armenian population, and despite Armenians supporting the Ottoman war effort as Armenian nationalists operated from Russia it was seen that all Armenians were a threat. The same day that the Gallipoli Campaign began the Ottoman government passed a law which uprooted the Armenia, as well as the Greek and Assyrian, population from Anatolia to march them to Syria. Given little food, water, medicine, or rest the aim was for the elements to wipe out the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, but abuse from their guards sped up the process. Upon arrival in Syria they were kept in concentration camps. Communities were also massacred by the military, or a massacre offered a prelude to the death march. It is believed that around 1.5 million people were killed, something the Turkish government continues to deny. 

1916

Russian cavalry during the Brusilov Offensive

1916 was perhaps one of the worst years of the war; the football game between British and German troops on Christmas Day, 1914 was now unthinkable. Peace overtures failed as neither side were willing to accept the offered peace as they felt they needed more out of it. Across all sides dissatisfaction with the war effort was rising - in Germany the British blockade was leaving thousands of families starving, stalemates greatly affected the morals in each front, and the injured returning home scarred, missing limbs, and mentally broken with 'shell-shock' showed the public just how destructive modern warfare could be. Austria-Hungary's multi-ethnic population including Czechs, Slovaks, Bosnians, and Croats were angry that they were being sent to die for an empire which they had little say in. For example, most of the war in the Balkans were using Slovenes, Croats, and Bosnians against fellow Slavs. Exploiting this the Entente would form Czechoslovakian Legions (1914 in Russia, 1917 in France, and 1918 in Italy) under the leadership of Czechoslovakian nationalists like Tomas Masaryck. By the end of the war 10,000 had fought for these Legions. In November the emperor, Franz Joseph, did the unthinkable: he died. Ruling since 1848 he had ensured that Austria-Hungary remained a conservative state resisting socialism, liberalism, and nationalism. His successor, Karl I, had to balance waging a war against Russia and Italy while also keeping the empire together. Russia was facing similar problems. Mostly rural the Russian army was reliant of the skill of its generals and its size. Ludendorff's presence in the Baltics made Russia focus instead on Germany over Austria. Alexei Brusilov intended to split the army and make numerous blows with minimal warning along the Central Powers' lines to help their ally Romania. Using gas attacks and howitzer bombardment Brusilov managed to overtake the Austrian lines; they had underestimated Russia's fighting ability leaving their best units on the Italian front and two-thirds of the Eastern front troops were on the front line. The Czech troops surrendered and reserves arrived too late. Thus, Brusilov created a twenty kilometre wide breach in the Austrian line. By the end of the Brusilov Offensive 400,000 Austrian troops were captured and 600,000 were killed destroying half of the Austrian army on the Eastern front. As we shall later see this was not enough to save Russia.

A Vickers machine gun crew wearing gas masks at the Somme

Meanwhile, at the same time in the West two of the worst battles in human history were being fought. German general Erich von Falkenhayn hoped to capture a key defensive region for France, Verdun, to potentially fracture Entente defences. Launched in January 1916 in lasted until December when Falkenhayn removed his troops thanks a collapse in his defence, although David Stevenson has placed great emphasis on the Brusilov Offensive as well. The Battle of Verdun was particularly costly thanks to heavy fire, bad weather, and low moral as French and German troops (as well as colonial troops) fought for 303 days. A French lieutenant wrote: 'Humanity is mad. It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!' Shell-shock and desertions were widespread, when some French soldiers hoped to flee to France they were executed. It is believed that 70,000 casualties a month happened due to the battle. In July the Battle of the Somme began which turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles in world history. During this battle we saw the first use of air power and the tank but as they weren't used effectively it did little to relieve the suffering. British, Commonwealth, and French troops hoped to push the Germans back from the River Somme leaving one million wounded or killed. Making matters worse the battle was inconclusive giving the impression to soldiers that all their suffering had been for nothing. Bad weather and poor planning cost both sides a lot. The British hoped to bombard German lines which would destroy their barbed wire and as the bombs were dropping the Entente would go over the top. Thanks to the weather, and bad communication, the bombs failed to destroy German defences so soldiers were caught on barbed wire leaving them exposed to enemy machine guns. 

Arab soldiers at Yanbu during the Arab Revolt

The Ottomans were facing their own issues. Despite Enver Pasha's early victories, and their victory at Gallipoli, the Ottomans were hard pressed. The sultan's calls for a jihad to cause uprisings in British India, Egypt, and French Africa found little response. The Arab population had remained loyal to the empire, but the ruling government, the CUP, still distrusted them. Jamal Pasha arrived in Damascus in 1914 to oversee the war effort and was initially welcomed. His failed attack on Suez changed that. He felt that Arab leaders had conspired against him arresting Arab notables in 1915 publicly hanging 11 in Beirut in August, and 21 more were hanged in Beirut and Damascus in May 1916. Arab society was shocked, those killed (including politicians and journalists) became martyrs for Arabism, and Jamal earned the name al-Saffah, the Blood Shredder. In June 1916 the Arab Revolt began. Arabism, unity of the Arabic peoples in an independent state, had been growing and the Sharif Husayn ibn Ali, the amir of Mecca, took notice. Egypt's High Commissioner, Sir Henry McMahon, had reached out to Husayn to revolt in June 1915 debating about said revolt. Husayn wasn't an Arabist; like most early nationalist movements Arabism had secular and socialist streaks which the conservative Husayn opposed. Instead he was a pragmatist wanting to build a large dynastic state. On June 10 with the aid of his son Faysal the Ottoman garrison at Mecca was attacked. Britain helped fund the Arab Revolt, despite having imperial ambitions for most of the Ottoman's Arabic lands, sending T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, to help Husayn.

Australia voted, twice, about whether to introduce conscription producing pro and anti posters

Domestically the war was taking its toll on the public. States which had yet to impose conscription started doing so, such as Britain in 1916. Britain still ruled Ireland and the question of giving increased sovereignty to Ireland, or independence, had been postponed by the government to focus on the war. Things came to ahead in April 1916 when nationalist, republican, and socialist rebels launched a uprising in Dublin which was brutally crushed by the British with most of the leaders being executed. With the imposition of conscription to Ireland the following year Ireland became a hotbed. Germany even became a quasi-military state with Hindenburg and Ludendorff taking over more responsibility from the civilian government. Many young men were also returning home shell-shocked, crippled, or horribly disfigured by the effects of the fighting creating a crisis of identity. In a society where men were expected to be strong, physically and mentally, now that they were injured they were seemingly neglected. Plastic surgery started developing during this period to help those who had been badly scarred thanks to shrapnel. The position of women changed as well. As men went off to fight this left many jobs vacant so women moved in to fill the positions, especially in Britain, Germany, and Russia. Suffragette groups like the WSPU in Britain put aside their protests hoping that by getting behind the war effort this could bring about suffrage by showing women could do 'men's work'. Women were also instrumental in drumming up support for the war; young women gave white feathers to conscientious objectors in Britain to shame them for not enlisting. As wounded men returned this caused friction; public arguments were not uncommon when injured men were given feathers.

1917- Russia Leaves, America Enters

It is believed that in 1917 the Central Powers could have possibly won the war. France faced large scale mutinies with 554 being executed for doing so. Despite the biting blockade the Central Powers managed to lead a crushing offensive into north Italy, so bad did they fair against the Austrians and Germans at Caporetto that Italy implemented conscription. Russia also collapsed. Mass mutinies began and the cities starved; grain production had dropped and what was harvested was redirected to the army. In the end this led to the February Revolution, which you can read about here. The poor were starving and the wealthier were angered at the tsar's rule - everything from the poor management of the war, to the influence of Rasputin, to stalemate in the war. On March 8 (February 23 in Russia which used the old calendar) women waiting in lines in Petrograd for bread rations were handed leaflets by the left-wing Social Democrats. These leaflets read:

The government is guilty; it started the war and cannot end it. It is destroying the country and your starving is their fault. The capitalists are guilty; for their profit the war goes on. It's about time to tell them loud: Enough! Down with the criminal government and all its gang of thieves and murderers. Long live peace!

The women started protesting and soon industrial workers joined them. For several days the protests waged and the army joined the protesters leaving the tsar helpless. With little choice Nicholas II abdicated and on March 15 Russia was made a republic. However, the new Provisional Government was incredibly weak. It was heavily divided between the liberal Kadets wanting a more liberal version of the old tsarist system, royalists wanting a possible return of the tsar, and socialists wanting greater change. During the February Revolution workers' councils called soviets were formed and aided in the overthrow of the tsar, however, the Provisional Government had started to distance themselves from the soviets. It also lost great support for continuing the war having to resort to executing deserters and removing more grain from the cities. Wanting to further destabilise Russia, and fearing having to fight Russia and the US simultaneously, Germany smuggled revolutionary communist Vladimir Lenin from Switzerland. The Bolsheviks had opposed the war seeing it as a bourgeois war slaughtering the working classes. Lenin's April Theses criticising the February Revolution for neglecting the working class were widely distributed. Between April and July anti-war protests erupted in Petrograd which the Bolsheviks took part in with their slogan of 'Peace, Bread, Land', and the June protests were brutally crushed. In July the government's leader, Alexander Kerensky, asked general Lavr Kerensky to help keep order; instead he decided to crush left-wing protests and install himself in power. Kerensky released the imprisoned Bolsheviks to stop the coup. However, by this time the Bolsheviks' actions, and their ideas, had made them popular so on October 25 (of the Old Calendar) the Bolsheviks took over. Germany wanted to make sure that Russia left the war, however, Kaiser Wilhelm also wanted to carve up eastern Europe into client states. They also feared the Bolsheviks - Ludendorff was willing to use 50 divisions in 1918 to possibly fight the Bolsheviks and restore the Romanovs. If the Bolsheviks had rejected their demands at Brest-Litovsk Germany and Austria-Hungary were more than willing to invade. In March 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk handing over large areas of land to Germany and Austria as the former Russian Empire descended into civil war.

Lenin during the October Revolution

The Entente always hoped the US would intervene - America was rich and had resources. Britain ensured that a hyperbolic version of Germany's atrocities in Belgium reached American ears making them sympathetic to the Entente. However, support for intervening was low. The European blockades angered US business interests; Americans were unwilling to fight in a European conflict; Irish-Americans were hostile to aiding Britain who was subjugating Ireland; and the US had a large and influential German population. German-Americans were heavily divided on religious and political lines which did actually have an affect on their influence. The sinking of the Lusitania did anger Americans but it was not enough to tempt the US public, or president Woodrow Wilson, into intervening, only a few Americans wanted to intervene, like former president Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson was in favour of negotiating a peace deal which fell on deaf ears. Instead two other events influenced US entry. After the Battle of Jutland Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare - any ship going to the UK or France would be a target. Naturally, this angered the US as it threatened their economic interests. Secondly, the Zimmerman Telegram was leaked just as chancellor Theobald Bethmann was negotiating with the US over the submarine warfare. This was a telegram from Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the Mexican ambassador offering an alliance: if Mexico intervened in the war Germany would help Mexico retake Texas, Arizona and New Mexico which it lost to the US in 1848. I have seen this plan widely mocked but, as argued by David Stevenson, the US was scared of this plan. Although Mexico instantly rejected the plan as the US had repeatedly intervened during Mexico's revolutions and civil war, and had occupied many parts of the north, people feared that Mexico would eagerly seek revenge. Bearing in mind for three years they had been receiving Entente propaganda about the German military. Also, it was believed that Zimmerman hoped to use Mexico to get Japan to swap sides which would threaten US possessions in Asia and the Pacific. These two events combined generated enough support for the US to enter the war.

The Central Powers Collapse

After the hubris of knocking out the Russians the Central Powers hoped to defeat the remaining powers before the US could formally enter the war with its resources. In March 1918 Germany began the Ludendorff Offensive which Stevenson argues resulted in the early defeat of the Central Powers - if it had not happened the war could have possibly lasted another year or ended in a stalemate. Using the divisions freed from the Eastern front Ludendorff hoped to push through Allied lines, flank the British at the Somme, trap Britain's continental army, and leave France exposed. Similarly to what happened with the Blitzkrieg campaign of the Second World War German stormtroopers managed to make great gains at the expense of securing their supply lines. Soon enough the stormtroopers ran low on supplies with heavy casualties all for land of little value and hard to defend by April. In Italy the Austrians failed to break Italian lines and their navy was destroyed in November by the Italian navy. Austria-Hungary was being torn apart. Karl's reforms had done nothing to abate nationalist demands and in January Hungary started implementing policies granting it further autonomy, so much so that Hungary almost became an independent state. Hungary even started demanding its own army. The Ottomans also saw their empire collapse. The major port city of Aqaba was captured by Husayn's forces allowing increased British aid. His son, Faysal, aimed at neutralising supply lines and communications instead of pitched battles which allowed the Arab forces to slowly strangle Ottoman lines. On October 1 1918 Faysal and Lawrence marched into Damascus sealing the Ottoman's fate. 

A tank from the Battle of Amiens

As the US entered the war with their resources the German war effort collapsed. A paper called Hunger wrote: 'The moral sense was in many cases deadened by the animal fight for existence. The feelings of physical pain, hunger, and thirst, physical exhaustion and enervation, dominated nearly all sensations, and often influenced desire and action.'  The US brought its racial issue with it: African-Americans had to fight with French colonial troops. Similarly to what happened in Europe the US arrested anti-war protesters, such as the socialist Eugene V. Debs. Beginning with the Battle of Amiens in April the Entente began the 100 Days Offensive to push back the Central Powers using 400 tanks and 120,000 troops. At the end of October sailors at Kiel mutinied causing the kaiser to dismiss Ludendorff. Shortly after the German government sent peace overtures to Wilson hoping his influence would dampen the harshness of a French or British peace. He wanted Germany to be a constitutional monarchy along British lines, instead a republic was declared. Several armistices were declared, Bulgaria was the first quickly followed by the Ottomans. At 11 am on November 11 Germany signed an armistice bringing an end to the fighting.

The train where the armistice was signed

Aftermath

Germany was torn apart by uprisings that were put down through various means - the earlier mentioned Rosa Luxemburg was murdered by the far-right militia the Freikorps, with the aid of the new government, for leading the Marxist influenced Spartacist Uprising. Several peace treaties were created - the Treaty of Versailles being the most famous. Austria-Hungary was divided and a reactionary government under former admiral Horthy took power in Hungary after a socialist uprising was crushed. Today right-wing Hungarians demand the return of former land. The Russian Civil War tore apart the state until 1921, and the Entente even sent troops to fight the Bolsheviks. Arabic lands, to Arabist dismay, was divided between Husayn, Britain and France, and Anatolia was occupied. That is until a military commander Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led a revolt driving out the occupying powers and forming Turkey. People around the world were affected by the war's aftermath. Returning soldiers faced widespread unemployment and economic downturn, as well as disease. The 'Spanish flu' epidemic devastated the planet's population and killed more people than the war itself. In Britain and Germany, and technically the US, the war allowed the expansion of the electorate to include women for their involvement in the war effort. However, this wasn't expanded to the colonies. Despite fighting for the empire Indians were disappointed as they were still barred from ruling themselves - in 1919 Indian nationalists were massacred by British troops. Across the world we hear of the 'lost generation'. Almost every family lost a son or husband - the British aristocracy was badly affected by this which caused the decline of their power in post-war politics - leaving a sense of lost potential. The classic All Quiet on the Western Front perfectly shows this view, and J.R.R. Tolkein's anti-industrial views in The Lord of the Rings was inspired by his trauma fighting in the Somme. This view was not universally shared - it took until the Putin government for the war to be commemorated in Russia and France remembers the war quite positively as it was seen as finally repaying Germany for 1871.

William Orpen's famous painting of those who signed the Treaty of Versailles

Woodrow Wilson hoped to restructure the world, only for it to fail. The League of Nations was formed at his request to mediate global issues, but the US Congress blocked US entry fearing it would replace the Constitution. Japan was angered as well. It had pushed for a racial equality clause as Wilson had called for 'freedom for peoples'. This freedom was only for whites as France and Britain feared that it would threaten their colonies; Wilson was very racist (he played a movie glorifying the KKK in the White House) so feared this clause would allow the League to intervene in the USA's treatment of African-Americans. Japan was also angered by how it was not allowed to keep all of the colonies seized from Germany; this and economic downturn caused large riots in 1919. The Treaty of Versailles in 1919, formally creating peace with Germany, also caused issues. Thanks to German propaganda, and as Germany still occupied foreign lands, the German people had thought that Germany was close to winning the war. It wasn't helped by Hindenburg and Ludendorff declaring that democratic parties had 'betrayed' the German people - the politicians were given the nickname the 'November Criminals'. Germany was also forced to accept a clause stating that it had started the war; it lost its colonies to Britain, France, Belgium, and Japan; lost control of the industrial Rhineland; and had to pay reparations 112 billion marks (US$26.3 billion). Doing show destroyed the German economy, and they only paid it fully back in 2010. A destroyed economy, national shame, weak political system, and unpopular politicians allowed Adolf Hitler to utilise these resentments, with added antisemitism and racism, in order to rise to power. Hitler did use his veteran credentials and links to Ludendorff to rise as well.

Conclusion

100 years on and the First World War still offers a trauma for those who fought. The poppy, which grew on the Somme following the battle, has become a symbol of remembrance. Former RAF pilot, author, and social activist Harry Leslie Smith recently wrote: 'Instead of wearing a poppy for #Remembrance2018 we should wear our shame because as a human race we've learned nothing since 1918.' Despite the bloodshed the world went through during the First World War we continued to fight and kill. Hardly twenty years after 1918 the world was plunged into another destructive world war. Since the massacres of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks in 1915 we have seen other genocides with the Holocaust, the Balkans, Rwanda, and Yemen to unfortunately name a few. The First World War should have been an ugly and final blot on human history; instead it was just the first of the contemporary world.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-David Stevenson, 1914-1918: The History of the First World War, (London: Penguin, 2004)

-Martin Gilbert, First World War, (London: Harper Collins, 1995)

-Gordon Craig, Germany, 1866-1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978)

-William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Sixth Edition, (Boulder: Westview Press, 2016)

-Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes, 1914-1991, (London: Abacus, 1994)

Thank you for reading. If I have omitted anything please let me know. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.