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.