Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
The War
before 1914, leaders thought war not worth risks; others thought diplomats would prevent war
-moved forces to west, trenches defensive nests with machine guns; enemy troops separated by no mans land -leaders not used to trenches, threw masses of men at the enemies after artillery, millions killed by machine guns; seen as senseless (German offensive at Verdun, British campaign on Somme, French attack in Champagne)
-central governments increased; pressure of circumstances led to govt interference with economy, created Ministry of Munitions under David Lloyd George 1915, managed war materials, took over plants that did not cooperate; rationed food and supplies -France less successful with war govt; German occupation of NE france cost 75% of coal production, 80% on steel-making; struggles between military and civil authorities over who would oversee war; strong leader 1917 Georges Clemenceau civilian control of total war govt -Russia and Austria-Hungary had backward economies, couldnt supply armies; Italians lacked enthusiasm and industrial resources Public Order and Public Opinion -internal dissatisfaction replaced patriotic enthusiasm; 1916 civilian morale cracking -strikes after first 2 years; 1916 50,000 Berlin workers stopped working to protest arrest pf radical socialist leader; France/Britain, strikes increased significantly; Irish Republican Brotherhood and Citizens Army occupied govt buildings in Dublin on Easter Sunday 1916, British forces crushed Easter Rebellion -opposition to war from liberals and socialists; liberals wanted negotiated peace, no land gains (ignored); socialists in Germany/Austria demanded same; mutinies in Italian and French armies 1917; Czech leaders in Austria called for Czech state; 1917 200,000 Berlin workers protested reduction of bread rations; all countries except Russia survived the stresses of 1917 -germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary used force to subdue populations; British passed Defence of the Realm Act (police arrested dissenters of war); censored newspapers; French Georges Clemenceau suppressed liberties for war, editor of antiwar newspaper executed for treason -used propaganda and exaggerations to arouse enthusiasm for war
Civil War
-opposition to Bolshevik regime from bourgeois, artistocratic liberals, anti-Lenin socialists (Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries); allied troops sent to Russia to try to bring back into war -1018-1921 Bolshevik (Red) army fought white (antibolshevik) force in Siberia under Admiral Alexander Kolchak; Whites under Gen Anton Denikin went through Ukraine almost to Moscow; 1920 Ukraine retaken from whites; Communist regime took control in Caucasus (Georgia, Russian Armenia, Azerbaijan) -tsar and family moved to Tobolsk (1917) and Ekaterinburg (1918) where local soviets murdered them all -Red Army well organized (Leon Trotsky: reinstated draft, disobedient soldiers executed); Red Army able to move troops rapidly -political differences in Whites (Admiral Kolchak wanted to restore tsar regime, others wanted democratic govt); difficult for military cooperation -Whites did not have common goal, Red Communists had determination
-war communism (nationalized banks/industries, requisition of grain from peasants, centralized state under Bolsheviks); revolutionary terror (Red Terror) instituted a secret police (Cheka) determined to eliminate enemies (class enemies Bourgeoisie); thousands executed -intervention of Allies (foreign troops, anti-bolshevik) aroused Russian patriotism, but indirectly helped Bolsheviks -1921 Communists retained control of Russia, bureaucratically centralized state with one party; new regime hostile to the Allies, also impossible without WWI and the collapse of Russia