the end of gilded age - Lifelong Learning Academy

THE END OF
GILDED AGE
“Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be
decided… but by iron and blood.”
Otto Von Bismarck 1862
Class 1: W13-15 The War to End All Wars, Daniel Stephens
Lifelong Learning Academy
TODAYS TOPICS
v  The American Civil War
v  The Gilded Age
v  The Franco-Prussian War
v  Ailing Empires
v  Blood & Iron
v  Shifting Alliances
v  The Boer War
v  Franz Ferdinand
v  Imperial Colonialism
v  Date With Destiny
v  The Russo-Japanese War
v  The Black Hand & Gavrilo Princip
v  The International Arms Race
v  The Assassination Plot
v  Dreadnought
v  The Death of an Heir
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
v  April 1861-April 1865
v  Technological advancements in weapons and
tactics.
Rifled Weaponry, Arial Observation, Rapid Fire
Weaponry, Ironclads, Sub warfare, Landmines, Seamines, use of rail…
v  Use of defensive trench warfare. (Lee vs. Grant
1864-65)
v  The First “Modern War”
v  European Observers
v  What did they learn?
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN
WAR
v  July 1870-May 1871
v  Spanish Succession
v  The Ems Telegram
v  Old grudges die hard.
v  Superior Prussian/German arms.
v  Napoleon III is captured at Sedan.
v  The French face defeat after defeat.
v  Paris is taken!
v  End of the French Republic, birth of a new
Germany.
v  Germany will take possession of the AlsaceLorraine Region.
IRON & BLOOD
v  Otto Von Bismarck the “Iron
Chancellor”
v  Kaiser Wilhelm I
v  German Industry: Krupp Steel Works,
Labor laws 40 hr. Work Week, Retirement
Age 65.
v  Looking towards Colonial expansion and
an increase in European influence.
v  Alliance of the Three Emperors.
v  New competition and possible enemies.
THE BOER WAR
v  What’s a Boer?
v  The Sun Never Sets on Britain
v  Zulu Dawn, Isandawana1879
v  The First Boer Uprising 1880-1881
v  The Second Boer War 1899-1902
v  The Creation of the South African Union.
v  A black spot on Britain’s record.
Concentration Camps
v  Soldiers unfit for duty.
v  The use of the Machine Gun.
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
v 
1904-1905
v 
Russia and Japan both claimed rights to ports in Manchuria and Korea.
v 
Russia needed a warm water port. Imperial Japan wanted to keep Russia
out of “Asian” affairs.
v 
Japan launches an attack on Port Charles, a Russian naval base in S.
Korea.
v 
Japan will then launch a land invasion and through a series of heavy
assaults and the use of superior artillery , will push Russia back into
Manchuria.
v 
The peace is brokered by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Russia
agrees to move out of Korea and Manchuria, but does not have to pay
reparations.
v 
The Russo-Japanese war shows Russia’s military weaknesses in
mobilization and technology.
v 
This War also shows that any new war fought with the new technology
will end in high casualty amounts and possible stalemate.
THE IMPERIAL LAND GRAB
v  Germany perceives weakness.
v  Africa a hotbed of colonial
clashes
v  The rattling of sabers
v  The French barely maintain
v  Japan enters the picture
THE ARMS RACE
v  With the land grab comes the advancement in
arms.
v  German steel, French Élan
v  Advanced artillery: Recoilless, highly accurate,
more destructive.
v  Secret plans of war.
v  Machine Guns: Rapid Fire death.
v  The tactics of the day do not take into account
these new weapons. It will be attack to the upmost,
with many officers ready to order their men into
suicidal full frontal assaults like from the days of
Bonaparte.
THE DREADNOUGHT
v  To rule an Empire, you must rule the
seas.
v  The First Ironclads
v  Battleship development
v  HMS Dreadnought
Disp. 18,000 tons, length 527ft, 5 x 12in
guns
11-12 inch thick steel plating
v  The race for a superior Surface Fleet is
on between Great Britain and Germany.
THE GILDED AGE
v 
Class stratification is extreme in Europe. Most of the
wealthy upper-class are leftovers of aged Aristocracy. A new
class is coming to age as millionaires who made fortunes in
American start to place themselves into that society, but weren’t
usually accepted.
v 
The Middle Class are trying to keep their status quo and
get any leg up they can, but are usually stymied by out of touch
and extremely snobby nobility.
v 
The poor and lower class are made up of ethnic and
dispossessed foreigners who are getting tired of being stepped
on. Communism, anarchy and revolution appeal to these people
who have no hope in life of even making ends meet.
v 
The largest example of this stratification of society is the
Titanic disaster of 1912.
RUSSIA
v 
Known as the Bear, the Russian Empire is dying.
v 
Tsar Nicolas the II inherited an Empire that had been
looted and bankrupted by his heirs. He is out of touch and
too weak to do anything about it.
v 
The Serfs had been freed but nothing had changed
for them 70% of the country was dirt poor and illiterate.
v 
With the loss to Japan their military was in disgrace
and their gaps in modernization and mobility had shown.
v 
Revolution was rife in the cities of Moscow and St.
Petersburg. Bread riots occurred and were put down with
extreme violence. (Bloody Sunday)
v 
Nicolas disregards most of this and trusts in his wife's
ties to England, and the mystic advice from her consort
Rasputin.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
v  The aging Hapsburg dynasty had seen better days.
v  Emperor Franz Joseph was ailing and trying to
secure a future for his dying Empire.
v  His heir apparent dies in a horrible scandal.
v  He must now choose a nephew, who in his terms
married beneath him and has brought shame on the
Empire.
v  They have flexed their muscle with some success
against Turkey and Serbia in the Balkans.
v  Franz Joseph has now hitched the possibility of an
Austrian rise in power to the brightly shinning German
Empire.
THE RISE OF NATIONALISM
v  Many of the old Empires of Europe are made up of
many ethnically diverse people and countries.
v  Russia and Austria Hungary are made up of hundreds
of culturally diverse and ethnically different people.
v  In these former countries many of these diverse
cultures and people band together in a wave of extreme pride
of their region rather than their Empire.
v  This feeling of great national pride and ethnic diversity
is known as nationalism.
v  Nationalism is the worry of these dead and decaying
empires who fear the possibility of revolution.
EVERYONE IS RELATED
v  The coming crisis developing in Europe will become a
“family affair”.
v  All of the major monarchs had blood ties to each other.
v  King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Tsar Nicolas II
were all related through the progeny of Queen Victoria.
v  Other monarchies had either Saxe-Coburg, Hapsburg,
Romanov, or one of the other inter-related family houses of
Europe.
v  The monarchs would freely write to each other and make
appeals as family members.
v  George, Wilhelm, and Nicolas held rank and position in
each others militaries.
ENTANGLED ALLIANCES
v 
With Germany’s meteoric rise to power several
complex alliances began to spring up to keep the
European powers in check.
v 
France would ally against Germany, who they
blame for their loss of prestige.
v 
England would shift sides to whichever side that
would help keep their Imperial holdings intact.
v 
Germany would forge an alliance with AustriaHungary, to give their fledging Empire
legitimacy.
v 
Russia would ally themselves with different
Slavic nations like Serbia, to appeal to the Slavic
make-up their vast country.
THE ARCHDUKE FRANZ
FERDINAND
v  December, 1863-June, 1914
v  Nephew to Austrian Emperor Franz-Joseph, he became
heir apparent to the throne after the Murder Suicide of Crown
Prince Rudolf in 1889.
v  He married Sophie Chotek, a minor Hapsburg noble out
of love. She would never be accepted by the Imperial court
and their marriage would be morganatic.
v  Franz Ferdinand would be described as a doting father
and loving husband, but brash and reckless in personality.
v  June 1914 Franz-Joseph would dispatch Ferdinand on a
good-will mission to Serbia to celebrate its “entrance” into the
Empire as well as inspect the Serbian and newly acquired
Bosnian armies.
v  Franz Ferdinand fervently believed in Austrian
Imperialism, and discounted rumor of Serbian dissention and
a possible assassination plot.
THE BLACK HAND
v  Founded in 1908 as a secret military fraternity, its sole
purpose was to unify Serbian and Slavic people in lands
annexed by Austria-Hungary.
v  Its real name was Ujedinjenje ili Smrt “Unity or Death”.
v  It advocated assassination and anarchy/terrorism to
justify its ends.
v  Its leader Col. Dragutin Dmitrievich “Apis” had rose to
his position for his role in the assassination of King
Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia.
v  He had been informed of the Archduke’s visit on the
anniversary of the battle of Kosovo or St. Vitus Day and saw
an opportunity for a grand statement for the ‘Black Hand”
GAVRILO PRINCIP
v  Born June, 1894, but was listed by parish Priest
as July.
v  Son of a shepherd, he was given a good
education, in his teens he was sent to Sarajevo to
attend business school.
v  Tried to enlist in Serbian army, but was
considered too weak and sickly to join.
v  At the boarding house in which he lived, he fell
in with political dissidents and anarchists.
v  June, 1914 Princip and his friends hear of the
visit by the Archduke. They want to be a part of the
assassination attempt, they will contact agents of the
Apis to join the Black Hand.
ONE FINE DAY IN
SARAJEVO
v  The Archduke and Sophie arrive in Sarajevo on the 15th
June (Julian) The Feast of St. Vitus.
v  He has come to inspect the Serbian and Bosnian armies
out on maneuvers.
v  On military functions , his wife was allowed the
recognition of his rank, so he would have her accompany him
on the inspections.
v  His advisors warn the Archduke that there are several
plots out for his murder and that the streets are unsafe. They
caution the Archduke to take along a military escort.
v  Believing that no assassin would dare harm a member
and heir apparent to the Austrian throne, the Archduke orders
the visit to go on as planned with only a small personal
bodyguard.
THE PLAN
v  Apis and the black hand leadership had enlisted
several assassins from Belgrade as well as Princip and his
friends.
v  Weapons are brought in underground into Sarajevo
by Black Hand conspirators and forced accomplices.
v  They were given bombs, grenades as well as pistols.
Each assassin is issued a cyanide pill in case of capture.
v  The assassins were stationed along the planned route.
They are to either create diversions to drive the motorcade
into the sights of waiting assassins, or to take any
opportunity to eliminate the target if available.
THE SHOT HEARD
THROUGH HISTORY
v  On the way to a reception to a museum opening,
Ferdinand’s motorcade came under attack by assassins throwing
bombs.
v  Ferdinand makes it to the museum. He berates the mayor
of Sarajevo, but clams down. The ceremony finishes and the
Archduke and Sophie plan to visit those who were wounded
during the first assassination attempt.
v  The driver of his car was not notified of the change of
plans and follows the original route.
v  Princip was sitting at a coffee shop, he had heard the plot
had failed, when the Archduke’s car stops right in front of him.
v  Princip sees his chance he pulls his pistol walks up to the
car and shoots three times.
THE AFTERMATH
v 
The Archduke is hit in the neck severing his jugular.
v 
Sophie is hit in the abdomen.
v 
Ferdinand clutches his dying his wife and says “Sophie, please
don’t die, live for our children.” they both die in each others arms.
v 
Princip is immediately captured, his cyanide capsule knocked out
of his mouth.
v 
The other assassins and conspirators are rounded up and put on
trial.
v 
Out of 25, 9 are acquitted, 5 are sentenced to death and the rest
go to prison, including Princip who because of his recorded birthdate
was considered a minor. He will die several years later from
tuberculosis.
v 
Apis and the other ringleaders of the black hand would escape
prosecution and punishment until 1917.
ALLIANCES ARE TESTED
v  Serbia complied with all of Austria’s demands. They
handed over the conspirators, and assassins for trial.
v  Austria is not satisfied, they know the Black Hand was
made up of high ranking military members.
v  Austria demands Serbia to de-militarize, and to give
complete control over to Austria-Hungary or face invasion
and occupation.
v  Serbia pleads for lighter sanctions. Russia, and France
plead on their behalf.
v  Germany though quietly advises against the harsh
punishment wanted by Austria, quietly goads Austria into
action.
WAR IS DECLARED
v  Austria will declare war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
v  Russia would begin partial mobilization of its
forces to the Austrian border in response to any
Austrian aggression towards Serbia.
v  Tsar Nicolas II sends several letters to his Cousin
Kaiser Wilhelm not to drag Europe into a great conflict,
and to leave this conflict “localized”
v  July 31st Germany mobilizes its North Sea fleet in
response to Russia, Great Britain's First Lord of the
Admiralty Winston Churchill will mobilize the North
Sea Fleet.
v  By the Afternoon of the 31st of July, Austrian
gunboats began shelling Belgrade.
THE BEAR AWAKENS
v  Tsar Nicolas hearing of the
shelling is convinced Slavic honor is
at stake, orders full mobilization
against Austria on July 30th.
v  Germany’s Chief of Staff
Helmut von Moltke on hearing of
Russia’s mobilization, Orders
Austria to mobilize against Russia.
EUROPE MOBILIZES TO
WAR
v  Germany will issue ultimatums to Russia to
stand down or it will declare war against them. To
France, Russia’s allies, they issue another Ultimate
that if they mobilize at all war will be declared.
v  Russia rejects Germany’s ultimatum and
continues to mobilize to war. France states “they
will consult their own interests” Germany takes this
as a negative reply.
v  On August 1, 1914 Germany orders full
mobilization and begins to execute the “Schliefen
Plan” which will bring the entire world to war.