What is history?When we attempt to answer the question ‘What is history?’ our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our own position in time, and forms part of the answer to the broader question of what view we take of the society in which we live.

E. H. Carr, 1961The Historian and ‘His’ Facts/The Historian as Poet

‘I often think it odd that it should be so dull, for a great deal of it must be invention.’Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 1817

Must history be invention, at least a great deal of it?

For it was said, “that the tragic poet must be a maker of his plots rather than [merely a maker] of verse….and indeed even if it turns out that he is making [his work] out of actual events, he is none the less a poet – a maker.”

Aristotle, Poetics, 335 BCE

There is no ‘objective’ historical truthHistorical facts do not exist until the historian makes them

Historical knowledge is no more and no less than carefully and critically constructed collective memory

Why study history?

How did things get to be this way?

You should study history if you wish to learn how and why the world and its peoples came to be as they are today.

Memory is not something fixed or permanent

As the British writer L. P. Hartley once famously remarked, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.“

Historians are always at work reinterpreting the past, asking new questions, searching new sources and finding new meanings in old documents in order to bring the perspective of new knowledge and experience to bear on the task of understanding the past.

. . . the changing perspectives of historical understanding are the very best introduction we can have to the practical problems of real life…. ... ignorance of history--that is, absent or defective collective memory--does deprive us of the best available guide for public action .. .

Causes of the First World War

MANIA

Militarism: European boundaries (frontiers) were determined before the war most often through conquest. Governments and

aristocracies in Europe were dominated by military elites.

Arms Race: Specifically, Germany’s envy of Britain’s superior navy, which resulted in the construction of Dreadnought class

ships.

Nationalism: Everyone of Europe’s Great Powers developed a firm butexcessive belief in its own cultural, economic

and military supremacy. This over-confidence gave birth to a

fatal misconception: that in the event of war in

Europe, one’s own country would be victorious within a few

months.

Imperialism: By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. The

amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France

increased the rivalry with Germany who had entered the scramble

to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of

Africa. 

Alliance System: As well as seeking protection in the size of their armies, the countries of Europe sought protection

by forming alliances. Triple Alliance? Triple Entente?

Europe, 1914

Triple Entente: Britain, France, RussiaTriple Alliance: Germany, Austria – Hungary, Italy

Trouble in the Balkans Region

Trouble in the Balkans Region

Countdown to WWI: The Balkan Powder keg

Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand – Ferdinand’s assassin, is arrested

Archduke Frans Ferdinand and Princess Sophie

1. Archduke Ferdinand is assassinated by the Black Hand while visiting Bosnia.2. Blank Cheque:

Germany tells Austria-Hungary to deal with the situation using whatever means are necessary.Germany assumes Britain will remain neutral

3.Austria-Hungary prepares for war4. Ultimatum: Austria tells Serbia to hand over its terrorists (i.e. Black Hand)5. Serbia’s Reply: Accepts most conditions. Seeks clarification.

Austria sees this reply as a rejectionAustria uses this “rejection” as an excuse to declare war on Serbia

Countdown Continued…6. Russia tells Serbia to fight back using what ever means are necessary

– Russia thinks that Austria-Hungary is attempting to take over the Balkans

– Russia also mobilizes to strike at Germany

7. Germany declares War on Russia This draws France into the battle.

8. Germany declares War on France!

9. Schlieffen Plan - Germany’s plan to:– prevent a two front War– attack France through Belgium. Defeat the French and then move

east to attack the Russians who would be slow (6 weeks) to respond to the attack on France.

– Belgium’s neutrality was protected by Britain.

10. Plan backfired - Britain declares War on Germany because they entered neutral Belgium

WORLD WAR I (“The Great War”) Begins.A Failure of Diplomacy

Stalemate on the Western Front, 1914

Schlieffen Plan – Failure

Battle of Marne (Germany vs. France) slowed Germany down and allowed Russia to mobilize – creating the 2 front war that Germany hoped to avoid.

British and French could not push Germany out of France. Germany could not advance. Both sides dug trenches and prepared for a long battle.

Trench WarfareTrench warfare – static and deadly – became the norm for World War One.

Battle of Attrition - battles lacked decisive victories – producing massive casualty lists.

Total War – the complete mobilization of a nation’s resources and population

Western Front

Trench Foot

Technology Used in the Great WarMachine Guns

Accounted for most of the deaths in WWI

Artillery Guns

Poison Gas Chlorine gas

was used for the first time in the Battle of Ypres (1915)

Gas shells bursting

TANKSTanks

- not effective until near the end of the war. Could safely cross ‘no man’s land’

Tank and infantry advance

Submarines Germany used ‘U-boats’ to fire torpedoes at merchant ships

supplying Britain with materials. The goal was to starve Britain into submission.

German U-boats

Airplanes• Planes were in the

experimental stages during WWI, and were not used as a main part of battles

• Some single pilot planes were used to scout enemy positions.

• “Dogfights” often occurred between pilots.

• Sometimes “Gunners” manned machine guns while pilots flew the planes

Eastern Front, 1914-1917War of Movement

Russia surprised Germany by mobilizing faster then was anticipated, drawing German troops away from Western Front

This tactic succeed, but German forces in the east were sufficient to annihilate Russian armies

Russian Revolutions, 1917, see Germany dominate eastern Europe

V. Lenin (Bolshevik) comes to power in October, 1917

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1918

Final Days of the WarApril, 1917 – US enters war

Why did the enter the war?

US Pres. Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany ‘to make the world safe for democracy’

With a steady stream of US troops, Germany saw that it could not win war

November 11, 1918 Germany formally surrendered with the signing of an armistice (an agreement amongst warring countries to stop fighting and move to a peace conference).

Soldiers make their way on catwalks over flooded trenches and mass devastation

Military Deaths of WWIRussia

3 600 000

Germany2 000 000

France1 385 000

British Empire1 111 900

Austria-Hungary1 100 000

Italy 460 000

Turkey 375 000

USA 114 000

Prelude to Paris

The Big Three: US President Woodrow Wilson British PM David Lloyd George French PM Georges Clemenceau

No allied armies had entered Germany

Germany’s industrial capacities were intact

Political structure of Europe was in ruins

Economic upheaval across Europe

Spreading outward from malnourished Europe, an influenza attacked every continent with the return of troops from the war just ended. By 1919, it had killed an estimated 27 million people – more than the had fallen during the fighting. Because the King of Spain was one of the first to succumb, it was known as the “Spanish Flu.”

New world order for post-war security needed