It will soon be test time again at the old corral. These are the essay questions we had but are not necessarily the same ones you'll get. To be safe, ask somebody in your class if you miss the day Stockmyer discusses them.
1. Darwinism and its influences on society (Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism, etc.).
2. Marxist thought (trace from capitalism and its weakness to Marxist thought and why it won't work).
3. Causes and results of World War I (not a play-by-play of the war itself, but the causes of it and the results of it–Rise of Mussolini and Hitler, etc.).
You are also supposed to read the novel All Quiet on the Western Front (by Erich Maria Remarque) for this exam.
Oh boy!! Let's play games and call it World War I. It was bad news to have two major world leagues (Triple Alliance versus Triple Entente). It destroys the Balance of Power concept. You are afraid that one of your league members will desert to the other side, so when somebody in your league acts up, you back them rather than possibly lose them cuz you don't really know who your real allies are until the fighting starts. Everybody was arming their countries like mad. Relations get worse and worse. Everyone gets ready for war cuz the leagues (Triple Alliance and Triple Entente) are making everyone more and more nervous.
The Germans had the Schlieffen Plan (named for von Schlieffen, the man who came up with it). Germany doesn't want a two-front war against Russia and France at the same time. They don't want to fight one two-front war. They would much rather fight two one-front wars. The Schlieffen Plan to prevent one two-front war was to take France out first, cuz Russia was so notoriously slow that they could be taken care of second and the English would have to get across the water after they find out what has happened. The Germans plan to throw all of their energy at taking out France and capturing Paris (which would effectively make France collapse) quickly. Then, the English won't have anywhere to land which would take the English out of the equation and the German can concentrate on the Russians. Great plan, but will it work. No one knows until it is tested.
On June 28, 1914, there was a big parade in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The next emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was there to star in the parade. A guy named Princip from the Black Hand (Serbian Nationalist group) in Serbia brought a bomb from home and blew up Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Princip was caught. The Austrians were aggravated with Serbia and this was a great excuse to declare war on Serbia. Austria checked with the German general staff and got the ok for declaring war. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Austria warned Russia to stay out of it and got no reply (the Russians are slow, remember?!), so they assumed Russia was mobilizing to come in on the side of Serbia. So, Austria declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914.
Germany and Austria start mobilizing against Russia. Germany was supposed to fight France first, according to the Schlieffen Plan, but France wasn't in the war yet which throws off the plan. So, Germany declares war on France. Germany wanted to hit Paris through Belgium (the quickest way), but Belgium didn't want the Germans trooping through their country (a major insult to a country's pride!). France is watching all of this. England says don't invade Belgium, or we will declare war. Germany hit Belgium, thereby hurting England who wanted a weak power (i.e. Belgium) across the English Channel, not a strong power like Germany. The Belgians fight heroically which slows Germany down considerably more than they had thought. Then the Germans try to hook Paris from the south, which doesn't work either. Argh.
Who's fault is World War I? Mostly Austria (due to their policies in the Balkans) and Germany (who gave Austria the ok to declare war). But, really, everybody was guilty of World War I. Russia was misbehaving as well. The real problem is that the leagues and treaties in Europe give the members a license to act crazy. Everyone is scared of everyone else. The war was initially greeted enthusiastically cuz everyone thought it would be a short war (the only wars in memory, Seven Weeks' War and Franco-Prussian War were short wars). Everybody expected a short war that could be easily won. And, of course, no one believes they will lose.
The Belgians were tougher than Germany expected. It slowed down Germany and gave England the time to strengthen Paris. Germany tried to get Paris from the south and missed. Machine guns were in big use now as well as big artillery pieces. It was sensible to dig trenches where possible and wait. There were two parallel trenches (one for one side and the other for the other side) from the English Channel to the Swiss border. There is barbed wire between these trenches and behind the trenches. The area between the trenches is called "no man's land." Germany used poison gas. In 1915, England and France gained three miles of territory with over one million casualties! This is a really grueling ugly war.
Verdun, France is an important defense post against Germany. Germans failed to take it, and 300,000 were killed. 1/3 of Germans have guns! Japan joins England and France but does very little. Turkey joins Germany and Austria cuz the Turks hate the Russians. Italy is supposed to be with Germany and Austria (according to the Triple Alliance) but they want real estate owned by Austria, so they join England and France.
The submarine is a new weapon in this war. The submarine has been perfected (da Vinci had ideas about them way back when, but they were first really tried in the U.S. Civil War). The submarines of the South in the U.S. Civil War would submerge, but wouldn't come back up. The new submarines have torpedoes (motorized bombs). Germany tried to starve England by blockading them with submarines. There were international rules of war which said it is ok to sink merchant ships but you have to stick around and take care of the crews. There's no room in submarines to take care of enemy crews. Subs can't surface or they're destroyed cuz merchant ships have guns on deck. So, the German subs violate the rules by not saving civilians. Subs irritated everyone, especially the English. The German subs are called U-Boats ("U" stands for "Under the Sea"; in German, it is something like "Unter die See Boot").
The neutral nations did great for a while cuz both sides were buying from them. The leading neutral at the start of World War I was the United States. Both sides tried to stop neutrals from trading with the enemy. England tried to stop our merchant ships from going to the continent. It was aggravating but the U.S. was basically pro-English, so we let it slide. German subs began sinking ships. The Germans thought that U.S. ships were carrying munitions to England. The Germans sank the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 off the coast of Ireland which was a big U.S. passenger ship which just happened to be carrying munitions. They figured out later that the Lusitania was carrying munitions because the torpedo hit the boat and a bit later there was a huge explosion. The Lusitania sank in 15 minutes (whereas the Titanic sank in about 2.5 hours to sink). Plus, the boards on the boat were bent inside out which is proof positive that there were explosives on board. Anyway, President Wilson of the United States was outraged. Innocent Americans had been killed!! Everybody got upset and Germany agreed not to do any more sinking (until they got bigger). The Germans decided to start capturing every English ship to clog them up. The Germans knew this would bring the U.S. into the war but they didn't care. The Germans thought we were big and disorganized like the Russians. Whoops.
On April 6th of 1917, the U.S.A. entered the war after Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on any shipping to or from Great Britain. Continental powers on both sides took away freedoms, even England. They censured newspapers, allowed searches without warrants, etc. It was ridiculous in the United States. People didn't play Bach or let any German-born conductors lead symphonies. Sauerkraut was renamed "liberty cabbage" and Dachshunds were called "liberty dogs." There was lots of propaganda that Germans nailed Belgian kids' tongues to their desks, etc.
At the end of 1917, Russia left the war. The Communists had taken over and bought Russia out of the war (officially, the armistice was signed on December 15, 1917). The Communists had taken over and bought Russia out of the war. It was bad for England and France cuz that meant it became a one-front war for Germany and Austria. But the United States had just entered with fresh troops, which made a big difference.
In the actual war, Italy didn't join the Triple Alliance like it was supposed to. They were neutral for a while, then they joined England. The Italian army collapsed against the Germans. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway is about this.
In the spring of 1918, the Germans made a big push to win the war before the U.S. could bring in all its troops. The tank was used by England and France cuz there was no anti-tank stuff then. It was the most terrifying weapon of the war. It could get over the barbed wire of the trenches. Airplanes were new and not much good yet. The United States kept modifying airplanes, but none of the U.S. planes were used in World War I. One had a machine gun that may accidentally chew off the propeller.
On November 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice. The Kaiser retired to Holland. World War I was not a quick, total victory warlike everybody expected it to be at the beginning. It was a war of Attrition. Everybody kept going until one side was forced to quit. The only way to win is to wear down the enemy. Whoever has the most manpower and industrial machinery will win. The subs weren't working like the Germans wanted toward the end. England got smart and used convoys of destroyers around their merchant ships. The armistice is signed in November of 1918.
Capitalists make lots of money on the war. Need everything everyone can give. Competition dies. The country will pay any cost to get the things it needs. Defense tells the government what it costs with a healthy profit on top for the Defense! Investors lie about cost. A lot of money was made, but this war ruined lots of people. It killed or seriously injured (physically and/or mentally) an entire generation of Europeans. Young men who returned were disillusioned and felt hopeless. The generation of this war were called the Lost Generation. There were some people who idealized the war as the great thing ever done, but most came back really disillusioned. World War I and World War II are essentially the same war with a twenty-year break. Young men are the ones doing the dying. Women were not allowed to use their brains in that time, so the best and brightest were killed.
The approximate casualties (numbers of killed or wounded) were: United States 116, 000 dead (we entered the war late), France 1,385,000 dead, England 600,000 dead, Germany 1,700,000 dead, Russia 1,700,000 dead. The French army had a 73% casualty rate. There were over eight million military dead plus over six million civilian dead. There were 21 million people wounded (in pre-penicillin days).
What happens with peace? President Wilson of the United States made a big speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, which included a plan for peace called the 14 Points. It was very moderate to both sides and really irritated the English and French who did a lot more actual dying. One of the reasons Germany surrendered was because of this speech. The 14 Points included things like freedom of the seas, no secret deals, a new Poland (hadn't been on the map for a while!) with a seaport, form nations along national patterns (common language and culture)–makes a lot of little countries, reduce armaments, etc. This doesn't happen. The English and French had really suffered tremendously during World War I and wanted someone to hurt for it! The Versailles Treaty is the treaty that officially ends World War I. Germany was treated meanly by England and France. They took away the German navy and reduced their armaments to nothing. The Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles (sound familiar?). (The United States was involved in the negotiations but never ratified this treaty–we made a separate treaty with Germany in Berlin on July 2, 1921.) The War Guilt Clause in the Versailles Treaty made Germany agree to take the entire blame for World War I–all of the loss and damage was caused by the aggression of Germany. It said that the Germans were entirely at fault for the whole war. It was used as a symbol of unfairness to Germany in years to come and lays the foundation for Hitler's Germany in coming years. It also makes Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria separate from Hungary (very small now). Poland cuts through Germany for a seaport. The League of Nations was established as an international organization to keep the peace in the Treaty of Versailles. This League of Nations was the last of Wilson's 14 Points, but the U.S. didn't join cuz of internal politics. The League didn't work. It didn't have any real power. Germany and Russia (left war early) were not allowed to join the League.