Long Nineteenth Century1789-1914

Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991

• 1914-1945 "European Civil War"
• 1945-1991 Cold War/Prosperity

 What causes war?

How do wars start?

How are wars fought?

How do wars end?

A struggle for power?

Geo-politics: Europe and the World

WORLD WAR I

GERMANY

Bismarck

• No War on Two Fronts

WILLIAM II

• Weltpolitik

GREAT BRITAIN

The Scramble for Africa

Naval Arms Race

• Dreadnoughts
• The Kiel Canal

ALLIANCE SYSTEM

TRIPLE ALLIANCE

• Germany
• Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Italy

TRIPLE ENTENTE

• France
• Russia
• Britain?

AUSTRIA VS SERBIA

• Franz Ferdinand--assassinated June 28 1914
• Russian Mobilization
• German Declaration of War
• August 1914
• German Attack on France
  • Schlieffen Plan
  • Belgium (Britain)
  • Military Atrocities..why?

SEPTEMBER 1914

• Battle of the Marne
• Trench Warfare
• Machine Gun
• Total War
  • Economic Mobilization
  • Citizen Willingness to Die
  • Citizen Willingness to Believe the Government

WAR AIMS?

• Germany: overwhelming force
• France: self-defense
• Russia and Britain?
• Battle of the Somme 1916
• War Poets
• Rupert Brooke
• War Sonnets

Chronology of War link

Russian Revolution 1917

American Entry 1917

• German Submarine Warfare in Atlantic
• "War to End All Wars"
• German Language in Iowa
• Woodrow Wilson
• Domestic Repression: Eugene Debs running for President, 1920
• Expansion of National Security State and FBI

 German Surge of 1918. Why?

 German Revolution, October 1918

• Kiel Sailors and Workers Mutiny November 1918

Armistice Day, November 11,1918

German Surrender: A Stab in the Back?

Cost of War

Honoring the War Dead

• The Cenotaph: London
• Kiel Memorial...to what?

“If any question why we died,

Tell them, because our fathers lied.”

Rudyard Kipling

Questions for Review

Why are the years 1914-1991 sometimes referred to as "the short twentieth century?"

Why is Bismarck's reputation as a national leader higher than that of William II?

Why did European nations feel the need to create military alliances?

Which nation bears the greatest responsibility for the outbreak of World War I? How would you rank them in terms of their "guilt"?

Why were citizens willing to die for their respective countries in such large numbers?

Why did the major combatant nations feel obliged to use propaganda directed toward their own citizens in order to justify the war?