Here are the top 25 U.S. newspapers
USA Today – 239,425,560.
The New York Times – 217,513,400.
The Wall Street Journal – 122,397,004.
The Los Angeles Times – 94,889,543.
The Washington Post – 9,1758,837.
New York Daily News – 82,225,690.
Source: Internet/May 13, 2016
(ranked by total unique monthly visitors for the past 12 months)
Magazines: TIME, National Geographic, Rachael Ray Every Day, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Reader's Digest, Travel + Leisure and others.
Newspapers: All Newspapers of the USA - Free, USA TODAY, The New York Times - Daily Edition for Kindle, The Washington Post, NYTimes - Breaking National & World News and others
(ranked by total unique monthly visitors for the past 12 months)
Magazines: TIME, National Geographic, Rachael Ray Every Day, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Reader's Digest, Travel + Leisure and others.
Newspapers: All Newspapers of the USA - Free, USA TODAY, The New York Times - Daily Edition for Kindle, The Washington Post, NYTimes - Breaking National & World News and others
The warring nations
The table below indicates the date on
which each of the Allies and Central Powers entered World War I.
More than 20 countries eventually joined
the war on the Allied side. However, not all of them sent troops.
The Allies
Belgium (Aug. 4,1914)
Brazil (Oct. 26,1917)
British Empire (Aug. 4,1914)
China (Aug. 14, 1917)
Costa Rica (May 23,1918)
Cuba (April 7,1917)
France (Aug. 3,1914)
Greece (July 2,1917)
Guatemala (April 23,1918)
Haiti (July 12,1918)
Honduras (July 19, 1918)
Italy (May 23,1915)
Japan (Aug. 23,1914)
Liberia (Aug. 4, 1917)
Montenegro (Aug. 5,1914)
Nicaragua (May 8,1918)
Panama (April 7, 1917)
Portugal (March 9,1916)
Romania (Aug. 27,1916)
Russia (Aug. 1,1914)
San Marino (June 3,1915)
Serbia (July 28,1914) Siam (July 22,1917)
United States (April 6,1917)
The Central Powers
Austria-Hungary (July 28,1914)
Bulgaria (Oct. 14,1915)
Germany (Aug. 1,1914)
Ottoman Empire (Oct. 31,1914)
Important dates during World War I
1914
June 28 Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated.
July 28 Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia. Several other declarations of
war followed during the next week.
Aug. 4 Germany invaded Belgium and started the fighting.
Aug. 10 Austria-Hungary invaded Russia, opening the fighting on the Eastern
Front.
Sept. 6-9 The Allies stopped the Germans in France in the First Battle of the
Marne.
1915
Feb. 18 Germany began to blockade Great Britain.
April 25 Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
May 7 A German submarine sank the liner Lusitania.
May 23 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, and an Italian Front soon
developed.
1916
Feb. 21 - The Germans opened the Battle of Verdun.
May 31-June 1 - The British fleet fought the German fleet in the Battle of Jutland.
July 1 - The Allies launched the Battle of the Somme.
1917
Feb. 1 - Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.
April 6 - The United States declared war on Germany.
June 24 - American troops began landing in France.
Dec. 15 - Russia
signed an armistice with Germany, ending the fighting on the Eastern Front.
1918
Jan. 8 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points as the basis
for peace.
March 3 - Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
March 21 - Germany
launched the first of its final three offensives on the Western Front.
Sept. 26 - The Allies
began their final offensive on the Western Front.
Nov. 11 - Germany
signed an armistice ending World War I.
Destruction and
death, instead of quick victory, awaited the warring
nations in the long and brutal conflict. After fierce fighting in Belgium, the
city of Ypres lay in ruins. Many men, like the French soldier on the right, met
death in a trench along the Western Front.
World War I battlefronts - The fighting in World War I spread from Western Europe to the Middle
East. The key battles were fought along the Western Front, which stretched
across Belgium and France, and along the Eastern Front, which seesawed across
Russia and Austria-Hungary.
Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, was shot to death on June 28,1914, shortly after
this photo was taken. His assassination triggered the outbreak of World War I.
The Western Front: 1914-1917 - Fighting
began in August 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium and France. The two sides
were locked in trench warfare along the Western Front by year's end. The Western
Front remained dead locked for nearly 3 1/2 years.
The aeroplane was first used in combat during World War I. Airco D.H.4's, like this
one, were highly regarded British bombers. The D.H.4 held a pilot and a gunner
and carried bombs under its wings.
The submarine proved its value as a warship in World War I. German submarines, like
this UB II, challenged British sea power. They fired torpedoes that struck
surface ships and then exploded.
The machine gun made World War I more deadly than earlier wars. The gun's rapid fire
slaughtered attacking infantry men. The 8-millimetre Hotchkiss gun used by the
French army is shown here.
A network of trenches snaked along the Western Front. No man's land separated opposing
sides. Firing and cover trenches protected front-line soldiers from enemy fire.
Communications trenches linked front lines with support and reserve troops at
the rear.
Gas masks were worn by soldiers on the
Western Front for protection against poisonous fumes. Germany was first to use
poison gas, in April 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres.
A cry of "Over the top!" - signalled the start of an assault. At the command, troops scrambled
out of their trenches to begin the dash to ward enemy trenches. The Canadian
soldiers shown here were following an officer over the top during the Battle of
the Somme in France in July 1916.
The Italian Front - Italy entered the war against Austria-Hungary in May 1915. In spite of
many bitter battles, the Italians gained very little territory. But they wore
down the armies of Austria-Hungary.
On top of a rocky peak near Austria-Hungary's border, Italian troops prepared to do battle.
They first had to hoist artillery into position. The rugged Alps
hampered Italy's efforts to advance into Austria-Hungary.
The Eastern Front - The Eastern Front swung back and forth until Russia agreed to stop
fighting late in 1917. Under the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, Russia gave much territory
to Germany. To the south, the Central Powers had crushed Serbia in 1915 and
Romania in 1916.
On the seas, Germany tried to starve Britain into surrender by sinking cargo ships
heading for its ports. The ship shown here was torpedoed by the German
submarine in the foreground.
Military aviators played an important role in World War I. Pilots, such as these
members of the British Royal Flying Corps, fought enemy planes in aerial
battles called dogfights.
War-weary Russian soldiers retreated in the summer of 1917 after learning that the Germans had
smashed through their battle line. By the year's end, Russia had stopped
fighting.
American gunners crawled through a war-torn area of northeastern France in the autumn of
1918 during the last assault of World War I. The area lay between the Meuse
River and the Argonne Forest. Many U.S. troops took part in the assault, known
as the Meuse-Argonne offensive.
Cheering the end of World War I, a joyful crowd streamed through the streets of a French town on
Nov. 11, 1918. The long, horrible war had taken the lives of nearly 10 million
soldiers.
Europe and the Middle East after World War
I - World War I led to changes in many borders. Austria- Hungary and the
Ottoman Empire split into national states. Russia and Germany gave up
territory. Although several states won independence, most Arab lands in the
Ottoman Empire were placed under French and British rule.
The Big Four met for the Paris Peace Conference in 1918. They were, from the left,
Vittorio Orlando, premier of Italy, David Lloyd George, British prime minister,
Georges Clemenceau, premier of France, and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.
World War I (1914-1918) involved
more countries and caused greater destruction than any other war except World
War II (1939-1945). An assassin's bullets in Austria-Hungary sparked off the
war, and a system of military alliances (agreements) plunged the main
European powers into the fight. Each side expected quick victory. But the war
lasted four years and took the lives of nearly 10 million troops.
Several developments led to the awful
bloodshed of the Great War, as World War I was originally called.
War plants kept turning out vast
quantities of newly invented weapons capable of extraordinary slaughter. Military
conscription raised larger armies than ever before, and extreme patriotism gave
many men a cause they were willing to die for. Propaganda whipped up support
for the war by making the enemy seem villainous.
On june 28, 1914, an assassin gunned down
Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria Hungary in Sarajevo, the capital of
Austria-Hungary's province of Bosnia. The killer, Gavrilo Princip, had ties to
a terrorist organization in Serbia. Austria-Hungary believed that Serbia's
government was behind the assassination. It seized the opportunity to declare
war on Serbia and settle an old feud.
The assassination of Francis Ferdinand
sparked the outbreak of World War I. But historians believe that the war had
deeper causes. It resulted chiefly from the growth of extreme national pride
among various European peoples, an enormous increase in European armed forces,
a race for colonies, and the formation of military alliances. When the fighting
began, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom (UK), also known as Great
Britain—who were known as the Allies—backed Serbia. They opposed the Central
Powers, made up of Austria- Hungary and Germany. Other nations later joined the
Allies or the Central Powers.
Germany won early victories in World War I
on the main European battlefronts. On the Western Front, France and the UK
halted the German advance in Sep
tember 1914. The opposing armies then
fought from trenches that stretched across Belgium and northeastern France.
The Western Front hardly moved for 3} years in spite of fierce combat. On the
Eastern Front, Russia battled with Germany and Austria-Hungary. The fighting
seesawed back and forth until 1917, when a revolution broke out in Russia.
Russia soon asked for a truce.
The United States remained neutral at
first. But many Americans turned against the Central Powers after German
submarines began sinking unarmed ships. In 1917, the United States joined the
Allies. U.S troops gave the Allies the manpower they needed to win the war. In
the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers surrendered.
World War I had results that none of the
warring nations had foreseen. The war helped topple emperors in
Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia. The peace treaties after the war carved
new nations out of the defeated powers. The war left Europe exhausted, never to
regain the controlling position in world affairs that it had held before the
war. The peace settlement also created conditions that helped lead to World
War II.
Causes of the war
The assassination of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand triggered World War I. But the war had its origins in developments
of the 1800's. The chief causes of World War I were (1) the rise of
nationalism, (2) a build-up of military might, (3) competition for colonies,
and (4) a system of military alliances.
The rise of nationalism. Europe
avoided major wars in the 100 years before World War I began. Although small wars
broke out, they did not involve many countries. But during the 1800's, a force
swept across the continent that helped bring about the Great War. The force was
nationalism—the belief that loyalty to a person's nation and its
political and economic goals comes before any other public loyalty. That
exaggerated form of patriotism increased the possibility of war because a
nation's goals inevitably came into conflict with the goals of one or more
other nations. In addition, nationalistic pride caused nations to magnify
small disputes into major issues. A minor complaint could thus quickly lead to
the threat of war.
During the 1800's, nationalism took hold
among people who shared a common language, history, or culture. Such people
began to view themselves as members of a national group, or nation. Nationalism
led to the creation of two new powers—Italy and Germany—through the uniting of
many small states. War had a major role in achieving national unification in
Italy and Germany.
Nationalist policies gained enthusiastic support as many countries in Western
Europe granted the vote to more people. The right to vote gave citizens greater
interest and greater pride in national goals. As a result, parliamentary
governments grew increasingly powerful.
On the other hand, nationalism weakened
the eastern European empires of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Ottoman Turkey.
Those empires ruled many national groups that clamoured for independence.
Conflicts among national groups were especially explosive in the Balkans— the
states on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. The peninsula was known
as the "Powder Keg of Europe" because tensions there threatened to
ignite a major war. Most of the Balkans had been part of the Ottoman Empire.
First Greece and then Montenegro, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania won
independence in the period from 1821 to 1913. Each state quarrelled with
neighbours over boundaries. Austria-Hungary and Russia also took advantage of
the Ottoman Empire's weakness to increase their influence in the Balkans.
Rivalry for control of the Balkans added
to the tensions that erupted into World War I. Serbia led a movement to unite
the region's Slavs. Russia, the most powerful Slavic country, supported
Serbia. But Austria- Hungary feared Slavic nationalism, which stirred unrest in
its empire. Millions of Slavs lived under Austria- Hungary's rule. In 1908,
Austria-Hungary greatly angered Serbia by adding the Balkan territories of
Bosnia and Hercegovina to its empire. Serbia wanted control of those lands
because many Serbs lived there.
A build-up of military might occurred among European countries before World
War I broke out. Nationalism encouraged public support for military build-ups
and for a country's use of force to achieve its goals. By the late 1800's,
Germany had the best-trained army in the world. It relied on a military
conscription of all able- bodied young men to increase the size and strength of
its peacetime army. Other European countries followed Germany's lead and
expanded their standing armies.
At first, Great Britain remained
unconcerned about Germany's military build-up. Britain, an island country,
relied on its navy for defence—and it had the world's strongest navy. But in
1898, Germany began to develop a naval force big enough to challenge the
British navy.
Germany's decision to become a major
seapower made it a bitter enemy of
Great Britain. In 1906, the British navy launched the Dreadnought the
first modern battleship The heavily armed Dreadnought had greater
firepower than any other ship of its time. Germany rushed to construct ships
like it.
Advances in technology— the tools,
materials, and techniques of industrialization—increased the destructive power
of military forces. Machine guns and other new arms fired more accurately and
more rapidly than earlier weapons. Steamships and railways could speed the
movement of troops and supplies. By the end of the 1800's, technology enabled
countries to fight longer wars and bear greater losses than ever before. Yet
military experts insisted that future wars would be short
Competition for colonies. During the late 1800's and early 1900's, European nations carved nearly
all of Africa and much of Asia into colonies. The race for colonies was
fuelled by Europe's increasing industrialization. Colonies supplied European
nations with raw materials for factories, markets for manufactured goods, and
opportunities for investment. But the competition for colonies strained
relations among European countries. Incidents between rival powers flared up
almost every year. Several of the clashes nearly led to war.
A system of military alliances gave European powers a sense of security before World War I. A country
hoped to discourage an attack from its enemies by entering into a military
agreement with one or more other countries. In case of an attack, such an
agreement guaranteed that other members of the alliance would come to the
country's aid or at least remain neutral.
Although military alliances provided protection for a country, the
system created certain dangers. Because of its alliances, a country might take
risks in dealings with other nations that it would hesitate to take alone. If
war came, the alliance system meant that a number of nations would fight not
only the two involved in a dispute. Alliances could force a country to go to
war against a nation it had no quarrel with or over an issue it had no interest
in. In addition, the terms of many alliances were kept secret. The secrecy
increased the chances that a country might misjudge the consequences of its
actions.
The Triple Alliance. Germany was at the centre of European foreign policy from 1870 until
the outbreak of VVorld War I. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Germany's prime
minister, formed a series of alliances to strengthen his country's security. He
first made an ally of Austria-Hungary. In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary
agreed to go to war if either country were attacked by Russia. Italy joined the
agreement in 1882, and it became known as the Triple Alliance. The members of
the Triple Alliance agreed to aid one another in the case of an attack by two
or more countries.
Bismarck also brought Austria-Hungary and
Germany into an alliance with Russia. The agreement, known as the Three
Emperors' League, was formed in 1881. The three powers agreed to remain neutral
if any of them went to war with another country. Bismarck also persuaded
Austria-Hungary and Russia, which were rivals for influence in the Balkans, to
recognize each other's zone of authority in the region. He thus reduced the
danger of conflict between the two countries.
Germany's relations with other European
countries worsened after Bismarck left office in 1890. Bismarck had worked to
prevent France, Germany's neighbour on the west, from forming an alliance with
either of Germany's two neighbours to the east—Russia and Austria- Hungary. In
1894, France and Russia agreed to mobilize (call up troops) if any
nation in the Triple Alliance mobilized. France and Russia also agreed to help
each other if either were attacked by Germany.
The Triple Entente. During the 1800's, Great Britain had followed a foreign policy that
became known as "splendid isolation." But Germany's naval build-up
made Britain feel the need for allies. The country therefore ended its
isolation. In 1904, Britain and France settled their past disagreements over
colonies and signed the Entente Cordiale (Friendly Agreement). Although the
agreement contained no pledges of military support, the two countries began to
discuss joint military plans.
In 1907, Russia joined the Entente
Cordiale, and it became known as the Triple Entente.
The Triple Entente did not obligate its
members to go to war as the Triple Alliance did. But the alliances left Europe
divided into two opposing camps.
Beginning of the war
World War I began in the Balkans, the site
of many small wars. In the early 1900's, the Balkan states fought the Ottoman
Empire in the First Balkan War (1912-1913) and one another in the Second Balkan
War (1913). The major European powers stayed out of both wars. But they did not
escape the third Balkan crisis.
The assassination of an archduke. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary,
hoped that his sympathy for Slavs would ease tensions between Austria-Hungary
and the Balkans. He arranged to tour Bosnia with his wife, Sophie. As the
couple rode through Sarajevo on June 28,1914, an assassin jumped on their car
and fired two shots. Francis Ferdinand and Sophie died almost instantly. The
murderer, Gavrilo Princip, was linked to a Serbian terrorist group called the
Black Hand.
The assassination of Francis Ferdinand
gave Austria- Hungary an excuse to crush Serbia, its long-time enemy in the
Balkans. Austria-Hungary first gained Germany's promise of support for any
action it took against Serbia, it then sent a list of humiliating demands to
Serbia on July 23. Serbia accepted most of the demands and offered to have the
rest settled by an international conference. However, Austria-Hungary rejected
the offer and declared war on Serbia on July 28. It expected a quick victory.
How the conflict spread. Within weeks of the archduke's assassination, the chief European powers
were drawn into World War I. A few attempts were made to prevent the war. For
example, Great Britain proposed an international conference to end the crisis.
But Germany rejected the idea, claiming that the dispute involved only
Austria-Hungary and Serbia. However, Germany tried to stop the war from
spreading. The German kaiser (emperor), Wilhelm II, urged Czar Nicholas
II of Russia, his cousin, not to mobilize.
Russia had backed down before in
supporting its ally Serbia. In 1908, Austria-Hungary had angered Serbia by
taking over Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Russia had stepped aside. In 1914,
Russia vowed to stand behind Serbia. Russia first gained a promise of support from
France. The czar then approved plans to mobilize along Russia's border with
Austria-Hungary. But Russia's military leaders persuaded the czar to mobilize
along the German border, too. On July 30,1914, Russia announced it would
mobilize fully.
Germany declared war on Russia on Aug.
1,1914, in response to Russia's mobilization. Two days later, Germany declared
war on France. The German army swept into Belgium on its way to France. The
invasion of neutral Belgium caused Britain to declare war on Germany on August
4. By the time the war ended in November 1918, few areas of the world had
remained neutral.
The Western Front. Germany's
war plan had been prepared in 1905 by Alfred von Schlieffen. Schlieffen was
chief of the German General Staff, the group of officers who provided advice
on military operations. The Schlieffen Plan assumed that Germany would have to
fight both France and Russia. It aimed at a quick defeat of France while Russia
slowly mobilized. After defeating France, Germany would deal with Russia. The
Schlieffen Plan required Germany to strike first if war came. Once the plan was
set in motion, the system of military alliances almost assured a general
European war.
The Schlieffen Plan called for two wings
of the German army to crush the French army in a pincers movement. A small
left wing would defend Germany along its frontier with France. A much larger
right wing would invade France through Belgium; encircle and capture France's
capital, Paris; and then move east. As the right wing moved in, the French
forces would be trapped between the pincers. The success of Germany's assault
depended on a strong right wing. However, Helmuth von Moltke, who had become
chief of the General Staff in 1906, directed German strategy at the outbreak of
World War I. Moltke changed the Schlieffen Plan by reducing the number of
troops in the right wing.
Belgium's army fought bravely but held up
the Germans for only a short time. By Aug. 16, 1914, the right wing of the
German army could begin its pincers motion. It drove back French forces and a
small British force in southern Belgium and swept into France. But instead of
swinging west around Paris according to plan, one part of the right wing
pursued retreating French troops east toward the Marne River. This manoeuvre
left the Germans exposed to attacks from the rear.
Meanwhile, General Joseph Joffre,
commander in chief of all the French armies, stationed his forces near the
Marne River east of Paris and prepared for battle. Fierce fighting, which
became known as the First Battle of the Marne, began on September 6. On
September 9, German forces started to withdraw.
The First Battle of the Marne was a key
victory for the Allies because it ended Germany's hopes to defeat France
quickly. Moltke was replaced as chief of the German General Staff by Erich von
Falkenhayn.
The German army halted its retreat near
the Aisne River. From there, the Germans and the Allies fought a series of
battles that became known as the Race to the Sea. Germany sought to seize ports
on the English Channel and cut off vital supply lines between France and
Britain. But the Allies stopped the German advance to the sea in the First
Battle of Ypres in Belgium. The battle lasted from mid-October until
mid-November.
By late November 1914, the war reached a
deadlock along the Western Front as neither side gained much ground. The
battlefront extended more than 720 kilometres across Belgium and northeastern
France to the border of Switzerland. The deadlock on the Western Front lasted
nearly 3-1 years.
The Eastern Front. Russia's mobilization on the Eastern Front moved faster than Germany
expected. By late August 1914, two Russian armies had thrust deeply into the
German territory of East Prussia. The Germans learned that the two armies had
become separated, and they prepared a battle plan. By August 31, the Germans
had encircled one Russian army in the Battle of Tannen- berg. They then chased
the other Russian army out of East Prussia in the Battle of the Masurian Lakes.
The number of Russian casualties—that is, the number of men killed,
captured, wounded, or missing—totalled about 250,000 in the two battles. The
victories made heroes of the commanders of the German forces in the east—Paul
von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.
Austria-Hungary had less success than its German ally on the Eastern
Front. By the end of 1914, Austria- Hungary's forces had attacked Serbia three
times and been beaten back each time. Meanwhile, Russia had captured much of
the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia (now part of Poland and Ukraine). By
early October, a humiliated Austro-Hungarian army had retreated into its own
territory.
Fighting elsewhere. The Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November 1914, after
Turkish ships bombarded Russian ports on the Black Sea. Turkish troops then
invaded Russia. Fighting later broke out in the Ottoman territories on the
Arabian Peninsula and in Mesopotamia (now mostly Iraq), Palestine, and Syria.
Britain stayed in control of the seas
following two naval victories over Germany in 1914. The British then kept
Germany's surface fleet bottled up in its home waters during most of the war.
As a result, Germany relied on submarine warfare.
World War 1 quickly spread to Germany's
overseas colonies. Japan declared war on Germany in late August 1914 and drove
the Germans off several islands in the Pacific Ocean. Troops from Australia and
New Zealand seized other German colonies in the Pacific. By mid-
1915, most of Germany's empire in Africa
had fallen to British forces. However, fighting continued in German East Africa
(now Tanzania) for two more years.
The deadlock on the Western Front
By 1915, the opposing sides had dug
themselves into a system of trenches that zigzagged along the Western Front.
From the trenches, they defended their positions and launched attacks. The
Western Front remained deadlocked in trench warfare until 1918.
Trench warfare. The
typical front-line trench was about 1.8 to 2.4 metres deep and wide
enough for two men to pass. Dugouts in the sides of the trenches protected men
during enemy fire. Support trenches ran behind the front-line trenches.
Off-duty soldiers lived in dugouts in the support trenches. Troops and supplies
moved to the battlefront through a network of communications trenches.
Barbed wire helped protect the front-line trenches from surprise attacks. Field
artillery was set up behind the support trenches.
Between the enemy lines lay a stretch of ground called "no man's
land." No man's land varied from less than 27 metres wide at some points
to more than 1.6 kilometres wide at others. In time, artillery fire tore up the
earth, making it very difficult to cross no man's land during an attack.
Soldiers generally served at the front
line from a few days to a week and then rotated to the rear for a rest.
Life in the trenches was miserable. The
smell of dead bodies lingered in the air, and rats were a constant problem.
Soldiers had trouble keeping dry, especially in water-logged areas of Belgium.
Except during an attack, life fell into a dull routine. Some soldiers stood
guard. Others repaired the trenches, kept telephone lines in order, brought
food from behind the battle lines, or did other jobs. At night, patrols fixed the
barbed wire and tried to get information about the enemy.
Enemy artillery and machine guns kept each
side pinned in the trenches. Yet the Allies repeatedly tried to blast a gap in
the German lines. Allied offensives (assaults) followed a pattern.
First, artillery bombarded the enemy front-line trenches. The infantry then
attacked as commanders shouted, "Over the top!" Soldiers scrambled
out of trenches and began the dash across no man's land with fixed bayonets.
They hurled grenades
into enemy trenches and struggled through
the barbed wire. But the artillery
bombardment seldom wiped out all resistance, and so enemy machine guns
slaughtered wave after wave of advancing infantry. Even if the attackers broke
through the front line, they ran into a second
line of defences. Thus, the Allies never cracked the enemy's defensive
power.
Both the Allies and the Central Powers
developed new weapons, which they hoped would break the deadlock. In April 1915, the Germans first released poison gas
over Allied lines in the Second Battle of Ypres. The fumes caused vomiting and
suffocation. But German commanders had little faith in the gas, and they failed to I seize that opportunity to
launch a major attack. The Allies also began to use poison gas soon
thereafter, and gas masks became necessary equipment in the trenches. Another
new weapon was the flame thrower, which shot out a stream of burning fuel.
The Battle of Verdun. As chief of the German General Staff, Falkenhayn decided in early 1916
to concentrate on killing enemy soldiers. He hoped that the Allies would
finally lack the troops to continue the war. Falken- hayn chose to attack the
French city of Verdun. He believed that France would defend Verdun to the last
man. Fierce bombardment began on February 21.
Joffre, commander of the French armies,
felt that the loss of Verdun would severely damage French morale. Through
spring and summer, the French forces held off the attackers. As Falkenhayn
predicted, France kept pouring men into the battle. However, Falkenhayn had not
expected the battle to take nearly as many German lives as French lives. He
halted the unsuccessful assault in July 1916. The next month, Hindenburg and
Luden- dorff—the two German heroes of the Eastern Front—replaced Falkenhayn on
the Western Front Hindenburg became chief of the General Staff. Ludendorff, his
top aide, planned German strategy.
General Henri Petain had organized the
defence of Verdun and was hailed a hero by France. The Battle of Verdun became
a symbol of the terrible destructiveness of modern war. French casualties
totalled about 315,000 men, and German casualties about 280,000. The city itself
was practically destroyed.
The Battle of the Somme. The Allies planned a major offensive for 1916 near the Somme River in France.
The Battle of Verdun had drained France. Thus, the Somme offensive became
mainly the responsibility of the British under General Douglas Haig.
The Allies attacked on July 1,1916. Within
hours, Britain had suffered nearly 60,000 casualties—its worst loss in one day
of battle. Fierce fighting went on into autumn, in September, Britain
introduced the first primitive tanks. But the tanks were too unreliable and too
few in number to make a difference in the battle. Haig finally halted the
useless attack in November. At terrible cost, the Allies had gained about 11
kilometres. The Battle of the Somme caused more than 1 million casualties—over
Germans, over 400,000 British, and nearly French.
In spite of the tragic losses at Verdun and the Somme, the Western Front stood
as solid as ever at the end of 1916.
The war on other fronts
During 1915 and 1916, World War I spread
to Italy and throughout the Balkans, and activity increased on other fronts.
Some Allied military leaders believed that the creation of new battlefronts
would break the deadlock on the Western Front. But the war's expansion had
little effect on the deadlock.
The Italian Front. Italy had stayed out of World War I during 1914, even though it was a
member of the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany. Italy claimed
that it was under no obligation to honour the agreement because Austria-Hungary
had not gone to war in self-defence. In May 1915, Italy entered World War I on
the side of the Allies. In a secret treaty, the Allies promised to give Italy
some of Austria-Hungary's territory after the war. In return, Italy promised to
attack Austria-Hungary.
The Italians, led by General Luigi
Cadorna, hammered away at Austria-Hungary for two years in a series of battles
along the Isonzo River in Austria-Hungary. Italy suffered enormous casualties
but gained very little territory. The Allies hoped that the Italian Front
would help Russia by forcing Austria-Hungary to shift some troops away from the
Eastern Front. Such a shift occurred, but it did not help Russia.
The Dardanelles. After World War I began, the Ottoman Empire closed the waterway between
the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. It thereby blocked the sea route to
southern Russia. French and British warships attacked the Dardanelles, a strait
that formed part of the waterway, in February and March 1915. The Allies hoped
to open a supply route to Russia. However, underwater mines halted the assault.
In April 1915, the Allies landed troops on
the Gallipoli Peninsula on the west shore of the Dardanelles. Troops from
Australia and New Zealand played a key role in the landing. Ottoman and Allied
forces soon became locked in trench warfare. A second invasion in August at
Suvla Bay to the north failed to end the standstill. In December, the Allies
began to evacuate their troops. They had suffered about 250,000 casualties in
the Dardanelles.
Eastern Europe. In May 1915, the armies of Germany and Austria-Hungary broke through
Russian lines in Galicia, the Austro-Hungarian province that Russia had
invaded in 1914. The Russians retreated about 480 kilometres before they formed
a new line of defence. In spite of the setback, Czar Nicholas II staged two
offensives to relieve the pressure on the Allies on the Western Front. The
first Russian offensive, in March 1916, failed to pull German troops away from
Verdun.
The second Russian offensive began in June
1916 under General Alexei Brusilov. Brusilov's army drove Austria-Hungary's
forces back about 80 kilometres. Within a few weeks, Russia captured about
200,000 prisoners. To halt the assault, Austria-Hungary had to shift troops
from the Italian Front to the Eastern Front. The Russian offensive nearly
knocked Austria-Hungary out of the war. But it also exhausted Russia. Each side
suffered about a million casualties.
Bulgaria entered World War I in October
1915 to help Austria-Hungary defeat Serbia. Bulgaria hoped to recover land it
had lost in the Second Balkan War. In an effort to aid Serbia, the Allies
landed troops in Salonika, Greece. But the troops never reached Serbia. By
November, the Central Powers had overrun Serbia, and Serbia's army had
retreated to Albania.
Romania joined the Allies in August 1916.
It hoped to gain some of Austria-Hungary's territory if the Allies won the war.
By the end of 1916, Romania had lost most of its army, and Germany controlled
the country's valuable wheat fields and oil fields.
The war at sea. Great Britain's control of the seas during World War I caused serious
problems for Germany. The British navy blockaded German waters, preventing
supplies from reaching German ports. By 1916, Germany suffered a shortage of
food and other goods.
Germany combated British sea power with
its submarines, called U-boats.
In February 1915, Germany declared a submarine blockade of the British Isles
and warned that it would attack any ship that tried to get through the
blockade. Thereafter, U-boats destroyed great amounts of goods heading for
Britain.
On May 7, 1915, a U-boat torpedoed without
warning the British passenger liner Lusitania
off the coast of Ireland. Among the 1,198 passengers who died were 128
Americans. The sinking of the Lusitania
led U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to urge Germany to give up unrestricted
submarine warfare. In September, Germany agreed not to attack neutral or
passenger ships.
The warships that Britain and Germany had
raced to build before World War I remained in home waters during most of the
war. There, they served to discourage an enemy invasion. The only major
encounter between the two navies was the Battle of Jutland. It was fought off
the coast of Denmark on May 31 and June 1, 1916. Admiral Sir John Jellicoe
commanded a British fleet of 150 warships. He faced a German fleet of 99
warships under the command of Admiral Reinhard Scheer. In spite of Britain's
superior strength, Jellicoe acted cautiously. He feared that he could lose the
entire war in a day because the destruction of Britain's fleet would give
Germany control of the seas. Both sides claimed victory in the Battle of
Jutland. Although Britain lost more ships than Germany, it still ruled the
seas.
The war in the air. Great
advances in aviation were made by the Allies and the Central Powers during
World War I. Each side competed to produce better aeroplanes than the other.
Aeroplanes were used mainly to observe enemy activities. The pilots carried
guns to shoot down enemy planes. But a pilot risked shooting himself if a
bullet bounced off the propeller.
In 1915, Germany developed a machine gun
timed to fire between an aeroplane's revolving propeller blades. The invention
made air combat more deadly and led to dogfights— clashes between enemy
aircraft. A pilot who shot down 5 or more enemy planes was called an ace. Many
aces became national heroes. Germany's Baron Manfred von Richthofen, who was
known as the Red Baron, shot down 80 planes, more than any other ace. Other
famous aces included Billy Bishop of Canada,
Rene Fonck of France, Edward Mannock of
Great Britain, and Eddie Rickenbacker of the United States.
Aerial bombing remained in its early
stages during World War I. In 1915, Germany began to bomb London and other
British cities from airships called zeppelins. But bombing had little
effect on the war.
The final stage
Allied failures. During 1917, French and British military leaders still hoped that a
successful offensive could win the war. But German leaders accepted the
deadlock on the Western Front and improved German defences.
In March 1917, German troops were moved
back to a strongly fortified new battle line in northern France. It was called
the Siegfried Line by the Germans and the Hindenburg Line by the Allies. The
Siegfried Line shortened the Western Front and placed German artillery and
machine guns to best advantage. It also led to the failure of an offensive planned
by France.
General Robert Nivelle had replaced Joffre
as commander in chief of French forces in December 1916. Nivelle planned a
major offensive near the Aisne River and predicted he would smash through the
German line within two days. Nivelle's enthusiasm inspired the French troops.
Germany's pullback to the Siegfried Line did not shake Nivelle's confidence.
In April 1917, shortly before Nivelle's
offensive began, Canadian forces seized a hill called Vimy Ridge. Many Allied
troops had fallen in earlier attempts to dislodge the Germans from that height
in northern France.
Nivelle's offensive opened on April
16,1917. By the end of the day, it was clear that the assault had failed.
But fighting continued into May. Mutinies
broke out among the French forces after Nivelle's offensive collapsed. The
troops had had enough of the pointless bloodshed and the horrid conditions on
the Western Front. They no longer had faith in their leaders. Men who had
fought bravely for almost three years refused to go on fighting. Petain, the
hero of Verdun, replaced Nivelle in May 1917. Petain improved the soldiers'
living conditions and restored order. He promised that France would remain on
the defensive until it was ready to fight again. Meanwhile, any further offensives
on the Western Front remained Britain's responsibility.
General Haig was hopeful that a British
offensive near Ypres would lead to victory. The Third Battle of Ypres, also
known as the Battle of Passchendaele, began on July 31, 1917. For more than
three months, British troops and a small French force pounded the Germans in an
especially terrible campaign. Heavy Allied bombardment before the infantry
attack began had destroyed the drainage system around Ypres. Drenching rains
then turned the water-logged land into a swamp where thousands of British
soldiers drowned. Snow and ice finally halted the disastrous battle on November
10. In late November, Britain used tanks to break through the Siegfried Line.
But the failure at Ypres had used up the troops Britain needed to follow up
that success.
In 1917, first France and then Britain
thus saw their hopes for victory shattered. Austria-Hungary drove the Italians
out of its territory in the Battle of Caporetto in the autumn. A revolution in
Russia made the Allied situation seem even more hopeless.
The Russian Revolution. The Russian people suffered greatly during World War I. By 1917, many
of them were no longer willing to put up with the enormous casualties and the
severe shortages of food and fuel. They blamed Czar Nicholas II and his
advisers for the country's problems. Early in 1917, an uprising in Pet- rograd
(now St. Petersburg) forced Nicholas from the throne. The new government
continued the war.
To weaken Russia's war effort further,
Germany helped V. I. Lenin, a Russian revolutionary then living in Switzerland,
return to his homeland in April 1917. Seven months later, Lenin led an uprising
that gained control of Russia's government. Lenin immediately called for peace
talks with Germany. World War I had ended on the Eastern Front.
Germany dictated harsh peace terms to
Russia in a peace treaty signed in Brest-Litovsk, Russia, on March 3, 1918. The
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk forced Russia to give up large amounts of territory,
including Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Baltic States—Estonia,
Livonia (now Latvia), and Lithuania. The end of the fighting on the Eastern
Front freed German troops for use on the Western Front. The only obstacle to a
final German victory seemed to be the entry of the United States into the war.
The United States enters the war. At the start of World War I, U.S. President Wilson had declared the
neutrality of the United States. Most Americans opposed U.S. involvement in a
European war. But the sinking of the Lusitania and other German actions
against civilians drew American sympathies to the Allies.
Several events early in 1917 persuaded the
United States government to enter World War I. In February, Germany returned to
unrestricted submarine warfare, which it assumed might bring the United States
into the war. But German military leaders believed that they could still win
the war by cutting off British supplies.
They expected their U-boats to starve
Britain into surrendering within a few months, long before the United States
had fully prepared for war.
Tension between the United States and
Germany increased after the British intercepted and decoded a message from
Germany's foreign minister, Arthur Zim- mermann, to the German ambassador to
Mexico. The message, known as the "Zimmermann note," revealed a
German plot to persuade Mexico to go to war against the United States. The
British gave the message to Wilson, and it was published in the United States
early in March. Americans were further enraged after U-boats sank several
U.S. cargo ships.
On April 2, Wilson called for war, stating
that "the world must be made safe for democracy." Congress declared
war on Germany on April 6. Few people expected that the United States would
make much of a contribution toward ending the war.
Mobilization. The United States entered World War I unprepared for battle. Strong
antiwar feelings had hampered efforts to prepare for war. After declaring war,
the government worked to stir up enthusiasm for the war effort. Government
propaganda pictured the war as a battle for liberty and democracy. People who
still opposed the war faced increasingly unfriendly public opinion. They could
even be brought to trial under wartime laws forbidding statements that might
harm the successful progress of the war.
During World War I, U.S. government
agencies directed the nation's economy toward the war effort. President
Wilson put financier Bernard M. Baruch in charge of the War Industries Board,
which turned factories into producers of war materials. The Food
Administration, headed by businessman Herbert Hoover, controlled the prices,
production, and distribution of food. Americans observed "meatless"
and "wheatless" days in order that food could be sent to Europe.
Manpower was the chief contribution of the
United States to World War I. The country entered the war with a Regular Army
of only about 126,000 men. It soon organized conscription requiring all men
from 21 to 30 years old to register for military service. The age range was
broadened to 18 to 45 in 1918. A lottery determined who served. Many men
enlisted voluntarily, and women signed up as nurses and office workers. The
U.S. armed forces had almost 5 million men and women by the end of the war. Of
that number, about 2| million men had been conscripted. Few soldiers received
much training before going overseas because the Allies urgently needed them.
Before U.S. help could reach the Western
Front, the Allies had to overcome the U-boat threat in the Atlantic. In May
1917, Britain began to use a convoy system, by which cargo ships went to
sea in large groups escorted by warships. The U-boats proved no match for the
warships, and Allied shipping losses dropped sharply.
American troops in Europe. The soldiers sent to Europe by the U.S. Army made up the American
Expeditionary Forces (AEF). General John J. Pershing, commander of the AEF,
arrived in France in mid-June 1917. The first troops landed later that month.
Pershing told U.S. military authorities that he needed 3 million American
troops, a third of them within the next year. The American officials were
shocked. They had planned to send only 650,000 troops in that time. In the end,
about 2 million Americans served in Europe.
Britain, France, and Italy knew well how
desperately they needed U.S. manpower by the autumn of 1917. In November, the
Allies formed the Supreme War Council to plan strategy. They decided to make
their strategy defensive until U.S. troops reached the Western Front. The
Allies wanted Americans to serve as replacements and fill out their battered
ranks. But Pershing was convinced that the AEF would make a greater
contribution by fighting as an independent unit. The argument was the major
wartime dispute between the Europeans and their American ally. Pershing
generally held firm, though at times he lent troops to France and Britain.
The last campaigns. The end of the war on the Eastern Front boosted German hopes for
victory. By early 1918, German forces outnumbered the Allies on the Western
Front. In spring, Germany staged three offensives. Ludendorff counted on
delivering a crushing blow to the Allies before large numbers of American
troops reached the front. Fie relied on speed and surprise.
Germany first struck near St-Quentin, a
city in the Somme River Valley, on March 21, 1918. By March 26, British troops
had retreated about 50 kilometres. In late March, the Germans began to bombard
Paris. Their enormous guns hurled shells up to 120 kilometres. After the
disaster at St.-Quentin, Allied leaders met to plan a united defence. In April,
they appointed General Ferdinand Foch of France to be the supreme commander of
all the Allied forces on the Western Front.
A second German offensive began on April 9
along the Lys River in Belgium. British troops fought stubbornly, and Ludendorff
called off the attack on April 30. The Allies suffered heavy losses in both
assaults, but German casualties were nearly as great.
Germany attacked a third time on May 27
near the Aisne River. By May 30, German troops had reached the Marne River.
American soldiers helped France stop the German advance at the town of
Chateau-Thierry, less than 80 kilometres northeast of Paris. During June, U.S.
troops drove the Germans out of Belleau Wood, a forested area near the Marne.
German forces crossed the Marne on July 15. Foch ordered a counterattack near
the town of Soissons on July 18.
The Second Battle of the Marne was fought
from July 15 to Aug. 6,1918. It marked the turning point of World War I. After
winning the battle, the Allies advanced steadily. On August 8, Britain and
France attacked the Germans near Amiens. By early September, Germany had lost
all the territory it had gained since spring.
The last offensive of World War I began on
Sept. 26, 1918. About 900,000 U.S. troops participated in heavy fighting
between the Argonne Forest and the Meuse River. Ludendorff realized that
Germany could no longer overcome the superior strength of the Allies.
The fighting ends. The Allies won victories on all fronts in the autumn of 1918. Bulgaria
surrendered on September 29. British forces under the command of General Edmund
Allenby triumphed over the Ottoman army in Palestine and Syria. On October 30,
the Ottoman Empire signed an armistice. The last battle between Italy and
Austria-Hungary began in late October in Italy. Italy, with support from France
and Great Britain, defeated Austria-Hungary near the town of Vittorio Veneto.
Austria-Hungary signed an armistice on November 3.
Germany teetered on the edge of collapse as the war continued through
October. Britain's naval blockade had nearly starved the German people, and
widespread discontent led to riots and rising demands for peace. Kaiser
Wilhelm gave up his throne on November 9 and fled to the Netherlands. An Allied
delegation headed by Foch met with German representatives in a railway carriage
in the Compiegne Forest in northern France.
In the early morning on Nov. 11, 1918, the
Germans accepted the armistice terms demanded by the Allies. Germany agreed to
evacuate the terrorities it had taken during the war; to surrender large
numbers of arms, ships, and other war materials; and to allow the Allied powers
to occupy German territory along the Rhine River. Foch ordered the fighting to
stop on the Western Front at 11 a.m. World War I was over.
Consequences of the war
Destruction and casualties. World War I caused immeasurable destruction. Nearly 10 million soldiers
died as a result of the war—far more than had died in all the wars during the
previous 100 years. About 21 million men were wounded. The enormously high
casualties resulted partly from the destructive powers of new weapons,
especially the machine gun. Military leaders contributed to the slaughter by
failing to adjust to the changed conditions of warfare. In staging offensives,
they ordered soldiers armed with bayonets into machine-gun fire. Only in the
last year of the war did generals successfully use tanks and new tactics.
Germany and Russia each suffered about 11
million battle deaths during World War 1—more than any other country. France had the highest percentage of battle deaths
in relation to its total number of servicemen, it lost about 11 million soldiers, or 16 per cent of those
mobilized. No one knows how many civilians died of disease, starvation, and
other war-related causes. Some historians
believe as many civilians died as soldiers.
Property damage in World War I was
greatest in France and Belgium. Armies destroyed farms and villages as they
passed through them or, even worse, dug in for battle. The fighting wrecked
factories, bridges, and railway tracks. Artillery shells, trenches, and chemicals
made barren the land along the Western Front
Economic consequences. World War I cost the fighting nations a total of about 337 billion U.S.
dollars. By 1918, the war was costing about 10 million an hour. Nations raised
part of the money to pay for the war through income taxes and other taxes. But
most of the money came from borrowing, which created huge debts. Governments
borrowed from citizens by selling war bonds. The Allies also borrowed heavily
from the United States. In addition, most governments printed extra money to
meet their needs. But the increased money supply caused severe inflation after
the war.
The problem of war debts lingered after
World War I ended. The Allies tried to reduce their debts by demanding reparations
(payments for war damages) from the Central Powers, especially Germany.
Reparations worsened the economic problems of the defeated countries and did
not solve the problems of the victors.
World War I seriously disrupted economies.
Some businesses shut down after workers left for military service. Other firms
shifted to the production of war materials. To direct production toward the
war effort, governments took greater control over the economy than ever before.
Most people wanted a return to private enterprise after the war. But some
people expected government to continue to solve economic problems.
The countries of Europe had poured their
resources into World War I, and they came out of the war exhausted. France,
for example, had lost nearly one-tenth of its work force. In most European
countries, many returning soldiers could not find jobs. In addition, Europe
lost many of the markets for its exports while producing war goods. The United
States however, emerged with increased economic power.
Political consequences. World War I shook the
foundations of several governments.
Democratic governments in Britain and France withstood the stress of the war.
But four monarchies toppled. The first monarch to fall was Czar Nicholas II of
Russia in 1917. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Emperor Charles of Austria- Hungary
left their thrones in 1918. The Ottoman sultan, Muhammad VI, fell in 1922.
The collapse of old empires led to the creation ot new countries in the
years after World War I. The pre- war territory of Austria-Hungary formed the
independent republics of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, as well as
parts of Italy, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Russia and Germany also gave
up territory to Poland Finland and the Baltic States—Estonia, Latvia, and
Lithuania—gained independence from Russia. Most Arab lands in the Ottoman
Empire were placed under the control of France and Britain. The rest of the
Ottoman Empire became Turkey. European leaders took national groups into
account in redrawing the map of Europe and thus strengthened the cause of
nationalism.
World War I gave the Communists a chance
to seize power in Russia. Some people expected Communist revolutions to break
out elsewhere in Europe. Revolutionary movements gained strength after the
war, but Communist governments did not take hold.
Social consequences. World War I brought enormous
changes in society. The death of so many young men affected France more than
other countries. During the 1920's, France's population dropped because of a
low birth rate. Millions of people were uprooted by the war. Some fled war-torn
areas and later found their houses, farms, or villages destroyed. Others became
refugees as a result of changes in governments and national borders,
especially in central and eastern Europe.
Many people chose not to resume their old
way of life after World War I. Urban areas grew as peasants settled in cities
instead of returning to farms. Women filled jobs in offices and factories after
men went to war, and they were reluctant to give up their new independence.
Many countries granted women the vote after the war.
The distinction between social classes
began to blur as a result of World War I, and society became more democratic. The
upper classes, which had traditionally governed, lost some of their power and
privilege after having led the world into an agonizing war. Men of all classes
had faced the same danger and horror in the trenches.
Finally, World War I transformed attitudes.
Middle- and upper-class Europeans lost the confidence and optimism they had
felt before the war. Many people began to question long-held ideas. For
example, few Europeans before the war had doubted their right to force European
culture on the rest of the world. But the destruction and bloodshed of the war
shattered the belief in the superiority of European civilization.
The peace settlement
The Fourteen Points. In January 1918, 10 months before World War I ended, President Woodrow
Wilson of the United States proposed a set of war aims called the Fourteen
Points. Wilson believed that the Fourteen Points would bring about a just peace
settlement, which he termed "peace without victory." In November
1918, Germany agreed to an armistice. Germany expected the settlement to be
based on the Fourteen Points.
Eight of Wilson's Fourteen Points dealt
with specific political and territorial settlements. The rest of them set forth
general principles aimed at preventing future wars. The last point proposed the
establishment of an international association—later called the League of
Nations—to maintain the peace. See Wilson, Woodrow (The Fourteen Points).
The Paris Peace Conference. In January 1919, representatives of the victorious powers gathered in
Paris to draw up the peace settlement. They came from 32 nations. Committees
worked out specific proposals at the Paris Peace Conference. But the decisions
were made by four heads of government called the Big Four. The Big Four
consisted of U.S. President Wilson, Britain's Prime Minister David Lloyd
George, France's Premier Georges Clemenceau, and Italy's Premier Vittorio
Orlando.
The Paris Peace Conference largely
disregarded the lofty principles of the Fourteen Points. The major European
Allies had sacrificed far more than the Americans and wanted to be paid back.
Wilson focused his efforts on the creation of the League of Nations. He yielded
to France and Britain on many other issues.
In May 1919, the peace conference approved
the treaty and presented it to Germany. Germany agreed to it only after the
Allies threatened to invade. With grave doubts, German representatives signed
the treaty in the Palace of Versailles near Paris on June 28, 1919.
In addition to the Treaty of Versailles
with Germany, the peacemakers drew up separate treaties with the other Central
Powers. The Treaty of St.-Germain was signed with Austria in September 1919,
the Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria in November 1919, the Treaty of Trianon
with Hungary in June 1920, and the Treaty of Sevres with the Ottoman Empire in
August 1920.
Provisions of the treaties that
officially ended World War I stripped the Central Powers of territory and arms
and required them to pay reparations. Germany was punished especially
severely. One clause in the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to accept responsibility
for causing the war.
Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany
gave up territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, and Poland and
lost its overseas colonies. France gained control of coal fields in Germany's
Saar Valley for 15 years. An Allied military force, paid for by Germany, was to
occupy the west bank of the Rhine River for 15 years. Other clauses in the
treaty limited Germany's armed forces and required the country to turn over war
materials, ships, livestock, and other goods to the Allies. A total sum for
reparations was not set until 1921. Germany received a bill for about 33
billion U.S. dollars.
The Treaty of St. Germain and the Treaty
of Trianon reduced Austria and Hungary to less than a third of their former
area. The treaties recognized the independence of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and a
kingdom that later became Yugoslavia. Those new states, along with Italy and
Romania, received territory that had belonged to Austria-Hungary. The Treaty
of Sevres took Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Syria away from the Ottoman Empire.
Bulgaria lost territory to Greece and Romania. Germany's allies also had to
reduce their armed forces and pay reparations.
The postwar world. The peacemakers found it impossible to satisfy the hopes and ambitions
of every nation and national group. The settlements they drew up disappointed
both the victors and the defeated powers.
In creating new borders, the peacemakers considered the wishes of
national groups. However, territorial claims overlapped in many cases. For
example, Romania gained a chunk of land with a large Hungarian population, and
parts of Czechoslovakia and Poland had many Germans. Such settlements
heightened tensions between countries. In addition, some Arab nations were
bitter because they had failed to gain independence.
Certain borders created by the peace
settlements made little economic sense. For example, the new countries of
Austria and Hungary were small and weak and unable
to support themselves. They had lost most of their population, resources, and
markets. Austria's largely German population had wanted to unite with Germany.
But the peacemakers did not want Germany to gain territory from the war.
Among the European Allies, Britain entered
the postwar world the most content.
The nation had kept its empire and
control of the seas. But Britain worried that the balance of power it wanted in
Europe could be upset by a severely weakened Germany and a victory by the Communists in a civil war in Russia.
France had succeeded in imposing harsh terms on Germany—its traditional foe— but not in safeguarding its borders.
France had failed to obtain a guarantee of aid from Britain and the United
States in the event of a German invasion. Finally, Italy had gained less
territory than it had been promised and felt it deserved.
In the United States, the Senate reflected
public opinion and failed to approve the Treaty of Versailles. It thereby
rejected President Wilson. The treaty would have made the United States a
member of the League of Nations. Many Americans were not yet ready to accept
the responsibilities that went along with their country's new power. They
feared that the League of Nations would entangle the country in European
disputes.
The Treaty of Versailles imposed harsher
terms than Germany had expected. The responsibility of having accepted those
terms weakened Germany's postwar government. During the 1930's, a strongly
nationalist movement led by Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany. Hitler
promised to ignore the Treaty of Versailles and to avenge Germany's defeat in World War I. In 1939, Germany invaded
Poland. World War II had begun.
Forces, materials, and weapons
Air force
Airship
Army
Artillery
Aviation
Chemical-biological-radiological warfare
Navy
Machine gun
Submarine
Camouflage
Tank
Car (World War I)
Treaties
Treaty of Saint Germain
Treaty of Sevres
Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Versailles
Outline
Causes of the war
The rise of nationalism
A build-up of military might
Competition for colonies
A system of military alliances
Beginning of the war
The assassination of an archduke
How the conflict spread C The Western
Front
The Eastern Front
Fighting elsewhere
The deadlock on the Western Front
Trench warfare
The Battle of Verdun
The war on other fronts
The Italian Front
The Dardanelles
Eastern Europe
The war at sea
The war in the air
The final stage
Allied failures
The Russian Revolution
The United States enters the war
Consequences of the war
Destruction and casualties
Economic consequences
Political consequences D. Social
consequences
The peace settlement
The Fourteen Points
The Paris Peace Conference
Provisions of the treaties
The postwar world
Questions
What were the four chief causes of World
War I?
What country first used poison gas in
World War I? What country first used tanks?
Which World War I heads of government made
up the Big Four?
Which countries formed the Triple Entente?
The Triple Alliance?
How did the two alliances differ?
How did Germany combat British naval power
during World War I?
What was the chief contribution made by
the United States to World War I?
What was the Schlieffen Plan in World War
I?
Why was the First Battle of the Marne a
key Allied victory?
Why did French troops mutiny in 1917?
Why did French troops mutiny in 1917?
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