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Hulton Archiv e The Twentieth- Century Crisis
1914–1945 hy It Matters
W The period between 1914 and 1945 was one of the most destructive in the history of humankind. As many as 60 million people died as a result of World Wars I and II, the global conflicts that began and ended this era. As World
War I was followed by revolutions, the Great Depression, totalitarian regimes, and the horrors of World War II, it appeared to many that European civilization had become a nightmare. By 1945, the era of European domination over world affairs had been severely shaken. With the decline of Western power, a new era of world history was about to begin.
䊱
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Primary Source to find additional
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䊳 Former Russian pris- oners of war honor the American troops who freed them.
e b y Getty Images Hulton/Archiv “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
—Winston Churchill
International ➊ ➋
Peacekeeping Until the 1900s, with the exception of the Seven Years’ War, never
➌ in history had there been a conflict that literally spanned the globe.
The twentieth century witnessed two world wars and numerous regional conflicts. As the scope of war grew, so did international commitment to collective security, where a group of nations join together to promote peace and protect human life.
1914–1918 1919 1939–1945
World War I League of Nations World War II is fought created to prevent wars is fought
➊ Europe
The League of Nations
At the end of World War I, the victorious nations set up a “general associa- tion of nations” called the League of Nations, which would settle interna- tional disputes and avoid war. By 1920, 42 nations had sent delegates to the
League’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and they were eventually joined by another 21.
The United States never joined. Opponents in the U.S. Senate argued that membership in the League went against George Washington’s advice to avoid “entangling alliances.” When the League failed to halt warlike acts in the 1930s, the same opponents pointed to the failure of collective security.
The League of Nations was seen as a peacekeeper without a sword—it possessed neither a standing army nor members willing to stop nations that used war as diplomacy.
The League of Nations and Uncle Sam
➋ The United States
The United Nations
After World War II, the United States hosted a meeting to create a new peace- keeping organization. Delegates from 50 nations hammered out the Charter of the United Nations. To eliminate the root causes of war, the UN created agencies that promoted global education and the well-being of children. In 1948, United States delegate Eleanor Roosevelt convinced the UN to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which committed the UN to eliminate oppression. The headquarters for the UN are located in New York City.
UN membership flags 1945 1948 1950–1953 1988
United Nations is founded UN adopts the Universal UN troops participate Nobel Peace Prize awarded Declaration of Human Rights in the Korean War to UN peacekeeping forces
➌ South Africa
The Power of World Opinion
By 1995, the UN had taken part in 35 peacekeeping missions—some successful, some not. It also had provided protection for over 30 million refugees.
The UN used world opinion to promote justice. In 1977, it urged nations to enforce economic sanctions and an arms embargo against South Africa until apartheid was lifted. In 1994, South Africa held its first all-race elections.
Many believed this was a major triumph for collective international action.
Casting a vote in South Africa Why It Matters
The UN hopes to use collective international actions to promote peace around the world. Often this involves preventing injustice and improving living condi- tions. What are some recent UN actions that support these principles?
War and Revolution 1914–1919 .
The Big Ideas ,
World History—Modern Times Video The Chapter 8 video,
“Modern Warfare,” chronicles innovations in warfare during the twentieth century.
1914
Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand sparks World War I
1914 1915 1916 1916
Battle of Verdun leaves more than 700,000 dead, wounded, or missing
1915
German submarine sinks the
Lusitania Br idgeman Ar t Libr ar y Int’l. Ltd.
Battle of the Somme by Richard Woodville The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest battles of World War I.
HISTORY
1917 1918 1919
1919
Allies sign Treaty of Versailles
1917
United States enters the war
1918
Germany agrees to truce
1917
Russian Revolution begins
Bolsheviks in Russia People celebrating the end of the war ime is the basic matter for all history—perhaps like the atom is for physics. Since historians explain change over time, they must first T know the order of events. For example, they could not say that one event caused another unless they knew which came first. For this reason, historians often use words or phrases that refer to time or sequence. Time lines also highlight the concern with time or chronology—chronology comes from the Greek for time, chronos.
You know an author is calling attention to time and sequence when you see certain words and phrases—for example, first, second, last, finally, next, then, since, after, and at last. The most obvious signal, of course, is a date! Read the following excerpts from the chapter and notice how the signal words help you anticipate a time-ordered explanation.
That morning, one of the conspirators threw a bomb at the archduke’s car, but it glanced off and TIME exploded against the car behind him. Later in the That morning . . . Later in the day, however, Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Bos- day: Both phrases help fix the nian Serb, succeeded in fatally shooting both the time of an event and give the archduke and his wife. reader a sense of how long it
. . . In mid-1919, White forces swept through took to come about. Ukraine and advanced almost to Moscow before being pushed back. By 1920, however, the major White forces had been defeated and Ukraine retaken. The next year, the Communist regime regained control . . . in Georgia, Russian Armenia, and Azerbaijan. SEQUENCE before . . . By 1920:
Look for words in each chapter that Both phrases explain signal time and sequence. This will sequence. The Whites made make your notes better because you progress first, then were will record information in the right pushed back, and at the turn sequence. of the year were defeated. Historical Interpretation: Standard HI 1 Students show the connections, causal and otherwise, between particular historical events and larger social, economic, and political trends and developments. istorians recognize that dramatic, large-scale events need to be examined closely. Events, such as a huge public demonstration or an assassination of a
H political leader, are connected to the past, and will affect many people in the future.
In this chapter, you will read about a group of working-class women who marched through the Russian capital in 1917 to protest bread lines. Historians do not look upon this as an isolated incident, but as an event that tells them about the state of Russian society.
Read this police report to the government, written before the protest:
“Mothers of families, exhausted by endless standing in line at stores, distraught over their half-starving and sick children, are today perhaps closer to revolution than [the liberal opposition leaders] and of course they are a great deal more dangerous because they are the combustible material for which only a single spark is needed to burst into flame.”
Since this happened during World War I, what factors might have led to discontent? Based on what you’ve learned about the Russian Revolution of 1905, what are the possible consequences of a working-class protest? Might this protest affect Russia’s ability to fight the war?
Discuss your answers to the previous questions with a classmate. When the two of you have read the chapter, see whether your conclusions about cause and effect were similar to the actual events in Russia in 1917. n July 1, 1916, British and French infantry forces attacked German defensive lines along a front about 25 miles (40 km) long near the Somme River in France. Each soldier carried almost 70 (32 kg) pounds of equipment, including a rifle, ammunition, grenades, a shovel, a mess kit, and a full water bottle. This burden made it “impossible to move much quicker than a slow walk.”
German machine guns soon opened fire. “We were able to see our comrades move forward in an attempt to cross No-Man’s-Land, only to be mown down like meadow grass,” recalled one British soldier. Another wrote later, “I felt sick at the sight of this carnage and remember weeping.”
Philip Gibbs, an English journalist with the troops, reported on what he found in the German trenches that the British forces overran: “Victory! . . . Groups of dead lay in ditches which had once been trenches, flung into chaos by that bombardment I had seen. . . . Some of the German dead were young boys, too young to be killed for old men’s crimes, and others might have been old or young. One could not tell because they had no faces, and were just masses of raw flesh in rags of uniforms. Legs and arms lay separate without any bodies thereabouts.”
In the first day of the Battle of the Somme, about 21,000 British soldiers died. After four months of fighting, the British had advanced 5 miles (8 km). About one million Allied and German soldiers lay dead or wounded.
O The Battle of the Somme
Advancing troops in the Battle of the Somme British artillery firing on the Germans at the Battle of the Somme
Why It Matters
World War I (1914–1918) devastated the economic, social, and political order of Europe. People at the time, overwhelmed by the size of the war’s battles and the number of casualties, simply called it the Great War. The war was all the more dis- turbing to Europeans because it came after a period that many believed to have been an age of progress. World War I and the revo- lutions it spawned can properly be seen as the first stage in the crisis of the twentieth century.
History and You Look online or
in the library for a speech delivered by Woodrow Wilson or another leader, explaining the reasons for entering the war. Analyze the arguments. How might someone opposed to the war counter those arguments?
The Road to World War I
Guide to Reading
2. Describe how the system of alliances
Section Preview Content Vocabulary helped cause the war.
Militarism, nationalism, and a crisis in the conscription, mobilization Balkans led to World War I.
Reading Strategy Academic Vocabulary
Cause and Effect Use a diagram like the ethnic, alter, anticipate, behalf one below to identify the factors that led
Feelings of nationalism and a system of •
People and Events to Identify to World War I.
alliances contributed to the start of Triple Alliance, Triple Entente, Archduke
World War I. (p. 422) Francis Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip,
- Serbia’s determination to become a
Emperor William II, Czar Nicholas II, large, independent state angered General Alfred von Schlieffen Austria-Hungary and started hostilities.
World War I
(p. 424) Places to Locate Serbia, Bosnia
Reading Objectives
1. Explain how the assassination of Arch- duke Francis Ferdinand led to World War I.
Preview of Events ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920
1882 1907 1908 1912–1913 1914 Triple Alliance Triple Entente Austria annexes First and second World War I forms forms Ottoman province Balkan wars are begins of Bosnia fought
California Standards in This Section
Reading this section will help you master these California History–Social Science standards.
10.5.1: Analyze the arguments for entering into war pre- 10.5.2: Examine the principal theaters of battle, major
sented by leaders from all sides of the Great War turning points, and the importance of geographic and the role of political and economic rivalries, factors in military decisions and outcomes (e.g., ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discon- topography, waterways, distance, climate). tent and disorder, and propaganda and national- ism in mobilizing the civilian population in support of “total war.”
Nationalism and the System of Alliances Feelings of nationalism and a system of alliances contributed to the start of World War I.
Reading Connection Have you ever stood up for a friend when he or she was being criticized? Read to find out how a system of alliances led to the start of World War I.
Until about 1850, liberals believed that if European states were organized along national lines, these states could create a peaceful Europe. They were wrong. The system of nation-states that emerged in Europe led later in the century not to cooperation but to competition. Rivalries over colonies and trade grew during an age of frenzied nationalism and imperialist expansion. It took only an assassin’s bul- let to ignite a world war.
Why did the archduke’s murder lead to war? The answer lies in the European alliance system. For some time, Europe’s great powers had been divided into two loose alliances. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed the Triple Alliance in 1882. France, Great Britain, and Russia created the Triple Entente in 1907.
In the early years of the twentieth century, a series of crises tested these alliances. Especially trouble- some were the crises in the Balkans between 1908 and 1913. Tensions rose in 1908 when Austria annexed the Ottoman province of Bosnia—the Aus-
trians had already been administering it according to international treaty. Then in 1912 and 1913, different Balkan groups—Serbs, Rumanians, Greeks, and Turks—fought one another for more territory and influence.
These events brought emotions to a boil. European states were angry at each other, especially Austria and Russia. Each state was guided by its own self-interest and success. They were willing to use war as a way to preserve the power of their national states.
The growth of nationalism in the nineteenth cen- tury had yet another serious result. Not all ethnic groups had become nations. Slavic minorities in the Balkans and the Hapsburg Empire, for example, still dreamed of creating their own national states. The Irish in the British Empire and the Poles in the Rus- sian Empire had similar dreams.
Internal Dissent National desires were not the only
source of internal strife at the beginning of the twen- tieth century. Because of industrialization, society had changed. The working class and lower middle class did not want to let wealthy people decide what was best for them. They also wanted a bigger share of the economic wealth they had helped create. Trade unions were demanding better wages. Socialist par- ties wanted even more radical change—an end to capitalism. Increasingly, both groups used strikes, even violent ones, to achieve their goals.
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, was assassi- nated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. One of the con- spirators described the scene:
“ As the car came abreast, [the assassin] stepped forward from the curb, drew his auto- matic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Arch- duchess Sophia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly. The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart. He uttered only one word: ‘Sophia’—a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he col- lapsed. He died almost instantly.
” Assassination at Sarajevo
Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection 400 kilometers 400 miles N S E W
Militarism
With its 1.3 million men, the Russian army was the largest in Europe. The French and German armies were not far behind, with 900,000 each. The British, Italian, and Austro-Hungarian armies had between 250,000 and 500,000 soldiers each.
Militarism—the aggressive preparation for war— was growing. As armies grew, so too did the influence of military leaders. Generals drew up complex plans for quickly mobilizing millions of men and enormous quantities of supplies in case of war. Generals had spent years planning how to win a war, not how to avoid one.
Military leaders feared that any changes in their plans would cause chaos in the army. Thus they insisted that their plans could not be altered. In the 1914 crises, this left European political leaders with little leeway. They were forced to make decisions for military instead of political reasons.
Examining What was the effect of conscription on events leading up to World War I?
Reading Check
Conservative leaders in a number of European nations were alarmed at this increase in labor conflict and class division. They feared that their nations were on the verge of revolution. A number of histori- ans have argued that this desire to avoid revolution encouraged the plunge into war in 1914. According to this view, the fervent patriotic feeling of wartime was supposed to join all social classes together against a foreign enemy and lessen the appeal of socialism.
The growth of mass armies after 1900 heightened the existing tensions in Europe. The large size of these armies also should have made it obvious that if war did come, it would be highly destructive. There was a second reason that any coming war would be more destructive. The Industrial Revolu- tion had given nations much more destructive guns and weapons than ever before.
Moscow Budapest
Nevertheless, many politicians and generals expected a war that would be like the last one fought in Europe—Bismarck’s war against France when he unified Germany. That war was quick and decisive, and the casualties were relatively light. Thus the two sides thought they could take the offensive and win a quick victory.
Alliances in Europe, 1914 Triple Alliance Triple Entente Balkans
The alliance system was one of the major causes of World War I.
1. Interpreting Maps
What geographic factor made it unlikely that World War I battles would be fought in Great Britain?
2. Applying Geography Skills Create a three-
In the years before 1914, conscription, a military draft, had been established as a regular practice in the West. Only the United States and Britain did not have conscription when war broke out. Because of conscription, armies expanded significantly between 1890 and 1914. Many armies doubled in size.
London Constantinople Madrid
20°E 10°E 0° 30°E
Se C h s a l e n n a h E i l g n E l b e R . R h i n e R .
40°N 50°N
10°W Black Sea North
Sea B al ti c
Se a
Atlantic Ocean S e in e R .
Medite rran e a n
D an u b e R .
Vienna Sarajevo St. Petersburg Berlin
So m m e R . L o i re R. D n ie p e r R .
AFRICA SPAIN FRANCE ROMANIA AUSTRIA- HUNGARY
R U S S I A GERMANY
ITALY SWITZ. LUX.
BULGARIA
GREECE ALBANIA MONTE- NEGRO NETH. BELG. UNITED KINGDOM SERBIA DENMARK SWEDEN NORWAY
Crete
Sicily Sardinia Corsica Cyprus ALSACE & LORRAINE BOSNIA O TT O M AN EMPI RE Paris Rome
column chart with the headings Triple Entente, Triple Alliance, and Other. Place all the countries labeled on the map in the proper column. Indeed, Germany reacted quickly. The German government warned Russia that it must halt its mobilization within 12 hours.
The Conflict Broadens
The conspirators planned to kill the archduke, along with his wife. That morning, one of the con- spirators threw a bomb at the archduke’s car, but it glanced off and exploded against the car behind him. Later in the day, however, Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year- old Bosnian Serb, succeeded in fatally shooting both the archduke and his wife.
Leaders of the Russian army informed the czar that they could not partially mobilize. Their mobilization plans were based on a war against both Germany and Austria-Hungary. Mobilizing against only Austria- Hungary, they claimed, would create chaos in the army. Based on this claim, the czar ordered full mobi- lization of the Russian army on July 29, knowing that Germany would consider this order an act of war.
port Serbia’s cause. On July 28, Czar Nicholas II ordered partial mobilization of the Russian army against Austria-Hungary. Mobilization is the process of assembling troops and supplies and mak- ing them ready for war. In 1914, mobilization was considered an act of war.
Russia Mobilizes Russia was determined to sup-
Strengthened by German support, Austrian lead- ers sent an ultimatum to Serbia on July 23. In it, they made such extreme demands that Serbia had little choice but to reject some of them in order to preserve its sovereignty. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
responded with a “blank check,” saying that Austria- Hungary could rely on Germany’s “full support,” even if “matters went to the length of a war between Austria-Hungary and Russia.”
Emperor William II of Germany and his chancellor
Austrian leaders wanted to attack Serbia but feared Russian intervention on Serbia’s behalf, so they sought the backing of their German allies.
The Austro-Hungarian government did not know whether or not the Serbian government had been directly involved in the arch- duke’s assassination, but it did not care. It saw an opportunity to “render Serbia innocuous [harmless] once and for all by a display of force,” as the Austrian foreign minister put it.
Austria-Hungary Responds
organization that wanted Bosnia to be free of Austria- Hungary and to become part of a large Serbian kingdom.
The Outbreak of War: Summer 1914 Serbia’s determination to become a large, independent state angered Austria-Hungary and started hostilities.
SAR
Assassination in Sarajevo On June 28, 1914, Arch- duke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophia visited Sara- jevo (
” It was against this backdrop of mutual distrust and hatred that the events of the summer of 1914 were played out.
. . . It will be lucky if Europe succeeds in avoiding war as a result of the present crisis.
“ Serbia will some day set Europe by the ears, and bring about a universal war on the Continent. . . . I cannot tell you how exasperated people are getting here at the continual worry which that little country causes to Austria under encouragement from Russia.
Many Europeans saw the potential danger in this explosive situation. The British ambassador to Vienna anticipated war in 1913:
By 1914, Serbia, supported by Russia, was deter- mined to create a large, independent Slavic state in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary, which had its own Slavic minorities to contend with, was equally deter- mined to prevent that from happening.
The Serbian Problem As we have seen, states in southeastern Europe had struggled for many years to free themselves of Ottoman rule. Furthermore, the rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Russia for domination of these new states created serious ten- sions in the region.
Militarism, nationalism, and the desire to stifle internal dissent may all have played a role in the starting of World War I. However, it was the deci- sions made by European leaders in response to another crisis in the Balkans in the summer of 1914 that led directly to the conflict.
Reading Connection What circumstances might influence the United States to enter a war on behalf of an ally? Read to learn how an assassination led to a world war.
- uh•YAY•voh) in Bosnia. A group of con- spirators waited there in the streets. The conspirators were members of the Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist
Like the Russians, the Germans had a military plan. It had been drawn up under the guidance of
General Alfred von Schlieffen (SHLEE•fuhn), and
so was known as the Schlieffen Plan. The plan called for a two-front war with France and Russia, who had formed a military alliance in 1894.
According to the Schlieffen Plan, Germany would conduct a small holding action against Russia while most of the German army would carry out a rapid invasion of France. This meant invading France by moving quickly along the level coastal area through Belgium. After France was defeated, the German invaders would move to the east against Russia.
Under the Schlieffen Plan, Germany could not mobilize its troops solely against Russia. Therefore, it declared war on France on August 3. About the same time, it issued an ultimatum to Belgium demanding the right of German troops to pass through Belgian territory. Belgium, however, was a neutral nation.
On August 4, Great Britain declared war on Ger- many, officially for violating Belgian neutrality. In fact, Britain was concerned about maintaining its
German officer reading the declaration of war in the streets
own world power. As one British diplomat put it, if
of Berlin
Germany and Austria-Hungary won the war, “what would be the position of a friendless England?” By August 4, all the Great Powers of Europe were at war.
Reading Check
Evaluating How did the Schlieffen Plan contribute to the outbreak of World War I?
Checking for Understanding Critical Thinking Analyzing Visuals
1. Vocabulary Define: ethnic, conscrip-
5. Connecting
7. Examine the photo on this page of the tion, alter, anticipate, behalf, Events How did the creation of mili- German officer on the streets of Berlin. mobilization. tary plans help draw the nations of Compare how German leaders commu-
Europe into World War I? In your opin- nicated this important event to how it
2. People and Events Identify: Triple ion, what should today’s national and might happen in your own society. Why Alliance, Triple Entente, Archduke Fran- military leaders have learned from the might the 1914 situation contribute to cis Ferdinand, Gavrilo Princip, Emperor military plans that helped initiate World immediate excitement? William II, Czar Nicholas II, General
CA HI1
War I? Explain.Alfred von Schlieffen.
6. Sequencing Information Using a dia- 3. Places Locate: Serbia, Bosnia. gram like the one below, identify the
8. Expository Writing Some historians series of decisions made by European believe that the desire to suppress
Reviewing Big Ideas
leaders in 1914 that led directly to the internal disorder may have encour-
4. List the ethnic groups that were left outbreak of war. aged leaders to take the plunge into without nations after the nationalist war. As an adviser, write a memo to movements of the nineteenth century. your country’s leader explaining how a war might benefit the nation.
CA 10WA2.4a
the
L usitani a1 Passengers boarding the British liner R.M.S. Lusitania
in New York on May 1, 1915, for the voyage to Liver- pool, England, knew of Germany’s threat to sink ships bound for the British Isles. Britain and Germany had been fighting for nine months. Still, few passengers
P imagined that a civilized nation would attack an unarmed passenger steamer without warning.
Built eight years earlier, the Lusitania Listing to starboard, the liner
2 was described as a “floating palace.” began to sink rapidly at the bow, German authorities, however, saw her sending passengers tumbling down as a threat. They accused the British her slanted decks. Lifeboats on the government of using the Lusitania to port side were hanging too far carry ammunition and other war sup- inboard to be readily launched, those plies across the Atlantic. on the starboard side too far out to be
With her four towering funnels, the easily boarded. Several overfilled liner looked invincible as she left New lifeboats spilled occupants into the York on her last voyage. Six days later, at 2:10 P . M . on May 7, 1915, Walther
2 Schwieger, the 30-year-old commander of the German submarine U 20, fired a single torpedo at the Lusitania from a range of about 750 yards (686 m).
Captain William Turner of the Lusi- sea. The great liner disappeared under tania saw the torpedo’s wake from the the waves in only 18 minutes, leaving
navigation bridge just before impact. It behind a jumble of swimmers,
sounded like a “million-ton hammer corpses, deck chairs, and wreckage. hitting a steam boiler a hundred feet Looking back upon the scene fromhigh,” one passenger said. A second, his submarine, even the German
more powerful explosion followed, commander Schwieger was shocked. sending a geyser of water, coal, andHe later called it the most horrible debris high above the deck. sight he had ever seen. News of the disaster raced across the Atlantic. Of 1,959 people aboard, only 764 were saved. The dead in- cluded 94 children and infants.
Questions were immediately raised. Did the British Admiralty give the Lusitania adequate warning? How could one torpedo have sunk her? Why did she go down so fast? Was there any truth to the German claim that the Lusitania had been armed?
From the moment the Lusitania sank, she was surrounded by contro- versy. Americans were outraged by the attack, which claimed the lives of 123 U.S. citizens. Newspapers called the attack “deliberate murder” and a “foul deed,” and former President Theodore Roosevelt demanded revenge against Germany. The attack on the Lusitania is often credited with drawing the United States into World War I. However, President Woodrow Wilson—though he had vowed to hold Germany responsible for its sub- marine attacks—knew that the Ameri- can people were not ready to go to war. It was almost two years before the United States joined the conflict in Europe.
A British judge laid full blame on the German submarine commander, while the German government claimed that the British had deliber- ately made her a military target. Trag- ically, inquiries following the sinking of the Lusitania revealed that Captain Turner had received warnings by wireless from the British Admiralty, 0 mi 0 km 30 30
1 The Lusitania arrives in New York on her maiden voyage in 1907 (oppo- site page).
2 Captain William Turner of the Lusita- nia,
(opposite page, center); Walther Schwieger, commander of the German submarine U 20 (opposite page, right).
3 Headlines in Boston and New York (above) report the terrible news of the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915. In the two days prior to the attack on the Lusitania, the German submarine U 20 had sunk three ships off Ireland’s southern coast. Yet the captain of the Lusitania, who had received warnings by wireless from the British Admiralty, took only limited pre- cautions as he approached the area. S P E C I A L R E P O R T
3 but took only limited precautions as he approached the area where the U 20 was waiting.
Rumors of diamonds, gold, and valuables locked away in Lusitania’s safes have prompted salvage attempts over the years. To date, no treasure has ever been reported.
Perhaps the biggest puzzle has been the hardest to solve: Why did the liner sink so fast? Newspapers speculated that the torpedo had struck munitions in a cargo hold, causing the strong secondary explo- sion. Divers later reported a huge hole in the port side of the bow, opposite where munitions would have been stored.
Hoping to settle the issue, a team from the Woods Hole Oceano- graphic Institution, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, sent their robot vehicle Jason down to photograph the damage. Fitted with cameras and powerful lights, the robot sent video images of the wreck by fiber-optic cable to a control room on the surface ship, Northern Horizon. A pilot maneuvered Jason with a joy- stick, while an engineer relayed instructions to the robot’s computers. Other team members watched for rec- ognizable objects on the monitors. In addition to using Jason to make a visual survey of the Lusitania, the team of researchers and scientists also used sonar to create a computerized, three- dimensional diagram of how the wreck looks today.
From this data, it was discovered that the Lusitania’s hull had been flat- tened—in part by the force of grav- ity—to half its original width. But when Jason’s cameras swept across the hold, looking for the hole reported by divers shortly after the sinking, there was none to be found. Indeed, no evi- dence was found that would indicate that the torpedo had detonated an explosion in a cargo hold, undermin- ing one theory of why the liner sank.
Questions about her cargo have haunted the Lusitania since the day she went down. Was she carrying ille- gal munitions as the Germans have always claimed? In fact, she was. The manifest for her last voyage included wartime essentials such as motorcycle parts, metals, cotton goods, and food, as well as 4,200 cases of rifle ammuni- tion, 1,250 cases of shrapnel (not explosive), and 18 boxes of percussion fuses. However, the investigation con- ducted by the Woods Hole team and Jason suggested that these munitions did not cause the secondary blast that sent the Lusitania to the bottom. So what did?
One likely possibility was a coal- dust explosion. The German torpedo struck the liner’s starboard side about 10 feet (3 m) below the waterline, rupturing one of the long coal
4
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
5
6
4 Homer, a small robot, (opposite page) explores a hole in the stern of the Lusi- tania that was cut by a salvage crew to recover silverware and other items.
5 A provocative poster (left) depicted drowning innocents and urged Americans to enlist in the armed forces.
6 Alice Drury (above left) was a young nanny for an American couple on the Lusitania
. She and another nanny were caring for the couple’s children: Audrey (above right), Stuart, Amy, and Susan. Alice was about to give Audrey a bottle when the torpedo hit. Alice wrapped Audrey in a shawl, grabbed Stuart, and headed for the lifeboats. A crewman loaded Stuart, but when Alice tried to board, the sailor told her it was full. Without a life jacket and with Audrey around her neck, Alice jumped into the water. A woman in the lifeboat grabbed her hair and pulled her aboard. Audrey’s parents were rescued too, but Amy, Susan, and the other nanny were lost. Alice and Audrey Lawson Johnston have remained close ever since.
INTERPRETING THE PAST
bunkers [storage bins] that stretched her superstructure is ghostly wreck-
1. How did the Lusitania contribute to
along both sides. If that bunker, age. Yet the horror and fascination
drawing the United States into World
mostly empty by the end of the voy- surrounding the sinking of the great
War I?
age, contained explosive coal dust, the liner live on. With today’s high-tech- torpedo might have ignited it. Such nology tools, researchers and scien-
2. Describe the Lusitania’s route.
an occurrence would explain all the tists at Woods Hole and the National
Where was it when it sank?
coal that was found scattered on the Geographic Society have provided seafloor near the wreck. another look—and some new
3. What mysteries were researchers
The Lusitania’s giant funnels have answers—to explain the chain of
able to solve by using underwater
long since turned to rust, an eerie events that ended with the Lusitania
robot technology? marine growth covers her hull, and at the bottom of the sea.
• The U.S. attempt at neutrality ended when
• World War I became a total war, with
1915 Lusitania sunk by German forces
Allies Split Off Central Powers Allies
Organizing Information Identify which countries belonged to the Allies and the Central Powers. What country changed allegiance? What country withdrew from the war?
California Standards in This Section
Reading this section will help you master these California History–Social Science standards.
10.5.1: Analyze the arguments for entering into war pre-
sented by leaders from all sides of the Great War and the role of political and economic rivalries, ethnic and ideological conflicts, domestic discon- tent and disorder, and propaganda and national- ism in mobilizing the civilian population in support of “total war.”
10.5.2: Examine the principal theaters of battle, major
turning points, and the importance of geographic factors in military decisions and outcomes (e.g., topography, waterways, distance, climate).
1917 The United States enters the war
1916 Battle of Verdun
2. Explain why the United States entered the war.
✦ 1914
✦ 1915
✦ 1916
✦ 1917
✦ 1918
✦ 1919
Reading Strategy
Reading Objectives
1. Describe how trench warfare led to a stalemate.
governments taking control of their economies and civilians undergoing rationing of goods. (p. 435)
The War Preview of Events
Guide to Reading
Section PreviewThe stalemate at the Western Front led to a widening of World War I, and govern- ments expanded their powers to accom- modate the war.
the Germans refused to stop unrestricted submarine warfare. (p. 434)
- The war on the Western Front turned
- New weapons and trench warfare made
Academic Vocabulary
propaganda, trench warfare, war of attrition, total war, planned economies
suspend, submission, assure
People to Identify
- With the war at a stalemate, both the
Allies and the Central Powers looked for new allies to gain an advantage. (p. 433)
World War I far more devastating than any previous wars. (p. 432)
into a stalemate as a result of trench warfare, while on the Eastern Front Germany and Austria-Hungary defeated Russia. (p. 431)
Lawrence of Arabia, Admiral Holtzen- dorff, Woodrow Wilson
Places to Locate
Marne, Tannenberg, Masurian Lakes, Verdun, Gallipoli
Content Vocabulary
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate The war on the Western Front turned into a stalemate as a result of trench warfare, while on the East- ern Front Germany and Austria-Hungary defeated Russia.
Reading Connection How do political campaigns try to influence voters? Read on to see how governments tried to influence public opinion before World War I.
Before 1914, many political leaders thought that war involved so many political and economic risks that it was something to be avoided. Others thought diplomats would easily be able to control any situa- tion and prevent war. At the beginning of August 1914, both ideas were shattered. When war came, however, another illusion was born—the concept that the war would be a thrilling and positive experi- ence. For the first months of the war, many Euro- peans shared this belief.
Why were people so eager for war? First, govern- ment propaganda—ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause—had stirred up national hatreds. Thus, Europeans responded eagerly to the urgent pleas of their leaders in August 1914 to defend the homeland against aggressors. Most peo- ple seemed genuinely convinced that their nation’s cause was just.
Second, at the beginning of the war, almost every- one believed it would be over in a few weeks. People were reminded that almost all European wars since 1815 had, in fact, ended in a matter of weeks. Both the soldiers who boarded the trains for the war front in August 1914, and the jubilant citizens who showered them with flowers as they left, believed that the war- riors would be home by Christmas.
The Western Front
German hopes for a quick end to the war rested on a military gamble. The Schlieffen Plan had called for the German army to make a vast encircling movement through Belgium into northern France. According to the plan, the German forces would sweep around Paris. This would enable them to surround most of the French army.
The German advance was halted a short distance from Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (September 6–10). To stop the Germans, French military leaders loaded two thousand Parisian taxicabs with fresh troops and sent them to the front line.
The war quickly turned into a stalemate, as neither the Germans nor the French could dislodge each other from the trenches they had dug for shelter. These trenches were ditches protected by barbed wire. Two lines of trenches soon reached from the English Channel to the frontiers of Switzerland. The Western Front had become bogged down in trench
warfare that kept both sides in virtually the same positions for four years.
The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig described the excitement Austrians felt going to war in 1914: “