According to Bullington:

WWI and the Treaty of Versailles

Test 2: Friday, Sept. 19. 2008

Expected Test Outline:

1. German invasion of France
2. The Search for Allies
3. Causes of U.S. Entrance
4. Russia’s exit
5. Treaty of Versailles and the Big Four
6. Related ideologies/actions (interspersed in guide)

I. German Invasion of France

Review: August 1, 1914 – Schlieffen Plan

Enter France from behind
Rebuff Russian forces
Leave Austria to crush Serbia

1st Battle of the Marne

Germans enter on Marne River @ N France
France is shocked, staggered, stricken, & slow to react

Von Moltke wants to stop the army and march to Paris

He stops them, at least… (changes are slow without
fancy communications technology
But then France figures out what’s going on and moves
its soldiers (thanks to Paris taxi drivers) to the new front

For the next 4 years, the war in France is fought largely

in the NE territory around the Marne.

Other developments:
Poison gas developed (first used by French, but they
died from it that time: not so smart)
 Food problems – Germany is isolated from the sea by
British navy; they’re starvin’! So they opt for submarine
warfare.

Slow progress – By 1915, everybody’s figured out that

this is going to be a drawn-out war of attrition (in which
each enemy tries to exhaust the other until they surrender).

Which leads us to…

II. The Search for Allies

Everybody needs help. Some notable sucking-up attempts:

1. McMahon-Hussein Correspondence
Between: Jordan and Britain
Playing on: Arab Nationalism
Promise: If Jordan revolts against Ottomans, Hussein (leader
of Jordan) will get custodial control of Jerusalem—and
independence for Jordan.
Reasoning: Jordan, imperialized by Turkey, is more
fundamentally Arabic than secular, European Turkey.

Notes: Origin of Arab claim to Jerusalem.

Not fulfilled by T. of Versailles. Angry Arabs result.

2. Irrendentia
Between: Italy and Britain
Playing on: Italian Nat’lism
Promise: If Italy joins Britain, it gets Adriatic land
Reasoning: Italy wants Adriatic!

Notes: Not fulfilled by Versailles either. Mussolini results!

3. Balfour Declaration
Between: U.S. and Britain
Playing on: Zionism
(Zionism = Resistance to anti-Semitism; call for Jewish
homeland)
Promise: If U.S. Zionists get America into the war, they can
have Palestine and Jerusalem
Reasoning: Zionists need land for Zion; Jews have suffered
Diaspora (scattering of their people across the world)

Notes: Obviously, Britain is overlapping its promises. This is

not going to be good for Arab/Israeli future.

Finally, in April 1917, Britain gets the U.S. to enter the war.
Why?...

III. Reasons for U.S. Involvement

1. Anglophilia

2. Propaganda
“Innocent Belgium”; “Germany Started War”
Britain controls Trans-Atlantic cable!

3. Sabotage
--? He didn’t really go into this.

4. Unrestricted Sub warfare

Germany started it in 1915 to get even with Britain’s
blockade; they paused for a time and then continued in
1917, at which point they started sinking ships without
warning.

5. Financial Institutions
U.S. Banks had money invested in loans to Britain
and its allies
If Germany won, there would be financial problems
for US in Central America
--Similar to 1954 situation in Guatemala, where US
crushed diplomatic uprising in favor of United Fruits
Company’s interests

6. Zionism (see above)

7. Zimmerman Telegram
April 1917 – Germany assumes we’re entering already,
so throws caution to the wind.
Brits use Arabs to “neutralize” Turks; Germany uses
Mexico to slow U.S.
Germany assumes Mexico hates us: we stole their
land in Mex. Cession—don’t they want their land back,
like Europeans would?

So, the telegram says: If Mexico declares war on US, it will

get the Mex. Cession back.

BUT: In 1917, Mexican Revolution has been going for 7

years. President Carranza is still dealing with Pancho Villa.
He can’t declare war!

Anyway, Zimmerman’s telegram (to von Echardt in New

York) doesn’t get through (INTERCEPT’D!)

Wilson interprets it as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine

(1823), and invokes the Roosevelt Corollary (1901-ish).

/Monroe: Europe better not mess with our sphere.

/Roosevelt: ‘Cause if they do, we have the right to police
power.

Thus the US enters the “war to end all wars” in order to

“make the world safe for democracy.” Right.

IV. Russia’s exit

1917 – US Enters war
February (March, our calendar) Revolution
-czar removed
-provisional gov’t:
“Peace, Food, and Bread” (Lenin’s promise)

October (Nov.) Revolution

-uprising ‘gainst provisional gov’t
 -Bolsheviks take power

1918 – Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

signed btwn Russia and Germany
Ends Russia’s part in war, giving lots of land to
Germany
German soldiers now free to fight only Western Front!
Can they make it before US does?

…No, they can’t. They lose. Thus:

V. Treaty of Versailles
(This section will serve as a supplement to your handout.
Please also refer to it.)

The Treaty
• Political Effects
All emperors must go! Empires  Republics

Weimar Republic (civilian gov’t in Germany) replaces

military. The civilians sign the Treaty.

League of Nations, however weak (esp. without US), is

created.

• Economic Effects
Germany saddled with all reparations thanks to Article 231.
They have to give up Saar Basin to France, etc.

• Geographic Effects
Germany gets all its land changed to new countries!
Poland from Russian cession (remember city of Danzig)
Czechoslovakia gets Sudetenland

Others:
 Austria shrunk (no unity between Germany and Austria
ever again!)
Hungary created
Romania created
Yugoslavia created

Saar Basin given to France; all resources mined by

Germans for free as reparations

• Just Plain Mean Effects

Article 231: Germany is responsible for the war. Entirely.

That’s just humiliating!

Germany (esp. Military) is pretty mad. They sign, planning

already to continue their war effort in secret.
Old officers (Ludendorf and Hindenburg) resign, training
new ones to be elite force of 100,000 (the limit acc. to the
treaty)

Result: “Ein volk, ein reich, ein fuhrer” – Radical

Imperialism and the continuity of the Great War through
1939.

Note on the Treaty: The US never ratified it, because of US

isolationist repulsion to the League of Nations.
The driving force behind that opposition was Rep.
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.

That’s about it! The rest is on your handout (the single-page

written one). If you took notes on the Guns of August video,
you may want to review them briefly, but they’re pretty
much parallel to the lecture.

Good luck!