UPSC syllabus topic (General Studies- Paper 1): World War-I, Course of the War

Course of the World War-I

The two opposing sides in the war were

• The Allies or Entente Powers:
  • Britain and her empire (including troops from Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand) selfstudyhistory.com
  • France
  • Russia (left December 1917)
  • Italy (entered May 1915)
  • Serbia
  • Belgium
  • Romania (entered August 1916)
  • USA (entered April 1917)
  • Japan
• The Central Powers:
  • Germany
  • Austria-Hungary
  • Turkey (entered November 1914)
  • Bulgaria (entered October 1915)

• Note: Events during war is not important.

Course of war:

• At first Germany and Austria thought that the war was likely to be a localized one and that Austria was sure to come out victorious. However, any crisis in south-eastern Europe was bound to attract the attention of the big European powers.
• When Austria attacked Serbia, Russia took the Serbian side and made ready for war. Germany asked Russia to withdraw her forces and on Russia’s refusal, Germany declared war against Russia on 1 August 1914.
  • Since France had formed an alliance with Russia, which was aimed against their common rival Germany, she sent her troops in support of Russia and as a consequence, Germany declared war on France on 3 August 1914.
• Initially Brian remained neutral. When the war began between Germany and France, England demanded from both of them, a guarantee to respect Belgian neutrality.
  • Germany violated this agreement and marched her troops into Belgium using that country as a corridor from which to invade France.
  • This German attack on Belgium and also Luxembourg alarmed Britain, and she was left with no other alternative but to resist German attack on Belgium as a German occupation of Belgium was likely to have endangered her security.
    • Under the Treaty of London of 1839, Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality. The British government made much of their duty to protect Belgium. Belgium’s ports were close to the British coast and German control of Belgium would have been seen as a serious threat to Britain.
• The escalation of tension reached its culminating point when Austro-Hungary also declared war on Russia on 6 August 1914.
• The War spread to Asia when Turkey joined the Austro-German Alliance. Japan declared war against Germany in August 1914 to prevent the spread of German influence on the Chinese coast and Italy entered the war in 1915.
• The entry of the United States of America in April 1917 brightened the prospects of victory for the Allies.

Entry of Italy (May 1915):

• Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary (May 1915).
• The Italians were hoping to seize Austria-Hungary’s Italian-speaking provinces as well as territory along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea.
• A secret treaty was signed in London in which the Allies promised Italy Austria-Hungary’s Italian-speaking provinces, some islands in the Aegean Sea and a protectorate over Albania. ©crackingcivilservices.com
• The Allies hoped that by keeping thousands of Austrian troops occupied, the Italians would relieve pressure on the Russians.
• But the Italians made little headway and their efforts were to no avail: the Russians were unable to stave off defeat. ©crackingcivilservices.com

The year 1917 was marked by two important events which profoundly affected the fortunes of the war. These were:

• Russian Revolution
  • As the result of revolution, Czar was expelled from the throne and power soon passed into the hands of extremists known as Bolsheviks.
  • Bolsheviks in 1918 concluded to Germany the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. By it Russia withdrew from the war and surrendered to Germany all her western provinces, including Poland and the Baltic Provinces.
  • This peace enabled Germany to transfer a large body of troops to the western front rendering the position of the Allies very critical. But the entry of the united States saved the situation.
• Entry of the United States into the war on the side of the Allies (April, 1917).
  • The USA joined the war because of the following reasons:
    • America joined war as a protest against the unrestricted submarine campaign carried on by Germany in violation of international law and humanity.
    • Other reason was the discovery that Germany was trying to persuade Mexico to declare war on the USA, promising her Texas, New Mexico and Arizona in return.
  • The Americans had hesitated about siding with the autocratic Russian government, but the overthrow of the tsar in the March revolution removed this obstacle.
  • The USA made an important contribution to the Allies victory:
    • It placed at the disposal of the Allies enormous resources in men and money. They supplied Britain and France with food, merchant ships and credit, though actual military help came slowly. By the end of 1917 only one American division had been in action, but by mid-1918 over half a million men were involved.
    • Most important were the psychological boost which the American potential in resources of men and materials gave the Allies, and the corresponding blow it gave to German morale.

Situation in 1918: The central powers defeated

• The German spring offensive, 1918
  • This major German attack was launched in a last, desperate attempt to win the war before too many US troops arrived, and before discontent in Germany led to revolution. It almost came off: throwing in all the extra troops released from the east (after peace with Russia), the Germans launched a series of offensives on the Western Front. Allies seemed to be falling apart.
  • However, under the overall command of the French Marshal Foch (this gave Allies advantage of unity of command), they managed to hold on as the German advance lost momentum. ©crackingcivilservices.com
• The Allied counter-offensive begins (8 August)
  • It was launched simultaneously at many points and on wider front, giving no time to enemy to rally. This forced the Germans to withdraw their entire line. Slowly the Germans were forced back.
  • Allies had also achieved decisive successes elsewhere. The defeat of the Turks in Syria, the surrender of the Bulgarians and the collapse of Austria followed in quick succession.
  • Though Germany itself had not yet been invaded, Germans were steadily pushed back, and at last worn out and exhausted, made overtures of peace.
• In the meantime, President Wilson of the USA had already made a statement of the War aims of the Allies in his address to the Congress in January 1918.
  • In his famous “fourteen points”, he had outlined the basis of a peace settlement and given expression to his ideal of establishing a lasting peace among the war-scarred nations of the world. (14 points are mentions in topic of Paris Peace Settlement)
  • Germany hoped to get less severe terms based on Wilson’s 14 Points. Also it would save Germany from invasion and preserve the army’s reputation.
• Armistice signed:
  • On the basis of the fourteen points, subject to certain reservation, the Allies agreed to consider the German appeal for peace.
  • Germany signified her consent to the demand of the allies and signed an armistice on November 11, 1918.
  • While the terms of the armistice were being discussed, a mutiny broke out in the German navy, which was a signal for a general revolution. The Kaiser fled to Holland and a republic was set up in Germany. It was this republican government that signed the armistice.
  • By its terms it was agreed that the Germans should surrender their navy and a large proportion of their guns and war material and should evacuate the invaded countries by withdrawing to the right bank of the Rhine.
  • Thus the first World War came to the end after four years.

Character of the War

• Total war:
  • The war stands distinguished from other wars by its unexampled magnitude and procedure. The war was a revolutionary departure from traditional theories of conflict. It is termed as the first total war in the modern history:
    • It was a worldwide war to which almost all the “civilised” nations of the world were parties. The scope of the war was world-wide and so was its strategy. Its battles were fought in all the quarters of the globe. The armies in consequence were huge beyond all precedent.
    • The war was unusually destructive of human life. This was to a great extent due to the aid which science rendered to the warfare. The use of submarines, poison gases, liquid fire, tanks, armored motor cars etc is a noval feature of this war and accounts for the heavy causalities that followed. ©crackingcivilservices.com
    • It was a war in which all the resources of the State and the whole activity of the nation were mobilised for war purposes. The States had mobilized all the material, intellectual, and moral energies of their people; by implication of the enemy community as a whole–its scientists, workers, and farmers–became legitimate objects of war.
    • The omnipotence of the State was exercised as never before. It took control of the activities of every sphere of life and subordinated them to the exigencies of the war. Food and many other things were rationed, private houses requisitioned, factories controlled- these and many other compulsions brought the war home to ever family. In a sense everybody was made to contribute to war efforts.
• War was for the balance of Power:
  • But though in above respects this war stands quite apart, it is akin to most of the great European wars of the past in being a war fought for the Balance of Power.
  • Since 1871, Prussia held all Europe in awe. Her ascendancy and aggressive militarism proved a standing menace to the peace of Europe and that was why so many Powers made common cause against her.

Why did the war last so long?

• When the war started the majority of people on both sides believed that it would be over by Christmas. However, Britain’s Secretary for War, Lord Kitchener told the cabinet, much to its collective dismay, that it would last nearer three years than three months. He was one of the few who had judged the situation correctly.
• There are several reasons why the conflict lasted so long:
  • The two sides were fairly evenly balanced.
  • Although the main theater of war was in Europe, it quickly became a global conflict. Other countries that had not been in the original alliance systems, decided to join in, some because they saw it as a chance to gain new territory, and others waited to see which side looked the more likely to win, and then joined that side.
    • For example, Italy (May 1915), Romania (August 1916), the USA (April 1917) and Japan joined the Allied side, while Turkey (November 1914) and Bulgaria (October 1915) joined the Central Powers.
    • To complicate matters further, troops from the British Empire – from India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa- all played their part in the fighting, which eventually spread into the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Africa.
  • The main countries involved in the war had very strongly held war aims which they were absolutely determined to achieve.
    • The Germans, anxious to protect themselves from becoming ‘encircled’, aimed to take territory from Poland in the east and Belgium in the west to act as buffer zones against Russia and France.
    • The French were obsessed with taking back Alsace-Lorraine, which the Germans had taken in 1871.
    • The British would never allow Belgium, a country so near to their coast, to be controlled by a hostile power like Germany.
    • Austria-Hungary was desperate to preserve its empire against the ambitions of Serbia.
    • Right from the beginning these competing war aims meant that it would be almost impossible to reach an acceptable negotiated solution.
  • Once stalemate had been reached on the western front with troops bogged down in lines of trenches, the Allies were faced with difficult problems:
    • The weapons available to the Central Powers as they defended their trenches were more deadly than those available to the attackers.
    • German troops, using fixed machine-guns in trenches protected by barbed wire, had a huge advantage over the attackers, who relied too much on preceding artillery bombardments. ©crackingcivilservices.com
  • Another remarkable factor prolonging the war was the way in which propaganda helped to motivate and encourage the general public as well as the military on both sides.
    • Support for the war sustained by newspapers, posters, films and advertisements directed at all classes in society to make them proud of their own country and way of life, while spreading stories of horror and atrocity about the enemy.
    • In Germany, in spite of food shortages, labour unrest and a general war-weariness, public support for the war continued. The defeat of Russia encouraged the German generals to continue the struggle.
• A combination of all these factors meant that there would have to be a fight to the finish until one side or the other was either overrun and occupied by the enemy, or was so completely exhausted that it could not carry on fighting.

Why did the Central Powers lose the war?

• Once the Schlieffen Plan had failed, removing all hope of a quick German victory, it was bound to be a strain for them, facing war on two fronts.
• Allied sea power was decisive, enforcing the deadly blockade, which caused desperate food shortages among the civilian population and crippled exports, while at the same time making sure that the Allied armies were fully supplied.
• The German submarine campaign failed in the face of convoys protected by British, American and Japanese destroyers; the campaign itself was a mistake because it brought the USA into the war.
• The entry of the USA brought vast new resources to the Allies and made up for the departure of Russia from the war. It meant that the Allied powers were able to produce more war materials than the enemy, and in the end this proved decisive.
• Allied political leaders at the critical time – Lloyd George and Clemenceau – were probably more competent than those of the Central Powers.
• The unity of command under Foch probably helped, while British Commander Haig learned lessons, from the 1917 experiences, which proved to be crucial to the allied victory in the final stages of the war.
  • Given the fact that the British had no experience of trench warfare, and that they were the junior partners to the French, Haig learned remarkably quickly and proved to be an imaginative commander.
  • Haig’s generalship was a crucial component of the Allied victory in 1918.
• The continuous strain of heavy losses told on the Germans – they lost their best troops in the 1918 offensive and the new troops were young and inexperienced. At the same time the forces available to the Allies were increasing as more Americans arrived.
• An epidemic of deadly Spanish flu added to German difficulties and morale was low as they retreated. Many suffered a psychological collapse: during the last three months of the war some 350000 German troops actually surrendered.
• Germany was badly let down by her allies:
  • Germany was constantly having to help out the Austrians and Bulgarians.
  • The defeat of Bulgaria by the British and Serbs (29 September 1918) was the final straw for many German soldiers, who could see no chance of victory now.
  • When Austria was defeated by Italy and Turkey surrendered (both in October), the end was near. The combination of military defeat and dire food shortages produced a great war-weariness, leading to mutiny in the navy, destruction of morale in the army and revolution at home.©crackingcivilservices.com