WW1 Flashcards
Modernism
- mass production, consumerism, rural > urban, technology
- When WW1 started there was some modern tech
- during hundred year war, pace of change was much slower than WW1
- WW1 changes very fast, incredibly rapid tech change
- during WW1 there was more dramatic and profound change than the world had ever seen, hugley signifcant tech developed, people had to cope w modernism all in a rush
- WW1 was a modern war w modern tech, but it was foght by 19th century ppl
- challange: tradtional ways of thinking w modern tech
Popular culture
- 1st WW was the first war in pop culture
- lots of cliches
- cliches infulence how people viewed the war (e.g soilder in trench for 4 yrs, stupid genral innocent soilder, infantry dangerous)
- shaped they way people saw it - and trench warfare didnt start till middle of war + fisherman more likely to die in britan than infantry
Nationalism
- begginings of nationalism coming out of 100yrs war
- bridge to modren nationalism came from being exposed to bigger community (understand what nation is)
3 Factors that emerged in France bringing nationalism
1.) creation of fredral education system - school teach how to be french
2.) Development of national infastructure - means to travel, less isolation of communties, more sense of larger community
3.) devleopment of national systems of communication (newspapers + mail) - people can remain in contact w each other + see what nation is doing
- At this time nationalism was good, pure, postive, clean > meant cooperation help, community (initally profoundly benficial)
What perverted nationalism
Imperalism and Jingoism
Imperalism
- seen everywhere, not just europe
- in the 19th centurary it picksup steam in european powers
- mindset: “if we dont start getting places someone else will first”
- dont want to see someone elses falg flying over places, you want to see ur flag everywhere
Jingosim
- natioalism + imperalism in a negative bullish way
- “by jingo” - By jesus
- emerges out of a sense of imperalism and nationalism
-to be jingo = to be waiting for a war - extreme and destructive form of nationalsim, goes beyound pride and identity etc..turns into racial superiority
- produces ideolgies that call for redrawing of the map (german race nazis)
Arms races
- size of armies - trends (all the armies start increasing in size except britan)
- spending - how countries gearing up for war (esp russia and germany)
- Britans expansion made sense due to colonies - germany didnt - germany preparing to invade england
Britan wants its navy to be larger than the next 2 biggest combined (all increasing size relative to each otehr) - germany starts to take lead in arms races and it concerns other powers
HMS Dreadnought
- 1906 Britan decides to change game
- revolution in naval weaponry, biggest + newest
tech warship in the world - every other power builds same kind of ship
- push to design and build sophisticated modern battleship
The generation of 1914
- term used to refer to young adults in 1914
- age of miltary service 18-45 , partcularly mid 20s
- avg soilder war 24-26 and born in 1880s
years of WW1
1914-1918
What was it like for someone born 1880s in Canada
- no evidence of gov - gov had little to do w reg life (only parts are post office was fedral and rds + education were provncial)
- fighting for nation was a confusing issue
- no ID kept in pockets (drivers licinse, healthcard etc)
- people may not even know exactly how old they are (abilty to do things was not governed by age)
- people didnt care abt time, just sun up and down (most people didnt have clocks and watches, no standard time noon = when sun is directly overhead of u), standard time was brought in for railways
- population of country was around 4.3 mil - 70% was in rural areas (acc greater tha that bc census defention, was prolly acc closer to 90%)
- all sorts of ways to divide socitey but rural abd urban most common
Filling the ranks/ replacing the death
- dead has to be reaplced if armies are going to continue to function
- recruitment on home front
- most armies had a reg army (professional soilders) + reserve army (part time soilders trained on own time and called upon if country goes to war)
- filling ranks could be done with conscription (common in europe b4 WW1) or volunteers
- at beggining more volunteers, later had to advertise, convince or even conscript
Strong arm of the state and censorship
- have to get as much of a country on baord + constrain those who dont support the war
- extrodinary powers to allow countries to do that (e.g war measures act), empowers gov to censorship, monitor trade, currency control + so much more ( sounds big now but many gov already had this power)
- most ppl accept desprate measures in a time of war
- anything that went to public was censored + monitored
- in U.S was illgal to critsize army, gov or scale of war bombs (strict penalties up to 20yrs) - doesnt sq very well but people accept short term pain 4 long term gain
- govs censor anything coming by telegram, cut off at source never gets to papers (most news papers would self censor > dont want to take chance)
- this was new for some countries (CAN AUS) old for others
Gov changes for war
- censorship (new for some)
- people started carrying ID - deminstrate they had contact w gov
- income tax started (this was more contrvesial)
- day light saving - to reduce energy consumption
- alc restrictions (full or partial ban of alc in most places)
- votes for women (war provided ammunition for womens votes, foreign men can vote but not white women?)
- working women
These Changes were supposed to be temporary but hard to take back acc became forever for most part
Flora Sandes
British women served as a member of the Royal Serbian Army in World War I. She was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in that war
maria bochkareva
- a Russian soldier who fought in World War I and formed the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death. She was the first Russian woman to command a military unit
Riddle of trenches
- how to attack heavily defended area w out sacrficing too many lives
The zimmerman telegram
- Germany asked mexico onside > germany win war, mexico will get territory lost to US back
- wilson got congress to declare war on geramny - assosiated power (not allied)
- US in the war on the side of the entante
- critical because russia was falling apart (problems w/food supply and destroyed faith in gov)
Revolution
- Russian soilders loosing faith
- Czor supposed to be running country - now miltary
- Riots in capital - army took side of gov
- czor gave up throne- provsional gov
- russia stayed in war
- secound revolution- bushwicks to power and they aimed to get russia out of war
????
Douglas Haig
controls west - weasterner bc he controls west so he wants to be win war, also belived as long as germany occupied parts of france and belgium they would win war
- Lacks creativity
- thinks soultion is not to attack somewhere else but make it bigger (more men, more weapons)
- always thinks scale is the problem
William Robertson
agrees with Haig, highest ranking soldier, first person in history of British army to rise from lowest rank to highest rank. Not particularly creative, good at certain things but not creativity cant inteleutlize things outside of western front
Verdun
Germans attack at Verdum
Not trying to gain territory but kill as many soilders as possible “bleed france white”
Verdun emotional attachemnt - French
Fortified to ridiculous degree - thought was forts would make verdun inconcourable
German know french are attached to verdun so they try and draw french in by attacking verdun so they can kill alot of french
Did not work very well at verdun
Launching hasty poorly planned attacks back and forth, do nothing but consume lives
Longest most horrific battles of ww1
At end casualties roghly same on both sides: achieved nothing at a cost of millions
The Somme 1916
Original plan tweaked to become battle of somme (british and french original plan)
Launched offensive earlier and in different place than haig wanted
Somme is the symbol of horrors of war for british empire - symbol of thinking of westerners
Haig solution never to change idea - but make it bigger (more men, more weapons) - lacking creatvity
NEW ARMY: Kitchner - one of few people who said war was going to last a long time (need civilian armies) - sets out to create new army for diffrent kind of warfare
County units (based by place) - emotional connection etc.
Bristh army becomes based on territorial units, kitchner wants to take that one step further - PALS- specific neighbourhoods, more likely to enlist and become an effective solider if you join with people of neighbourhood (bonds of friendship)
Occupational units (e,g stock workers battalion) - whole series of these fight with people who are like you
Enormously successful recruiting idea
there job to open defensive on somme and receive decisive result
Goes bad right from get go: largest loss of life in history of british army… on the first day with minuscule (at best) gains
Haig and general think the problem is scale.. They continue process adding more men and more guns
Courclette
Candian core finishes offensive successfully at cost of lost of casualties
After 5 months of fighting haig shuts down offensive
Took the allies 5 months to get to where they were supposed to get on first day - this is when it is evident that the idea of the PALS battalions was a bad idea
Taken most of male population of single town and killed of in a single day.. Town is angry
PALS battalions are good to create armies bad for actually fighting
At beginning haig forecasted big quick finish at the end he said it was never about that and he was just trying to wear down the enemy
He probably never really knew what campaign was about
Doesnt change views of westerns - still fight in west
Lord Kitchner - British Minster of War
The Neville Offensive
- Robert Nievlle, commander of the French Second Army in the Battle of Verdun
- He gives his name to the Nivelle Offensive
- Vimy Ridge : one of Few success stories (only bright spot in massivley failed campagin
- Mother was english so spoke eng well
- Could help w allies
- Prodstant (good bc eng dont trust catholics)
- Haig doesnt trust him
- Puts together force - 1.2 million french soldiers + artilary
- French failed virtually everywhere
- Plan was uninventive -same as all other plans
- Nivelle called it off after promising french people victory - when offensive failed french morale was gutted and nivelle was fired, french army dissolved in complete mutany
- soilders deserting at alarming rate, French army doesn’t know what to do abt it
- Mutanies seem to be spontaneous, so hard to identify leaders
- Try everything from negotiation, compromise to executions
Q: what if westerners were wrong all along?
David Lloyd George
Prime minister of Britan 1916
Radical reformer
Man of corse language and violent tempers
Didnt trust haig - bc haig didnt give enough attention to solider lives
Winston Churchill
Prime minister of Uk WW2
Was first lord of admiral team during this time
Incredible energy and considerable intellect
Harsh opinions, corse language and brutal language
Young Turks
revolution - historical ottoman constitution
Young - unexprenced didnt work in their favour
No match to europen diplomats who carve states like chicken
Young turks relize they missed the boats - thought they could run country on good intentions - didnt realize they need good bureaucracy
Despite idealism and good intentions country falls into economic disorder
Edmund Allenby
Lesson to underachivers
Ragraded as lazy, sccaterbrained
Failed civil service but failed
Wanted to go to staff collage in army failed - git in on 2nd try
When he became commander he had enormous vigor and creativity
Lead huge force
Job to capture jerusalem - great success
The Jaffa Gate - first christian concuerer since crusade- allenby didnt want to be called that (lot of people in his army arent christan so he didnt want to use term crusade, told his press officer to never use crusade as a term)
Walks into city (no car, truck) - modesty - huge pr success
Allows him to keep alliance of enormously different people
End of oct - last major city of ottman empire captured by his army
Dram of easterns achieved - great success
Low casualties
Flew under radar
Made allenby superstar
Does Not play role in war as whole - the entire supposition of easterners was flawed, germany didn’t need its allies
If the earlier campaigns were successful wouldn’t have changed anything , even losing austria hungary wouldn’t change anything
Woodrow Wilson
The treaty of Brest- Litovsk
what empires fell
- German
- Austro Hungarian
- Russian
- Ottaman
Britsh empire fatally weakend
Grand strategy
Q: Where do you win the war? where do you concentrate your efforts in order to win?
- Western Front? Eastern Front? Italian Front? (3 main places war should focus on)
Allies decided they needed to attack all 3 fronts at same time
French had most decision making power
Wanted to mount wearing down offenses - keep enemy fighting and dying, grind numbers of enemy forces down
- French and british agree in gen terms about importance of western front but dont work together - principal of independent command (chat and compare notes but dont work together, this is a problem)
Chanitilly conferences
Important people on the enatnte side get together
Joseph Joffre
Sir John French
Sir Douglas Haig
Decide things like where they should focus war effort on
Westerners
- want to attack western front
easterners
Other side of argument
Attack somewhere else (other than western front)
Easterners: Attack germany itself
Baltak project
Naval task force - land on baltak coast to take berlin - crazy stupid idea (looked good bc alternative was western front)
Easterners: Attack Other places in the world
Africa no impact on war in broader sense
Cemeroon - wanted so other side doesnt have it
The dardanelles (Gallipoli) Campaign
Undermine and destroy ottoman empire
Margins between asia and europe - makes it desirable
Ottoman decline - give up territory to european and asian empires
Young turks - revolution - historical ottoman constitution
Young - unexprenced didnt work in their favour
No match to europen diplomats who carve states like chicken
Young turks relize they missed the boats - thought they could run country on good intentions - didnt realize they need good bureaucracy
Despite idealism and good intentions country falls into economic disorder
Descends into 15 years of chaos in turkey
Followed by series of counter revolutions
3 wars in this period were european powers take what they want
And then came WW1
War better than peace for ottomans - years of peace had not gone well and were not improving
They need ally would be easy pickings (esp bc of their location)
Didnt have a side - they were looking for what the war would do for them would join any of 3 major powers to get good deal
Choose to ally w germany and central powers - target of entate
Bright shining light for easterners - attack ottomas
Can do with ships alone
Send old ships - think fighting turks is easy
Turns out turks could do quite a bit
Sunk their ships - embarrassing
Navy pulls out
Armies make the same basic assumption - wont be hard “they are just turks” what resistance can they put up against combined armies of britain and france?
In most places opposition is light - shining moment
Y beach- simplary diversionary draw attention out of main beaches and occupy turks - it was completely unnaposed no one was there
Pushed of beach by small turkish force next day
Opportunity for real success at key point - no one thank beyond orders
With a little aggressive spirt could have avoid weeks of fighting and catastrophic fighting
Battles of Kirthia - 4 battles lots of casualties still didnt capture village when on first day could have easily been captured
August
Still havent advanced past krithia so go to top
British commander hesitated when could have been done easily
Last chance eastenders had of winning campaign
jan/feb
Evacuation- only sucessful part of campaign
Nothing was achieved
Campaign of missed opportunities just needed someone willing to move quick
Failure cost churchill his job
Lloyd geroge didnt change his name - dislike for haig grew (couldnt fire him bc he was supported by the king)
Big problem w easterners
as long as germany remains in occupation (france and belgium) they are winning the war - westerners were right along along nothing can change unless u can evict germany from france and belgium. They stay there they win
Herbert “Daddy” Plumer
One of the better generals on the british side
Clever, genius, careful
Looks for technology to do a lot of the work for the infantry
Planned to dig and place mines underneath German lines
Intended to halt the enemy within its tracks
Messines (loudest man made noise in human history)
Thought it was an earthquake in france
Could be heard in Belgium 100’s of miles away
Success of Passchendaele ended there
August and september were the wettest month in recorded history
Shelling caused for the battlefield to be unable to drain and become flooded
Lost lots of artillery shells from this
Still turning up 100 years later to this day
October, Canada came in to finish the job
Campaign cost the allies 300,000 casualties
Village of Passchendaele completely flattened by the end
British army told they would not receive support for another operation like this again
The Battle of Passchendaele (Third Ypres)
German submarines are operating unchecked in the atlantic and English coast
Unrestricted submarine warfare
Submarines so successful Britain is on the verge of not being able to feed its population
Conscription for Canada
No more volunteers for infantry after 1916
Full employment in Canada,
Army no longer paid as much as a job back at home
People overestimate the general health of Canadians
War revealed people were generally unhealthy
Height standard dropped from 5.3 to 4.11
1916 army would take literally anyone no matter what their health condition
Would even take people who were half blind
Would even take people who were in jail for non-violent crimes
Took children young as 14 years old
Three boys enlisted at age ten
Thousands of boys who were 14 and 15 were enlisted
Robert Borden against conscription
Visited wounded Canadians over in Europe
Changed his over outlook on conscription
Realized men needed constant support in order to stay alive
Was deeply moved by this
Enlisted men between the age of 20-45
Single men first
Canadian public were to vote on Conscription
Borden created a party known as the Union Government
Sir Wilfrid Laurier was widely disliked
Voting for him would be like supporting the Germans
Equivalent to spitting on the graves of the dead
The Winter of our Discontent
At the front, the French and Russians are out of the War
American were not in the war
Question for the British became whether or not they can survive the winter
Weather is very bad
Coal shortage- not enough coal to heat homes
Schools closed
City council stopped
Country was literally dark as street lamps would remain unlit
Would have no heat days
Coldest January since before confederation
Wind would blow out windows as well as houses
Rail services were suspended
The Balance Sheet
The Hall of Mirrors, one of the great works of art to emerge from WW1
Painted by William Orpen
Was a war artist
Sent around to capture what the war looked like
Did portraits of generals, training and battles
The Hall of Mirrors- painting of the peace agreement for the Treaty of Versailles
Orpen believes this is tragedy conforming on tragedy
Orpen believe this photo is failures of leadership
A land Fit for Heroes
People were fighting to make a better world
Told best way to appreciate sacrifices would be to improve our daily lives
People were calm in celebrating when the war ended
People are wondering what they are going to do different now that the war is done
Policies, changes in laws
Prohibition
Senate reform
Voter reform
Immediate causes of WWI
Immediate causes of first world war found within the Balkans
Administered by austro-hungary empire
Developed radical separatist movements among their states
Pushed for self-determination
End of June 1914, Duke Franz Ferdinand Assassinated in Sarajevo
British suggested a peace conference
Germany had very detailed mobilization plan
Triple Entente
Russia
France
Britain
The Balkans
Bulgaria
Serbia
The Triple Alliance
Italy
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Schlieffen Plan
Germans faced enemies on both sides
Fight one side at a time
Russians much slower to mobilize than the french
Had to be done quickly
Fight french to west and then send all the troops east
Issue was the plan would take German forces the Belgium who was neutral
3rd of August 1914, Germany crossed over into belgium
Soon declared war on them
British were committed to protecting Belgium
British didn’t want war but did not want germany in control of the continent
4th of august, germans must withdraw troops or the British would create a state of war
“See preface defence scheme, war has broken out with germany”
The Spainsh Flu (remembering the war)
- People looking for a lot in post war period “lands fit for hero’s” – do they get it?
- World is not at war with influenza – “the Spanish flu”
o First confirmed cases in Spain – Spain media had more freedom
o Tagged w name of this disease
o Don’t know if it originated in Spain
o Maybe originated in Kansas – near an army camp - War provides perfect environment for spread of disease
o Lots of young men kept together in small spaces
o Lots of people moving around - Greatest pandemic ever to strike the human race
- Estimate: 1/3 of worlds pop effected
- Unlike most pandemics it was particularly lethal among young adults 20 - 40
o Same age group in the war - Came at end of war made it a bit easier as they already has post war restrictions so they just modified them to fight pandemic
- Oct 1918 – public places start to close
- Campaigns against forms of behavior that were deemed to spread disease (e.g spitting)
- Enjoyment of everyday things constricted like during war
- Open spaces turned into hospital wards (e.g gymnasium)
o No privacy
o Nothing beyond ventilation to provide comfort
o Like medieval hospitals – place to go and die - Extraordinary measures taken because it was affecting young healthy people
- Vaccines made – taken directly to hospital and started injecting people (people were going to die anyways might as well try)
- THE MASK
o If you didn’t wear you were called a mask slaker
o Social pariah - First years of peace did not go well
Labour Turmoil (rembering the war)
- Wars mean jobs – this war was no exception
- Unemployment basically doesn’t exist by 1916
- Labour shortages – move around and get best wage and deal
- Labour in drivers seat for first time
- Increase in union membership
- New women workers
- Wasn’t all sweetness and light – signs it wasn’t that good
o Wages went up abt 44%
o Cost of living went up about 50%…
o As labour movement grows it becomes more aggressive
o Labour disputes in lots of countries
o Lots of time lost to strikes in every industry
o Management keeps saying labour will get taken care of after the war is fought
o War is won – labour thinks now is the payoff
o Management says things should go back to normal – low wages, labours do whats told etc..
o Once its clear to workers that they aren’t getting a payoff there are lots of strikes – promises won’t be acted upon
Military called to establish order in many places
o Most cases strikes were not a great success, put down rather aggressively – alliance between management and government
o Workers eventually go back without having gained much
o Things go back to normal – poor wages, bad working conditions, compliant workers
o Blame placed on immigrants – trouble makers starting everything off
First red scare
Bolshevism new enemy – they want to establish private wealth and make workers paradise
o Basically there are groups who want “communism” in many countries
A lot of time these were immigrants
People who travleled around to work a lot were more radical
o Alien “immigrants” were said to be the problem
o False promises made to immigrants aswell – land for fit for hero’s was not for you as an immigrant
Emanuel Hahn (remebring the war)
Quarter, dime, nickel (Canadian coins)
Family came Toronto before war
Embraced by Toronto society
Family very artistic
Friends of Toronto upper crust
Blackballed once war started bc they were Germans
Cut off by clubs, restaurants etc..
He hoped to benefit from great time to be a scultptor- war memorials
Most he designed do not bear his name – don’t want one made by German
Entered competition for war memorial in Winnipeg – won anonymously – once they realized who he was they took contract from him for being a German and reopened contract
Mrs. Emmanuel Hahn won again under fake name (wife of German)
Went to someone else – now Winnipeg has a boring war memorial
- 1920s was a period of dashed hopes
Dashed Hopes (Remebering the War)
- Country sucks
- So many people dead
- What was this all for
- What was achieved
- Tough to reconcile
- So much of the fighting didn’t lead to anything
- Cant find much good in the war
- People start thinking abt intention rather than outcome – loved ones went to war for a good cause
