World History: The Industrial Revolution

Today on World History we're looking at perhaps the most important event in human history, and possibly was most vital in creating the world we live in today: the Industrial Revolution. Eric Hobsbawm characterises the Industrial Revolution with the French Revolution as the 'Dual Revolutions' which would shape the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Thanks to this a series of very important words were coined, or adapted, to describe the new world including: industry, industrialist, factory, middle class, working class, capitalism, socialism, aristocracy, scientist, engineer, proletariat, utilitarian, statistics, sociology, ideology, and journalism. Quoting Hobsbawm 'To imagine the modern world without these words...is to measure the profundity of the revolution which broke out between 1789 and 1848, and forms the greatest transformation in human history since the remote times when men invented agriculture and metallurgy, writing, the city and the state.' Within a century areas of the world became primarily urban over rural, and the world's environment physically changed. The Industrial Revolution is seen as starting in Britain but there is a big question: why?

Why Britain?

Someone in the eighteenth century would not imagine that the Industrial Revolution would begin in Britain. China had a long history of steel and coal mining, canal construction and even paper money; India's economy had a thriving cotton industry; and (as identified by Hobsbawm) both France and the German lands had a longer history of scientific and economic institutions, like the Ecole Polytechnique in France or the Bergakademie in Prussia. Rhinelanders in the 1300s had learnt to smelt iron and blast furnaces had been used since 1600. Hobsbawm argued that industrialisation didn't require advanced physics to happen - James Watt's steam engine had used knowledge of physics that had been known for a century, and its relatively simplistic operation means that it is still used today.  There has been a contentious debate about the origins of industrialisation in Britain which in the past included a misreading of the Asian economies, or the argument that something was 'unique' to Britain - 1905 Max Weber, one of the 'founders', of sociology argued that a 'Protestant work ethic' led to industrialising. However, this doesn't explain why it can be seen as starting in Britain and not Saxony or Prussia. Pat Hudson described it best, you cannot pick one factor as to why industrialisation began in Britain. A mix of reasons have been put forward and historians generally agree that a mixture of these allowed the emergence of industrialisation ranging from British laws and economics to empire to geographic luck. 

David Landes has identified two key factors enabling industrialisation in Britain: a favourable environment and resources. The resources is key; Britain had mines full of steel and especially coal in Wales, Scotland and northern England, including where I am from, Yorkshire. Importantly, the coal was close to the surface which made it accessible. Furthermore, Britain had many navigable rivers and, naturally being an island, a coast which allowed efficient movement of resources before the emergence of railways. His environmental arguments are heavily Eurocentric, however, but they do partially explain how industrialisation emerged. An absence of tolls, relative domestic stability, a relatively liberal market economy encouraging property rights, and laws allowing the quick emergence of companies helped influence rapid industrialisation. Hobsbawm and Hudson have also stressed Britain's colonial empire as influencing industry. A slave based economy in the Caribbean funnelled riches back to an elite in Britain who could then invest it, and the Caribbean accounted for 12% of English output between 1748 and 1776 alone. Demands of the Caribbean encouraged greater production. Hobsbawm focuses particularly on the British in India, and Stephen Broadberry and Bishnupriya Gupta have also focused on India. In the early 1700s Indian produced most of the world's textiles and had a vibrant export economy. Indian cotton production dwarfed the British production in Lancashire so to compete Britain needed to produce more, however, Indian wages were a fraction of what British wages were. In 1725 a labourer in London could earn a wage worth around 11 grams of silver per day compared to Delhi who earned barely 2 grams a day. Why Britain had such high wages is heavily contested, but the reason why it is important to bring it up is because normally if you wanted to increase productivity you hired more people. However, that would mean paying more high wages so new ways to increase productivity were needed. Although there are stories of East Indian Company officials breaking the thumbs of Bengali textile workers to break the Indian cotton industry - the story itself is likely a myth or mistranslation but Britain did 'deindustrialise' India to prevent Indian competition with British textiles. Finally, Hobsbawm places emphasis on the Enclosure Acts (1760-1830). Marx, and Hobsbawm as a Marxist, viewed the Enclosure Acts as being the birth of modern capitalism. Previously, unlike on the continent most of English land was communal or was 'common' where anyone could use it. The Enclosure Acts allowed individuals to buy this common, and largely unproductive, land which forced peasants to move from said land. As a result, this made a supply of labour readily available in new industries - especially cotton.

The Rise of Industrialisation

A spinning jenny

The exact origins of industrialisation in Britain are just as heavily debated as their origins. J.M. Roberts descried it best saying 'The men of the 'Industrial Revolution'...stood on the shoulders of innumerable craftsmen and artificers of pre-industrial times who had slowly built up skills and experience for the future.' However, the general consensus was that it took until after the Napoleonic Wars for industry to make a truly 'revolutionary' impact on society and economics. Weaving is a key industry which spearheaded the emergence of industrialisation - wages were relatively high and weavers, both men and women, could do it at home. Most of Britain's textile industry was in the North, especially in Lancashire. Albeit it was exhaustive and reliant on urine to bleach fabrics - that is until the creation of the flying shuttle in 1733 by John Kay. Previously four spinners were needed to use one weaver, now they only needed one. The flying shuttle allowed the creation of 'spinning jenny' (jenny being an abbreviation of engine) by James Hargreaves in 1764. By this time the East India Company now started ruling land in India allowing England to import a lot more cotton (1,755,580 kg in 1764 alone) so Hargreaves created the jenny to produce eight to twelve spools - later improvements allowed the jenny to produce up to 120 spools! It was so productive that other cotton manufacturers soon copied Hargreaves' design so he sued them - this would be a common trend throughout industrial history. By the time he died in 1776 over 20,000 spinning jennys were in operation across Britain. However, the yarn produced was fairly thin so in 1767 Richard Arkwright's water frame was invented to produce thicker yarn, and resulted in the rise of the factory as we would recognise it. The water frame needed water to work so naturally could only work in one area; factories had existed for a long time and in the early 1700s served as a way to keep workers together. Now factories served to house machines, and keep workers in one place. In the 1770s Samuel Crompton's spinning mule and Edmund Cartwright's power loom mechanised weaving - now thousands of pounds of cotton could be woven by only a few individuals. At its height Lancashire had over 50,000,000 spinning mules.

A drawing of Stephenson's Rocket

How were these mechanised looms powered? Water and rivers were a clear power source -watermills had been existence since ancient times across the world so why change a perfected system? However, not everywhere was next to a water source so different methods were needed. Thus, the steam engine came about. Linking to another aspect of the early industrialisation Thomas Newcomen in 1712 developed the steam engine, although steam engines had existed in some form long before then, in order to pump water from mines to access more coal, and sulphur. It formed a cycle - coal was burned to produce steam which powered the steam engine which was used to drain mines to access more coal. In 1776 Scottish engineer James Watt, whom the watt is named after, improved upon Newcomen's engine making it more efficient (although his first engine was huge being over 24 foot tall and had a danger of exploding) and we haven't really changed his design. Watt's steam engine has really been re-adapted over the next two centuries and we still use the design in everything from nuclear power to industrial boilers. Iron, especially cast iron, was always needed and slowly regions were adopting coke instead of charcoal in smelters, but to do so they needed more coal. A cycle was created: iron was needed so coal was mined which needed steam engines, which also needed coal, and to make steam engines one needed coal. Soon enough they all came together to create transport: Robert Trevithick in 1804 managed to create the first steam locomotive, ironically to move iron from the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. In 1825 George Stephenson created the first railway for passengers, and the Liverpool-Manchester railway was opened in 1830. The US also innovated: as early as 1807 Robert Fulton (who also made the first submarine) managed to combine boats and steam to traverse the Hudson. Two years later the first steamboat went to sea. The Age of Steam had started to arrive.

Industrialisation Across the World

So far we have just discussed Britain but industrialisation happened across the world and continues to do so today. Europe used the colonised world as a way to get resources so prevented any large-scale attempts to industrialise these regions until after the Second World War. We'll discuss a few different regions now as most areas tried to industrialise in some way. Quite a few places, though, did bring in British engineers to help their industrialisation. 

Belgium

Belgium was the first state on the continent to start industrialising - it even started before its independence. By 1873 Belgium produced half as much iron as France and in 1850 consumed a lot more; in 1850 it consumed 90 pounds per inhabitant compared to 56 pounds in the US, 37 pounds in France, and 27 in Germany. Wallonia, the French-speaking south, had similar conditions to northern England, Wales, and Scotland - rich deposits of coal away from the traditional mercantile wealthy areas. Belgium did in twenty years what took Britain sixty: centres of industry like Liege, Seriang, and Charleroi produced tonnes of iron, zinc, coal, glass, and wool. Liege soon surpassed historic Ghent as Belgium's wealthy wool hotspot. It is not an exaggeration to say for its size and population Belgium became a leading industrial power, and the establishment of the Belgian Congo allowed the metropole to exploit the raw materials of the Congo in some of the most brutal example of colonialism in Africa. Wallonia quickly developed a vibrant trade union and socialist movement, so much so that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto in Brussels.

Germany

A painting of the town of Barmen in the 1870s

Industrialisation was not even in Germany as it was not a unified state until 1871. Industrialisation was strongest in the coal and iron rich Ruhr - by 1870 there were towns of over 1 million inhabitants. However, industrialisation was difficult - the three dozen entities all had different laws and policies, many states were hostile to urbanisation, and the power of junkers (landed aristocracy) in Prussia meant they were hostile to anything which would diminish their power. Industrialisation happened anyway. Reorganisation of agriculture allowed excess food production causing migration to the cities, the Zollverein economic union removed economic tariffs between the German states, the north (and Ruhr) had many available raw resources, the banks were powerful so could invest, and railways were soon linked to security. Under Otto von Bismarck the state even intervened to aid industrialisation and soon Germany became a major steel producer. Quickly coal production boomed - Ruhr coal output rose from 2.0 million short tons in 1850 to 22 in 1880 to 60 in 1900. It has been joked that Prussia, the state which largely unified Germany, was 'an army with a state' so naturally industries benefiting the army - like railways, shipping, and munitions - received favourable treatment. A big reason why Prussia was victorious over Austria in 1866 was because Prussia had an overwhelming industrial (and economic) advantage over Austria. 

The US

Building the Erie Canal

In the US industrialisation was heavily tied with the emergence of the market economy. In 1800 over 90% of Americans were rural whereas today this figure is the exact opposite. As Americans moved across the Appalachians they became increasingly isolated and were entirely reliant on their local communities. From 1800 to 1830 New England and North Atlantic states chartered more than 900 companies to build roads, and in 1806 Congress authorised the paving of a National Road from Maryland to the Old Northwest. Then Fulton managed to create the steamboat which revolutionised travel in the US. Now someone could travel from New Orleans to Pittsburg in a fraction of the time, and in 1825 the Erie Canal was completed connecting the Great Lakes to New York. Between 1787 and 1860 the central government spent around $60 million building canals, roads and harbours as individual states spent even more. The US would remain localised until after the Civil War but already communities were becoming increasingly less isolated. In 1844 Samuel Morse developed the telegraph which allowed messages to travel across an entire continent in minutes - within sixteen years 50,000 miles of telegraph lines were planted. In 1828 the first national railway was built between Baltimore and Ohio which would allow the US to truly be connected. By 1860 the railways covered 30,000 miles, more than the rest of the world. However, these railways, telegraphs, and industry were largely located in the North giving them an immense strategic advantage during the Civil War. There was also a dark side to American industry (some of which we'll discuss later). By the 1790s slavery was on its last legs in the South; it could not compete with foreign cotton production and tobacco farming had decimated the soil. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which efficiently separated the seed from the cotton. It was now possible to efficiently grow cotton on a large scale which unfortunately saved slavery. The US even briefly reopened the Atlantic slave trade to accommodate an expansion in slavery and Native Americans were forced from their land in the South to make more land open to slavery. Similarly, railways allowed westward expansion which caused the displacement and genocide of Native Americans in the West.

Japan

Japan is an amazing case. In a decade Japan went from a society which has been described as feudal to an industrialised one. Since the early 1600s Japan had isolated itself from the European world but it faced a crisis when the US arrived and showed their strength against samurai armed with 200-year old muskets. How could Japan be so humiliated by this new state? In 1868 a group of young samurai overthrew the government in the name of the emperor in the 'Meiji Restoration'. The new leaders of Japan wanted to ensure that their state would not face the same fate as China - torn apart by rebels and foreign powers. Industrialisation was part of that, and they wanted to avoid what was happening in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire (which we'll get to). In 1871 Japanese officials were sent to the US and Europe in the Iwakura Mission to observe what was happening and learn how to utilise European sciences. The new Meiji leaders rejected foreign loans only taking one - to build an eighteen-mile railway line between Tokyo and Yokohama. By 1877 64 miles of railway had been constructed. Like the US Japan was eager to construct telegraph poles so by 1877 2,827 miles had been constructed. That same year a rebellion broke out, the Satsuma Rebellion, which rejected the Meiji reforms - like the US Civil War they were roundly defeated as the Meiji leaders could better organise thanks to railways and telegraphs. Of course, textiles were quickly became industrialised and capitalism emerged. 

Egypt and the Ottomans

The Suez Canal

From 1839 the Ottoman Empire, and the semi-independent Egypt, had tried to Westernise after seeing their humiliation during the Napoleonic invasion. Part of this was an attempt to industrialise. Across the Empire and Egypt schools based on French models were opened as well as small scale factories. These were especially prevalent in Egypt which had an extensive cotton economy - during the US Civil War Britain turned to Egypt for cotton and exports rose from 918,000 sterling in the 1850s to just over 10 million sterling a decade later. Egypt's crowning achievement, however, was the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. Both looked to Japan as how to quickly Westernise, but Japan looked to them to see how not to Westernise. Egypt and the Ottomans were heavily reliant on foreign loans for their projects which resulted in giving over many key assets to Europeans. Extra-territoriality became common, and British and France used their loans to even take land from the Ottomans. As Britain comprised 80% of ship traffic through the Suez Canal in 1880 they were very keen to exert influence over Egypt - a revolt in 1881 gave Britain the excuse to invade and turn Egypt into a de facto member of the Empire.

The Second Revolution

Historians see the Industrial Revolution being split into two with a second starting in the second half of the nineteenth century - Hobsbawm characterises this as the 'Age of Capital'. What we often think of when we think of the Industrial Revolution comes from the Second Revolution. Steel has been seen as the industry which kicked off the Second Revolution; the development of hotter and more efficient furnaces in the 1850s and 1860s allowed greater quantities of steel to be produced from molten pig-iron like never before. The influence of early capitalism is disputed with the First Revolution but it cannot be denied in the Second. The Krupp family in Germany made a fortune from steel and coal production; the first US giant industrial companies like US Steel emerged; and Japanese zaibatsu (business conglomerates) dominated the political scene. The stock exchange now touched every aspect of everyday life so when a crash happened - like in 1890 - it could destroy the world economy. Oil tycoon John Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire in 1916. Many of the later industrialised countries, like Germany and Japan, did so as part of the Second Revolution. States were even willing to take part - Japan, Germany, Russia and even China saw state-sponsored industrial policies. Chemical and petroleum became the new dominant industries - Rockefeller became a millionaire thanks to oil. This Second Revolution became entwined with Empire. Africa's raw resources were one reason why Europe greedily carved up the continent and Britain formed what would become BP to monopolise Iranian oil. 

Industry and Society

Industry changed society more than any other movement since the development of agriculture. A general trend to urbanise is a common theme throughout world history but it skyrocketed thanks to industrialisation. In 1800 London, Paris and Berlin had populations of 900,000, 600,000, and 170,000 but by 1900 their populations rose to 4.7 million, 3.6 million, and 2.7 million. The same year Glasgow, Moscow, Vienna, and St. Petersburg also had populations exceeding a million. Industrial areas like the Ruhr in Germany or my own home of Yorkshire in England developed significant urban populations. In the cities a new urban class emerged - the working class. We still see the legacies of class divisions to this day. Workers from the Netherlands brought a nursery rhyme to my home town of Doncaster in the 1970s and the nursery rhyme resonated with the locals so much that it is taught in Yorkshire nurseries today:

Wind the bobbin up, Wind the bobbin up/Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap/ Wind it back again, Wind it back again/ Pull, pull, clap, clap, clap/ Point to the ceiling, point to the door/Point to the window, point to the door

Increasing efficiency in food production, the development of medicines, and fertilisers allowed life expectancy to increase although urban conditions, especially from the 1860s limited their potential. Industrialisation wasn't always well received. Luddism, a 'quasi-insurrectionary' movement according to E.P. Thompson, is an interesting example. Thanks to the Napoleonic Wars production needed to be increased which brought more mechanisation upsetting labourers - their jobs were now at stake. In Nottingham in northern England in 1811 industrial weavers were destroyed and the movement spread across Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. Those attacking machines and burning mills were nicknamed Luddites, believed to be named after Ned Ludd who attacked two machines in a rage in 1799. This fear of being replaced by automation was not limited to this period, there would be the Swing Riots in the 1830s, or Britain and it really continues today. There was also opposition to industrialisation from elites. The emergence of an urban, industrial class threatened the authority of the landed elite and conservatives - in Japan several leaders opposed capitalism as it was believed to undermine 'Confucian values'. 

Children were regularly used in factories as labourers

Gender and the family was changed during industrialisation. Child labour was common across the industrialised world and in the mills of London children were expected to work with dangerous machines. It was not uncommon for children, or their parents, to be missing fingers or even limbs thanks to volatile machinery. The first child protection societies emerged to campaign against children working in these factories. Women also took part in manual labour despite the enduring stereotype that factory work was 'man's work'. Wages were low and families needed as money as they could. Of course, women's role in the working class shifted over time, place, class, and ethnicity. A working class Italian woman in Chicago would not be out of place in a factory but a married Japanese woman in Tokyo would be. It was common in Japan for society to expect a woman to leave manual labour when they married. In 1882 women were three-quarters of workers in textile factories so they were integral to the textile industry, but often they have been portrayed as submissive. Women could resist bad work conditions through various ways ranging from running away, 63-67% of mill hands in Kanebo between 1905 and 1915 did so, to work stoppages and strikes, and even singing. One song has the lyrics: The owner and I are like spinning machine thread/ Easily tied, but easily broken.

Capitalism and Socialism

I won't go into too much detail about this as I plan to do an entire World History post about capitalism and socialism. Modern ideas about capitalism and socialism emerged thanks to the Industrial Revolution - Hobsbawm sees the rise of capitalism as being tied to industrialisation. Previously, the non-aristocratic wealth owners in Europe and Asia had been merchants but the emergence of the factory allowed the industrialist to become the wealth owner. Vast concentrations of wealth in one factory now could allow an owner to become far wealthier than any merchant. As we saw in Japan capitalism directly threatened the old order - now individuals with no relation to traditional landed elite could hold power. Britain is a prime example of this clash. Several reform acts had to be passed to reflect the growth of cities like Manchester and Glasgow who had fewer seats in parliament compared to several rural areas with populations of less than five. British capitalists were also in favour of free trade which came to blows with its opponents with the Corn Laws - these laws were designed to protect British corn by imposing tariffs on foreign imports of corn and largely benefited the traditional landed elite. Even when the Irish Potato Famine killed a million, and it was clear that foreign grain was needed fast, parliament dragged its feet in repealing the Corn Laws. 

Marx and Engels: The 'Fathers of Communism'

Modern socialism emerged as a criticism of capitalism. Conditions in cities and factories were appalling everywhere - ghettos allowed the spread of disease, to save money factory owners would skip safety procedures and dock wages, and urban poverty was widespread as factory owners earned millions. Not all pro-worker movements, like the Chartists in Britain, were socialist and some socialists even rejected the new urban world, like Charles Fourier. Particularly in France socialists like Pierre-Joseph Proudhon started advocating that workers were the real producers, not the industrialists, and should therefore own the means of production. The most important figures to emerge from this thought are Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - the 'Fathers' of Communism. Marx was the son of a converted Jewish family who worked as a journalist as Engels was the son of a factory owner in Manchester. When it was the anniversary of Marx's 200th birthday I discussed their ideas, which you can read about here, so I will summarise them. Like Proudhon, they believed that workers were the true wealth producers being exploited by the capitalists and should rise up to eventually form a classless, moneyless society. Over the years their ideas have inspired others, like Rosa Luxembourg and Vladimir Lenin, and also been challenged by other members of the Left, such as by anarchist thinkers. The clashes between capitalists, socialists and aristocrats would come together in the Revolutions of 1848 - a topic for another day.

Criticisms of an Industrial World

Orphan Oliver and the workhouse in Dickens' Oliver Twist

There has always been an urban-rural divide, and this shall be seen when we look at the 1848 Revolutions. The poor living conditions instantly generated criticisms from a wide range of figures ranging from revolutionary socialists to Christian evangelists (and sometimes there were Christian socialist evangelists). Modern charity emerged as poor relief for the urban working class and the Salvation Army was formed in 1865 to 'save' London's working class. The city was seen as a corrupting influence - it is no mistake that most American prohibition groups targeted the city as a place where alcoholism corrupted. Women had their agency stripped from them in popular rhetoric; they were reduced to caricatures of the seductive prostitute luring 'good' men into sin, or innocent and pure figures being ruthlessly exploited and abused. Romanticism emerged looking back to an idealised pre-urban past. In Japan the rural samurai and peasant were restructured to represent the ideal Japanese lifestyle, and European writers tried to show the horrors of the present. The orphan Oliver is abused and cast out into the cold streets of London in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (1839), and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) showed the horrors of what modern science could bring. These ideas had long lasting ramifications. J.R.R. Tolkein blamed the horrors of the First World War on industrialisation and it is reflected in The Lord of the Rings: the hellish and industrial Isengard and Mordor releases its corrupted armies threatening the ideal rural Shire. When we looked at the Little Ice Age we looked at how global temperatures rose in the 1800s ending the Ice Age - it rose thanks to humans, not natural means. The Industrial Revolution's immense release of carbon dioxide and monoxide into the atmosphere which warmed global temperatures and unfortunately that trend has sped up. The Revolution brought humanity into modernity, but it also killed the environment.

Conclusion

The Industrial Revolution is undoubtedly the most important event in history since the adoption of farming. Now, most of humanity lives in cities and the reason why you can read this is because of the Revolution. Modern economies, politics, and societies emerged thanks to the Industrial Revolution. However, it set in motion the factory system which harmed millions up to this day - sweat shops differ very little to the factories of the 1860s. The pollution created by industrialisation has continued and increased, and world leaders are reluctant to act. Industrialisation brought us our current lifestyles but it might kill us. From the air we breathe to how to travel and how we eat the Industrial Revolution has shaped it all - for better or for worse industrialisation has touched us all.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-J.M. Roberts, The New Penguin History of the World, Fifth Edition, (London: 2007, Penguin)

-Pat Hudson, The Industrial Revolution, (London: Edward Arnold, 1992)

-Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution, 1789-1848, (London: Abacus, 1962)

-Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875, (London: Abacus, 1975)

-David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present, Second Edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

-Stephen Broadberry and Bishnupriya Gupta, 'Cotton Textiles and the Great Divergence: Lancashire, India, and Shifting Competitive Advantage, 1600-1850', IDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc, (2005), 1-44

-E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, (London: Penguin, 1963)

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

-Marius Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002)

-E. Patricia Tsurumi, 'Female Textile Workers and the Failure of Early Trade Unionism in Japan', History Workshop, 18, (1984), 3-27

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

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. Next World History we will look at the revolutions which swept Latin America bringing independence and look if they were really revolutionary. For other World History posts please see our list, and for future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

The Lives of Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack Kirby

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko

On November 12 2018 Stan Lee tragically passed away at the age of 95. Earlier this year fellow Marvel artist Steve Ditko tragically passed and last year would have been Jack Kirby's one-hundredth birthday if he had not passed in 1994. Lee, Kirby, and Ditko were some of the biggest driving forces in the comic book industry and Marvel as a whole - you could describe them as possibly being 'Marvel's Trifecta'. This is not to diminish the others who made Marvel what it is today - John Romita Sr. and Larry Lieber are just two of the many artists and writers who contributed to Marvel's rise. Today we'll honour the three and look at how they got into writing comics, and how they greatly shaped popular culture, not just comics.

Origins

Marvel existed before Lee, Kirby, and Ditko came along - in fact it existed before it was even called Marvel. A while ago we discussed Marvel's origins which you can read about here. Jack Kirby, born Jacob Kurtzberg, had been in the comic book industry since 1936 before he joined Marvel's predecessor Timely with artist Joe Simon. Kirby, as a side note, also worked as an assistant animator for Popeye cartoons. The duo immediately jumped into Timely writing several comics which would set up the later comics in the 1960s; Marvel Mystery Comics #13 written by the duo introduced the first character named Vision, however, this character later inspired Roy Thomas and John Buscema who made the Vision we all now. Most importantly, in March 1941 the two created the most important character in Marvel's history - Captain America. Captain America Comics #1 proudly displays Captain America suckerpunching Hitler in one of the most iconic comic book covers of all time. This was even before the US entered the war; both Simon and Kirby was Jewish (due to antisemitism Jack had to write under the name Kirby instead of Kurtzberg) so were naturally very scared of the Nazis. Simon and Kirby would leave Timely after ten issues of Captain America Comics as the publisher of Timely, Martin Goodman, would only pay them $75 a week instead of a combined $500 which they wanted. Before they left they did get a sidekick. An aspiring young writer born in 1922 who wanted to write the 'Great American Novel' happened to be the cousin of Goodman's wife Jean. In 1940 the eighteen year old Stanley Lieber was hired as an assistant. His roles were fairly basic saying in 2009 'In those days [the artists] dipped the pen in ink, [so] I had to make sure the inkwells were filled. I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them'. Lieber even managed to write his first comic under Simon's and Kirby's tutelage, Captain America Comics #3. As he wanted to become a novelist he feared that writing comics would damage his image with publishers, so he invented a pseudonym: Stan Lee.

Lee and Kirby in 1966

Simon and Kirby went to work for National Comics, the company which would soon become DC, and their work soon became well renowned. In 2010 a DC executive said 'Like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster [the creators of Superman], the creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby was a mark of quality and a proven track record'. Back with Timely now that Goodman lost two of the greatest comic writers he was left without an editor so made the young Stanley a temporary editor. This turned out to be short lived. The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the Second World War and in 1942 Stan Lee enlisted so Vince Fago became Timely's editor-in-chief. Kirby was also drafted in 1943 where the lieutenant placed him charge of reconnaissance and mapping enemy lines due to his career as an artist. As Kirby fought at Omaha Lee was drafted into the Signal Corps repairing communications equipment and telegraph poles. After the war Lee returned to Timely and before Kirby rejoined he would hire several key individuals who would later shape Marvel - such as Gene Colan and later Steve Ditko. Kirby, with Simon until the late-1950s, flit around working for different companies, even launching their own (Mainline Publications) in 1956. Kirby would continue to resent Timely (now called Atlas) as Goodman was still in charge. When Atlas created a new Captain America in 1954 to battle communism, bearing in mind this was during the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, the duo decided to get their own back. Simon said that 'We thought we'd show them how to do Captain America' in their new comic Fighting America. Only the first issue really took part in the Red-baiting of the 1950s - the duo soon felt uncomfortable so turned it into a comedy as well as a satire of Atlas' Captain America and McCarthyism. Kirby would even write for Archie Comics occasionally. 

Over at DC Julius Schwartz had revived the superhero genre. Throughout the post-war period comic companies focused primarily on Westerns and romances; briefly horror comics dominated the scene but were soon destroyed by the Comics Code of Authority which you can read about here. The only superhero comics to really survive this period were some of the massive DC ones including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. As the Space Race began Schwartz revived superhero comics by bringing back old characters and giving them science-fiction origins; among those to be brought back included the Flash and Green Lantern. Soon enough, Marvel would come onto the scene.

Steve Ditko

So far we've only discussed two of the Trifecta - where was Steve Ditko during this time? It's surprising how Ditko often gets forgotten. He didn't have the large personalities of Lee and Kirby, had radically different politics to them (he was an ardent supporter of Objectivism), and he shied away from interviews saying that his writing was all that was needed. In 2007 the BBC produced a documentary hosted by Jonathan Ross called In Search of Steve Ditko where he refused to directly appear on it. As a result Ditko has unfortunately been swept under the rug. Ditko came from New York, like most of Marvel's staff, and became interested in comics by reading Batman and The Spirit in 1939. Enlisting in the army in 1945 he spent most of his career drawing comics for the army as he was stationed in Germany before being discharged. He soon fell on his feet - his idol and Batman artist Jerry Robinson was teaching at an Illustration school in New York so Ditko enlisted. As he wanted to impress his idol he worked hard and Robinson would later say that 'It was very intense.' Lee even visited the school and became impressed by Ditko's work. After graduating he managed to work under Simon and Kirby as well as several other companies, including Charlton Comics whom he would work for until the company collapsed in 1986. In 1954, during the horror craze, for Charlton he would draw his first comic cover with The Thing #12 depicting vampires attacking in a Gothic building. 

The Thing #12

In 1954 Ditko had to take a break from comics as he contracted tuberculosis but when he recovered he went to work for Atlas first creating Journey into Mystery #33 in 1956. Unlike the early 1960s he was a regular writer for Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, and Tales of Suspense. These comics were well-renowned for featuring out of the ordinary stories and visuals which Ditko would later continue when he created Doctor Strange. He also first started working with Kirby and Lee regularly; Kirby would draw a monster, and he would write a story with Lee. 

The Marvel Revolution

By 1960 DC's revival of superheroes had caused a pop culture craze so Atlas, now called Marvel, with Lee as editor-in-chief decided to bring their own spin on the genre. Traditionally, superheroes were flawless, gallant, and ideal characters; this has actually become a joke in the DC Universe where characters refer to Superman as 'the big, blue boy scout'. Lee's wife, Joan Boocock, played an influential role in creating the character traits of Marvel's heroes. Unlike their DC counterparts the Marvel heroes would be flawed: they could be bad-tempered, argue with their friends and family, have self-doubt, get ill, and had to deal with everyday problems. Marvel was also willing to engage in politics a lot more readily. X-Men is famous for being an allegory for the African-American civil rights, and with the global Cold War Marvel characters would often become involved in global events. It has been suggested that the Lee-Kirby run was the comics equivalent of the British Beatlemania. Comic historian Peter Sanderson wrote:

Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further.

Marvel introduced a new way of creating characters. Normally, Lee would throw an idea at a writer, normally Kirby, who would then turn that character into a comic. As a result some writers, like Ditko with Spider-Man, actually contributed more to a comic at times than Lee did. Below is a quite funny example of how this worked. During the 1990s comic writers had a habit of creating violent and dark comics but still aiming them at a young audience. As a result, quite a lot of unrelateable and over-the-top characters came into being. A few were made by Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld, although both made even more good characters, whom Stan Lee decided to mess around with in this video:

Marvel also created a very personal community. Many comics featured letters to Lee and Kirby, and 'Stan's Soapbox' became famous for Stan Lee commenting on and answering questions. These could be about a variety of topics ranging from the price of comics to discussions on people's favourite characters. In 1968 one featured a condemnation of bigotry in society:

Lee and Kirby in particular attracted a lot of attention. Calling fans 'True Believers' and signing off comments with the phrase 'Excelsior!' soon become synonymous with Lee, and Kirby earned the affectionate nickname of 'The King'. Lee and Kirby even appeared in the comics themselves, including the duo being turned away at the wedding of the Fantastic Four. Thanks to Ditko's quieter personality he featured less in the letters compared to other writers but Spider-Man fans did write to him. Through interesting comics and a connection to the creators Marvel soon dominated.

Creations

It is an understatement to say that the trio contributed a lot to popular culture. If you name a Marvel character there is quite a high chance that they were created, or co-created, by Lee, Kirby or Ditko. We'll look at a few of these characters now.

Fantastic Four

We cannot speak about Marvel without mentioning the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four placed Marvel on the map and set the stage for the rest of the Marvel Universe. Seeing the popularity of DC's Justice League Martin Goodman wanted Marvel to have its own superhero team. Inspired by Joan Lee and Kirby created the Fantastic Four. These new heroes didn't talk like normal superheroes and bickered like a real family, the Human Torch was even a hotheaded teenager (literally!). The Thing was far from the typical hero - he looked like a villain and spoke in a broad New York accent. You can tell there is a lot of Kirby in the Thing; they came from a similar background and the Thing's old street gang is clearly based off of Kirby's old gang. Unlike other heroes the Fantastic Four wouldn't even have a secret identity! Together they produced Fantastic Four #1 in November 1961. It was soon a hit. Fantastic Four would be Marvel's biggest comic in the 1960s and when Marvel wanted to introduce or promote a character they would appear in Fantastic Four. The 'Galactus Trilogy' spanning Fantastic Four #48-50 introducing the Silver Surfer and Galactus has been seen as one of the greatest stories in comic book history.

The Hulk

The Incredible Hulk #1 would have been unthinkable ten years earlier. How could a hulking monster fuelled by rage be a hero? The duo wanted to combine Cold War paranoia with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where a mild-mannered scientist unleashes his dark side thanks to experimental bombs instead of a potion. Lee and Kirby actually clashed during the making of the first comic. Kirby wanted the Hulk to be green while Lee wanted him to be grey - Kirby argued it was easier to keep the same shade of green across panels which they couldn't do at the time with grey. As Lee was editor-in-chief he won out and in the first issue the Hulk was grey; except, Kirby was proven right and he kept changing colour throughout the comic even turning green at one point. From the second issue the Hulk went through a second mutation turning him green.

Spider-Man

When he was younger Lee had enjoyed a pulp magazine called The Spider, Master of Men and that influenced him to want a character with spider powers. Breaking the mould again this character wasn't meant to be a strong, muscular figure like Superman or Batman, instead he was supposed to be small and meek. Kirby originally designed Spider-Man to be a strong character, so Lee instead went with Ditko. Ditko made Peter Parker to be a typical teenager - not very athletic, trying to find his way in the world, and fairly nervous. It hit gold and from his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 Spider-Man soon became one of the world's most influential comic character and the closing lines of the comic is a valuable life lesson. With great power there must also come - great responsibility! Soon, Spider-Man replaced the Hulk as Marvel's new big hero getting his own comic within a year. As the years have gone on we have found out that Ditko did most of the work with Spider-Man, and even decided to insert a joke about Stan Lee in the comics. Lee could be quite demanding so Ditko modelled the infamous J.Jonah Jameson after Lee! Eventually, Ditko got recognition for writing Spider-Man by #25. Thanks to Ditko we have most of the major Spider-Man villains including Dr Octopus, Vulture, Scorpion, and Green Goblin. Spider-Man is easily Marvel's most popular character and we can attribute this to Ditko.

Thor

Kirby wasn't good for Spider-Man but he was good for a different character. Lee had always loved Norse mythology and threw an idea at Kirby so he could focus on other comics. Kirby was joined by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's younger brother, who had already contributed greatly in creating Marvel characters. Kirby and Lieber had already worked together creating Iron Man, Ant Man, and the Wasp, so they could create fantastic stories together already. Lieber took a more hands-on approach compared to his brother writing full scripts for a comic which Kirby would draw around. They wanted a character stronger than Hulk and took notice of Lee's love for mythology: who was stronger than a mortal but a god? Thanks to Kirby's expert drawing and Lieber's writing we saw Thor appear in Tales Into Mystery #83. They changed the script again by making Thor a god banished to Earth who cannot remember his Norse origins until he lifted his hammer, Mjolnir.

X-Men

Within a couple years Marvel was selling so many comics that they could actually print more titles but Lee and Kirby hit an issue. It was difficult creating new origins: Spider-Man was bitten by a radioactive spider, the Hulk was hit by a bomb, Iron Man had been injured and had to fix himself, and the Fantastic Four were hit with cosmic rays. Then they thought: what if people were born with powers? They knew that one day humanity would evolve so they thought that maybe humanity could evolve to have superpowers. The duo also knew it was difficult for teenagers as they were finding their place in the world and going through puberty many felt like freaks and outcasts. This was also the same time as the Civil Rights movement. It all came together: humanity would evolve into a new species who get superpowers at puberty and face discrimination in society. This teenage super-team was originally going to feature in a comic called The Mutants but Goodman vetoed this idea believing kids wouldn't know what a mutant was. Instead they opted to name the comic The X-Men. Issue one combined fears over the recent Cuba Missile Crisis, teenage issues, and racial discrimination. Professor X even states in the comic 'When I was young, normal people feared me, distrusted me, I realized the human race is not yet ready to accept those with extra powers! So I decided to build a haven...A school for the X-Men.' 

Dr Strange

Strange was, strangely, always acknowledged as Ditko's creation. Ditko in 2008 said 'On my own, I brought in to Lee a five-page, penciled story with a page/panel script of my idea of a new, different kind of character for variety in Marvel Comics. My character wound up being named Dr. Strange because he would appear in Strange Tales.' Reflecting the psychedelic imagery of the 1960s Dr Strange would embrace the absurd and surreal featuring mind-blowing images straight from the far-reaches of Ditko's imagination. Some of Marvel's strangest and greatest images comes from Ditko's run writing Doctor Strange stories. Strange was a magician, and former surgeon, so Ditko used this to create the surreal imagery that we saw in the Marvel adaptation.

She-Hulk

So far we have only scratched the surface of the characters created by the trio - we haven't mentioned yet the Avengers, Black Panther (the first black hero), Dr Doom, and the return of the original Captain America. Instead we'll just look at Stan Lee's last big character that he created: She-Hulk. With the success of a Hulk TV series and The Bionic Woman Marvel executives feared that the TV series would introduce a female Hulk, and they wanted to make sure that they could keep the rights to a female Hulk. By this time Lee had stepped back from writing, and Kirby and Ditko had moved from Marvel, but he decided to help Marvel create a new character. Teaming up with John Buscema Lee wrote the first issue of Savage She-Hulk and because of that She-Hulk went on to be a major Marvel character. People were disappointed that Spider-Woman had nothing to do with Spider-Man so Lee made Jennifer Walters the cousin of the Hulk. A blood transfusion between cousins grants her the powers of the Hulk, but she could keep her mental state combining the strength of the Hulk with her own intelligence.

After the Revolution

By 1971 both Ditko and Kirby had left Marvel. There is controversy behind this. Due to Stan Lee's self-promotion he got virtually all the credit for creating the comics and other contributors were often cast to the sides. Also, it was Marvel, not the creators, who owned the characters - this creator/publisher clash continues to this day in the comic book industry. As a result, Lee got most of the credit, and money, for the comics, and not other creators. This especially angered Kirby who did a lot of the creative process. Ditko quietly left Marvel in 1966 due to creative clashes with Lee. Also, Ditko wanted to push objectivism more in comics which Lee was against. John Romita, who replaced Ditko as Spider-Man's artist, later said 'they disagreed on almost everything, cultural, social, historically, everything, they disagreed on characters'. Ditko would write all the way up to his retirement in 1998 for various companies ranging from DC - where he created Shade, the Changing Man and the Creeper - to Charlton - where he made his objectivist hero Mr A. My personal favourite comic writer, Alan Moore, would parody Mr A in Watchmen with Rorschach - Ditko later joked that Rorschach was 'Mr A but insane'. Kirby left in 1971 over clashes with Goodman, not being credited, and not controlling the rights to the characters. He went over to DC where he would create the New Gods, including Darkseid who soon became a major Superman and Justice League villain. He would return to Marvel in 1975 but would leave again a few years later over the same clashes. After, although he would always write comics he would return to his roots by doing animation - he even teamed up with Stan Lee to create The New Fantastic Four cartoon. Finally, Lee in 1972 would write his last full-time comics for Marvel and take a step back from the creative process with a few exceptions - such as creating She-Hulk and writing a Silver Surfer comic series in 1978 with Kirby. Lee would remain a figurehead and adviser for Marvel throughout the 1970s and 1980s, even briefly acting as president. In the 2000s Lee would help make a manga and even worked for DC writing a series called Just Imagine... where he wrote stories featuring his takes on DC characters - one example is Wonder Woman being an activist called Maria Mendoza granted powers by an Incan God. Of course, we also have his famous cameos across the Marvel movies leading to the theory that he is Uatu the Watcher.

In 1994 Kirby tragically passed away at his home in California thanks to heart failure. Steve Ditko passed away passed away in June 2018. Tragically, he lived alone and was only close to his nephew, and Marvel fans everywhere mourned for the man who brought the world Spider-Man. Stan Lee's mental and physical health had declined rapidly since the passing of Joan the year prior, and making matters worse there were allegations of elder abuse and Lee exposing himself. Suffering from pneumonia for several months Lee unfortunately passed on November 12 2018.

Legacies

Marvel's trio helped shape modern popular culture. The stories created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko touched the hearts of people across the world and influenced more stories. Alan Moore, John Romita Jr, and Alex Ross are just some in the comic book industry inspired by parts of the trio not even to mention those inspired outside of the industry. In 2010 I was diagnosed with depression and what got me through the self-harm and suicide attempts were comics, in particular Marvel comics. The comics created by Lee, Kirby, and Ditko offered the a way to escape and get me through it all; I may not be here without their stories. Marvel has touched the lives of so many people, and now three of the key figures involved in making those stories are gone. For Stan Lee and Jack Kirby may their memory be a blessing, and for Steve Ditko may he rest in peace.

Thank you for reading. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

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.