05x03 - The Great War

The Great War

01/08/2007 08:05:00

Three phases of 20th century world history • 1914 – 1945 o 2 world wars o depression • post 1945 o the cold war o de-colonization o new social mobility • post 1989 o collapse of the soviet union o emergence of the U.S. as a super power Imperialism and the Great War • the great war (1914) o larger armies, more devastating machines o first industrialized war o global war, in conduct and results • Austria-Hungarian, Ottoman, Russian, British, Japanese, French Empires o A LOT of empires involved in the war British Empire and the Great War (1914) • Troops and Supplies o When King George stated that he was at war meant the whole empire was at world, including Canada. o Dominion troops volunteered at the beginning of the war o In 1916 they no longer volunteered in as many numbers o Conscription (1916)  A draft-like initiative for the war

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o Laborers and carriers  Took blacks and natives not only for soldiers but as laborers as well Imperial Theaters o Many West Africans died in South Germany o main theater was against the ottoman empire  Gallipoli  ANZAC • Australia new Zealand army corp.  450,00 French and British troops land here  150,000 soldiers killed  over a year before they left without any succeed  They trained in Egypt and then shipped to Gallipoli  Anzac legend  When Australian and new Zealand soldiers spilled their blood the countries are no longer children.  They are now at equal with the other great nations of the war and be treated with respect Implications for Empires Versailles Peace Conference  three major power either destroyed or distracted with internal developments  Germany was not allowed to come in to the Conference  they take the lands of the defeated and split it among themselves (like the African rush) o Balfour Declaration of 1917 o Mandates  they were not seen as colonies, but rather as mandates  the league of nation supposedly had the final say over the mandates o The British Empire was largest after WWI than any other time  however, there are problems among their colonies

1916 the Irish start a rebellion since the British are busy with the war  it became clear that Ireland was reaching a crisis  India helped so much that they expected to gain their freedom after the war  The British are saying that the nations of the Ottoman Empire that they are sovereign, yet, their own colonies were not  The dominions themselves became more nationalistic  Canadian, and Australians felt more as a country than a colony The beginning of the end? o the British are no longer the most powerful, they had rivals o the stirrings of decolonization o the second world war is the definite end of the British empire 

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01/08/2007 08:05:00

01/08/2007 08:05:00