The End of WWI

When/Where are we?

When/Where are we?

A truly Global War• While the war took

place mostly in Europe, there was action elsewhere (Africa, the Middle East, Asia)

• More importantly, thousands of Indians, Canadians, Australians, and Africans fought for their respective “mother” countries

Fall of Germany

• At the beginning of the war, Britain & the other Allies established a naval blockade of Germany; this blockade really effected the German war effort after 1916

• Germany knocked Russia out of the war in 1917, which seemed like a huge blow to the Triple Entente

• However, the U.S. Entered the war in 1916, & the Austrian & Ottoman Empires were increasingly weak & unhelpful to Germany

• German forces retreated back to Germany, & the government signed an armistice on 11/11/1918

Casualty List

• Britain: 947,000 dead, over 2 million wounded• France: 1.3 million dead, 3 million wounded• Russia: 1.7 million dead, 5 million wounded• Italy: 460,000 dead, 1 million wounded• U.S.A.: 115,000 dead, 206,000 wounded• Germany: 1.8 million dead, 4.2 million wounded• Austria: 1.2 million dead, 3.6 million wounded• Ottoman: 325,000 dead, 400,000 wounded• TOTAL: ~10 million dead, ~20 million wounded

Russia & the U.S.

• Russia does poorly in the war, leading to revolution• The Bolshevik Revolution takes place in 1917, making

Russia communist• The Bolsheviks eventually kill the Tsar & his family, and

form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)• The USA enters the war in 1916 due to Germany

sinking so many US ships with their U-boats• The USA is able to tip the balance in the Allies’ favor, &

takes a greater role on the world stage

V.I. Lenin leads the communist revolution in Russia in 1917

Other Results

• Empires disintegrate: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, & Russian Empire end after WWI

• Balfour Declaration of 1917: an official endorsement from the British government to find a “home” for Jews (would lead to the founding of Israel in 1948)

• League of Nations founded in 1919• Japan rose in power, Germany was disgraced• Triple Entente gained more colonies in the M.E. &

Africa (took them from Triple Alliance countries)

Treaty of Versailles

• Signed June 28, 1919• Germany: forced to accept blame for war (is this

strange?), stripped of colonies & some European territories, not allowed to have much of a military, & forced to pay war reparations

• Treaty formed the League of Nations in hopes nations could avoid war

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proposed his “Fourteen Points” hoping for “peace without victory” but the Allies refused

The Big 3

Arab Delegates at Treaty of Versailles meeting

The Roaring ‘20s

Optimism

• Though there was great disillusionment following WWI, there was also a feeling of optimism in the West in the 1920s

• Women had worked in factories while the men were fighting & felt more empowered once the war ended; Britain, Germany & the U.S. gave women suffrage in the ‘20s

• Western economies boomed as soldiers returned to peacetime jobs, factories began mass-producing consumer goods, & wartime taxes were decreased

New Inventions/Products• Henry Ford’s Model T

automobile sold millions in the 1920s; cars transformed everything from rural isolation to teenage dating habits

• Radios became much more widespread

• Consumer items like shaving cream, ice boxes, stoves, etc. were more readily available & in use

• Mass production led to mass consumption of new products

1920s Art• Music: Jazz began in African-

American communities in the southern US & spread throughout the US & Europe

• The “Lost Generation”: group of writers & artists who were very cynical & pessimistic due to the loss of innocence in WWI (Ernest Hemingway)

• Picasso’s cubist paintings become popular

• “Talkies” became very popular; “Jazz Singer” was the first

Other events

• Prohibition in the US: alcohol is banned, leading to a boom in illegal bars (the “speakeasy) and organized crime

• Charles Lindberg (an American) makes the first solo flight across the Atlantic

• Small signs of trouble: Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy in 1922

• End of the 1920s: NY Stock Exchange crashes in October 1929, ending the “boom” & ushering in the Great Depression