The causes of the First World War.

University Degree Historical and Philosophical studies

It is undeniable that the First World War was the main cause of the political turbulence in Germany in the period nineteen seventeen to nineteen thirty-four.

However, it is not quite so evident that it was the cause of Russia’s political troubles, as the Russian revolution occurred in nineteen seventeen and was on the brink of revolution even before the outbreak of the First World War.

I will first look at the impact of the First World War on Germany and see exactly how Germany fared after the First World War.

The war was over for Germany and indeed for the rest of the world on the eleventh of November nineteen eighteen. It was then time for the Allies to make their peace with Germany. This was done through the Treaty of Versailles.

Germany herself, was not prepared for a harsh peace treaty, she thought she would lose a little land, have to disarm and have to do very little else, however, she was wrong.

Germany lost land, was forced to disarm completely, forced to pay reparations but worst of all, was forced to take all blame for the war.

Perhaps the most humiliating and worst part of the Treaty of Versailles for Germany was Article Forty Eight, the War Guilt clause. This made Germany accept total, complete blame for the war, something that most Germans simply could not accept. Germany lost the ‘Polish Corridor’ to Poland, the Alsace-Lorraine lands to France and saw the Rhineland occupied for fifteen years.

She also saw her army depleted to one hundred thousand professional soldiers and her naval fleet lost several ships.

There were many faults with the settlement. Most are in agreement today that it was too hard on the Germans and that some of the terms such as reparations payments and German disarmament were much too harsh on an already humiliated nation. There was also much disagreement about the size of the reparations bill that was to be placed upon the Germans. Some of the British and French politicians demanded £24 000 million from Germany, so the final figure of £6600 was kinder to the Germans than it might have been. The settlement had the unwanted and rather unfortunate effect of dividing Europe into the states which wanted to revise it, and those which wanted to preserve it, and on the whole even they turned out to be lukewarm in their support. Worst of all, it embittered the Germans, yet did not weaken them sufficiently to prevent further aggression.

The nationalist response to the treaty in Germany was one of disgust, “The shameful Diktat (dictation) of Versailles” U.Heinemann, quoted in Detlev Peukert, The Weimar Republic, Penguin, 1991, P42.

However, it must be noted that Germany may have been treated as she treated others. Peukert argues that Germany too, while negotiating peace with Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, could be equally as ruthless in her ambitions.

It was the thoughts of “Diktat” that seemed to cloud over Germany’s political future, which as we know, was not great.

The war had also hampered the German economy, the same ...

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It was the thoughts of “Diktat” that seemed to cloud over Germany’s political future, which as we know, was not great.

The war had also hampered the German economy, the same had happened right across Europe, Britain and France struggled to cope and the United States was now the only true world ‘superpower’.

Germany was further burdened and annoyed with the fact that she had to pay for not only the damage she had caused during the First World War, but for the total cost of damage caused in the war.

Another constant threat to Germany in the post war years was inflation. One huge consequence of Germany losing the war was that it drove itself into inflation. Instead of increasing taxes on the wealthy or introducing new war taxes, the German government “raised was loans which would be repaid with interest after the ‘final victory….and increased the amount of money in circulation”. (DP, 1991, P62).

It was however, the Treaty of Versailles and the ending of the First World War that led to the pinnacle of political turbulence in Germany.

Adolf Hitler was the person to capitalise upon the feeling of discontent in Germany. He offered the people excuses and scapegoats to blame for the war, and vowed to get the “November Criminals” and avenge those who he thought had “Stabbed Germany in the back”.

Hitler was a product of the First World War. Without the huge and shocking events of the war, Hitler would never have had the chance to exploit and use the situation to his advantage in the way that he did. Hitler was an opportunist. He took advantage of the situation in Germany at a time when public feeling was edging towards the vision he had for Germany. Hitler was devastated by the news of the war being over. He never felt that Germany lost, he maintained that Germany had been cheated of its victory, by the “November Criminals, and that Germany had been “Stabbed in the back” by those who had surrendered and signed the Treaty of Versailles.

It also could be argued that the First World War was the cause of political turbulence in Russia at this time, but, as the Russians had pulled out of the war and made peace with the Germans in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, it could be said that it was the Revolution of nineteen seventeen rather than the First World War that sent Russia into some kind of political turbulence.

On July 8th, nineteen seventeen, Alexander Kerensky was made the new leader of the Provisional Government in Russia. In the Duma, (the Russian parliament) he had been leader of the Moderate Socialists and had been seen as the darling of the working-class. However, Kerensky did not want to end the war. Soon after taking office, he announced a new offensive to be launched in the summer.

However, soldiers on the Eastern Front were extremely unhappy at the news and several regiments began to refuse to move to the battlefields. There was a huge increase in the number of deserters and by the autumn of nineteen seventeen an estimated two million men had left the army.

Many symbols of the aristocracy were murdered and their homes were burnt down. Kerensky and the Provisional Government. On July 19th, orders were given for the arrest of leading Bolsheviks who were for the war to be stopped. This included Lenin. The Bolshevik headquarters was also taken by troops.

They responded by sending troops to take control of Petrograd. Kerensky was now in danger the Bolsheviks, who had control over these organizations, agreed, but in a speech made by Lenin, he made it quite clear they would be fighting against the runaway army rather than for Kerensky.

Within a few days Bolsheviks had enlisted huge numbers of armed recruits to defend Petrograd. Delegations of soldiers were sent out to confront the advancing troops. Talks were held and the troops did not attack Petrograd.

Lenin now went to Petrograd but he still insisted on going into hiding. On 25th September, Kerensky attempted to revive leftist support by attempting to form a new coalition government that would more Socialist Revolutionaries. However, with the Bolsheviks now controlling the Soviet army and having the ability to call on huge numbers of armed men, Kerensky's authority seemed shallower than ever.

Under pressure from the upper classes and industrial bosses, Kerensky took decisive action. He closed down the Bolshevik newspapers and cut off the telephones to the Bolshevik headquarters.

Trotsky urged the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Lenin agreed to this and on the evening of 24th October, nineteen seventeen, orders were sent out for the Bolsheviks began to take over the railway stations, telephone exchanges and the banks. The following day the Bolsheviks held the Winter Palace under siege. Inside was most of the countries political elite, though Kerensky had managed to escape.

The Red Guards now entered the Winter Palace and arrested the Cabinet

ministers.

On 26th October, nineteen seventeen, the All-Russian Congress of Soviets met and handed over power to the Soviet Council of People's Commissars and Lenin was handed power.

Although after the revolution Russia suffered many problems, far too many to mention in this essay, I don’t believe many of them were as a consequence directly of the First World War. Most of them such as the economic hardships were more down to the systems of government, Communism, rather than as a after effect of the war.

It would be true to say that that Germany had many moments of political turmoil after the First World War. The Treaty of Versailles was hated and the economic hardships that followed were a certain consequence of the war.

However, it has been argued that Russia’s problems were not as a result of the war, but of the revolution of nineteen seventeen, and the worlds first experiment of communism.

Essay word count :- 1468.

Bibliography.

Detlev Peukert, The Weimar Republic, The Penguin Press, 1991.

Dimitri Von Mohrenschildt, The Russian Revolution of 1917: Contemporary Accounts, Oxford University Press, 1971.

Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Empires, Abacus, 1994.