THE FIRST WORLD WAR

CAUSES
Most if not all historians agree that to some degree it came down to the growing power
of Germany. The 'balance of power' between the nations of Europe had become
unstable. This led them to form military alliances :
- THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE
● Germany
● Austria
● Italy
- THE TRIPLE ENTENTE
● France
● Britain
● Russia
Main issues surrounding the cause of the first world war :
Militarism - many countries believed it was important to build large armies and navies
Alliances - the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were said to have been formed to help
prevent war.
Imperialism - European nations were creating empires and coming into conflict.
Nationalism - all countries were looking out for their own interests.

After the murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, Austria-Hungary declared
war on Serbia. The countries of Europe found that the alliances they had formed dragged them
into war.

The course of the war

In August 1914, Germany invaded France through Belgium, using its plan for war ‒ the
Schlieffen Plan. The German attack was forced back at the Battle of the Marne in September
1914. Both sides dug defensive trenches and the war ground to a halt.

For the next four years, the war on the Western Front consisted of a deadly stalemate. The
battles of Verdun and the Somme in 1916 and Passchendaele in 1917 were key events where
each side tried to wear the other side down.

In 1917, the Americans entered the war. Before they could arrive, the Germans made another
attack in March 1918. It was successful at the start, but the Germans failed to break through.
They were pushed back in August 1918. Two months later the Germans signed the Armistice.
Why did War break out?

A number of different factors contributed to a situation where the First World War could
break out.

The Threat of Germany

Germany had been made up of a number of separate states but became a united
'empire' in 1871 by defeating and humiliating France in the Franco-Prussian War. This
gave Germany greater strength to develop.

After 1900, Germany built up its navy - this frightened the British.
In 1901, Kaiser Wilhelm II demanded an overseas empire for Germany – this frightened
Britain and France.
Germany wanted to build a railway through the Balkans to Baghdad – this alarmed the
Russians, who said they were the protectors of the Balkans.
Germany's military defence plan – the Schlieffen Plan – involved attacking and
defeating France quickly and then turning its armies on Russia.

The Balkans

The Turkish Empire in the Balkans collapsed:

Nationalist interests became clear when the new nation of Serbia clashed with
Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary and Russia clashed because they both wanted more power in the
Balkans.
The System of alliances

Two opposing groups had grown up by 1914, believing that a 'balance of power' would
prevent war:

The Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy (1882).

The Triple Entente of France, Russia and Great Britain (1907).
 The Austrian Archduke
Franz Ferdinand was shot
by Serb terrorists on a visit
to inspect Austrian troops
in Bosnia.

28 June

Germany promised total

support for
5 July Austria-Hungary.

Austria-Hungary declared
war on Serbia – this
28 July angered Russia.

Russia mobilised her army

– this alarmed Germany.
30 July

Germany implemented the

Schlieffen Plan and
invaded France through
neutral Belgium.

3 August
 Britain declared war on
Germany because of an
agreement with Belgium.

4 August

The War had five phases:

The War of Movement (August ‒ September 1914)

● The Germans invaded France, but were stopped at the Battle of the Marne
(September 1914).
● The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) helped to stop the Germans at the Battle of
Mons (23 August 1914).
● The Russians invaded Germany but were destroyed at the Battle of Tannenberg
(August 1914).

The Race to the Sea (September ‒ November 1914)

On the Western Front, both sides dug a 400-mile line of trenches from Switzerland to the
English Channel. Soldiers had to put up with constantly being wet, being pestered by
rats, and illnesses.

Stalemate (1915)

● There was a stalemate (neither side could defeat the other).

● On the Western Front, attacks on the German trenches led to huge casualties.
● Britain's attempt to open up a 'Second Front' at Gallipoli in Turkey was a failure.
The War of Attrition (1916 ‒ 1918)

The two sides simply tried to wear each other down:

● Huge battles, eg Verdun and the Somme in 1916, Passchendaele in 1917, lasted
many months. Thousands of men died or were wounded.
● New weapons, eg poison gas, tanks and aeroplanes failed to make much effect.
 ● There were terrible conditions in the trenches and many casualties from machine
gun and artillery fire.
● The British blockaded German ports to try to starve the Germans into surrender.
In October 1918 there was a revolution in Germany.
● German U-boats tried to starve the British by sinking merchant ships – but this
angered the Americans.
● German Zeppelins and Gotha planes bombed London.
The Fighting Ends

● The United States of America entered the war in 1917.

● On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched Operation Michael – a huge last-ditch
attack.
● On 8 August 1918, the German Army's 'Black Day', when their attack was
defeated.
● The Allies, with the Americans, began to push back the Germans. The Allies and
Germany signed a ceasefire, or 'armistice', at 11am on 11 November 1918.
● On 28 June 1919, The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Germans.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

In some ways, humankind has never recovered from the horrors of the First World War:

● Eight million soldiers died and many more were damaged physically or mentally.
● Nine million civilians died.
● Twelve million tons of shipping was sunk.
● On the Western Front, the war destroyed 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of
railway and 112 coal mines.
● Remembrance Day began and poppies were used to symbolise those who had lost their
lives fighting.
Germany had not technically surrendered and was outraged by the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles – this helped to cause:

● The Second World War. Some historians suggest that there were not two world wars, but
only one, with a long ceasefire in between.
● Hitler's rise to power.
● The War helped make Britain more democratic. There was an attitude that Britain needed
to be 'a home fit for heroes.' A Labour government was elected in 1924. All men and
women over 21 were given the vote in 1928.
IRAN REVOLUTION -
Key Facts and Summary

● At the start of the 20th century, Britain and Russia were vying for dominance over
Iran. In 1908 the Shah (Emperor) of Iran signed an oil concession with a British
company, giving it exclusive rights to search for oil in Iran and then sell it.
● In 1921, army general Reza Khan carried out a coup d’etat in Iran. He later took
the title Reza Shah and became the first ruler of the Pahlavi dynasty.
● During Reza Shah’s reign, he introduced westernising reforms that were
unpopular with some elements of the Iranian population, especially the powerful
and influential clergy.
● Reza Shah was forced to abdicate his throne in 1941 by the British and Soviets,
who invaded Iran to ensure that the oilfields did not fall into German hands during
World War II. He was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah.
● Elected as Prime Minister of Iran in 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh planned to
nationalise the oil industry so that foreign companies would stop taking the bulk
of the profits out of the country.
● Mosaddegh resigned in 1953 following a coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6
and supported by the Shah, whose powers Mosaddegh was trying to erode.
● Following the 1953 coup, the Shah’s rule grew increasingly authoritarian, while at
the same time he forged closer ties to the U.S.
● In 1963 the Shah began a series of westernising reforms known as the White
Revolution. Although he intended to strengthen support for his regime, the White
Revolution caused widespread disaffection. The opposition was led by the cleric
Ayatollah Khomeini.
● The oil boom of the 1970s caused more resentment towards the Shah, as his
family grew fabulously wealthy but the oil profits failed to ‘trickle down’ to
ordinary Iranians.
● On 7 January 1978, a newspaper based in the Iranian capital Tehran published an
article critical of Khomeini. This sparked violent demonstrations in support of the
Ayatollah.
● The following months saw a cycle of protests against the brutality used in the
suppression of other protests. The Shah began to listen to and act on the
demands of the opposition.
● A deadly terrorist attack on a cinema on 19 August 1978 prompted a new wave
of protests as each side blamed the other for the atrocity.
● On 8 September 1978, the Shah declared martial law in Tehran and several other
Iranian cities. Deadly clashes between the army and demonstrators led to the day
being dubbed ‘Black Friday’.
 ● Over the period 9-13 September, oil and government workers went on strike in
Iran. This was followed in October by a general strike bringing the country’s
industry to a halt.
● On 5 November 1978, youths rampaged through Tehran burning businesses and
buildings deemed as western.
● The Shah made a televised speech on 6 November 1978 in which he expressed
sympathy for the protestors’ cause.
● During the Muslim month of Muharram, there were mass protests against the
Shah, supported from exile in France by the Ayatollah Khomeini.
● By 16 January 1979, the Shah had lost support to such an extent that he and his
family left the country for exile in Egypt.
● The Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran on 1 February to be welcomed by
enthusiastic crowds. However, a struggle for power with Prime Minister
Shahpour Bakhtiar led to further civil disturbances.
● On 11 February, the armed forces declared that they would not fight for Bakhtiar’s
provisional government. This marked the true end of the monarchy and the start
of Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule.
● Iran became an Islamic Republic in which the clergy had ultimate power over
elected officials and the law.

Historical Context

Iran, formerly known as Persia, was never a colony of another country, but the colonial
powers took a very close interest in it. During the 19th century, its location to the south
of the Russian Empire had led to conflict with that country over the lands around the
border. Britain also wanted to exert control over Iran’s leadership due to its proximity to
India, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. Britain feared that its rule in India
could be undermined if Russia was able to control Iran. However, Iran became even
more important to the industrialized world when a vast amount of oil was discovered
there in 1908 by a British company. The company had negotiated exclusive rights to
look for, extract, and sell Iranian oil with the Shah, the ruler of Iran. This oil would
become vital to the British Empire and later to its war efforts, strengthening Iran’s ties
with the west. The Shah’s willingness to share Iran’s natural resources with other
nations, and the westernisation that this led to in Iranian society, was not welcomed by
all sectors of the population. Many felt that Iran’s culture was being weakened and
corrupted by its increasing ties with non-Muslim countries, a sentiment that was
particularly strong among the powerful clergy.
In 1921, a military officer called Reza Khan overthrew the government in response to the
weakness of the Shah and his signing of the Anglo-Persian Agreement, which many
believed would make Iran (then still called Persia) a puppet state of Britain. By 1925
Khan had been given the title of Shah and became the first ruler of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Access to Iran’s oilfields became a pressing concern of the British in World War II. Now
allied with Russia in the form of the USSR, Britain could not risk Iran falling under the
control of its enemies. Reza Shah was rumoured to have German sympathies, and so he
was forced to abdicate by the Allies. His son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, became the
new Shah. In 1951 a new prime minister was elected, Mohammad Mosaddegh. He
promised to nationalise Iran’s oil industry, taking it back from foreign control. He also
wanted to reduce the powers of the Shah. Mosaddegh was supported by Iran’s
communist party, although he was not a communist himself, and this was enough for
the British secret service, MI6, to persuade the American C.I.A. that they needed to
remove the prime minister from power. A coup was orchestrated with the backing of the
Shah, and Mosaddegh was put under house arrest. From then on, the Shah’s rule grew
more autocratic. Through the 1960s, he rushed through unpopular modernisation
programmes in what was known as the ‘White Revolution’. The cleric known as the
Ayatollah Khomeini spoke out against the Shah’s reforms and was forced into exile. The
oil boom of the 1970s saw the Shah’s family become tremendously wealthy, but the
economic benefits were not felt by many of the population.

The Revolution

During the 1970s, opposition to the Shah in Iran came from a variety of sources. Muslim
clerics did not like his westernising and modernisation, intellectuals objected to his
autocratic rule, and there were many rural workers who had been forced into the cities
by his urban-focused reforms. The decade had seen an oil boom, but also high inflation.
The government’s attempts to control inflation had caused living standards to plateau.
Opponents of the Shah’s regime were often censored or even tortured. An alliance
between the disparate groups of opponents was formed, with the aim of overthrowing
the Shah. In exile, Ayatollah Khomeini preached against the Shah, becoming a
figurehead for the opposition movement.

In January 1978, a Tehran-based newspaper, Ettela’at, published an article criticising Khomeini.

A group of students in the city took to the streets to protest in support of the Ayatollah, and they
were soon joined by larger-scale demonstrations against the Shah’s regime. The Shah himself,
and the world at large, was shocked by the scale of the protests and the strength of feeling
against him. He moved to suppress them, and his security forces were so brutal in dispersing
the demonstrations that many protestors were injured and some were even killed. The deaths
created martyrs for the revolutionary cause, and also had another knock-on effect. Shi’a Islam,
the official religion of Iran, has a tradition of holding memorials for the dead 40 days after their
passing. So 40 days after the first protests, memorials were held for the slain protestors,
sparking more protests and more deadly repression. Then 40 days after this, there were more
memorials, and more protests and the cycle continued into the summer of 1978.

On 19 August 1978, terrorists set fire to a cinema, killing hundreds of people. The true motives
behind the attack have never been uncovered: the Shah’s supporters blamed Islamic Marxists,
while revolutionaries claimed the Iranian secret service had carried out the attack on the Shah’s
orders. The attack on the cinema was one of the key triggers for the revolution, as the protests
that followed it escalated and led to the Shah’s downfall.

The Shah imposed martial law in Tehran on 8 September 1978. After the army opened fire on
thousands of demonstrators, dozens were killed. The day came to be known as Black Friday.
The following week saw workers go on strike at oil refineries and government offices. When this
mushroomed into a general strike at the end of October, Iranian industry was paralysed. On 5
November there was rioting in Tehran, targeting buildings and businesses that were perceived
as westernised. The Shah tried to placate the protestors, dismissing many representatives of his
government who had been accused of corruption. He also agreed to give striking workers pay
rises.

Despite the conciliatory measures from the Shah, the protests continued. In the Muslim month
of Muharram, starting that year on 2 December, millions of people marched calling for the end of
the Shah’s rule and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini was at that time in France, where
he was using the western media to publicise the anti-Shah cause. Although his intention was to
turn Iran into a theocracy, a country governed by religious law, Khomeini allowed the west to
think that he only wanted democracy.

The Shah decided that it was time for him to leave Iran. On 16 January 1979, he appointed a
new prime minister, Shahpour Bakhtiar, whom he hoped would be able to rein in the Ayatollah
and stop him imposing a theocracy. He then took his family and left for Egypt. Huge crowds
again took to the streets, this time in celebration at the Shah’s departure. Prime Minister
Bakhtiar invited Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran, which he did on 1 February 1979. The
leader of the revolution was greeted rapturously. However, he immediately denounced Bakhtiar’s
government and nominated his own replacement prime minister, Mehdi Bazargan. With Bakhtiar
and Khomeini at a standoff, support for Bakhtiar melted away. By 11 February, the armed forces
had declared that they would remain neutral and not fight for him. This marked the end of
Bakhtiar’s government and the official end to the monarchy in Iran.

On 1 April 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini, now in effective charge of Iran, named the country an
Islamic Republic. The clergy moved to distance themselves from the left-wing intellectuals who
had been their allies in the revolution, and Iran returned to being a conservative Muslim nation
after decades of westernisation. Women’s rights were rolled back and strict dress codes were
enforced. Islamic law was enforced by the Ayatollah’s newly created Revolutionary Guard, whose
brutality often surpassed that seen under the Shah. By the end of the year, a new constitution
enshrined religion as being dominant in the state and gave the leading cleric, at that time
Khomeini himself, extensive powers.

Chronology
Iran, formerly Persia, was ruled by a Shah, or Emperor. When oil was discovered in the
country in 1908, a British company negotiated exclusive rights to mine for oil in Iran.
This led to increased westernisation and close ties with non-Islamic nations, which were
unpopular in many sections of Iranian society, particularly the clergy. In the 1960s,
Mohammad Reza Shah embarked on a rapid programme of reforms that made Iran
more modern, industrial and urban. Criticism of these dramatic changes was led by the
cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, who was exiled for his opposition to the Shah. By the 1970s,
the Islamic critics of the Shah had united their voices with the intellectual left, who
disagreed with the authoritarianism of the regime. A newspaper article criticising the
Ayatollah Khomeini in January 1978 led to a series of protests that were suppressed by
the authorities with deadly force. After a year of civil unrest, encouraged by the
Ayatollah Khomeini from exile, the Shah was forced to leave Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini
returned to the country in February 1979 and within two months had declared it to be an
Islamic Republic, governed by religious laws, with himself as the leading cleric.