History

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand signalled the rapid slide into world war, but this wasn't the only cause. There were 4 causes;

Nationalism - the belief that your country is better than others. This made nations assertive and aggressive.

Imperialism - the desire to conquer colonies, especially in Africa. This brought the powers into conflict - Germany wanted an empire. France and Britain already had empires.

Militarism (Arms Race) - the attempt to build up a strong army and navy gave nations the means and will to make war.

Alliances - in 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. This alarmed, France, Britain and Russia. By 1907, they had all joined the Triple Entente.

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was critical in setting off the chain of events that led to the First World War.

1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. He was inspecting the army in Sarajevo with his wife Sophie. The royal couple arrived by train at 9.28am. Seven young Bosnian Serbs planned to assassinate Franz Ferdinand as he drove along the main road in Sarajevo, the Appel Quay.

2. The first conspirator who tried to kill Franz Ferdinand threw a bomb at his car. He missed and was arrested. The Archduke escaped unhurt. He decided to abandon the visit and return home via a different route to the one planned.

3. No one had told the driver the route had changed. On the way back, therefore, the driver turned into Franz Josef Street, following the published route and, when told of his error, stopped the car to turn around.

4. Unfortunately, the car stopped in front of Gavrilo Princip, one of the conspirators, who was on his way home thinking he had failed. Princip pulled out a gun and shot at Franz Ferdinand, hitting him in the jugular vein. There was a tussle, during which Princip shot and killed Sophie. By 11.30am, Franz Ferdinand had bled to death.

1.  Franz Ferdinand was inspecting the army in Sarajevo with his wife Sophie and it was their wedding anniversary. The Austrian Emperor Franz Josef had forbidden him to be seen in public with her on other state occasions because she was a commoner.

2. That day - 28 June 1914 - was also Serbia's National Day. Franz Ferdinand's visit was a direct insult to the Serbs.

3. After shooting Franz Ferdinand, Princip tried to shoot Potiorek, the Austrian governor of Sarajevo, who was sat in the front seat. However, during the tussle he shot and killed Sophie instead.

July 5 ~ The Austrian government asks the German government if it will support Austria in a war against Russia, if Russia supports Serbia. The Germans say they will support whatever the Austrian government decides to do - the so called 'blank cheque'.

July 23 ~ The Austrian government sends the Serbian government an ultimatum.

July 25 ~ The Serbians accept all the conditions except one - that Austrian police should be allowed into Serbia.

July 28 ~ Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

July 28 ~ Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

July 30 ~ The Russian army is mobilised.

August 1 ~ Germany declares war on Russia.

August 3 ~ Germany declares war on France and, following the Schlieffen Plan, attacks Belgium.

August 4 ~ Britain keeps the promise made in a treaty of 1839 to defend Belgium, and declares war on Germany.

Germany had been preparing for war long before 1914. In fact, Germany had started drawing up a plan for war - the Schlieffen Plan - in 1897. It took nine years to finalise, but it was based on the theory that Germany would be at war with France and Russia at the same time. It did not prepare for many of the events that occurred in July and August 1914. It was based on the belief that, if the country went to war, Germany would be faced with a war on two fronts with France and Russia.

The plan assumed that France was weak and could be beaten quickly, and that Russia was much stronger, but would take longer to mobilise its army. The plan began to go wrong on 30 July 1914, when Russia mobilised its army, but France did not. Germany was forced to invent a pretext to declare war on France (3 August 1914). Things got worse when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 because, in a Treaty of 1839, Britain had promised to defend Belgium.

Delegates from 32 countries met in January 1919, but the conference was dominated by the Big Three - Lloyd George (Britain), Clemençeau (France) and Wilson (USA). The delegations made presentations to them, after which the Big Three made their decision. Negotiations were difficult. Each of the Big Three wanted such different things, that by March 1919 it looked as though the conference was going to break up. Lloyd George saved the conference. On 25 March 1919, he issued the Fontainebleau Memorandum, and persuaded Clemençeau to agree to the League of Nations and a more lenient peace treaty that would not destroy Germany. Then he went to Wilson and persuaded him to agree to the War Guilt Clause. The Germans were shown the proposed Treaty of Versailles. There was no negotiation. The Germans published a rebuttal, arguing that the treaty was unfair, but they were ignored. On 28 June 1919, the delegates met at the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, and forced two Germans to sign the treaty.

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was greeted with great joy. The people of Europe wanted lasting peace, and also to make Germany pay for the damage done, and revenge.

The Germans had expected that the peace treaty would be based on President Wilson's Fourteen Points. The six key principles of the Fourteen Points were:

1) Setting up a League of Nations 2) Disarmament 3) Self-determination for the people of Europe - the right to rule themselves 4) Freedom for colonies 5) Freedom of the seas 6) Free trade.

The Big Three expected to base the peace treaty on the terms of the armistice, which were much harsher:

1) German army disbanded, and Germany to give up its navy. 2)  Allied troops to occupy the Rhineland. 3)  Reparation for damage done and war losses.

The conference was initially planned as a pre-meeting of the big three to decide what terms they were going to ask from Germany at an official peace conference, but the pre-meeting quickly became the meeting where the decisions were made.

The problem was the big three had different ideas about what the terms of the treaty should be.

Wilson's aims {USA}:

• To end war by creating a League of Nations based on his Fourteen Points.
•  To ensure Germany was not destroyed.
•  Not to blame Germany for the war - he hated the Guilt Clause.

Clemenceau's aims {France}:  

• Revenge and to punish Germany.
• To return Alsace-Lorraine to France.
• No League of Nations
• To disband the German army so that Germany would never be strong enough to attack France again.

Lloyd George {Britain}:

• A 'just' peace that would be tough enough to please the electors who wanted to 'make Germany pay', but would leave Germany strong enough to trade.
• Land for Britain's empire.
• To safeguard Britain's naval supremacy.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 and consisted of 440 Articles setting out the terms for Germany's punishment. The treaty was greeted with shock and disbelief in Germany.

The Covenant of the League of Nations - Germany was not allowed to join. The Rhineland was demilitarised - the German army was not allowed to go there. The Saar, with its rich coalfields, given to France for 15 years. Alsace-Lorraine returned to France. Germany forbidden to unite with Austria. Lands in eastern Germany - the rich farmlands of Posen and the Polish corridor between Germany and East Prussia - given to Poland. Danzig made a free city under League of Nations control. All Germany's colonies taken and given to France and Britain as 'mandates'. The German army restricted to 100,000 men. The German navy restricted to six battleships and no submarines. Germany not allowed to have an air force. Germany was responsible for causing all the loss and damage caused by the war. Germany would have to pay reparations, to be decided later - eventually set at 132 billion gold marks.

Big - Russia was too big to rule. In 1913, it stretched 4,000 miles from Europe to Alaska, and comprised 125 million people.

Backward - Russia was backward. It had few roads and limited industrialisation. Most people were still peasants.

Weak - Russia was militarily weak. It had lost a war with Japan in 1904.

Disunited - Russia had many different nationalities, languages and religions.

Autocracy - the government of Russia, which Nicholas ruled over alone, was far too much work for one man.

Proletariat - Russia was industrialising and the workers, eg in St Petersburg, were poor and oppressed. On Bloody Sunday 1905, they went on a peaceful march to ask the tsar to help them, but the Cossacks attacked them.

Bourgeois - the representatives of the new middle class industrialists. They called themselves the Kadets and wanted Russia to have a constitution like England's. In 1905, there was a revolution and they managed to force Nicholas to create a Duma (parliament), but it had no real power.

Revolutionaries - for instance, the Social Revolutionaries and the Marxists - split into the Mensheviks who wanted peaceful change and the Bolsheviks who wanted a revolution - committed acts of terrorism such as the murder of Prime Minister Stolypin in 1911.

In 1904, Nicholas lost a war with Japan, which undermined his authority. In 1905, a peaceful demonstration of workers led by the priest Father Gapon was attacked by the Cossacks, in a bid to assert the Tsar's authority. The atrocity led to strikes and riots - sailors on the battleship 'Potemkin' mutinied. Workers and soldiers got together and set up committees called Soviets to represent them.

Nicholas survived - just! He published the 'October Manifesto', which promised to create a Duma (parliament). This caused many middle-class people, called the Octobrists, to support him. He also lowered taxes on the poor and brought in Peter Stolypin as his prime minister. The Okhrana {police} tracked down and arrested many revolutionaries.However, as soon as he felt powerful enough, Nicholas stopped listening to the Duma, but the Soviets survived.

The First World War had two main effects on Russia: firstly a huge number of men lost their lives, and secondly it caused economic chaos. On 8 March 1917 women in St Petersburg went on a strike for 'bread and peace', starting the February Revolution.

The First World War proved the last straw for the tsar's government. Russian troops were slaughtered in their millions. Nicholas made things worse by going to the front to lead the army. This made him responsible for the defeats in most people's eyes. It also left the government in the hands of the tsar's wife, the tsarina, and the monk, Rasputin. The war effort caused economic chaos.  By February 1917, people in the towns were starving and freezing.The revolution was started by the women - on 8 March 1917 they went on a march demanding bread, which turned into rioting. The tsarina called in the troops. However, on 12 March they rioted and started to help the rioters. Workers and soldiers set up the Petrograd Soviet to coordinate the revolution.The Tsar went to pieces and was unable to make any decisions. When the Duma realised the government was collapsing, it set up a provisional government, and on 15 March forced the tsar to abdicate.

1.        In February 1914 the Deputy Minister of the Interior and former head of police sent a memo to the tsar warning him that a war against Germany - even if Russia won - would destroy the monarchy.

2.        The tsarina was German. Most Russians believed that she was helping the Germans to win by ruining Russia from within.

3.       The huge casualties in the war - 9 million dead or wounded by 1917 - lost the tsar the support of the soldiers, so they turned against him when they were asked to put down the riots.

4.       Taking 15 million men to fight in the army ruined Russia's agriculture. There were not enough workers to take in the harvest.

5.       The war effort clogged up the railways with military transport, so food couldn't get into the towns. On 13 March at the Kronstadt naval base, the sailors mutinied and murdered hundreds of their officers.

6.        On 4 March, workers at the huge Putilov armaments factory in St Petersburg went on strike. Many historians say that this was the real start of the February Revolution.

7.  The February Revolution was a genuine popular revolution, with spontaneous uprisings all over the country against the existing government - it was not planned by a particular rebel group or fuelled by a particular ideology.

8.On 10 March, with bread riots out of control, the tsarina wrote to the tsar blaming hooligans for the trouble. Her letter shows how out of touch the government was with reality.

9. The tsar tried to get back from the front on 13 March, but it was too late. None of the soldiers were loyal and his train could not get through to St Petersburg.

Peace, Land, Bread ~ April: the German government helps the Bolshevik leader Lenin return to Russia. He publishes the 'April Theses', offering people: 'Peace, bread, land', and proclaims: All power to the Soviets'. July: the Bolsheviks try to take power in a revolution called the July Days, but are defeated.

Bolsheviks ~ August: a pro-tsarist, General Kornilov, leads a revolt against the Provisional Government. The government has to ask the Bolsheviks for help to defeat him. As a result, the Bolsheviks become so popular that:  September: the Bolsheviks take control of the Petrograd Soviet, and the prominent Bolshevik Leon Trotsky, leader of the Red Guards, becomes its president.

Kronstadt sailors ~ 6th November: late at night, Trotsky's Red Guards helped by the Kronstadt sailors move quickly to take over the bridges and the telephone exchange. They cut off Petrograd from the rest of Russia.

Aurora fires a shell ~ 7 November: next, the Red Guards take over government buildings, the banks and the railway station. Finally, at 9.40pm, signalled by a shell fired from the cruiser Aurora, they move in and take over the Winter Palace, the headquarters of the Provisional Government. There is no resistance.

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The failure of the Provisional Government - the Provisional Government had lost all support. When it was attacked, no one lifted a finger to help it.

Appeal of the Bolsheviks - Lenin's message of Peace, bread, land' was just what the people - who were sick of war, hunger and hardship - wanted. Also, the Bolsheviks were popular because they had defeated Kornilov.

Organisation - the Red Guards, organised by the brilliant Trotsky, were well-trained and ruthless. They took over the government almost bloodlessly and almost without anyone noticing.

Peace - as promised, Lenin made the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany although it meant that Russia lost vast amounts of its best industrial and agricultural land in Poland and the Ukraine. Dictatorship

Communist economy - the Bolsheviks gave the land previously owned by the nobles to the peasants, and factories were handed over to workers' committees.

Communist laws - the Bolsheviks banned religion; brought in an eight-hour day for workers, as well as unemployment pay and pensions; abolished the teaching of history and Latin, while encouraging science; and allowed divorce.

Communist propaganda - there was a huge campaign to teach everyone to read. Agit trains' went around the country showing communist newsreels and giving lectures to teach peasants about Communism.

Political purges

In 1934, Kirov, the leader of the Leningrad Communist Party, was murdered, probably on Stalin's orders. Stalin used this episode to order massive purges by which anybody suspected of disloyalty was murdered, sent to prison camps, or put on public show trials at which they pleaded guilty to incredible crimes they could never have done.

The Communist leadership was purged - 93 of the 139 Central Committee members were put to death. The armed forces were purged - 81 of the 103 generals and admirals were executed. The Communist Party was purged - about a third of its 3 million members were killed. Photographs and history books were changed to eliminate even the memory of people who had been arrested.

Ordinary people

By the end of the 1930s, the Great Terror had spread to ordinary people - anybody who looked as though they had a will of their own. Some 20 million ordinary Russians were sent to the gulag- the system of labour camps mostly in Siberia - where perhaps half of them died. The Christian Church and the Muslim religion were forbidden. Ethnic groups were persecuted, and Russification - the acceptance of Russian language and customs - was enforced throughout the Soviet Union. People who had annoyed their neighbours were turned in to the NKVD (the secret police) and arrested, never to be seen again.

Praises

Everybody had to praise Stalin, all the time. Newspapers credited him with every success. Poets thanked him for bringing the harvest. People leapt to their feet to applaud every time his name was mentioned. His picture was everywhere parents taught their children to love Stalin more than themselves. They dared not do anything else.

Why did Stalin do it? He needed to create unity, and certainly strong control was needed to modernise Russia. He was also at least homicidally paranoid. However, by 1939, he had set up a personal totalitarian dictatorship where - on one word from him - the entire Soviet Union did exactly what he said.

Stalin realised that if Russia was to become a key player in the global market, the country needed to industrialise rapidly and increase production. To do this, Stalin introduced the Five-year Plans.

Stalin's chief aim was to expand industrial production. For this, he developed three Five-year Plans between 1928 and 1938. Gosplan, the state planning agency, drew up targets for production for each factory. The first two plans concentrated on improving heavy industry - coal, oil, steel and electricity.

Some keen young Communists, called Pioneers, went into barren areas and set up new towns and industries from nothing. There were champion workers called Stakhanovites, named after a coal miner who broke the record for the amount of coal dug up in a single shift. Education schemes were introduced to train skilled, literate workers.

The Soviet Union also gave opportunities to women - crèches were set up so they could also work. Women became doctors and scientists, as well as canal diggers and steel workers.

At the same time, many of the workers were slave workers and kulaks from the gulag . Strikers were shot, and wreckers (slow workers) could be executed or imprisoned. Thousands died from accidents, starvation or cold. Housing and wages were terrible, and no consumer goods were produced for people.

Although the USA did not enter the First World War until April 1917, the conflict cast a shadow over American society that would take a while to pass. There was a brief economic recession at the start of the 1920s, but, as the decade moved on, the economy boomed and America began the age of consumerism - many Americans bought cars, radios, fridges etc. Major cities such as New York and Chicago grew rapidly and the building of skyscrapers like the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931, seemed to show the self-confidence of American society.

At the same time, many Americans wanted to enjoy themselves as much as they could by perhaps listening to the new jazz music, or doing the new dances such as the charleston and the black bottom.

However, for many Americans, the 1920s was a decade of poverty. Generally, groups such as African-Americans, women and farmers did not enjoy the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. More than 60 per cent of Americans lived just below the poverty line. Life was particularly hard for African-Americans in the Deep South states where the majority of black people endured a combination of poverty and racism. Although some women were able to enjoy more independence and wear the latest fashions, the reality was that most women were poorly paid and were employed in roles such as cleaners or waitresses.

Economic Boom

America was in a fortunate position as the First World War ended. The war had not directly damaged American society and it had led to increased demand for American goods. This resulted in the rapid growth of industry and farming. The economy grew even faster when the war ended.

The keys to America's economic boom were technological progress and increased consumer demand. Businesses began to make huge profits.

Industrial production virtually doubled in the 1920s.

Between 1919 and 1920:

• America's gross national product (GNP) grew from $78 billion to $103 billion.
•  The number of households with a radio rose from 60,000 to 10 million.
• The number of people filing income tax returns for earnings of more than $1 million a year rose from 65 to 513.
• The number of airline passengers grew from less than 6000 in 1926, to approximately 173,000 in 1929.

The economic boom affected society. Jobs were easy to find and were better paid than before. There was a clear link between prosperity and social change. For example, as middle-class women became better off they enjoyed greater social freedom - they wore make-up, shorter skirts and smoked in public.

Above all, the motor industry (automobiles) grew rapidly. As the cars poured off the production lines there was a need for more rubber to make tyres, glass for windscreens and leather for seats. The man behind the rise of the motor industry was Henry Ford.

 Isolationism - the republican government under President Harding (1921-3) and President Coolidge (1923-9) kept out of foreign affairs, and limited foreign competition by imposing high import tariffs.

Technology - especially in the electrical, chemicals and film industries.

Mass production - especially in the automobile industry.

Hire purchase - allowed people to purchase new gadgets such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines and refrigerators. Borrowing increased the amount of money available to spend, and, therefore, the demand for goods.

Shares - firms learned to raise money for expansion by selling shares on the Stock Exchange - this was to cause problems later.

Industry ~ It was not all boom for American industries. Traditional industries such as coal and textiles did not prosper. In 1929, when the average monthly income of New York bricklayers might be $320, coalminers were earning only $103 a month. Also, during the 1920s, in response to American import tariffs on their products, many other countries put customs duties on American goods, which reduced American exports.

Agriculture ~ For many American farmers, life in the 1920s was a constant struggle against poverty. During the First World War, farmers had been encouraged to grow as much food as they could. They continued to do this in the 1920s until they had produced more cotton and wheat than they could sell. As prices dropped, many farmers lived in unhygienic conditions in tin shacks, without electricity or running water. In 1929, when the average monthly income of a skilled manufacturing worker might be $140, farm labourers were earning only $49 a month.

Social problems ~ People who were wealthy in America were extremely rich, but few people shared in this prosperity. Only 5 per cent of the American population owned a third of the wealth, while 42 per cent of the population were living below the poverty line.

Racism ~ Before the First World War, many Americans saw their country as a melting pot in which people of different nationalities, races and religions could live in harmony. The Statue of Liberty symbolised the welcome offered to the huddled masses as they entered America. Yet, there were signs that this mood of tolerance was under attack. The revival of the Ku Klux Klan was a frightening development. The Klan believed in the superiority of the white race. Its members wore white gowns and pointed hats, and burned large crosses as a symbol of their presence. The revival of the Klan started in the Deep South, but spread to other parts of America.

When the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the world economy was plunged into the Great Depression. By the winter of 1932, America was in the depths of the greatest economic depression in its history.

The number of unemployed people reached upwards of 13 million. Many people lived in primitive conditions close to famine. One New York family moved into a cave in Central Park. In St Louis, more than 1,000 people lived in shacks made from scrap metal and boxes. There were many similar Hoovervilles all over America. Between 1 and 2 million people travelled the country desperately looking for work. Signs saying 'No Men Wanted' were displayed all over the country.

Eventually, there were too many goods being made and not enough people to buy them. Farmers had produced too much food in the 1920s, so prices for their produce became steadily lower. There were too many small banks - these banks did not have enough funds to cope with the sudden rush to take out savings, which happened in the autumn of 1929.

Too much speculation on the stock market - the middle class had a lot to lose and they had spent a lot on what amounted to pieces of paper. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 was a massive psychological blow.

America had lent huge sums of money to European countries. When the stock market collapsed, they suddenly recalled those loans. This had a devastating impact on the European economy.

The collapse of European banks caused a general world financial crisis

Unemployment - 13 million people were out of work.

 Industrial production dropped by 45 per cent between 1929 and 1932.

House-building fell by 80 per cent between 1929 and 1932.

The entire American banking system reached the brink of collapse.

From 1929 to 1932, 5,000 banks went out of business.

Although many people went hungry, the number of recorded deaths from starvation during the Depression was 110, although many other illnesses and deaths were probably related to a lack of nutrition.

The Presidential election campaign of November 1932 took place against the backdrop of the most severe economic depression in American history. While President Herbert Hoover was personally blamed for failing to deal with the consequences of the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, the Democratic candidate, Franklin D Roosevelt promised, "A new deal for the American people." Following a landslide election victory, Roosevelt faced the enormous task of restoring confidence in a shattered economy.In 1921 an attack of polio had left Roosevelt permanently crippled, and his ongoing battle against this terrible illness enhanced his ability to relate to ordinary Americans. Roosevelt's personal solution, the New Deal was the largest, most expensive government programme in the history of the American presidency.

Psychological support

Roosevelt skilfully used his inaugural address to reassure the American people that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror".

Stabilised the banking system - with the banking system in crisis, the president declared a nationwide bank holiday to allow time for people to regain their nerve. The Emergency Banking Relief Bill brought all banks under federal control. All banks considered solvent were allowed to reopen under licence. Roosevelt had given the banking system much needed time and space to avoid panic.

Practical support

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) - responsible for flood control, building dams and constructing new towns.

The National Recovery Administration - this agency negotiated with the major industries to create fair prices, wages and working hours.

The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) - aimed at reducing farm production and boosting farm prices.

  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) - offered short-term work to young men on conservation projects.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) - constructed schools, hospitals and other public buildings.

Athough Roosevelt restored hope and staved off the collapse of the banking system, the problem of unemployment was more difficult and at the start of 1934 there was still 11.3 million people out of work.

There were two New Deals - the first dealing with the immediate emergency of 1933-34 and the second, which emerged in 1935-1936, offering more radical, reforming policies:

• The Works Progress Administration - this agency employed people to build schools, hospitals and other public buildings.
•  The Rural Electrification Administration - this agency aimed to bring electricity to America's farms.
• The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) - this act aimed to improve relations between workers and employers, especially as 1934 had seen a series of violent industrial disputes.

Successes

1.        Roosevelt restored confidence in the American people.

2.       Millions of people were given work in government projects.

3.       A lot of valuable work was carried out by the in building schools, roads and hospitals Roosevelt rescued the banking system from collapse and saved capitalism.

Failures

1.       Unemployment was not conquered by the New Deal

2.       Many of the jobs created by the New Deal were only temporary.

3.       The New Deal was the most costly government programme in American history and someof its projects could be accused of wasting money.