When we talk war and battles in history, we tend to think they are clearly defined-- like World War One began 28 July 1914 and then ended 11 November 1918. The reality is a convoluted mess. For years I rather simplistically put the events of WWI in the mental order that follows: Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, setting off the war; somewhere the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, upsetting Americans; the Germans sent the Zimmerman Note/Telegram to Mexico, leading to the US declaring war on Germany; then US soldiers were sent to Europe to slog it out in the trenches alongside the Brits and the French; finally, the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles happened, thus ending the war on 11 November 1918. That timeline does not work.
First, the sinking of the Lusitania happened 7 May 1915. 1,208 drowned with 128 of them being Americans. Germany claimed it to be carrying troops and munitions, but it was a cruise liner (but was carrying a small number of cartridge cases). This incident is nearly a full two years before America enters the war. It was concerning for the US, but then they were more than aware of the dangers presented by U-boats in Allied waters and had warned US citizens to refrain from that kind of travel. Bonus material on American involvement before joining the war here: The USA Before Joining WWI
*information on naval warfare here: Submarines, Dreadnoughts & Battlecruisers
The global picture wasn't just focused on continental Europe. While we have focused on this geographical location as this class is predominantly that history, the war was fought in places the world over: the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Everyone wanted a piece of this war in the hopes it would bring about the political and social change they were desperate for. Revolutions and civil wars rocked nations internally even as they grasped at their interests on the fronts of global war. 24 April 1916, the Easter Rising/Rebellion, was the Irish attempt to throw off British rule. From March to December 1917, the Bolsheviks waged their own battles throughout Russia bringing Imperial Russia to its knees, bringing Communist ideology to power, and changing the global political landscape for every bit of modern history. For more information on the Russian Revolution (bonus material for the class) check these out: Russia Before the 1917 Revolution, The Russian February Revolution 1917, The Russian October Revolution 1917, and Lenin & Trotsky: Their Rise to Power. By 15 December of 1917, Russia was out of the war, signing an Armistice with Germany, and returning Germany to a single front war.
In the midst of the revolutionary chaos of 1917, the Germans sent the Zimmerman note to Mexico on 19 January, another country that was also in the midst of their own revolution and civil war. On 6 April 1917, the US declared war on Germany, with troops arriving in France beginning 25 June 1917. Europe had been at war for two years at this point. The US in WWI discusses America's neutrality, their concerns, and entering the war.
1917 was brutal, and the constant political changes of nations, made for absolute chaos in the grand scheme of the First World War. 1918 would be the year it all came to a head. World War I- 1918 puts it into perspective. By October of that year, Germany requested armistice talks with President Wilson of the US, as Germany (rightly) felt they would get a better deal than what France or Britain would offer, based off Wilson's Fourteen Points. Revolution and mutiny had been brewing in Germany for much of the year, and the people were done. 11 November 1918, the Armistice was signed. The Paris Peace Conference of early 1919 resulted in the Treaty of Versailles. David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson presided over the talks. This clip outlines what they wanted in the treaty. The Terms of the Treaty are explained here.
The war was over. What came next was Disease, War, and the Lost Generation. Spanish Influenza raged, wiping out more of the young adult generation than four years of the war. Revolutions and violence continued. And the men and women left to pick up the pieces would later become known as The Lost Generation, coined by Gertrude Stein. We've discussed many figures of the Lost Generation: Ernest Hemingway, TS Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and we added another one to the list: A.A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh. Last year a film was released called Goodbye Christopher Robin, which details the PTSD A.A. Milne was plagued with and his attempts to move forward.
Second Period:
Today's chapter in Joseph Loconte's book A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War was Chapter 5: The Land of Shadow. It is the end of the war for Tolkien and Lewis, and they are left floundering in the same disillusionment and waste four years of war have brought to the world. Tolkien describes war (p. 121) as "The utter stupid waste of war, not only material but moral and spiritual, is so staggering to those who have to endure it. But so short is human memory and so evanescent are its generations that in only about 30 years there will be few or no people with that direct experience which alone goes really to the heart. The burnt hand teaches most about fire." Page 124 states "The sheer destructive power of the war, the unimaginable number of dead and wounded, the apocalyptic hopes and claims of the participants, and the apparent futility of the outcome-- all of this instigated a new season fo religious doubts and experimentation." Bonus material for this portion is an imagined conversation between Tolkien and Lewis on the topic of myth and fantasy.
We continued with the involvement of the US in World War I, courtesy of Crash Course John Green. We extended our conversation on Peace, Revolution, and the Treaty of Versailles: Between Two Wars- 1919.
We ended these class periods with the Armistice and the first few months of "peace" if one could call it that. Here at the End of All Things
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