C.

The Naval Race

In order to build an empire, Germany
needed to expand their navy to be able to
travel across the seas to other countries.
There was a threat to the United Kingdom
(UK) who at the time had the biggest navy
in the world. They (i.e. the UK) wanted to
retain their naval supremacy because they
were an island. A navy was more important
to the UK than an army for defence. They
had a small army compared to the size of
Germany and other countries. This lead to
a naval race with countries across Europe
building up bigger and more powerful
weapons and ships.
D. Crisis in the Balkans
The Balkans comprise the areas Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, with portions of
Greece and Turkey also located within the
geographic region.
By the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire
which included the Balkan Region was in rapid
decline. Most Balkan groups struggled to free
themselves from the Ottoman rule while
some seceded to form new nations,
including Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, etc.
Each of these newly created countries
longed to extend their borders. For
instance, Serbia had a large Slavic
population and hoped to absorb all Slavs
in the Balkans. Slavs are a number of
ethnic groups of people in eastern and
south-eastern Europe. They and their
languages e.g. Russia, Polish, Czech, and
Serbian are related and many, though not
all of them belong historically to the
Orthodox Christian churches.
Austria-Hungary had hope to fill the
power vacuum created by the Ottoman
Empire. However, it saw Serbia’s growth as
a threat to its small Slavic population. This
resulted in a direct conflict between Serbia,
Russia and Austria-Hungary.
In 1908, Austria-Hungary seized
Bosnia and Herzegovina (areas with large
Slavic population). This action nearly
resulted in a war between Serbia and
Austria-Hungary.
THE IMMEDIATE OR SHORT-TERM CAUSE
OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR
The Assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and His Wife Sophie
In 1908, Austria-Hungary had seized
Bosnia. This angered many Bosnian people,
who wanted to join Serbia, which was also a
Slavic country.
In 1914, a group was formed called the
Black Hand. This was a group of Serbians who
wanted Austria-Hungary to leave Bosnia and
planned to assassinate the heir to the Austro-
Hungarian throne.
 On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and
his wife Sophie were visiting Sarajevo in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first
assassination attempt on them by the Black
Hand failed. When the Black Hand’s
bomb exploded but missed the car in
which the couple were travelling,
Ferdinand ordered his car to take them to
visit the injured in the hospital. As their car
drove past one of the assassins, Gavrilo
Princip, a Serb nationalist, a nineteen-year
old member for the Black Hand gang, he
fired two bullets,
killing the couple – Franz Ferdinand and
his wife Sophie. Because the assassin was a
Serbian, Austria-Hungary decided to use
the murder as an excuse to punish Serbia.

Sequence of Events and Decisions That

Led to the Start of the First World War in
1914
28 June 1914 – The Assassination of Franz

Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by a Serb

nationalist, Gavrilo Princip.
 28 July 1914 – Austrian government
blamed the Serbs and declared war on
Serbia. Serbia was bound by treaty with
Russia, therefore, the Russian
government announced a general
mobilization.
 1 August 1914 – Germany, allied by a
treaty with Austria-Hungary saw the
mobilization as an act of war against its
friend and declared a war on Russia.
 3 August 1914 – The German High
Command put in place the Schlieffen
Plan to avoid war on two fronts against
France and Russia.
4 August 1914 – Germany invaded
Belgium. The Belgium king asked Britain
for help. Britain declares war on Germany.
The First World War (The Great War)
The conflict began on July 28, 1914 and
ended on November 11, 1918. It was more
than four years before the guns went silent.
Huge crowds welcomed the
declaration of war in London, Paris, Berlin
and St. Petersburg. People in Europe saw it
as a
welcome opportunity to fight.
European nations took sides by mid-
August 1914. The battle lines were clearly
drawn. On one side were Germany and
Austria-Hungary. They were known as the
Central Powers, because of their location in
the heart of Europe. Bulgaria and the
Ottoman Empire later joined the Central
Powers in the hope of regaining lost
territories.
On the other side were Great Britain,
France and Russia. Together they were
known as the Allied Powers or the Allies.
Japan, Italy and Romania later joined the
Allied Powers. The USA in April 1917
became an Associated Power of the Allies.
In Europe, only Spain, Switzerland,
the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden
remained neutral throughout the four-year
struggle.
European War to Global War
The First World War may have started
as an European War but it soon spread
globally. The war wasn’t one struggle
between only two sides; rather there was a
collection of different wars, larger and
smaller, all being fought at the same time.
In the Middle East, the British, French,
Russians and Arabs all fought in a war
against the Ottoman Empire. In East Asia,
the Japanese took the opportunity to
strengthen their position in China. In
Africa, there was fighting between
different countries’ colonies. Finally, the
USA joined the Allies, making the war a
global one. The Great War turned bloody
along the Western Front and the Eastern
Front. The battle was fiercely fought from
these Fronts i.e. the Western and the
Eastern Fronts.
The Battle on the Western Front
The Schlieffen Plan was a plan named
after its designer, General Alfred Graf von
Schlieffen. Under the Schlieffen Plan, a
large part of the German army would race
west, to defeat France, and then return to
fight Russia in the east with speed.
Early on, Germany’s Schlieffen Plan worked
brilliantly. By the end of August, the Germans
had overrun Belgium and swept into France. By
September 3, 1914, German units were on the
edge of Paris. A major German victory
appeared just days away. The French military
then came into possession of intelligence
(secret information especially such information
about an enemy) that told them the exact
direction the German army was about to take.
On September 5, 1914, the Allies attacked
the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley of
the Marner River. Every available soldier was
hurled into the struggle. When reinforcements
were needed, more than 600 taxicabs rushed
soldiers from Paris to the front. After four days
of fighting, the German generals gave the order
to retreat. By September 13, 1914, the Germans
had been driven back nearly 60 miles. The
defeat of the Germans left the Schlieffen Plan
in ruins. A quick victory in the west no longer
seemed possible. In the east, Russian forces
had already invaded Germany. Germany was
going to have to fight a long war on two fronts.
Realizing this, the German high command sent
thousands of troops from France to aid its
forces in the east. Meanwhile, the war on the
Western Front settled into a stalemate or
deadlock.

The Battle on the Eastern Front

Even as the war on the Western Front claimed
thousands of lives, both sides were sending
millions more men to fight on the Eastern
Front. This area was a stretch of battlefield
along the German and Russian border. Here,
Russians and Serbs battled Germans, Austrians
and Turks. The war in the East was a more
mobile war than that in the West. Here too,
however, slaughter and stalemate were
common.
 Central Powers gained the advantage. At
the beginning of the war, Russian forces had
launched an attack into both Austria and
Germany. At the end of August 1914, Germany
counterattacked near the town of Tannenberg.
During the four-day battle that followed, the
Germans crushed the invading Russian army
and drove it into full retreat. Germany regained
East Prussia and seized numerous guns and
horses from the enemy. More than 30,000
Russian soldiers were killed.
Russia fared somewhat better against the
Austrians. Russian forces defeated the Austrians
twice in September 1914, driving them deep into
Austria. Not until December of that year did the
Austrian army, with assistance from Germany
managed to turn the tide. In a 17-day battle near
Limanowa, Austria defeated the Russians and
drove them eastward. Two weeks later, the
Austrian army pushed the Russians out of
Austria-Hungary.
In 1916, Russia’s war effort was near
collapse. Unlike the nations of Western Europe,
Russia had yet to become industrialized. As a
result, the Russian army was continually short
on food, guns, ammunitions, clothes, boots and
blankets. Moreover, the allies were unable to
ship supplies to Russia’s ports. In the north, a
German naval fleet blocked the Baltic Sea. In the
south, the Ottomans still controlled the straits
leading from the Mediterranean to the Black
Sea.
By March 1917, civil unrest in Russia due to
war related food shortages had brought the
Tzar’s government to a near collapse. Tzar
Nicholas, forced with a possible revolution
abandoned his throne on March 15, 1917. The
new government pledged to continue fighting
the war. However, by 1917 nearly 5.5 million
Russian soldiers had been wounded, killed or
taken prisoners. The soldiers refused to fight
any longer.
 Eight months later, a second revolution shook
Russia. In November 1917, communist leader
Vladimir Lenin seized power. He insisted on ending
his countries involvement in the war. One of his first
acts was to offer Germany an agreement. In March
1918, Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk, which ended the war between them. This
was a Peace Treaty (a peace treaty is a document that
sets out what should happen after a war is over. It is
signed by the victors and the losers).

Terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The Treaty was extremely hard on the Russians.
1. The Russians lost one million square miles of
territory to the Germans, and with it went both
one-third of their population (Latvia, Estonia,
etc.)

2. Germany demanded significant resources like

oil, coal and iron.

3. Germany demanded 6 billion German gold

marks in reparations. Reparations is a kind of
fine paid by an aggressor and intended to make
up for loss or damage suffered by a victim.
Lenin and the Bolsheviks had to sign the
treaty because the German and Austrian armies
were making further advances into Russian
territory.
 The United States Enters the War
In 1917, the focus of the war shifted to the
high seas. That year, the Germans intensified
the submarine warfare that had raged in the
Atlantic Ocean since shortly after the war began.
By 1917, failed crops, as well as a British naval
blockade caused severe food shortages in
Germany. The British Royal Navy’s blockade
ensured that German ships could not get out of
port. A blockade is a form of economic warfare
where one country attempts to prevent goods
being imported to its rival. Desperate to strike
back, Germany decided to establish its own
naval blockade around Britain. In January 1917,
the Germans announced that their submarines
would sink without warning any ship in the
waters around Britain. This policy was called
unrestricted submarine warfare.
The Germans had tried this policy before.
On May 7, 1915, a German submarine or U-boat,
had sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania.
The attack left 1,198 people dead, including 128
United States citizens. Germany claimed that the
ship had been carrying ammunition which
turned out to be true. Nevertheless, the
American public was outraged. President
Woodrow Wilson of the United States sent a
strong protest to Germany. After two further
attacks, the Germans finally agreed to stop
attacking neutral and passenger ships.
However, the Germans returned to
unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. They
knew it might lead to war with the United
States. They gambled that their naval blockade
would starve Britain into defeat before the
United States could mobilize. The German plan
was this: if Great Britain could be defeated by
starvation, this would force France to give in
before American soldiers could arrive in large
numbers from across the Atlantic.
For a couple of months it looked like the
gamble might be successful. That year did not
go well for the Allies. The new strategy (a
strategy is a plan intended to achieve an overall,
long-term military aim) followed by German
submarines sank many supply ships. The French
army was shaken by a series of mutinies.
Ignoring warnings by President Wilson, German
U-boats sank three American ships.
In February 1917, another German action
pushed the United States closer to war. The
British intercepted a telegram from Germany’s
foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the
German ambassador in Mexico. The message
said that Germany would help Mexico
‘reconquer’ the land it had lost to the United
States if Mexico would ally itself with Germany. The
British decoded the message and gave it to the U.S.
government. The land Mexico considered lost to the
United States included New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.
When the Zimmermann note was made public,
Americans called for war against Germany on 6 April
1917. This became possible because on April 2, 1917,
President Wilson asked Congress to declare war. The
United States entered the war on the side of the Allies.
The Allies could now be sure of eventual victory if they
could hold on long enough for the U.S. armies to reach
France.
The unrestricted submarine campaign by the
Germans failed to defeat Great Britain with the arrival of
extra American soldiers and resources on the Western
Front.
 The End of the War
With U.S. resources crossing the Atlantic to
support the Allied Powers, the end for the German war
effort was getting closer. A German Spring Offensive in
1918 led to a breakthrough and it looked as though
victory was possible for the Germans, but the cost of the
operation, in deaths, injuries and materials, exhausted
the resources of the German army. The German army
and navy and the people back home were at the limit of
what they could take. Desertions multiplied as soldiers
left their posts and headed home from the trenches.
Sailors mutinied and refused to go to sea. The German
Supreme Army Command knew that defeat was not far
away. Desertion is when soldiers leave their post,
refuse to obey their officers and walk away from the
front.
 What Happened to Germany?
1. The British blockade was hurting German civilians as
well as soldiers by creating severe shortages of
food, fuel and other essentials.
2. Germany suffered huge losses in deaths, injuries and
high cost of operation.
3. The German soldiers also began to leave their post and
headed home from their trenches.
4. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne on 9 November
1918. A new government was formed and two days later
(i.e. 11 November 1918) they signed the Armistice to
stop the fighting.
Therefore, after four years of fighting the Allied Powers won the war.
Abdicate (as head of state) means when a king or emperor steps down

or gives up the throne.

Armistice means an end to fighting as a prelude to peace negotiations.
 The Terms of the Armistice
1. Hostilities will end at 11am.
2. The immediate withdrawal of German troops from
France and Belgium, including the provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine that had been part of Germany
since 1871.
3. All German submarines must be surrendered.
4. The immediate release of French, British and Italian
prisoners of war. German prisoners of war will only
be released after a peace treaty has been agreed.
5. The following must be handed over to the Allied
Powers: 25,000 machine guns; 1,700 aeroplanes; and
5,000 trains.
 The Scale and Casualties of the First World War
The First World War was different from anything
that had gone before, that is to say; its scale and
the way it was fought. The total number of
military and civilian casualties was around 40
million. There were 20 million deaths and 21
million wounded. The total number of deaths
includes 9.7 military personnel and about 10
million civilians. However, no one has been able
to calculate the exact numbers killed and
wounded. The intense nature of the war was not
only confined to land. They fought at sea by
blockade, by starving each other. The air space
became a zone for combat for the first time.
 Technology of Death
The mass slaughter which characterized the First
World War was as a result of the new weapons of
war that were introduced. These weapons
included:
Poison Gas – Gas was introduced by both sides.

While some gases caused blinding or severe

blisters, others caused death by choking.
Machine Guns – The machine gun, which fires

ammunition automatically was much improved by

the time of World War I.
Tanks – The tanks were armoured combat vehicle

that moved on chain tracks.

 Airplanes – World War I signaled the first time
in history that planes were used in combat role.
 Submarines – It is a submersible warship
usually armed with torpedoes.
 Friday, 3rd November, 2023
The Peace Treaties
Even though the Allied Powers had won the war,
they did not have an entirely freehand. The
following factors shaped their thinking and
decisions.
The loss of human life and destruction caused

intense bitterness and an unwillingness to

compromise.
The war had cost huge sums of money and some

countries went bankrupt. To pay for the war,

countries like France and Great Britain borrowed
from the United States. At the end of the war, they
were heavily in debt.
Based on the above factors, there was the need for
peace treaties to be signed. However, these
peacemakers had to work quickly.
Reasons the Peacemakers Needed to Work Fast
The First World War had created conditions in

which revolution could break out at any time just as

it had done in Russia.
Millions were dying from an epidemic of Spanish

flu that swept across Europe, killing as many as the

First World War had.
There wasn’t just one peace treaty to agree on, there

were five. One for each of the Central Powers. It

was until 1923 that the last peace treaty was put in
place.
 Epidemic means an infectious disease that has
spread over a wide area affecting thousands of
people.
The Versailles Settlement
National leaders and their delegations from thirty-
two (32) countries had to decide what should happen
now that the First World War was over. Added
together, they represented three-quarters of the
world’s population. These leaders met at the Paris
Peace Conference on June 28, 1919. The Conference
was held in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of
Versailles in Paris. By 1923, the treaty was finalized.
The first and most important treaty was the Treaty of
Versailles which dealt with Germany. The five peace
treaties were collectively called the Versailles
Making the peace treaty came with a number of
challenges.
Challenges Faced in Making the Peace Treaties
1. Making the peace was difficult because of
the nature of the problems to be solved.
2. Germany and Russia were not invited.
3. The Big Three had different motives and
different aims and were also under all
sorts of pressure. They clashed on many of the
terms of the treaties, especially the Treaty of
Versailles.
 The Motives and Aims of the Big Three
The key peacemakers or decision makers of
the Paris Peace Conference were known as
“The Big Three.” They were:
1. Georges Clemenceau – Prime Minister of
France “The Uncompromising.”
2. David Lloyd George – Prime Minister of
Britain “The Realist.”
3. Woodrow Wilson – President of the United
States “The Idealist.”
Each of these leaders had different motives and
different aims when they arrived in Paris, but they
were also under all sorts of pressure. Each of the
Big Three were all democratically elected leaders. As a
result, they had to take account of public opinion in
their own country into consideration as they negotiated
the terms of the peace treaties. Below are the motives
and aims of each of the Big Three.
(A) Georges Clemenceau of France
Motives
i. For Germany not to be able to build up its armed
forces again and threaten France, which had been
invaded twice in 1870 and 1914.
ii. French people had suffered huge casualties. Around
1.4 million soldiers were killed. Also, France farmlands
and industries in north-east were devastated.
 Aims
i. To cripple Germany economically and territorially.
ii. Ensure France borders were secured against future
attacks.
iii. Demand Germany takes blame for starting the war
and pay high reparations for all the damage done to
France.
iv. Some German colonies to be handed to France.
v. The return of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
vi. The disarmament of Germany’s army, navy and air
force.
Disarmament is the process of destroying some or all

weapons and armed forces that could be used in fighting

 (B) David Lloyd George of Britain
Motives
i. Wanted to protect the British empire.
ii. Wanted jobs for people in Britain.
iii. Didn’t want Germany to seek revenge or have a
communist revolution as in Russia, if the treaty was too harsh
for Germans at home.
Aims
i. Re-establish a balance of power in Europe so that no single
Great Power could dominate the continent.
ii. Return to trading patterns with Europe and the Empire that
had made Britain so wealthy before the First World War.
iii. Preserve British naval supremacy so it could guard the
British Empire and its shipping lanes.
 Naval supremacy is achieved when a country owns
more battleships than their competitors.
(B) Woodrow Wilson of the United States
Motives
i. To remove the causes of the First World War to prevent
future wars.
ii. Increase trade between Europe and the USA to prevent the
spread of communism.
iii. Strengthen democracy and self-determination to break-up
empires.
Aims
The American president, Woodrow Wilson, presented the
Versailles peace conference with his fourteen points on
removing the causes of the war. These fourteen points were
his aims. They were:
i. No more secret treaties.
ii. There should be no restrictions on ships sailing the seas
during peace or wartime.
iii. Barriers to free trade between nations such as quotas and
tariffs reflect and create an economic power struggle
between countries. They should be dismantled.
iv. Armaments must be reduced in all countries to a level
needed only for defence so that countries would have
insufficient military force for aggression.
v. Disputes about colonies must be decided by taking
account of the interests of the people in the colony and the
governing country.
vi. German troops must leave Russia.
vii. Belgium’s independence must be restored.
viii. The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine must be returned to
France.
ix. The frontiers around Italy must be adjusted to match the
people’s nationality.
x. The different ethnic groups must be given self-
determination in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
xi. Romania, Serbia and Montenegro should be restored;
Serbia should have free and secure access to the sea.
xii. The Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire should form one
country; other nationalities within the empire should be
allowed to form their own country.
xiii. An independent Poland should be created with access to
the sea.
xiv. A League of Nations should be formed in order to
guarantee all countries independence and secure borders.
 Quota means a strict quantity of goods that may be
exported or imported under government control.
 Tariff is a tax imposed by the government that has to be
paid on imports or exports.

 Self-determination is when an ethnic group has the right to

their own independent country instead of living as a
minority inside a larger country dominated by a different
ethnic group.

 League of Nations is a membership organization for nations

(1920–1946) intended to promote international discussion,
solve international disputes and to avoid war.