WORLD WAR I: From Angels to Armageddon
SLOGAN
WWI: MANIA, Angels, and Armageddon |
TIMELINE
DATE |
Events and People |
Aug, 1914 |
War Begins |
June, 1914 |
Archduke Franz Ferdinand killed |
Sept, 1915 |
Britain tries gas attack, blows into wind and flies back at them. |
Dec, 1915 |
Christmas Truce |
Feb, 1916 |
British start conscription |
April, 1916 |
Battle for Gallipoli (9 months, 200k lost in impossible fight) |
May 7, 1916 |
UBoat sinks the Lusitania |
Feb-Nov, 1916 |
Battle of Verdun (1 mil died) |
July-Nov, 1916 |
Battle of the Somme (1 mil died, 50k on first day) |
Nov 7, 1916 |
Wilson re-elected Pres of US with "He kept us out of the war" |
Feb, 1917 |
Germany unleashes the UBoats against any type of ship (even neutral) |
Mar 15, 1917 |
Czar abdicates |
Apr, 1917 |
Lenin returns to Russia |
May, 1917 |
US opens draft |
July, 1917 |
AEF lands with Patton |
July-Nov, 1917 |
Battle of Passchendaele (700k casualties) |
Oct, 1917 |
Bolshevik Revolution |
Jan, 1918 |
Spanish flu pandemic (kills 50 mil worldwide by Dec, 1920) |
Apr 22, 1918 |
Baron von Richthofen killed in air dog-fight (Red Baron) |
May, 1918 |
Germans shell Paris |
July, 1918 |
Czar and family murdered |
Sept, 1918 |
Germans knew war was lost |
Nov, 1918 |
German army mutinies, Kaiser abdicates |
Nov 11, 1918 |
Armistice Day |
June 28, 1919 |
Treaty of Versailles, League Covenant agreed (US Senate refused to ratify) |
Oct 3, 2010 |
Germany makes last WWI reparations payment |
OUTLINE
Introduction: the Angel of Mons
1. The Road to Armageddon
1.1. Long Term Causes
1.1.1. Nationalism
1.1.2. Arms race
1.2. Short Term Causes
1.2.1. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1.2.2. Web of alliances
1.2.3. European religious differences
1.2.3.1. Central powers
1.2.3.2. Allied powers
1.3. Short War Illusion
2. Tactics and Technology
2.1. Germany’s Schlieffen Plan
2.2. Transition from Offensive to Defensive War
2.3. Impact of Technology
3. Where was the church?
3.1. Pope Benedict XV
3.2. Holy war rhetoric on all sides
3.3. Allenby in Jerusalem
3.4. Allenby at Megiddo – Oct 1918
4. The Paris Peace Conference: Post-War Goals
4.1. Germany’s Dictated Peace
4.2. Verdict on Versailles |
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LOCATION
Europe - Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Russia, Germany, UK, (US involvement later) |
CONCEPTS
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What were some of the tactics? Germany's Schlieffen Plan, the transition from offensive to defensive tactics.
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What were some of the Technologies? Artillery - big guns, movable cannons; machine guns (no longer single loading rifles); mustard and chlorine gas, first time of true chemical warfare; tanks; aerial warfare - fighter airplanes; flamethrowers; barbed wire; submarines - UBoats.
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Where was the church? Pope Benedict XV
Holy war rhetoric was on all sides
Allenby in Jerusalem and then Megiddo
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What were the Post-War Goals? Germany's Dictated Peace
Treaty of Versailles
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What were the causes of WWI? MANIA: Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism, Imperialism, Assassination
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PRIMARY TEXT: Selected Poetry
Siegfried Sassoon “How to Die” (1886-1967) |
Describes dying soldier watching the war around him. Uses religious imagery “to watch the glory that returns; where holy brightness breaks in flame; they’ve been taught the way to do it/ like Christian soldiers” |
Wilfred Owen “Anthem for a Doomed Youth” (1893-1918) |
Calls soldiers “these who die as cattle” and takes typical religious imagery of funeral service and inverts it with military language (choir becomes demented choirs of wailing shells; the passing-bells are the gunfire) |
Wilfred Owen “Dulce et Decorum Est” (1893-1918) |
First person description of a soldier, seeing another die. Very gross, explicit language (if you could hear,,,the blood/ come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs/ obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile). Ends by rejecting the phrase, “It is sweet and right to die for your country” |
Herbert Read “The Happy Warrior” (1893-1968) |
Describes a “happy warrior” with ironic, graphic language of a soldier with bloody saliva stabbing an already dead soldier |
W.N. Hodgson “Before Action” (1893-1916) |
Cadence of a prayer with the speaker swearing by all the things he must say goodbye to but asks that God “Make me a man, O Lord” and ends with “by all delights that I shall miss/ help me to die, O Lord” |
Wilfred Gibson “Back” (1878-1962) |
First person, when people ask him what he’s done he says it was someone else that went over there and killed people—disassociating from the trauma |
Philip Larkin “MCMXIV” aka 1964 (1922-1985) |
Describes the line of people lining up (presumably to go to war) and laments the changes to come to England, such as houses being emptied and servants lost, and at the end “Never such innocence/ Never before or since” |
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SUMMARY
Every country that was a major player in WWI used holy language - sometimes holy war, imagery of crusades, to describe what they were doing in WWI. Might seem odd, considering end of age of optimism, end of philosophical ideals. By 1918, disillusionment was widespread. Described as hell on massive industrial scale. Believed it would be a short war because of technology... War was completely drenched in religious language and belief. |
PEOPLE
Pope Benedict XV |
Elected Sept. 1914 (month after war started) by conclave that wanted someone with diplomatic experience, had only been a cardinal for 4 months. Unsuccessfully tried to stop the war, repeated Christ's exhortation to love one another. Saw origins in clash between classes, contempt for authority, striving for independence. Pleaded for Christmas truce in 1914. memorialized by Turks in Istanbul (statue - benefactor of all people); Pope of Peace Called the Treaty of Versailles vengeful. (d. 1922) |
Gavrilo Princip |
Assassinated Archduke and Sophia, his wife, on June 28, 1914. Executed April, 1918. |
Archduke Ferdinand |
Archduke of Austria-Hungary, assassinated June 28, 1914 |
Czar Nicolas II |
Cousin with King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm. Ruler of Russia. Wrote telegrams to Wilhelm to try and avert war. Executed after the October Revolution on July 17, 1918 |
Kaiser Wilhelm |
(d. 1941). Last German Kaiser, abdicated Nov, 1918; wrote telegrams to cousin Czar Nicolas to try and avert war. |
General Sir Edmund Allenby |
Entered Jerusalem in 1917, greeted as prophetic sign. Turned the Battle in the East with Migeddo (Armageddon in the Bible) that fell in 1918. Turkey sued for peace weeks later. Out of respect for Jerusalem, entered on foot. |
TERMS
Benedict XV |
Elected Sept. 1914 (month after war started) by conclave that wanted someone with diplomatic experience, had only been a cardinal for 4 months. Unsuccessfully tried to stop the war, repeated Christ's exhortation to love one another. Saw origins in clash between classes, contempt for authority, striving for independence. Pleaded for Christmas truce in 1914. memorialized by Turks in Istanbul (statue - benefactor of all people); Pope of Peace Called the Treaty of Versailles vengeful. (d. 1922) |
Treaty of Versailles |
June 28, 1919. Key point is nothing would do except total victory. Modern warfare was annihilation, unlike ancient warfare which was just to do more than the other side - see in the treaty. Pope Benedict called it vengeful. Written by the allies with no participation of the Germans, who signed it under duress. France wanted to take Germany apart (make it impossible for Germany to wage war again). 15 parts, 444 articles, included formation of League of Nations, new boundaries (Germany lost all colonies, land loss, creation of Rhineland - demilitarized zone.) Also stripped of military, had to pay reparations of self and allies totaling 96k tons of gold (last payment Oct 3, 2010). |
Allied Powers |
Consisted of Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Portugal, and US in 1917. Had a lot more territory against the central power in WWI. Central fought a two front war, always undesirable and problem of WWII when all fighting two front war. After Russia left the war, no longer 2 fronts for central powers. |
Dulce et decorum est |
Means it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. One of the primary texts - poem by Wilfred Owen, WWI poetry. |
QUOTE 1
Wilfred Owen "Dulce et Decorum Est" |
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. |
QUOTE 2
About the Treaty of Versailles |
Nothing would do except total victory! Vengeful! |
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