Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.

com)

WWI, Interwar Years, WWII 

Contents

The Causes of the First World War .............................................................................. 2

The Course of the First World War .............................................................................. 4

The Consequences of the First World War .................................................................... 7

The League of Nations .............................................................................................. 8

International Relations ............................................................................................. 10

The Course of the Second World War ......................................................................... 12

The Consequences of the Second World War ............................................................... 15

Comparing WWI and WWII ....................................................................................... 17

~ 1 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The Causes of the First World War

Causes for tension

• Anglo-German naval rivalry
• French resentment of Alsace-Lorraine being in Germany as result of the Franco-
Prussian War 1870-1
• German resentment at French and Russian attempt to “encircle” Germany
• Russian hostility at Austrian ambition in the Balkans (Austria annexed Bosnia from
Turkey in 1908)
• Most dangerous: Serbian ambition to unite all Serbs and Croats to a kingdom,
Yugoslavia, by seizing Bosnia and other areas from Austria. This threatened to bring
the disintergration of the unstable Habsburg empire (consist of many different
nationalities, and they would demand independence if the Serbs and Croats had
theirs. Austrian had plan for “preventive” war against Serbia, to crush it before it
crushes Austria) and seized assassination of Archbishop Franz Ferdinand as a pretext
for (local) war. The alliance systems made it world war.

Why did Germany support Austria?

In 1903, Germany stopped Austria attacking Serbia. Yet in 1914 Germany egged them on.
Why? 3 interpretations:

• Germany deliberately provoked war to show power and achieve world domination
• Germany felt she needed preventive war (feared encirclement), wanted to start a war
before Entente did and avoid a war on 2 fronts
• Didn’t want major war, supporting Austria was a bluff, to intimidate Russia to remain
neutral (this failed if it was the case)

Causes

Remember: MANABI
• Militarism (arms race, German-British naval rivalry, Germany desire to prove power)
• Alliances
• Nationalism (French revenge 1870, new German state)
• Assassination
• Balance of power upset (International distrust, tension grows, war=inevitable)
• Imperialism (minor)

~ 2 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

Blame

Germany
• Gave the Austrians a blank cheque for support in war
• Expansionist aims – Pan German League
• Economic growth = preparing for war
• Wanted to show power
• Inflexibility of Schlieffen which was the first aggressive act of war
• Propaganda against Entente

Russia
• First to mobilise

Austria
• Wanted to punish Serbia
• Humiliated Serbia with the ultimatum, Serbia accepted
• However, wanted local war like Balkan
• wanted to swallow up Serbia to prevent Russian support of Slavs in the Austrian
Empire
• First declaration of war (on Serbia)

Also to blame: the alliance systems

~ 3 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The Course of the First World War

Western front
• Schlieffen Plan failed – strong Belgian resistance, took 2 weeks to capture Belgium.
• This gave France time to organise and left Channel ports free for British to land.
• German army progress slowed to difficulties in supplying armies with food. Long
marches in August heat made the troops exhausted.
• France couldn’t be knocked out in 6 weeks, Germany faced war on 2 fronts

Eastern front
• Russian mobilised quickly.
• Russian mistake: invaded both Austria and East Prussia at same time. Successful
against Austria, but defeated by Hindenburg at Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes.
Russia therefore lost a lot of equipment, left 1/3 of army without rifles.
• Turkey entered the war: could cut off Russian main supply line in the Dardanelles
• Serbs drove out Austrian invasion, Austrian morale very low

1915

Western front was in stalemate. No movement.

Russian succeeded against Austria, failed against Germany, who captured Warsaw and
Poland.

Russia planned the Gallipoli Campaign aimed to clear up the Dardanelles, open supply line to
Russia via Black Sea. They also aimed to escape deadlock in West by eliminating the Turks
(weakest of Powers, unstable government). Success against Turkey would enable help to be
sent to Russia and perhaps bring Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece to Allied side thus enable
attacks of Austria from the South. Gallipoli was a total failure. It was a blow to Allied morale
and was the last chance to relieve Russia via the Black Sea. The failure led to Bulgaria
joining the Central Powers and Serbia was overran by Bulgarians.

May: Italy declared war on Austria, hoping to seize territory. Allied signed treaty and
promised Italy territory. Allied hoped Italy would keep Austria occupied and relieve pressure
on Russia. However, Italy made little change.

~ 4 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

1916

Verdun was an important French fortress. Germany launched an attack on Verdun, hoping to
draw the best French troop to defending it and destroy them and carry out final offensive to
win war. Both Germany and France suffered heavy losses and nothing was gained.

The Battle of the Somme was aimed to relieve pressure on France at Verdun and take over
more trench line, keeping Germany fully committed so they would be unable to risk sending
re-enforcement to Eastern front. The Allies made limited advances (about few hundred yards
to 7 miles). The real importance was that the Somme was a blow to German morale, where
Germany realised Britain's strong military power. There were huge losses on both sides and
the Battle of the Somme was commonly considered as a suicidal attack.

1917

The French army faced low morale and mutiny. The new French premier, Clemenceau,
managed to rally army morale. However, Russia withdrew from the war (November). This
allowed Germany to concentrate on western front in 1918.

Germany launched one last major attack on the Allies before the USA entered the war. The
attack was called Operation Michael or the Ludendorff Offensive. The attack failed miserably
and Germany lost a lot of troops.

USA entered the April, caused partially by German U-boat campaigns (see below) and the
discovery that Germany was trying to persuade Mexico to declare war on USA, in promise of
Texas and Arizona. The US entrance into the war was a psychological boost to the Allies.
Food, merchant ships and credit was supplied by the USA.

War at Sea

Allied aimed to starve Powers through naval blockade. The problem was they had to prevent
Germany using neutral ports (Netherlands, Denmark), and block neutral ships going to
Germany

German retaliation: mines and submarine attacks

• Britain fooled Germany by flying neutral flags and using passenger liners to transport
arms
• Germany caught on and sunk the British liner Litsutania which contained 118
Americans
• Wilson protested against the attacks, Germany tone down which reduced the effect of
the attacks

~ 5 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

Battle of Jutland 1916

• Germany tried to lure Brit out of their base to destroy, ships fired day and night
• Germany decided to back off and retire
• No one won (Germany lost less ship but retreated)
• Germany failed to destroy British naval power
• German fleet stayed at Kiel for rest of war leaving Britain to control the sea
• German unrestricted submarine attacks sank neutral US ships which led to the USA
entering the war

~ 6 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The Consequences of the First World War

Why Did Germany Lose?

Remember: BEA GUS BELU

• Blockade (naval) on Germany (Jutland)
• Economic and military strength of Entente
• Allies of Germany (Austria - weak, liabilities)
• Geography (Entente had better geographic position, Germany was encircleed, 2
fronts)
• USA joined (bring economic & military power to Allies)
• Schlieffen Plan failed
• Breaking of German morale
• Entente more united
• Ludendorff offensive (failed, large loss of life)
• U-Boat blockade failure (didn’t starve Britain, brought USA)

Treaty of Versailles

Contained 440 clauses which caused a lot of protest & resignation from German officials.

League of Nations set up

For Germany:
• Army: 100,000 men, no conscription
• No tanks, submarines, 6 battleship, no airforce (lost 80% of Navy)
• War Guilt Clause (Article 213). Germany to pay reparation of 6,600 million pounds
• Colonies taken away

Main German territorial losses:

• Demilitarisation of the Rhineland
• Saar Basin (contains Ruhr Valley, under League control till election 1935 – French
free to use coal till then)
• Alsace Lorraine to France
• Scheleswig Holstein to Denmark
• Malmedy to Belgium
• Posen and West Prussia formed Polish Corridoor (East Prussia still German but
separated). Upper Silesia to Poland
• Danzig controled by League
• Germany lost 13% of territory and 12% of population

~ 7 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The League of Nations

Aims

Collective security, encourage international cooperation to solve socio-economic problems.

Structure
• General Assembly (representatives – decisions based on unanimous votes)
• Council (4 permanent members)
• Court of Justice
• Secretariat (paperwork etc)
• Commissions and committees

Weaknesses
• No army. This meant that members had to contribute troops when needed and no
one would want to contribute troops to solve a conflict unrelated to them, especially
after the Great War that was WWI
• USA, Germany and USSR, who were major powers of the world, were not members
• Only 4 permanent members and 4 non permanen. Therefore the permanents
members can’t outvote non permanent members. Unbalance of Powers
• Process of treating conflicts was too slow
• Permanent members were self-interested and not interested in contributing
wholehearted to solving conflicts in other countries
• Authority of the League was weakened by states signing treaties independent of
League (e.g. Dawes Plan etc)

Successes
• International Labour Organisation – improve condititions of labour, fix maximum
working day and week, adequate minimum wage, sickness and unemployment
benefit and old age pensions. Collected and published vast amount of information.
• Refugee Organisation, returned POW home from Russia
• Heal Organisation investigating causes of epidemics and combatted typhus in Russia
• Mandates Commission supervised government of territories taken away from
Germany and Turkey. The Commission also administered the Saar – did most
effectively till plesbicite in 1935 when the Saar was voted to return to Germany.

Failures
• The League was directly linked to the Treaty of Versailles, giving it a reputation of
being an organisation to benefit victors of WWI

~ 8 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

• The League therefore had to defend and uphold the Treaty of Versailles but the
Treaty was not good nor fair to begin with.
• Hostility against Italy make the League a Fraco-British affair. British Conservatives
were not enthusiastic about League
• The Great Depression contributed to the decline of the League
• Manchuria 1931
• Disarmament Conference 1932-3
• Abyssinia 1935-6

~ 9 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

International Relations

See Weimar Germany (Hitler and Nazi Germany) for more information supplementing those
given here.

France built up a network of alliances with Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia to buffer against
Germany, called the Little Entente. This was not effective as what was needed was Russia in
the alliance as well, but this was out of the question because USSR was Communist.

USSR was viewed with suspicion because of their Communist status.

Genoa conference 1922: tried to smooth Franco-German hostility, settle European war debts
to USA, and convinced leaders of the need to resume diplomatic relation with USSR. The
Conference failed. France refused to compromise reparations, USA refused to attend.

1922 Rapallo Treaty: established full diplomatic relation between Germany and Russia, and
they agreed to cooperate to keep Poland weak. Germany would act as a buffer to protect
Russian from anti-Communist forces in the West. In exchange, Germany was allowed to
build factories in Russia and deploy weapons. German-Soviet relation cooled 1930s due to
rising Nazi power of Germany.

1923 Ruhr Crisis caused inflation in Germany.

1924 Dawes Plan was drew up to solve Germany's inflation and reparation problems.

1925 Locarno Pact signed to keep existing French, Belgian and German border.

1928 Kellogg Briand Pact signed by 65 countries in agreement to end all wars. However, the
Pact was a total failure. No one paid attention to it when it came to the critical time.

1929 Young Plan reduced reparation payments and increased flexibility with payments.

1932-3 Disarmament Conference took place, but failed miserably. Agreement could not be
reached. No one wanted to be the first to disarm. Germany walked out in 1933.

Limited Japanese navy to 3/5 that of British and US. Japan given German colonies as
mandates, and left ruling supreme in Far East. Japan agreed with Britain, France and USA to
respect their possessions in Far East.

Relation of others countries with Russia, meanwhile, was bad because Russia was

~ 10 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

Communist and the Allies supported the White Army in the Russian Civil War. After the Civil
War, Russia wanted to stir revolution in Europe but was too tired after Civil War

War debt caused ill feelings between Allies and USA. USA agreed to lend money to Germany
to pay reparation to Britain and France so they could pay war debts to the USA. This was a
ridiculous situation.

1934 Non aggression pact between Poland and Germany. Germany gained trust from Britain
and ruined France's Little Entente. It was important because tihs pact guaranteed Polish
neutrality when Germany eventually move to Austria and Czechoslovakia.

1934 Hitler attempted Anschluss but suffered set back from Italy

1935 Stresa Front – Britain, France and Italy reaffirm Locarno Pact and pledged support for
Austrian independence

1935 reintroduction of conscription in Germany

1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement - keep German navy 35% that of Britain. This was a
breach of the Treaty of Versailles!

1936 Rome Berlin Axis

1936 Germany troops entered Rhineland. This was after the 1936 Berlin Olympics

1936 Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan

1938 Anchluss

Sept 1938 Germany's invasion of the Czech Sudetenland, leading to the Munich Conference
which achieved nothing. Germany eventually took over of rest of Czechoslovakia anyway.

August 1939: German invasion of Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany to
honour their agreement to protect Poland if invaded, but did nothing for 6 months. This
period was called the phoney war

~ 11 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The Course of the Second World War

Sept 1939 Poland was defeated by Germany quickly because of Blitzkrieg (motorised
division and tanks attacks backed by the Luffwaffe - airforce)

Sept 1939 – Feb 1940: Phoney war. War was declared but no one did any fighting.

April 1940: Germany invade Norway and Denmark

May 1940: Germany attacked Holland, Belgium, France, again using Blitzkrieg. France was
defeated in 6 weeks.

June 1940: Italy declared war on the Allies.

August-Sept 1940: Battle of Britain

• Luffwaffe tried to destroy British Royal Airforce before invading of Britain. Bombed
harbour, radar stations, aerodromes, munitions factories and London.
• RAF retaliated, inflicted heavy losses on Luffwaffe
• Germany called off invasion of Britain. This was the first check on Germany in war
and Hitler had to face the reality that his army was not invincible.
• Britain remains in struggle, making Hitler face war on two fronts as at the same time,
Hitler planned to invade Russia

Italy invaded Egypt and Greece. Britain pushed Italy back from Egypt, sunk half of Italy’s
ships, capturing prisoners and lots of tanks. Greeks also forced Italy back and invaded
Albania.

Germany sent troops to help Italy in Greece and Egypt. Germany and Italy victorious,
depressed Allies and weakening British forces in North Africa. However, all this delayed
invasion of Russia. Otherwise, Germany could have taken Russia before winter sets.

Operation Barbarossa to invade Russia begins June 1941

• Hitler feared that Russia might attack Germany, hope that Japan would attack Russia
from East. The more powerful Japan was, less chance of USA entering war.
• Reason for invading Rusia: Hitler hated Communism and desired Lebensraum
• The invasion was three-pronged: an attack to the North at Leningrad, the centre at
Moscow and the south at Ukraine.The attack was blitzkrieg on an enormous scale.
Important cities like Riga and Kiev captured
• Russians caught off guard, still re-equipping army and air force. Generals were
inexperienced

~ 12 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

• Germans failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow

• Heavy rain in October, turned roads to mud and severe frosts. The Russian winter
was very cold and harsh. German army had inadequate winter clothes. Spring came
and no progress was made in the north and centre because Hitler concentrated
attack to south to capture oil fields

December 1941 USA into war because of Pearl Harbour, provided British with huge financial
aid
• Japan able to capture British colonies like Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Hong Kong,
Dutch East Indies, Philippines, Guam and Wake Islands
• Hitler declared war on USA. This was a stupid move as it gave him more to deal with
when the problems with Russia still not solved

Axis suffered defeats in Pacifics and Egypt

Battle of the Atlantic: struggle against German U boats attempting to deprive Britain and of
food and raw materials. Beginning of 1942, Germany had 90 U boats in operation and 250
being built. Britain lost a lot of ships in 1942. But by July 1943 Britain could produce ships
faster than U boats could destroy them. Situation came under control for Britain. More air
protection was provided and escorts and protection was improved with experience. Radar
installed in escort planes to detect submarines.

Stalingrad: Germany's southern attack, which penetrated deeply through the Crimea, was
finally under control. The German army reached Stalingrad 1942, and found a more or less
destroyed city. However, Russian refused to surrender. They launched a counter-attacked,
trapping Germany, whose retreat route was cut off by large pincer movement.
• Russia moved all factories over Ural Mountains so destruction of Stalingrad could not
halt ammunition production
• Feb 1943 Germany surrendered with about 100,000 men. If Stalingrad fell, supply
route for Russian oil would have been cut off, and Germany would be able to advance
to Moscow.
• However the defeat was catastrophic for Germany, as it shattered morale and
bousted Russian morale.
• Followed with more Russian counter attack, forcing Germany to abandon siege of
Leningrad and Moscow. Germany outnumbered by Russians

Fall of Italy in 1943 provided air bases for Allies to bomb Germans in central Europe and the
Balkans. This kept German troops occupied when they were needed to resist Russians. The
fall of Italy caused the downfall of Mussolini

Invasion of France on D-Day June 6, 1944. The Second Front was added in the West to

~ 13 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

relieve pressure from Russia. Landings took place from the sea and air in Normandy
beaches. Strong German resistance but by the end of the first week, men from Britain
landed safely. Over 3 million Allied troops landed. Within a few weeks, most of northern
France was liberated (Paris August 25). This put out action of German rocket missiles sites.

Assault on Germany followed. Early 1945, Germany being invaded on both fronts.
Disagreement between USA and Britain delayed Allies advance into Berlin. Berlin fell to
Russia in April 1945, Hitler committed suicide, Germany surrendered.

August 1945: atomic bombs on Japan: Japan surrendered

~ 14 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

The Consequences of the Second World War

Why did the Axis lose the war?

Shortage of raw materials: both Italy and Japan had to import supplies and Germany short
of rubber, cotton, nickel and oil. Success depended of quick war but shortage prevented
this.

Allies learned from failures: realised how to check Blitzkrieg and appreciated importance of
air support. Built air and naval superiority which won battles of Atlantic and Pacific and
starved enemies of supply

Axis took on too much. Hitler did not understand war against Britain would involve war
against her empire as well. Troops were spread too thinly: on Russian front, on both sides of
Mediterranean, on western coasts of France. Japan also became stretched on the Pacific with
limited industrial power. Mussolini also incompetent, failed to relieve Germany. Stupid move
of Hitler to declare war on USA

Combined resources of USA and USSR and Britain were great that the longer the war lasted,
the less chance of Axis victory. The Russians rapidly moved their industry east of Ural
Mountains. By 1944 they had 4 times as many tanks as Germans and twice as many men.
USA added war machines to Allies.

Serious Axis tactical mistakes: Japanese failed to learn lessons of importance of aircraft
carriers and concentrated too much on producing battleships. Hitler failed to provide for
winter campaign in Russia, became obsessed with idea of not retreating. Disaster at
Stalingrad. Concentrated on developing V-rockets when should be producing jet aircraft to
restore air superiority and prevented devastating bomb attacks 1944 and 145.

Effects of War

Immense destruction of lives, home, industries and communication in both Europe and Asia,
At least 30 million people killed, half of them Russian. 21 million uprooted from their homes
(concentration camps , force to flee before invading armies)

Got rid the world of Nazism

No all-inclusive peace settlement. USSR set up pro-Soviet government in Berlin by the time
Allies entered Berlin. Disagreement and distrust and clash of ideology.

~ 15 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

Italy lost African colonies, renounced claims in Albania and Abyssia Russia took eastern tip
of Czechoslovakia, areas around Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and eastern Poland,
parts of Romania

Japan withdraws from China

East Prussia divided between Russia and Poland

European domination of world seen to be over. USA and Russia become world superpowers
with China and Japan playing important roles in world affairs

Occupation of Japan in Pacific ended tradition of European invincibility

UNO emerged

The Cold War

~ 16 ~ 
 Hien Nguyen (hmschocolate@hotmail.com)

Comparing WWI and WWII

Similarities
• Alliances – Germany vs Britain, France, Russia, USA. Italy changed sides.
• Began with attack on minor Eastern European country – Serbia & Poland
• Prolonged (4 years and 6 years – may be used as a difference)
• Entry of USA well after start of war and this had a decisive impact on outcome of
war. USA entered WWI in 1917 and entered WWII after Pearl Harbour, 1941
• Naval power important. Both wars had U-boat attacks
• Both were total wars
• Left problems of reconstruction and resettlement. Both left “German Question” of
what to do with Germany

Differences
• WWII was more genuinely world war. It took place in the Pacifics, Atlantics, every
continent except America
• More movement in WWII. WWI was deadlock in stalemate. Tanks, aircrafts and
blitzkrieg in WWII led to much more movement
• Russian had a more significant role in WWII
• Airpower was more significant in WWII
• More use of science/technology in WWII (atomic bombs)
• Civilians more exposed to dangers of war in WWII. Almost no distinction between
Home and Front. London was the front line with German bombings, which were blitz
bombings and indiscriminate bombings. Systematic elimination of Jews meant that
civilians who were Jews were directly invovled in the war.
• WWII was more destructive of lives and properties. Less military losses proportional
but more civilians killed (+ Jews). Mobility meant that troops were taken prisoners
rather than killed. Property destruction because of the fighting in a larger area and
bombing raids
• Consequences of WWII much untider. WWI lead to a treaty and problems. WWII lead
to no treaty, a lot of problems and a new war (the Cold War)

~ 17 ~