The First World War and the Russian

Revolution
1 The causes of the First World War

2 The First World War

3 The war beyond the European continent

4 The characteristics of the war

5 The Russian Revolution

6 The Russian Civil War and the formation of the USSR

7 The Avant-Garde Movement

1. The causes of the First World War
In the period leading up to the war (1870—1917), there was a climate of tension in Europe because of the unstable
balance of power. During this period, which was known as Armed Peace, the European powers invested heavily in
the development and manufacture of new weapons.
• As European powers moved forward with their expansionist policies, clashes of interest occurred.
— Germany clashed with France over control of the protectorate of Morocco.
— Germany was strengthening its navy. The United Kingdom (UK) viewed this expanding German navy as a
threat to its own naval dominance.
— France, the UK and Russia worked to resolve their colonial clashes. France and the UK signed the 1904
Entente Cordiale, which ended their confrontations in Africa.
— The Balkan Peninsula had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for several centuries. Serbia, Russia
and Austria-Hungary had different clashing intentions for that land.

Formation of the blocs

• Germany made alliances aimed at maintaining its

hegemony in Europe and preventing France from declaring
war. The most important was the 1882 Triple Alliance
between Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy.
• France and Russia reacted by becoming allies in 1892. This
became the 1907 Triple Entente when the United Kingdom
joined in response to Germany’s colonial expansion. The
aim of the alliance was to stop Germany expansion and
hegemony in Europe.
2. The First World War
Between 1870 and 1914 there was a climate of tension in Europe as a result of the unstable balance of power.
During this period, known as the Armed Peace, European powers invested heavily in the development and
manufacture of arms.
• Tensions increased as Germany’s imperialist expansion clashed with the interests of France and the United
Kingdom.
• The United Kingdom considered the new German navy a threat to its dominance in certain overseas markets.
• In the Balkans, the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of nationalism led to tensions between Russia,
Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
• Between 1880–1914, a series of alliances formed between European powers. These alliances divided the
continent into two blocs:

• Germany’s alliances aimed at

maintaining its hegemony in
Europe. The most important was
the Triple Alliance between
Germany, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and Italy.
• France and Russia reacted by
becoming allies in 1892. This
became the Triple Entente when
the United Kingdom joined them.
Their aim was to halt German
expansion and hegemony in
Europe.
2. The First World War
In June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated. Austria-Hungary
believed that Serbia was responsible for the attack and declared war. The members of the Triple Entente became
known as the Allied Powers and their enemies became known as the Central Powers.
• The war began on the Western Front with the execution of Germany’s Schlieffen Plan.
• On the Eastern Front, important victories for the Central Powers tipped the balance in their favour.
• The war became a global conflict through the deployment of colonial troops. In addition, Japan joined the
Allied Powers and occupied the German colonies in the Pacific.
• By 1917 the different countries involved were running out of resources and ideologies were being questioned.
• The United States joined the Allied Powers. Russia withdrew from the war after the October Revolution.
• The Germans focused on the Western Front, but were defeated at the Second Battle of the Marne.
• The German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.
 2. The First World War
How people lived in the trenches
• Trenches were excavations that were usually organised into three parallel lines. The first was the front-line trench;
behind the front-line trench was the support trench; and behind the support trench was the reserve trench.
• The lack of clean water and toilets led to terrible conditions: in the trenches diseases such as dysentery spread
easily. Soldiers could spend days or weeks living in wet conditions, and the sounds of explosions, gunfire and the
screams of wounded soldiers could be heard continuously in the background.
3. The war beyond the European continent
The First World War didn’t just involve European countries. It was a global war because European colonies abroad,
Japan and the US also got involved.
Japan
Japan took advantage of the war to expand its sphere of influence in China. The Japanese army, on the side of the
Triple Entente, also seized German colonial possessions in the Pacific.
In 1914, Japan occupied the city of Tsingtao (now Qingdao). Later, Japan presented its Twenty-One
Demands to China. Japan hoped that these demands would make it an important power after the war was over.

The Arab revolt The Ottoman Empire

Nationalism was growing in the Arab The UK and France declared war on the
world in opposition to the Ottoman Ottoman Empire at the end of 1914 because
Empire. The British exploited these of its logistical support for Germany.
feelings by convincing Arab The main conflict took place in Gallipoli, a
nationalist movements to carry out a city in Turkey. British troops, along with
rebellion against the Ottoman troops from Australia and New Zealand were
Empire. forced to retreat because of the Ottoman
In 1916, the French and British resistance.
secretly signed the Sykes-Picot During the war, the Turkish government
Accords. Contrary to the promises suspected that Armenian groups were
made to create this Arab area of collaborating with Allied Powers to sabotage
independence, the agreement the Turkish army. These suspicions were the
divided the region between France trigger for the Armenian Genocide.
and the UK.
4. The characteristics of the war
New weapons
The weapons used during the war made it the deadliest conflict the world had ever seen. Grenades,
flamethrowers and machine guns forced soldiers on both sides to fight from trenches.
Chemicals, such as mustard gas, were also used. They caused blindness and suffocation. Soldiers had to wear
gas masks to protect themselves.
Tanks helped soldiers move over difficult terrain. Aeroplanes were initially used for reconaissance, but later for
fighting and bombing.
Germany also introduced the effective strategy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

The war on the home front The role of women

The First World War brought with it a change
The First World War forced countries in the role of women. Since an increasing
to mobilise all their human and number of men were being sent off to war,
economic resources. Millions of men women were needed to fill their jobs. During
were recruited to fight in the war. At the war, advertising campaigns started
the same time, all economic output showing women as strong and independent
went towards the war effort. and capable of working tirelessly to help win
Major propaganda campaigns helped the war.
keep civilians behind the war effort. Women from all social classes were able to
These campaigns were often ultra- have jobs they were previously unable to
nationalist, exalting the homeland access. This helped transform gender roles and
while building hatred of the enemy. strengthened their fight for women’s suffrage
later.
4. The characteristics of the war
The peace treaties
Five treaties resulted from the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920). The Versailles Treaty dictated that:
• The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dismantled.
• The Ottoman Empire fell and was eventually replaced by
the Republic of Turkey. France and the UK ruled the regions
between Syria and Yemen.
• Germany had to accept responsibility for the war. Alsace-
Lorraine was returned to France and other lands were
given to Denmark, Belgium and Poland. Germany’s colonial
possessions were shared out among the Allied Powers.
• Germany was disarmed and there were harsh restrictions
on the use of submarines, military aircraft and on the size
of the German army. It was ordered to pay reparations of
226 000 million marks.

Consequences of the war

The war was a demographic disaster.
From an economic point of view, Europe suffered industrial loss and was left in debt.
The war accelerated the social transformation started by the Industrial Revolution and confirmed middle-class
economic and political dominance.
The role of women during the war advanced women’s rights and led to women’s suffrage in many countries.
5. The Russian Revolution
In 1900, Russia was an autocratic, semi-feudal empire ruled by a tsar who had absolute power. Agriculture was the
main economic activity, food scarcity was a problem and there was social unrest.
Popular discontent led to protests in St Petersburg, which became the catalyst for the February Revolution in 1917.
The tsar abdicated and a provisional government was established.
The Bolsheviks, a radical party led by Vladimir Lenin, won the soviets’ support and took power as a result of the
October Revolution in 1917.
One of their first measures was the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia’s involvement in the
war. The new government also expropriated private land and nationalised factories.
6. The Russian Civil War and
the formation of the USSR
Between 1918 and 1921, the Russian Civil War was fought
between the White Army and the Red Army.
• The White Army was formed of the various groups that
opposed the Bolsheviks. It was supported by France, the
United States, Japan and the United Kingdom.
• The Red Army was formed of Bolsheviks and was led by Leon
Trotsky.
War communism was established as the economic system. All industry focused on military needs, money was
abolished, private enterprise was prohibited and any agricultural surplus was taken from peasants for redistribution.
After three years of conflict, which totally devasted the population, the Red Army eventually won the war.
Following the Bolshevik victory, a Federal Republic was created. It was knowns as the Russian Soviet Federalist
Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR). In 1922, the Russian SFSR became a republic within the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR).
This was a new way of organising the state. Power was in the hands of the soviets and the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union (CPSU) was the only political party. In 1924, the USSR approved a constitution.

In terms of the economy, the USSR struggled with a post-war crisis throughout the early 1920s. To mitigate the
effects of the crisis, Lenin introduced his New Economic Policy (NEP). These new economic measures were a step
away from war communism. They established a kind of state capitalism which would allow the coexistence of public
and private sectors. The country continued to follow Lenin’s NEP until his death in 1924.
 7. The Avant-Garde Movement
Between 1905 and 1914, the first art styles emerged which represented a radical break from more traditional
styles. This was the beginning of the Avant-Garde Movement. Even though each style was different, they shared
some common characteristics:
• Each had its own manifesto.
• They rejected academic art, which was considered out of touch.
• Artists expressed contempt towards bourgeois conservatism.
• Art was viewed as a platform for the unrestricted creative expression of the artist.
• They broke the idea that art should represent beauty; ugliness and the grotesque could be as important.

Collage Futurism Fauvism

Collage describes a It emerged in 1909. Artists
technique in art which explored different Fauvism (France 1904 – 1908), was
consists of sticking techniques to represent influenced by post-impressionism.
different materials onto movement and speed. They saw colour as the most
a canvas. Picasso and Umberto Boccioni, and important element of art. Henry
Braque were the first to Giacomo Balla were Matisse and André Derain were
use it in their works. important Futurist artists. important artists within this style

Cubism Expressionism

Cubism (1907 – 1917) Expressionism (Germany, 1900

reduced forms to geometric – 1925) was influenced
shapes and expressed post-impressionism. They
multiple perspectives on used colour and wild
one canvas. Georges Braque brush strokes to express
and Pablo Picasso were negative emotions. Emil
important artists. Nolde and Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner were important