World War - 1

 First World War (World War I) is considered as one of the largest wars in history. The world’s great powers assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (British Empire, France and the Russian Empire) versus the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). WWI lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918.

COURSE OF WAR :

DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS WAS HAD NO PRECEDENT IN HISTORY 

IT WAS A TOTAL WAR, BCOZ ALL THE RESOURCES OF THE WARRING STATES WERE MOBILIZES, IT AFFECTED THE ECONOMY OF ENTIRE WORLD.

FAMINES, EPIDEMICS KILLED EVEN MORE PEOPLE 

MANY RIVALRIES AND CONFLICTS EXISTED 
MOST OF THEM WERE SOLVED BY TREATIES AND PEACEFUL SETTLEMENTS , 

Asia and africa was already divided, so further conquest was only posible by war 

Unificaion of Germany --> Germany became a strong nation, left behind Britain and france in terms of steel production, Germany built largest ship of the times, Imperator that shocked the world.

Imperialist germany dreamt of expansion, built a railway line from Berlin to Baghdad, this plan further created a fear 

Italy was also becoming equally powerful as France, occupied eretria and somalis, 

Russia has her ambition sin iran, 
Japan wanted to expand towards russia and china, 
Britain from the 1st day had the most powerful empire, 

Austria had her ambitions in Ottoman empire 

States of America annexed Phillipines and see expansion of all other empires as a threat to its sovereignty 

Conflicts in Europe 

Balkan Peninsula was the main area of conflict, 
earlier it was a part of ottoman empire which had begun collapsing

Russian Czar hoped to control it

Pan Slav Movement "all slavs of Eastern Europe are Russians"

Serbian nationalism was encouraged by Russians, 

other europeans powers saw it with great suspicion 

1871- France lost Alsace Lorraine to Germany but wanted it back with revenge 

Alliances : 

very tense situation, strong navies and armies, whole europe was under a great propaganda of war 

Everybody knew that, if a war started, it will grow worldwide 

1882: Triple Alliance -- Germany, Austria-Hungry, Italy 

Triple Entente France, Russia Britain 

1904: Secret agreement between Britain & France (Egypt,Morocco)

1908:n Austria occupied Bosnia (Serbia's aggression was against Austria)

1912 : Turkey lost all empire to other nations like : Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece 

28 June 1914, Archduke assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Austria gave an ultimatum which serbia refused to accept, 28 July 1914, war was declared 

Russia gave full support to serbia, 

Germany declared war against Russia & France 

Britain declared war on Germany as it has used Belgium's ground

Japan declared a war on Germany because it wanted to acquire German's colonies in Far east 

Italy initially remained neutral, later war against Austria Hungry 

Course

Germany reached 20km of Paris 

dug trenches by the soldiers of colonies, 

Japan occupied most of German's possessions, Britain & France too 

New types of weapons, U boats, poison Gas, 

6 April 1917 , US declared war on germany because it had hit a British Ship Lusitanis, 128 americans died in the incidence, 

USA essentially supported Britain & France, because these had taken loans from USA 

and USA was the ultimate weapon supplier 

USA also had an anti German feeling 

Russia withdrew from war, because of October Revolution and made a treaty of friendship with Germany in March 1918 without annexing any territory , Germany imposed harsh punishments 

Entente Powers were opposing the revolution, as they were against Communism 

Mutinies began to start in German forces 

Britain, France & USA launched an offensive war against Germany in 1918 July, Germnay collapsed, Bulgaria withdrew the war, 

Austria Hungry surrendered , Germany become Republis, German King Kesar William II Fled to Holland, 

Peace Treaties 

allies met in Paris, Versailles 
discussions between January and july 1919 

27 parties but matter was taken up by 3 only 

Wilson, Lloyd, Clemenceau 

defeated parties were not represented 

russia was also excluded 

negotiations, imposed on defeated parties 

It was first modern industrial war due to its causes, methodology, volume of destruction and technology deployed.

Germany had already outgrown britain by 1914 in terms of steel , iron ore production and it also wanted to defeat Russia's military power so as to acquire living space for Germans upto far in Urals.

German U boats and submarine warfare proved ghastly for Britain and US warahips

Social Impacts :

short term exports from india 

birth rate declined at global level

indian soldiers deployed abroad, learned new military tactics

later these soldiers established themselves in western countries

later they led many revolutionary organisations to drive out british from india 

passage of montague chelmsford reforms, led to passage of rowlatt act 

then india's first mass movement NCM 

muslims were angry with british 

Consequences of First World War

1. Rule of King ended in Germany: Germany became a republic on November 1918. The German Emperor Kaiser William II fled to Holland.
2. Around 1 crore people were killed.
3. Unemployment and famine.
4. Epidemics.
5. The fall of Russian empire after October revolution (1917) which resulted in the formation of USSR (1922)
6. Emergence of USA as a super power.
7. Beginning of the end of European supremacy.
8. Japan became a powerful country in Asia.
9. Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia became new independent states.
10. Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithvania – became independent.
11. Rule of Ottamans came to an end in Turkey.
12. New boundary lines were drawn for Austria, Germany and Turkey.
13. Strengthened independence movements in Asia and Africa.
14. League of Nations came into being.
15. Germany had to return Alsace-Loraine to France.
16. German colonies were shared.
17. Germany gave up Saar coal field.
18. Germany gave up Polish corridor, and made city of Danzig independent.
19. Monarchy was abolished in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey and Russia.
20. The harsh clauses of the Treaty of Versailles finally resulted in the second world war.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919 in a hostile environment after the first World War intended to bring peace in Europe. It was based on the principles of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points speech (1918) which calls for self government, international peace and security through overall disarmament.

• Treaty of Versailles: Germany lost territory in Europe.
  • Alsace-Lorraine was given to France 
  • Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were made independent nations. Parts of German territory were given to Denmark, Belgium, Poland and Lithuania.
  • SAAR and DANZIG had German population but they were brought under administration of League of Nations.
• Germany was disarmed: It was barred from introducing conscription (compulsory military service). Rhineland (Germany) was made a buffer zone between France and Germany by demilitarizing it permanently.
• War Reparations: Germany was to pay 6600000000 pounds after a lot of deliberations. But it was decreased to________ million pounds later as the earlier amount was disproportionately high.
• The Treaty of Versailles was a dictated peace as the Germans were not allowed to be part of the negotiations. They could only put forward their opinion and criticism through writings. All their criticisms were ignored.
• The clause of disarmament of Germany made it virtually impotent and the reparations charged upon the Germans were unjustified.
• Ordinary German citizens felt that they were being punished for the mistakes of the German government in August 1914 as it was the government that had declared war, not the people.
• The humiliating conditions of the treaty rankled Germans for years and in many ways led to the rise of Nazism in Germany.
• The rise of Hitler was by leveraging the bitterness of Germans and came under his absolute authority.
• Hence, the allies after World War II did not want to repeat the same series of mistakes that were committed after the first world war.

Conclusion

The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Founded on 10 January 1920 following the Paris Peace Conference that ended World war I, it ceased operations on 20 April 1946.

The organization’s primary goals, as stated in its covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Its other concerns included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. The Covenant of league of Nations, was signed on 28 June 1919 as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, and it became effective together with the rest of the Treaty on 10 January 1920. The first meeting of the Council of the League took place on 16 January 1920, and the first meeting of the Assembly of the League took place on 15 November 1920. In 1919 U.S. president Woodrow Wilson Won the Nobel peace prize for his role as the leading architect of the League.

The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The League lacked its own armed force and depended on the victorious First world allies (Britain, France, Italy and Japan were the permanent members of the Executive Council) to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. The Great powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. During the Second Ithalo-Ethiopian war when the League accused Italian soldiers of targeting the International Red Cross, Benito Mussolini responded that “the League is very good when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out.”

At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. After some notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis Powers in the 1930s. The credibility of the organization was weakened by the fact that the United States never joined the League and the Soviet Union joined late and was soon expelled after invading Finland. Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain and others. The onset of World War II showed that the League had failed its primary purpose; it was inactive until its abolition. The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations(UN) replaced it in 1946 and inherited several agencies and organisations founded by the League.

League of Nations (LoN)

The League of Nations was designed to enforce the Treaty of Versailles and the other peace agreements that concluded World War I. It was also intended to facilitate open diplomacy and peaceful mediation to settle war disputes.

Success :

3. ILO: The International labour organisation was the most successful. The goals of ILO include fixing maximum working days and minimum wages, ensuring that member nations provide for unemployment benefits and old age pensions.
4. Refugee organisation: It helped the Prisoners of War in Russia to their homes outside Russia. In 1933, it helped the Jews, who were fleeing to escape Nazi persecution, to resettle in different countries where they would be safe.
5. Health organisation: It did good work in finding causes of different epidemics. It was especially successful in combating the Typhus epidemic in Russia which had the potential to spread to the rest of Europe.
6. Mandates commission: It had the responsibility of monitoring the governance of territories given to member nations as Mandates.
7. International disputes: Here the League had partial success. It forced Greece to pay compensation to Bulgaria, when the former invaded the latter. But none of these disputes threatened world peace.

Failures :

1. The League of Nations came to be viewed as an organisation of the allied powers especially of France and Britain, setup for implementation of unjust peace treaties, which failed to satisfy all nations.
2. The Conference of ambassadors was set up as a temporary body to resolve disputes. But, it continued to exist even after the formation of the League. This hurt the legitimacy and the authority of the League of Nations.
3. The League of Nations failed to check any violations of the frontiers established after WWI through the peace treaties. It also failed to take a firm stand on aggression displayed by Italy, Germany and Japan. For example, it imposed only partial trade restrictions on Italy after its Abyssinia invasion.
4. The League of Nations was not a truly representative organization. It had limited membership and the USA did not join it. This resulted in lack of funds for the League’s work.
5. It was also made to defend an imperfect treaty which suffered from biases and was prone to be broken. The Peace treaties signed were against the principle of self determination. For instance, millions of Germans resided outside Germany in Czechoslovakia and Poland after the peace treaties. Similarly, many Turks were now residents of Greece.
6. It was only Germany, which was made to disarm under the Treaty of Versailles. The League failed to convince other major powers to disarm. Hitler used this as an excuse to quit the World Disarmament Conference. Soon, he denounced the League of Nations and made Germany quit it as well.