DAILY LECTURE AND DISCUSSION NOTES 20-4

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World War I Changes the World

Did you know?

The Russian czar Nicholas and his immediate family were canonized and

made saints by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.

I. The War Ends (pages 790–792)

A. Russia pulled out of World War I in November 1917. German troops were sent from the Eastern Front to the west.

B. The Americans launched an attack on the Germans in the Battle of the Argonne Forest.

C. The Ottoman Turks surrendered, and the German emperor, afraid of mutiny in the navy and a revolt in Berlin, stepped down.

D. On November 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice, or cease-fire, to end the war.

E. In 1919, peace talks began in Versailles outside Paris. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, British prime minister David Lloyd George, French premier Georges Clemenceau, and Italian prime minister Vittorio Orlando were lead figures at the talks.

F. The Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of most of its army. It required Germany to pay reparations, or war damages, to the Allies. It also created the League of Nations, which would help keep the peace. The U.S. Senate rejected the League of Nations, so it was formed without the United States.

G. After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared, and its land became individual nation-states. The treaty could not give each ethnic group its own country, so almost every new country combined a dominant group and smaller groups.

H. The Allies broke up the Ottoman empire, leaving only the area of present-day Turkey. Turkey became a republic in 1923 after driving out Greek invaders.

I. Kemal, also known as Atatürk, became president of Turkey. He introduced many social and political changes.

J. The Allies divided up Arab regions of the Ottoman empire, creating new territories called mandates. The League of Nations governed each territory, but allowed a member nation to run it.

K. Ibn Saud created the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. American businesses struck oil at Dhahran, and the kingdom became wealthy.

L. Jewish nationalists known as Zionists had begun settling in the ancient city of Jerusalem in Palestine, a mandate run by Britain. The Balfour Declaration promised Jews a nation in Palestine, which angered Arabs living there.

Discussion Question

How did mandates affect Muslims? (Mandates were run by a member of

the League of Nations, so mandated territories in the Middle East were run

by outsiders, which angered the Arabs.)

II. The Russian Revolution (pages 793–796)

A. In the early 1900s, most Russians were unhappy with their

government.

B. In 1905 an uprising began, and thousands of workers demanded changes from the czar. Soldiers fired on the workers and killed hundreds. In response, the workers went on strike. The czar agreed to meet some of the workers’ demands and created a duma, or national assembly.

C. Russia suffered great losses in World War I, and in 1917 the people rose up against the czar. The soldiers joined the people, and the czar gave up his rule.

D. Members of the duma created a temporary government, but it did not carry out the reforms the people wanted.

E. The people believed the temporary government was too middle class, so they formed soviets, or committees, to represent their interests.

F. Many members of the soviets were socialists. The most radical of these groups was the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. They believed they could use force to bring about their ideal society.

G. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power, and Lenin became the head of the new government.

H. Several groups opposed Lenin and rebelled against the Bolsheviks, now known as Communists, or Reds. Leon Trotsky formed the Communist army, called the Red Army. The enemies of the Communists were called Whites.

I. The Reds and Whites fought for three years until the Communists won in 1921.

Discussion Question

What were some of the political beliefs of the Bolsheviks? (The Bolsheviks opposed capitalism. They wanted a socialist government that would build a society in which all people could share equally in the wealth.)