YEAR 11 MODERN HISTORY

Maureen Anderson | Anne Low | Ian Keese

First published 2008 by In this book, the word ‘Aborigine’ rather than ‘Koori’ is used when
John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd referring to indigenous Australians. The issues raised are not unique
42 McDougall Street, Milton Qld 4064 to the indigenous people of New South Wales and so the Australia-
wide reference has been maintained.
Typeset in 9.75/13pt Palatino It is recommended that teachers should first preview resources on
Aboriginal topics in relation to their suitability for the class level or
© Maureen Anderson, Anne Low, Ian Keese 2008 situation. It is also suggested that Aboriginal parents or community
members be invited to help assess the resources to be shown to
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. Aboriginal children. At all times the guidelines laid down by the
Department of Education should be followed.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-publication data

Anderson, Maureen.
Retrospective: year 11 modern history.

Includes index.
For secondary school students.
ISBN 978 0 7314 0684 5 (pbk.).

1. History, Modern — Textbooks. 2. World history —

Textbooks. I. Low, Anne. II. Keese, Ian. III. Title.

909.08

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Front cover images: still from A Very Long Engagement,

© The Kobal Collection/Warner Bros./Bruno Calvo;
poppies, © Carol Grabham; mushroom cloud, © Photodisc, Inc;
statue of Ho Chi Minh, © Corbis/Sygma/Les Stone;
John F. Kennedy in motorcade, © Corbis/Bettmann.

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10 9 8 7
Contents
Preface  vi
Table of key concepts  vii
Weblinks  viii
About eBookPLUS  ix
Acknowledgements  x
part 1
Case studies 1
Chapter 1
Bismarck and the unification
of the German states 3
Introduction  4
Role of liberalism and nationalism in creating   the origins of the arab–Israeli
a sense of German unity  6
Bismarckian foreign policy  10
Wars of national unification against  
Austria and France  11
The immediate consequences  
of German unification  15
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 2
Yankees and Confederates
in the american states in the
mid nineteenth century 21
Introduction  22
The South and states’ rights  22
Slavery and human rights  26
The North and the issue of national unity  29
Results of the Civil War  34
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Chapter 3
the decline and fall of the
romanov dynasty 41
Introduction  42
Nicholas II as autocrat  43
Political, social and economic grievances in early 
twentieth-century Russia  44
The Tsar’s failure to address the problems  
of Russia  51
The role of World War I in the fall  
of the tsarist regime  53
Meeting objectives and outcomes 61
Chapter 4
conflict 1880–1947 63
Introduction  64
Zionism — its origins and aspirations  67
Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses  
to the Balfour Declaration  74
The nature of Arab and Jewish responses  
19
to the question of a Jewish homeland  
post-World War II  78
The United Nations partition of Palestine  81
Meeting objectives and outcomes 83
Chapter 5
Decolonisation in Indochina,
1945–1954 85
Introduction  86
The impact of French imperialism on Indochina  86
The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and ‘war’ 
38 against the French  89
 The growth of Vietnamese   part 2
nationalism/communism  94
The defeat of France  98 the historical investigation 165
Meeting objectives and outcomes 101
Chapter 9
Chapter 6 the historical investigation 166
prelim heading
Nuclear testing in the pacific,
1950s to 1960s 103
Getting started — choosing a topic  166
Investigation underway: reading  
Introduction  104 and note-making  170
Geographic, ideological and political motives   The writing process  173
for the testing of nuclear weapons by   Presenting your work  173
western powers in the Pacific  104
The finished product  176
Use of the Marshall Islands by the United States  
for nuclear testing  106
Use of Mururoa Atoll by France for   part 3
nuclear testing  112
preliminary Course core study:
Use of Australia by Britain for nuclear testing  118
Meeting objectives and outcomes 123
the world at the beginning of the
twentieth century 177
Chapter 7
Chapter 10
the Civil rights Movement in the USa
in the 1950s and 1960s 125 the world at the beginning
Introduction  126 of the twentieth century 178
Segregation in the USA in the 1950s  127 Introduction  179
Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence   The nature of European society  180
to achieve civil rights objectives  132 Imperialism: a world of empires  188
The development of more radical methods   Emerging forces and ideas  197
and individuals in the 1960s  138
Causes of World War I  199
Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement  141
Meeting objectives and outcomes 207
Meeting objectives and outcomes 143

Chapter 8
the assassination of
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Introduction  146
Kennedy in November 1963  147
Death of a president: Dallas, Texas,   Chapter 11
22 November 1963  148
The impact and aftermath of the  
Kennedy assassination  153
part 4
hSC Course core study:
145 World War I 1914–1919:
a source-based study 209
War on the Western Front 211
Introduction  212

The Warren Report — evidence and   The reasons for the stalemate  
conspiracy theories  158 on the Western Front  212
Meeting objectives and outcomes 163 The nature of trench warfare  215

iv Contents
Life in the trenches: experiences   Chapter 13
of Allied and German soldiers  220
turning points 288
Tactics and strategies to break the stalemate  227 Introduction  289
Change over time: Allied and German soldiers’  Impact of the Russian withdrawal  289
attitudes to the war  241 Impact of the United States’ entry  
HSC exam practice 248 into World War I  294
General Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive  301
Chapter 12 The Allied response  306
the home fronts in Britain HSC exam practice 308
and Germany 250
Chapter 14
Introduction  251
Total war and its social and economic  
allied victory 310
impact on civilians in Britain and Germany  251 Introduction  311
Events leading to the Armistice, 1918  311
Recruitment, conscription, censorship and 
propaganda in Britain and Germany  267 Reasons for Allied victory and German 
collapse  320
The variety of attitudes to the war and  
The Treaty of Versailles  320
how they changed over time in  
Britain and Germany  275 The roles and differing goals of the peacemakers  323
HSC exam practice 328
The impact of the war on women’s lives  
and experiences in Britain  280 Glossary  330
HSC exam practice 286 Index  336

Contents v
 preface
The authors have written Retrospective to address  Pursuing the process of historical inquiry is at the 
the demands of the revised Stage 6 NSW Modern  heart of the study of any historical topic. In Part 2,  
History syllabus and the needs of the students who  ‘The historical investigation’, Retrospective provides 
study it. The text focuses on the Preliminary Course  guidelines to help students to gain confidence in 
and extends to cover ‘World War I 1914–1919’, the  working independently, and developing a research topic 
Core topic of the HSC Modern History course.  and product in a methodical and professional manner. 
Retrospective provides opportunities for students  Retrospective Part 3, ‘The world at the beginning 
to investigate significant features, issues, people,  of the twentieth century’, provides opportunities for 
events and concepts relevant to the late nineteenth  students to engage more overtly in the development 
and the twentieth century world. Within this  of their skills in using and analysing sources, 
context, the text facilitates students’ development of  determining their reliability, and identifying the 
the methods of historical inquiry and consideration  nature and value of evidence they might or might 
of related historiographical issues, especially the  not provide. The chapter looks broadly at political, 
perspectives that sources reveal, the usefulness  economic and social features of ‘The world at the 
and reliability of sources, and differing historical  beginning of the twentieth century’. In incorporating 
interpretations of the past. an investigation of factors that influenced the 
outbreak of world war in 1914, the chapter also 
Retrospective comprises four parts. Three parts 
provides the background necessary to students’ 
reflect the Preliminary Course syllabus: 
understanding of the HSC Core covered in Part 4. 
1.  Case studies
Each chapter of Retrospective provides questions 
2.  The historical investigation
on sources to develop students’ skills in the process 
3.  Core study: the world at the beginning of the 
of historical inquiry. At the ends of the case studies 
twentieth century.
and Preliminary Core chapters are additional 
The fourth part addresses the Core topic of the 
questions and activities that address specific 
HSC Modern History syllabus:
Preliminary Course objectives and outcomes. At the 
4.  HSC Core study: World War I 1914–1919. end of each of the four chapters on the HSC Core 
As the syllabus states, Parts 1, 2 and 3 can be  topic, we have included HSC-style practice questions 
studied in any order and Part 2 can be incorporated  and source material.
into the investigation of any other topic.  The authors of Retrospective have all enjoyed many 
Retrospective includes the case studies that   years of teaching history. That means we have been 
our survey of teachers has indicated are the   able to pursue, through our work, something we 
most popular in their own right and most useful  love. It also means that we have each experienced the 
for students going on to study related topics at  enjoyment of working with students who share this 
HSC level. Many chapters provide an introduction  love and who are themselves, through their study of 
to National and International Studies options that  Modern History, developing their knowledge of how 
students can study at HSC level. We have included  the study of the past informs our understanding of 
an additional author-developed case study,   the present, and how the development of historical 
‘The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’,  skills enables them to think critically, ask intelligent 
which provides background for the popular  questions and judge the value of the answers they 
History Extension topic ‘The Nature of the  receive. We hope this book helps the students who 
Presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’.  read it to engage in this process too.

vi preface
table of key concepts
The following table can be used by students and teachers to identify the chapters where particular concepts 
are featured.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10

assassination
Confederates
Yankees and

arab–Israeli

preliminary
Civil rights
Indochina
Bismarck
Chapter

romanov
dynasty

Nuclear
testing

core
JFK
US
KeY CoNCeptS

autocracy ✔ ✔ ✔

capitalism ✔

communism ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

decolonisation ✔ ✔

democracy ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

feminism ✔

globalisation ✔

imperialism ✔ ✔ ✔

industrialisation ✔ ✔ ✔

internationalism ✔

liberalism ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

nationalism ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

pan-nationalism ✔

racism ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

revolution ✔ ✔

sectarianism ✔

self-determination ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔

socialism ✔ ✔

terrorism ✔ ✔

table of key concepts vii

 Weblinks
To access the weblinks for this book, log in to the JacarandaPLUS website at 
www.jacplus.com.au

Chapter no. Chapter name page no. Weblink

1 Bismarck and the unification 5 Napoleon — paintings
of the German states 13 Ems telegram
2 Yankees and Confederates 27 John Brown (4 links)
in the American states in the
mid nineteenth century
3 The decline and fall of the 50 October Manifesto 1905
Romanov dynasty 58 Petrograd Soviet Order No. 1
62 Romanovs
4 The origins of the Arab–Israeli 66 Islam
conflict 1880–1947
5 Decolonisation in Indochina, 95 Declarations (2 links)
1945–1954 95 Vietnamese independence
6 Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 106 Nuclear weapons
1950s to 1960s 111 Nuclear Claims Tribunal
124 Nuclear testing resources (7 links)
7 The Civil Rights Movement in 134 Letter from Birmingham Gaol
the USA in the 1950s 136 I have a dream
and 1960s
144 Claudette Colvin (3 links)
8 The assassination of 151 Warren Commission
John Fitzgerald Kennedy 156 Warren Commission
157 Black Jack (2 links)
160 Zapruder film
163 Warren Commission Report
9 The historical investigation 174 Active and passive voice
11 War on the Western Front 229 Verdun (3 links)
12 The home fronts in Britain 274 Propaganda (4 links)
and Germany
13 Turning points 298 Zimmerman telegraph
306 Tanks in World War I
14 Allied victory 311 War in the Air
316 Amiens

viii Weblinks
About eBookPLUS

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About eBookPLUS ix
 acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the teachers who  Antiquarian Society: source 2.16 • The Art 
reviewed the early drafts and gave valuable  Archive: source 12.10/Imperial War Museum 
feedback. They would also like to acknowledge  • Austral International  Press: sources 5.10/
and express their thanks to all the people at John  Austral Press; 12.11, 12.16, 12.44, 12.51 (p. 287 
Wiley Australia who have worked hard to make  right)/Austral/Topham Picturepoint • Australian 
Retrospective a reality. We particularly thank Sharon  War Memorial: sources 11.36/Australian War 
Ottery who got this project underway and has  Memorial Negative No. E01220; 14.8/Australian 
kept it under her wing ever since; Carol Grabham,  War Memorial Negative No. P05359.001; 14.20/
whose expertise, ‘magic wand’ and perennial good  Australian War Memorial Negative No. E04942B 
humour have resolved so many issues along the way  • AAP Image: sources 5.12/AAP/Wideworld; 
(often before we even realised their existence); Delia  7.12/AAP/AP/Fred Blackwell; 7.13/AAP/AP/Bill 
Sala for her great flair with design; Kylie Seaton  Hudson; 7.15/AAP/AP; 7.20/AAP/AP/John Gaps 
for her efforts and persistence in image research  III; 8.2/AAP Image/Jim Sulley/The Image Works 
and copyright clearances; and Sharee Burger who,  • Bundesarchiv: source 13.6/Bundesarchiv Bild 
calmly, efficiently, and without complaint, took on  183-S10394 • Connecticut Historical Society: 
board a number of last-minute changes. source 2.6 • Copyright Clearance Center: source 
Maureen Anderson thanks her husband, John  7.14/By Thomas F. Flannery, in Baltimore Evening 
Sidoti, who has weathered, with his usual patience,  Sun/Included with permission • Corbis Australia: 
the highs and lows of the research and writing  sources 1.2, 3.2, 6.5, 10.3, 10.6b, 12.37, 12.43/
process; and would also like to thank Dr Emily  Corbis/Hulton–Deutsch Collection; 1.16, 1.17, 2.8, 
Batache Watt and her Thursday evening French  2.23, 3.13, 4.3, 4.5, 4.6, 4.17, 5.1, 5.2, 5.15, 5.18, 6.10, 
‘club’ for their assistance with the translation on  7.3, 7.8, 7.10, 7.17, 8.9, 8.15, 8.16, 10.2, 11.15, 11.21, 
p. 211. Anne Low thanks Steven, James, Japhet,  11.26, 12.2, 13.1, 13.3, 13.13, 13.15, 13.16, 14.4, 
Sisay, Eleni and Gi for their unwavering loyalty  14.7, 14.11/Corbis/Bettmann; 2.7, 3.18, 6.11, 8.7, 
and support. Ian Keese thanks Enid for her support  8.19, 10.5, 13.20, 13.24 (p. 308)/Corbis; 2.11/Corbis 
and is grateful to Hannah Eady for sharing her  Australia; 3.3/Corbis/The State Heritage Museum, 
experiences as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. St. Petersburg; 3.19/Corbis/epa/Sergi Chirikov; 
The authors and publisher thank the following  4.1/Corbis/Richard T Nowitz; 4.4/Corbis/David 
copyright holders, organisations and individuals  Rubinger; 5.6 (left)/Corbis/Paul Seheult/Eye 
Ubiquitous; 5.6 (right)/Corbis Images/Christophe 
for their assistance and for permission to reproduce 
Loviny; 5.7/Corbis/Leonard de Selva; 6.2 (coral 
copyright material in this book.
atoll)/Corbis/B.S.P.I.; 6.16/Corbis/Sygma; 8.11/
Internal design images Corbis/Charles E. Rotkin; 10.6a/Corbis/Massimo 
Digital Stock/© 1995 Digital Stock/Corbis  Listri; 11.37a/Corbis/Keystone • Corbis Royalty 
Corporation; © Digital Vision Free: p. 170/© Corbis Corporation • © The David 
King Collection: sources 3.6, 3.8, 3.11, 3.15 • Digital 
Images Stock: source 2.14a/© 1995 Digital Stock/Corbis 
• Alinari Archive, Florence: source 10.1/Alinari  Corporation • Emerald City Images: source 1.1/
Archives, Florence • Courtesy of American  Popperfoto • Getty Images: sources 1.12, 10.16, 

x acknowledgements
11.11, 11.33, 12.9, 12.42, 13.19, 14.14, 14.17/Hulton  4.15, 5.3, 5.20, 6.2, 6.13, 10.10, 10.13, 10.15, 10.18, 
Archive; 3.1, 4.9, 10.11/Hulton archive /Stringer;  10.23, 10.26, 11.3, 11.4, 11.22, 13.4, 13.17, 14.5 
4.20, 8.1/Hulton Archive/Keystone; 4.21/GPO;  • National Archives of Australia: sources 6.19/
4.22/Fox Photos; 4.25/Getty Images News/Zoltan  A6455, RC597 PART 3, 6.23/A6457, P215 • National 
Kluger; 5.16/Time & Life/Howard Sochurek; 6.1/ Archives of Canada: source 11.19/© Public Domain, 
Hulton Archive/American Stock; 6.6/Time & Life  source: Library and Archives Canada/C-092414 
Pictures/Fritz Goro; 6.9/Hulton Archive/Central  • Newspix: source 6.24/Milton Wordley • North 
Press; 6.17/AFP/Romeo Gacad; 7.1/Scott Olsen;  Carolina Department of Cultural Resources: source 
7.16/Time & Life Pictures/Ben Martin; 8.4/Hulton  2.14b/Mr William S Powell and North Carolina 
Archive/Agence France Presse; 8.8/Time & Life  Department of Cultural Resources • © Peabody 
Pictures/Art Rickerby; 8.13/Time & Life Pictures/ Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard 
Cecil Stoughton; 8.14/Time & Life Pictures/Carl  University: source 2.10 • © Photodisc, Inc.: 
Mydans; 8.18/Time & Life Pictures/Stan Wayman;  pages 166, 167 (woman, medal, stopwatch, gun) 
10.4/Roger Viollet/Harlingue; 10.28/Henry  • Photolibrary: sources 7.11/photolibrary.com/
Guttmann/Stringer; 10.29/Time & Life Pictures/ Photoresearchers; 1.5, 1.19, 10.7, 10.8, 10.14, 12.12, 
Mansell; 10.33/Central Press; 11.23/General  12.26/Photolibrary/Mary Evans Picture Library 
Photographic Agency; 11.37b, 12.39/Topical Press  • Picture Media: source 6.25/Reuters/Andre 
Agency/Stringer; 12.21/Hulton Archive/Topical  Camara • Punch: sources 1.9, 1.15, 2.3, 10.27, 
Press Agency; 12.22/Hulton Archive/Three Lions/ 10.31/Reproduced with permission of Punch  Ltd., 
Stringer; 13.12/MPI/Stringer; 14.15/Time & Life  www.punch.co.uk • Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey: 
Pictures/US Army Signal Corps • The Illustrated  source 8.12/Zapruder Film Copyright © 1967, 
London News Picture Library: sources 12.35,  (Renewed 1995), The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy 
12.36 • Imperial War Museum, reproduced with  Plaza. All Rights Reserved • Thomson Publishing: 
permission: sources 11.2/Q 81724; 11.5/Q 45786;  source 4.23/Routledge Atlas of the Arab–Israeli 
Conflict 8th Edn by Martin Gilbert ISBN 
11.7/Q 580; 11.8/Q 4649; 11.18/Q 23944; 11.28/Q 
0415359015 & 0415359007/Published by Routledge 
5817; 11.31; 11.46 (p. 248)/Q 6285; 12.7/Q 80366; 
2005 • Ullstein Bild De: source 3.7/Ullstein Bild 
12.15/Q 31162; 12.24; 12.27/Q 23584; 12.28/Q 
Berlin • The Williams School exterior, 1949. © John 
103334; 12.30/Q 110343; 12.32; 12.33; 12.38/PST 
E Phay Collection, Special Collections, Department 
11821; 12.45/HU 70114; 13.14/Q 79823; 14.12/Q 9534 
of Archives and Special Collections, University of 
• iStockphoto: source 168 • Jack Niedenthal: source 
Mississippi Libraries: source 7.4 (left)/The Williams 
6.7/US Archives • © Jim Blanchard, artist www.
School exterior, 1949, © John E Phay Collection, 
jimblanchard.com: source 6.12 • John F Kennedy 
Special Collections, Department of Archives and 
Presidential Library: sources 8.5/Cecil Stoughton; 
Special Collections, University of Mississippi 
8.6/Robert Knudsen • The Kobal Collection: source 
Libraries
11.40/Nord-Quest/TF1 Films/Sony • Library of 
Congress: sources 2.1/Library of Congress, Prints  text
& Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs;  • Alfred Publishing: page 162/© 1960 Alan Jay 
2.4, 2.12, 2.17, 2.20, 2.22/Library of Congress  Lerner/Frederick Loewe For Australia And New 
Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.  Zealand: Alfred Publishing (Australia) Pty Ltd 
20540 USA; 2.25/Library of Congress, Prints &  (ABN 15 003 954 247) PO Box 2355, Taren Point, 
Photographs Division LOT 11486–A, no. 9 [P&P]; 7.4 NSW 2229, International © Secured. All rights 
(right)/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs  reserved. Unauthorised reproduction is illegal 
Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, Visual  • American Zionist Movement: page 68/Included 
Materials from the National Association for the  with permission of The American Zionist 
Advancement of Colored People Records • Mary  Movement, New York, 2007 • AFP: page 126/Paul 
Evans Picture Library: sources 1.14, 11.1, 11.24,  Handley • Barbara Levy Literary Agency: page 
11.25, 11.38, 12.1, 12.13, 12.29, 12.41, 12.46, 13.8,  222/Included with permission of the Barbara Levy 
14.1, 14.2, 14.18, 14.23 (p. 329)• MAPgraphics Pty  Literary Agency, © Siegfried Sassoon • Brooklyn 
Ltd, Brisbane: sources 1.3, 1.13, 2.2, 4.2, 4.8, 4.12,  College: page 191/Reprinted with permission of 

acknowledgements xi
 the Estate of Ruth Kleinman and the Department of
History, Brooklyn College • David Robie, Dr: page
110/From David Robie, Eyes of Fire: the Voyage of
the Rainbow Warrior, Lindon Publishing, Auckland,
1986, included with permission of Dr David Robie
• © Donald Greenlees: page 106 • Enid Ratnam
Keese (Endira): page 78/Extract from E Ratnam,
Living to the Full: the Life of Hannah Eady, Writeheart
Press, Glenbrook, NSW 2006 • NSW Board of
Studies/Modern History Stage 6 Syllabus, © Board
of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the Crown
in right of the State of New South Wales, 2004
• Pan Macmillan Australia: pages 303, 309, 312,
327/Reprinted from Les Carlyon, The Great War,
Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2006, with permission of
Pan Macmillan Australia • Penguin Books Ltd UK:
pages 225, 234, 236/From Lyn Macdonald, Somme,
Penguin, London, 1993. Reprinted with permission
of Penguin Group UK, London • © Professor John
Keane pages 119, 121 • Random House Australia:
page 221/From E. P. F. Lynch, Somme Mud: the War
Experiences of an Australian Infantryman in France,
1916–1919, Random House, Sydney, 2006/Included
with permission of The Random House Group
Sydney • Random House Group, UK: pages 227,
xii Acknowledgements
247, 307/From All Quiet on the Western Front by
Erich Maria Remarque, published by Jonathan
Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random
House Group Ltd • The National Archives and
Records: pages 151/The National Archives and
Records Administration; 156/The National Archives
and Records • United States Government: page
107/United States Government Printing Office,
Washington, 1948 • University of Arkansas Press:
page 129/From Bates, Daisy, The Long Shadow of
Little Rock (memoir), 1962, reprinted by University
of Arkansas Press, 1987 and reproduced by
permission of the University of Arkansas Press
• Vanessa Griffen, Dr: page 114/Quoted in
Vanessa Griffen, ‘Women Speak Out’: report of
Pacific Women’s Conference October 1976, Suva,
NZ Electronic Text Centre, 2005, www.nzetc.org
• Wilfred Owen: page 224
Every effort has been made to trace the ownership
of copyright material. Information that will enable
the publisher to rectify any error or omission in
subsequent reprints will be welcome. In such cases,
please contact the Permission Section at John Wiley
& Sons Australia, Ltd.
 part1 Case studies
PRINCIPAL FOCUS

Students apply historical inquiry methods within a range of historical

contexts to investigate key features, issues, individuals, groups,
events, concepts and other forces in the eighteenth,
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Case studies from Europe and North America

1 Bismarck and the unification of the German states 3

2 Yankees and Confederates in the American states
in the mid nineteenth century 21
3 The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 41
7 The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 125
8 The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 145

Case studies from Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East

4 The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880s–1947 63

5 Decolonisation in Indochina 1945–1954 85
6 Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 103

1 Retrospective

revolution W period of rapid,
extensive change in political
and social structures, including
a change in sovereignty
Enlightenment W period in the
late seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries when it was believed
that institutions should be
established on the basis of
reason rather than tradition
and superstition
feudal system W structured
society based on land
ownership in which royalty
and wealthy nobles owned land
and controlled power and the
lower classes worked for them
fraternity W the bonding
together of people through a
common purpose; a
brotherhood
autocratic W exerting unlimited
control and authority over
others
counterrevolution W
a movement that opposes
the changes brought about
by revolution. During the
French Revolution there was
counterrevolutionary activity
in the countryside of France.
conservative W wanting
conditions to remain as
they are, unchanged
2 Retrospective
Preamble: Origins of revolution
The close of the eighteenth century was the ‘Age of Revolution’. During this era,
the world was transformed by great social, economic and political forces that
travelled far beyond national boundaries.
Seeing the light
The origins of revolution lay in the seventeenth century, during the period
known as the Enlightenment — the time of ‘bringing light into darkness’. The
Enlightenment or Age of Reason was a revolution in ideas and thinking that
opened a new path to knowledge that came from a scientific and rational
foundation. The Enlightenment challenged the authority of the past in many ways.
W Philosophers, politicians and scientists questioned the rules and beliefs of the
Christian church in Europe and the hierarchical feudal system in which wealth
and political power rested with royalty and the nobility.
W European navigators crossed oceans and pushed the geographical frontiers,
and so questioned the knowledge of the world through their wonderful voyages
of discovery.
W The right of European kings and queens to govern with absolute power was
questioned through passionate discussion of concepts such as human rights,
liberty and the law.
All men are created equal
Revolutionary thought turned to action when, in North America, the British
colonies challenged and defeated European power. The Americans rebelled against
British rule and made a Declaration of Independence. The Declaration proclaimed
the radical political idea that ‘all men are created equal’, with certain inalienable
rights: ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and that ‘to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving from their just powers from
the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to
institute new Government’. On 3 September 1783, a new nation emerged when the
Treaty of Paris recognised American independence.
Liberté, egalité, fraternité
Another revolution of great drama and political significance was played
out in Europe in 1789. With the motto ‘liberty, equality, fraternity’, French
revolutionaries discredited and deposed the autocratic French King Louis XIV
and replaced him with a new republican government of elected representatives.
In challenging the position of the greatest European monarch, the French
demonstrated the power of ideas. Liberty and nationalism would bring political
change that was to shape the modern world.
The French Revolution came to represent a great break with the past and
so has universal significance. The revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and
fraternity were the inspiration behind the development of modern western
political thought.
Along with these inspiring ideals and the rebuilding of French society came
revolutionary violence. The bitter political and economic divisions of French
society, counterrevolutionary uprising and the conservative backlash to
the spread of revolutionary thought bred civil war. Across Europe, a fear of
revolutionary change and awareness that revolutionary ideas are not confined by
national borders determined the actions of governments for decades after.
 1
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W autocracy W liberalism
W nationalism W revolution

W socialism
Bismarck and the
unification of the
German states
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
The role of liberalism and nationalism in creating a sense of German unity
Bismarckian foreign policy
Wars of national unification against Austria and France
The immediate consequences of German unification
KEY DATES

1806–13
T French Confederation
of the Rhine
1815
T Congress of Vienna
establishes the German
Confederation
1848
T Revolutions through Europe
fail to bring change
1862
T Wilhelm I, King of Prussia,
appoints Bismarck Prime
Minister–President
1865
T Austriaand Prussia take
Schleswig and Holstein
from the Danes
1866
T Austro–Prussian
(‘Seven Weeks’) War
T German Confederation
is replaced by the North
German Confederation
1870–71
T Franco–Prussian War; North
German Confederation
defeats France
T Wilhelm I becomes emperor
of a unified Germany
1882
T Germany, Austria and Italy
form Triple Alliance Source 1.1
1890 Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), German politician and chancellor of the German Empire from
T 20 March Wilhelm II forces 1870 to 1890. It was said that, from the sixteenth century to the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte,
Bismarck’s resignation every generation of the Bismarck family ‘had drawn the sword against the French’. What insight
into the politics of nineteenth-century Europe does this image of Bismarck communicate?
3
 Introduction
annex W to take possession of
new territory
Confederation W a league or
alliance
constitutional W government
carried out in accordance with
rules about how a state will be
organised and the nature and
limits of the government’s
power within it
Source 1.2
A nineteenth-century engraving
showing the European monarchs
and leaders in discussion at the
Congress of Vienna, in 1815,
after the defeat of Napoleon.
Prince Metternich of Austria is
shown standing to the left of
centre with arm raised.
4 Retrospective
Revolution in eighteenth-century Europe (see page 2) was characterised by
dreams of liberty and equality. After revolution came military dictatorship.
The young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, grasped power in France and, in
1804, appointed himself emperor.
In 1803, Napoleon had committed France to war and had begun the con-
quest of Europe. Under his leadership, the French were victorious all over
Europe, defeating Russian and Austrian forces at the battle of Austerlitz in
1805. By 1810, he controlled France, Belgium, Holland and some of the Italian
and German states.
Between 1801 and 1814, Napoleon redrew the map of Europe by annexing
the German territories on the left bank of the River Rhine to France. Bona-
parte then reorganised the boundaries of the many German states. In estab-
lishing the French Confederation of the Rhine, he reduced more than three
hundred German states to fewer than forty states.
Within the newly created French empire, the feudal system came to an end
and the people of Europe were governed by a Napoleonic legal code based
upon principles of:
W religious freedom
W rights of property owners
W constitutional government
W equality before the law.
Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 and was finally defeated by a determined
Russian army and the terrifying cold of a Russian winter. In 1815, Napoleon
was forced by the French politicians to abdicate (renounce his title)
unconditionally and he went into exile on the remote island of St Helena.
With Napoleon’s defeat, the conservative politicians hoped to restore the
ruling families of Europe to their positions of power. Monarchies had ruled
all the major European powers: the Romanov dynasty ruled Russia, the Hano-
verian dynasty ruled Great Britain and the independent German kingdom of
Prussia was ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty. At a meeting known as the
Congress of Vienna in 1815, these European monarchs joined forces in an
effort to repress liberal thinking and the political change unleashed by the
French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.

Source 1.3
A map of Europe and the
German states in 1815,
after the Congress of Vienna
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In source 1.2, how has the artist portrayed the meeting of leaders? How useful
is this source for historians studying revolutions?
2. Compare this painting of the conservative European monarchs with paintings of
Napoleon from the early nineteenth century. Access the website for this book
and click on the ‘Napoleon — paintings’ weblink for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’,
page viii) to view some examples. Describe how artists generally portrayed
Napoleon and what this indicated about his character and influence.
Under the leadership of the Austrian politician, Prince Klemens von
Metternich (1773–1859), the European monarchs devised a system called
the ‘Concert of Europe’, based on international consultation between the
‘legitimate’ rulers of Europe as a means of settling disputes without war.
Napoleon’s influence did not, however, end in 1815. Napoleon’s legal reforms,
changes to government administration and breaking down of borders spread
ideas that would establish new political and social systems throughout Europe.

Territories of Prussia

Territories of the
Austrian Empire
DENMARK A
NORTH SEA SE 38 German states
IC Boundary of the German
LT Confederation
GREAT BA

BRITAIN

GERMAN A
NETHERLANDS SSI
PRU RUSSIA
Westphalia
BELGIUM
Poland
Rhine
Provinces

CONFEDERATION

FRANCE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE

TRIA
SWITZERLAND AU S
HUNGARY

N
0 200 400 km
MEDITERRANEAN SEA

SOURCE QUESTIONS 1. In 1815, which countries of Europe occupied a geographic area similar to their
Examine the map of Europe in area today?
source 1.3 and compare it with 2. Identify the modern countries of Europe missing from the 1815 map.
a map of the modern world. 3. Identify the countries and kingdoms of 1815 Europe that no longer exist.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 5

 Role of liberalism and nationalism in creating a sense
of German unity
nationalism W sense of a
national identity developed from
belonging to a group sharing
common cultural, linguistic and
historical ties, and the desire to
work with others to achieve
common goals related to these,
at times regardless of how this
might affect other countries
liberalism W a view of society
emphasising individuals
(not classes) and their rights
to freedom of political, religious,
intellectual and artistic expression
unification W the bringing
together of separate entities
to form a unit
Source 1.4
Early nineteenth-century
nationalist ideals expressed in a
pamphlet issued by students from
the Patriotic Student Society at
the University of Bavaria, after the
1815 Congress of Vienna
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What argument is put forward
by the Patriotic Student
Society for unification of the
German states?
2. Explain the student response
to the Congress of Vienna.
3. What is the ‘ancient regime’
referred to in this extract? The growth of liberalism was based upon the demand for guaranteed basic
autocratic W exerting unlimited
control and authority over others
representative government W
a government founded on the
principle that the people should
elect their representatives
6 Retrospective
Two radical new forces that continued to challenge the power of the conservative
leaders were nationalism and liberalism.
Nationalism
At the core of so many revolutionary ideas was the belief that people could
govern themselves through the creation of a ‘nation’. This sense of a national
identity developed from a sense of shared ethnicity (race), historical background,
religion, language, culture and geography. Combined with aspirations for inde-
pendence and self-determination, nationalism became a powerful ideology.
The Napoleonic era heightened the consciousness of the common culture
and language of the independent German states, even if it was for no other
purpose than recognising that France was their common enemy. The French
Revolution and a fear of Napoleon’s armies had inadvertently sparked
German nationalism and a move towards unification.
Was it for this the glorious victory at Leipzig? Was it for this the final act at
Waterloo? No, a thousand times no.
For let it be clear that firstly we are Germans. Be it Saxony or Bavaria we share
the same Volkgeist, the same language and the common destiny. Is it a crime to
stand up and say we are Germans? Never let it be said so.
The recent settlement of Vienna must be temporary. How is it that France is
a free united country and we the victors are subjects of the ‘ancient regime’. We
have a proud tradition of freedom too.
Must we bow to the yoke of reactionaries. Our city, our university will not let
this happen. We have a past as Germans. We believe, we know we have a future
as free Germans, as a German nation. For this will we work; for this will we live; for
this will we die.
Liberalism
rights such as freedom of speech and the freedom to own property. By
1815 the merchants and tradespeople of Europe demanded a release from
the tight government control imposed by autocratic monarchs. At the end
of the eighteenth century major developments in technology had resulted
in a revolution in European industry. Factory towns grew, and from this
emerged an expanding urban class of increasingly wealthy manufacturers
and businessmen. Liberalism and nationalism encouraged their desire for
political change through limits to the power of the old European aristocracy.
The middle class believed their skills and wealth entitled them to a vote.
They wanted the opportunity for free trade and the political liberty that
representative government would bring.
Liberalism also demanded a constitution that would define the rules of
government and the limits of the government’s power and guarantee the
rights of citizens.
 Source 1.5
A nineteenth-century engraving
showing Austrian politician,
Prince Klemens von Metternich
(1773–1859)
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How has the artist
portrayed Metternich in
this painting?
2. How did Metternich use his
power against the spirit of
change that was sweeping
through Europe?
tariff W a duty or custom
imposed by a government on
exports or imports
German unity
The nation of Germany did not exist in 1815. Prince Metternich of Austria
opposed and feared the demands for unity of the 38 German states, believing
it would eventually lead to the overthrow of the European monarchies and
political instability. The states were dominated by Austria
and loosely held together by the ‘German Confederation’
(see source 1.3, page 5). Metternich used the power of
Austria and the cooperation of the princes of the various
German states to suppress the development of the liberal
and nationalist movements.
In 1819, the various German princes issued a series of
repressive measures, known as the Carlsbad Decrees.
The Decrees were designed to stamp out any German
revolutionary movement by:
W imposing rigid censorship on newspapers
W closely supervising meetings in schools and universities
W establishing a central investigation committee to report
on any suspected revolutionary activity.
During the 1820s, Metternich successfully used a network
of spies, secret police and international alliances to crush
nationalism and liberalism.
In 1830, Europe was again shaken by revolution in Paris
that sparked demonstrations in southern German states.
Two years later, 25 000 German nationalists met in Bavaria
to discuss political revolution. Metternich’s response to the
appearance of groups like the ‘Young Germany’ movement
was further repression, forbidding political associations
and popular meetings.
Prussian power
Metternich maintained his power for another decade. After 1840, his domi-
nance was undermined by economic growth and, as a consequence, the
emergence of a politically and commercially ambitious German middle class.
Second to Austria as the most powerful of the German states, Prussia took
an economic lead in establishing a system of free trade by negotiating trade
treaties with other states and abolishing barriers to trade such as customs
and import duties.
In 1834, Prussia headed a union of 18 states providing a common system
of customs and tariffs. The union was called the Zollverein and it was proof
of the benefits to be gained from the states working together. The Zollverein
began negotiations to unify currency and the system of weights and meas-
ures. It also extended railway links to facilitate communication and transport
between member states. This economic cooperation once again encouraged
the blooming of liberalism and nationalism.
The year 1848 was a momentous one in Europe. It began with high hopes
and ended in bitter disappointment. Revolution began again in France, rapidly
sparking further rebellions throughout the countryside and cities of Europe.
When revolution hit the Austrian capital, Vienna, Metternich’s dominance
was finally broken and he fled into exile.
Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 7
 Revolution had come again to Europe in 1848 for a variety of reasons,
including:
W dramatic population growth — in Prussia it is estimated that between
1815 and 1848 the population increased by 75 per cent
W poor harvests in 1846 and 1847 bringing starvation to rural communities
across Europe
W sharp rises in food prices in the cities followed by falling standards of living
W development of a ‘working class consciousness’ suggesting that only through
revolutionary political change would real standards of living improve
W middle class dissatisfaction with the lack of political power, employment
opportunities and freedom of speech.
The 1848 revolutions failed to deliver political change for Europeans
because liberals, nationalists and social reformers were not united in their
opposition to conservative rule.
W The French government was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew,
Louis Napoleon. He established himself as the new emperor of France.
W In the German states, the group of politicians who had met in May 1848
to draw up a constitution to unify the German people were politically
inexperienced and lacked a common purpose.
W The rivalry between the two most powerful states, Prussia and Austria,
had not been resolved because of a lack of leadership and authority.
Political unity could not be achieved while independent rulers
maintained their control of the separate German kingdoms, principalities
and free towns with their own laws, courts and armies.
When Austria was excluded from the proposed German constitution, the
forces that opposed liberalism and nationalism were once again victorious.
Germany was not yet ready to bring into being the dream of unity.

Source 1.6 I The German people consists of the citizens of the states which make up the
Extracts from ‘The Fundamental German Reich. Every German has the rights of German citizenship. He may
Rights of the German People’, a exercise these rights in every German state . . . Every German has the right to
document issued by the sojourn or establish his residence in any part of the territory of the Reich, to
Parliament in Frankfurt in 1848
acquire real estate of any description . . .
II No privilege of rank is valid before the law. Nobility is abolished as a rank . . .
SOURCE QUESTION Every public office is open equally to all who are qualified . . .
In what way could it be said IV Every German has the right to express his opinion freely in speaking, writing,
that the 1848 declaration of printing, or pictorial representation. The freedom of the press may under no
the Fundamental Rights of the circumstances and in no way be limited, suspended, or annulled by means of
German People (source 1.6) preventive rules, namely censorship, limitations on printing or the book trade,
was a clear example of the postal restrictions or other restrictions upon free intercourse . . .
power and significance of the
French Revolution?
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold of Bismarck-Shönhausen was born in 1815 in the Prus-
sian province of Brandenburg. His father was a ‘Junker’, a member of the
politically conservative Prussian landowning nobility. Junkers were devoted
to the military life and so his father had also been a military officer. His
mother came from a middle-class and well educated family of politically
liberal civil servants, teachers and lawyers.
Young Otto von Bismarck was sent to school in Berlin where he excelled
at sport. When he was at university studying history and law, it is reported

8 Retrospective

divine right W a belief that
a monarch’s right to rule was
given by God, and not by
the people
socialism W a doctrine
promoting the people’s
ownership of a nation’s
resources and the
redistribution of its wealth
democracy W government
by elected representatives
of the people
patriotism W devotion to and
support for one’s country
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. After reading Bismarck’s
account of his appointment
as Prime Minister–President
(source 1.7), explain why
Bismarck was chosen by
the king for this role.
2. What was Bismarck’s
opinion of liberalism?
How do we know this?
3. Working in pairs, roleplay
a discussion between
Bismarck and a member of
the Patriotic Student Society
(whose views were expressed
in source 1.4) on ‘politics and
power in Prussia’. Use all the
evidence from the sources
and information from the
text to decide on the opinion
and bias each would have.
Present both points of view
to the class.
that he wasted time and money through excessive drinking and gambling.
A large scar on his face was explained as a wound received during one of the
25 duels he was said to have fought while at Göttingen University.
After his student days, Bismarck eventually returned to the countryside to
run the family estate. Rather than settling down into respectable Junker life,
he became bored. He quickly gained a reputation as a man more interested in
chasing women and a good time than carving out a career path for himself.
At this time he claimed his life goals were simple: to smoke ten thousand
cigars and drink five thousand bottles of champagne.
Life took a new turn for Bismarck in 1847. He entered politics and he
married a deeply religious Lutheran woman named Johanna von Puttkamer.
Bismarck entered the diplomatic service, representing Prussia in Vienna, St
Petersburg and Paris. During these years, Bismarck established a reputation
as an ambitious, ruthless and gifted politician. As a Prussian patriot, he was
committed to the Prussian royal family and the belief that the monarch ruled
by divine right. As a conservative, he was fiercely opposed to liberalism,
socialism and democracy.
Wilhelm I became the King of Prussia in 1861. He was determined to
bring Prussia into a position of undisputed German leadership and so
began strengthening its military power. The Prussian liberals in his govern-
ment refused to approve his increased military expenditure, believing that
Germans should be united through the spread of nationalist ideas and the
fostering of patriotism. In response to the opposition from the Prussian
liberals, Wilhelm called on the support of Bismarck. In 1862, the Prussian
king appointed Bismarck as Prime Minister–President. During the following
27 years of Bismarck’s authoritarian leadership, Prussian power grew and the
German states came to dominate Europe.
Source 1.7
Bismarck’s account of the meeting with Wilhelm I appointing Bismarck as Prussian
Prime Minister–President
The situation only became clear to me when His Majesty defined it in some such
words as these: ‘I will not reign if I cannot do it in such a fashion as I can be
answerable for to God, my conscience and my subjects. But I cannot do that if I
am to rule according to the will of the present majority in Parliament, and I can no
longer find any ministers prepared to conduct my government without subjecting
themselves and me to the Parliamentary majority. I have therefore resolved to lay
down my crown’ . . .
The King asked me whether I was prepared as Minister to advocate the
reorganization of the army, and when I assented he asked me further whether I
would do so in opposition to the majority in Parliament and its resolutions. When I
asserted my willingness he finally declared, ‘Then it is my duty, with your help, to
attempt to continue the battle, and I shall not abdicate’.
I succeeded in convincing him that so far as he was concerned, it was not a
question of liberal or conservative of this or that shade, but rather of monarchical
rule or parliamentary government, and that the latter must be avoided at all costs,
if even by a period of dictatorship . . .
Quoted in L. Snyder, The Blood and Iron Chancellor:
a Documentary-Biography of Otto von Bismarck,
D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, NJ, 1967.
Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 9
 Bismarckian foreign policy
artillery W mounted guns,
movable or stationary, as
distinguished from small
weapons
diplomacy W the use of
communication and negotiation
between countries as a means
of settling disputes and
resolving differences
Bismarck immediately began the task of building Prussian military might
through:
W introducing conscription
W establishing a military college to develop a skilled officer elite
W constructing a network of railways capable of rapidly moving an army
and supplying the forces with modern artillery.
Bismarck’s political goal was to establish Prussian dominance of the German
states using diplomacy and developing an aggressive foreign policy. He skil-
fully negotiated alliances with some neighbours while isolating and moving
Prussian military might against others. In his inaugural leadership speech to
the Prussian parliament, Bismarck held an olive leaf in front of himself as a
token of peace and then clearly stated his political philosophy: ‘Prussia must
gather up her strength and hold it in readiness for the opportune moment
which has already slipped by several times … not by speeches and majority
votes are the great questions of the day decided … but by iron and blood.’

Source 1.8
A photograph of a typical group of
highly trained Prussian officers
who were the basis of Prussian
military might and foreign policy
and provided a model of
organisation followed by other
European nations

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Imagine you are one of
the Prussian officers
photographed in source
1.8. Explain your position
and role in Prussian society
and your belief in the place
of Prussia in Europe.
2. How does the image of
the Prussian military fit
with Bismarck’s political
philosophy as expressed Schleswig and Holstein
in the text above?
In November 1863, Bismarck used a diplomatic crisis for political gain. When
3. What part do you think
the childless King Frederick VII of Denmark died, a dispute broke out between
the military played in
a German duke and Frederick’s heir, Christian IX, over the right to govern.
Bismarck’s methods of
diplomacy and negotiation? Denmark had ruled the two duchies (territories) of Schleswig and Holstein
for 400 years (see the map in source 1.13, page 14, for their location). Holstein’s
population was almost entirely German speaking and it was a member of the
German Confederation. Schleswig’s people were both Danish and German
speakers and it was not within the Confederation. Possession of the duchies
had long been disputed by Prussia. The ethnicity of the people made govern-
ment of Schleswig and Holstein a thorny issue for German nationalists.
Bismarck used the dispute as an opportunity to use ‘blood and iron’. After
a period of complex diplomatic manoeuvring, Bismarck persuaded Austria

10 Retrospective
 to join with Prussia in the use of military force to seize control of Schleswig
and Holstein. In a war lasting only seven days, the Danes were overthrown
and the new Danish king was forced to renounce all claims to Schleswig
and Holstein. Under an 1865 agreement known as the Gastein Convention,
Prussia received Schleswig and Austria received Holstein.
Source 1.9
A cartoon from Punch, 13 August
1864, commenting on the dispute
over the right to govern Schleswig
and Holstein. The money bags
represent Schleswig, Holstein and
Lauenburg (a territory belonging to
the Duke of Holstein). The figure
tied in the background is King
Christian IX of Denmark. The
character in the left foreground
represents Wilhelm I and Franz
Josef I of Austria is on the right.
The figure in the centre wears a
‘democracy’ hat and represents
the various peoples of the German
states and Denmark.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How are the leaders of
Prussia and Austria
represented in the cartoon?
2. What insight does the
cartoonist provide into the
nature of nineteenth-century
European politics and conflict?

Wars of national unification against Austria and France

Austro–Prussian War
By 1866, Prussia and Austria were in dispute over the manner in which
Schleswig and Holstein were governed. Bismarck diplomatically prepared
Prussia for future European conflict by isolating Austria. Using Bismarc-
kian diplomacy, he arranged alliances with Russia and Italy and began
negotiations with France. Bismarck accused Austria of violating the
conditions of the Gastein Convention and announced Prussia’s intention
to annex Schleswig–Holstein. Austria called on the military assistance of
the other states of the German Confederation and declared war on Prussia.
In a striking demonstration of military might, the Prussian forces inflicted
a swift and humiliating defeat on Austria and its allies. In the Seven Weeks’
War, Prussia declared its superiority. The Treaty of Prague agreed to:
W abolition of the German Confederation
W Austrian recognition of Prussia’s leadership of the North German
Confederation of 22 states
W Prussian annexation of Schleswig, Holstein, the kingdom of Hanover,
Hesse, Nassau and Frankfurt.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 11


clemency W mercy or kindness,
particularly that shown
to an enemy
Prussian territory now stretched from the French frontier to Poland. King
Wilhelm demanded that Austria lose large areas of its territory as punish-
ment for the war with Prussia. Bismarck looked further into the future and
opposed his king, preferring to secure Austrian friendship through clemency
(see source 1.10).
In gaining territory and establishing a new Confederation, Bismarck
gained tremendous popular political support in Prussia. He was credited
with having achieved the unity that the liberals had failed to deliver in 1848
(see page 8). Bismarck’s foreign policy gathered most of Germany’s northern
states into the new North German Confederation. Bismarck’s next move was
to bring the southern states into the Confederation and create a nation.

Source 1.10
Bismarck’s advice to Wilhelm I, promoting friendship with Austria rather than revenge

We have to avoid wounding Austria too severely; we have to avoid leaving behind
in her unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge, we ought to keep
the possibility of becoming friends again. If Austria were severely injured, she
would become the ally of France and of every other opponent of ours . . .

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Bismarck was often criticised for his sudden changes in political policy. He
responded by claiming his political judgements were always determined by what
he believed was ‘useful, advantageous and right for my fatherland’. Explain the
meaning of his advice to Wilhelm I in source 1.10 and suggest how it supports
the claim that all decisions were made according to the welfare of Prussia.
2. Using the source and information from the text, explain how Bismarck achieved
the unity that the liberals had failed to deliver in 1848. In your answer, consider
the goals and shortcomings of liberalism, as well as the strengths of Bismarck.

The Franco–Prussian War

The southern German states of Baden, Hesse-Harmstadt, Wurttemburg and
Bavaria remained out of the North German Confederation. Bismarck needed
to find a means to encourage them to accept Prussian leadership and join the
Confederation. Identifying a common enemy had previously proven a means
of encouraging the patriotism necessary for unification. In 1868, a dispute
between Prussia and France over the accession to the vacant Spanish throne
provided the next opportunity for war. Knowing that the French feared the
growing power of the German states, Bismarck suggested a German prince
as a future monarch of Spain. The French emperor retaliated by requesting
an assurance from King Wilhelm that no member of the Prussian royal
family would accept an invitation to become a crown head of Spain. Bismarck
advised the king to reject the request. Bismarck then published a carefully
edited version of a conversation between the Prussian king and Count Bene-
detti, the French ambassador to Prussia, known as the Ems telegram (source
1.11). France felt insulted by what appeared to be a diplomatic defeat and the
hostile tone of the telegram. France declared war on Prussia.

12 Retrospective
 Source 1.11
Extract from an English
translation of the ‘Ems telegram’
or ‘Ems dispatch’ of 13 July
1870. First is the original
telegram from Kaiser Wilhelm’s
secretary, Heinrich Abeken, on
behalf of the Kaiser, to Bismarck;
second is the version as edited
and released by Bismarck.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What changes did Bismarck
make to the Ems telegram?
2. Why do you think he made
the changes and what were
their effects?
3. Access extracts from
Bismarck’s memoirs on the
issue of the Ems telegram
by going to the website for
this book and clicking on
the ‘Ems telegram’ weblink
for this chapter. Summarise
Bismarck’s account of how
and why he amended
the telegram.
mobilisation W the organising
of military forces in
preparation for active service
Original telegram
His Majesty the King [Wilhelm] has written to me: ‘Count Benedetti intercepted me
on the promenade and ended by demanding of me in a very importunate manner
that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that I bound myself in perpetuity
never again to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns renewed their candidature
[to rule Spain]. I rejected this demand somewhat sternly as it is neither right nor
possible to undertake engagements of this kind [for ever and ever]. Naturally I told
him that I had not yet received any news and since he had been better informed
via Paris and Madrid than I was, he must surely see that my government was not
concerned in the matter.’
[The King, on the advice of one of his ministers] decided in view of the above-
mentioned demands not to receive Count Benedetti any more, but to have him
informed by an adjutant that His Majesty had now received from [Leopold]
confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already had from Paris and had
nothing further to say to the ambassador.
His Majesty suggests to Your Excellency that Benedetti’s new demand and its
rejection might well be communicated both to our ambassadors and to the Press.
The version as edited and released by Bismarck
After the news of the renunciation of the Prince von Hohenzollern had been
communicated to the Imperial French government by the Royal Spanish
government, the French Ambassador in Ems made a further demand on His
Majesty the King that he should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His
Majesty the King undertook for all time never again to give his assent should the
Hohenzollerns once more take up their candidature.
His Majesty the King thereupon refused to receive the Ambassador again and
had the latter informed by the adjutant of the day that His Majesty had no further
communication to make to the Ambassador.
With a declaration of war, France appeared to be the aggressor. When
nationalist sentiment swept across the North German Confederation, the
southern German states rallied to Prussia and joined the Confederation. The
first genuinely German army was now formed. It may have been dominated
by Prussian expertise and Prussian troops, but it presented a united front.
Fighting began in July 1870. German mobilisation was rapid because it
had been well planned. The highly trained and well equipped Prussian army,
under the brilliant leadership of Count von Moltke, defeated French forces
within three months and took over 100 000 French prisoners. For another
six months, the war dragged on. The Prussians besieged Paris and began to
starve the great French capital into surrender.
Cold and hunger finally defeated the French in January 1871. France was
further humiliated when a united Germany was proclaimed in the Hall of
Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, with King Wilhelm I of Prussia anointed
as the first emperor, or Kaiser, of Germany (see source 1.12).
In the Treaty of Frankfurt, signed in May 1871, Germany annexed the stra-
tegically important and agriculturally rich French territories of Alsace and
Lorraine. Germany wanted to ‘punish’ France for the war and so the harsh
terms of peace also included a large French war debt to be paid to Prussia.
German troops occupied northern France until the debt of 200 million pounds
was honoured.
Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 13
 Government propaganda and Bismarck’s inflammatory speeches, letters
and newspaper articles united Germans in their hatred of France. This war
established Prussia as head of a German empire, and a united Germany as
Europe’s leading power.

Source 1.12
A painting from 1871 showing Wilhelm I of Prussia as he is proclaimed emperor of a unified
Germany at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris (Bismarck is present in the white uniform).

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What impression of
Wilhelm I and Germany
does the artist
communicate?
2. Suggest why the Hall of
Mirrors at Versailles, France,
was chosen as the location
for the anointing of the
first emperor of a united
Germany.
Source 1.13 DENMARK

Map of the German Empire

BALTIC SEA
by 1871
NORTH SEA Schleswig

Holstein

Hamburg
Mecklenburg East Prussia

Amsterdam Hanover
El

PRUSSIA
be

NETHERLANDS O
Brandenburg de
r
Berlin
Vis
tula
Warsaw
Westphalia
RUSSIA
Riv

BELGIUM
er

Riv
Rhin

er
Poland
Ri
e

Saxony ve
Thuringia r

LUXEMBOURG
River

Frankfurt

Prague

Alsace– Bohemia
Bavaria
Lorraine
Wurttemberg Da
nu
be
Moravia

FRANCE
Baden
Munich River
Vienna Prussia before 1866

Annexed by Prussia
SOURCE QUESTION AUSTRO–HUNGARIAN 1866–67
SWITZERLAND
EMPIRE Acquired by Prussia or
joined North German
Compare the map in source Dr
Confederation, 1866–1867
Incorporated in German
av Empire 1871
1.13 to the map in source 1.3, a
Boundary of the German
Confederation 1815
page 5. In a paragraph, explain N Boundary of the German
Ri
ve

Empire 1871
r

how Europe changed during 0 100 200 km

the nineteenth century.

14 Retrospective
 The immediate consequences of German unification
Source 1.14
A Punch cartoon from 2 March
1878, depicting German
supremacy being maintained
through Bismarck’s diplomacy
‘Blood and iron’ nationalism
The aggressive nationalism of Bismarck’s ‘blood and iron’ defeated France
and unified Germany. The balance of power in Europe was now totally
altered. Germany was strengthened at the expense of France while Austria
was relegated to a secondary position in Europe.
Bismarck was appointed as the Imperial Chancellor of the new German
Empire. Bismarck also retained his position of Prussian power, giving him
complete control of both German foreign and domestic policy.
Bismarck claimed that 30 years of peace would transform
Germany into the most powerful nation on earth.
Victory in the Franco–Prussian War had profound conse-
quences for Germany and Europe because it resulted in:
W benefits to German industry through the payment of the war
debt. Bismarck built Germany into an industrial, economic
and military giant with a standing army of up to 400 000 men
and another 1 500 000 reservists.
W development of a system of European alliances as a
consequence of Germany’s great military power in Europe.
The alliances were unique in peacetime and built according
to a nation’s preparedness to go to war in support of an ally.
W unification of the Italian states due to the withdrawal of
French forces from Rome
W war as an instrument of national policy being established
as a feature of European international relations. Prussian
victories also demonstrated how heavy artillery would
dominate modern warfare.
W ‘state socialism’ in Germany, with Bismarck using the
program of reform from the socialist movement as the
model. Germany was established as a European pioneer
in improving working-class conditions through the
introduction of workers’ compensation, health insurance,
state welfare housing and old-age pensions.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Examine the detail of the cartoon in source 1.14. In one paragraph, explain what
comments the cartoonist is making about Bismarck’s unique position in European
politics. To build your response you will need to analyse the meaning behind
details such as the contents of the garbage bin and the images stuck to the wall.
2. From the information in the text and the evidence from the cartoon, explain how
Bismarck attempted to maintain Germany’s position of supremacy in Europe.
In adopting a policy of diplomatically isolating France through building
relations with Germany’s neighbours, Bismarck sought to ensure German
security. The German alliance with Austria was signed in 1879 as a mutual
defence agreement against any future threat from Russia. In 1882, Germany
and Austria were joined by Italy in forming the Triple Alliance. Despite
Bismarck’s efforts to establish a new balance of power in Europe, the
bitterness left by the Franco–Prussian war set in place the rivalry that would
culminate in World War I.
Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 15
 Source 1.15
A Punch cartoon from
15 January 1919, illustrating
the consequences of the
eventual collapse of Bismarck’s
diplomacy and the balance of
power he had created

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. This cartoon was created
after Bismarck lost power.
What is the cartoonist’s
view of Bismarck’s impact?
2. Explain the comment
the cartoonist is making
in source 1.15 on the
significance of Bismarck’s
famous ‘blood and iron’
speech.
3. Conservative leaders of
Europe, like Metternich,
feared what liberalism and
nationalism could bring.
What does the cartoon
suggest came from the
political change that
swept through nineteenth-
century Europe?

Reichstag W the lower house, or
popularly elected assembly of
the German parliament
Bismarck’s departure
On 3 March 1888, Bismarck announced the death of Wilhelm I to the
Reichstag. The conflict and quarrels between chancellor and emperor had
been widely reported but Bismarck and Wilhelm I had worked closely together
for nearly three decades, they understood one another and they shared a
vision for Prussia and Germany. Upon the death of Wilhelm I, power went
briefly to his son, Frederick III, who died from cancer three months later. In
the same year, the brilliant architect of Prussian military strategy, Helmuth
von Moltke, retired.
Wilhelm II was the son of Frederick III and Victoria, daughter of Queen
Victoria of Britain. Wilhelm II was 29 years of age when he came to the throne
and felt little loyalty to the 75-year-old ‘iron chancellor’ who ruled Germany
in such an authoritarian manner.

16 Retrospective
 Bismarck underestimated the political skill of Wilhelm II and regarded
him as too inexperienced and irresponsible to be a serious political force in
Germany. Wilhelm II was a nationalist who believed in his divine right to
rule a mighty German empire. He advocated an aggressive foreign policy
designed to rapidly expand German territory and protect Germany’s ‘place
in the sun’.
During the reign of Wilhelm I, Bismarck’s power had never been threat-
ened. Wilhelm II made no secret of his contempt for Bismarck, blocking
Bismarck’s control at every opportunity and being determined in his oppo-
sition to the old chancellor. On the morning of the 20 March 1890, Wilhelm II
challenged Bismarck and forced his resignation. Nine days later, with much
pomp and ceremony, Bismarck boarded a train and left behind his life of
politics and power in Berlin.
Bismarck retired to his country estate to write his memoirs, ever hopeful
that the emperor would call him back to public office. Bismarck’s political
advice was never sought again. Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck died on
31 July 1898. It is reported his final word was ‘Forward!’
Germany’s foreign policy was set in a new direction after Bismarck.
Wilhelm II took personal control of foreign policy and turned away from the
path Bismarck had established. Under Bismarck, Germany became the most
powerful nation on the continent of Europe. Wilhelm’s goal was to estab-
lish German power across the globe by building up the German navy and
encouraging warlike policies and competition with Great Britain.

Source 1.16
A cartoon from 1890 depicting
Bismarck tendering his
resignation to Emperor Wilhelm II

SOURCE QUESTION
In source 1.16, explain what
you think the cartoonist is
suggesting by:
(a) the manner in which
Bismarck and Wilhelm II
are depicted
(b) the image of Wilhelm’s
throne
(c) the posture of ‘Germania’
in the background.

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 17


telegraph W an instrument that
sends and receives messages
over long distances
18 Retrospective
Bismarck’s power and peace
The nineteenth century produced revolution, pitched battles and peace. Events
like the Franco–Prussian war brought bloodshed to the heart of the western
European world, followed by a six-month siege, the bombardment of Paris
and the deaths of thousands of civilians. There were, nevertheless, decades
of peace. After Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat (see page 4), Europe avoided a
nineteenth-century conflict involving all the great powers. Europeans had
never before experienced a period of peace such as the era that came to such
a terrifying end in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I.
The European peace of the Bismarck years was fragile because it was
based on a belief that military preparedness would deter aggression. This
was the era of diplomatic crises brought about by clashes over the territorial
and economic interests of the great European powers. Decisions on whether
to compromise or fight relied upon the diplomatic skills of a handful of
European statesmen. The great European powers — Britain, France, Russia,
Austria–Hungary, Italy and Germany — acknowledged the power that each
had to wage war. While not equal in political influence and military might,
they were stronger than their neighbours. The ‘Concert of Europe’ continued
to provide a forum for diplomacy to deal with European rivalry. The Concert
had no written rules or permanent institutions but relied on the personal
relationships and understanding built by politicians like Bismarck.
Bismarck’s years of peace also brought immense technological and economic
change. The railways, the telegraph and steamships ushered in a revolution
in communication. European prosperity and social change came from the
massive increases in the continent’s manufacturing and agricultural output.
Under Bismarck, the new electrical and chemical industries were developed
and mineral resources were exploited. Increased wealth gave the opportunity
for farsighted social reforms that gave German workers industrial accident
and health laws, insurance schemes and pensions. By 1890, Bismarck had
developed the economic unity to reinforce German nationhood.
Bismarck’s greatest legacy was the creation of a nation from the various
kingdoms, principalities and free cities of Germany. Whether Bismarck
planned German unification, or whether it was a product of his desire to
assert Prussian power against Austria, remains a topic of historical debate.
Whether history judges Bismarck as a political realist, opportunist or
idealist, his influence in shaping the modern world is undeniable.
Bismarck dominated Europe through the force of his personality
and intellect. The ‘iron chancellor’ established a triumphant
and sovereign German state that became the greatest power of
nineteenth-century Europe.
Source 1.17
A cartoon from Punch magazine, 29 March 1890, entitled ‘Dropping the pilot’
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Explain the comment the cartoon in source 1.17 makes about
Bismarck’s resignation and departure from European politics.
2. Discuss in groups the achievements of Bismarck’s career then hold
a class debate: ‘That the ends justify the means’.
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1, P1.2

1. Go through the text and the sources to compile a list of all the
key personalities, events and issues that contributed to the story
of German unification. Create a board game on a large piece
of cardboard divided into squares representing the stumbling
blocks and steps on the road to German nationhood. Illustrate
your board with relevant cartoons, maps, excerpts from speeches
and photographs of personalities. (P1.1)

Change and continuity over time P2.1

2. When Bismarck was appointed Prime Minister–President of

Prussia in 1862, he stated that Prussia’s future would be forged
through ‘blood and iron’.
(a) Create a timeline of the main events between 1862 and 1888
that achieved Prussian and then German dominance of Europe.
(b) Do an Internet search for other key personalities, events and
cultural influences that were shaping the western world during
this period, for example, Karl Marx, Louis Blanc, Benjamin
Disraeli, Charles Darwin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Friedrich
Nietzsche, the unification of Italy or the development of trade
unionism. Add points from your research to the timeline to
create an understanding of the broader historical context
of the Bismarck years. (P2.1)
3. Two days after the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871,
a report from the English newspaper, The Times, provided a
comment on the significance of the event: ‘Thus begins the
new political life of Germany and, whatever may betide,
a remarkable period in the world’s history is about to be
displayed before us.’ Draw a mind map summarising the events
in world history that were directly related to, and followed on
from, the unification of Germany. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

4. Research one of the major events that occurred during

the period of the unification of the German states, such as
the Seven Days’ War. Imagine you are a journalist attempting
to provide an understanding for your readers of the broader
significance of the event. Prepare a front-page newspaper
report incorporating primary source material, such as
contemporary cartoons or excerpts from speeches, to support
your report. (P3.2)

Chapter 1 W Bismarck and the unification of the German states 19


Source 1.18
A cartoon showing Bismarck
‘taming’ his parliament
Source 1.20
A caricature of Bismarck giving a
view of his political
‘achievements’, among them
martial law, bribed journalism,
aggression, fake diplomacy and
the suppression of free speech
20 Retrospective
5. Sources 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20 provide contemporary judgements of
Bismarck’s career. Refer to a range of historians and texts on Bismarck
and the unification of German states, for example:
W W. J. Mommsen, Imperial Germany 1867–1918, Arnold, London, 1996
W M. Howard, The Lessons of History, Yale University Press,
New Haven, 1991
W A. J. P. Taylor, Bismarck, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1985.
In groups, summarise the main historical interpretations of
Bismarck’s career and his influence on European politics and
present your findings to the class. (P3.2–P3.4)
Source 1.19
Cartoon from Punch magazine, 20 September 1884, showing
Bismarck as a puppeteer and the emperors of Russia, Austria
and Germany as puppets
Communicating an understanding of history P4.1, P4.2
6. Organise a class debate on the topic that: ‘Nationalism and liberalism
were destructive forces in nineteenth-century European history’. (P4.2)
7. Write an essay on the topic: ‘Bismarck — political opportunist or
idealist?’. (P4.1, P4.2)
 Yankees and

2
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W democracy W industrialisation

W racism W self-determination
Confederates in the
American states in the
mid nineteenth century
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
The South and states’ rights
Slavery and human rights
The North and the issue of national unity
W Results of the Civil War
KEY DATES

1787
T Founding Fathers frame
Constitution
1820
T Missouri Compromise
is reached
1852
T Anti-slaverynovel Uncle
Tom’s Cabin published
1857
T Court rules in case of
slave Dred Scott
1859
T2 December Abolitionist
John Brown hanged for
treason
1860
T 20 December South
Carolina secedes from
the Union
1861
T March Abraham Lincoln Source 2 .1
becomes president
A photograph of Confederate artillerymen lying dead after the Battle of Antietam in 1862,
T April American Civil War
an example of the relentless destruction wrought by the American Civil War
begins
1863 1865 1877 1880s
T1 January Lincoln April Civil War ends The Compromise Jim Crow laws
issues Emancipation 14 April Lincoln brings Southerners enforce segregation
Proclamation assassinated back into the Union

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 21
 Introduction
civil war W a war between
groups or regions within their
own country
Yankees W the Civil War term
applied by Southerners to any
Northerner or member of the
Union army
Confederates W the popular
name of the seven (later eleven)
Southern states that seceded
(withdrew) from the American
Union in 1861
The South and states’ rights
agrarian W relating to rural or
agricultural life
Napoleonic Wars W named
after the French General
Napoleon who made himself
dictator in 1799. From 1803, he
conquered most of Europe until
defeat by the British at the
Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
industrialisation W production
of goods using machinery
rather than manual labour and
the growth of industries rather
than agriculture as the basis of
the nation’s economy
trade union W an organisation
of employed workers formed to
undertake collective bargaining
with employers to achieve
improved working conditions
22 Retrospective
The United States is the most influential nation in the world today. America’s
power is expressed through its culture, economy, politics and military
strength. Television screens regularly flash images of US troops on missions
to the world’s trouble spots. In 1999, nearly 6000 US troops were dispatched
by President Clinton, as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force, to
reconstruct the war-ravaged and ethnically divided Serbian province of
Kosovo. In 2003, the United States led a coalition of forces in an invasion of
Iraq and overthrew the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein. The American
presence and power is global.
Turn back the clock to the 1800s and America was a very different place.
The United States had won independence from Britain in 1783 (see page 2) but
nationhood was soon to be torn apart by a bitter and costly civil war. More
lives were lost during the American Civil War than in all of America’s other
wars combined. The passion and ferocity of the battle between the Yankees
of the North and the Confederates of the South provide an insight into the
depth of division in American pre-war society.
In the early nineteenth century, America was an agrarian society with a
population of just four million. It was a politically isolated land that was of
limited interest to most Europeans. However, by the mid nineteenth century,
massive immigration to America had increased its population to approximately
23 million. Many Europeans fled there to escape the conflict of their home-
lands, troubled by revolutions and worn out by the long Napoleonic Wars
(see chapter 1, page 4). There were some who saw America as an opportunity
to escape persecution and believed in the ‘American dream’ of hard work as
the path to success.
Yet its distance from Europe could not shield America from change and
conflict. The turmoil of nineteenth-century Europe had a parallel in the
enormous economic, social and political forces that were shaping the young
nation across the Atlantic.
Nineteenth-century America — ‘a house divided’
During the nineteenth century, America became increasingly divided by
economic structure.
The North and West
The massive immigration of the nineteenth century brought new industries
to America’s North to provide for the booming population. The growth of
the cities and industry of the North demanded a modern society based on
‘free labour, free land, free man’. The North and West offered the greatest
opportunities to new settlers. In these regions, ever expanding markets and
industrialisation brought improved working conditions and the birth of the
American trade union movement.

Congress W national legislature
of the United States, consisting
of the House of Representatives
and the Senate. Both groups
are elected by popular vote.
Cabinet W members of the
House of Representatives
appointed by the president to
decide government policy
The South
In the American states lying south of the Mason–Dixon line (the border
between Pennsylvania and Maryland), cotton was ‘king’. These agricultural
states produced over 80 per cent of the world’s supply of cotton and large
plantations flourished with the wealth that came from high export prices.
The South had created an aristocracy of around 8000 wealthy plantation
owners. They ran the South, representing their states in Congress and
holding Cabinet positions in the national capital, Washington DC.

Source 2.2
Map of Civil War America showing Yankee, Confederate and border slave states
loyal to the Union

0 500 1000 km

Maine
V
NH
Minn. New Mass.
York
Oregon Wisc. C RI
Mich. Penn. New Jersey
Ohio Delaware
Iowa
Indiana Maryland
Illinois W Vir. Virginia
Non-organised territory Kansas Kentucky
Missouri N Carolina
California
Tennessee
S Carolina N
Unorganised Arkansas
Georgia
Mississippi
Alabama
Texas Louisiana Florida
Union states and territories
Border slave states in Union
Confederate states
Line defining North and South

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. Study the map in source 2.2 and describe how the issue of slavery affected
America geographically.
2. Consider the territory labelled on the map as ‘non-organised’. Explain:
(a) what you think the term ‘non-organised’ suggests about this territory
(b) what kind of threat ‘non-organised territory’ could present to the stability of
the Union and Confederate states.

Few European immigrants went to America’s southern states for work.

This was because they found it hard to compete with the slave labour.
In the South, the economy was based primarily on cotton and on the slaves
— around four million African Americans — whose unpaid labour helped
create the huge profits that the plantation owners enjoyed.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 23
 Source 2.3
The English magazine, Punch,
portrayed the American Civil War
as a gladiatorial contest presided
over by a black ‘Caesar’.

SOURCE QUESTION
Punch was a satirical
magazine. What does this
mean and what does the
cartoon convey about English
attitudes towards the warring
parties in America?

Sectionalism and the South

sectionalism W division of
a nation into economic and
social regions
Founding Fathers W delegates
appointed to the 1787
Philadelphia Convention and
entrusted with the drafting of
the American constitution
constitution W the rules
(usually written) that set out
how a state will be organised
and the nature and limits of
the government’s powers
within it
Union W formed by the colonies
after they adopted the 1776
Declaration of Independence
federal W the central
government for a union
of states
tariff W a duty or custom
imposed by a government on
exports or imports
The division of America into different economic and social regions was called
sectionalism. Each section of the nation wanted political and economic
decisions to favour its particular needs. In 1787, the Founding Fathers had
struggled to frame a constitution that was acceptable to the competing
sectional groups. By the early nineteenth century:
W Northerners wanted the Congress of the United States of America to
make available free land for independent farmers
W the South wanted slavery extended into the newly settled western states.
Whether slavery should be permitted in the west became the most impor-
tant issue in American politics.
In 1818, there were 11 free and 11 slave states in the American Union. In
1820, the territory of Missouri applied to become a part of the Union as a slave
state. The free states were concerned that admitting Missouri would give
slave states greater representation in the federal government. The Missouri
Compromise of 1820 was reached when it was agreed that:
W Missouri would be admitted as a slave state
W Maine was to be admitted as a free state
W no further slavery would be accepted north of the Mason–Dixon line.
Working for the good of the nation became less possible as sectional inter-
ests increasingly dominated American politics. The North wanted tariffs to
protect its developing industries. The South argued that tariffs would cause
financial hardship by increasing the cost of manufactured goods.

24 Retrospective

Source 2.4
A photograph of five generations
of a family of slaves from a
plantation in South Carolina in
the mid 1800s
Source 2.5
A statement made in 1858 by
Senator James Henry Hammond
of South Carolina
As America expanded to the west and more territories were added to the
Union, state suspicions increased and the balance between slave and free
states became harder to maintain. In 1849, the conflict was sparked again
when the ‘gold rush’ territory of California asked to be admitted as a free
state. After bitter debate, another compromise was reached — California
was declared free while the territories of Utah and New Mexico were given
permission to determine their own slave policies.
These agreements were only temporary solutions to sectionalism. In
1854, the Missouri Compromise was challenged when Congress passed the
Kansas–Nebraska Bill. The territories of Kansas and Nebraska lay to the
north of the Mason–Dixon Line and yet they were given the right to vote
as to whether they would follow freedom or slavery. Once again, the issue
of slavery defeated attempts at compromise. Northerners were outraged and
‘Bleeding Kansas’ became the rallying cry for both pro- and anti-slavery
forces. Extremists on both sides whipped up the tensions so that, by 1856,
civil war had broken out in Kansas.
In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the
drudgery of life . . . Fortunately, for the South she found a race adapted to
the purpose . . .
Quoted in G. C. Ward, The Civil War: an Illustrated History,
Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York, 1990.
SOURCE QUESTION
Using sources 2.4 and 2.5 as your evidence, explain:
(a) how the South defended slavery
(b) what you think the impact of slavery would have been on the Southern economy.
Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 25
 Source 2.6
A Yankee propaganda cartoon of
1861 showing the American
eagle protecting her nest of
states against traitors
Slavery and human rights
Supreme Court W the highest
court to which states could
appeal
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the message
conveyed by the
propaganda poster in
source 2.6?
2. What would Southerners
have thought of the
opinions expressed in
the poster?
emancipate W set free from
slavery or from other restraints
on a person’s freedom
abolitionist W a person who
campaigned for the ending
of slavery
26 Retrospective
Dred Scott — person or property?
The Kansas–Nebraska Act appeared to many Northerners as a victory for the
slave states. In 1857, tensions increased and the debate intensified when a
Southern-dominated Supreme Court ruled that Congress had no rights to
prohibit slavery in the territories. The Court had ruled in the case of Dred
Scott, a slave whose master had kept him for some years in the free states of
Illinois and Wisconsin. Dred Scott sued for his freedom on the grounds that
his residence in free states had made him a free man. Chief Justice Roger
Taney, a former slave owner, delivered the Court’s decision that:
W slaves were property and so could not become free by moving out of a
slave state
W slaves were not citizens of the United States and so had no right to sue in
a federal court
W American laws prohibiting slavery in the territories were unconstitutional.
The abolitionists
The Abolition movement aimed to bring an end to the institution of slavery
and emancipate the slaves. The morning newspapers of 16 October 1859
reported a raid on a government weapons arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in
West Virginia. John Brown, a slavery abolitionist, intended to distribute
weapons to runaway slaves who would then establish themselves as
a republic of former slaves. The South feared a full-scale slave revolt
encouraged by abolitionists like Brown.
 Source 2.7
A photograph of the abolitionist,
John Brown (1800–1859), whose
favourite Biblical passage was
Hebrews 9:22: ‘Without shedding
of blood there is no remission
(of sin)’.
SOURCE QUESTION
Using the text, source and
information from this book’s
website at the John Brown
weblinks (see ‘Weblinks’,
page viii), write a short news
report on John Brown’s
activities in 1859, headlined
‘Hero or madman?’.
suffrage W the right to vote
Source 2.8
A photograph of the American
writer and abolitionist Frederick
Douglass (1817–1895): ‘Without
struggle, there is no progress.’
To many in the North, John Brown was a hero in the fight for freedom and
the human rights of slaves; in the South, he was regarded as an insane and
violent abolitionist. John Brown was captured, tried for treason against the
state of Virginia and hanged. After the outbreak of Civil War, the Union army
marched to a favourite song:
John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in his grave,
His soul goes marching on . . .
The story of slavery
The horror of slavery was also being communicated through the written word.
In an 1851 edition of a newspaper called the National Era, a serialised novel
about slavery appeared. It was reprinted in book form as Uncle Tom’s Cabin and
became one of America’s bestsellers. This powerful story of a ruthless slave
owner called Simon Legree and his kindhearted slave, Uncle Tom, was the
most effective piece of propaganda in the history of the Abolition movement.
In 1845, an inspirational autobiography was published — Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass had been born into slavery
in 1818 in Maryland. As an infant he had been taken from his mother, Harriet
Bailey, and sold to the Auld family. Sophia Auld broke the law when she
taught him some of the letters of the alphabet. Douglass then taught himself
how to read and write by observing the men he worked for and the white
children of his neighbourhood.
In 1838, Douglass escaped slavery by boarding a train and carrying identifi-
cation papers provided for him by a free African American seaman. He eventu-
ally made his way to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he joined abolitionist
groups and published newspapers. As a highly recognised abolitionist, editor,
orator, author, statesman and reformer, Frederick Douglass became one of the
most influential personalities of nineteenth-century American history. In the
1860s, he conferred with Abraham Lincoln and then with President Andrew
Johnson on the issue of African American suffrage. In 1872, Douglass was
nominated to run for the position of Vice President of the United States.
Critics had questioned the authenticity of Douglass’ autobiography, arguing
that a black man could never have written such an accomplished piece of lit-
erature. The book was a bestseller, reprinted nine times and translated into
French and Dutch. With the publication of his autobiography, Douglass was
forced to flee America in fear that the Auld family would locate him and
take action to have their ‘property’ returned. His freedom was eventually
purchased by British supporters who raised the funds to reimburse the Auld
family for their financial loss.
Frederick Douglass died on 20 February 1895, after returning home from
a meeting where he gave an address to the National Council of Women
in Washington. The standing ovation the audience gave him that evening
recognised a life dedicated to the creation of a more just society. His guiding
principle was expressed in the motto of The North Star newspaper that he
edited: ‘Right is of no sex — Truth is of no colour — God is the father of us
all, and we are all Brethren’.
SOURCE QUESTION
Using the text and this source, draw up a table to summarise the examples of (a) the
struggles endured and (b) the progress made by Douglass in his life.
Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 27
 Source 2.9
The status of slaves in the South
is made clear in this listing of the Sale of Slaves and Stock.
property for sale from a The Negroes and Stock listed below, are a Prime Lot, and belong to the
deceased estate, as it appeared ESTATE OF THE LATE LUTHER McGOWAN, and will be sold on Monday,
in the Civil War Times in 1852 Sept. 22nd, 1852, at the Fair Grounds, in Savannah, Georgia, at 1:00 P. M.
The Negroes will be taken to the grounds two days previous to the Sale,
SOURCE QUESTIONS so that they may be inspected by prospective buyers.
On account of the low prices listed below, they will be sold for cash
1. What general attitude towards only, and must be taken into custody within two hours after sale.
slavery is communicated
through this list? No. Name. Age. Remarks. Price.
2. What characteristics did 1 Lunesta 27 Prime Rice Planter, $1,275.00
the highest priced slaves 2 Violet 16 Housework and Nursemaid, 900.00
have in common? 3 Lizzie 30 Rice, Unsound, 300.00
3. Explain the impact of a slave’s 4 Minda 27 Cotton, Prime Woman, 1,200.00
age on her/his sale price. 5 Adam 28 Cotton, Prime Young Man, 1,100.00
6 Abel 41 Rice Hand, Eyesight Poor, 675.00
7 Tanney 22 Prime Cotton Hand, 950.00
Source 2.10
8 Flementina 39 Cood Cook, Stiff Knee, 400.00
One of the earliest surviving
9 Lanney 34 Prime Cotton Man, 1,000.00
portraits of slaves, dated 1850.
The scientist, Louis Agassiz, 10 Sally 10 Handy in Kitchen, 675.00
commissioned the series of 11 Maccabey 35 Prime Man, Fair Carpenter, 980.00
portraits in his effort to promote 12 Dorcas Judy 25 Seamstress, Handy in House, 800.00
his theory that racial differences 13 Happy 60 Blacksmith, 575.00
were evidence of separate species.
14 Mowden 15 Prime Cotton Boy, 700.00
15 Bills 21 Handy with Mules, 900.00
16 Theopolis 39 Rice Hand, Gets Fits, 575.00
17 Coolidge 29 Rice Hand and Blacksmith, 1,275.00
18 Bessie 69 Infirm, Sews, 250.00
19 Infant 1 Strong Likely Boy 400.00
20 Samson 41 Prime Man, Good with Stock, 975.00
21 Callie May 27 Prime Woman, Rice, 1,000.00
22 Honey 14 Prime Girl, Hearing Poor, 850.00
23 Angelina 16 Prime Girl, House or Field, 1,000.00
24 Virgil 21 Prime Field Hand, 1,100.00
25 Tom 40 Rice Hand, Lame Leg, 750.00
26 Noble 11 Handy Boy, 900.00
27 Judge Lesh 55 Prime Blacksmith, 800.00
28 Booster 43 Fair Mason, Unsound, 600.00
29 Big Kate 37 Housekeeper and Nurse, 950.00
30 Melie Ann 19 Housework, Smart Yellow Girl, 1,250.00
31 Deacon 26 Prime Rice Hand, 1,000.00
32 Coming 19 Prime Cotton Hand, 1,000.00
33 Mabel 47 Prime Cotton Hand, 800.00
34 Uncle Tim 60 Fair Hand with Mules, 600.00
35 Abe 27 Prime Cotton Hand, 1,000.00
36 Tennes 29 Prime Rice Hand and Coachman, 1,250.00
SOURCE QUESTION
There will also be offered at this sale, twenty head of Horses
What impression of the slave is and Mules with harness, along with thirty head of Prime Cattle.
communicated in this photograph? Slaves will be sold separate, or in lots, as best suits the purchaser.
How does this compare with the Sale will be held rain or shine.
attitude expressed in source 2.9?

28 Retrospective
 The North and the issue of national unity
Republican W one of the
United States’ two main
political parties, formed to
support protective tariffs and
industrial expansion
Democrat W the other main
political party in the United
States, formed by Thomas
Jefferson in 1792 to defend the
rights of the individual states
against a central, federal
government
Source 2.11
Photograph of
Abraham Lincoln, 1865
SOURCE QUESTION
Frederick Douglass claimed
that Abraham Lincoln was ‘the
first great man that I talked
with in the United States freely
who in no single instance
reminded me of the difference
between himself and myself,
of the difference of colour’.
Why were the Southern states
opposed to Lincoln?
Fighting for the Union
The issue of slavery dominated the presidential campaign of 1860. The
American people were divided on sectional lines:
W the supporters of the Republican Party stood united against any
extension of slavery
W the Democrat Party had broken into pro- and anti-slavery factions.
The Republican candidate was a tall, thin, slow-speaking lawyer who had been
born in a log cabin in Kentucky. His name was Abraham Lincoln and, in March
1861, he was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States of America.
Prior to his election, in his speech for nomination as the Republican candi-
date, Lincoln had argued that sectionalism threatened the very existence of
the Union. He declared that America would not survive while it continued to
be divided: ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this govern-
ment cannot endure permanently half slave and half free’. The main issue of
the campaign was the extension of slavery into the territories. The Southern
politicians warned that their states would leave the Union if Lincoln became
their president.
Source 2.12
The Union general George McClellan is portrayed as the voice of compromise (‘The Union
must be preserved at all hazards!’) in this contemporary cartoon from the Civil War Times.
He is trying to stop Lincoln on the left (‘No peace without Abolition!’) and Jefferson Davis of
the Southern Democrats (‘No peace without Separation!’) from tearing the nation in two.
SOURCE QUESTION
What does the cartoon in source 2.12 depict as the points on which there was no
room for compromise between North and South?
Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 29

secession W withdrawal
from an alliance or association,
in this case from the
American Union
inauguration W the ceremony
for inducting a president
into office
Source 2.13
Patriotic posters such as
this one were used to recruit
young soldiers.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Which side in the Civil
War is calling for young
volunteers in the poster in
source 2.13?
2. What reasons are given
and how is language used
to encourage boys to
volunteer?
30 Retrospective
Secession and formation of the
Confederate states
Lincoln’s election was seen as a disaster in the South because it brought to an
end Southern domination of the federal government. On 20 December 1860,
South Carolina broke away from the Union. This was called secession and
it was a catastrophe for America. By February, six of the cotton states had
followed and set up a new nation, the Confederate States of America. An
aristocratic leader of the Southern Democrats, Jefferson Davis, was elected
president. The Confederate States issued their own money, raised their own
flag and collected their own taxes.
Southerners had been using the threat of secession for many years. They
declared that it was the only way to defend their way of life. The Confederate
States of America claimed the right to secede and to:
W maintain their independence
W maintain their state rights, in particular the right to determine state laws
on slavery.
Before Lincoln’s inauguration, the Confederate States had taken control
of most of the United States’ military forts in the south. The commander of
Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, refused to surrender to the Confederates. The
Confederate government ordered an artillery barrage on Fort Sumter. On
13 April 1861, Fort Sumter surrendered. Two days later, President Lincoln
called for army volunteers and ordered the navy to blockade Southern ports.
The Civil War had begun.
The war lasted over four years and was devastating for America in terms of
human lives and property lost. One-quarter of the soldiers who saw combat
did not survive.
 Source 2.14
(a) (b)
Boys in their early teens often
lied about their age so that they
could join the war effort. These
photographs show: (a) a young
drummer boy, one of the 180 000
African Americans who joined up
to help the Union cause;
(b) Confederate Sergeant Powell,
one of the young soldiers who
marched off to battle.

SOURCE QUESTION
What do these photographs
reveal about the reality of the
Civil War for American society?

Source 2.15
Extracts from a letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife on 14 July 1861. Major
Ballou died at the First Battle of Bull Run.

Camp Clark, Washington

14 July 1861
My very dear Sarah
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days — perhaps
tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few
lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more . . .
I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am
engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American
Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt
we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the
Revolution. And I am willing — perfectly willing — to lay down all my joys in this
life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .
Quoted in G. C. Ward, The Civil War: an Illustrated History,
Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1990, p. 82.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 2.15 reveal about this person’s attitude to the war?
2. The writer refers to the ‘Revolution’. What was this revolution? (Refer back to
the beginning of this chapter.)
3. Explain what you think the ‘debt’ of the Civil War generation was to ‘those who
went before us’ and fought in the revolution.
4. In what ways does source 2.15 help you to understand the nature of the
American Civil War?

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 31

Source 2.16
Clara Barton, the ‘angel of the
battlefield’, became the most
decorated woman in America. She
was awarded the Iron Cross, the
Cross of Imperial Russia, and the
International Red Cross Medal.
SOURCE QUESTION
Draw a mind map to show
the main roles and actions
of Clara Barton that led to her
being called a ‘true heroine
of the age’.
democracy W government by
elected representatives of the
people
32 Retrospective
The angel of the battlefield
In his memoirs of the Civil War years, the Union Surgeon General (Chief
Medical Officer of the Union) remarked that the quality of medical treatment
provided for the wounded came from ‘the middle ages’. Physicians had no
real understanding of what caused disease, how to halt infection or how to
relieve pain. During the Virginia Campaign, an average of two thousand
men every day required treatment for serious injury. During the Battle of the
Wilderness, Union surgeons amputated limbs for four days and two nights,
around the clock, using instruments and bandages that were bloodstained
and not disinfected. The dead were buried only yards away from where
makeshift hospitals tended the wounded.
Upon hearing of the conditions the wounded were forced to endure, Clara
Barton resigned from her position as a government clerk in Washington. In
1861, she established an agency to gather and distribute medical supplies and
then, in 1862, travelled to the battlefront to provide nursing for the gravely
wounded and dying. In 1864, she was appointed ‘lady in charge’ of the hospi-
tals at the front. The following year, Abraham Lincoln put her in charge of the
search for the Union’s missing men. She established the fate of over 30 000 men
and was then sent to identify and mark the graves of the thousands of Union
soldiers lost in Georgia. Clara Barton then launched a nationwide campaign to
trace all soldiers lost during the civil war and, with Frederick Douglass, began
campaigning for civil rights for women and African Americans.
In the decade after the civil war Clara Barton became involved with the
work of the International Red Cross and inaugurated a movement to estab-
lish the Red Cross in America. In 1881, she succeeded in having the American
Branch founded and secured the backing of John D. Rockefeller to create the
headquarters one block away from the White House. Clara Barton continued
her work as a nurse and activist until she was in her eighties. Upon her death
in 1912, aged 90, she was eulogised as ‘the true heroine of the age, the angel
of the battlefield’.
Defending democracy
For Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War was a fight to defend a way of life. The
issue of national unity was central to the survival of American democracy
— ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people . . .’. Lincoln
believed that American democracy would fail if states believed they had the
right to withdraw from the Union.
In his inauguration speech, Lincoln had stressed his commitment to ‘pre-
serve, protect and defend’ the constitution and the laws of the Union. He had
warned he would enter Confederate territory to defend the property and places
rightfully belonging to the federal government. To preserve the Union, Lincoln
was prepared to make concessions to the Confederates. For example, he had:
W assured Southerners he would not interfere with slavery in states where it
already existed, although he was determined it should extend no further
W agreed that the hated Fugitive Slave Laws, which denied African Americans
any legal protection against slavery, could still be rigidly enforced.
On one point there was no compromise: Abraham Lincoln would not agree
to recognise the Confederacy as an independent nation.
 Source 2.17
Abraham Lincoln proudly stands
beside Liberty in this Yankee
postwar print.

SOURCE QUESTION
The illustration in source 2.17
was entitled ‘Outbreak of the
Rebellion of the United States
1861’. What is the
interpretation of the events of
the war as depicted in this
poster? (You will need to
closely analyse the images
and research some of the key
personalities portrayed.)

Source 2.18
Gettysburg was the decisive
battle that ended Southern hopes
of victory. At the cemetery, on
the battlefield of Gettysburg,
Lincoln made a short speech on
19 November 1863 expressing
his belief in freedom, democracy
and the significance of the Union.
‘Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are
created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and dedicated, can survive. We are met on a great battlefield
of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-
place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot
hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have
consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note
nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which
they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honoured dead
we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain;
that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth in freedom; and that government
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, quoted in D. C. Somervell, A History of the
United States to 1941, 2nd ed., William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1955, p. 183.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does Lincoln say were the basic principles of American nationhood
brought forth ‘fourscore and seven years ago’?
2. For what does he believe the lives had been lost?
3. What is the ‘great task’ of the future generations?
4. The Gettysburg address is widely regarded as the greatest American speech.
Why do you think it has taken on such significance for later generations?

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 33
 Results of the Civil War
Source 2.19
Timeline of the main events of
the American Civil War
Reconciliation
On 4 March 1865, Abraham Lincoln made his second inaugural speech as
President. With an end to the Civil War drawing near, he expressed the need
for reconciliation: ‘With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firm-
ness in the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the
nation’s wounds . . .’ .
One month later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate Army
to the Yankee forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant. On 9 April 1865, the
war between the Yankees and Confederates effectively came to an end at
Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. Lee’s men were sent home on parole with
their horses and officers’ side arms. All other equipment was surrendered. The
war had cost over 625 000 Americans lives and an estimated US$20 billion.

1861
February Lincoln’s predecessor, President Buchanan, refuses to surrender Southern federal forts to seceding states.
Confederate troops seize the forts.
April Fort Sumter, South Carolina, held as federal property by Union troops. Civil War begins when Confederate
troops open fire on Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter surrenders to South Carolina.
June Four slave states, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri, declare loyalty to the Union.
July Confederate army, led by Stonewall Jackson, victorious against Union at the First Battle of Bull Run.
1862
February Union General Ulysses S. Grant captures strategically located forts, Henry and Donelson, in Tennessee.
August At the Second Battle of Bull Run, General Robert E. Lee’s troops force Union army to fall back to Washington DC.
September Lee’s advance of Confederate forces is halted. Confederates withdraw to Virginia.
1863
January Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all slaves are free in the eyes of
the federal government.
May Union General Hooker attacks General Lee’s forces at Rappahanock River. Lee’s counterattack almost
completely defeats Hooker’s forces but also inflicts heavy Confederate casualties.
June–July General Lee decides to take the war to the enemy and breaks through Union lines. General George Meade
commands Union forces and repels the Confederates at Gettysburg. Confederate forces are cut in two.
1864
September General William T. Sherman commands Union troops in capturing the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
November Sherman’s army of 60 000 uses policy of total destruction in Georgia to break the spirit of the South.
1865
January Severe food shortages in the South lead to large numbers of troops deserting General Lee’s forces.
February General Sherman moves from Georgia through North Carolina, destroying everything in his path.
April General Lee evacuates Confederate capital, Richmond. General Lee agrees to terms of surrender
to Union forces.
May Last Confederate commanders surrender to the Union.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. From the timeline, identify what you believe were turning points in the Civil War.
2. Explain what happened in 1865 and suggest reasons for the military action
taken by General Sherman.
3. What was the final outcome of the Civil War and what were the implications
for the South?

34 Retrospective
 At war’s end, Lincoln wanted to see the Confederate armies quickly dis-
banded and the men returned to their farms and homes. With the United
States re-established, the massive task of reconstruction and reconciliation
had to begin. Nearly all of the fighting had been done on Southern soil.
Lincoln realised that rebuilding the South would require enormous social,
political and economic readjustment.
Lincoln did not live to activate his plan to bring the south back quickly into
the Union. On 14 April 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by an actor,
John Wilkes Booth, at a theatre in Washington DC. Lincoln’s vice-president,
Andrew Johnson, became president of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln had preserved the Union and freed the slaves. During
the course of the war, the Union forces had faced a shortage of soldiers and
so Lincoln had issued a proclamation which had abolished slavery. Lin-
coln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1 January 1863 declared that slaves in
the Confederate states were free and could become members of the Union
army. About 180 000 African Americans fought with the Union forces; 38 000
of them died during the war.

Source 2.20
A photograph of the Provost Guard of the 107th coloured Infantry. Despite being less than
1 per cent of the North’s population, African Americans totalled one tenth of the North’s army
by the end of the war.
SOURCE QUESTION
Frederick Douglass
campaigned tirelessly for
African American recruitment.
He believed ‘the negro is the
key . . . the pivot on which the
whole rebellion turns . . . this
war . . . is nothing more or less
than perpetual slavery against
universal freedom’. Why do
you think African Americans
enlisted for the North in such
astonishing numbers and how
is their attitude to the conflict
expressed in this photo?

Source 2.21
As part of the presidential
campaign of 1864, Lincoln
pledged to amend the
constitution and make slavery
illegal. In January 1865, the 13th
Amendment was passed,
followed by guarantees of
citizenship in 1868.
SOURCE QUESTION
Explain why Articles XIII and XIV
were of such significance to
African Americans in the South.
Article XIII (1865) [Slavery prohibited]
Sect. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Article XIV (1868) [Definition of citizenship]
Sect. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 35
 Source 2.22
A poster representing the rise of
African Americans ‘from the
plantation to the Senate’.
(Participation for African
Americans in politics ended with
the Jim Crow laws; see page 37.)
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What image of post-war
America is portrayed in the
poster in source 2.22?
2. In what ways were African
Americans challenging the
old order and why do you
think they met such strong
opposition?
36 Retrospective
Reconstruction and retribution
The Civil War determined that no state could secede from the Union and that
slavery was illegal. The relationship of the states to one federal government,
and the place of former slaves within the Union, were issues not finally
decided by war. The economic situation for the majority of African Ameri-
cans meant that most remained in a situation little different from slavery.
As part of reconstruction, the
government set up the Freedmen’s
Bureau in 1865. The aim of the Bureau
was to help thousands of newly freed
African Americans, white Unionists
and refugees to adjust to life after
war. It provided legal aid for those
in trouble, food and clothing for
those in need, money for education
and health and job opportunities for
the unemployed. The Bureau was a
brave attempt to heal the wounds of
war. It remains a rare example of co-
operation and vision during the
period of reconstruction.
The cultural gulf between North
and South remained after the war.
Opinion in the North was divided on
how the Confederate states should be
treated. President Johnson favoured
Lincoln’s reconciliation while hard-
liners in his government urged
revenge and repression. The work
of reconstruction proceeded slowly
as states were only gradually re-
admitted to the Union.
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and
1868 placed the South under military
rule until new constitutions were
drawn up. A group known as the
Radical Republicans dominated Con-
gress and put forward their policy
of treating the South as a conquered
province. Two outspoken abolitionists, Charles Sumner and Thadeus Stevens,
led the Radical Republicans. They believed in punishing the Confederates for
attempting to destroy the Union. The Southern states were forced to adopt
the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the constitution. The Amendments
gave African Americans their citizenship and the right to vote.
With citizenship came a chance for African Americans to play a role in
American politics (see source 2.22). Between 1868 and 1877, there were 16
African Americans elected to the House of Representatives and two to the
Senate. The Civil War had destroyed the South’s cities, the way of life and its
major economic asset — slavery.

racist W describes the attitudes
that people of a different
race/colour are inferior to
those of one’s own colour
segregation W the policy
of separating racial groups
in all aspects of their lives
so as to ensure that whites
maintained supremacy over
African Americans
Jim Crow laws W state laws
of the 1880s aimed at enforcing
segregation between whites
and blacks
Source 2.23
Equality and opportunity remained
a distant dream for African
Americans after the Civil War.
SOURCE QUESTION
Imagine you are one of the
people in the late nineteenth-
century photograph in source
2.23. What comments would
you make about the Civil War
and the reconstruction
experience for yourself and
African Americans in general?
The Klan and the Carpetbaggers
Military control, the overthrow of the state governments and the granting of
the vote to slaves were issues that kept alive the bitterness of the war years.
To overcome Yankee control, Southern whites resorted to breaking the law. A
racist and terrorist organisation known as the Ku Klux Klan, or the ‘Knights
of the White Camellia’, was set up to keep African Americans ‘in their place’.
The Klan spread quickly through the South, working towards the restoration
of the old Southern way of life and its slave and master relationships.
The triumph of the American emancipation of the slaves was short lived.
As power returned to the states of the South, a series of laws followed that
were designed to restrict the right to vote. African Americans lost their vote
through discriminatory reading and writing tests or the need to have property
and wealth to qualify for the franchise. Many of the new Southern govern-
ments took steps to prevent African Americans from acquiring real property
and education. With their rights dwindling, they were powerless to prevent
laws enforcing strict segregation in schools and places to live or work. This
legislation was known as the Jim Crow laws. Governments gave back huge
Southern farms to white plantation owners and so many former slaves returned
to work the fields of the rich, just as they had before the Civil War.
Most Southerners expressed their anger at what reconstruction had done
to them by solidly supporting the Democratic party. Stories of government
corruption and the activities of ‘Carpetbaggers’ and ‘Scalawags’ increased
the sense of alienation from the politics of the North. Carpetbaggers were
Yankees who had moved south to make quick money from the chaos of
reconstruction. The Scalawags were Southerners who used political power to
plunder the treasuries of their state governments. The Radical Republicans
had set out to establish racial equality and strong Republican government in
the reconstructed South. They failed in both objectives.
Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 37
 Reunion and recovery
In 1865, Americans were sickened by the war. The wounds caused by anger,
suspicion and sectionalism were hard to heal. Putting the Union back together
and replacing slavery with freedom took more than one generation to achieve. A
compromise was agreed between Yankees and Confederates twelve years after
General Lee’s surrender. The Compromise of 1877 brought embittered South-
erners into the Union again through assurances that federal government funds
would be made available for construction programs, and the military presence
would finally be removed from all Southern governments. Republicans retained
the presidency of the United States, but Democrats took power in the South.
African Americans were left somewhere between slavery and citizenship.
The Civil War was a turning point in American history. It stimulated the
growth of industries, such as flour milling and the manufacture of shoes
and cloth. Building of the first of the great American train lines also began
during the war and was completed in 1869. During the Civil War, Congress
authorised a free postal service and invested money in the development of
American industry to obtain war materials.
The South suffered in the postwar decades but the industrial North was
set to transform American life. The nation was expanding westwards and the
cities were rapidly growing. Great economic forces were forging the United
States of America into an industrial giant.

Meeting objectives and outcomes

Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1, P1.2

1. Conduct further research into the roles of individuals involved in

the events leading to the American Civil War, for example: President
Andrew Johnson, Senator Charles Sumner, John C. Calhoun, Senator
Stephen Douglas, Frederick Douglass. Evaluate their position on issues
related to separatism and the forces that motivated them. (P1.1)
2. Consider the events of 1820 and the compromise that was reached.
Assess whether the compromise helped alleviate sectional differences
or deepened them. (P1.2)
3. The New York political leader, William H. Seward, declared in 1858
that the issue of slavery would bring the nation into an ‘irrepressible
conflict’. Assess the issue of slavery and whether civil war was
inevitable. Consider whether a permanent compromise would have
been possible. Give reasons for your answers. (P1.2)
4. The American Civil War could be described as the first industrial
war and the first ‘total war’ in history. In small groups, research and
prepare a PowerPoint presentation on one of the main battles and
events of the war: the First Battle at Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam,
the capture of Vicksburg, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbour, General Sherman’s March
to the Sea and General Grant’s surrender at Appomattox. Allocate
individual research topics covering all of the main events. Outline
what occurred, why it occurred and what the impact was on civilians
and soldiers. Share your group’s presentation with the class. (P1.1)

38 Retrospective
Change and continuity over time P2.1
5. Between 1850 and 1900, what changes took place in the lives of
African Americans? Research the different experiences for people
living in the Southern states and Northern states. Hold a class debate
on the topic: ‘The Civil War emancipated African Americans’. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

6. Consider source 2.24 which is an extract from the constitution
of the Ku Klux Klan. Consider the history of the Klan. What
contradictions can you find in its constitution and how can you
explain them? (P3.3, P3.4)

Source 2.24
Extract from the constitution of the Ku Klux Klan

Creed
We, the Order of the [Ku Klux Klan], reverentially acknowledge the majesty and
supremacy of the Divine Being, and recognize the goodness and providence of
the same. And we recognize our relation to the United States Government, the
supremacy of the Constitution, the Constitutional Laws thereof, and the Union
of States thereunder.

Character and objects of the Order

This is an institution of Chivalry, Humanity, Mercy, and Patriotism; embodying
in its genius and its principles all that is chivalric in conduct, noble in
sentiment, generous in manhood, and patriotic in purpose; its peculiar objects
being
First: To protect the weak, the innocent, and the defenseless, from the
indignities, wrongs, and outrages of the lawless, the violent, and the brutal; to
relieve the injured and oppressed; to succor the suffering and unfortunate, and
especially the widows and orphans of Confederate soldiers.
Second: To protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and all
laws passed in conformity thereto, and to protect the States and the people
thereof from all invasion from any source whatever.
Third: To aid and assist in the execution of all constitutional laws, and to
protect the people from unlawful seizure, and from trial except by their peers
in conformity to the laws of the land.
Extract quoted in Henry Steele Commager (ed.), Documents of American
History, Vol. II, Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1958, pp. 49–50.

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1 and P4.2

7. Consider the following terms and concepts and evaluate their
importance in explaining the causes and results of the American
Civil War: democracy, sectionalism, urbanisation, diversity,
abolition, segregation, trade unionism, liberty, equality. (P4.1)
8. You are an African American elected to serve in the US Congress in
1885. Write a speech to be presented to Congress where you express
your opinion about the restrictions being imposed on your people
by the Southern state governments. (P4.2)

Chapter 2 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the mid nineteenth century 39
 9. A Union soldier commented about the wreckage that followed
General Sherman’s March to the Sea: ‘We have utterly destroyed
Atlanta … I don’t think any people will want to try and live there now.’
Write an essay on the topic: ‘The Civil War — a watershed in American
history or a senseless waste of life and resources?’ (P4.1, P4.2)

Source 2.25
A photograph of the ruins of Richmond, Virginia in April 1865

10. Divide into groups and allocate each group to research one of
the following events or situations. When you feel your group has
developed a good understanding of the material, communicate
your ideas through a lecturette, PowerPoint presentation, debate
or roleplay. (P3.1–P3.5, P4.2)
W Dred Scott’s case as presented to Chief Justice Taney’s court
W John Brown’s proposal to free the Southern slaves
W The events that caused Kansas to become known as
‘Bleeding Kansas’
W Lincoln’s decision to put forward the Emancipation Proclamation
W The dispute between the Radical Republicans and the President
on reconstruction of the South
W The reconstruction role of the Freedmen’s Bureau and its success
in assisting millions of newly emancipated people
W The Georgian state’s 1867 vote to expel all African American
members of government
W The establishing of the ‘Black Codes’ in the South as a means
of controlling African Americans’ rights and labour
W Former slaves, Frederick Douglass or Sojourner Truth,
publicising their message of abolition

40 Retrospective
 3
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W autocracy W communism
W democracy W industrialisation
W liberalism W nationalism
The decline and fall of
the Romanov dynasty
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
Nicholas II as autocrat
Political, social and economic grievances in early
twentieth-century Russia
W revolution W The Tsar’s failure to address the problems of Russia
W The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime
KEY DATES

1894
T Nicholas II becomes Tsar
1905
T 9 January
Bloody Sunday massacre
begins months of
revolutionary anti-
government protests
T 17 October
Nicholas II announces
October Manifesto and
reforms that help him
retain power
1906
T July First Duma begins
1907
T 3 June Stolypin changes
electoral law in favour
of landowners and
businessmen
1912
T Soldierskill striking miners
at Lena goldfields
1914 Source 3 .1
T Russia’s entry into
Photograph c. 1905 showing Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, their daughters (from left to
World War I encourages right, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Olga) and baby son, Alexei
patriotic support of the Tsar
1915 1916 1917 1918
T Nicholas II assumes December February Revolution overturns Tsar’s authority 17 July
personal command of Murder of 2 March Nicholas II abdicates Nicholas and
Russian troops and Rasputin Provisional Government formed his family
leaves Tsarina to control October Bolshevik Party seizes power in the disappear
government name of the soviets
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 41
 Introduction
Red Army W The army formed
by Russia’s Bolshevik party in
January 1918 to protect the
gains of the October 1917
Bolshevik revolution that had
brought it to government.
This chapter uses Russia’s
Julian calendar for dates
until February 1918. In the
twentieth century, this
calendar was 13 days behind
the Gregorian calendar used
throughout the western
world and used in Russia
from February 1918.
Bolsheviks W Members of the
Bolshevik party which created
the revolution of October 1917
that brought it to power. An
earlier revolution in February
1917 had resulted in the Tsar’s
loss of power.
In May 1918, Red Army guards imprisoned the Russian royal family at
Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, the Tsarina
Alexandra, and their five children lived in what their captors called the
‘House of Special Purpose’. The windows of the house were painted white.
Guards and barricades surrounded the property. Rescue and escape were
virtually impossible. On 17 July 1918, the family disappeared. Many people
believed that the soldiers had executed them.
Officials, representatives of foreign governments, journalists, amateur
detectives and the general public investigated, discussed, debated and specu-
lated on the ultimate fate of the Romanovs for much of the twentieth century.
The family was last definitely seen alive on 16 July 1918. Judge Ivan Sergeyev,
conducted the first investigation into the disappearance in late 1918. He con-
cluded that the Tsar, the family doctor and some servants had been murdered
in the ‘House of Special Purpose’. Another investigator, Nicolai Sokolov,
reported a few weeks later that the Bolsheviks shot the whole family, the
family doctor and the family’s remaining servants. Neither investigation
found any bodies to support its findings.
From the 1920s onwards, people came forward claiming to be one or other
of the Tsar’s children. The most famous of these, Anna Anderson, fought a
number of court cases to try and prove that she was the youngest daughter,
Anastasia. DNA testing has now proved this claim to be false.

Source 3.2
A photograph showing Nicholas
Romanov and his family in
captivity following his loss of
power in February–March 1917

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What do sources 3.1 and
3.2 indicate about how the
lives of Tsar Nicholas II and
his family changed from
1905 to 1918?
2. What questions would
you ask to gain a better
understanding of why the
family’s circumstances
changed during this period?

42 Retrospective
 Nicholas II as autocrat
industrialisation W production
of goods using machinery
rather than manual labour and
the growth of industries rather
than agriculture as the basis of
the nation’s economy
autocracy W a form of
government in which the ruler
is unwilling to share her/his
political power or have any
limits placed on it
anti-Semitism W an attitude of
prejudice against Jews
Nicholas becomes Tsar
When Nicholas Romanov became Tsar (Emperor) of Russia in 1894, there was
no hint of the fate that awaited him in 1918. Romanovs had ruled Russia since
1613. Many among the huge crowds that lined the streets for his coronation
celebrations saw him as their ‘little father’. Officially, Nicholas was ‘Tsar of all
the Russias’ and Grand Duke of both Poland and Finland. He ruled an empire
covering about one-sixth of the Earth’s land area. His empire was at peace,
was in the early stages of industrialisation and ranked among the world’s
great powers. Nicholas II believed that God had appointed him to rule and
that it was his duty to continue the autocracy that he had inherited.
Source 3.3
L. Tuxen’s painting of the coronation of Nicholas II on 14 May 1896 at the Upensky Cathedral
of Moscow’s Kremlin
SOURCE QUESTION
What impression of Nicholas II and his court do you think the artist wanted to create
in source 3.3?
Nicholas the autocrat
Nicholas II was a conservative leader with few of the skills needed to effectively
rule 132 million people. His education had encouraged him to:
W believe that it was his right to have unlimited control over the Russian
people
W support anti-Semitism or hostility towards Jews
W be pro-military in outlook.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 43

autocrat W a ruler who is
unwilling to share his power or
have any limits placed on it
absolute power W the complete
power to make laws, overrule
laws, and appoint or dismiss
ministers and advisers, at will.
Source 3.4
Nicholas II’s response to an
1895 request from one of the
zemstvos (local provincial
governments) for its members
to become more involved in
Russia’s government
Political, social and economic grievances in early
twentieth-century Russia
44 Retrospective
Nicholas II was politically naive and accepted the advice he wanted to hear
rather than that of people who tried to guide him to do what was politi-
cally sound and achievable. He ruled Russia as an autocrat and expected
his subjects to give him unquestioning obedience. Government propaganda
and the teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church encouraged his people to
love and respect their Tsar and look on him as the ‘little father’ who could
rule them severely in the interests of Russia. The Church supported the use
of repression to stamp out ‘human weaknesses’ that could undermine Rus-
sia’s power.
As an autocrat, Nicholas II ruled a police state. The secret police, the
Okhrana, responded brutally to anyone who dared to question his authority.
Military commanders could order Russia’s one million soldiers to any part of
the empire to put down revolts. The government imposed strict censorship of
the press. Police spies reported any unfavourable comments made at public
meetings. Critics, protesters and would-be revolutionaries risked death,
prison and exile for any activities they organised against the government.
Tsar Nicholas had absolute power. He declared the law and could over-
rule any existing law. Political parties were illegal until 1905. There was no
parliament until 1906 and even then the Tsar did everything he could to
deprive it of real power. Russia did not have a constitution to limit the Tsar’s
power or control the methods for choosing ministers. Nicholas II was free to
appoint and dismiss his advisers without giving reasons.
Each of the Tsar’s ministers was individually responsible to him. They
rarely met as a group to discuss policies. Nicholas could decide the extent
to which a particular law could be imposed — thus rewarding some and
destroying others. Government officials put his decisions into practice and
collected taxes for him.
I am informed that recently in some zemstvo assemblies, voices have made
themselves heard from people carried away by senseless dreams about participation
by members of the zemstvo in the affairs of internal government; let all know that
I, devoting all my strength to the welfare of the people, will uphold the principle of
autocracy as firmly and as unflinchingly as my late unforgettable father.
Tsar Nicholas II, quoted in J. Traynor, Europe 1890–1990,
Macmillan, UK, 1991, p. 70.
SOURCE QUESTION
What information do sources 3.3 and 3.4 provide about Nicholas’s power?
In 1900, the Russian empire comprised 23 different nationalities, many of
which resented Russian rule. Russians made up 40 per cent of the empire’s
132 million people. Seventy-seven per cent of the population were peasants;
10 per cent belonged to the middle class, 1 per cent to the nobility. The
remaining 12 per cent included priests, urban workers, officials, Cossacks
and foreigners. Only about 1.5 per cent of the total belonged to the world
outside agriculture — compared with 12 per cent in the United States.
 Source 3.5
An early twentieth-century
cartoon depicting Russia’s social
structure and the roles of the
various groups within it. It was
published in Switzerland by the
‘Union of Russian Socialists’.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Explain how each level
of the cartoon in source
3.5 provides criticism of
the Tsar’s government.
Why wasn’t it published in
Russia?
2. Use source 3.5 and re-read
the paragraph at the foot of
page 44, to create a mind
map of potential problems
Nicholas II might have to
deal with as a result of:
(a) Russia’s many different
nationalities
(b) the large number of
people involved in
agriculture
(c) Russia’s social system.
liberals W supporters of
liberalism, a view that
supported individuals’ rights
and freedoms, a system of
parliamentary democracy and a
free enterprise economy
democracy W government by
elected representatives of the
people
socialism W a doctrine
promoting the people’s
ownership of a nation’s
resources and the
redistribution of its wealth
revolution W period of rapid,
extensive change in political
and social structures, including
a change in sovereignty
terrorism W the use of violence
to gain political change
1. The royal family
(‘We rule you.’)
1 2. The Court
(‘We govern you.’)
3. The Church
(‘We mislead you.’)
2
4. The army
(‘We shoot you.’)
5. The capitalists
3 (‘We do the eating.’)
6. The workers
(‘We work for you.
We feed you.’)
4
5
6
Every social class had grievances against the government. Discontent
became organised through illegal political parties and other groups, each
with its own illegal newspaper. For example:
W Middle and upper class liberals supported the Union of Liberation.
They wanted Russia to become a democracy with a constitution and a
parliament to limit the Tsar’s powers.
W Socialist intellectuals, influenced by the teachings of the German
philosopher, Karl Marx, formed the Social Democratic Party (later to split
into the Bolshevik and Menshevik parties). They believed in socialism
and thought that revolution was the only way of ending tsarist rule.
They sought support from urban workers.
W The Socialist Revolutionary Party also aimed to overthrow tsarist rule.
Its goal was to achieve land redistribution in favour of its mainly peasant
supporters. It used terrorism as one of its methods and was responsible
for the assassination of hundreds of political figures.
In the early 1900s, Russia was on the brink of crisis. Failed harvests, infla-
tion and economic depression saw Russia’s peasants and urban workers
increasingly resort to riots, demonstrations and strikes to protest their poor
conditions. Russia’s people demanded the redress of numerous political,
social and economic problems. Tsar Nicholas II persisted in the belief that to
grant reforms would undermine his autocratic power.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 45
 Source 3.6
Cartoon entitled ‘Engrossed in
Reading’, by Homunculus, from
Pulemet (Machine-Gun), No. 2,
1905. The Russian letters ‘CP’
shown on the rats signify ‘SR’ the
shortened form for ‘Socialist
Revolutionary’.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Use source 3.6 and its caption to
answer the following questions.
1. Who are the rats and what are
they doing?
2. Who is sitting in the chair and
what is he doing?
3. What is going on behind him?
4. What is the attitude of the
cartoonist and what is his
message?

emancipation W the 1861
decree from Tsar Alexander II
announcing that Russia’s
peasants would be granted
their freedom from ownership
and some land to assist them in
their new lives
commune W the main system
for organising farming between
1861 and 1905. Each Russian
commune owned the land
its peasants worked and its
village council organised the
farming tasks.
Peasant poverty was a long-standing problem. Russian peasants gained
their emancipation in 1861 in the form of a decree from Tsar Alexander
II. They then received pay for their work and were freed from ownership.
However, there were significant limits to their freedom. They paid compen-
sation (known as redemption payments) for the land they had been ‘given’
and they needed permission from the commune if they wanted to leave the
village. The land was owned and paid for by the village community, not the
individual, so ex-peasants still had to send back regular payments to offset the
communal debt. Peasants continued to use old-fashioned farming methods,
involving manual rather than machine labour. Living standards were poor
with a whole family often sharing a single room.

Source 3.7
Photograph showing peasants’
living conditions in early
twentieth-century Russia

SOURCE QUESTION
Identify the information that
the photograph in source 3.7
provides about the hardships
the peasants endured.

46 Retrospective

urbanisation W the growth of
cities as people move to them
to find work outside the rural
environment
bureaucracy W officials
appointed to put political
decisions into practice
Industrialisation helps the organisation
of discontent
From 1880 onwards, the Russian government encouraged industrial growth.
Many peasants began to leave the countryside in the hope of a better life in
towns and cities. In Russia’s capital, St Petersburg, this urbanisation saw the
population increase by 55 per cent between 1881 and 1900. Cities and towns
grew rapidly and concentrated within them large numbers of an increasingly
rebellious working class.
By 1900, Russia had about 2 500 000 urban workers. They lived in unhy-
gienic and overcrowded factory dormitories where the two-shift system often
meant that two workers shared rights to a bunk bed. In smaller factories,
families lived next to their workbenches. Others had rooms in poorly built,
cramped and unsanitary housing. Less than half those who lived in houses
had running water or sewerage systems. They worked a 12-hour day for poor
wages and had no trade unions to fight for them, as these were illegal. Some
laws encouraged worker protection but the provision of it depended mainly
on the goodwill of the individual employer.
Revolutionary activists from (illegal) parties such as the Social Democrats
and Socialist Revolutionaries had a willing audience. Workers increasingly
went on strike to demand improved working and living conditions.
The Russian nobility comprised just over 1 per cent of the population and
controlled 25 per cent of Russia’s land. By the early twentieth century, the
nobility’s poor economic management had led to a decline in its landholdings.
Nobles increasingly relied on government salaries to maintain their extrava-
gant lifestyles. Many nobles served as officials in Russia’s bureaucracy and
abused their positions by taking bribes and misappropriating government
funds. The nobility generally spent more than it earned and blamed the gov-
ernment for its declining wealth and influence.
Russia’s middle class was small and divided. Intellectuals looked down
on those who controlled trade and industry. The middle class and Russia’s
educated aristocracy criticised the Tsar’s system of government and resented
the limits placed on their freedom of expression and on their involvement in
the decision-making process.
War against Japan
The decision to go to war against Japan in February 1904 highlighted the gov-
ernment’s weaknesses. The war degenerated into a series of Russian military
blunders that demonstrated the inefficiency of the Russian army and navy.
In October 1904, the Russian navy left the Baltic area to assist in the protec-
tion of Port Arthur in Manchuria. Japan’s ally, Britain, refused to allow the
Russian navy through the Suez Canal. By the time the navy had sailed virtu-
ally around the world to reach Port Arthur, the battle had been lost. The war
ended with the humiliation of Russian defeat in August 1905. It was the first
victory of an Asian power over a European power. Evidence of Russia’s mili-
tary weakness increased the people’s discontent and demands for reform.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 47
 Bloody Sunday begins the revolution of 1905
In 1905, the image of the Tsar as the ‘little father’ gave way to a view of him
as ‘Bloody Nicholas’. On 9 January, in St Petersburg, a procession of peasants
and workers came to respectfully present a petition to the Tsar outlining the
problems they hoped he could resolve. The Tsar’s soldiers, ordered not to
allow the procession to continue, fired on the protesters when they refused
to go home. It ended as a bloodbath, with up to 1000 deaths and many more
casualties. The day went down in history as Bloody Sunday. It began the
revolution of 1905.

Source 3.8
A photograph showing part of the procession of peasants in St Petersburg on 9 January 1905

Source 3.9
Extract from the report of Sir Charles Hardinge, the British ambassador in St Petersburg,
on the events of 9 January 1905

Every effort has been made to obliterate . . . the incidents on Sunday . . . masons
have been busy in removing the shot-marks on . . . the houses in Nevsky Prospect
. . . the dead have been secretly buried at night . . .
What could not fail to strike a disinterested onlooker . . . was . . . the absence
of any Government at all, events being allowed to drift without any co-operation
between . . . the Ministry of the Interior . . . the police . . . and the military authorities
. . . The Government were well aware of the demands of the strikers and of their
intention to assemble . . . to present their grievances to the Emperor . . . no police
nor military measures were taken to prevent the massing of the strikers during
Sunday morning in the near vicinity of the Winter Palace. It was only at about
1 o’clock . . . that some companies of the Pavlovsky Regiment closed the furthest
extremity of the Troitzka Bridge over the Neva, which is exactly opposite to His
Majesty’s Embassy, and as a crowd gradually collected and refused to disperse,
the troops fired volleys into them, killing and wounding a considerable number . . .
It was there that the first blood was shed.

48 Retrospective

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What information on
Bloody Sunday does the
photograph (source 3.8)
provide?
2. What does the British
ambassador’s report
(source 3.9) indicate
about the attitudes of:
(a) the protesters
(b) the soldiers
(c) the ambassador
himself?
3. In what ways does the
content of source 3.8 differ
from that of source 3.9?
4. In what ways does
Kollantai’s report (source
3.10) support that of
Hardinge (source 3.9)?
5. What does source 3.10
indicate about the
perspective (point of view)
and background of
the author?
. . . [T]he entrances [to the Palace Square] were closed by the troops, who were
assembled in large numbers of both cavalry and infantry in the square itself. It
was about 3 o’clock that endeavours were made to effect the dispersal of the
crowds . . . packed with their women and children . . . in the streets. They offered
no provocation beyond jeering at the officers and men, asking them why they
were not fighting the Japanese, &c., when suddenly, according to the evidence
of two trustworthy eyewitnesses, a company of the Preobajensky Regiment was
brought up . . . and, after three rapidly given warnings to the crowd to go, the order
to fire was given. The fact that the troops were at the distance of only 20 yards
from the crowd, who could hardly move whether they wished to do so or not,
made the fire doubly and even trebly effective, and the results were appalling.
Amongst the killed were several women and children, who . . . had tried to turn
and flee, and who were shot in the back. Here there were between 80 and 100
killed and many wounded. From that time till midnight the Cossacks continued to
charge the crowd, and firing went on at five or six points in the town . . .
As to the necessity for such draconian measures as cavalry charges and
volleys into an unarmed and peaceful crowd, there can be but a negative verdict,
and I am firmly convinced that, had the police been as efficient as that of London,
three or four hundred policemen would have been amply sufficient to deal with
the crowds without resort to such extreme measures . . .
It is rumoured that the 14th Regiment of Marines . . . refused to fire on the crowd
. . . this may be true, since they were apparently withdrawn from duty although I saw
them posted on the quay on Sunday morning. It is, moreover, quite certain that a good
many soldiers fired intentionally over the heads of the crowds . . .
. . . [T]he Emperor has played into the hands of the revolutionaries, who have
not been slow to broadcast throughout the country the news that the workmen
of St Petersburgh, having peacefully approached the Emperor with the object of
laying their grievances before the ‘Little Father’, have been mowed down by His
Majesty’s troops. This incident will have created a deep gulf, which will not be
easily bridged, between the Emperor and the working classes who have hitherto
been the most loyal subjects of the throne, and a blow will have been struck at
the autocracy from which it will be difficult to recover.
. . . [A]lthough order may to all outward appearance be restored by repressive
measures, the public unrest can only be allayed by large measures of reform . . .
Sir Charles Hardinge to the Marquess of Lansdowne, quoted in K. Bourne and
D. Cameron Watt, British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from the
Foreign Office Confidential Print, Series A, Vol. 3 (Russia, 1905–1906), University
Publications of America, USA, 1983, pp. 17–19.
Source 3.10
A comment from Aleksandra Kollantai, member of the Bolshevik faction of the Social
Democrats, who took part in the Bloody Sunday march
I noticed that mounted troops stood drawn up in front of the Winter Palace itself,
but everyone thought that it did not mean anything . . . All the workers were
peaceful and expectant. They wanted the Tsar or one of his highest, gold-braided
ministers to come . . . and take the humble petition . . .
At first I saw the children who were hit [by rifle fire] and dragged down from the
trees . . . We heard the clatter of hooves. The Cossacks rode right into the crowd
and slashed with their sabres like madmen. A terrible confusion arose.
Quoted in Barbara Evans Clements, Bolshevik Feminist: The Life of
Aleksandra Kollantai, Indiana University Press, USA, 1979.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 49

soviets W councils where
workers’ representatives would
voice their grievances
Russification W the government
policy of enforcing support of
Russian language, culture and
traditions and suppressing any
support for the language,
culture and traditions of other
groups living within the
Russian empire
duma W an elected parliament
for Russia, with the power to
make laws
universal male suffrage W the
right to vote given to all males
at a certain age
Read a translation of
the October Manifesto by
accessing the website for
this book and clicking on the
October Manifesto 1905
weblink for this chapter
(see ‘Weblinks’, page viii).
50 Retrospective
The 1905 revolution
Hostility to the events of Bloody Sunday reverberated throughout the empire.
The people responded with nine months of strikes, peasant revolts, mutinies
in the army and navy and the formation of organised groups demanding
change and reform.
Liberals demanded a constitution. Workers began to form soviets where
they would meet to express grievances and plan action. Peasants seized land
and property and launched attacks against upper-class landowners. Non-
Russians participated in violent demonstrations against the government’s
Russification policies, which had denied them the free expression of their
languages, traditions and religious beliefs.
Events reached a crisis in October 1905 when the different opposition
groups united in a general strike. Transport, communications, factories,
shops, schools, universities and government offices — all stopped func-
tioning. Workers participated in street demonstrations, riots, looting and the
destruction of symbols of tsarist authority. The police could not maintain law
and order. Soldiers either could not be trusted or could not be transported
quickly enough to particular trouble spots. It seemed that Nicholas II and his
government would be overthrown by the revolutionary force of opponents
from all levels of Russian society.
The October Manifesto and the Tsar’s survival
Nicholas II remained in power in late 1905 largely because he introduced
some reforms. In the October Manifesto of 17 October 1905, he announced
the creation of a duma — a national assembly which would be elected on the
basis of universal male suffrage and be given power to make laws. This
meant that the Tsar could no longer consider himself an autocrat. The Mani-
festo also allowed freedom of speech and made political parties legal.
The October Manifesto gained Nicholas support among liberals, especially
the Octobrists — a new party named in the Manifesto’s honour. Liberals were
willing to see the Manifesto as an opportunity to at least begin a process of
reforming the government. They began to withdraw the support they had
previously given to the strike movement. In November 1905, the Tsar issued
a law announcing the cancellation of the unpopular redemption payments
from 1907 onwards. The peasants would finally have ownership of the land
they had been repaying since the 1860s.
The Manifesto did not address problems of poverty, low wages and poor
working conditions. Workers in St Petersburg and Moscow continued their
strikes in the hope of gaining an 8-hour working day. In December 1905,
the police arrested the leaders of the powerful St Petersburg Soviet and, in
Moscow, loyal troops ruthlessly crushed an uprising that had paralysed the
city for more than two weeks.
French bank loans and the return of troops from Manchuria helped the
Tsar to re-establish his authority. In reality, the revolution lasted until mid
1907. In the countryside, peasants seized land and Socialist Revolutionaries
undertook a campaign of terror against tsarist officials. The Tsar’s position
was gradually restored — helped by the holding of trials, the use of troops
to crush revolts and the use of the hangman’s noose, known as ‘Stolypin’s
necktie’, to execute terrorists.
 Source 3.11
A cartoon entitled ‘Via Appia’ from
Sprut (Octopus), No. 5, 1906
SOURCE QUESTION
What does the cartoon in
source 3.11 indicate about the
tsarist government and
people’s attitudes towards it?
The Tsar’s failure to address the problems of Russia
state of emergency W
a situation in which a
government is under threat
in its attempts to assert its
authority and control over
events and the actions of
particular groups
To ensure his long-term survival, the Tsar needed to address the problems
that had caused the 1905 revolution. His survival was pinned on the hopes of
pleasing some groups in Russian society and ignoring the demands of others.
The two main attempts at long-term reform were:
W the introduction of a duma
W Prime Minister Stolypin’s efforts to create a more prosperous peasantry
whose improved conditions would encourage loyalty to the Tsar.
Failure to make the duma work
The creation of a duma should have ended Nicholas’ autocratic power. The
Fundamental Laws, issued in April 1906, demonstrated the Tsar’s reluctance
to do this. They still described the Tsar’s authority as ‘autocratic’ although it
had ceased to be ‘unlimited’. They went on to proclaim his rights to:
W dismiss the duma and announce new elections whenever he wished
W continue to personally choose and dismiss his ministers rather than allow
the duma this power. This meant government ministers would continue
to be responsible to the Tsar rather than to the duma.
W declare new laws alone at any time that he announced a state of
emergency or whenever the duma was not in session.
The Fundamental Laws also outlined the role of the State Council. The Tsar
would appoint half of its members and it would have to approve all laws. Thus,
it would act like an upper house but one strongly influenced by the Tsar.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 51
 Thus, before the first duma had met in July 1906, the Tsar had demon-
strated his unwillingness to allow it any real power. Nicholas II dismissed
it after only two and a half months. He had been angered by its discussion
of proposals for land redistribution — proposals which, if adopted, would
threaten his own landholdings and those of most of Russia’s upper class.

Creation of a more conservative duma

assassination W the murder of
a significant person, usually for
political reasons
Between the periods of the first and second dumas, the Tsar used his emer-
gency powers to declare a number of new laws, including Stolypin’s agrarian
reforms (see below). In June 1907, he ordered the closure of the second duma.
Even more radical than the first, it had lasted only three and a half months.
On 3 June 1907, using the emergency powers, Prime Minister Stolypin illegally
changed the electoral law to ensure that the third duma would be dominated
by landowners and businessmen and have limited chances of working-class
membership.
The third duma lasted its full five-year term and was successful in that
its more conservative membership did agree on some reform. In 1908, for
example, it announced a 10-year program to introduce compulsory education.
By 1911, however, even the Octobrist Party — the most significant party in
the third duma — was expressing its frustration with the lack of cooperation
from the Tsar and the State Council. With Stolypin’s assassination in the
same year, the Tsar lost his most skilled adviser.
The fourth and final duma lasted from 1912 to 1917 but lacked the power to
introduce the reforms needed to win the support of the people.

Failure to increase peasant support for the Tsar

Peasants disliked the fact that it was the commune, not the individual, that
owned land. They resented strip farming that gave them only scattered
parcels of land. Stolypin had hoped that his plans for agrarian reform would
succeed in ending these major causes of peasant discontent. His reforms
included the following:
W Peasants could now demand that their commune allocate land to them
as individuals.
W Peasants could also demand this land as a single parcel, rather than
the strips in several different areas as was the usual practice.
W Loans from the Peasant Land Bank would help peasants to buy
additional land.
W Encouragement of migration to western Siberia would give peasants
access to more land than was available in the overcrowded regions
of central and southeastern Russia.
Stolypin believed it would take about 20 years for his reforms to work.
By 1915, about 30 per cent of households had requested individual ownership
but only just over two-thirds of them had received it. Only 10 per cent of
households had requested their land in the single parcel that would enable
them to establish separate farms. The least change occurred in the central
and southeastern areas of the fertile ‘black earth’ provinces where discontent
was most threatening to the Tsar’s authority. It seemed that Russia’s poorest
peasants preferred the security of the commune to the uncertainty of being
responsible for their own livelihoods.

52 Retrospective

The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime
Source 3.12
An extract from Interior Minister
Peter Durnovo’s February 1914
letter to the Tsar, warning of the
dangers of Russian involvement
in a European war
patriotism W devotion to
and support for one’s country
Revival of popular protest, 1912–14
In early 1912, soldiers shot dead 230 striking miners on Siberia’s Lena goldfield
(see page 198). As news of the event spread, sympathy strikes and demon-
strations occurred throughout the empire. Revolutionaries spoke of workers’
lives sacrificed in the capitalists’ quest for gold. That year, 550 000 workers
(compared with 8000 in 1911) went on strike as a form of political protest. In
1913, around 502 000 workers held similar protests. Few workers in that year
celebrated the 300-year anniversary of Romanov rule.
In the period from January to July 1914, around 1 059 000 workers went
on strike. By July 1914, Russia was in the throes of a general strike that
echoed the revolutionary discontent of 1905. Then World War I broke out the
following month — perhaps saving the tsarist government from a major
revolutionary outburst.
Historians debate Russia’s involvement in World War I. Did it interrupt a period
of peaceful evolution towards a reformed system of tsarist government? Or did
it accelerate a revolutionary movement already threatening to overthrow it?
Historians agree that Russia’s involvement in World War I played a crucial role
in the downfall of Nicholas II and his regime. Even before war began, one of
the Tsar’s ministers had advised him of its dangers (see source 3.12).
[I]in the event of defeat . . . social revolution in its most extreme form is inevitable
. . . the trouble will start with the blaming of the Government for all disasters. In
the legislative institutions a bitter campaign against the Government will begin,
followed by revolutionary agitations throughout the country, with Socialist
slogans, capable of arousing and rallying the masses, beginning with the division
of the land and succeeded by a division of all valuables and property. The
defeated army, having lost its most dependable men, and carried away by the
tide of primitive peasant desire for land, will find itself too demoralized to serve
as a bulwark of law and order. The legislative institutions and the intellectual
opposition parties, lacking real authority in the eyes of the people, will be
powerless to stem the popular tide, aroused by themselves, and Russia will be
flung into hopeless anarchy, the issue of which cannot be foreseen . . .
Extract from complete letter reproduced at
http://stetson.edu/~psteeves/classes/durnovo.html
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In source 3.12, what did Durnovo consider to be the danger of war
for the government?
2. What does the source reveal of the perspective from which Durnovo viewed
the situation? Support your response with evidence from the source.
World War I began in the early days of August 1914. Russia fought with
its allies, France and Britain, against Germany, its ally Austria–Hungary
and the Ottoman Empire. In the beginning, most Russian people responded
enthusiastically. Fierce expressions of patriotism saw attacks on all things
German, from the German embassy to the German-sounding name of the
Russian capital, which was changed from St Petersburg to the more Russian-
sounding Petrograd.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 53
 Source 3.13
A photograph showing
St Petersburg (Petrograd)
residents in the square
outside the Winter Palace in
a demonstration of support for
the Tsar’s government in the
early months of the war

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 3.13
show about the relationship
between Tsar Nicholas II
and his people at the
outbreak of the war?
2. To what extent does this
portray an accurate/
inaccurate view of the
people’s attitude towards
their Tsar at this time? .

Increased hardships
In reality, the decision to go to war sounded the death knell of the Romanov
government with the hardships of war severely undermining any remaining
loyalty people might have felt towards Nicholas II.
By late 1914, dreams of a short victorious war had given way to its realities
— high casualty rates, inadequate medical care, shortages of food, guns and
bullets, loss of land and lost access to supplies and markets through both the
Baltic and Black seas.
Russia’s enemy, Germany, was an industrialised nation with a well-trained,
well-equipped army. The Russian army was fighting a twentieth-century war
with nineteenth-century training and inadequate equipment. The Russian
government could not cope with the economic strains this created. When the
Tsar decided to ban alcohol for the duration of the war, the government lost
33 per cent of its tax revenue. By 1916, the war alone was costing nearly five
times the 1913 budget allowance.
Russian soldiers suffered because of the Tsar’s poor decision making and
poor financial planning. Some infantry units had rifles for only two-thirds
of their soldiers. Ammunition was rationed. Many soldiers lacked the boots
and warm underwear essential for survival in the bitterly cold conditions of
the first winter of war. Morale was low. Russia’s poor railway network meant
that it was difficult to transport supplies to either the battlefront or the home
front. The loss of men and animals from villages disrupted food production.
Food supply of the armed forces took precedence over food supply of
the cities. Peasants saw little benefit in marketing their grain for money
of decreasing value. Fuel was expensive and in short supply. Inadequate
transport saw the already limited city food supplies left rotting at rural
railway stations.
War increased the pressures on Russia’s industries. New factories brought
more labour into the cities. The workforce was four times larger than it had
been in 1914 with 33 per cent of this new workforce moving to Petrograd.

54 Retrospective
 Living standards declined. Wage increases averaged 100 per cent. Infla-
tion was a major issue with prices of basic needs being at least double and
as much as five times higher than pre-war figures. With price increases
averaging 300 per cent and with coal, wood and grain in short supply, city
dwellers struggled continually to withstand malnutrition and unsanitary
living conditions.

Source 3.14
An extract from an October 1916 Despite the great increase in wages, the economic condition of the masses is
report compiled by the secret worse than terrible. While the wages of the masses have risen 50 percent, and
police on the problems created only in certain categories 100 to 200 percent . . . the prices on all products have
by difficult living conditions in increased 100 to 500 percent . . . wages for a worker before the war were [as
Petrograd follows in comparison with current wages] [in roubles]:
[Type of Worker] [Prewar Wages] [Present Wages]
Unskilled 1.00 to 1.25 2.50 to 3.00
Metalworker 2.00 to 2.50 4.00 to 5.00
Electrician 2.00 to 3.00 5.00 to 6.00, etc.
At the same time, the cost of consumer goods needed by the worker has
changed in the following incredible way [in roubles]:
[Item] [Prewar Cost] [Present Cost]
Rent for a corner [of a room] 2.00 to 3.00 monthly 8.00 to 12.00
Dinner (in a tearoom) 0.15 to 0.20 1.00 to 1.20
Tea (in a tearoom) 0.07 0.35
Boots 5.00 to 6.00 20.00 to 30.00
Shirt 0.75 to 0.90 2.50 to 3.00, etc.
Even if we estimate the rise in earnings at 100 percent, the prices of products
have risen, on the average, 300 percent. The impossibility of even buying many
food products and necessities, the time wasted standing idle in queues to receive
goods, the increasing incidence of disease due to malnutrition and unsanitary
living conditions (cold and dampness because of lack of coal and wood), and so
forth, have made the workers, as a whole, prepared for the wildest excesses of a
‘hunger riot’ . . .
If in the future grain continues to be hidden, the very fact of its disappearance
will be sufficient to provoke in the capitals and in the other most populated
centers of the empire the greatest disorders, attended by pogroms and endless
SOURCE QUESTION
street rioting. The mood of anxiety, growing daily more intense, is spreading to
What does the writer of ever wider sections of the populace. Never have we observed such nervousness
source 3.14 indicate about: as there is now . . .
(a) economic hardships Quoted in G. Vernadsky et al. (eds), A Source Book for Russian History
(b) problems of daily life from Early Times to 1917, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.,
(c) the mood in Petrograd in 1972, Vol. 3, pp. 867–8.
late 1916?

Decline in the Tsar’s authority

In July 1915, the Tsar took personal command of his troops at the battlefront.
From then on, he had to accept personal blame for Russia’s military failures.
While Nicholas II was at the front, the German-born Tsarina, Alexandra, took
over responsibility for the day-to-day business of government. This had the
effect of further isolating him from the demands and mood of his people and
increasing the political influence of his wife.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 55

 The Tsarina’s poor political ability increased people’s hostility towards
her. Many suspected her of being a traitor. Alexandra’s political failings were
evident in the succession of incompetent people whom she recommended for
appointment as ministers — often on the advice of Rasputin. ‘Rasputin’, a
word meaning ‘immoral’, was the nickname given to a monk named Grigorii.
He was a self-appointed mystic, infamous for his drunkenness and woman-
ising. The Tsarina listened to him because he seemed to be able to relieve the
sufferings of her son, Alexei. (Alexei had haemophilia — a rare disease in
which a person’s blood does not clot.) Many people feared that Rasputin had
become so influential with the Tsarina that he was the real ruler of Russia.
Source 3.15
A cartoon from around 1916
depicting a commonly accepted
view of Rasputin’s relationship
with the royal family. The
inscription means ‘The Russian
tsars at home’.

SOURCE QUESTION
Describe the cartoon in source
3.15, and identify and explain
the cartoonist’s message
and perspective.

56 Retrospective
 The coordination of the war effort largely resulted from the initiatives of
key duma politicians, educated liberals and some industrialists — not from
Nicholas II. For example:
W In late 1914, the duma established a committee to organise aid for
war victims.
W In May 1915, Russian merchants and industrialists established the War
Industries Committee (WIC) to organise the production of war materials.
W In June 1915, zemstvos united with similar organisations in the towns
to form ZemGor, an organisation with the goal of assisting the sick and
wounded.
The duma challenged the Tsar’s authority. Members of two key parties, the
Octobrists and the Kadets, joined with a small number of right-wing duma
deputies to form the Progressive Bloc. It demanded a ‘government of public
confidence’, meaning a government whose ministers were appointed by the
duma rather than the Tsar (or Tsarina). The Tsar refused.
By late 1916, discontent within Russia had reached crisis point. Over two
million Russian soldiers were dead. Those who replaced them brought their
civilian grievances with them into the army. The duma, ZemGor, the WIC
and the majority of Russia’s upper classes no longer supported the Tsar. In
December 1916, the Tsar’s cousin and uncle murdered Rasputin. They feared
that Rasputin’s close association with the royal family would lead to their
own downfall as well as that of the Tsar.
The Tsar also lost his authority in the eyes of working-class people. They were
no longer willing to meet the expectations of loyalty, respect and patriotism
that he had demanded of them. Police feared that the strains resulting from
the increased hardships of everyday life would lead to riots and violence.

Revolution!
By early 1917, Nicholas II was probably the most hated man in Russia. The
people were enduring a particularly severe winter, with temperatures aver-
aging –12ºC. Inflation saw food prices in early 1917 averaging four times their
cost in 1914.
In Petrograd in late February 1917, women queued for hours waiting
for non-existent bread and then attacked the bakeries. On 22 February, a
lockout at the Putilov metalworks brought workers onto the streets in anti-
government protest marches. Striking female textile workers joined them the
following day. By 25 February, there were nearly 250 000 striking workers
demonstrating in the city centre. Revolutionaries called for the government
to stand aside. The local military commander, General Khabalov, could not
control the situation.

Source 3.16
An extract from General
Khabalov’s advice to the Tsar
on 25 February 1917
I report that, as a result of the bread shortage, a strike broke out in many
factories on February 23 and 24. On February 24, around 200 000 workers were
out on strike and forced others to quit their jobs. Streetcar service was halted by
the workers. In the afternoons of February 23 and 24, some of the workers broke
through to the Nevskii [the main street], whence they were dispersed. Violence
led to broken windows in several shops and streetcars.
Quoted in G. Vernadsky et al., op. cit., p. 878.

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 57


Source 3.17
Correspondence to the Tsar from
the duma president, Rodzianko,
in late February 1917, and the
Tsar’s reported response
To read a translation of this
order, access the website for
this book and click on the
Petrograd Soviet Order No. 1
weblink for this chapter.
abdication W the giving up or
renouncing of a position of
power or of a right or claim
58 Retrospective
Rodzianko, the president of the duma, begged the Tsar to form a ministry
of public confidence before it was too late.
Rodzianko: The situation is serious. The capital is in a state of anarchy. The
government is paralyzed; the transportation system has broken down; the supply
systems for food and fuel are completely disorganized. General discontent is on
the increase. There is disorderly shooting in the streets; some of the troops are
firing at each other. It is necessary that some person enjoying the confidence of
the country be entrusted immediately with the formation of a new government.
There can be no delay. Any procrastination is fatal. I pray God that at this hour the
responsibility not fall upon the sovereign.
Tsar: That fatty Rodzianko has sent me some nonsense, which I shan’t even answer.
Rodzianko quoted in G. Vernadsky et al., op. cit., p. 879; the Tsar quoted in
H. Seton-Watson, The Russian Empire: 1801–1917, Oxford University Press,
Oxford, 1967, p. 725.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does General Khabalov’s report (source 3.16) indicate about the mood
in Petrograd in late February 1917?
2. What does Rodzianko’s report (source 3.17) indicate?
3. What does the Tsar’s reply (also in source 3.17) indicate about his ability
to rule Russia?
4. What is the perspective of each of the authors in relation to the situation
in Russia in early 1917?
On 26 February 1917, the Tsar ordered the troops to put down the distur-
bances. The Volynsky Regiment refused to shoot at rioting strikers, killed the
officers who had issued the orders and joined in the demonstrations. One by
one, other regiments followed this example. By 1 March, the entire Petrograd
garrison had joined the revolution, the Council of Ministers no longer met
and workers and soldiers had united to revive the Petrograd Soviet, which
had not met since 1905.
The Petrograd Soviet then issued its famous Order No. 1, demanding that all
regiments submit to its authority rather than to that of the Tsar’s generals. Even
though the duma had been dissolved, leaders of its major parties continued to
meet. These parties fell into the role of forming a new tsarless government.
Abdication
The Tsar finally took the situation seriously enough to begin the trip back
from military headquarters in Mogilev. Railway workers refused to let him go
any further than Pskov. His generals advised abdication as the only means
of returning Russian soldiers to the war effort. On 2 March 1917, Nicholas II
abdicated for both himself and his son. On 3 March, his brother, the Grand
Duke Mikhail, refused the responsibility of the throne.
The abdication and the events that followed it ended over three centuries
of Romanov rule. What took its place was a Provisional Government which
in reality had to share its power with that of the Petrograd Soviet. By late
1917, the power of soviets throughout Russia was stronger than that of the
Provisional Government. In October 1917, the Bolshevik party created another
revolution by seizing power in the name of the soviets.

communism W a political
ideology and economic system,
developed by Karl Marx
(1818–1883), in which people
share equally the ownership
of their society’s resources,
contribute to its work according
to their abilities, and are
provided for according to their
needs. Its main ideas include the
abolition of private ownership of
property; government control of
the nation’s resources; and the
elimination of classes.
Source 3.18
A photograph from May 1917 showing residents of Petrograd burning Romanov
coats of arms, two months after Nicholas II’s abdication
SOURCE QUESTION
How useful is the photograph in source 3.18 as evidence of public feeling
about the Romanovs in 1917?
Events at Yekaterinburg
The ‘disappearance’ of the Tsar and his family (see page 42) came in the midst
of the Russian Civil War of 1918–20 in which the Bolsheviks fought to estab-
lish their control of Russia and the power to implement communism.
In 1976, two Russians, Gueli Riabov and Alexander Avdonin, began a sys-
tematic attempt to discover the Romanov burial site. They used old maps,
testimony from the 1918–19 investigations and from family members of the
executioners. They also used the unpublished account of Yakov Yurovsky, a
self-confessed member of the execution squad. On 30 May 1979, in the forest
near Yekaterinburg, the men discovered bones and three skulls less than a
metre below ground. Fearing how the anti-tsarist Russian government might
respond to their discovery, they kept their find secret for over ten years.
In April 1989, feeling more secure under the reformist government of
Mikhail Gorbachev, Riabov revealed the information to a Russian newspaper.
In 1991, forensic scientists assembled nine skeletons from the grave. They
used dental records, computer modelling and DNA testing to help identify
them. Based on analysis of X and Y chromosomes, they concluded that five
were female and four were male. DNA tests then indicated that five of the
people had been related to one another and that these five were parents and
their three daughters.
Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 59
 Scientists then looked for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which is only
passed on by a mother to her children. Four of the female skeletons had
this mtDNA. Further testing showed it to be identical in sequence to DNA
samples provided by Prince Philip (the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of
Queen Elizabeth II). As the Tsarina would have been Prince Philip’s great
aunt (through the maternal line), this meant there was a 98.5 per cent likeli-
hood that these bones were those of the Tsarina and three of her daughters.
Scientists identified the bones of Nicholas II after comparing them with those
of his brother Georgiy, and to two other relatives.
The bones of Alexei and one of the Tsar’s daughters are still missing.
According to Yurovsky’s account, he had some of the bones buried elsewhere
as there was not enough room in the main grave. Further investigations have
failed to find any more remains. This is a puzzle that historians, archaeolo-
gists and forensic scientists are still trying to resolve conclusively.

Postscript
The Romanov family seems to be undergoing a rehabilitation within post-
Communist Russia. On 17 July 1998, the eightieth anniversary of the execu-
tions, the family’s remains were buried in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and
Paul in St Petersburg. In August 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church pro-
claimed Nicholas and his immediate family to be saints.
In September 2006, at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin,
the Tsar’s mother, Danish-born Maria Fiodorovna, was reburied in the Peter
and Paul Cathedral. On 15 November 2006, Moscow’s Tverskoi district court
granted the appeal of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna (who claims
to be the Tsar’s legal heir) against another court’s ruling that the Romanov
family had not been the victims of political repression. This opens the door
for the execution of the Romanovs to be legally viewed as a political crime and
for the family itself to be legally viewed as victims of Bolshevik repression.

Source 3.19
Photograph showing
Crown Prince Frederik and
Princess Mary representing
the Danish royal family at
the September 2006 ceremony
marking the return of the
remains of the Danish-born
Maria Feodorovna, mother
of the last Tsar of Russia.
Maria Feodorovna was re-buried
in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.

60 Retrospective
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1, P1.2

1. Complete the following table to identify the similarities

and differences between the revolutions of 1905 and 1917.
Use a tick to indicate the features of each revolution. (P1.2)

Table 3.1 Comparing the revolutions

Key features 1905 revolution 1917 revolution
Strikes
Involvement in war
Groups demanding change
Mutinies
Popular protest
Failure of reform attempts
Economic hardship
Attacks on property
Government repression
Tsar’s tarnished reputation
Peasant revolts
Involvement in war

Change and continuity over time P2.1

2. Imagine yourself as the editor of a secret anti-tsarist newspaper.

Your task is to write an editorial for an issue marking the second
anniversary of the October Manifesto. Your focus is on conveying
your view of the extent to which the Tsar’s government has fulfilled
the reforms promised in October 1905. You should conclude with your
summary of the position of the Tsar’s government in October 1907. (P2.1)
3. Discussion issue: Why did the revolution of February 1917 succeed
when the revolution of 1905 had failed to overthrow the Tsar’s
power? (P2.1, P3.5)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

4. Compile a dossier of 5–10 different types of sources that you think

encapsulate the reasons for the decline and fall of the Romanov
dynasty. Arrange the sources into a logical sequence. For each
source, provide in your own words:
(a) a caption identifying the type of source it is (for example, diary
extract, graph, photograph, police report)
(b) a brief description of its contents
(c) information about its date and where it comes from
(d) a comment identifying and explaining the perspective of its
creator, the value of the information the source provides and
your judgement of its usefulness and reliability. (P3.2–P3.5)

Chapter 3 W The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty 61

 5. The following people are to take part in a demonstration in
Petrograd in February 1917:
W a housewife struggling with the problems of inflation and
inadequate food supplies
W a nurse who has been tending the wounded on the railway
platform
W a factory worker
W a soldier who has deserted the army
W a member of the aristocracy.
(a) Design a slogan for each of the protest posters that these people
will carry.
(b) Briefly explain the conditions in Russia that would have
contributed to the perspective voiced by each of these people. (P3.4)

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1, P4.2

6. Use a dictionary and/or the glossary to find the meanings of each

of the following terms: absolute power; anti-Semitism; autocracy;
communism; democracy; liberalism; nationalism; revolution; state of
emergency. What examples of these were evident in Russia around
1905–1917? (P4.1)
7. Your task is to write an account for an English-speaking newspaper
explaining the Tsar’s downfall. Your account should:
(a) provide information on the events of February 1917
(b) explain to your readers the long-term factors that led to the
Tsar’s abdication
(c) explain to your readers short-term factors that led to the
Tsar’s abdication.
Support your article with a range of different types of sources.
You may wish to include some visual sources from this chapter or
visit the website for this book and access the Romanovs weblink for
this chapter for additional ideas. Consider where they might fit into
your account, what captions you would give them and what other
sources you could use as evidence to support your account. In making
these choices, keep in mind the type of audience you envisage for your
article. Devise a suitable headline and choose an appropriate date
for the article. (P4.2)

62 Retrospective
 4
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W capitalism W liberalism

W nationalism W terrorism
The origins of the
Arab–Israeli conflict
1880–1947
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
Zionism — its origins and aspirations
Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses to the Balfour Declaration
The nature of Arab and Jewish responses to the question of a Jewish
homeland post-World War II
KEY DATES W The UN partition of Palestine

1897
T First
Zionist Conference
1914
T Ottoman empire allies
with Germany
1915–16
T McMahon–Hussein
correspondence
1916
T Sykes–Picot agreement
1917
T Balfour Declaration
1923
T BritishMandate of
Palestine
1937
T PeelCommission,
two-state solution
proposed
1936–39
T Palestinian Arab rebellion
1939–45
T Holocaust in
German-occupied Europe
1947
T UN General Assembly Source 4.1
votes for partition plan A recent photograph taken at dusk showing Jewish people praying at the Western Wall in
Jerusalem and, beyond it, the Dome of the Rock, part of the Islamic Al Aqsa Mosque

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 63

 Introduction
The current war in Iraq is only the most recent of many conflicts in the area
described as the Middle East. However, one modern conflict that has been at
its most intense over the past 60 years is the conflict between the Arab Pal-
estinians and the Israelis in the area that, between the two world wars, was
the British Mandate of Palestine. This conflict has its origins both in events in
Europe over the past 200 years and in different interpretations of over 2000
years of history.

Early history of the Jews in the Middle East

Some of humankind’s earliest moves from a hunter-gatherer to a settled
agricultural way of life took place in the Middle East. Jericho, the earliest
major city, was founded around 6500 BC and, by 1600 BC, the people of the
region, given the name Canaanites, had created the first alphabet, a syllabic
script of 28 letters.
In the twelfth century BC, according to Jewish tradition recorded in the
book of Exodus, Moses led the Jewish people out of captivity in Egypt and
they settled along the Jordan River, creating their state through conflicts with
the various Caananite tribes. By 1000 BC, David had become king of the two
Jewish states: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
For much of the next 1200 years, this region was under the control of various
foreign powers. In 772 BC, the Assyrians conquered Samaria, the capital of
Israel, and around 30 000 Israelites were taken into captivity. In 587 BC, after a
16-month siege, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem.
The following year saw the destruction of the Great Temple of Jerusalem.
Babylonian rule was replaced in turn by that of the Persians. The Persians
allowed the Jews captured in Babylon to return and to practise their religion.
In 516 BC, the Great Temple was rebuilt in Jerusalem. For the next 500 years,
Jewish religion continued to develop and earlier religious and historical writ-
ings were compiled to form the Jewish Scriptures (the Old Testament).
Source 4.2
A map showing the early empires
of the Middle East

64 Retrospective

monotheism W refers to
the characteristics of religions,
such as Judaism, Islam and
Christianity, where there is a
belief in only one god
Wailing Wall W a wall
that remains from the temple
of Jerusalem, where Jews still
assemble for lamentation
and prayers
In 6 BC, the area became part of the Roman empire as the Province of
Judaea. The strict monotheism of the Jews and their fierce independence led
to Judaea being one of the most troubled of the Roman provinces. In AD 69,
the Roman Emperor Vespasian led an attack on Jerusalem. The following
year, the temple was destroyed, leaving only part of one wall standing —
the part now known as the Western Wall, or Wailing Wall (see source 4.1,
page 63, and source 4.3).
Source 4.3
This photograph from the early twentieth century shows Jewish people praying at the Western
Wall or Wailing Wall, the remains of the old Jewish temple at Jerusalem. The housing to the left
and back was later removed to open up a larger space for worshippers (see source 4.1).

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Using the text and source
4.1 (page 63), explain why
this section of Jerusalem
has been a site of conflict
between Arab Palestinians
and Israelis.
2. Jewish people today
prefer the term ‘Western
Wall’ to ‘Wailing Wall’.
What might be the different
implications of using
each term?
3. List the changes that
have taken place at the
site of the wall between
the early twentieth century
(source 4.3) and recent
times (source 4.1). How can
an understanding of the
history of Jerusalem help
to explain the changes?

A Jewish revolt against the Romans came to an end at Masada in AD 73,

Diaspora W meaning ‘the
dispersion’; in Jewish history,
the term refers to those periods
when the Jews were forced out
of their homeland
when about 1000 Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans.
A second Jewish revolt broke out in AD 132 when the Romans began building
a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish temple. After two years of bitter
fighting, the Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the total destruction of Jeru-
salem, refused Jews entry to the city and forced their dispersion throughout the
empire. The province was renamed Assyria Palestina to eradicate any memory
of the Jews. This dispersion of the Jews was called the Great Diaspora.
By the Middle Ages, there were Jewish communities from Britain and
Spain in the west to Poland, Russia and Turkey in the east. Over time, the
people of each Jewish community adopted the language of the country where
they were born, but also maintained their religious and cultural practices,
including studying the scriptures in their original Hebrew.

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 65


scapegoat W a person or group
made to bear the blame for
suffering caused by other
people or events
For much of the time, the Jews were able to live their separate lives within
the wider community.
However, there was also a dark side to Jewish experiences, especially in
areas of Europe where Christianity was the dominant religion. Despite Jesus
and his disciples being themselves practising Jews, some of the early Church
Fathers saw the Jews as the murderers of Jesus. Jewish communities were
often made the scapegoats in times of plague or war. A massacre of Jews in
central Europe took place in the mid seventeenth century in a war between
Catholic Poles and Orthodox Ukrainians.
At other times, European monarchs relied on Jews to finance their extrav-
agant lifestyles because Jews, as a result of the Diaspora, had links across
national boundaries. Some Jews acquired high positions in royal courts and
special privileges that went with this.

Arabs in the ancient period

Islam W religion based on
the teachings of the prophet
Mohammed (c. 570–c. 632)
as set down in the Qur’an.
The word means ‘submission
to the will of God’.
Around 1000 BC, at the same time as David was king in Jerusalem, Arabian cities
developed around modern-day Yemen, and later around Mecca and Medina
and further north in modern-day Jordan, the capital of the Nabataeans.
In the Middle East, the first centuries AD were a period of intellectual and
cultural ferment. The Arabs’ involvement in trade brought them into contact
with Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian religions and the cultures of Greece,
Rome and Persia. Out of this grew an oral poetic tradition and the basis of
the modern-day Arabic language, as well as a sense of Arab identity.
Arab self-confidence reached a climax in the early seventh century with the
rise of Islam. This provided a religious and cultural impulse to Arab iden-
tity. The Arabs captured Jerusalem from the Persians in 638, just six years
after the prophet Mohammed’s death. Arabs then built the Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem on what had been the site of the Jewish temple and the Roman
Temple to Jupiter (see page 63 and below). Within another 100 years, Islamic
influence stretched west around the southern Mediterranean coast to central
Spain, East to modern Afghanistan and north to the Caucasus Mountains.

Source 4.4
The Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem are important
places of worship for Muslims.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the significance
of the Dome of the Rock
for Arab Palestinians?
2. These worshippers are
involved in salat, one of
Islam’s five central practices
(Pillars). Access the website
for this book and click on
the Islam weblink for this
chapter (see ‘Weblinks’,
page viii). Use the
information to identify the
Five Pillars of Islam and what
these practices involves.

66 Retrospective
 Zionism — its origins and aspirations
anti-Semitism W an attitude of
prejudice against Jews; arose
from a belief in separate ‘races’,
with the Jewish ‘race’ being
considered inferior to a
mythical ‘Aryan’ race
Shoah (or Holocaust) W
(Jewish for ‘catastrophe’)
or Holocaust (‘total destruction
by fire’) refer to Hitler’s attempt
to exterminate the Jewish
population
laissez-faire W the attitude of
minimum interference by a
government in the lives of
people and the conduct of
business
Source 4.5
An illustration c. 1890 showing
Jews being attacked during a
violent pogrom in Kiev, Russia
SOURCE QUESTION
What evidence does source
4.5 provide that the pogroms:
(a) were violent
(b) were condoned by the
government?
Zionism W a cultural then
political movement with the
aim of creating a Jewish state
as a refuge against persecution
The slogan of the French revolution was ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’ (see
page 2). In the nineteenth century, the emphasis was on the equality of all
citizens before the law. As these ideas spread through western Europe, gov-
ernments removed some legal and political restrictions on Jewish commu-
nities. However, the social and economic changes accompanying this often led
to anti-Semitism, or prejudice against Jews. This was expressed in increas-
ingly virulent forms and culminated in the twentieth century in the rise of
the Nazi Party in Germany then the tragedy of the Shoah (or Holocaust).
The reasons for the growth in anti-Semitism are complex and they varied
from country to country. In Germany, it was strongest among the lower
middle classes — shopkeepers, tradespeople — and among the peasants.
Before the nineteenth century, these groups had many protections from the
government but, with governments adopting more laissez-faire economic
policies, their position was less secure. They saw Jews now being free to enter
the professions, and in many cases being financiers to these new governments.
Jews felt that they were taking a greater role in society, but others saw this as
a threat and anti-Semitic political parties arose in Germany.
In Russia, it was a more primitive anti-Semitism. Jews were forced to
live in their own communities and were often the subject of violent attacks
(pogroms). Large numbers of Russian Jews migrated to the United States, but
some migrated to western Europe, adding to the anti-Semitism there.
Source 4.6
An early photograph (undated) of
Theodor Herzl (1860–1904)
Theodor Herzl
Zionism — the desire for a Jewish state as a refuge for Jews from persecu-
tion — grew partly in response to the resurgence of anti-Semitism from the
nineteenth century onwards. Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) played a key role in
the development of late nineteenth-century Zionism.
Herzl was an Austrian Jew. In his early life as a journalist, Herzl was
far more interested in agitating for Austrian union with Germany than in
matters affecting Jews. His experience in France covering the Dreyfus affair
(see chapter 10, page 187) helped him to understand the causes of anti-
Semitism but also convinced him that it was going to be a long-term problem.
In June 1895, Herzl wrote in his diary that, while in Paris, he had begun to
Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 67

Ottoman W the Turkish Islamic
empire, with its capital at
Constantinople (now Istanbul)
Source 4.7
Extracts from Theodor Herzl’s
1896 pamphlet Die Judenstaat
in which he outlines his proposal
for a Jewish State
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Why did Theodor Herzl
think that European
governments would
support the creation of
a Jewish state outside
of Europe?
2. What did Herzl see as the
advantages, as a site for a
Jewish homeland, of:
(a) Argentina
(b) Palestine?
3. What did Herzl think that
the Jews could offer the
Turkish (Ottoman) empire in
return for allowing the Jews
to settle there?
68 Retrospective
understand anti-Semitism historically: ‘Above all I recognised the emptiness
and futility of trying to “combat” anti-Semitism’. Herzl argued that the success
of emancipated Jews would only lead to anti-Semitism taking new forms.
Herzl believed that the only solution was for Jews to have their own state
where they would be free to create their own society. In February 1896, he
published a pamphlet, Die Judenstaat (‘The Jewish State’), in which he said the
choice of location for this Jewish society should be either Palestine (at that
time part of the Ottoman empire) or Argentina (see source 4.7). The process
would take place with the permission of the government of these states and a
company would be set up to finance the purchase of land in these places and
establish a Jewish state.
Herzl made an attempt to meet with the Ottoman Sultan in June 1896 to
discuss a state in Palestine but, despite spending 10 days in Istanbul, Herzl
failed to meet the Sultan.
The creation of a new State is neither ridiculous nor impossible . . . The Governments of
all countries scourged by Anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to
obtain the sovereignty we want . . .
Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what
is selected by Jewish public opinion . . .
Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast
area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would
derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The
present infiltration of Jews has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be
necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement.
Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine
would attract our people with a force of marvellous potency. If His Majesty the
Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake to regulate the
whole finances of Turkey. We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe
against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism . . .
Theodor Herzl, Die Judenstaat, Section II, ‘The Jewish Question’,
translated from the German by Sylvie D’Avigdor, 1946 edition published by
American Zionist Emergency Council in Essential Texts of Zionism.
In August 1897, Herzl organised the first Zionist Conference. The word
‘Zion’ had various meanings in Hebrew literature, including the hill on
which the temple was built, but became linked symbolically to Jerusalem or
even Israel as a whole. Zionism came to refer to the movement that aimed to
create a Jewish state as a refuge against persecution. While many European
Jews were not Zionist and did not believe in a Jewish homeland, the Zionist
movement gained support.
The focus now fell on Palestine as the site of the Jewish state. Other areas
were considered (including Australia), especially when, in 1901, the Ottoman
Sultan, Abd-El-Hamid, rejected Herzl’s request for a charter to allow
colonisation of Palestine. In 1903, the British government offered Uganda as a
homeland but this was finally rejected in 1905.
The Middle East in 1900
Since the sixteenth century, the dominant power in the Middle East had been
the Islamic Ottoman empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul
in Turkey). The Arabs of Palestine, like the Christians and Jews, were subjects
of the Ottomans. The population of Palestine in 1900 was around 600 000, of
whom about 50 000 were Jews.

Enlightenment W period in the
late seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries when it was believed
that institutions should be
established on the basis of
reason rather than tradition
and superstition
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were two significant
changes taking place in the Ottoman empire. Internally, the empire was
undergoing a rapid modernisation, based on the ideas of the Enlightenment
(see page 2). By the mid nineteenth century, edicts were proclaimed that all
subjects, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim, were equal before the law. As a
result of a revolution in 1908, further changes took place; industrialisation
was soon underway and a new stress was placed on education, especially
primary education.
However, externally the Ottoman empire was in decline. Under attacks
from Russia, Austria and the Balkan states in Europe, and from Britain,
France and Italy in Africa and the Middle East, the Ottoman empire had been
reduced to less than half its original size.
The strongest influence in the Middle East was that of the British. In 1882,
they occupied Egypt, mainly to protect the Suez Canal which cut through
Egypt from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and was a vital link in Britain’s
trade with India and the Pacific. In 1889, Britain declared a protectorate over
Kuwait, this time to be able to control the Persian Gulf.
Between 1889 and 1914, Britain continued to increase its influence in
this area (see source 4.8). This led, in turn, to a growing Arab nationalism,
especially in what is now Saudi Arabia.

Source 4.8
Map showing the extent of the Ottoman empire in the Middle East, and European
pressures up to 1914
Black Sea
Constantinople RUSSIA

RUSSIA
GREECE OT
TURKEY TO Caspian
1923 M Sea
A
N
EM

Tehran
PI

CYPRUS Russian influence

RE

Mediterranean Sea BP 1878 from 1907

Annexed to Britain 1914 Damascus
Baghdad AFGHANISTAN
Jerusalem PERSIA
Cairo Basra

KUWAIT
BP 1899–1914

BP 1861 British influence INDIA

EGYPT BAHRAIN
from 1907
British occupied 1882 ARABIA Persian
BP 1914
Gulf
TRUCIAL
OMAN
Ottoman Empire 1914 BP 1892
Red Arabian Sea
Turkey from 1923
Sea OMAN
British Colony or Protectorate BP 1891
BP 1891 British Protectorate date
0 200 400 km ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN N
1899 British sphere of influence
Russian sphere of influence

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In which Middle Eastern state do you think most conflict would exist between
Russia and Britain? What is the modern name of that state?
2. Name three modern states that formed part of the Ottoman Empire in 1914.

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 69

 Source 4.9
A 1918 photograph of British
soldier and adventurer T. E.
Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’)
in Arab dress
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Why did the British
government appoint
Lawrence in 1916 to
support the Arab revolt
against the Turks?
2. What do Lawrence’s clothes
and weapon show about
the nature of this support?
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Which statements in the
document in source 4.10
would the Arabs feel most
encouraged by?
2. List at least three
statements from the
source that indicate
that the British could
place limits on Arab
independence. Explain why
they would have this effect.
70 Retrospective
Impact of World War I
The situation in the Middle East changed dramatically in 1914 when the
Ottoman empire allied itself with Germany in World War I. On the outbreak
of war, Britain declared a protectorate over Egypt. The Anzacs trained there
in 1915 before their attack on Gallipoli and, in 1916, Egypt provided the
base for an attack on the Ottomans through Palestine and Syria. The British
believed their chances of success would be greater if they could enlist the aid
of Arabs in the region to revolt against their Ottoman rulers at the same time
as the British were fighting.
The British High Commissioner in Cairo, Sir Henry McMahon, worked
with the Arab ruler of Mecca, Amir Hussein, during 1915 and 1916 to come
up with an understanding that promised the Arabs a portion of the Ottoman
empire in return for their support against the Ottomans (see source 4.10 for
an extract from the McMahon–Hussein correspondence). An English adven-
turer, T. E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’, 1888–1935), played an important
role in these negotiations and in organising Arab attacks on the Ottomans.
Source 4.10
Extracts from a letter from Sir Henry McMahon to Amir Hussein, 24 October 1915,
part of the McMahon–Hussein correspondence
As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to
act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the
name of the Government of Great Britain to give the following assurances and
make the following reply to your letter:
1. Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognize
and support the independence of the Arabs in all regions within the limits
demanded by the Sherif of Mecca.
2. Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and
will recognize their inviolability.
3. When the situation admits, Great Britain will give to the Arabs her advice and
will assist them to establish what may appear to be the most suitable forms of
government in those various territories.
4. On the other hand, it is understood that the Arabs have decided to seek the
advice and guidance of Great Britain only, and that such European advisers
and officials as may be required for the formation of a sound form of
administration will be British. . . .
I am convinced that this declaration will assure you beyond all possible doubt of
the sympathy of Great Britain towards the aspirations of her friends the Arabs and
will result in a firm and lasting alliance, the immediate results of which will be the
expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and the freeing of the Arab peoples
from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily upon them.
Quoted in T. G. Fraser, The Middle East 1914–1979,
Edward Arnold, London, 1980, pp. 12–13.
At about the same time — in May 1916 — Britain, France and Russia signed
a secret agreement called the Sykes–Picot agreement, named after the
negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France (see source
4.11). This agreement contradicted the McMahon–Hussein correspondence
and divided up the Middle East between Britain, France and Russia.
However, Russia was excluded from this when it withdrew from World War
I in 1917, leaving the region to France and Britain alone.
 Source 4.11
Extracts from the secret
Sykes–Picot agreement between
Britain and France, 16 May 1916
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In Section Three of the
agreement, the brown
area is to be made an
international zone. From
what you have read so far,
what do you think was the
reason for doing this?
2. From Section One,
in which areas are the
Arabs to be given some
degree of recognition?
What are some of the limits
placed on them by later
sections of the agreement?
3. From this agreement, what
evidence is there that
commercial considerations
were very important to the
British and French?
4. Reference is made in
Sections Nine and Ten
to a ‘third power’. Who is
this most likely to be?
It is accordingly understood between the French and British governments:
One
That France and Great Britain are prepared to recognize and protect an
independent Arab state or a confederation of Arab states (A) and (B) marked on
the annexed map, under the suzerainty of an Arab chief.
That in area (A) France, and in area (B) Great Britain, shall have priority of right
of enterprise and local loans. That in area (A) France, and in area (B) Great Britain,
shall alone supply advisers or foreign functionaries at the request of the Arab
state or confederation of Arab states.
Two
That in the blue area France, and in the red area Great Britain, shall be allowed to
establish such direct or indirect administration or control as they desire and as
they may think fit to arrange with the Arab state or confederation of Arab states.
Three
That in the brown area there shall be established an international administration,
the form of which is to be decided upon after consultation with Russia, and
subsequently in consultation with the other allies, and the representatives of the
sheriff of Mecca.
Four
That Great Britain be accorded (1) the ports of Haifa and Acre, (2) guarantee of a
given supply of water from the Tigris and Euphrates in area (A) for area (B). His
Majesty’s government, on their part, undertake that they will at no time enter into
negotiations for the cession of Cyprus to any third power without the previous
consent of the French government.
Five
That Alexandretta shall be a free port as regards the trade of the British empire,
and that there shall be no discrimination in port charges or facilities as regards
British shipping and British goods; that there shall be freedom of transit for British
goods through Alexandretta and by railway through the blue area, or (B) area, or
area (A); and there shall be no discrimination, direct or indirect, against British
goods on any railway or against British goods or ships at any port serving the
areas mentioned.
That Haifa shall be a free port as regards the trade of France, her dominions
and protectorates, and there shall be no discrimination in port charges or facilities
as regards French shipping and French goods.
There shall be freedom of transit for French goods through Haifa and by
the British railway through the brown area, whether those goods are intended
for or originate in the blue area, area (A), or area (B), and there shall be no
discrimination, direct or indirect, against French goods on any railway, or against
French goods or ships at any port serving the areas mentioned . . .
Nine
It shall be agreed that the French government will at no time enter into any
negotiations for the cession of their rights and will not cede such rights in the blue
area to any third power, except the Arab state or confederation of Arab states,
without the previous agreement of His Majesty’s government, who, on their part,
will give a similar undertaking to the French government regarding the red area.
Ten
The British and French government, as the protectors of the Arab state, shall
agree that they will not themselves acquire and will not consent to a third power
acquiring territorial possessions in the Arabian peninsula, nor consent to a third
power installing a naval base either on the east coast, or on the islands, of the
Red Sea . . .
Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 71
 Source 4.12
Black
A map showing the areas R U S S I A
Sea
specified in the Sykes–Picot
agreement of 1916

A N A T O L I A Caspian

Sea
Tabriz
BLUE ZONE Diabekr
(Direct French control)
Urfa Mardin
Adana
Mosul
P
Alexandretta
Aleppo
A ZONE

Tigris

E
(French influence)

a
Se

Eu
CYPRUS an

R
ph
e

ra
an

te
r

S
er

Beirut
it

Baghdad
ed

Damascus

I
Riv
M

Haifa er
B ZONE
INTERNATIONAL (British influence) RED ZONE

A
ZONE Amman (Direct British control)
Jerusalem Riv
er
Gaza
Basra

Pe
EGYPT

rs lf
G
ia
Kuwait

u
Aqaba
A R A B I A

n
Re
d

N
Se
a

0 150 300 km

A third document — which was made public — complicated the situation

even further. This was the Balfour Declaration of November 1917 (see source
4.13). It was attached to a letter written by the British Foreign Secretary, Lord
Balfour, to Lord Rothschild, a prominent British Jew. The British hoped to
achieve two things by this declaration:
W It would help gain Jewish support, especially in the United States which
had just entered the war.
W There would be a Jewish population in Palestine who would support
Britain’s interests in the Suez Canal.
A close analysis of the Balfour Declaration, which took months to finalise,
shows that it is carefully worded, for example:
W it says ‘a’ national home, rather than ‘the’ national home
W it recognises the ‘civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine’ — note that Arabs were not mentioned by
name, and it did not mention Arabs’ political rights
W the last phrase was meant to placate assimilated Jews, who feared that
a Jewish homeland could be used as an excuse to expel them from the
countries in which they had chosen to live.

72 Retrospective
 Source 4.13
The Balfour Declaration,
2 November 1917

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1 Compare source 4.13 with source 4.7, the extract from Theodor Herzl’s
Die Judenstaat. What evidence does this source provide that the British
government was aware of the Zionist ideas?
2. Considering the date of this document, why do you think the British government
might want to enlist Jewish support at this time?
3. In what ways does the document fall short of offering the Zionist dream of a
‘national Jewish state’?
4. Refer to sources 4.10, 4.11, 4.12 and 4.13, then copy and complete the following
table. In the third, fourth and fifth columns, enter ‘+’ if that group gained from the
agreement, ‘–’ if they lost, and ‘0’ if it did not change the situation.

Agreement Date Britain Arabs Jews

McMahon–Hussein correspondence
Sykes–Picot agreement
Balfour Declaration

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 73

 Conflicting Arab and Jewish responses to the
Balfour Declaration
The Arab response
A few Arabs thought it was possible for Jews to create their own community
within Palestine, just as a variety of religious communities had existed under
the Ottomans. The Emir Feisal, Arab king of Syria, who was seeking British
support for his rule, wrote a letter to this effect in March 1919 (see source 4.14).
Source 4.14
We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on
Extract from a letter of 3 March the Zionist movement. Our deputation in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals
1919, from Emir Feisal of Syria to
submitted by the Zionist Organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them
Professor Felix Frankfurter, following
meetings between Emir Feisal and as moderate and proper. We will do our best, insofar as we are concerned, to help
Zionist leader Dr Chaim Weizmann them through; and we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home . . .
We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two
SOURCE QUESTION movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not
In source 4.14, the Arab leader of imperialistic. Our movement is national and not imperialist; and there is room in Syria
Syria stated that Jews and Arabs for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a real success without the other . . .
could live together in Syria. To
what aspects of the history of However, within a few years this situation changed. The two most impor-
the region was he referring, to tant factors responsible were:
support this belief? What might W Britain’s failure to honour its promise to create a Palestinian state
have been his motive in being in W a rapid acceleration in the rate of Jewish migration.
support of the Jews? In 1920, at the San Remo Conference as part of the peace settlements fol-
lowing the war, the League of Nations gave Britain a mandate over Palestine
mandate W a trusteeship system (which included modern-day Jordan) and Iraq, and gave France a mandate
established by the League of over Syria and Lebanon. The Balfour Declaration was included as part of
Nations under which former
the agreement, and Article 4 of the mandate allowed for a Jewish Agency, an
colonies of Germany and the
Ottoman empire would be organisation to help in ‘matters affecting the Jewish national Home’. While
given to particular states with Palestinian rights were also recognised and Transjordan (the land east of the
the responsibility of guiding Jordan River) was excluded from the provisions for Jewish settlement, there
them to self-government was no specific mention of a Palestinian state.
Source 4.15
Map showing the areas covered by
the British and French mandates of
1920, which divided the former TURKEY
Ottoman territories in the Middle East PERSIA
Ti

(IRAN)
gr
is

SOURCE QUESTIONS Eup

hra
tes
1. Compare the plans under the SYRIA
Sykes–Picot agreement (source Baghdad Rive
r
4.12, page 72) with source CYPRUS LEBANON IRAQ Riv
Beirut er
4.15. Which European country Damascus
Mediterranean Sea
gained the bulk of the territory? KUWAIT Persian
PALESTINE Amman
2. What happened in the 1920s Jerusalem Gulf
mandate to the A and B zones
TRANS-JORDAN
proposed in the Sykes–Picot (separated from Palestine 1921) N
agreement? EGYPT
ARABIA
3. Which three Islamic and
Arabic states actually gained British Mandate 1920 0 200 400 km
French Mandate 1920
more territory in 1920 than Red
Sea
was proposed in 1916?

74 Retrospective

announced that the Balfour Declaration was not to be seen as implying the
disappearance of ‘the Arabic population, language, or culture in Palestine’.
Source 4.16
Extracts from the Churchill White Paper of 1922, in which British Colonial Secretary Winston
Churchill addresses concerns over the interpretation of the British Mandate
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In source 4.16, find three
arguments that Churchill
puts forward to indicate
that Britain does not plan a
Jewish national state
in Palestine.
2. Find at least two aspects of
Churchill’s statement that
could still be of concern to
Palestinian Arabs.
In June 1922, Winston Churchill, who was then British Colonial Secretary,
The tension which has prevailed from time to time in Palestine is mainly due
to apprehensions, which are entertained both by sections of the Arab and by
sections of the Jewish population. These apprehensions, so far as the Arabs are
concerned, are partly based upon exaggerated interpretations of the meaning of
the [Balfour] Declaration favouring the establishment of a Jewish National Home
in Palestine, made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government on 2 November 1917.
Unauthorized statements have been made to the effect that the purpose
in view is to create a wholly Jewish Palestine. Phrases have been used such
as that Palestine is to become ‘as Jewish as England is English’. His Majesty’s
Government regard any such expectation as impracticable and have no such aim
in view. They would draw attention to the fact that the terms of the Declaration
referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into
a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded ‘in Palestine’.
In this connection it has been observed with satisfaction that at a meeting of the
Zionist Congress, the supreme governing body of the Zionist Organization, held at
Carlsbad in September, 1921, a resolution was passed expressing as the official
statement of Zionist aims ‘the determination of the Jewish people to live with
the Arab people on terms of unity and mutual respect, and together with them to
make the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which
may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development’ . . .
Further it is contemplated that the status of all citizens of Palestine in the eyes
of the law shall be Palestinian, and it has never been intended that they, or any
section of them, should possess any other juridical status . . .
During the last two or three generations the Jews have recreated in Palestine
a community, now numbering 80,000 . . . This community has its own political
organs . . . its business is conducted in Hebrew . . . and a Hebrew Press serves its
needs. It has its distinctive intellectual life and displays considerable economic
activity. This community, then . . . has in fact ‘national’ characteristics . . . [it is
hoped] that it may become a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may
take, on grounds of religion and race, an interest and a pride . . . It is essential that
[this community] should know that it is in Palestine as of right and not on the
sufferance. That is the reason why it is necessary that the existence of a Jewish
National Home in Palestine should be internationally guaranteed, and that it
should be formally recognized to rest upon ancient historic connection.
This, then, is the interpretation which His Majesty’s Government place upon the
Declaration of 1917, and, so understood, the Secretary of State is of opinion that
it does not contain or imply anything which need cause either alarm to the Arab
population of Palestine or disappointment to the Jews . . .
For the fulfilment of this policy it is necessary that the Jewish community in
Palestine should be able to increase its numbers by immigration. This immigration
cannot be so great in volume as to exceed whatever may be the economic
capacity of the country at the time to absorb new arrivals . . .
Winston Churchill, British White Paper, June 1922.
Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 75
 Arab and Jewish responses to the
British mandate
The British mandate came into effect in September 1923. The mandate did
not guarantee either a Jewish or an Arabic state and therefore, for both
communities, the size of the population and the ownership of land became
crucial. At the time of the mandate, Jews formed less than five per cent of
the population, and so immigration was crucial to them, but Arabs saw
immigration as a threat to a Palestinian state.
The first Governor of Palestine was Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and a Zionist
supporter. While there was some opposition to the British, this was muted
at the start; in effect, the rule of the British replaced the Ottoman rule under
which they had lived. As well, the British officials in Palestine tended to be
more pro-Arab in their sympathies, in contrast to officials in England who
were more pro-Jewish.
The Arab position changed by the end of the 1920s. By 1928 there were
about 590 000 Arabs and 150 000 Jews in Palestine, and over half of these Jews
were immigrants. In 1929, there was a major conflict over Jewish access to
the Western Wall. The wall adjoined Al Aqsa Mosque which was one of the
most sacred Islamic sites (see source 4.1, page 63). (A similar incident sparked
days of violent confrontation in October 2000.) Over 130 Jews were killed in
a struggle to gain better access to the wall and 116 Arabs were killed, almost
all by British soldiers trying to stop the violence.
In an inquiry into the riots, the British administration blamed the Arabs
for starting the riots but considered that they were provoked by the way in
which Jews acquired Arab land and evicted the Arabs working on it. The
British administrators in Palestine planned to restrict Jewish immigration,
but the British government overthrew this.

Source 4.17
A photograph from September
1929 showing Palestinian Arabs
listening to a proclamation issued
by the British administrators
announcing that a British Court
would put on trial any Palestinians
— Arabs or Jews — who took part
in disturbances of the peace

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Read the text and
identify aspects of the
proclamation that indicated
the British were treating
Arabs and Jews equally.
2. What criticism of (a) the
Jews and (b) the Arabs was
made in the inquiry held
into the 1929 riots?

76 Retrospective

partition W to divide a state
into two or more separate states
Haganah W (Hebrew, meaning
‘the defence’) a Jewish
paramilitary organisation
in the British Mandate of
Palestine from 1920 to 1948
Source 4.18
Graph showing the rising
proportion of Jews in Palestine
between 1922 and 1940
After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 and Nazi persecution of
Jews began, the migration of Jews to Israel increased. At the same time, many
western countries, including Australia, began to place limitations on Jewish
migration. Concerned about the increasing rate of immigration and the fact
that many Jewish firms were being encouraged to employ only Jewish labour,
Palestinian Arabs proclaimed a General Strike in April 1936. The situation
soon became violent and 200 Arabs and 80 Jews were killed.
An inquiry into this conflict, the Peel Commission, led to a plan to partition
Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, while Jerusalem and a strip
of land joining it to the Mediterranean Sea remained in British control. Plans
to divide their land only led to increased violence by the Arabs, which led in
turn to Jewish retaliation. Thousands of Arabs and Jews were killed between
1936 and 1939.
To protect themselves, Jewish settlers had created their own defence force
— Haganah. A Jewish militant organisation called Irgun was also formed
at this time.
Britain was increasingly worried by the threat from Nazi Germany and
moved closer towards the Palestinian Arabs to gain their support in the
Middle East. In 1939, partition was abandoned. In a British government policy
statement, known simply as the White Paper of 1939, Arabs were promised
a form of independence within 10 years and Jewish immigration was to be
restricted for five years and then cease.
1600 000 Jews
Total population of Palestine
1400 000
1200 000
1000 000
800 000
600 000
400 000
200 000
0
1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940
Year
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In the graph in source 4.18, the rate of increase in Jewish settlers jumps
between 1931 and 1937. What connection does this have with events in
Germany at this time?
2. The increase in Jewish settlers slows between 1937 and 1940. What could be
an explanation for this?
Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 77
 Jewish girl Hannah Blumenstein grew up in Munich, Germany, and, even
before World War II, her father spent some time in Dachau concentration
camp. As an idealistic teenager, Palestine seemed to be her only hope and, at
the age of 19, she was on one of the last boats to sail to Palestine before the
war broke out. In source 4.19, she describes her experiences as she approaches
the coast of Palestine at Haifa.
Source 4.19
So as they drew nearer to Haifa, Hannah remembers that they were all ordered to
Hannah Blumstein describes her
go below deck. Once again, instinct and determination were on her side and she
first view of the ‘Promised Land’.
She has since become a strong
decided that no orders would sabotage her experience of a vital historical moment
critic of Israel’s attitude to . . . From her vantage point, where she stood alone on deck, she saw the coast
Palestinian Arabs. of Palestine for the first time. It held an inexplicable aura of promise: not only of
food, drink, and the promise of rest but above all the promise of a new beginning,
safe from harm. She felt an instant connection to it. For her, Palestine was ‘a truly
promised land’. They waited for the darkness to descend before they came ashore
— a whole lot of young people looking for a home. ‘There were some flickering
lights and we soon recognised a flotilla of small boats approaching. We had to
quickly jump into these and were taken as far inland as necessary to find some
footing in the water. We were then immediately distributed by obviously very well
trained but also welcoming people. We had arrived.’
Hannah and the pioneers saw themselves as destined for the new beginning.
In the quiet darkness, the group went ashore, hungry, thirsty and completely
SOURCE QUESTIONS disconnected, having jettisoned their treasured possessions by order when they
1. What were the reasons for were on board ship . . . They had truly become ‘stateless persons’, starting a new
Hannah’s excitement at phase of their lives as unofficial citizens of the state of Palestine, unwelcome and
the prospect of entering entering the country in stealth as ‘illegal’ immigrants . . .
Palestine? From E. Ratnam, Living to the Full: the Life of Hannah Eady,
2. What were the things that Writeheart Press, Glenbrook, NSW, 2006.
concerned and worried her?

The nature of Arab and Jewish responses to the

question of a Jewish homeland post-World War II
During World War II, Arabs and Jews responded differently to the British as
the occupying power. While most Jewish groups, even Irgun, supported the
British in their attempts to defeat Germany, a small group led by Abraham
Stern-Yair argued that ‘The enemy is the one who rules in your country’. The
British treated members of this group as war criminals and used torture and
assassinations to defeat them.
Arabs also tried to work with the British. In February 1945, just before the
war ended, an Arab League of 12 Nations was created with British support
and the British reaffirmed their desire to limit Jewish immigration.
Reports of the Shoah (Holocaust) were emerging from German-controlled
territories. But it was only when the advancing allied armies liberated the
surviving Jews from the Nazi concentration camps that the full horror of the
situation was revealed. When Jewish refugees who had survived the concen-
tration camps tried to enter Palestine, the British continued to honour their
promise to the Arabs and forced ships to turn back. Britain only seemed to
be adding to the horror that Jews had faced and support grew in the western
world for a Jewish homeland.

78 Retrospective
 Britain was severely weakened by the effort of the war against Germany
and the responses of both Arabs and Jews were based on the belief that both
would be fighting for their different views of Palestine’s future. Jews now
saw the possibility of creating a homeland while the Palestinian Arabs would
do all they could to prevent Palestine being divided.
Source 4.20
A photograph of a refugee ship,
the Theodor Herzl, attempting
to dock in Palestine in April
1947 with 2600 Jewish
refugees on board

SOURCE QUESTION
Read the banner on the side of
the ship in source 4.20. What
message was the banner
trying to convey?
In November 1945, the British proposed an Anglo-American Committee of
Enquiry into the situation. The Committee merely recommended some form
of joint Arab–Israeli state. The Committee did recommend that 100 000 Jews be
allowed to emigrate but Britain refused to accept this and kept turning back
refugee ships. The most famous of these was the immigration ship Exodus. The
British navy intercepted the ship and its 4500 refugees were transported back
to displaced persons’ camps in Germany.
Source 4.21
A photograph of the overcrowded
immigration ship, Exodus,
arriving at Haifa in Palestine on
18 July 1947

SOURCE QUESTIONS
The banner on the ship in
source 4.21 has the words
‘Haganah’ and ‘Exodus 1947’.
(Both this ship and the one in
source 4.20 were sponsored
by the Haganah.) The
immigrants themselves named
this ship ‘Exodus 1947’. What
earlier event were they
referring to, and why?

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 79

 A meeting of Arab states was held in Syria in June 1946, and this meeting
resolved to threaten the British and American interests in the Middle East if
the rights of the Palestinian Arabs were not respected.
Jewish militants, on the other hand, responded to British policies in July
1946. They bombed the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem,
which was the headquarters of the British civil and military administration.
Ninety-one people were killed. In another attack, the bodies of two British
sergeants were hung up in public and their bodies booby-trapped, in retali-
ation for the execution of Jewish terrorists. The British had to take protection
in secure compounds. At the height of the conflict there were 100 000 British
soldiers in Palestine to keep control of a population of about 1 600 000.

Source 4.22
A photograph of the ruins of
the southern wing of King David
Hotel in Jerusalem after its
bombing by Jewish militants
in July 1946. Ninety-one people
were killed, most of them staff
of the British Secretariat and
the hotel: 28 British, 41 Arab,
17 Jewish and 5 others.
Around 45 people were injured.

SOURCE QUESTION
Why did Jewish terrorists
choose this hotel as a target?

By February 1947, the British gave up their mandate over Palestine and
announced a departure date of 15 May 1948. They handed the question of
what to do about the opposing claims of Arabs and Jews to the newly formed
United Nations.

80 Retrospective
 The United Nations partition of Palestine
Source 4.23
A map showing the United
Nations partition plan of 1947
© Martin Gilbert 2005/Map redrawn by MAPgraphics Pty Ltd, Brisbane
The United Nations (UN) was created during World War II to replace the
League of Nations. Its 51 member nations were dominated by the western
world. The future of Palestine was one of the first issues that confronted the
UN. There were two main proposals to resolve the conflict:
W Jews favoured a division in two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab.
W Arabs favoured a unified state,
with proportional representation
for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
In April 1946, the United Nations
Special Committee on Palestine
(UNSCOP) was established to con-
sider the problem. This committee
comprised 11 nations that were con-
sidered neutral — including Australia
— and was chaired by Swedish judge
Emil Sandström. On 1 September
1946, a majority of the nations
(Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala,
Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay)
recommended a three-way division of
Palestine into:
W a Jewish state
W an Arab state
W a United Nations zone,
comprising the contested area
of Jerusalem and surrounding
districts.
A minority of the UNSCOP
nations — India, Iran, Yugoslavia
— recommended a ‘federal solution’,
that is, the formation of one federal
state containing both Jewish and
Arab constituent states. Australia
abstained from the voting.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. List the main points that
(a) Arabs and (b) Jews
might make about what they would
gain and lose by this partition plan.
2. Compare a current map of the Middle
East with the proposed areas in
source 4.23.
Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 81
 Responses to the partition plan
A two-thirds majority in the UN Security Council was needed to ratify
the ‘partition plan’ decision. The partition plan was one area on which the
Soviet Union and the United States agreed. The Soviet Union wanted to rid
itself of Jews and to have an influence in the Middle East. For the United
States, a Jewish state in Palestine had two advantages. The policy gained
the support of influential Jews in the US but, at the same time, the US had
restrictive policies on Jewish immigration and preferred refugees to migrate
to Palestine. However, many smaller states and the Islamic states voted
against the decision (see source 4.24) and a majority vote was only achieved
after pressure by Jewish supporters on some of these smaller states. Arabs
then took the case to the International Court of Justice, arguing that a country
could not be divided against the wishes of its majority population (two-
thirds of the population of Palestine in 1948 were Arabs), but this proposal
was narrowly defeated.

Source 4.24
The result of voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 29 November 1947

In favour of partition plan: 33 (Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,

Byelorussian SSR, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican
Republic, Ecuador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxemburg,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, USA, USSR,
Uruguay, Venezuela)
Against the partition plan: 13 (Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq,
Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Yemen)
Abstained: 10 (Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras,
Mexico, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia)

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What reasons did the countries named as supporting the partition of Palestine
have for doing so? Refer to at least three countries in your response.
2. Referring to at least three countries, explain the reasons the states listed as
being against the plan had for opposing it.
3. Why do you think the United Kingdom abstained from voting?

It was one thing for the UN to have a policy of partition but, having just
fought World War II, no major powers were willing to commit the troops
needed to enforce it. The issue would be left to Arabs and Jews to fight out
among themselves. Arabs saw partition as a betrayal. As the deadline for
British withdrawal drew closer, Arabs inside and outside Palestine began to
mobilise. In the months following the partition decision, hundreds of Jews
and Arabs were killed in clashes throughout Palestine which escalated in
1948 into full-scale civil war, the Israeli War of Independence.
On 14 May 1948, the last day of British occupation, Jewish leader David
Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel. It was immediately recognised by
the Soviet Union and the United States, and then by the United Nations.

82 Retrospective
 Source 4.25
A photograph showing David
Ben-Gurion reading the
Declaration of Independence at
the ceremony in Tel Aviv,
founding the state of Israel, on
14 May 1948

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Whose photograph is
on the wall behind David
Ben-Gurion? Why do you
think this person’s image
was chosen?
2. What qualities and The Jewish people had carved out a nation for themselves. However, in
experiences led to David the process, problems were created that have haunted them for over 50 years
Ben-Gurion being chosen as and, at the time of writing, continue to be an area of conflict — that of the
Prime Minister? Palestinian refugees and an independent Palestinian state.

Meeting objectives and outcomes

Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1, P1.2
1. Research and present a report on the role played by one of the
following individuals in the Middle East. (P1.1)
W Theodor Herzl (1860–1904)
W Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952)
W Abdallah Ibn Hussein of Jordan (1875–1951)
W David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973)
W T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935)
2. Research in more detail and present a report on one of the events
listed in the timeline (source 4.26) or mentioned in the text, and
describe its significance. (P1.1)

Change and continuity over time P2.1

3. Collect newspaper articles or download material from Internet news
sites over a month that relate to the Arab–Israeli conflict. From these,
identify issues that relate back to the areas covered in this chapter
and write an article that could act as a historical introduction to this
set of cuttings. (P2.1)
4. Over the last 200 years, there have been many situations in the
world where two groups of people claim ownership of a particular
territory. Choose one of these, describe it briefly and highlight the
difference and similarities between it and the Arab–Israeli conflict.

The process of historical inquiry P3.1, P3.5

5. Both Arab Palestinians and Jews have used terrorism as part of their
struggle. Research two examples of terrorism carried out by each
group and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of terrorism
as a way of trying to achieve a goal. (P3.1, P3.4)

Chapter 4 W The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict 1880–1947 83

 6. From an Internet search, locate two more sources — one an
illustration and one a document — that could have been used in
this chapter. Give a title to each source and make up at least one
question for each source to highlight its significance. (P3.2, P3.3)
7. Investigate one of the following areas (P3.1–P3.3)
W the part played by the United States in the creation of Israel
W the form of government in Israel
W the strengths and weaknesses of the British mandate period up to 1940.

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1, P4.2

8. Form teams to research and debate the following topics.
(a) That the state of Israel would not have existed in Palestine
if the Holocaust had not taken place.
(b) That Arab and Jew should be able to co-exist in Palestine.
(c) That the conflict today can be traced back to the contradictory
features of the British mandate.
(d) That the Arabs would have been better off accepting the United
Nations Partition Plan of 1947.
Source 4.26
Timeline of key events, 1880–1948

1881 Russia; Pogroms against Jews follow assassination

of Tsar Alexander II
1883 Egypt a British Protectorate
1889 French company building Panama Canal goes bankrupt;
Jewish financiers blamed
1891 ‘Young Turk’ movement for reform in Ottoman empire
1894 France: Captain Dreyfus, Jewish army officer, arrested.
Anti-Semitism grows.
1897 Theodor Herzl organises First Zionist Conference
1900 50 000 Jews in Palestine in population of 600 000
1914 Ottoman empire allies with Germany
1914–18 World War I
1915–16 McMahon–Hussein correspondence
1916 Sykes–Picot agreement to divide Palestine between Britain,
France and Russia
1917 Balfour Declaration
1920 Britain given a mandate over Palestine
1923 British Mandate comes into effect
1929 Wailing Wall riots
1933 Hitler in power in Germany. Anti-Semitic laws
1937 Peel Commission, two-state solution
1939 British White Paper
1936–39 Palestinian Arab rebellion
1939–45 World War II; Shoah (Holocaust) in German-occupied Europe
1946 April: UN Special Commission on Palestine
July: Jewish terrorists blow up King David Hotel
1947 July: Jewish immigrants on Exodus turned away from Palestine
November: UN General Assembly votes for partition
1948 January–April: Arab–Jewish conflict
May: British withdrawal; State of Israel proclaimed

84 Retrospective
 5
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W communism W decolonisation
W democracy W imperialism
W nationalism W racism
Decolonisation in
Indochina, 1945–1954
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
The impact of French imperialism on Indochina
The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and war against the French
The growth of Vietnamese nationalism/communism
W self-determination W terrorism
W The defeat of France
KEY DATES

1850s
T France gains control
of Indochina
1930
T February Ho Chi Minh
establishes the ICP
1941
T Japan occupies
French Indochina
T Founding of Viet Minh

1943
T Viet Minh guerrilla warfare
against Japanese and French
1945
T August Viet Minh takes
control of Hanoi and Saigon
T 2 September Ho Chi Minh
proclaims Vietnamese
independence
T October Return of
the French
1946
T FirstIndochinese War
against France begins
1954
T 7 May Viet Minh defeat
French at Dien Bien Phu
T July Geneva Accords on
future of Indochina Source 5 .1
A photograph of the main street of Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1940, when Indochina was under
French rule

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 85

 Introduction
imperialism W the practice
of increasing a nation’s power
by taking control of other
nations and their resources
colony W land settled and ruled
by a foreign power which
exploits the colony’s people and
resources while maintaining a
distinction between the ruling
nation and the colonial people
it views as inferior
The impact of French imperialism on Indochina
86 Retrospective
At the beginning of the twentieth century most areas of the world were
under the control or influence of foreign powers (see the map in source 10.10,
page 188). These powers enjoyed the benefits of imperialism — the
exploitation of a colony and its resources for the benefit of the power that
controlled it.
In the second half of the twentieth century, many peoples fought political
and military battles to gain independence from colonial rule. In Indochina,
the peoples of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam fought to gain independence
from French rule and establish themselves as independent nations. The
road to independence was a long and hard-fought one that, in Vietnam, took
thirty years.
In the late nineteenth century, France was one of the world’s great powers.
It controlled land in Africa, South America and the three countries that
made up the Indochinese Union or French Indochina — Cambodia, Laos
and Vietnam. Control of these imperial possessions helped increase France’s
power, wealth and influence.
France gained control of Indochina (an area almost one
and a half times the size of France itself) from the late 1850s
onwards. In Vietnam, France created three administrative
areas — Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchina. This under-
mined the country’s sense of unity as did the French policy
of giving each area a different status in relation to France:
W A French governor ruled Cochinchina as part of France
and its political representatives could hold seats in the
National Assembly in Paris. The Vietnamese who lived
in Cochinchina could gain French citizenship.
W Those living in Annam and Tonkin could not gain
French citizenship and these territories, officially under
French ‘protection’, were not considered part of France.
In theory these areas remained under the rule of local
leaders; in reality, these leaders were not free to act
independently of France.
In Laos and Cambodia, France exercised its control
through the emperors who continued the day-to-day rule
of their countries. France influenced their decision making
and, either directly or indirectly, the French governor ruled
all of Indochina.
Source 5.2
A nineteenth-century illustration depicting French forces
conquering Hanoi
SOURCE QUESTION
What impression does the source 5.2 illustration give of the French
troops’ method of overcoming the Indochinese people of Hanoi?
 Source 5.3
Map showing the stages
by which France gained
control of Indochina and the
differing nature of control
within Indochina’s five main
administrative areas
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Use source 5.3 to answer the
following.
1. Identify the years
CAMBODIA
in which France took • French control from 1863
control of the different • Emperor continued
day-to-day rule
areas of Indochina.
2. What advantages
would France have gained
by dividing Indochina
into five areas?
racism W one group’s view that
its race is superior to that of
another group
Source 5.4
Photograph showing a peasant
carrying a French official along a
stream
CHINA
TONKIN
TONKIN • French control from 1884
1884 • Indirect French rule through
BURMA
Hanoi Vietnamese emperor
• France had to approve all decisions
LAOS • Not considered part of France so no
1893 French citizenship for Vietnamese
• Hanoi — an important centre of
N administration
LAOS
• French control from 1893
• Emperor continued
day-to-day rule ANNAM
• French control from 1884
• Indirect French rule through
THAILAND Vietnamese emperor
• France had to approve all decisions
ANNAM
1884 • Not considered part of France so no
French citizenship for Vietnamese
CAMBODIA
1863
COCHINCHINA
• French control from 1862
• Direct rule from France through
Saigon French governor
COCHINCHINA • Considered part of France so
1862 Vietnamese here could have French
citizenship and representation in the
0 200 400 km French National assembly
• Saigon — known as ‘the Paris
of the Orient’
French attitudes and influence in Indochina
France, like most empire builders, believed that the ‘natives’ in its colonies
were inferior and in need of contact with French culture to overcome their
‘backwardness’. This racism was a component of the spread of French civilisa-
tion in Indochina, France’s mission civilisatrice, which resulted in weakening
traditional Indochinese sources of authority. For example:
W French culture and European subjects were the main influences on the
education system.
W France encouraged upper-class Indochinese to adopt French cultural
practices, values and attitudes.
W French-educated officials took control of village communities and
undermined their traditional social and economic structures.
Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 87
 Source 5.5
A French woman in Indochina
describing a meeting with a local
Annamese man
Source 5.6
Photographs of Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris (left) and
Hanoi Cathedral in Vietnam (right)
self-determination W
a people’s right to exercise
independent control of
its own destiny
88 Retrospective
He gave his hand to my husband and then to me. It was the first time I had shaken
hands with an Annamese, and a shudder went through me when I felt in my own
the uncanny dry-skinned fingers with their long nails. This simple and natural
action brought home to me more strongly than ever the natural antipathy that
exists between white and yellow races. In theory, I do not mind shaking hands
with any of the mandarins who will do me that honour, but I can never do so
without this consciousness.
Extract from G. Vassal, On and Off Duty in Annam,
Heinemann, London, 1910, p. 109.
SOURCE QUESTION
What do sources 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6 indicate about the impact of French colonisation on
Vietnamese life and culture?
Indochinese colonies provided many opportunities for France to increase
its wealth and prestige. Indochina produced significant quantities of coal,
corn, rice, rubber, silk, tin and zinc and its location was useful for building
up France’s overland trade with China. France used many of Indochina’s
25 million people as a cheap labour force in mines, factories and rice fields and
on rubber plantations. The establishment of monopoly control of the alcohol,
salt and opium trades also enhanced France’s profits, with France demanding
that the Montagnards (highland dwellers) achieve set production targets and
that villagers in the lowlands achieve French-designated buying targets.
The needs of the French colonists took priority over the development of
Indochina for the benefit of its own people, who therefore could not exercise
self-determination. The people who grew the rice had little access to it as a
food source. The work of the peasants financed the building of canals, roads,
railway lines and port facilities to service French trading opportunities and
the cost of the French administration of Indochina. The peasants remained
poor under the burden of high taxes, high rents and debts to moneylenders.
 Indochinese labourers bore the cost of the Michelin tyre company’s
reliance on Indochinese rubber supplies. In the period 1917–44, nearly 30 per
cent of the workers on one rubber plantation died from diseases caused by
malnutrition. In Vietnam, the French gave land grants to French settlers and
also sold large areas of land to wealthy Vietnamese. By the late 1930s, these
landlords controlled 45 per cent of the rice-growing areas in Cochinchina
while 60 per cent of the peasantry had no land at all.
The French Security Service protected French political and economic
interests. Frenchmen held most of the key government and public service
positions; the Indochinese who did achieve significant positions received a
fraction of the wages paid to their French counterparts.

The rise of Vietnamese nationalism and ‘war’

against the French
In all countries of Indochina, the native population had fought from the very
guerrillas W locals who fight the beginning against French rule of its territory. In Vietnam, guerrillas fought to
enemy by engaging in surprise prevent both the forceful takeover of their land and the loss of their heritage.
attacks on enemy facilities,
Vietnamese peasants protested against changed patterns of work and land
troops and supply routes
ownership. Some upper-class Vietnamese joined and provided leadership for
armed peasant revolts and scholar patriots provided ongoing encouragement
of a concept of Vietnamese national identity. The French responded with
violence and attempts to suppress radical thought. This further encouraged
nationalism W sense of a the growth of nationalism and resistance to French rule. The French also
national identity developed from responded by providing privileges to upper-class Vietnamese in order to win
belonging to a group sharing
common cultural, linguistic and
their loyalty and increase the gap between them and those of lower classes.
historical ties, and the desire to
work with others to achieve Source 5.7
common goals related to these,
Photograph of a group of Vietnamese guerrillas in the late nineteenth century
at times regardless of how this
might affect other countries

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 89


terrorism W the use of violence
to gain political change
democracy W government
by elected representatives
of the people
quoc ngu W the romanised
script, used for the Vietnamese
language. It replaced the
Chinese script.
90 Retrospective
Early twentieth century nationalism
Many educated Vietnamese refused to cooperate with the French. Phan Boi
Chau and Phan Chu Trinh were two of the most prominent activists of this
anti-French group.
In the early twentieth century, Phan Boi Chau tried to gain support for
a rebellion against the French and create the basis of a leadership group to
replace them. In the period 1904–12, he helped create three different nationalist
and pro-independence organisations: the Duy Tan Hoi (Reformation Society)
in 1904; the Viet Nam Cong Hien Hoi (Vietnam Public Offering Society) in 1907;
and the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (Vietnam Restoration Society) in 1912.
Phan Boi Chau encouraged his followers to think of themselves as Viet-
namese and forget the divisive French terms (Annamese, Cochinchinese and
Tonkinese) for people from the different areas of the country. He aimed to
gain Vietnamese independence from French rule and establish a democratic
republic. Phan Boi Chau believed that the French had to be forced out of
Vietnam. His use of terrorism gained him a four-year prison term in 1914.
He lived in exile in China for the next eight years and then under house
arrest back in Vietnam (after the French kidnapped him to force his return)
until his death in 1940.
Phan Chu Trinh was another important pro-independence leader. He
supported some of the ideas of the eighteenth-century French philosophers,
Montesquieu and Rousseau, and believed that French colonial government
could evolve peacefully towards democracy. He was one of many educated
Vietnamese whom the French imprisoned at Poulo Condore, an island which
the French used for political prisoners.
The use of quoc ngu (the national script) in literature, journals and
pamphlets helped towards the creation of a national rather than a regional
identity within Vietnam. The printing business established by Nguyen Van
Vinh (1882–1936) in Hanoi in 1907 facilitated the acceptance of this national
language which, in 1918, officially replaced the Chinese script. The use of
quoc ngu became the main means of spreading views critical of France’s
influence in Vietnam and making them accessible to educated Vietnamese.
It also promoted a national identity through promotion of a Vietnamese
literary culture.
Nationalism between the wars
Resistance grew stronger during and after World War I. This was due to the
influence of nationalism that arose from French demands on Vietnam during
the war. France took 50 000 soldiers and 50 000 workers to serve in Europe
and significantly increased local taxes to help subsidise the French war effort.
In the Thai Nguyen province of north Vietnam, Vietnamese soldiers armed
prisoners and locals in an uprising against French authority. As with many
other revolts at that time, the French regained control and either killed or
imprisoned those who had fought against them.
The education that many wealthy Vietnamese experienced in France itself
also encouraged a greater understanding of and commitment to nationalist
ideas and the ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité, which had inspired the
French people’s own struggles against oppression and injustice (see page 2).

communism W a political
ideology and economic system,
developed by Karl Marx
(1818–1883), in which people
share equally the ownership
of their society’s resources,
contribute to its work according
to their abilities, and are
provided for according to their
needs. Its main ideas include the
abolition of private ownership of
property; government control of
the nation’s resources; and the
elimination of classes.
By 1930, two radical revolutionary groups had emerged to challenge French
authority:
W the Vietnamese Nationalist Party (VNQDD), which never recovered from
the failure of its 1930 attempt to take power
W the more successful Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), founded by Ho
Chi Minh (1890–1969) in 1930.
Ho Chi Minh’s goal of independence from French rule reflected both a
strong communist and a nationalist outlook as was evident in his speech
announcing the formation of the ICP in 1930 (see source 5.8). This speech
reflected his commitment to communism as the framework for the achieve-
ment of nationalist goals.
Source 5.8
Extract from Ho Chi Minh’s speech in February 1930 announcing the formation of the ICP
Workers, peasants, soldiers, youth, pupils!
Oppressed and exploited compatriots!
The Communist Party of Indochina is founded. It is the party of the working
class. It will help the proletarian class lead the revolution in order to struggle
for all the oppressed and exploited people. From now on we must join the Party,
help it and follow it in order to implement the following slogans:
1. To overthrow French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary
Vietnamese capitalist class.
2. To make Indochina completely independent.
3. To establish a worker–peasant and soldier government.
4. To confiscate the banks and other enterprises belonging to the
imperialists and put them under the control of the worker–peasant
and soldier government.
5. To confiscate all of the plantations and property belonging to the
imperialists and the Vietnamese reactionary capitalist class and distribute
them to poor peasants.
6. To implement the eight hour working day.
7. To abolish public loans and poll tax. To waive unjust taxes hitting the
poor people.
8. To bring back all freedom to the masses.
9. To carry out universal education.
10. To implement equality between man and woman.
Ho Chi Minh, quoted in I. Sutherland, Conflict in Indo China,
Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne, 1990, p. 18.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who is the audience for the speech in source 5.8?
2. Which of Ho Chi Minh’s slogans are linked to:
(a) the nationalist goal of independence
(b) the communist goal of improving the lives of working-class people?
3. What do your answers to these questions indicate about which ideology —
communism or nationalism — played the more significant role in the ICP
at this time?
Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 91

Vichy government W French
government headed by
Marshall Pétain that cooperated
with the Nazi government
controlling the northern part of
France
Viet Minh W a group
incorporating Vietnamese
nationalists who fought to gain
independence from foreign
control of Vietnam
decolonisation W the freeing
of a colony from imperial rule
and granting of self-government;
in this context, the removal
of French imperialist control
over Indochina
92 Retrospective
The ICP began to build support for its goal of independence and, at
the same time, provide the framework for an alternative to French rule.
When the Great Depression of the 1930s led to the collapse of world
markets for rubber and rice, this resulted in famine inside Vietnam. The
economic hardships of the Depression provided additional reasons for the
peasantry to support the ICP against the French. During the 1930s, the ICP
led demonstrations against low pay, high salt prices and other aspects of
French exploitation of the Vietnamese people. The French imprisoned a
number of the party’s leaders and the party itself continued its efforts in
less obvious ways.
Over the next decade, the ICP policy for Vietnam developed into one
placing a stronger influence on nationalism and independence and linked
to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of organisation.
Ho Chi Minh argued that these goals could best be achieved through estab-
lishing broadly based national opposition to the French and the use of com-
munist political ideology.
Ho Chi Minh’s ideas differed from those of mainstream Russian commu-
nists in two ways:
1. He placed his main emphasis on the achievement of national indepen-
dence, rather than on gaining equality for all people within Vietnam.
2. He believed that peasants rather than urban workers would be the main
force for change.
The impact of World War II
The outbreak of World War II in September 1939 provided a real opportunity
to end French control of Indochina. From early 1940 onwards, Nazi German
forces controlled northern France and influenced the nominally neutral
Vichy government that ruled southern France. The Vichy government
lacked the strength to retain control of all of France’s overseas colonies.
Japanese forces invaded French Indochina to gain access to its raw
materials. Japan particularly wanted to prevent Vietnam from supplying
Japan’s enemy — China — with essential materials. In September 1941, the
Vichy government agreed to allow an occupying force of 35 000 Japanese
soldiers into Indochina. The French remained the official rulers of Indo-
china by allowing the Japanese to take whatever of its resources they wanted
for their war effort. These events increased Indochina’s hostility to both
France and Japan and gave further encouragement to Vietnamese nationalism.
They encouraged support for a resistance movement known as the Viet Minh
(Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam), which Ho Chi
Minh founded in 1941. Opposition to French rule became more organised.
Strategies of the Viet Minh
The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups largely influenced by
its ICP leadership. Its goal was Vietnamese independence from foreign rule,
or decolonisation, and its membership included both nationalists and com-
munists. Many observers viewed Ho Chi Minh primarily as a nationalist
fighting for Vietnamese liberation rather than as a communist. His closest
colleagues were Pham Van Dong and Vo Nguyen Giap.

guerrilla warfare W method of
warfare in which small groups
engage in surprise attacks on
enemy facilities, troops and
supply routes
Source 5.9
Extract from a letter written in June 1941 by Ho Chi Minh at the time of the founding of the
Revolutionary League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh)
Elders! Prominent personalities! Intellectuals, peasants, workers, traders,
and soldiers! Dear compatriots!
Since the French were defeated by the Germans, their forces have been
completely disintegrated. However, with regard to our people, they continue to
plunder us pitilessly, suck all our blood, and carry out a barbarous policy of all-out
terrorism and massacre. Concerning their foreign policy . . . they heartlessly offer
our interests to Japan. As a result, our people suffer under a double yoke: they
serve not only as buffaloes and horses to the French invaders but also as slaves
to the Japanese plunderers . . .
Rich people, soldiers, workers, peasants, intellectuals, employees, traders,
youth, and women who warmly love your country! At the present time national
liberation is the most important problem. Let us unite together! As one in mind
and strength we shall overthrow the Japanese and French and their jackals in
order to save people from the situation between boiling water and burning heat.
Dear compatriots!
National salvation is the common cause to the whole of our people. Every
Vietnamese must take part in it. He who has money will contribute his money,
he who has strength will contribute his strength, he who has talent will contribute
his talent. I pledge to use all my modest abilities to follow you, and am ready for
the last sacrifice.
Revolutionary fighters!
. . . Unite with each other, unify your action to overthrow the Japanese and the
French. Victory to Vietnam’s revolution!
Victory to the World’s Revolution!
Published in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, Vol. 2, Hanoi, 1960–62, pp. 151–4,
quoted in I. Sutherland, Conflict in Indo China, Thomas Nelson Australia,
Melbourne, 1990, pp. 20–21.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. To whom is the letter in source 5.9 addressed? What does this indicate about
the types of people whose support the Viet Minh is seeking?
2. Which aspects of the letter reflect the communist goal of ‘From each according
to his ability, to each according to his needs’?
3. What does Ho Chi Minh say to gain support for the cause of independence?
The Viet Minh succeeded in coordinating support for two key nationalist
goals:
W overthrowing Japanese control of Vietnam during World War II
W preventing the return of the French.
Giap, the military strategist, organised the Viet Minh into an army of 10 000
guerrilla fighters. They mounted an effective guerrilla warfare campaign
against both the French and the Japanese in the period from 1943 to 1945.
The Viet Minh fought in the jungles and operated in small groups, attacking
enemy resources. The French responded with the arrest and killing of Viet
Minh troops and the bombing of known Viet Minh areas. US military intelli-
gence personnel assisted the Viet Minh and sympathised with their hostility
to the harshness of French colonial rule.
Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 93
 The growth of Vietnamese nationalism/communism
The Japanese were determined to maintain their use of Indochina’s resources.
From March 1945, the Japanese began to disarm, imprison and kill French
troops and officials and to intern all other French citizens. They tried to
gain support from the Vietnamese people by offering to create a nominally
independent Vietnam under the leadership of its Emperor, Bao Dai. However,
World War II ended with the defeat of Japan in August 1945. This left two
contenders for power inside Vietnam — the much weakened French and
the Vietnamese.
Between mid and late 1944, over two million peasants died of starvation
in the Quang Tri province of northern Vietnam. By late 1945, between 15 and
20 per cent of the Vietnamese population had starved to death as a result
of Japan’s plunder of the country’s resources. The threat of famine unified
Vietnam in support of Viet Minh forces. People rallied in excitement and
anticipation behind the slogan ‘Vietnam for the Vietnamese’.
The Viet Minh took control of Hanoi on 17 August 1945, and Saigon and
Cochinchina on 25 August 1945. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed Vietnamese inde-
pendence before a huge crowd in Hanoi on 2 September 1945. His declaration
of independence came at the end of a war which the Allies had fought in the
name of democracy and self-determination.

Source 5.10
Photograph showing Ho Chi Minh declaring Vietnamese independence on 2 September 1945

SOURCE QUESTION
In what ways does this photo in source 5.10 express Vietnamese nationalism
and self-determination?

94 Retrospective
 Source 5.11
Extracts from Ho Chi Minh’s ‘All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain
Declaration of Independence on inalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’.
2 September 1945 This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the
United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples
on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy
and free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution . . . on the Rights of Man and the Citizen
also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain
free and have equal rights.’ Those are undeniable truths.
Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the
standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity . . . have acted contrary to the ideals
of humanity and justice . . .
They have . . . wreck[ed] our national unity . . .
They have built more prisons than schools . . . they have drowned our uprisings in
SOURCE QUESTIONS rivers of blood . . . To weaken our race they have forced us to use opium and alcohol . . .
They have robbed us of our rice fields, our mines, our forests, and our raw
1. Which two famous materials . . .
documents are referred They have invented numerous unjustifiable taxes and reduced our people,
to in this source? Why did especially our peasantry, to a state of extreme poverty . . .
Ho Chi Minh refer to them? In the autumn of 1940, when the Japanese Fascists violated Indochina’s territory
Visit the website for this
to establish new bases in their fight against the Allies, the French imperialists went
book and click on the
down on their bended knees and handed over our country to them.
‘Declarations’ weblinks for
Thus, from that date, our people were subjected to the double yoke of the
this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’,
French and the Japanese. Their sufferings and miseries increased . . . On March
page viii) for additional
9 [1945], the French troops were disarmed by the Japanese. The French
information on each of
colonialists either fled or surrendered . . .
the famous documents.
From the autumn of 1940, our country had in fact ceased to be a French colony
2. What reasons does and had become a Japanese possession.
Ho Chi Minh put forward
After the Japanese had surrendered to the Allies, our whole people rose to regain
in source 5.11 to gain the
our national sovereignty and to found the Democratic Republic of Vietnam . . .
support of other nations for
The French have fled, the Japanese have capitulated, Emperor Bao Dai has
the cause of Vietnamese
abdicated. Our people have broken the chains which for nearly a century have
independence?
fettered them and have won independence for the Fatherland . . .
3. Visit the website for this We are convinced that the Allied nations which . . . have acknowledged the
book and click on the principles of self-determination and equality of nations, will not refuse to
‘Vietnamese independence’ acknowledge the independence of Vietnam.
weblink for this chapter
A people who have courageously opposed French domination for more than
to find the full text of
eighty years, a people who have fought side by side with the Allies against the
the Declaration. Identify
Fascists during these last years, such a people must be free and independent . . .
additional reasons put
forward in favour of Published in Ho Chi Minh, Selected Works, Vol. 3, Hanoi, 1960–62, pp. 17–21.
Vietnamese independence.
The French refused to accept this Declaration of Independence and, in
October 1945, they returned to re-establish their control of Indochina. Ho
Chi Minh travelled to France to try to negotiate a compromise and French
and Viet Minh representatives met throughout 1946 in an attempt to prevent
the outbreak of war. By December 1946, it was obvious that there would be
no compromise.
The Viet Minh engaged in terrorist attacks against French military instal-
lations and, in November 1946, the French shelled the port of Haiphong, killing
6000 Vietnamese in the process. This began the First Indochinese War.

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 95

 Source 5.12
Photograph showing Ho Chi Minh
putting forward his case for
Vietnamese independence
in 1946

SOURCE QUESTION
What impression does the
photograph in source 5.12
create of the differences
between the world of
Ho Chi Minh and that of
his French opponents?

capitalism W an economic
system based on private
ownership of the means of
production and pursuit of
business opportunities for the
owner’s individual profits
domino effect W the view, put
forward by the US during the
Cold War, that the ‘fall’ of one
country to communism would
be followed by the ‘fall’ of its
neighbours. As a result, the US
sought to ‘contain’ communism
by military intervention in areas
it considered under threat.
The war against the French
The French government sought and eventually gained the support of the
United States, which preferred French rule of Indochina to the extension of
communist influence there. The United States feared the spread of commu-
nism, which it saw as a threat to democracy and to capitalism. The US was
particularly concerned when communists gained control of China’s govern-
ment in 1949. By the mid 1950s, the US government spoke of its concern for
a domino effect (see source 5.13) whereby the ‘fall’ of one country
to communism would quickly be
followed by the ‘fall’ of
its neighbours.

Source 5.13
INDIA
INDONESIA

BURMA

A diagram illustrating the

domino theory
MALAYA
THAILAND
IA
C AMBOD
L AOS
M
TNA
VIE
A
RE
KO
A
IN
CH

SOURCE QUESTION
Explain the message illustrated by the diagram in source 5.13.

96 Retrospective

Cold War W the period of
political, economic and
ideological rivalry between the
United States and the Soviet
Union, from around 1945 to
1991. While the two nations did
not engage in direct military
conflict, they did supply troops,
weaponry and finances to one
another’s enemies.
Source 5.15
A photograph of the Viet Minh
General Vo Nguyen Giap (in the
white suit) in 1952 inspecting
troops of the People’s Army
SOURCE QUESTION
What might have been the
photographer’s intention in
taking the photograph in
source 5.15?
The United States gave its support to France with the hope that France
would grant more freedom to other Vietnamese political groups. The Viet
Minh received support from the communist governments of China and the
Soviet Union. Vietnam’s fight for independence became part of the conflict
known as the Cold War.
War continued for over seven more years. During this time, the French
re-established their control of the major cities and coastal areas of Vietnam.
Viet Minh guerrillas established their influence in the north, the Red River
Delta and the countryside generally.
Source 5.14
Extract from a 1946 interview with Ho Chi Minh in which he expressed his view of
‘the elephant and the tiger’
I said to him, ‘President Ho, how can you possibly make war against the French
army?’ He replied: ‘Mr Schoenbrun, we have a secret weapon . . . Don’t smile when
I tell you this. Our secret weapon is nationalism. To have nationhood, which is a
sign of maturity, is greater than any weapons in the world.’ He said it would be a
war between an elephant and a tiger. ‘If the tiger ever stands still, or is trapped out
into the open, the mighty elephant of France will crush him. However, the tiger of
Indo-China is going to hide in the jungle by day. He will steal out at night and he
will leap upon the back of the elephant and tear great chunks out of the elephant’s
hide — and slowly the elephant will bleed to death. It may take three years, it may
take five, it may take ten, but that will be the war in Indo-China.’
Quote from David Schoenbrun’s interview with Ho Chi Minh in Paris, 1946.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the ‘elephant’ and ‘tiger’ that Ho Chi Minh refers to in source 5.14?
2. What does source 5.14 indicate about the advantages the Viet Minh had over
its opponents?
Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 97
 Source 5.16
A photograph taken in December
1953 showing the capture of a
Viet Minh soldier as he emerges
from an underground hideout

SOURCE QUESTION
From the photograph in source
5.16, identify the methods of
warfare used by the Viet Minh
against the French.

The defeat of France

General Navarre was the French military leader in Vietnam. General Vo
Nguyen Giap was the Viet Minh’s military leader. Navarre aimed to encourage
Giap to come into open battle against the French. To achieve this, Navarre
strengthened the French army base at Dien Bien Phu, a town located on the
main supply route between Vietnam and Laos. He believed that Giap would
be forced to attack Dien Bien Phu to protect Viet Minh access to food supplies
in this area. Navarre believed his troops would be able to successfully defend
their base and seriously weaken the Viet Minh. Giap believed an attack on
Dien Bien Phu could result in a major defeat for the French in Indochina.

The elephant and the tiger: 55 days at

Dien Bien Phu
Navarre did not take into account the Viet Minh’s determination and resource-
fulness. General Giap organised as many as 20 000 peasants to move on foot,
by bicycle or with carts transporting supplies through the jungle from the Viet
Minh base 120 kilometres away. By January 1954, about 40 000 Viet Minh troops
and 200 heavy artillery guns were positioned in the mountains that encircled the
valley of Dien Bien Phu and the 15 000 French troops stationed there.

98 Retrospective
 Source 5.17
A member of the Viet Minh
describing the efforts taken to
prepare for battle
We had to cross mountains and jungles, marching at night and sleeping by day
to avoid enemy bombing. We sometimes slept in foxholes, or just by the trail. We
each carried a rifle, ammunition, and hand grenades, and our packs contained a
blanket, a mosquito net, and a change of clothes. We each had a week’s supply of
rice, which we refilled at depots along the way. We ate greens and bamboo shoots
that we picked in the jungle, and occasionally villagers would give us a bit of meat.
I’d been in the Vietminh for nine years by then, and I was accustomed to it.
Quoted in Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, Penguin,
Harmondsworth, 1986, p. 191.

SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 5.17 indicate about the attitudes and experiences of the
Viet Minh forces before Dien Bien Phu?

In mid March 1954, the Viet Minh began their artillery fire on the French
below, inflicting serious damage to the airstrip that provided the only link
with the French supply base at Hanoi. Additional troops began digging
tunnels to bring them closer to the French fortifications. Continued artillery
bombardment over the next few weeks reduced the area under French control.
Fog and the muddied ground made it increasingly difficult for the French to
either drop fresh supplies into the area or transport the wounded out.
On 1 May 1954, the Viet Minh launched a massive assault on all areas still
under French control. By 7 May, the Viet Minh had gained control of Dien
Bien Phu and the French surrendered.
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was the culmination of the nine-year war
between France and Vietnam that came to be known as the ‘First Indochinese
War’. The battle cost France over 7000 in casualties and 11 000 taken pris-
oner and it signified France’s failure to re-establish either political or military
control over Indochina. The Viet Minh had suffered 8000 dead and 12 000
wounded. They had gained significant bargaining power at the Geneva Con-
ference, which was due to address the issue of the future of Indochina.

Source 5.18
Photograph from July 1954
showing French and Vietnamese
prisoners after the battle of Dien
Bien Phu, being led from the area
under the guard of communist
Viet Minh troops

SOURCE QUESTION
Describe what is happening in
source 5.18 and the
significance of this for the
conflict in Indochina.

Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 99


USSR W the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, also known
as the Soviet Union
Source 5.19
Extract from the Geneva
Conference declaration on
Indochina, July 1954
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What military provisions
are outlined in source
5.19? What do you think
was their purpose?
2. What was the demarcation
line and why
was it ‘provisional’?
3. What principles were
supposed to underpin ‘the
settlement of [Vietnam’s]
political problems’?
4. What were the plans for
elections in Vietnam?
100 Retrospective
1954 — The Geneva Conference
From 26 April 1954, representatives of France, the USSR and the United
States met in Geneva, Switzerland. Their first priority was to solve the prob-
lems that had arisen from the war between North and South Korea (1950–53).
On 8 May, they began discussions on the future of Indochina that concluded
with a document known as the Geneva Accords.
The following were the most significant aspects of the Geneva Accords:
W France must grant complete independence to Cambodia, Laos
and Vietnam.
W There would be a temporary division of Vietnam into two sectors
along the 17th parallel of latitude.
W A demilitarised zone would separate North and South Vietnam
and no foreign bases were allowed within any area of Indochina.
W Residents of Vietnam had 300 days to decide whether they wished
to stay in either the North or South or move to the other sector.
W Free democratic elections for a government for a united Vietnam were
scheduled for July 1956. An International Control Commission would
supervise the elections.
The conference expresses satisfaction at the ending of hostilities in Cambodia,
Laos and Vietnam: the Conference expresses its conviction that the execution of
the provisions set out in the present Declaration and in the Agreements on the
cessation of hostilities will permit Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam henceforth to play
their part in full independence and sovereignty, in the peaceful community of nations.
The Conference takes note of the clauses in the Agreement on the cessation of
hostilities in Vietnam prohibiting the introduction into Vietnam of foreign troops
and military personnel as well as all kinds of arms and munitions . . .
. . . No military base under the control of a foreign State may be established in
the regrouping zones of the two parties, the latter having the obligation to see
that the zones allotted to them shall not constitute part of any military alliance
and shall not be utilised for the resumption of hostilities or in the service of an
aggressive policy.
The Conference recognizes that the essential purpose of the Agreement
relating to Vietnam is to settle military questions with a view to ending hostilities
and that the military demarcation line is provisional and should not, in any way,
be interpreted as constituting a political or territorial boundary.
The Conference declares that, so far as Vietnam is concerned, the settlement
of political problems, effected on the basis of respect for principles of
independence, unity and territorial integrity, shall permit the Vietnamese people
to enjoy the fundamental freedoms, guaranteed by democratic institutions
established as a result of free general elections by secret ballot. In order to
ensure that sufficient progress in the restoration of peace has been made and
that all the necessary conditions obtain for free expression of the national
will, general elections shall be held in July, 1956 under the supervision of an
international commission.
From Documents Related to the Implementation of the Geneva
Agreement Concerning Viet-Nam, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Hanoi, 1956, pp. 181–183, quoted in J. Harpur, World Without End,
2nd ed., Longman, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 42–43.
 Source 5.20
Map showing the division of
Vietnam following the 1954 Geneva
Conference and the allegiances
of each of its governments
N United States
0 200 400 km
superpowers W the term used
in the second half of the
twentieth century to describe
the political and military power
of nations like the United States
and the Soviet Union.
The North was to be known as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and
led by Ho Chi Minh. In the south, the government of the Republic of Vietnam
continued to be led by French-appointed Emperor Bao Dai.
In 1955, Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem took over the presidency. Diem
was an ardent nationalist supported by the United States government.
The Geneva Accords offi-
cially recognised the defeat
of France in Indochina. In
Vietnam, neither side was sat-
NORTH VIETNAM
Communist controlled, isfied with the result. The Viet
led by Ho Chi Minh and Minh had been denied the
supported by China and
unified Vietnam for which it
the Soviet Union
had been fighting. The United
States and the US-backed gov-
ernment of South Vietnam
17th PARALLEL refused to sign the Accords.
17° North latitude – an
artificial division between They were unwilling to allow
North and South to remain an election that might result
until the 1956 elections in a communist-led Vietnam.
In this sense, the Geneva
Accords created a temporary
lull in what was ultimately
SOUTH VIETNAM
Under the leadership to be a long-term struggle for
of Ngo Dinh Diem and the control of Vietnam.
supported by the In 1954, the countries of
Indochina gained indepen-
dence from France. In the
decades that followed, they
faced a new battle as the
world’s superpowers played out the Cold War on their lands and among
their peoples. This battle came to be known as the Vietnam War or, more
accurately, the Second Indochina War. This war, in which the United States
fought to prevent the spread of communism, produced huge death and casu-
alty rates, brutal atrocities, widespread destruction of property and contami-
nation of farming land and thousands of refugees.
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1 and P1.2
1. Complete the following table by identifying one individual, one group
and one event that influenced the nature of French–Indochinese
relations in the period 1945–54. (P1.1)
Key features Name/Date(s) Nature/Action Influence Significance
Individual
Group
Event
2. Essay topic: Explain the key features of French imperialism in
Indochina and its impact on the growth of nationalism. (P1.2)
Chapter 5 W Decolonisation in Indochina, 1945–1954 101
 Change and continuity over time P2.1

3. Make a time chart of forces and events between 1945 and 1954
that helped to end French control of Vietnam. Rank these in order
of importance. Are there any that you would consider essential?
Provide details to support the main points in your answer. (P2.1)
4. Discussion issue: Explain why Vietnam was able to achieve
independence from France in 1954 when it had not been able to do
so in 1945. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1– P3.5

5. View the documentary ‘The Battle for Dien Bien Phu’ and use it as a
historical source to answer the following questions.
(a) Identify and record 3–5 questions that you think are important for
understanding the reasons for the defeat of France in Vietnam. Use
these to guide your viewing of the documentary. (P3.1)
(b) Write each of your questions at the top of a separate A4 page
and make relevant notes under each question as you view the
documentary. Your notes should identify the main point being
made and the evidence provided to support it. Use a separate
page to record any additional notes you think are helpful. (P3.2)
(c) Identify and discuss in small groups or as a class:
W the information the documentary provides (such as its nature,
focus, emphasis, omissions) (P3.4)
W the perspective and interpretation of the documentary
maker (sympathetic? critical? biased? limited? narrow?
comprehensive? . . . ) (P3.4)
W the usefulness and reliability of the documentary for a historian
studying the reasons for the defeat of France in Vietnam. (P3.3)
(d) Write two A4 pages in response to the following: Analyse the
usefulness and reliability of the documentary ‘The Battle for
Dien Bien Phu’ for a historian studying the reasons for the defeat
of France in Vietnam. (P3.2, P3.3, P3.4 and P3.5)

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1 and P4.2

6. It is late 1954. You are a reporter writing a three-page report,

in preparation for a radio program, on the origins, actions and
outcomes of the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Your report should be
appropriate for broadcast to an audience of Viet Minh sympathisers.
It should identify the goals of the participants and their tactics.
In commenting on the outcome of the battle, your report should
consider both its immediate and its likely long-term significance
for the participants and other interested groups. Your report should
incorporate appropriate use of relevant historical terms
and concepts. (P4.1 and P4.2)

102 Retrospective
 6
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W communism W decolonisation

W imperialism W nationalism
Nuclear testing in the
Pacific, 1950s to 1960s

W racism W self-determination
KEY DATES
1945
T US drops atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
T Cold War begins
W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
Geographic, ideological and political motives for the testing
of nuclear weapons by western powers in the Pacific
The use of the Marshall Islands, Mururoa Atoll and Australia
for nuclear testing
W The role, responsibility and compliance of local authorities
and governments concerning the testing of nuclear devices
W Impact of nuclear fallout on the indigenous peoples
and ex-service people involved

1946
T US Operation Crossroads
at Bikini Atoll, Marshall
Islands
1947
T July US becomes the
administering authority
of the Trust Territory of
the Pacific Islands
1952
T Britain detonates first
nuclear device on Monte
Bello Island, off Western
Australia
1954
T US Operation Castle Bravo
in Marshall Islands
1956–57 Source 6.1
T Britain’s Operation The mushroom cloud from an American atomic test over the Marshall Islands as seen from
Buffalo, nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll on 25 July 1946
Maralinga, South Australia
1963 1966 1968 1996
T United States, Russia First atomic test by French detonate June France ends
and Britain agree to ban France at Mururoa Atoll, H-bomb, Canopus, nuclear testing in
nuclear testing French Polynesia over Fangataufa the Pacific

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 103

 Introduction
Cold War W the period of
political, economic and
ideological rivalry between the
United States and the Soviet
Union from around 1945–91
Geographic, ideological and political motives for
the testing of nuclear weapons by western powers
in the Pacific
104 Retrospective
World War II (1939–45) moved like a cyclone through Europe and through
the islands of the Pacific. In the aftermath came the intense rivalry of the
Cold War. With the United States’ detonation of the first atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the world moved into the era of the ‘arms
race’. On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nation in the
world to explode a nuclear bomb. Three years later, Britain became a nuclear
power. The race to produce bigger and more deadly missiles with increased
accuracy drove the defence policies of world powers. They believed nuclear
capability would protect their nations and guarantee peace and safety. The
rivalry between the US and the USSR to gain supremacy in nuclear weapons
technology brought them to the brink of nuclear war.
The early pioneering work in nuclear science and radioactivity was under-
taken in France at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Polish-French
physicist and chemist, Madame Marie Curie. Madame Curie’s assistant was a
young chemist, Bertrand Goldschmidt, who later became the only Frenchman
to work on America’s development of the atomic bomb (the Manhattan Project)
during World War II. After the war, Goldschmidt led the team that developed
nuclear energy and weapons capabilities. The first nuclear weapon was the
atomic bomb; the next weapon was the hydrogen bomb, nearly a thousand
times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Despite the dangers that nuclear weapons brought to the world, the deep
distrust between the US and the USSR destroyed any international plans to
control nuclear weapons’ production during the 1950s. In the climate of the
Cold War, the world powers believed their weapons had to be tested and the
United States, France and Britain chose the Pacific for their testing sites.
The Pacific Ocean covers nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface and is home to
more than five million Pacific Islanders. Over 60 000 years ago, communities
of people who hunted and gathered food crossed the sea channel of eastern
Indonesia to settle in Australia and New Guinea. The remote islands of the
Pacific were settled when people had developed the art of agriculture, canoe
construction and navigation. Around 4000 years ago, the first signs of human
settlement appeared in the islands east of the Solomons. Over the next 2000
years, the populations on hundreds of islands throughout the Pacific devel-
oped their own communities and cultures.
European interest in the area stirred in 1519 when the Portuguese navigator,
Ferdinand Magellan, sailed through the strait at the tip of South America and
into a sea so calm that he named it the Pacific Ocean, from the Latin pax
meaning ‘peace’. European exploration was motivated by scientific curiosity
and an increasing realisation that the vast ocean and its remote islands could
contain exploitable resources.
 Source 6.2
Map of Australia and the modern island nations of the Pacific Ocean, showing sites
of nuclear testing; (inset) part of a typical coral atoll in the Pacific

Hiroshima

N
CHINA
P
A P A C I F I C O C E A N
Nagasaki A
J
HA W
AI I A
N I SL
AN DS (
Tropic of Cancer U.
S .A
TAIWAN

A
.)

NORTHERN MARS Johnston Atoll

MARIANAS HAL (U.S.A.)
PHILIPPINES L I
SL

I
Guam (U.S.A.) Bikini Atoll A
CAROL

N
ISLANDINE M I C R O

DS
S N
E
S

S
BRUNEI FEDERATED
PA L AU STATES OF I LIN
MALAYSIA MICRONESIA
E
Christmas

A
Equator
N AU R U K I R I B A

E
PA P UA T I

IS
L AN
I N D O N E S I A NEW GUINEA SOLOMON
PHOENIX ISLANDS

DS
ISLANDS TUVALU MARQUESAS
EAST ISLANDS
TIMOR M American
E L A N

N
E Wallis SAMOA Tua
S Islands Samoa COOK mo
VANUATU tu
I FIJI (U.S.A.) SOCIETY Ar
Monte TONGA I S L A N D S ch
Bello NIUE ISLANDS Tahiti ipe
la
A

New

Y
Islands French Polynesia
Caledonia

go
Tropic of Capricorn (France) (France) Mururoa Hendersen
AU Atoll Island (U.K.)
A U S T R A L I A ISLASTRAL
NDS Pitcairn Island
L

Emu (U.K.)
Norfolk Island
Maralinga (Aust.) Kermadec
Islands
(N.Z.)
O

NEW
P

ZEALAND
Tasmania N

0 500 1000 1500 2000 km

SOURCE QUESTIONS For 400 years, the indigenous people of the Pacific lived under the flags of
various western nations. By the middle of the twentieth century, the process of
1. Look at the map of
decolonisation, bringing independence to European colonies across the globe,
the Pacific Islands in
was well underway. In the Pacific Islands, decolonisation had barely begun.
source 6.2. Suggest why
The low population density of the Pacific Islands meant that the indigenous
human settlement of the
islands extended over communities could do little to assert their independence against powerful
thousands of years. nations with their policies of nuclear colonialism. The European and North
2. What motivated the American news media largely ignored the plight of the Pacific communities.
world powers to decide on The people of the Pacific had a small voice in global politics.
the Pacific region as Three months after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US gov-
a suitable location for: ernment made the decision to develop their future nuclear testing program in
(a) colonisation Micronesia. America had entered World War II when the Japanese launched their
(b) nuclear testing? attack on Pearl Harbor from a base in Micronesia. Later, from an island in western
Micronesia, the US loaded its nuclear weapons onto the aircraft Enola Gay, bound
for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The end of World War II began the nuclear age.
Before World War II, the US saw the vastness of the Pacific Ocean as a
decolonisation W natural line of defence, but Japan’s surprise attack ended this security. There
the freeing of a colony from
was a change in US military policy, known as ‘forward defence’, which meant
imperial rule and granting
of self-government looking beyond American borders and moving American forces closer to a

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 105


SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Consider the impact on
the Pacific Islands people
of a nuclear test. Draw a
mind map to show your
ideas or list the impacts in
a table under the headings:
environmental, cultural,
social, economic
and political.
2. Why, according to source
6.3, did France act with
‘grim determination’ in
relation to nuclear testing?
3. Visit the website for
this book and click on the
‘Nuclear weapons’ weblink
for this chapter (see
‘Weblinks’, page viii) to read
more about the development
of nuclear science and the
testing activities of the
world powers.
Use of the Marshall Islands by the United States
for nuclear testing
mandate W a responsibility
granted to a nation, by an
official body, to administer the
government and affairs of a
people in an underdeveloped
nation or territory
atolls W lagoons in the ocean,
surrounded by coral reefs in a
ring-like formation
106 Retrospective
potential enemy. With disarmament in Europe, the Pacific increasingly became
the location where the superpowers competed for political and economic influ-
ence and military might. They maintained powerful military forces and instal-
lations, including capabilities to test missiles and simulate attack. War games
were played out in the Pacific using nuclear-capable warships laden with air-
craft, hazardous materials and thousands of soldiers. As the arms race con-
tinued, the Pacific Ocean provided an opportunity for the nuclear nations to do
what was ‘too dangerous, too secret, or too unpopular’ to do anywhere else.
Source 6.3
Extracts from a description of a nuclear test
In the sterile language of nuclear science, an ‘experiment’ means blowing up a
massive nuclear bomb . . .
Since [the 1960s], France has conducted 192 such atmospheric and underground
tests with grim determination — shared by soldiers and civilians alike — to ensure
their nation never again suffers the invasions inflicted on it by two world wars . . .
When a bomb is exploded, the heat it generates is greater than that of the sun.
Several metres of rock surrounding the bomb instantly turn to vapour. For a radius
of 100 metres the rock develops deep fissures. For 10–30 metres around the
detonation point a cavity forms . . .
This geological upheaval leaves the radioactive waste contained in molten lava . . .
at the bottom of the cavity. A seismic wave . . . turns the lagoon of Mururoa to foam . . .
For the nuclear scientists measuring the effects of the test, there is precious
little time to take readings. The 650-tonne container which encases both the bomb
and measuring equipment melts in milliseconds. All the readings have to be taken
within one millionth of a second and be transmitted by fibre optic cable to barges
filled with recording devices on the lagoon’s surface.
Don Greenlees, ‘History of invasion drives experiments’,
in The Australian, July 1995.
In 1885, Germany took possession of the Marshall Islands in Micronesia. In
1898, at the end of the Spanish–American War, the United States became a
colonial power in the Pacific when it took control of the Philippines and, in
Micronesia, the island of Guam. With World War II (1939–45), global conflict
transformed Micronesia from a remote corner of the globe into a region of
strategic importance.
Role and responsibility of the US government
Following the nuclear destruction of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki in 1945, the islands of Micronesia, formerly under Japanese
mandate, became the possession of the United States. In July 1947, the US
was sanctioned by the United Nations to become the administering authority
of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (see source 6.4). As part of this
territory, the Marshall Islands were under United States military occupation.
The United States then chose the remote atolls of Micronesia as the site for
their nuclear testing program.
 Source 6.4
Extracts from the trusteeship
agreement between the United
States of America and the
Security Council of the United
Nations for the former Japanese-
mandated Pacific Islands
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Read source 6.4 and answer
the following questions.
1. What did the United Nations
give America responsibility
for as the ‘administering
authority of the
trust territory’?
2. In ‘discharging its
obligations’, America
was expected to promote
and foster areas of
development.
(a) What were these areas
of development?
(b) What conflict could there
have been between
responsibility for these
areas of development
and nuclear testing in
the Pacific?
3. Refer to source 6.4
and outline how you think
the United States would
justify nuclear testing in
the Pacific.
Article 1: The Territory of the Pacific Islands, consisting of the islands formerly
held by Japan under mandate in accordance with Article 22 of the Covenant of the
League of Nations, is hereby designated as a strategic area and placed under the
trusteeship system established in the Charter of the United Nations. The Territory
of the Pacific Islands is hereinafter referred to as the trust territory.
Article 2: The United States of America is designated as the administering
authority of the trust territory.
Article 3: The administering authority shall have full powers of administration,
legislation, and jurisdiction over the territory subject to the provisions of this
agreement, and may apply to the trust territory, subject to any modifications
which the administering authority may consider desirable such of the laws of the
United States as it may deem appropriate to local conditions and requirements . . .
Article 5: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(a) and Article 84, of the
Charter, the administering authority shall ensure that the trust territory shall play
its part, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, in the maintenance
of international peace and security. To this end the administering authority shall
be entitled:
1. to establish naval, military and air bases and to erect fortifications in the trust
territory;
2. to station and employ armed forces in the territory; and
3. to make use of volunteer forces, facilities and assistance from the trust
territory in carrying out the obligations towards the Security Council
undertaken in this regard by the administering authority, as well as for the
local defense and the maintenance of law and order within the trust territory.
Article 6: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(b) of the Charter, the
administering authority shall:
1. foster the development of such political institutions as are suited to the trust
territory and shall promote the development of the inhabitants of the trust
territory toward self-government or independence as may be appropriate to
the particular circumstances of the trust territory and its peoples and the
freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned . . .
2. promote the economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants,
and to this end shall regulate the use of natural resources; encourage the
development of fisheries, agriculture, and industries; protect the inhabitants
against the loss of their lands and resources; and improve the means of
transportation and communication;
3. promote the social advancement of the inhabitants and to this end shall
protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all elements of the population
without discrimination; protect the health of the inhabitants; control the traffic
in arms and ammunition, opium and other dangerous drugs, and alcoholic and
other spirituous beverages; and institute such other regulations as may be
necessary to protect the inhabitants against social abuses; and
4. promote the educational advancement of the inhabitants and . . . facilitate the
vocational and cultural advancement of the population . . .
Article 7: In discharging its obligations under Article 76(c), of the Charter, the
administering authority shall guarantee to the inhabitants of the trust territory
freedom of conscience, and, subject only to the requirements of public order and
security, freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; freedom of worship,
and of religious teaching; and freedom of migration and movement . . .
Extracts from the Congressional Joint Resolution, United States, 18 July 1947.
Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 107
 The Pacific Proving Grounds
In 1946, the United States began nuclear testing in the Pacific, referring to the
nuclear test sites as the ‘Pacific Proving Grounds’. The first site was Bikini
Atoll, located on the northern fringe of the Marshall Islands.
Operation Crossroads was America’s first series of nuclear tests after the
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On 1 July 1946, from an altitude
fission W the splitting of the of 158 metres, American scientists detonated a fission bomb over old World
nucleus of a heavy atom to War II ships. On 25 July, a second bomb, ‘Baker’, was detonated underwater
form the nuclei of lighter atoms
at a depth of 27 metres (see source 6.1, page 103, and source 6.5). A sheet of
water one mile high engulfed Bikini Atoll. The World War II ships were even-
tually sunk because radioactivity levels were too high for decontamination.
Source 6.5
On 25 July 1946, the underwater
detonation known as ‘Baker’
released this massive
condensation cloud of radioactive
water. The white circle in which the
old World War II ships are visible
is the front of the shock wave.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Suggest what might have
been the impact of this
bomb on the area outside
the shock wave.
2. What do you think were the
long-term environmental
effects on the many coral
islets that made up the
Marshall Islands?

Source 6.6
In this photograph from January
1947, US sailors witnessing a
nuclear test at Bikini Atoll from
the deck of a ship are attempting
to protect their eyes by shielding
them behind their forearms.

SOURCE QUESTION
What protective measures
were taken by the sailors in
source 6.6 and how adequate
do you think these measures
were against radiation?

108 Retrospective

Source 6.7
A photograph showing some of the
Bikini villagers with their belongings,
preparing for their relocation to
Rongerik Atoll in March 1946
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Imagine you are either one
of the children in source
6.7 or a local leader of the
relocated Bikini Island
community. You have the
opportunity to announce
your grievances to the
world community through
the United Nations. Identify
what you believe is the
impact of nuclear testing
on your island community.
2. Create an imaginary
dialogue between a
Bikinian villager from
source 6.7 and a US sailor
from source 6.6. In the
dialogue, explore the gulf
between world politics and
the needs and rights of
small nations.
thermonuclear W nuclear
fusion capable of producing
extremely high temperatures
Impact of nuclear fallout on the
indigenous peoples
Before Bikini Atoll became the sad symbol of nuclear testing in the Pacific
it was home to a small community of Bikinians. The US military governor
assured the leader of the Bikini Islands, King Juda, that the removal of
his people from the islands was temporary and the community would be
returned after the conclusion of the tests. The US authorities promised the
people that the testing was for the ‘good of mankind and to end all wars’.
When the people of Bikini were taken from their island home, the US navy
burnt down the Bikinians’ remaining huts as preparations commenced for
the biggest nuclear blast the US had undertaken.
The US authorities resettled the Bikinians on Rongerik Atoll, 206 kilometres
east of Bikini. Rongerik was an uninhabited 1.68 square kilometre atoll.
Marshall Islanders traditionally believed that Rongerik was haunted by the
‘Demon Girls of Ujae’. In this new location, the quality of the water and avail-
able food sources were poor. Even the species of fish that the people of Bikini
were accustomed to fishing was no longer available to them. Food shortages
led to malnutrition on Rongerik so the United States military moved the Biki-
nians to Kwajalein and finally Kili Island.
Operation Castle Bravo, in 1954, was twice as powerful as the scientists
had calculated and released the worst fallout exposure in the history of US
nuclear testing. The effects of the wind on the day were also underestimated,
resulting in fallout across the Marshall Islands and further contamination
spread over 10 000 square kilometres of the Pacific region. The 15-megatonne
thermonuclear giant was estimated to be one thousand times more powerful
than the bomb that decimated Hiroshima. A fireball blazed 40 kilometres
above Bikini, sucking up tonnes of debris then dumping the irradiated
remains on the surrounding islands.
Hundreds of people living on the nearby Rongelap Atoll were exposed to
the direct radioactive fallout. Japanese fishermen on board their vessel, Lucky
Dragon, also became ill from the effects of radiation poisoning. Three days
after the Operation Castle Bravo test, the US authorities evacuated the people
of Rongelap, forcing them to abandon their island, leave behind their homes
and relocate to Kwajalein Island for urgent medical treatment.
Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 109
 Source 6.8
The mayor of Rongelap, John
Anjain, describes the radioactive
contamination spread by
Operation Castle Bravo
Something began falling from the sky upon our island. It looked like ash from a
fire. It fell on me, my wife and our infant son, Lekoj. It fell on the trees, and on the
roofs of our houses . . . Some people put it in their mouths and tasted it . . . People
walked in it, and the children played with it . . .
Later on, in the early evening, it rained. The rain fell on the roofs of our
houses. It washed away the ash. The water mixed with the ash which fell into our
catchments. Men, women and children drank [it]. It didn’t taste like rainwater and
it was dark yellow, sometimes black. But people drank it anyway . . . [the next
day] many vomited and felt weak. Later, the hair of men, women and children
began to fall out. A lot of people had burns on their skin.
On the third day some ships came. Americans came on our island. They
explained that we were in great danger because of the ash. They said, ‘If you don’t
leave, you will all die’.
Quoted in David Robie, Eyes of Fire: The Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior,
Lindon Publishing, Auckland, 1986, pp. 21–2.

Source 6.9
A photograph from 23 March
1954 showing a Japanese
research team testing a fish
caught in the region of Bikini Atoll
for levels of radioactivity

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In small groups,
research the effects
of contamination from
radioactivity on the
environment and on human
beings. After completing
your research, explain:
(a) why the fish were being
tested in source 6.9
(b) why the people
described in source 6.8
became ill.
2. Put yourself in the position
of John Anjain (source 6.8)
and write a speech to the Three years later, the US military declared Rongelap Atoll free of radio-
international community in active contamination and suitable for resettlement. The islanders returned to
which you express:
their homes but continued to suffer. Many reports of cancer and birth defects
(a) a viewpoint about the US followed in the years immediately after. The leader of the Rongelap com-
role and responsibility in
munity, John Anjain, appealed to the international community for help but
the Marshall Islands
the outside world largely ignored their plight. Thirty years later, the health
(b) the challenges faced by
statistics for the people of Rongelap Atoll reveal the full horror of their experi-
the people of Rongelap.
ence. Surgery to remove cancers had been performed on 77 per cent of the
Rongelap people who had been children under 10 years of age on the day of
Operation Castle Bravo.

110 Retrospective
 Source 6.10
A photograph from November
1955 showing the environmental
impact of nuclear testing as seen
on the lagoon shore of Bikini Atoll

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe the changes (both
visible and invisible) that
the nuclear tests have
made to the landscape
shown in source 6.10.
2. Visit the website for this
book and click on the
Nuclear Claims Tribunal
weblink for this chapter.
Read the summary of
the decision in the class
action claim made by Bikini
Islanders and discuss the
main findings.
By 1958, there had been 16 nuclear weapons tests over Bikini Atoll. After
Bikini Atoll, the US testing shifted to Enewetak Atoll, then to Kiritimati
(Christmas Island) and Johnston Atoll. The tests in these relatively uninhab-
ited parts of the Pacific were not as widely discussed as events at Bikini. The
US airforce dropped two thermonuclear bombs in 1958, followed by missile
launches of a further 10 bombs into space four years later.

Source 6.11
A photograph of a group of US
soldiers watching the detonation
of a thermonuclear bomb over
the Marshall Islands in 1958

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe the scene in the
photograph in source 6.11.
2 What do you think might
have been the general
attitude of the American
public to nuclear testing
in the Pacific at this time?
In your answer, consider
sources such as 6.3
(page 106) and 6.4
(page 107).
3. How do you think the
soldiers might justify
the tests?

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 111

 In 1962, the United States used the British nuclear testing site on Christmas
Island as the site for testing 25 bombs. The largest nuclear bomb ever deton-
ated by the US was equivalent to 20 million tonnes of high explosives. It is
estimated that about two million seabirds were the casualties of this nuclear
test above the island of Kiritimati.
The United States detonated 66 nuclear bombs on the atolls of the Pacific
between 1946 and 1958. Six Pacific islands were vaporised by nuclear testing
and, decades later, many islands that were part of the Pacific Proving Grounds
remain contaminated and uninhabitable.
Source 6.12
An illustration by US artist Jim
Blanchard in 2000 in the form of
a postcard expressing the image
of a relaxed Pacific holiday
destination against the reality of
nuclear testing

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Explain the artist’s message
in the source 6.12 ‘postcard’.
2. In what way is the
illustration evidence of how
attitudes have changed
since the 1950s?

Use of Mururoa Atoll by France for nuclear testing

The French first made contact with the Pacific Islands in 1768 when Count
Bougainville sailed to Tahiti, the largest island in Polynesia. It was the first
island in the Pacific to come under foreign control when it became a French
protectorate in 1842. Long after French colonies in Africa gained indepen-
dence, the people of Polynesia remained under French colonial rule.

Role and responsibility of governments

Tahiti had been a French colony since 1842 but had experienced minimum
interference in daily affairs because of a lack of exploitable resources in the
remote islands. Prior to the 1950s, there were only 1500 French settlers in a total
Tahitian population of 75 000. The people had generally maintained their tra-
ditional Tahitian lifestyle of independent self-supporting farming and fishing.
In the aftermath of the World War II, in 1946, the French colony was classi-
fied as a French overseas territory and became French Polynesia. France
began to impose a tighter control on its Pacific Island territory. An indigen-
ous nationalist movement soon emerged, led by Tahitian political activist,

112 Retrospective

self-determination W
a people’s right to exercise
independent control of
its own destiny
Source 6.13
Map of the island groups that
make up French Polynesia
Pouvana’a a Oopa (1895–1977), a highly decorated war veteran of World
War I and World War II. He led the ‘guitar battalion’ in pressing the French
administration to grant equal rights for indigenous people. The battalion was
composed of 300 servicemen who had volunteered to fight for the liberation
of France during World War II. While in Europe, Pouvana’a and his colleagues
had become inspired by French principles of liberty and equality.
In 1957, Pouvana’a was appointed vice-president of the newly organised
territory of French Polynesia. The following year, Pouvana’a began
implementing a series of government reforms and pushed for further
decolonisation of French Polynesia. Under the slogan ‘Polynesia for the
Polynesian’, he spoke out against the injustices committed by France against
the Tahitian people. In retaliation, French President Charles de Gaulle sacked
Pouvana’a and his government and revoked the level of self-determination
that France had previously granted. In an attempt to crush dissent, Pouvana’a
was arrested, tried and sentenced to eight years solitary confinement in a
French gaol, followed by exile.
In 1954, the French Prime Minister, Pierre Mendes-France, had made the
decision to build the atomic bomb. On 13 February 1960, France detonated
its first atomic bomb in the French north African colony of Algeria. Algerian
independence in 1962 forced France to search for fresh locations for the
testing of her nuclear capabilities. The sweeping sands of the Sahara Desert
in Algeria were no longer under French control and were also regarded as
being too close to the European world.
The French government des-
patched a warship to the Pacific
with orders to find a suitable
nuclear testing location. Following
the American lead, the French
military experts decided on a
tropical atoll. In the southeastern
corner of the Tuamotu Archipelago
in French Polynesia lay the French
colony of Mururoa — the ‘atoll of
great secrets’. Nuclear weaponry
and Mururoa, or ‘Moruroa’ as it
was originally known, became the
symbols of French military inde-
pendence and French nationalism.
Tahiti possessed the only inter-
national airport and harbour
facilities in French Polynesia,
and so it was to Tahiti that the
French govern ment deployed its
18 000 troops, including 3000
French foreign legionnaires, and
its teams of engineers and builders.
Construction commenced of the
wharves, airstrips and watch-
towers required to prepare the
atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa
for nuclear testing.
Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 113
 Impact on the indigenous peoples
Rapid overpopulation had a destabilising effect on the delicate Tahitian
ecology, economy and society. From the early 1960s, the French government
policy of encouraging French nationals to settle permanently in the Poly-
nesian colonies contributed to the erosion of the indigenous social structure.
The better educated and wealthier French expatriates exerted a greater influ-
ence on the politics of their island homes. Despite the determined efforts of
the Polynesian political parties to achieve self-government, all crucial deci-
sions affecting areas such as foreign affairs and justice continued to be made
by the government in France.
In response to local objections to the proposal that nuclear weapons be
tested in Polynesia, the French government claimed that all decisions relating
to the defence of France had to be made in Paris. French Polynesia was a
French colony, and so defence policy was regarded as outside the jurisdiction
of the elected members of the local Polynesian parliament.

Source 6.14
Ida Teariki-Bordes gives a
Tahitian account of the impact of
nuclear testing on the people of
French Polynesia and indigenous
protests
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Consider source 6.14 and
then suggest how much
consultation the French
had with the Tahitians prior
to commencing nuclear
testing in the Pacific.
2. What have been the social,
political and economic
implications of nuclear
testing in Tahiti?
In 1962, rumours were heard about the probability of testing nuclear devices
in the islands. They were quickly refuted by France. It was only on 3rd January
1963 that General de Gaulle himself announced to a Tahitian delegation which had
gone to Paris to visit him, that he had decided to have a nuclear testing base in
Polynesia.
Towards the end of the year, Teariki (brother), who had become deputy to the
French Association, made his official protest during the seven minutes he was
entitled to speak in during the year in that Assembly.
On July 2, 1966, the first bomb exploded. The same day, our new political party,
the Pupu Haere Ai’a Te Nunaa Ia Ora, had its first congress in Papeete.
On September 6, 1966, General de Gaulle came to Tahiti to observe the
explosion of an A-bomb. My brother, John Teariki, took that unique opportunity to
read and hand to the general a paper in which he protested energetically against
the nuclear tests and asked for changes in the statutes of French Polynesia.
Every year, during the months suitable for the tests, fifteen thousand military
people were stationed in Tahiti and the Tuamotu islands — that number was
reduced to half for the rest of the time the nuclear testing was going on.
Thousands of Polynesians from the outside archipelagoes, Marquesas,
Tuamotu, Austral islands, Gambier islands, came to Tahiti with their families to
work for the new military installations. Without any proper land in Tahiti, they had
to live in slums around Papeete.
Thousands of French citizens came from France to make a profit from the
economic boom which followed. They opened new shops, built new breweries
— the latter were the ones that profited most from the money made by the
Tahitian workers.
In March 1966, Francis Sanford, who had founded a new political party, became
deputy to the French Assembly. He united with Teariki to protest against the
nuclear tests. . .
Every time they have had a possibility to do so, they asked for control of
the radioactivity and the end of the nuclear tests. They never received a direct
answer. The ministers for Overseas in Paris refused to receive them . . .
Extract from Vanessa Griffen, Women Speak Out! A Report
of the Pacific Women’s Conference, 1976, Suva.

114 Retrospective

Soviet Union W a union of 15
republics headed by Russia, in
eastern Europe and western
and northern Asia
Source 6.15
French President Charles de
Gaulle’s comment during a press
conference in July 1964,
responding to criticisms that
France’s nuclear capability could
never match that of either the
United States or the Soviet Union
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What comment do you think
President Charles de Gaulle
is making in source 6.15
about France’s nuclear
capability and the arms race?
2. How does the French
president justify the greater
nuclear weapons capability
of the US and the USSR?
plutonium W a radioactive
element capable of fission
irradiated W contaminated
by radiation
The progress of the French weapons program accelerated under the lead-
ership of Charles de Gaulle, French president from 1958 until 1969. He was
a passionate nationalist committed to pursue French security through the
development of a nuclear deterrent. President de Gaulle was grimly deter-
mined to ensure France would never again suffer the hardship and humili-
ation inflicted during the invasion and occupation of France in World
War II. Possessing the nuclear bomb was regarded as the ultimate guarantee
of peace and safety.
In 1963, Britain, the Soviet Union and America signed an agreement
banning nuclear testing in the atmosphere, under water and in space. Presi-
dent de Gaulle was not deterred and provided French nuclear research teams
with the facilities to continue atmospheric testing.
It is obvious that the megatonnes which we could employ do not match the
numbers which America and Russia could unleash. But once a certain nuclear
capacity is reached and in regard to our direct defense, the size of the respective
arsenals does not have an absolute value. For since a man and a country can only
die once, deterrence exists once one has the means to inflict mortal damage on
a possible aggressor, the determination to use them and the confidence in one’s
ultimate decision.
Quoted in Serge Berstein, The Republic of de Gaulle, 1958–1969, Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1993.
Mururoa Atoll and Fangataufa Atoll, 40 kilometres south, were surrounded
by inhabited islands of the archipelago. Polynesian leaders warned French
authorities that approximately 7000 islanders lived within close proximity
of the testing site. French government ministers and generals replied with
assurances that bombs would only be detonated if prevailing winds were
blowing away from the inhabited islands toward the empty ocean separating
Polynesia from Antarctica.
The first atomic blast at Mururoa was detonated on 2 July 1966. A plutonium
fission device was placed on a barge anchored in the lagoon. The force of
the massive explosion sucked all the water in the shallow lagoon basin into
the air. The contents of the lagoon then rained down. It was reported that
mounds of irradiated fish covered the tiny islands encircling the reefs. The
foul smell from the decaying remains of the creatures of the lagoon drifted
across the archipelago for weeks.
The French dropped their next nuclear device from an aeroplane two
weeks later. Two days later, an accident occurred when a case cracked on a
bomb that had been placed on the ground. It did not explode but the deadly
plutonium contents spilled across the reef. A layer of asphalt was spread over
the contaminated area in an effort to seal it.
The grand opening of the Centre d’Experimentation du Pacifique (CEP)
was scheduled for September 1966. To mark the occasion, a nuclear device
was to be detonated in front of the French President, Charles de Gaulle.
On 10 September, the French president boarded a warship that had been
especially equipped with protective iron shields and sprinklers to remove
radioactive dust. From the carefully located warship the president could
personally witness a French nuclear test. The bomb was a box containing a
Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 115

SOURCE QUESTION
Imagine you are a French
journalist on assignment at
Mururoa in 1966. Referring to
information in the text and
sources 6.15 and 6.16, write
a newspaper article outlining
the significance of France’s
nuclear testing and the reason
for President de Gaulle’s visit
to the Pacific.
boycott W the policy of
refusing to use or purchase
the goods or services
provided by an individual
or group. The purpose is
to bring pressure on the
individual/group to engage
in different behaviour.
116 Retrospective
device suspended from a helium-filled balloon that was anchored to the reef.
The test had to be postponed because an easterly wind was blowing on the
day. The following day the weather had deteriorated even further. De Gaulle
was impatient to return to Paris and so the bomb was detonated, despite the
prevailing winds and assurances that the safety of the local people would
remain a priority. Heavy radioactive fallout across the region was subsequently
registered at monitoring stations set up by the New Zealand National Radiation
Laboratory in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Fiji and Tuvalu.
Source 6.16
A photograph showing French President Charles de Gaulle (at right) preparing to witness
a nuclear test at Mururoa in 1966
Ignoring global test ban treaties, the French continued developing increas-
ingly sophisticated nuclear weapons and detonated a thermonuclear bomb
(H-bomb), codenamed Canopus, over Fangataufa in 1968. The immense radio-
active contamination from Canopus left the entire atoll uninhabitable.
Protests for a ‘Niuklia Fri Pasifik’
By 1968, only the French and Chinese continued exploding nuclear weapons
into the atmosphere. The impact of the contamination caused by the hydrogen
bomb blast eventually led to a global protest movement against further
French atmospheric tests. It had been too easy for the world community and
French government to brush aside the original indigenous protest against
nuclear testing in the Pacific. Vocal opposition from nations like Australia
and New Zealand was harder to ignore. In the 1970s a widespread boycott of
French goods, airlines and shipping was having an impact upon French busi-
ness interests and trade. Australia and New Zealand also began proceedings
against the French in the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In 1974, the new French President, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, ordered
nuclear testing in the Pacific be moved underground.
 The overwhelming political and economic power of the nuclear nations
could not silence the strong indigenous voices raised against nuclear testing
in the Pacific.
W In Tahiti, the movement begun by Pouvana’a continued with Francis
Sanford and John Teariki’s demands for greater autonomy and self-
government for French Polynesia. They continued to draw world attention
to the injustice and devastation of nuclear testing in the Pacific.
W From the 1970s, the leading voice in the Polynesian independence and
nuclear free movement was Oscar Temaru.
W An Anglican priest, Walter Hadye Lini, became the founding prime
minister of Vanuatu in 1980. During the years of his controversial
leadership of Vanuatu, Lini advocated establishing socialist governments
throughout Melanesia and self-determination for the Timorese from
Indonesia and the Kanaks in New Caledonia. Father Lini expelled the
French ambassador from Vanuatu after it gained independence and
maintained a spirited opposition to French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
Between 1966 and 1992, France had conducted 41 atmospheric and 138
underground tests in French Polynesia. The New Zealand monitoring
stations continued registering heavy radioactive fallout across the islands of
the Pacific.
In June 1996, French President Jacques Chirac announced the end of
30 years of nuclear testing at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls.

Source 6.17
A photograph of part of an anti-nuclear protest march in Papeete, capital of Tahiti, in
September 1995, denouncing nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the message being expressed by the protestors in source 6.17?
2 Where would a photograph like this appear and what impression does it convey
of the protest movement against nuclear testing?
3. This photograph was taken in 1995. How does it suggest the public attitude to
nuclear testing in the Pacific had changed during the post-war period?

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 117

 Use of Australia by Britain for nuclear testing
Britain chose Australian soil to test its nuclear weapons. With the agreement
and support of the Australian government, in 1952, Britain detonated its first
nuclear device on Monte Bello Island, just off the coast of Western Australia
(see the map in source 6.2, page 105). Two further tests were carried out in
1953 at Emu Field, in the Great Victorian Desert region of South Australia.
Emu Field was considered to be too remote and an alternative site had to be
found. The peace of the arid landscape of South Australia was destroyed in
1956 and 1957 with the launch of Operation Buffalo, and the detonation of
nine major nuclear bombs at Maralinga.
The name ‘Maralinga’ came from a dialect of the Pitjantjatjara people;
it meant ‘field of thunder’. The Australian people were not consulted and
the Australian government asked Britain few questions about the long-term
effects of Operation Buffalo.
Source 6.18
We have made a successful start. When the [nuclear] tests are completed, as
British Prime Minister Harold they soon will be, we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet
Macmillan’s comment in 1957 on Russia. We shall have made and tested the massive weapons. It will be possible
the progress of nuclear tests at
then to discuss on equal terms.
Maralinga in South Australia

Source 6.19
A photograph of a mushroom
cloud following the detonation of
a nuclear device at Maralinga in
1957, as part of Britain’s nuclear
testing program in Australia

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Why did the British prime
minister (source 6.18)
consider it necessary to be
on ‘equal terms’ with Soviet
Russia?
2. Imagine you just witnessed
the detonation of a nuclear
device at Maralinga in
1957. Compile a list of five
questions you would ask
the British government
about Operation Buffalo
and the effect of nuclear
testing on Australia.

118 Retrospective
 Source 6.20
Excerpt from an ABC radio interview on ‘PM’ on 27 September 2006 in which Ric Johnstone
describes what it was like as an eyewitness to nuclear testing at Maralinga

Well you have your back to the area where the blast is going to happen.
You have your eyes shut tight and your hands over your eyes as you were
instructed.
But when the blast detonates, you feel rather than see the white flash.
It seems to go right through everything. Then you turn to face where the
detonation was in time to see the fireball going up into the air which forms into
the mushroom cloud.
My thoughts at that time were one of ‘God, that’s big’. And I think everybody
felt at that time a little insignificant. It makes you feel very small when you see
a fireball that appears to be above your head that’s some miles across . . .

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. From source 6.20, describe what eyewitnesses were told to do when a nuclear
blast was detonated at Maralinga.
2. Explain the reaction of the witnesses and what you think it reveals about the
technology being tested at this time.

Impacts on indigenous people and ex-servicemen

During the tests, British and Australian army personnel were exposed to the
contamination of the blasts. An estimated 22 000 British and 15 000 Australian
servicemen were exposed to radiation from British atomic testing in Australia
and the Christmas Islands. In 2001, claims emerged that the British government
had planned to intentionally expose servicemen to nuclear explosions in an
experiment codenamed ‘Operation Lighthouse’. A network of trenches dug
around four Maralinga nuclear test sites in 1959 incorporated staff command
posts, weapons pits and accommodation huts. While the British abandoned
Operation Lighthouse, they tested the efficiency of protective clothing at
Maralinga in 1956 when 24 soldiers were ordered to march through a nuclear
fallout zone three days after a test.

Source 6.21
Account of Maralinga and the impact of nuclear testing on servicemen, by Professor John
Keane whose father served at Maralinga

Maralinga was no holiday camp. New arrivals were greeted with talk of the need
for caution and briefed to steer clear of the huge dumping pit on the edge of
town, called the Graveyard. There was also the Dirty Road, trailing 16 kilometres
north from the town to ground zero.
There, at the edge of the Great Victoria Desert, all sorts of nuclear
experiments went on for a decade. Seven big bombs were exploded there,
together with a top-secret program of 550 experiments known as the Minor
Trials. It was here that Britain and Australia lost their nuclear innocence . . .
(continued)

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 119


SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Identify the reasons why
the British chose Maralinga
as the site for their nuclear
testing. What were the
shortcomings of their
reasoning?
2. What was the goal of
Britain’s nuclear testing?
3. In what ways could it be
argued that servicemen’s
lives were put at risk?
The official story is that the site was uninhabited and blessed with good
weather and near-perfect security conditions. Unhindered by man or nature,
the British and their loyal Australian partners reckoned it an excellent location
for putting into practice the fantastic vision first defined in secret by Clement
Attlee’s [British] Labour Government in 1946. ‘We have got to have this thing
over here whatever it costs, and with a bloody Union Jack flying on top of it,’
foreign secretary Ernest Bevin told Whitehall officials after the Americans
refused to proceed with a joint nuclear project.
The Labour Cabinet decreed that 15 nuclear weapons a year should be built.
The target was a massive arsenal; since 25 bombs would be needed to ‘knock
out’ Britain, Air Marshal Lord Tedder explained in 1947, the Soviet Union, which
was 40 times the size of Britain, could only suffer knock out with 1000 bombs.
This was the impetus behind Maralinga . . .
British, Australian and New Zealand servicemen were deliberately and
repeatedly exposed to nuclear hazard. Dressed only in boots and shorts and
using scrubbing brushes and buckets filled with detergent, they were instructed
to strip and service and clean radioactive aircraft and other equipment. Wearing
gumboots and suits made variously of rubber, wool and cotton, they were
ordered to walk, crawl or drive through places where Hiroshima-size bombs had
hours before roasted the saltbush and red desert sand into three-inch thick
glass, called ‘bomb glaze’ . . .
Five decades after entering service, the thousands of British and Australian
men who have survived Maralinga (more than a quarter of them are now dead)
feel hurt and humiliated. They have no medals to pass on to their grandchildren,
no letters of praise or apology . . . no war-time veterans’ privileges.
What they do have are anecdotes about unusual clusters of multiple
myelomas. Hip and spine deformities. Teeth that are falling out. Poor eyesight.
Bleeding bowels. Post-traumatic anxiety and depression. And perhaps up to a
quarter of them, according to preliminary data collected by the New Zealand
government, have disabled offspring . . .
Extracts from an article by John Keane (Professor of Politics at the University of
Westminster, London), ‘Maralinga’s afterlife’, The Age, 11 May 2003.

The British and Australian authorities forcibly removed traditional owners

from their land. Without any consultation, they exploded atomic bombs over
walking tracks and bush tucker country. Large amounts of long-term radio-
active fallout contaminated the atmosphere and the traditional land of the
Pitjantjatjara people. People unaware of the dangers wandered into the test
sites because warning signage and security patrols were totally inadequate.
Aboriginal people who commonly went barefoot and slept on the ground
were particularly susceptible to radiation poisoning. Charlie and Edie
Milpuddie and their two children walked into a bomb crater after a 1957
test. When the decontamination team located them they were simply show-
ered and then driven 200 km away from the site. Edie Milpuddie had been
pregnant. She subsequently gave birth to a stillborn child and then lost her
next child to a brain tumour. The Pitjantjatjara spoke of the spread of blind-
ness, skin rashes and cancers that seemed to travel with the wind throughout
eastern Australia. Scientists detected radioactive fallout from the nuclear tests
as far away as Adelaide and Melbourne.

120 Retrospective
 Source 6.22
Account of the treatment of the
traditional owners of Maralinga
during nuclear testing
Royal Commission W
a major government inquiry or
investigation into a particular
issue, the findings of which are
made public
Source 6.23
A photograph of safety apparatus
and procedures for entering
and leaving the contaminated
Maralinga site in 1977,
20 years after testing
SOURCE QUESTION
Source 6.23 shows safety
procedures at Maralinga in
1977. How do you think
attitudes to nuclear testing in
Australia have changed over
the last 50 years?
Despite claims to the contrary, Aboriginal people did wander through radiated
lands. They camped in fresh craters, to keep warm and to trap rabbits blinded
by cobalt pellets. When discovered, they were compulsorily showered, their
fingernails scrubbed with soap. The women suffered miscarriages. They were
herded in trucks or pushed onto trains, expelled from a sacred site at Ooldea, a
day’s walk from Maralinga airport. Alice Cox — at 87, the oldest survivor of the
tests — remembers it well. ‘Soldiers everywhere. Guns. We all cry, cry, cryin’. Men,
women and children, all afraid’ . . .
Extract from John Keane, ‘Maralinga’s afterlife’, The Age, 11 May 2003.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does the writer of source 6.22 suggest was the impact of nuclear testing
on the traditional custodians of the land?
2. What does source 6.22 imply about the official understanding of the effects and
impact of nuclear testing during the 1950s?
In 1985, an Australian Royal Commission investigated the long-term con-
tamination of test sites and mounting evidence of the related poor health of
the local indigenous people and ex-servicemen. Follow-up health checks were
done on people reported to have been at risk of contamination. For people
like Charlie Milpuddie, the health monitoring had come too late. Charlie
Milpuddie was already dead.
In 1997, the British Nuclear Test Veteran’s Association commissioned an
inquiry into the health of its servicemen. The results were published in the
Roff Report. According to the report, the servicemen exposed to atomic blasts
were 10 times more likely to suffer from cancers such as multiple myeloma
than the average population.
Australian inquiries undertaken in the decades after nuclear testing con-
cluded that the atomic tests had a devastating effect on servicemen and
Aborigines. For traditional owners, the nuclear testing meant evacuation of
whole communities from their homes, followed by radiation poisoning.
Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 121
 British and Australian governments have still not offered adequate com-
pensation to the people who endured so much during this period. In January
1985, some recompense was made for the suffering of the past. The South
Australian parliament passed legislation and finally handed back native title
land to the Maralinga traditional owners.
Source 6.24
A photograph from December
1984 showing two tribal elders,
Tommy Queama and Jack Baker,
with the documents granting
their people the Maralinga land
that was taken for British nuclear
testing in the 1950s

SOURCE QUESTION
What do you think was the
significance of the land grant
documents for the indigenous
people of South Australia?

Source 6.25
A photograph from 1991 of
Hughie Winlass and Barka Bryant,
representatives of the traditional
owners of the Maralinga lands, at a
press conference announcing their
request for British cooperation in
cleaning up the nuclear waste left
after the 1950s testing

SOURCE QUESTION
Imagine you are one of the
indigenous leaders in source 6.25.
List the points you might make at
the press conference about the
impact of the arms race and world
politics on your community.

122 Retrospective
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1, P1.2
1. Oscar Temaru was the leader of Tahiti’s anti-nuclear and pro-
independence party. Pouvana’a Tetuaapua Oopa was a Tahitian war
veteran who became the champion of the Polynesian nationalist
movement. Write a short biography of one of these or of another Pacific
Islander who has played a part in shaping the changing image of the
Pacific. Word process your biography and publish a class collection. (P1.1)
2. The western world has a particularly romantic view of the Pacific
Islands. Using the source material in this chapter as your starting
point, write an essay on ‘The life and politics of the postwar Pacific’
which provides a more balanced view. (P1.2)

Change and continuity over time P2.1

3. By 1995, the movement against the testing of nuclear weapons in
the Pacific had become popular and worldwide. In groups, discuss
the anti-nuclear movement and suggest the reasons behind this
attitudinal change. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

4. After World War II, the United States became responsible for the United
Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (see the extracts from the
trust agreement in source 6.4, page 107). Re-read this agreement then
hold a class debate on the topic: ‘That America fulfilled its obligations to
the people of the Pacific Islands in the 1950s and 1960s’. (P3.1, P3.3)
5. Read source 6.26 and explain in your own words what has happened to
this ex-serviceman since he returned from military service in the Pacific.
Carry out research to find out the current status of compensation claims
by ex-servicemen in the United States, Britain and Australia. (P3.3)
Source 6.26
Extracts from an article reporting the payment of compensation to a British
ex-serviceman who served on Christmas Island during nuclear testing

A critically ill British ex-serviceman who was exposed to radiation in weapons

tests has been awarded compensation by the United States, even though his
own government has refused to give him any money.
Roy Prescott, 66, has been awarded $75,000 by the American government,
which recognised that his lung cancer was caused by radiation released in the tests.
Earlier this year the same claim was rejected by the [British] Ministry of
Defence [MoD], which said there was insufficient evidence to show he was
contaminated with harmful doses of radioactivity during the trials . . .
[H]e said: ‘I am a casualty of the cold war and, whilst I am pleased that I am
receiving compensation and recognition from the US government, it really galls me
. . . that the British government continue to fail in their duty of care towards . . . nuclear
test veterans by denying that we were exposed to radiation during service.’ . . .
Extracts from an article by Rob Evans, ‘US compensation for British
nuclear test veteran’, The Guardian (UK), 26 July 2006.

Chapter 6 W Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s 123

 6. Compile a class database of useful resources for the study of the
topic ‘Nuclear testing in the Pacific, 1950s to 1960s’. Once you have
compiled the database, select five of the resources you regard
as the most useful and that provide a range of perspectives.
Annotate them to provide the basis for a student resource guide.
Include a range of resources in the database. For example, for
useful websites, visit the website for this book and click on the
‘Nuclear testing resources’ weblinks for this chapter.
Useful documentaries might include: Silent Storm (director
Peter Butt, Film Australia, 2003); Half-life — a parable for the
nuclear age (O’Rourke and Associates, 1985).
Books could include: John May, The Greenpeace Book of the
Nuclear Age — the Hidden History, the Human Cost (Greenpeace
Books, 1989); Bengt Danielsson and Marie Therese Danielsson,
Poisoned Reign: French Nuclear Colonisation in the Pacific
(Penguin, 1986). (P3.2, P3.3)

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1, P4.2

7. In three class groups, research and compile a fact sheet on nuclear
testing in either the Marshall Islands, Mururoa Atoll or Australia
during the 1950s and the 1960s. Identify where your chosen site is
located, why it was chosen, who lived there, who was involved in
the testing and what have been the problems and challenges that
have come from the nuclear testing. Communicate your group’s
findings to the class as a PowerPoint presentation, roleplay, series
of posters or a newspaper report. (P3.2, P3.5)
8. Each one of us will have our own way of telling others about
experiences we have had. The story of nuclear testing in the
Pacific will differ according to who is providing the account.
The same event may be evidence of:
W the triumph of modern technology
W a massive act of environmental vandalism
W the power of democracy
W a total disregard for the rights and values of others.
Choose a group of students from your class to represent the
different groups of people involved in, and affected by, nuclear
testing in the Pacific. They form a panel of guests who have come
to your classroom to answer a series of questions that the rest of
the class has put together. At the end of the interview session, the
classroom journalists must write a short report on what they have
learnt about the complex history and issue of nuclear testing in the
Pacific during the 1950s and 1960s. (P3.4, P4.2)
9. Using the sources and Internet research, write a speech to be
delivered to your class explaining the range of issues faced by
Australia as a result of nuclear testing. (P4.1, P4.2)

124 Retrospective
 7
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W democracy W racism

W self-determination
The Civil Rights
Movement in the USA
in the 1950s and 1960s
W

W
The areas of focus of this case study are:
Segregation in the USA in the 1950s
Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence to achieve
civil rights objectives
KEY DATES W The development of more radical methods and individuals
in the 1960s, for example, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers
1954 W Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement
T US Supreme Court
orders schools to
desegregate

1955–56
T Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957
T 27 September
US Army protects
African American
students entering
Central High School,
Little Rock
T President Eisenhower
initiates 1957
Civil Rights Act

1960–61
T Campaign of ‘sit-ins’
against segregation

1960s Source 7.1

T Growing influence A photograph showing US Democratic hopefuls, Barack Obama (third from left) and
of Malcolm X, Hillary Clinton (fourth from right) participating in a march on 4 March 2007 commemorating
Black Power and ‘Bloody Sunday’, the 1965 voting rights campaign march from Selma to Montgomery.
Black Panthers

1963 1964 1965 1968

T Protestmarches in ‘Freedom Summer’ March ‘Bloody Sunday’ and 4 April Martin Luther
Birmingham, Alabama volunteers murdered Selma to Montgomery march King assassinated
T August March on 4 July Civil Rights bill August President Johnson Civil Rights Act makes
Washington becomes law signs Voting Rights Act discrimination illegal

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 125
 Introduction
Civil Rights Movement W
a program of protest and civil
disobedience undertaken by
African Americans and their
supporters in the 1950s and
1960s to overcome racist
policies that denied them
their civil rights
126 Retrospective
In mid January 2007, Democratic Party Senator Barack Obama embarked
on a campaign to gain his party’s nomination for the United States 2008
presidential election. This was newsworthy because Obama was an African
American, a member of a group within the United States that, at the time of
his birth, was struggling to even exercise voting rights. It was also significant
because Obama’s considerable popularity led many to believe that the United
States, a nation with a long history of racial discrimination, was ready, in
the early twenty-first century, to elect an African American president. The
Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s helped lay the groundwork
for this change.
Source 7.2
Extracts from a news report on 16 January 2007 commenting on Barack Obama seeking
the Democratic Party’s nomination in the 2008 presidential elections
OBAMA: DEMOCRATIC STAR WHO COULD
BECOME FIRST BLACK US PRESIDENT
By Paul Handley
Democratic Senator Barack Obama, who has rocketed to national political
stardom in only two years, stands a good chance to become the first
African-American president in United States history . . .
Only two years into his first six-year term in the Senate, with easy oratorical
skills and a brilliant smile, Obama is a phenomenon unseen in US politics some
say, since John F. Kennedy burst onto the scene and captured the presidency
in 1960.
Advertising himself as the voice of a new post-baby-boom generation, Obama
is the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother from the US
heartland state of Kansas. He identifies himself as African-American and is
seen by most Americans as such . . .
After graduating from high school, Obama attended Columbia University
and then went to ultra-competitive Harvard Law School, where he was the
first black American to hold the prestigious post as president of the influential
Harvard Law Review . . .
He exploded onto the national scene that summer [2004] with an electrifying
speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
‘There is not a black America, and a white America, a Latino America, and
Asian America — we are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and
stripes, all of us defending the United States of America,’ he declared to roaring
applause . . .
After winning the Senate he has proved himself an agile legislator working
with members of both parties while maintaining a steady profile as a
moderate liberal . . .
Yahoo! News, 16 January 2007.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the main content of source 7.2?
2. What do you think was the journalist’s motive for writing this article?
 Segregation in the USA in the 1950s
segregation W the policy of
separating racial groups in all
aspects of their lives to ensure
that whites maintained
supremacy over African
Americans
Jim Crow laws W state laws,
dating back to the 1880s, aimed
at enforcing segregation between
whites and blacks in the use of
transport and public facilities
and in the outlawing of marriage
between the two racial groups
Despite having gained their emancipation from slavery in 1865, African
Americans faced discrimination in every aspect of their lives until at least
the 1950s. The 14th amendment (1868) to the United States Constitution prom-
ised ‘the equal protection of the laws’ to all the nation’s citizens. In practice,
many US lawmakers, law courts and law enforcers approved a systematic
segregation according to race. This resulted in African Americans being
forced to use separate entrances to buildings; separated in theatres and on
buses; and denied access to ‘whites only’ swimming pools, hospitals, schools,
housing and even cemeteries. They had to endure inadequate and sub-
standard facilities; were intimidated into not exercising their voting rights;
were referred to by the derogatory terms ‘nigger’ and ‘coon’; and were at risk
of becoming victims of mob rule, horrific violence and even lynchings.
Laws known as the Jim Crow laws enforced this segregation and the
unequal distribution of the nation’s resources that accompanied it. Segre-
gation and racial intolerance were worse in the southern states, where over
50 per cent of African Americans lived.

Source 7.3
Photograph showing the scene
at the lynching of two African
Americans in Indiana in 1930.
The young men had been
accused of the murder of a
white man and the assault
of his girlfriend.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe what is happening
in the source 7.3
photograph.
2. What appears to be the
attitude of the crowd
witnessing the lynching?
In the early 1950s, US President Harry Truman, despite his own long-held
racist W the attitude that people racist attitudes, made some symbolic acts to address this situation, including
of a different race/colour are ordering an end to discrimination in the armed forces and the civil service.
inferior to those of one’s
He recognised that discrimination damaged the United States’ international
own race/colour
reputation. His leadership in this area helped to bring the issue of civil rights
for African Americans to national attention.
During the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans, along with people of other
racial groups within the United States, embarked on the Civil Rights Move-
ment to challenge discrimination and achieve the equality that the American
Constitution promised for its entire people and which was part of its claim to
democracy W government by
elected representatives of being a democracy. One of the early actions of this movement was to chal-
the people lenge the education system.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 127
 Source 7.4
Photographs showing the
difference in schools under
the ‘separate but equal’ policy.
On the left is the exterior of
an African American school in
Ruleville, Mississippi in 1949. On
the right is a primary school for
white students in Virginia in 1935.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What do the photographs
in source 7.4 suggest
about the differences in
the facilities available to
students attending each of
these schools?
2. List two facts you could put
forward to support the view
that the schools available
to African Americans were
inferior to those available
to white children.
Source 7.5
Extract from Dr Kenneth Clark’s
testimony in the Brown case. In
his ‘doll tests’, Clark observed the
reactions of African-American
children to a pink doll and a
brown doll.
SOURCE QUESTION
In your own words, explain
what Dr Clark (source 7.5)
considered to be the effect
of segregation.
128 Retrospective
‘Separate but equal’ in the education system
In the case Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, the United States Supreme Court upheld
the legality of separating races on the basis of the principle ‘separate but
equal’. As a result, in the 1950s, African American children attended schools
that were lacking in toilets, running water and even desks. Local edu-
cation authorities only purchased new books for the white students in their
districts. In Alabama in 1949, the state’s expenditure on African American
students amounted to 27 per cent of its expenditure on white students.
In 1950, eight-year-old Linda Brown became the centre of a Kansas court
case demanding an end to segregated schools, which existed legally in 17
states. Spurred on by her father, she wanted to attend the well-equipped
‘whites only’ school six blocks from her home rather than the African Amer-
ican school at four times the distance. The National Association for the
Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) and its lawyer, Thurgood Mar-
shall, brought the case to state and federal courts, and finally on appeal to
the US Supreme Court. Throughout this process, supporters of segregation
fought strongly to maintain separate schools for white children. They argued
that the Constitution did not give the US federal government the power to
overrule state law on education. Dr Kenneth Clark, a key witness for the
NAACP, described the results of his investigations into the impact of segre-
gation on African American children (see source 7.5).
I found that 10 of the 16 children between the ages of six and nine whom I tested
chose the white doll as their preference. Eleven of the children chose the brown
doll as the doll which looked ‘bad’. . . .
My opinion is that a fundamental effect of segregation is basic confusion in the
individuals and their concepts about themselves . . . This is an example of how the
pressures which these children sensed against being brown forced them to evade
reality — to escape the reality which seems too burdening or threatening . . . These
children in Clarendon County, like other human beings who are subjected to an
inferior status, have been definitely harmed . . . the signs of instability are clear.
Quoted in Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement,
Globe Fearon Educational Publisher, New Jersey, 1997, p. 17.
On 17 May 1954, Chief Justice Earl Warren handed down the unanimous
decision of the nine Supreme Court justices (see source 7.6).
 Source 7.6
An extract from Chief Justice Earl
Warren’s speech handing down
the Supreme Court’s decision in
the Brown case, 17 May 1954
desegregation W the policy
of breaking down differences
that have existed between
racial groups
Ku Klux Klan W an
organisation, founded
originally in 1865, whose
members engaged in campaigns
of terror and intimidation
against African Americans and
those who supported them
integration W the policy of
encouraging contact between
different racial groups and
ensuring that they share the
use of facilities
Source 7.7
Extract from 14-year-old
Elizabeth Eckford describing
her attempts to reach
Central High School
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the ‘guards’ that
Elizabeth Eckford was
referring to in source 7.7?
What does she expect them
to do for her?
2. What does the source
reveal of the guards’
attitude towards her?
To separate [the African American children] from others of similar age and
qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority . . .
We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but
equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are . . . unequal.
Chief Justice Earl Warren, quoted in Globe Fearon Historical
Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement, op. cit., p. 18.
SOURCE QUESTION
What reasons does Chief Justice Warren give in source 7.6 for the Supreme Court’s
judgement overturning ‘separate but equal’?
The Supreme Court demanded the desegregation of schools. In 1955, it
reinforced this decision by ordering officials to comply with its guidelines for
bringing African and white American students together in schools.
In the South, many community leaders responded with plans to continue
segregated education. Politicians gave their signatures in support of the
Southern Manifesto, aimed at defeating the Brown decision. People formed
Citizens’ Councils to organise resistance to the ruling. Others supported the
white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan. By late 1956, six southern states
had not even attempted to integrate education. It was clearly going to be very
difficult to enforce a Supreme Court decision that had so much organised
opposition, especially considering that US President Eisenhower had no per-
sonal commitment to integration.
In 1957, nine African American students tried to attend Central High
School in Little Rock, Arkansas. They had to endure threats and attempted
violence from the racist crowds lining the streets that led to the school. Pro-
segregation Arkansas governor, Faubus, sent in the Arkansas National Guard
to ‘preserve order’.
At the corner I tried to pass through the long line of guards around the school so
as to enter the grounds behind them. One of the guards pointed across the street.
So I pointed in the same direction and asked whether he meant for me to cross the
street and walk down. He nodded ‘yes.’ So, I walked across the street conscious
of the crowd that stood there, but they moved away from me . . . Then someone
shouted, ‘Here she comes, get ready!’ I moved away from the crowd on the
sidewalk and into the street. If the mob came at me, I could then cross back over
so the guards could protect me.
The crowd moved in closer and then began to follow me, called me names. I still
wasn’t afraid . . . Then my knees started to shake and all of a sudden I wondered
whether I could make it to the center entrance a block away. It was the longest
block I ever walked in my whole life.
Even so, I still wasn’t too scared because all the time I kept thinking that the
guards would protect me . . .
The crowd was quiet. I guess they were waiting to see what was going to happen.
When I was able to steady my knees, I walked up to the guard who had let the white
students in. He too didn’t move. When I tried to squeeze past him, he raised his
bayonet and then the other guards closed in and they raised their bayonets.
Elizabeth Eckford, quoted in Daisy Bates, The Long Shadow of Little Rock,
David McKay, New York, 1962, pp. 73–6.
Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 129

Source 7.8
A photograph showing President
Eisenhower’s National Guard
escorting the nine students into
Central High School at Little Rock,
Arkansas, on 27 September 1957
Source 7.9
Extract from the New York Times
report in September 1957,
describing the crowd’s response
to the nine children’s admission
to the High School
130 Retrospective
Little Rock degenerated into mob rule as pro-segregationists engaged
in campaigns of hatred and violence against African Americans. African
Americans suffered beatings, had their property attacked and lived under
constant threat from the racist groups who controlled the city. Finally,
President Eisenhower, more concerned to enforce the federal law on
integration than committed to desegregation, ordered 1000 federal troops
into Little Rock. Two days later, on 27 September 1957, the nine African
American students entered Central High School under the protection of the
United States army.
A man yelled: ‘Look, they’re going into our school’ . . . The crowd now let out a roar
of rage. ‘They’ve gone in,’ a man shouted.
‘Oh God,’ said a woman, ‘the niggers are in school.’
A group of six girls, dressed in skirts and sweaters, hair in pony-tails, started to
shriek and wail. ‘The niggers are in our school,’ they howled hysterically . . .
Hysteria swept from the shrieking girls to members of the crowd. Women cried
hysterically, tears running down their faces.
Extract from New York Times, September 1957, reproduced in N. Demarco,
The USA: a Divided Union, Longman, UK, 1994, p. 82.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In what ways is the behaviour of the guards in source 7.8 different from that
described by Elizabeth Eckford in source 7.7? What is the reason for this difference?
2. In what ways does the information provided in source 7.9 support the attitudes
of the white onlookers that are evident in source 7.7?
3. What impression do sources 7.7 and 7.9 give of the African American students
wanting to attend Central High School? How do you explain the differences in
the two perspectives expressed?

civil rights W rights that
anyone in a given society is
entitled to as a member of that
society; the rights that the US
Constitution gives to its
citizens
boycott W the policy of refusing
to use or purchase the goods or
services provided by an
individual or group. The
purpose is to bring pressure on
the individual/group to engage
in different behaviour.
Source 7.10
A photograph showing members
of Ku Klux Klan walking the
streets of Montgomery at the
time of the bus boycott
SOURCE QUESTION
What do you think these
Ku Klux Klan members
would have hoped to achieve
by appearing like this at the
time of the Montgomery
bus boycott?
When the Arkansas National Guard troops took over a month later, vio-
lence against the new students resumed. Governor Faubus used this as an
excuse to close the high schools for a full year. The state then established
‘private’ schools, which excluded African Americans. Despite a court order
that schools be reopened, desegregation lacked strong support from either
state or federal governments and remained difficult to enforce. In 1960,
only about 13 per cent of African American students in the southern states
attended integrated schools. In 1964, the figure was 2 to 3 per cent for the
nation as a whole.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The campaign to enforce desegregation in schools began a series of small-
scale protests aimed at the achievement of African American civil rights.
On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 42-year-old Rosa Parks began
another phase of this movement. Tired after a long day’s work, she refused
to give up her seat on the bus. The law reserved the front seats of the bus for
whites. African Americans could sit in the back of the bus or in the middle if
whites did not require these seats. Rosa Parks sat in the middle and refused
to move when the ‘whites only’ section had filled up. The bus driver called
the police, who arrested her.
Rosa Parks, a well-respected member of the NAACP, went to gaol for vio-
lating the law. In protest, the African American community, who comprised 75
per cent of bus users in Montgomery, began a boycott of the city’s buses that
continued for 382 days. This was in addition to African American demands
for equal and polite treatment from bus drivers and the provision of jobs for
African American drivers.
African Americans wanted recognition of their equal rights to bus seats.
Bus companies faced massive financial losses but refused to give in. The
bus companies had the support of large sections of the white community,
especially people who belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and the Citizens’ Coun-
cils formed to resist integration.
Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 131

discrimination W treating
an individual or a group
differently on the basis of race,
age, religion, sex or some
other factor
Martin Luther King and the use of non-violence to
achieve civil rights objectives
civil disobedience W
a campaign in which
participants refuse to obey laws
that they believe to be unjust
132 Retrospective
The boycott demonstrated African Americans’ determination to take
unified action in the fight for their rights; the value of economic power as a
weapon; the extent of racism that existed within many southern communi-
ties; and the changed attitudes of many whites. The African American slogan
was ‘People don’t ride the bus today. Don’t ride it for freedom’. Montgomery’s
African American residents walked or gained transport through car pools,
often with the help of sympathetic members of the white community.
Martin Luther King, a young Baptist minister working in Montgomery,
took on an important role as president of the Montgomery Improvement
Association (MIA), the organisation directing the bus boycott. His church
became a centre for planning tactics and for providing inspiration and emo-
tional support to help make the boycott unanimous.
In November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the MIA’s case for
desegregation. The boycott ended on 20 December 1956, when the bus com-
panies agreed to allow all bus travellers the same rights to any vacant seats.
Civil Rights Acts in 1957 and 1960
The bus boycott and moves towards desegregation in schools made Presi-
dent Eisenhower conscious of the need to gain support from potential
African American voters. In the United States, people have to register in
order to vote and at this time only about 20 per cent of African Americans
had done so. Eisenhower initiated the 1957 Civil Rights Act, significant as the
first civil rights legislation in 82 years, although limited in scope. It declared
discrimination to be illegal and established the Federal Civil Rights Commis-
sion to prosecute anyone in breach of this law. While technically it provided
improved opportunities for African Americans to register to vote, it provided
only weak sanctions for anyone trying to prevent them from doing so.
Increased violence against African Americans, including bombings of
churches and schools, led to Eisenhower putting forward a new bill, which
became the 1960 Civil Rights Act. It created penalties for anyone violating
a court order to integrate a school or preventing someone either voting or
registering to vote. An additional 3 per cent of African Americans registered
for the 1960 elections.
Martin Luther King (1929–1968) admired the example of non-violent protest
that Mohandas K. Gandhi had used in India in the 1920s. Gandhi had encour-
aged Indian people to practise non-violent non-cooperation in their protest
against British rule of their country. Like Gandhi, King advocated a program of
civil disobedience that used non-violent methods.
In 1957, King joined with other members of the clergy to establish the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC began a cam-
paign of ‘direct action’, that was a dramatic change from the NAACP’s focus
on court battles. The campaign involved non-violent protest in the form of
boycotts, demonstrations and marches to increase national consciousness of
the denial of civil rights to African Americans. While many of these were
successful, the harder thing was to establish and maintain the organisation
that would inspire ongoing effort for the cause.
 Sit-ins
In February 1960, in North Carolina, four African American college students
refused to leave the seats they had taken at the local ‘whites only’ Wool-
worth’s cafeteria. With other students supporting them, they maintained a
presence on the seats for the entire day, forcing cafeteria business to a stand-
still. Martin Luther King encouraged this non-violent initiative. In 1960–61,
over 70 000 people took part in ‘sit-ins’ which succeeded in integrating public
eating areas and also in desegregating other public facilities in 150 cities.

Source 7.11
Photograph from February 1960
showing the first lunch counter
sit-in at Woolworths in Charlotte,
North Carolina

Source 7.12
A photograph showing civil rights
supporters at a ‘sit-in’ in May
1963. They are seated at
Woolworth’s ‘whites only’ lunch
counter in Jacksonville
Mississippi. All three had sauce,
mustard and paint thrown at
them. Some hours later, the man
was beaten up.

SOURCE QUESTION
What do source 7.11 and
source 7.12 indicate about:
(a) supporters of the Civil
Rights Movement
(b) the attitudes of those who
supported segregation?

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 133

SNCC W Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee,
established in response to the
success of the ‘sit-ins’
Read the letter by going to
the website for this book
and clicking on the Letter
from Birmingham Gaol
weblink for this chapter
(see ‘Weblinks’, page viii).
Source 7.13
A photograph showing police
using fire hoses against civil
rights demonstrators during the
1963 civil rights marches in
Birmingham, Alabama
SOURCE QUESTION
What information does source
7.13 provide? What do you
think was the photographer’s
purpose in taking this photo?
134 Retrospective
King’s work in the early 1960s gained increasing national and international
support for desegregation in all areas of American life. In 1961, he led dem-
onstrations (organised by the SNCC) in Albany, Georgia, protesting against
segregation in hotels, housing and restaurants. The ‘Albany Movement’
achieved some integration of facilities but local authorities took their revenge
by closing the parks, selling the swimming pool and removing the seats from
the newly integrated public library. This led King to believe that it was better
to pressure authorities into ending discrimination, not negotiate with them.
In early 1963, Martin Luther King and the SCLC began a series of protest
marches in Birmingham, Alabama — a city renowned for its racism. King
increased publicity for the movement by encouraging children and teenagers
to participate as well. King was arrested and imprisoned for eight days. While
there, he wrote his ‘Letter from Birmingham Gaol’, arguing that people were
right to disobey unjust laws but must be willing to endure imprisonment. He
described himself as standing between two distinct forces that characterised
the black community at the time:
W those whose self-respect had been so worn-down by years of oppression
that they were now complacent about the injustices of segregation
W those who harboured a growing bitterness and hatred of white people
and had lost all faith in God and their country.
Following King’s release, 1000 school students of Birmingham walked and
sang in protest against segregation. Police arrested 90 per cent of these stu-
dents aged between six and 16. King organised another march for the fol-
lowing day. Two thousand five hundred people of all age groups marched.
The local police responded with clubs, attack dogs and electric cattle prods.
Firefighters turned their high-pressure hoses on the demonstrators, knocking
them into the walls of buildings or onto the pavements. Dogs attacked the
protestors’ arms and legs. Newspapers published dramatic photos of these
events all over the world. President Kennedy sent federal troops to restore
order in Birmingham.
 Source 7.14
Cartoon entitled ‘Stars fell on Alabama’, by Thomas F. Flannery, published in the
Baltimore Evening Sun

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the message of the cartoonist who created source 7.14? Who would be
its likely audience?
2. What does the cartoon suggest about the impact of events in Birmingham on
the United States?
Police brutality in Birmingham provided a marked contrast to King’s
leadership and tactics and encouraged Americans to support calls for anti-
discrimination laws. When African Americans staged another march a few
days later, the police refused to obey the order of Police Chief ‘Bull’ Connor
to again turn fire hoses on the demonstrators.
On 10 June 1963, President John Kennedy called on Congress to pass more
civil rights laws. Two nights later, NAACP activist, Medgar Evers, was shot
dead outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi. African Americans, shocked
and outraged at the circumstances of Evers’ death, decided to organise a
march to Washington DC, the seat of American government.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 135
 The 1963 March on Washington
For African Americans, the goals of the March on Washington in August
1963 were:
W to pressure the government into passing the proposed new Bill on civil
rights and improving employment prospects for African Americans
W to stage an event that would attract worldwide media attention and
demonstrate the success of non-violent tactics, especially among those
angered by the slow pace of change.
The march, orchestrated by long-term activist A. Philip Randolph, was
a huge demonstration in favour of civil rights for African Americans. On
28 August 1963, Martin Luther King faced a crowd of over 200 000 civil rights
supporters crammed in between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln
Memorial. It was the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation
that ended slavery. King spoke of his dream for a different America: ‘Those
who hope that the Negro … will now be content will have a rude awakening
if the Nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tran-
quillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights’.

Source 7.15
A photograph of the March
on Washington in 1963. Martin
Luther King is third from the right
in the front row. It was at this
march that he gave his famous
‘I have a dream’ speech.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 7.15
indicate about the strength
of this protest and the
types of people who
supported it?
2. What do the placards
indicate about the demands
of the protesters?
3. Access the website for this
book and click on the
‘I have a dream’ weblink for
this chapter. Listen to or
read the full speech.
(a) What are the key
elements of King’s dream
as indicated in the speech?
(b) How might different
groups have felt about
this speech?

136 Retrospective

Following decades of public
pressure, the Mississippi
government re-opened the
case in 2005 and, with new
evidence, re-tried and
convicted Edgar Ray Killen,
a local minister.
The Civil Rights Bill became law when the new president, Lyndon Baines
Johnson (installed after Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963), signed it
on 4 July 1964. Johnson had pushed the Bill through Congress partly out of a
sense of obligation to Kennedy and, more significantly, because he believed
discrimination to be morally wrong. Martin Luther King was present at the
signing ceremony. In late 1964, The Swedish Academy awarded King the
Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Civil Rights Movement. However, his
influence in the movement was already diminishing.
Freedom Summer: Mississippi 1964
In 1964, the SNCC called on young volunteers — both black and white and
from all over the United States — to devote their summer holidays to help
end segregation in Mississippi. One thousand volunteers came to help run
Freedom Schools, teach typing and reading and provide general information
about US laws and African Americans who had fought for civil rights. They
also assisted 17 000 African Americans to complete voter registration forms,
although the lack of cooperation from officials meant that less than 10 per
cent succeeded in actually registering.
On 21 June 1964, civil rights workers James Earl Chaney (19), Andrew
Goodman (20) and Michael Schwerner (24) disappeared while driving
between Meridian and Philadelphia in Mississippi. They were on their way
to investigate the burning of an African American church. Police arrested
them just outside Philadelphia for a minor driving offence and later said
that the three were released from gaol a few hours later. FBI agents found
their car in a swamp two days later and six weeks later located the activists’
bodies. They had been beaten and shot. Of the 18 white men accused of the
murders, 11 were acquitted and seven were found guilty of lesser charges.
The murders highlighted:
W the dangers of involvement in the Civil Rights Movement
W the law’s failure to uphold the rights of its citizens.
The ‘Freedom Summer’ volunteers were under constant threat of violence.
Whites burned 37 churches, bombed 30 houses and buildings, beat up 80
people involved in the project, arrested over 1000 and murdered Chaney,
Goodman and Schwerner. The failure of the newly established Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) to gain full representation at the Demo-
cratic Party Convention supported the view of many African Americans that
integration was unrealistic and non-violence was ineffective.
Bloody Sunday: Selma 1965
On 7 March 1965, 600 SCLC activists embarked on an 80-kilometre march
from Selma to Montgomery to highlight the cause of voting rights. Only 23
of Selma’s 19 000 African Americans were registered to vote and King’s cam-
paign to change this had led to police violence but no progress. Police waited
for the marchers at Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge. They attacked the crowd
with clubs and tear gas. People called the day ‘Bloody Sunday’.
Two days later, Martin Luther King led a second protest march to the bridge
and, on Sunday 21 March, 3200 protesters — this time with court protection
— began the walk to Montgomery. By the time they got there, on 25 March
1965, the crowd had grown to 25 000. Similar marches in key US cities high-
lighted the growing popular support for this issue.
Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 137
 Source 7.16
A photograph of Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King (wearing bonnet) leading
protesters on 24 March 1965, the fourth day of their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe the event that is taking place in source 7.16 and explain its
significance for the Civil Rights Movement.
2. Look back at source 7.1 (page 125). In what ways does the photograph provide
evidence of the ongoing importance of the 1960s civil rights campaign?
In August 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into
law. The protest march from Selma to Montgomery contributed to its suc-
cessful passage through Congress. By the late 1960s, voter registration in the
South had increased by over 200 per cent.

The development of more radical methods and

individuals in the 1960s
While King inspired many individual initiatives and provided leadership for a
number of individual events, he never managed to unite all civil rights activists
behind his vision. King’s campaign for civil rights became less influential as:
W many activists, including King himself, devoted their energies to anti-war
protests against US involvement in Vietnam
W younger and more radical supporters of the Civil Rights Movement began
to openly question the effectiveness of King’s use of non-violent protest.
Members of groups such as the SNCC felt King gained credit for a lot of
their hard work.

138 Retrospective

Black Power W a movement
from the 1960s onwards
promoting African Americans’
control of their own political
and cultural organisations with
the goals of promoting pride
in their race and achieving
equality
self-determination W
a people’s right to exercise
independent control of its
own destiny
SOURCE QUESTION
What message were these
athletes intending to convey
at this Olympic Games
medal ceremony?
militant W wanting to take
aggressive action in support of
a cause
Nation of Islam W an
organisation founded in 1930
and led by Elijah Mohammed
from 1934 until 1975
Black Power
By the late 1960s, the words Black Power had come to dominate the Civil
Rights Movement. The two words were coined by Stokely Carmichael, a
leading supporter of the Black Power movement. The words encouraged
African Americans to pursue self-determination and to take control of their
own communities. Civil rights’ campaigns had focused mainly on discrimi-
nation in the South. The 50 per cent of African Americans who lived in the
North also suffered inadequate housing, poor access to facilities, high unem-
ployment and white control of government and law enforcement. Stokely Car-
michael argued that many whites remained violently opposed to civil rights
despite King’s appeals to their consciences and morality. Some Black Power
supporters saw their goal as supremacy over whites; others aimed at improved
conditions for workers. Some interpreted it as political and economic power.
Source 7.17
Photograph showing two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, at their
medal ceremony at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. After receiving their medals, they gave the
Black Power salute and refused to acknowledge the US flag when it was raised for the
anthem. Smith’s right-handed salute expressed ‘Black Power’ and Carlos’ left-handed salute
symbolised black unity. The white silver medallist, Melbournian Peter Norman, showed his
support by wearing an OPHR (Olympic Project for Human Rights) badge. (Smith and Carlos
were both pallbearers at Norman’s funeral in October 2006.)
Another prominent African American leader, Malcolm X, also believed
that African Americans needed to become militant in order to defeat white
racism. While serving a prison sentence for burglary, Malcolm X had become
interested in a religious group known as the Nation of Islam. Its teachings
incorporated the goal of a separate African American state as well as concern
to promote economic self-help for African Americans. While mainstream
Islamic teaching was non-racist, the Nation of Islam preached the oppo-
site view — that whites were ‘devils’ who would soon be destroyed, thus
enabling black rule.
Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 139

Source 7.18
Malcolm X’s view on the best
means of achieving freedom for
African Americans
SOURCE QUESTION
List the three main ideas that
Malcolm X was putting forward
with his words in source 7.18.
Black Panthers W a militant
political party established by
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
in 1966 with the goal of gaining
equality for African Americans.
Its members dressed in black
trousers, black leather jackets,
black berets and blue shirts.
ghetto W an area of a city where
a minority group lives
140 Retrospective
When released from gaol in 1952, Malcolm took the symbol ‘X’ to signify the
absence of an inherited African name and worked to spread both the religious
and the political goals of Islam throughout the United States. He was a powerful
speaker and succeeded in recruiting thousands of young African Americans to
the Nation of Islam. By 1963, around 30 000 African Americans had joined the
Nation of Islam and Malcolm X had become its best-known spokesperson.
. . . I don’t go along with any kind of non-violence unless everybody’s going to be
non-violent. If they make the Ku Klux Klan non-violent, I’ll be non-violent, if they
make the White Citizens’ Council non-violent, I’ll be non-violent. But as long as
you’ve got somebody else not being non-violent, I don’t want anybody coming to
me talking any non-violent talk . . .
You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your
freedom, then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it . . . fight them, and you’ll
get your freedom . . .
Malcolm X, quoted in N. Smith, The USA 1917–1980,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 83.
Initially, Malcolm X’s views differed markedly from those of Martin Luther
King. Malcolm X wanted the separation of races, not integration. He spoke
of King’s non-violence as ‘the philosophy of the fool’ and called for a ‘black
revolution’ to overthrow white power. Malcolm X made fun of King’s famous
‘I have a dream’ speech, with the line, ‘While King was having a dream, the
rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare’.
The Black Panthers was another militant political group. Founded by
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1965, it produced a ten-point
program advocating the restructuring of American society to achieve social,
political and economic equality for African Americans. The Black Panthers
patrolled black communities to protect their residents from abuses of police
power. However, by the late 1970s, problems and divisions within the party
had eroded its political force.
Violence and frustration
In the mid to late 1960s, riots broke out in many United States’ cities. Malcolm
X was assassinated in New York on 21 February 1965. This provoked riots in
over 100 cities.
On 11 August 1965, two weeks after President Johnson had signed the Voting
Rights Act, Los Angeles police arrested Marquette Frye, an African American,
for drink driving. During the arrest, in the black ghetto area of Watts, one of
the police officers aimed a gun at Frye, as if to shoot him. This event provoked
six days of rioting as African Americans gave vent to their outrage at the
ongoing injustices they had to face. Rioters burned cars and shopping areas
and shot police and firefighters. The Watts riots led to 34 deaths, hundreds of
people injured and thousands arrested. When asked what Martin Luther King
would think of their actions, one of the rioters replied ‘Martin Luther Who?’
In 1966, riots broke out in Chicago, Cleveland, Dayton, Milwaukee and San
Francisco. The government sent in the National Guard to restore order in
all of those cities. In 1967, African American frustration exploded in even
more violent riots in Newark and Detroit resulting in the shooting of nearly
83 African Americans.
 Source 7.19
Extract from a speech made
by Stokely Carmichael on
28 July 1966
SOURCE QUESTION
How did the views put forward
by Carmichael in source 7.19
differ from those of Martin
Luther King? What would they
have agreed on?
Now, let’s get to what the white press has been calling riots. In the first place,
don’t get confused with the words they use like ‘anti-white’, ‘hate’, ‘militant’, and
all that nonsense like ‘radical’ and ‘riots’. What’s happening is rebellion not riots . . .
The extremists in this country are the white people who force us to live the way
we live. We have to define our own ethic. We don’t have to (and don’t make any
apologies about it) obey any law that we didn’t have a part to make, especially if
that law was made to keep us where we are. We have the right to break it.
Published in Notes and Comment, a newsletter by the SNCC, Chicago; reproduced
in Globe Fearon Historical Case Studies, The Civil Rights Movement, op. cit., p. 109.

SOURCE QUESTION
How did the views put forward by Carmichael in source 7.19 differ from those of
Martin Luther King? What would they have agreed on?
On 4 April 1968, an assassin killed Martin Luther King in Memphis,
Tennessee, where King had gone to support a strike by African American
garbage collectors. The riots in 100 American cities in response to his shooting
reflected the attitude that non-violence was ineffective.

Achievements of the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King’s birthday — 15 January — is now a national holiday in
the United States on the third Monday of January each year. This is indic-
ative of a number of successes in the Civil Rights Movement.
W By the early 1960s, few Americans could ignore the injustices
committed against the African American population.
W The civil rights activism of the 1950s and 1960s brought about
increasingly more meaningful and effective civil rights legislation.
The 1968 Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate, on the basis
of race, religion, sex and national origin, against anyone trying to
finance, rent or purchase accommodation. It also provided protection
for civil rights activists. It was President Johnson’s third piece of civil
rights legislation and demonstrated his commitment to this issue.
W In 1967, the United States Supreme Court overruled state laws
forbidding inter-racial marriages. In the following year, Columbia
Pictures released Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. The film starred
three major Hollywood actors and dealt sympathetically with the
romance between an African American doctor and the daughter of
an upper middle-class white couple. It was an indicator of a changed
outlook on race relations.
W In 1965, only 100 African Americans had been elected to public office.
By 1989, 7200 African Americans had been elected to public positions
as sheriffs, mayors and members of Congress.
By the end of the Civil Rights Movement, significant numbers of the
United States’ white population accepted the idea of equal political and
legal rights for African Americans. They were slower to accept their rights
to social and economic equality, especially if it came at the cost of higher
taxation. Segregated neighbourhoods continued to be a feature of American
cities. Integrated public schools saw many whites seek private schooling.
In the 1970s, membership of the Ku Klux Klan increased by 300 per cent.

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 141
 Thirty years later, African Americans continued to experience disadvan-
tage, resulting from poverty and discrimination. The average wage for an
African American was just over half the average for a white person. Nearly
three times as many African Americans lived below the poverty line. African
American men received prison sentences at seven times the rate of white men.
Fifteen states denied ex-offenders the vote, thus disenfranchising 13 per cent
of African American men nationwide, and nearly 40 per cent in some states.
Racial tensions and divisions continued. During their 1992 Los Angeles
trial, video footage showed four police officers beating up African American
Rodney King, whom they had stopped for a supposed traffic violation. When
the jury acquitted the officers, Los Angeles erupted into days of rioting —
resulting in deaths, injuries and destruction of property.

Source 7.20
Photograph showing part of the
1992 riots in Los Angeles

SOURCE QUESTION
How might each of the
following groups have
responded to the source 7.20
photograph?
(a) the Los Angeles police
(b) the jury
(c) the African American
community

In the 1950s and 1960s, African American Civil Rights activists pressured
successive US governments and presidents to recognise and protect their
rights. By the early twenty-first century, overt racism had become unacceptable
and African Americans played increasingly significant roles in all aspects
of US life. African American, Lieutenant–General Colin Powell was the
Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. In 2001 he became US
Secretary of State. His successor, in 2005, was Condoleeza Rice, an African
American born in Birmingham, Alabama, who had previously held the
position of National Security Adviser.
At the same time, the Civil Rights Movement has yet to eradicate preju-
dices built up across many generations. In late 2006, white students in Jena,
Louisiana, hung nooses from an oak tree after another student had gained
permission for black students to share with them its use as a meeting place.

142 Retrospective
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1 and P1.2
1. Choose one of the following individuals or groups who participated in
the Civil Rights Movement. Carry out research into:
W the individual’s or group’s attitude towards the Civil Rights
Movement
W the role played within this movement and methods used
W the legacy of the individual/group in relation to achievements in
civil rights.
Use desktop publishing to record your findings on an A4 sheet for
display on the class noticeboard.
Ella Baker, Stokely Carmichael, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE),
Angela Davies, Elizabeth Eckford, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer,
Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP, Huey
Newton, Rosa Parks, A. Philip Randolph, the SCLC, the SNCC

Change and continuity over time P2.1

2. Essay: Evaluate the extent to which African Americans overcame the
inequities they faced in the period 1950–70. (P2.1)
3. View the 1968 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?. What does this
indicate about change or continuity in relation to attitudes towards
civil rights for African Americans in the 1960s? (P2.1)
4. Find out how and why Malcolm X’s attitudes and methods changed
over the period 1963 to 1965. Summarise your findings in the form of
an article suitable for publication in a magazine such as the Sydney
Morning Herald’s ‘The Good Weekend’. Include a headline which will
interest your readers and also highlight the nature of the change in
Malcolm X’s attitudes and methods. (P2.1)

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

5. Class activity: Watch Richard Pearce’s 1990 film The Long Walk Home.
(a) List the questions you would ask to consider the film’s value as a
historical source. (P3.1)
(b) Use the list of questions and your responses to questions (i)–(v) in
preparation for the written task in part (c).
(i) What factual information does the film present? (P3.2)
(ii) What key themes does the film explore? How are these
related to the Civil Rights Movement? (P3.2)
(iii) What does the film indicate about the cultural, economic,
political and/or social ideas and beliefs that influenced
people’s different attitudes? (P3.2, P3.4)
(iv) What can you deduce about the filmmaker’s perspective on
and interpretation of the Civil Rights Movement? (P3.4)
(v) What are the strengths/weaknesses of this film for people
wanting to understand civil rights issues in the 1950s? (P3.3)
(c) Write a two-page response to the following question: How useful
and reliable is The Long Walk Home as a historical source on the
Civil Rights Movement? (P3.3, P3.5)

Chapter 7 W The Civil Rights Movement in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s 143
 6. Analyse the passage in source 7.21 by answering the following
questions. (P3.3, P3.4)
(a) What is the writer’s attitude to the Supreme Court’s decision?
Which words indicate this?
(b) What do you think are the ‘moral and ethical . . . standards’ that
the writer is referring to?
(c) Why do you think he makes reference to a ‘well bred, cultured
southern white woman and her blue-eyed golden-haired little girl’?
(d) What does he intend to do in response to the ruling?
(e) What other groups would be likely to support the viewpoint he
expresses?
Source 7.21
Extract from Black Monday, written by Mississippi judge Tom Brady after the NAACP
victory in the Brown case

. . . when a law transgresses the moral and ethical sanctions and standards
of the mores [customs], invariably strife, bloodshed and revolution follow
in the wake of its attempted enforcement. The loveliest and purest of God’s
creatures, the nearest thing to an angelic being that treads this terrestrial ball,
is a well-bred, cultured southern white woman or her blue-eyed, golden-haired
little girl . . . We say to the Supreme Court and to the northern world, ‘You shall
not make us drink from this cup’ . . . We have, through our forefathers, died
before for our sacred principles. We can, if necessary, die again.
Tom Brady, quoted in N. Smith, The USA 1917–1980,
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, p. 69.

7. Research Claudette Colvin’s story of the Montgomery bus boycott.

How does it differ from the accepted version of this event? Visit the
website for this book and click on the Claudette Colvin weblinks for
this chapter for some sources of information.
Communicating an understanding of history P4.1 and P4.2
8. Group work: Divide into groups of three or four students. Use
your knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement to create a roleplay
illustrating one of the following ideas: boycott, civil disobedience,
civil rights, democracy, militancy, racism, segregation. (P4.1 and P4.2)
9. Your task is to write a speech to be given by a lawyer. Choose to be
the lawyer who is prosecuting the perpetrator/s of the murder of
one of the following:
W Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner
W Martin Luther King
W Malcolm X.
Your speech should outline the nature of the crime, the events and
attitudes that led to its occurrence and some information about the
significance of the victim/s. (P4.2)
10. Group work: Create a poster encouraging university students to
participate in one of the civil rights protests. You will need to
consider the words and pictures that will motivate your audience to
become involved. (P4.2)
11. The traditional Negro spiritual, ‘We shall overcome’, became the
anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Divide the class into groups
and allocate each group one of its verses to perform, accompanied
by a well-known recording of it, such as that of Joan Baez. (P4.1)

144 Retrospective
 8
KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W communism W democracy

W racism
The assassination of
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
W

W
The areas of focus for this author-developed case study are:
Kennedy in November 1963
Death of a president: Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963
Impact and aftermath of the Kennedy assassination
KEY DATES W The Warren Report — evidence and conspiracy theories
1961
T January John F. Kennedy
becomes 35th US President
1963
T 22 November Assassination
of President Kennedy
T 24 November Jack Ruby
kills Lee Harvey Oswald
T 25 November
President’s funeral
1964
T 24September
Warren Commission
Report published
1967
T DA Jim Garrison charges
Clay Shaw with conspiring
to kill Kennedy
1976
T September House
Select Committee on
Assassinations (HSCA)
appointed to review
evidence
1979
T Committee delivers
conclusions
1991
T Oliver
Stone releases
movie JFK
1992
T President John F. Kennedy Source 8.1
Assassination Records
A famous photograph of the Kennedy family at the funeral on 25 November 1963
Collection Act
of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. John Kennedy Jnr, on his third birthday,
salutes his father’s coffin as it leaves St Matthew’s Cathedral.
* This author-developed case study of Kennedy’s assassination provides some background from which to embark
on the study of the History Extension topic onChapter
Kennedy’s8presidency.
W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 145
 Introduction
assassination W the murder of
someone important, usually
someone powerful in the
political world. The assassin’s
purpose might be the pursuit
of an ideological or political
goal or revenge.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 8.3
indicate about Walter
Cronkite’s attitude at
the time of delivering the
news bulletin announcing
Kennedy’s death?
2. Where were you and what
were you doing when you
heard news of the attack
on the World Trade Center
in 2001? How did you feel
about this?
3. Survey five people of
different age groups,
asking them to name two
events (other than 9/11)
that they remember as
being momentous historical
events. Ask what it was
about these events that
made them so memorable.
Share your findings with
the class.
146 Retrospective
Where were you when you heard the news of . . . ?
There are events in world history that are so
dramatic, unexpected, shocking and/or momentous Source 8.2
that people for years afterwards remember where Photograph of the terrorist
they were and what they were doing when they attack on the World Trade
heard the news, and how they and others around Center, New York, on
them felt and reacted. 11 September 2001
On 11 September 2001, there was
the terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center in New York. On 31 August 1997,
there was the car accident in Paris
that resulted in the death of Princess
Diana. In November 1989, people
all over the world watched in
amazement at the fall of the Wall
that had divided Berlin for over
28 years. On 5 September 1972, members
of the Black September organisation took
hostage, and ultimately murdered, 11 Israeli
athletes and coaches at the Olympic village in
Munich. On 22 November 1963, at 12.31 pm, in
Dallas, Texas, there was the assassination
of US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Source 8.3
An extract from a 2003 interview on CBS’s The Early Show
in which renowned US broadcaster Walter Cronkite, around the
fortieth anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination, recalls
making the announcement on 22 November 1963
Most people old enough to remember the third week of November in 1963 can recall
the exact moment they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.
And for millions, the word came from CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite . . .
[The soap opera] ‘As The World Turns’ was interrupted by a CBS special bulletin.
The anchor, Walter Cronkite, said: ‘Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas,
Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown
Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded
by this shooting.’ . . .
[Cronkite’s] composure wavered only once: at the moment when the
unthinkable was confirmed . . .
His report: ‘From Dallas, Texas, the flash — apparently official — President
Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central standard time, 2 p.m. Eastern standard time,
some 38 minutes ago.’
Cronkite tells The Early Show, ‘My gosh, the president’s dead. John Kennedy,
this young president, is cut down, is dead. And it hit me pretty hard, just for that
moment, while I gathered myself together, and went on again, beginning to think
about, now where do we go?’ . . .
Extract from CBS News, ‘Cronkite Remembers JFK’, New York, 20 November 2003.
 Source 8.4
A photograph from 22 November
1963 of New Yorkers crowding
around a convertible to hear
breaking news on the radio of the
assassination of the President
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. From sources 8.3 and
8.4, describe the general
reaction to news of John F.
Kennedy’s assassination.
2. Ask people aged at least 50
how they heard the news
of Kennedy’s assassination
and what they felt about it.
Source 8.5
Photograph showing President Kennedy in November 1963
Kennedy with his son, John, in
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the Unit
the West Wing colonnade of the
White House on 10 October 1963 ed States. He belonged to the Democratic Party and came from a wealthy and
powerful Massachusetts family.
In November 1963, Kennedy had been in office for almost three years and
was beginning to campaign for a second term. He projected an image of style,
charm, wit, good humour and intelligence. At 43, he was a relatively young
president, married to a glamorous young wife, Jacqueline, with two young
children, Caroline and John.
Many Americans found Kennedy to be an inspiring leader. They admired
the values in his 1961 inaugural address and in his ‘New Frontier’ program;
his leadership skills, especially at the time of the 1962 confrontation between
the US and the Soviet Union known as the Cuban Missile Crisis; and his
determination to have an American on the moon by the end of the decade.
Kennedy was not universally popular. Many people in the southern states
of the US disliked him, partly because of his support for the Civil Rights
Movement. Many right-wing groups there (and elsewhere) judged him to be
‘soft on’ communism.
communism W a political Source 8.6
ideology and economic system,
Photograph
developed by Karl Marx
showing
(1818–1883), in which people share
President
equally the ownership of their
Kennedy
society’s resources, contribute to
signing the
its work according to their
Limited
abilities and are provided for
Nuclear Test
according to their neeeds
Ban Treaty
in the White
SOURCE QUESTION House on
White House photographers 7 October
1963
took sources 8.5 and 8.6 in the
White House in October 1963.
How do you think critics of
Kennedy would have reacted
to these photographs?

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 147

 Death of a president: Dallas, Texas, 22 November 1963
President Kennedy’s two-day trip to Texas in November 1963 was part of
a strategy, in the build-up to the 1964 presidential election, to improve his
popularity in the South. His Vice President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, a proud
John Birch Society W an ultra Texan and former senator for that state, accompanied Kennedy.
right-wing society founded by
Robert Welch in 1958. Named
At the time of the presidential visit, the John Birch Society placed an anti-
for John Birch, who had been Kennedy advertisement in the Dallas Morning News. Other right-wing groups
killed by Chinese communists distributed leaflets labelling Kennedy a ‘traitor’ for his attempts to improve
in 1945, it was against the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union and Cuba.
communism, liberalism, civil
The Citizens’ Council of Dallas, dominated by businessmen active in the oil
rights, the UN and John
Kennedy. In 1964, it employed industry, was very powerful. It wanted the US democracy to serve its inter-
200 people and had a budget of ests. It resented Kennedy’s conciliatory attitude towards communist powers
US$3 million at its disposal. and his agreement with the Soviet Union to ban nuclear weapons testing.
Source 8.7
Handbill entitled ‘Wanted for
Treason’ that Kennedy critics
distributed in Dallas at the time
of the Kennedy visit

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What was the traditional
use of ‘Wanted’ posters?
2. What evidence does source
8.7 provide of the author’s
attitude towards Kennedy?
3. Which groups in the
United States might have
supported this viewpoint?
Which groups might have
been hostile to it?
4. What arguments should a
newspaper editor consider
when deciding whether or
not to publish material of
this kind?

148 Retrospective
 On 22 November, Kennedy’s day began with breakfast at Fort Worth, a
seven-minute plane ride from Dallas. He discussed the dangers he might face
and commented that the Secret Service could not really protect him against
an assassin: ‘All one had to do was get a high building some day with a
telescopic rifle’.

Source 8.8
Photograph showing President
and Mrs Kennedy on their arrival
at Love Field airport, Dallas,
Texas, on 22 November 1963

SOURCE QUESTION
What caption would you create for this photograph in view of the fact that Kennedy
was assassinated less than an hour later? What would this reveal about your
perspective?

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 149


Source 8.9
Photograph showing President
and Mrs Kennedy in the
presidential limousine with
Governor and Mrs Connally,
shortly before the assassination
150 Retrospective
After a flight to Dallas and a motorcade through the town, the Presi-
dent was due to go to the Dallas Trade Mart for a luncheon with over 2500
supporters. The presidential party arrived at Love Field airport, Dallas, at
11.38 am. After meeting with local officials, the group took their seats for the
motorcade, which comprised over twenty cars and buses interspersed with
an escort of Dallas police on motorcycles.
The first car carried Dallas police observers. Then came the ‘lead’ car with
police officials and Secret Service agents. After this was the presidential car
— an open-top Lincoln limousine. President and Mrs Kennedy sat in the back
seat, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife sat in front of them and the
driver and another Secret Service agent occupied the front seat. Eight Secret
Service agents (two on each of the running boards) travelled with White House
officials in the next ‘follow-up’ car. Vice President and Mrs Johnson were in the
next car and after them their ‘follow-up’ car and the remainder of the group.
At 11.50 am, the motorcade set off. Many workers had come out at lunch-
time to see the President. People crowded the Dallas pavements, eagerly
waiting for the motorcade to pass.
SOURCE QUESTION
What does this photograph indicate about the difficulties involved in ensuring the
President’s safety?
 Source 8.10
Extracts from the 1964
Warren Commission Report
(see page 158) describing the
events and journey of the
motorcade through Dallas
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Use the information in
source 8.10 to create a
timeline of the sequence of
events it relates.
2. What information does
source 8.10 provide
regarding the nature and
source of the wounds
sustained by President
Kennedy and Governor
Connally?
3. Which witnesses does the
source cite and what does
it indicate is common to the
experience of all of them?
4. What information does the
source provide about the
efforts and conclusions
of the doctors treating
Kennedy?
5. Which parts of this account
appear to be fact and which
opinion?
6. What do you think was
the writer’s aim in the
information provided
on events in Parkland
Memorial Hospital?
7. Go to the website for
this book and access the
Warren Commission weblink
for this chapter (see
‘Weblinks’, page viii). Use it
to read the full account of
the motorcade and events
at Parkland Hospital. What
additional information does
this provide?
In the downtown area, large crowds of spectators gave the President a
tremendous reception . . .
Mrs. Connally, elated by the reception, turned to President Kennedy and said,
‘Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.’ The President replied, ‘That
is very obvious.’
At 12:30 p.m., e.s.t., as the President’s open limousine proceeded at approximately
11 miles per hour along Elm Street toward the Triple Underpass, shots fired from a
rifle mortally wounded President Kennedy and seriously injured Governor Connally.
One bullet passed through the President’s neck; a subsequent bullet, which was
lethal, shattered the right side of his skull. Governor Connally sustained bullet
wounds in his back, the right side of his chest, right wrist, and left thigh . . .
Mrs. John F. Kennedy, on the left of the rear seat of the limousine, looked
toward her left and waved to the crowds along the route. Soon after the
motorcade turned onto Elm Street, she heard a sound similar to a motorcycle
noise and a cry from Governor Connally, which caused her to look to her right. On
turning she saw a quizzical look on her husband’s face as he raised his left hand
to his throat. Mrs. Kennedy then heard a second shot and saw the President’s
skull torn open under the impact of the bullet. As she cradled her mortally
wounded husband, Mrs. Kennedy cried, ‘Oh, my God, they have shot my husband.
I love you, Jack.’
Governor Connally was certain that he was hit by the second shot, which he
stated he did not hear ...
Roy Kellerman, in the right front seat of the limousine, heard a report like a
firecracker pop. Turning to his right in the direction of the noise, Kellerman heard
the President say ‘My God, I am hit,’ and saw both of the President’s hands move
up toward his neck. . . . Kellerman grabbed his microphone and radioed ahead to
the lead car, ‘We are hit. Get us to the hospital immediately.’
Special Agent Hill . . . jumped from the follow-up car and ran to the President’s
automobile. At about the time he reached the President’s automobile, Hill heard a
second shot, approximately 5 seconds after the first, which removed a portion of
the President’s head.
In the final instant of the assassination, the Presidential motorcade began a
race to Parkland Memorial Hospital, approximately 4 miles from the Texas School
Book Depository Building . . . the Presidential limousine arrived at the emergency
entrance of the Parkland Hospital at about 12:35 p.m. . . .
In the absence of any neurological, muscular, or heart response, the doctors
concluded that efforts to revive the President were hopeless . . . At approximately
1 p.m., after last rites were administered to the President by Father Oscar L.
Huber, Dr. Clark pronounced the President dead . . . the time was fixed at 1 p.m., as
an approximation, since it was impossible to determine the precise moment when
life left the President. President Kennedy could have survived the neck injury,
but the head wound was fatal. From a medical viewpoint, President Kennedy was
alive when he arrived at Parkland Hospital; the doctors observed that he had
a heart beat and was making some respiratory efforts. But his condition was
hopeless, and the extraordinary efforts of the doctors to save him could not help
but to have been unavailing . . .
At approximately 1:20 p.m., Vice President Johnson was notified by O’Donnell
that President Kennedy was dead . . .
Extracts from ‘The Assassination’, chapter 2 of the Report of the President’s
Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission
report), US Government Printing Office, 1964.
Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 151
 Source 8.11
A 1967 aerial photograph of
Dealey Plaza in Dallas where the
President’s motorcade travelled.
It shows the Texas School
Depository, a square brick
building at top right (with the
Hertz sign on the roof), and Elm
Street, in front of it, leading to
the Triple Underpass under the
freeway

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Use sources 8.10 and 8.11
to work out the route the
presidential motorcade
took on 22 November 1963.
2. Identify and explain the
actions you think security
personnel needed to take
to ensure the President’s
protection along this route.

Source 8.12
A frame from the Zapruder film
(see page 160) showing
President Kennedy reacting
to the first shot that hit him
in the neck

SOURCE QUESTION
In what ways does
source 8.12 support the
description provided in
source 8.10?

Kennedy had no chance of surviving his head wound. Hospital staff

declared him dead at 1 pm CST (Central Standard Time). At 1.33 pm CST,
White House Acting Press Secretary, Malcolm Kilduff, announced officially
that the President was dead.
At 2 pm CST, Secret Service men placed Kennedy’s body in a coffin and
delivered it to the presidential plane, Air Force One, at Love Field. Shortly
afterwards, Vice President Johnson took the oath of office, making him the

152 Retrospective
 thirty-sixth President of the United States (see source 8.13). The plane then
departed Love Field for the journey back to Washington DC, where doctors
at the Bethesda Naval Hospital would perform an autopsy on the President’s
body. Dallas police had protested the removal of the body. They argued that
Texas law required that the Dallas City Coroner perform an autopsy on the
body before it left Texas jurisdiction.
From the time of the assassination onwards, the actions and motivations
of everyone around Kennedy that day potentially became the subject of sus-
picion, analysis and controversy. In the years that followed, people came to
question the role of the Secret Service; the actions of the doctors who treated
Kennedy; the accuracy of the autopsy report; the rationale for not having
it performed in Dallas; the nature and efficiency of police and government
enquiries; and the use made of eyewitness testimony.

The impact and aftermath of the Kennedy

assassination
The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy had a similar impact on the
public to that of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. People
sat watching their TV sets for the latest updates on events. Regular program-
ming ceased. Television stations embarked on what became four days of
virtually around the clock coverage of the impact of the assassination and
hastily assembled tributes to Kennedy. Many (even those who had not been
Kennedy supporters), both in the United States and around the world, felt a
sense of shock and loss and felt that the world would not be the same again.
People had difficulty in thinking of Lyndon Johnson as the new President of
the United States.
Source 8.13
Photograph taken on
22 November 1963 showing
Lyndon Baines Johnson taking
the oath of office aboard Air
Force One at Love Field, Texas,
with his wife ‘Ladybird’ Johnson
shown at left and Jacqueline
Kennedy at right

SOURCE QUESTION
What messages could be taken
from this photograph?

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 153

 Source 8.14
A photograph showing New York
commuters studying the
newspapers following the shock
assassination of the President

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What could you conclude
from source 8.14 about
the way the people of
New York felt about the
President’s death?
2. What do you think was the
photographer’s purpose in
taking the photo?

Lee Harvey Oswald

The Dallas Police Department (DPD) arrested and later released several sus-
pects. At about 1.50 pm, 80 minutes after the assassination, police arrested Lee
Harvey Oswald in a cinema. They believed he had killed a policeman, J. D.
Tippit, over an hour earlier. When they learned that Oswald worked in the Texas
School Book Depository, from where witnesses reported shots had been fired,
they began to suspect him of the Kennedy assassination. They found a rifle and
spent bullets on the sixth floor and claimed that these were Oswald’s.
At 7 pm on 22 November, the DPD charged Lee Harvey Oswald with the
murder of Tippit and, with FBI and Secret Service representatives, interrog-
ated him for several hours over Kennedy’s assassination. Oswald claimed he
was a ‘patsy’ — that he was innocent and had been framed. It was not until
days later that Captain Fritz, the main interrogator, wrote up notes of his
interrogation of Oswald. There were no written transcripts or voice record-
ings of Oswald’s interrogation.
Source 8.15
A photograph showing Oswald in
police custody on 23 November
after he was arrested and
interrogated in relation to the
assassination of President
Kennedy. The photograph shows
him with a cut on his forehead
and a blackened eye.

SOURCE QUESTION
What questions would you ask
the Dallas Police Department
in response to this photograph
of Lee Harvey Oswald?

154 Retrospective
 Oswald never came to trial on charges related to the assassination. On
24 November 1963, police (with NBC providing live TV coverage of the event)
were transporting him via the DPD basement car park to the Dallas County
Jail. Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, came forward and shot Oswald
in the stomach. Oswald died following surgery at the Parkland Memorial
Hospital and was buried on 25 November 1963, the same day as the Presi-
dent. In the absence of anyone else, journalists served as his pallbearers.

Source 8.16
A photograph showing the scene
(broadcast live) in the DPD car
park as Jack Ruby (in right
foreground) lunges forward to
shoot Lee Harvey Oswald

SOURCE QUESTION
What different responses might people have had to the event portrayed in
source 8.16?

Lee Harvey Oswald was 24 years old when he died. In early October 1963,
he had gained temporary employment at the Texas School Book Depository
in Dallas. On 22 November, he carried a long parcel into work. He said it was
curtain rods. A work colleague later reported seeing Oswald by himself on
the sixth floor of the Book Depository, 35 minutes before the assassination.
Police, FBI and Secret Service sources suggested that he was emotionally
troubled with passive–aggressive tendencies and had trained in the Marine
Corps (from where he was dismissed as ‘undesirable’). Sources also sug-
gested that he spoke Russian, had lived in the Soviet Union for nearly three
years and attempted unsuccessfully to gain Soviet citizenship, had tried to
murder US General Edwin Walker (a member of the John Birch Society) and
was a committed supporter of Cuban communist leader, Fidel Castro. The
implication was that he had assassinated Kennedy because of his own mental
instability, or because he wanted to show support for the Soviet Union, or
because he was one of many people angered that Kennedy approved a 1961
CIA attempt to overthrow Castro.

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 155

 Source 8.17
Extracts from the 1964 Warren Commission Report (see page 158) outlining parts of the
evidence regarding Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements around the time of the President’s
assassination on 22 November 1963

Additional testimony linking Oswald with the point from which the shots were
fired was provided by the testimony of Charles Givens, who was the last known
employee to see Oswald inside the [Texas School Book Depository] prior to the
assassination. During the morning of November 22, Givens was working with the
floor-laying crew in the southwest section of the sixth floor. At about 11:45 a.m.
the floor-laying crew used both elevators to come down from the sixth floor.
The employees raced the elevators to the first floor. Givens saw Oswald standing
at the gate on the fifth floor as the elevator went by. Givens testified that after
reaching the first floor, ‘I discovered I left my cigarettes in my jacket pocket
upstairs, and I took the elevator back upstairs to get my jacket with my cigarettes
in it.’ He saw Oswald, a clipboard in hand, walking from the southeast corner of the
sixth floor toward the elevator . . .
Givens said to Oswald, ‘Boy are you going downstairs? ... It’s near lunch time.’
Oswald said, ‘No, sir. When you get downstairs, close the gate to the elevator.’
Oswald was referring to the west elevator which operates by pushbutton and only
with the gate closed. Givens said, ‘Okay,’ and rode down in the east elevator. When
he reached the first floor, the west elevator — the one with the gate was not there.
Givens thought this was about 11:55 a.m. None of the Depository employees is
known to have seen Oswald again until after the shooting.
The significance of Givens’ observation that Oswald was carrying his clipboard
became apparent on December 2, 1963, when an employee, Frankie Kaiser, found
a clipboard hidden by book cartons in the northwest corner of the sixth floor at
the west wall a few feet from where the rifle had been found. This clipboard had
been made by Kaiser and had his name on it. Kaiser identified it as the clipboard
which Oswald had appropriated from him when Oswald came to work at the
Depository. Three invoices on this clipboard, each dated November 22, were for
Scott-Foresman books, located on the first and sixth floors. Oswald had not filled
any of the three orders . . .
Extracts from ‘The Assassin’, chapter 4 of the Report of the President’s Commission
on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission report),
US Government Printing Office, 1964.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the message of source 8.17 and what evidence does it provide
in support of this?
2. Identify the Warren Commission Report evidence in source 8.17 supporting
the view that Oswald assassinated Kennedy. Visit the website for this book
and click on the Warren Commission weblink for this chapter. What other
supporting evidence did the Warren Commission Report provide?
In particular, check what it said about:
(a) Oswald’s shooting ability and his willingness to use violence
(b) the weapon used and its links to Oswald
(c) inaccuracies in the testimony Oswald gave during his interrogation
(d) the reliability of the information provided.

156 Retrospective
 The funeral of President John Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy’s funeral was an international event with rep-
resentatives of 90 countries, including heads of state, key politicians and
members of royal families all in attendance. His casket was placed in the
East Room of the White House early on Saturday 23 November and family
members, friends, foreign diplomats and politicians came there to pay their
respects. On Sunday 24 November, Kennedy’s body lay in state at the US
Capitol so that members of the public could file past. Despite bitterly cold
weather, 250 000 people waited as long as 10 hours for their opportunity to
show their respect.
President Johnson declared 25 November — the day of the funeral — a
National Day of Mourning, so that only people in essential or emergency
services were expected to go to work. One million people waited along the
funeral route and millions more followed the proceedings on their television
screens. A military guard took the casket first back to the White House, then
on to St Matthew’s Cathedral for a requiem mass (see source 8.1, page 145)
and finally on to the burial site at Arlington National Cemetery. Jacqueline
Kennedy lit an eternal flame to burn continuously over her husband’s grave.

Source 8.18
A photograph of Kennedy’s
horse-drawn casket and
funeral procession arriving at
Arlington National Cemetery on
25 November 1963. Behind the
casket was a riderless horse,
‘Black Jack’, with the boots
placed backwards in the stirrups,
symbolic of the death of a fallen
leader — one of many elements
modelled on the April 1865
funeral of Abraham Lincoln.

SOURCE QUESTION
What image of Kennedy does this source suggest and what would be the value of
linking him to Lincoln with the inclusion of the riderless horse following the casket?
(Read more about ‘Black Jack’ by accessing the website for this book and clicking on
the Black Jack weblinks for this chapter.)

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 157

 The Warren Report — evidence and conspiracy theories
On 29 November 1963, President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) appointed a nine-
member commission, headed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl
Warren, to investigate the assassination. On 24 September 1964, the Commis-
sion submitted 26 volumes, known as the Warren Report, containing its find-
ings and sources of evidence (see sources 8.10 and 8.17 for extracts). President
Johnson ordered that the Warren Commission files remain sealed until 2039
— that is, 75 years later. The Warren Report concluded that:
W Lee Harvey Oswald had killed Kennedy using the 6.5 mm Mannlicher-
Carcano rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository
W he had acted alone
W Oswald had fired three shots, one of which had missed. The three bullets
had all been fired from behind Kennedy and from the Texas School
Book Depository.
W the bullet that first wounded Kennedy had struck him in the back, exited
his throat and had then gone on to hit Governor Connally in the back,
from where it travelled through Connally’s chest and right wrist before
settling in his left thigh
W another bullet was the one which caused Kennedy’s fatal head wound
W one bullet missed its target
W the Secret Service had failed to take essential security precautions and as
a result had facilitated the assassination
W the open car in which the President travelled had not provided him
with any protection and he should have been provided with an enclosed
bulletproof car
W Oswald, while trying to make a getaway, had killed Officer J. D. Tippit
W Jack Ruby had shot Oswald in order to save Jacqueline Kennedy the
ordeal of Oswald’s trial
conspiracy W a secret W Ruby had not, as some conspiracy theorists claimed, acted to prevent
agreement between two or Oswald revealing that he had been hired by someone else to do the killing
more people to commit an
W Ruby had not needed any help to get into the underground car park
illegal act
where he killed Oswald. He had just walked down the ramp.
Jack Ruby’s murder of Lee Harvey Oswald meant that there was no court
case through which evidence about Oswald’s actions could be put forward and
tested. Conspiracy theories flourished in the years following the assassination.
Critics accused the Warren Commission of having failed in its methodology
and failed to address the issue of why government officials had destroyed or
not retained some potentially key evidence. For example, staff members organ-
ised the cleaning of both Connally’s suit and the presidential limousine before
forensic experts could examine them. Some autopsy photographs have been lost,
as has the official record of Lee Harvey Oswald’s service in the Marine Corps.
Over time, a number of key questions took hold in the public imagination:
W Was Lee Harvey Oswald guilty or just a ‘patsy’ as he had claimed?
W Had gunshots come from more than one direction and therefore from
more than one shooter?
W Did Jack Ruby kill Oswald to prevent him revealing other people’s
involvement in the assassination?
The growth of conspiracy theories challenging the Commission’s find-
ings was a symptom of the public’s increasing scepticism — especially in the
Vietnam War era — about the degree to which the US government could be

158 Retrospective

dictabelt W a device that
records sound for playback
at a later time
Source 8.19
Diagram included as an exhibit
for the House Select Committee
on Assassinations in 1976.
The diagram indicates the
Warren Report’s finding that
a single bullet had caused all
of Governor Connally’s wounds
and one of Kennedy’s.
SOURCE QUESTION
What is the lower part of the
diagram shown in source 8.19
indicating in relation to the
‘single bullet’?
trusted to tell the truth. This trend also reflected the fact that many people
did not believe one person alone could have carried out the assassination.
In September 1976, the US House of Representatives created the House
Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) to review the evidence and con-
clusions of the initial investigation. Its initial findings supported the Warren
Commission view that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. Many of its find-
ings differed from those of the Warren Commission. It concluded that:
W Kennedy’s death was the result of a conspiracy (possibly from within the
Mafia), not the desire of a lone assassin
W there were four shots fired and that one of these, coming from the area
known as the ‘grassy knoll’, did not reach its target
W the recording from the dictabelt of a nearby patrolman supported this to
the level of 95 per cent certainty. (Note that, in 1992, the US government
accepted critics’ view that this evidence was ‘unreliable’.)
W Jack Ruby had possibly been hired to make a ‘hit’ on Oswald. Ruby
had links with the Mafia and therefore a possible motive to prevent
Oswald from talking.
W Ruby entered the DPD car park from somewhere other than the ramp and
was perhaps assisted by someone on the police force itself
W Ruby had frequently made telephone contact with and visited someone in
communist Cuba in the weeks preceding the assassination and had later
lied about this to the Warren Commission
W the CIA, the FBI and the Warren Commission had all failed to investigate
all the evidence and theories that might have revealed the motives for
and perpetrator(s) of the assassination and, in the case of the latter two,
had failed to supply all the evidence available to them
W security for the motorcade had been inadequate
W the autopsy of Kennedy’s body had not been either sufficiently thorough
or well-documented
W photographic evidence indicated that Kennedy must have been hit by a
bullet coming from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository,
even if the gunman’s vision would have been obscured by an oak tree at
the time the shot was fired
W that one bullet had caused Kennedy’s back and throat wound as well as
all of Connally’s injuries
W that Oswald killed Tippit.
Governor President Kennedy Texas School
Connally Book Depository
Grassy knoll area
Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 159

Visit the website of this book
and click on the Zapruder
film weblink for this chapter,
to view each frame.
160 Retrospective
Jim Garrison’s 1967 conspiracy case
In 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison charged Clay Shaw,
a prominent local businessman, with having conspired to kill President
Kennedy. The ensuing court case is the only one in which anyone has
ever been tried on any charge related to Kennedy’s assassination. The case
attracted huge publicity and provided more sources of enquiry for conspiracy
buffs. While the jury acquitted Shaw, the case brought to public attention a
key piece of evidence — the Zapruder film.
The Zapruder film
On 22 November 1963, Abraham Zapruder, owner of a Dallas clothing store,
positioned himself on a concrete pergola in the area of Elm Street known as
the grassy knoll. This elevated position enabled him to get a good view of
the Kennedy motorcade and record it through the zoom lens of his Bell and
Howell movie camera.
The Zapruder film, effectively an 8 mm colour home movie, contains the
clearest and most complete known footage of the assassination itself. It com-
prises 486 frames, each lasting about one-eighteenth of a second (see source
8.12). The film follows the presidential limousine turning into Elm Street
until the disappearance of the motorcade under the railway overpass. The
sequence lasts 26.6 seconds and the president’s car is visible in 18.7 seconds of
these. At the time Kennedy received the fatal head shot, the car was virtually
level with Zapruder. Researchers have since labelled every frame using the
letter ‘Z’ followed by the relevant number in the frames’ sequence.
Observers of the film argue about frames Z140 to Z313. Some say the film
proves the presence of two or more gunmen; others support the Warren
Commission’s interpretation that it shows evidence of only one. The HSCA
identified four places where the film showed evidence of shots being fired:
Z157–161, Z187–191, Z295–296 and finally the head shot at Z312–320. Had there
been a lone gunman, as the Warren Report concluded, the film shows that he
would have had between 5.6 and 9 seconds to get off three shots, depending
upon when the first one was actually fired. The Warren Commission believed
the first shot came at Z210 and that the second shot failed. This would mean
that the gunman had fired all three shots in 5.6 seconds — something others
argued required a better rifle than a Mannlicher-Carcano and a more skilled
marksman than Lee Harvey Oswald.
In the Clay Shaw court case, Jim Garrison used frames Z313–320 to argue
that the direction of Kennedy’s response to the shot showed that it had not
come from behind — thus suggesting the presence of another gunman on
the grassy knoll.
Zapruder originally sold his film to Life magazine for $US150 000 (now
nearly one million US dollars). Life sold it back to him for $1 in 1975 and
the US government purchased it from the Zapruder family for $16 000 000
in 1998. The film, deemed ‘culturally significant’, has been entered into the
National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Since 1963, writers, researchers, makers of films and documentaries have
all addressed the public’s ongoing interest in the subject of who had killed
Kennedy and what had been the motivation. Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK
based its plot on information provided in the HSCA report and also on Jim
Garrison’s 1988 book On the Trail of the Assassins and Jim Marrs’ 1989 book
Crossfire: the Plot that Killed Kennedy. Critics panned its allegations of a con-
spiracy involving Lyndon Johnson, the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, pro Castro
supporters and weapons manufacturers.
 Source 8.20
Extract from Jennet Conant’s
1991 article ‘The man who
shot JFK’, in which film director
Oliver Stone provides his
interpretation of the story
Source 8.21
Diagram showing the path of
the single bullet as interpreted
by conspiracy theorists who
labelled it the ‘magic bullet’
6 SOURCE QUESTION
5 What, according to source 8.20, were Oliver Stone’s goals in making his 1991 movie
4
Governor
Connally
3 W Lee Harvey Oswald had either not committed the assassination or had not
2 W several bystanders on the grassy knoll claimed to have seen gunsmoke
President
Kennedy
1 could travel in a number of different directions to inflict the damage that
The ‘magic bullet’:
1 enters Kennedy’s back,
14.5 cm below collar
2 exits through knot in tie
3 enters Connally’s back
near right armpit
4 exits right side of chest
5 shatters right wrist
6 wounds left thigh.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Why do you think this
gained the label of the
‘magic bullet’ theory?
2. What does this indicate
that some people believed
in relation to this aspect
of the Warren Commission’s
[The] Kennedy assassination remains one of the murkier chapters of American
history. Almost all the crucial ‘facts’ are open to dispute, with everyone from
coroners who were on the scene to forensic specialists from across the country
arguing over the veracity of the autopsy photos and the correct interpretation
of Abraham Zapruder’s horrifying 5.6-second film of the mortal wounding of
Kennedy. Much of what passes for evidence — such as the ‘magic bullet’ that
struck Kennedy, changed directions twice and then hit Governor John Connally
Jnr., who’d been sitting in front of Kennedy — defies logic . . .
If there was more than one shooter, there was a conspiracy of some kind, and
consequently also a cover-up . . .
‘I believe the Warren Commission [finding] is a great myth, and in order to fight
a myth, maybe you have to create another one,’ says [JFK director Oliver] Stone.
‘The Warren Commission [report] was accepted at the time of its release for its
soothing Olympian conclusion that a lone nut committed this murder. I suppose
our movie is a countermyth: that the man was killed by larger political forces, with
more nefarious and sinister objectives’ . . .
From Jennet Conant, ‘The man who shot JFK’,
in GQ magazine, January 1992, pp. 61–7.
JFK? How would this affect the value of JFK as a historical source?
Conspiracy theorists continued to question the validity of the Warren Com-
mission’s findings. They generally came to believe one or more of the following:
acted alone. They stated that he lacked the shooting ability to fire three
shots within six to nine seconds and have two of them hit a moving target
W one shot had come from in front of the limousine perhaps from the
grassy knoll
there and smelled gunpowder and believed that a shot had been fired
from there. This would at least mean that Oswald had had an accomplice.
W that it was ludicrous to think that there had been a ‘magic bullet’ that
it had supposedly inflicted on Kennedy and Connally (see source 8.21)
W the autopsy report had covered up evidence of a large wound in the right
rear of Kennedy’s head. Many members of the Parkland Hospital staff
and security personnel had apparently witnessed this. The location of the
wound would prove that Kennedy had been shot from the front.
W Oswald had been ‘set up’ over a period of months to prevent suspicion
falling on the real assassin(s). This had been done by having people
posing as Oswald to create the impression that he was pro-communist
and hostile to Kennedy’s 1961 attempt to overthrow the Cuban communist
leader, Fidel Castro.
W the Zapruder film shows evidence of there having been more than three shots
W officials had cooperated in a cover-up of the nature of the assassination
and the identity of the assassin in order to maintain the illusion that only
one assassin had killed Kennedy.
In 1992, Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records
Collection Act (the JFK Act). Its purpose was to address public concerns that
the government was hiding the truth about Kennedy’s assassination,
especially in view of the allegations made in Oliver Stone’s movie JFK.
Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 161
 Congress addressed these concerns by advancing the release date of sources
of evidence that would allow the public to decide for itself. All remaining
documents will be released by 2017. In 1998, the Assassination Records
Review Board reported this had made considerable progress in addressing
the ‘excessive secrecy of the past’ and restoring public confidence in the gov-
ernment. In the mid twenty-first century, the Kennedy Library will release an
Source 8.22
oral history of the event that Jacqueline Kennedy made shortly before her
The words of the reprise of the
theme song of Alan Jay Lerner death in 1994.
and Frederick Loewe’s 1960
musical Camelot, based on Postscript: ‘Camelot’ and the shaping of history
Terence Hanbury White’s novel Jacqueline Kennedy was determined that history portray her husband as a
The Once and Future King. King heroic president. She invited journalist Theodore H. White to write up an inter-
Arthur, facing battle, speaks to a
view with her for publication in Life magazine. The interview, on 29 November
young boy whom he charges to
carry on his legacy. 1963, took place over four hours at her home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.
The theme of the interview
ARTHUR: was that Kennedy’s presi-
Each evening, from December to December, dency had been ‘one brief
Before you drift to sleep upon your cot, shining moment’ in US
Think back on all the tales that you remember history. The phrase came
Of Camelot. from the theme song of
Ask ev’ry person if he’s heard the story, the popular 1960 musical
And tell it strong and clear if he has not, Camelot (see source 8.22).
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory This play, based on the novel
Called Camelot . . . The Once and Future King,
Camelot! Camelot! depicted the noble ideals
Now say it out with pride and joy! that united the legendary
TOM: ruler, King Arthur, and his
Camelot! Camelot!
Knights of the Round Table.
ARTHUR:
At 2 am, after taking
Yes, Camelot, my boy!
45 minutes to put the story
Where once it never rained till after sundown,
By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown . . . together, White rang through
Don’t let it be forgot the article to the Life editors.
That once there was a spot They had been holding up
For one brief shining moment that was known publication, at overtime costs
As Camelot. of $30 000 an hour, so that
the story, ‘For President Ken-
©1960 Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Loewe For Australia And New Zealand: Alfred
Publishing (Australia) Pty Ltd. nedy: An Epilogue’, could be
included in their next issue.
White later admitted that
SOURCE QUESTIONS
he had allowed his work to be the vehicle for Jacqueline Kennedy’s attempt
1. What message might to shape the historical interpretation of John Kennedy and his presidency. In
people take from this the ensuing years, many writers viewed Kennedy through the rose-coloured
song in relation to glasses of the ‘Camelot view’. This view was well received in the atmosphere
Kennedy’s presidency and
of emotive pro-Kennedy nostalgia that, after the assassination, came to per-
assassination?
meate many interpretations of the Kennedy presidency. For many historians,
2. How would the
the question of how and why Kennedy died developed into the question of to
circumstances of
what extent emotional responses to the tragic manner of his death mitigated
Kennedy’s death influence
people’s willingness to against objective analyses of the nature of the Kennedy presidency.
accept this message?

162 Retrospective
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1 and P1.2

1. Describe the role of each of the following in the aftermath of the

Kennedy assassination. (P1.1)
(a) Lyndon Baines Johnson
(b) Jacqueline Kennedy
(c) Lee Harvey Oswald
(d) Jack Ruby
(e) Earl Warren
2. If you were asked to write a news article for the first anniversary
of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, what features and/or issues
related to this event would you want to highlight? Give reasons
for your answer. (P1.2)

Change and continuity over time P2.1

3. Research and report on the extent to which there has been change
and continuity in the official findings on the assassination of John
Fitzgerald Kennedy.

The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

4. What questions do you consider to have been essential to ask
(and investigate) in relation to the assassination of President
John Kennedy? (P3.1)
5. Copy and complete the following table to identify and evaluate five
different types of sources on the Kennedy assassination. Be sure to
provide detailed information under each heading. (P3.2–P3.5)

Source Content Author and perspective Usefulness Reliability

6. Collect 10–20 visual sources that you can use to explain the main
events related to the Kennedy assassination. Present your selection,
with appropriate oral commentary, to a small group. (P3.5)
7. Conduct your own investigation of sources on the Kennedy
assassination and answer the following question: To what extent does
the evidence support the view that President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a lone gunman? (P3.1, P3.5)
8. The Warren Commission Report concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald
assassinated President Kennedy and that, in doing so, he had acted
alone. You can view the Report on the US Government’s National
Archives website. Go to the website for this book and click on the
Warren Commission Report weblink for this chapter.
Work in pairs or small groups to investigate different sections of
this Report using the following guidelines.

Chapter 8 W The assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy 163

 (a) Click on ‘Chapter 3’ and use the references shown in brackets
below to find out the main points it provides in answer to the
following questions.
(i) What led the Commission to conclude that the shots had
come from the Texas Book Depository? (pages 61, 63–5, 68,
70–1)
(ii) What was the evidence that shots had also come from other
areas and why did the Warren Commission reject this?
(pages 68, 70–2, 76)
(iii) What evidence did investigators produce regarding the
weaponry and bullets used in the assassination and where
did they find it? What did the Warren Commission conclude
from this? (pages 79, 81, 84–95)
(b) Click on ‘Chapter 4’ and use the references shown in brackets
below to find out the main points it provides in answer to the
following questions.
(i) What led the Commission to conclude that Lee Harvey
Oswald was the owner of the assassination weapon and that
he had used it to kill Kennedy? (pages 118–19, 121–5, 127–31,
133–7)
(ii) What was the importance of the sixth floor of the Texas
Book Depository and what evidence from there also seemed
to incriminate Oswald? (pages 141, 143–7, 149, 152, 156)
(iii) What did the Report state that Oswald did in between the
assassination and his arrest? (pages 157, 159–63, 165–9, 171–2,
175–6, 178–80)
(iv) What parts of Oswald’s testimony to the Dallas Police did
the Warren Commission find to be untrue? (pages 180–3)
(v) What information does the Report provide about Oswald’s
‘Prior Attempts to Kill’ and what was the significance of
this? (pages 183–9)
(vi) What did the Warren Commission conclude regarding Lee
Harvey Oswald’s ability to assassinate the President using
the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found at the Texas Book
Depository? (pages 189–95)
(c) Discussion topic: Based on your shared answers to these
questions, if there had been a trial of Lee Harvey Oswald,
which case do you think would have been easier to argue
— the case for the defence or the case for the prosecution?
Give reasons for your answer.

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1, P4.2

9. Essay topic: Explain why the Kennedy assassination has remained

a source of interest for many people.
Your response should be about three A4 pages in length.
Remember to incorporate appropriate historical terms and concepts.
(P4.1, P4.2)

164 Retrospective
 part2 The historical
investigation
PRINCIPAL FOCUS

Students further develop relevant investigative, research and

presentation skills that are the core of the historical inquiry process.

9 The historical investigation 166

165 Retrospective
 9 The historical
history W the study of the past
to investigate, record and
interpret it
investigation
The historical investigation that you undertake in Year 11 is an opportunity:
W to choose a Modern History research topic that you are interested in
learning more about
W to interest other people in this topic by communicating what you have
learned to someone else
W to benefit yourself because, along the way, you will pick up the skills and
techniques that will make you a good researcher and essay writer
W to gain an experience that will help you with your HSC studies. It will be
especially useful to students who want to develop the skills needed for
the History Extension course, where a historical investigation makes up
80 per cent of the assessment mark.
Getting started — choosing a topic
You need to start with a history topic that will help you develop a good
question. Many libraries have copies of books and/or magazines that provide
a year-by-year overview of historical events and issues. Look through
these to get an idea of what you find interesting and what could provide a
good question.
You can also develop a topic that comes from one of the case studies you
cover in Year 11 (pages 1–164 of this book) or a topic that deals with aspects
of the Preliminary Course core study ‘The world at the beginning of the
twentieth century’ (pages 177–208).
Think about the kinds of things that interest you. Are you interested in:
W biographies of controversial historical figures?
W a significant historical event?
W the role of an individual in a specific historical event?
W a thematic approach?
W an investigation of a historical site?
W how the media has constructed an aspect of the modern world?
W an aspect of a particular society?
W a particular historical debate?
A good history topic
You are researching history so you need to think about what makes a
suitable ‘history’ topic. The Modern History syllabus requires that, in your
historical investigation, you:
W ‘develop a view about historical issues’
W ‘identify different historical perspectives and interpretations’ and
W ‘develop and support a historical argument’.
So you need to develop a topic that gives you the scope to do these things.
historians W people who are
trained to investigate the past.
The term is usually used
nowadays to describe someone
who is a professional historian
with a number of degrees in
this subject.
It’s helpful to choose a topic that incorporates an issue on which historians
have differing views, for example:
W whether or not someone was a good leader
W the factors that ‘caused’ or led to a particular event
W the significance of a historical event
W how important someone’s role was in bringing about a particular event
W the value/significance of a particular historical site
W the significance of the media’s role in shaping people’s interpretation of a
historical event/person/era
W the significance of an aspect of a particular society
W an evaluation of the arguments put forward in a particular historical debate.
Topics that are usually not appropriate for the historical investigation are those
dealing with current or very recent events, conspiracy theories, celebrity scan-
dals and, to state the obvious, topics on which there is insufficient information.

Coming up with a good question

Book covers depicting some
areas of historical debate
A table summarising Bloom’s
classification of thinking
When you are coming up with a question, it is helpful to know where
it comes in the levels of thinking that Benjamin Bloom identified in his
1956 Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Bloom led a team of educational
psychologists who developed a system for classifying the different levels of
thinking. Bloom’s research showed that 95 per cent of the questions students
were asked to answer only required them to show that they could memorise
and recall information they had been taught. This meant that students were
not being challenged and that they were missing out on developing their
skills in higher level thinking. Bloom’s team identified levels from lowest
to highest (see the table). Today’s educators and examiners are aware of the
importance of developing higher order thinking skills and they think of
this when they set questions and marking guidelines.
To reach a particular level of thinking, it helps to know where you want to go
and to set a question that will help you get there. The level of thinking you need
to aim for in the question for your historical investigation will depend on:
W the outcomes your teacher wants you to work towards in this task
W the marking guidelines that your teacher wants you to address in this task.

Level of thinking Explanation Question types

Knowledge W of dates, events, names, information define, describe, identify, list,
W recall of information name, tell . . .
Understanding W of information discuss, interpret, predict,
W of meaning summarise . . .
W ability to organise information
W ability to interpret and reorganise information
W ability to use knowledge to predict what happened next
Application W of information, concepts, ideas in new situations apply, change, demonstrate,
W use of knowledge and understanding to solve problems illustrate, modify, solve . . .
Analysis W identifying parts and patterns analyse, arrange, compare,
W organisation of parts explain, infer, select . . .
W ability to detect alternative meanings
Synthesis W using information to create generalisations and new ideas combine, create, design, formulate,
W using information to draw conclusions integrate, predict, rewrite . . .
‘what if . . .’ questions
Evaluation W judgement of the value of arguments, evidence, ideas, individuals assess, compare, conclude, judge,
W use of argument to make choices rank . . .

Chapter 9 W The historical investigation 167

 History essay questions rarely begin with the words ‘Write down every-
thing you know about . . .’. A good question demands more than just ‘telling
what happened’. Many teachers will expect you to come up with a question
that will call for a response using the higher order thinking skills of analysis,
synthesis and/or evaluation. Here are some examples:
W Discuss the role of X in . . .
W Explain why . . .
W Evaluate the significance of . . .
A question style that can work well for an investigation of an individual is
one where you pose different views about the person, for example:

Che Guevara: terrorist or freedom fighter?

Developing a proposal
Developing a proposal is like developing a plan of action. It gets you thinking
seriously about what you want to do in your research task, helps you to start
organising it and helps you make sure that what you are planning is ‘do-able’.
The proposal pro forma on page 169 is a good beginning.
The pro forma has space for you to identify sub-questions as well as the
main question for your research. Sub-questions are the unstated questions that
are hidden within your main question. They are questions that are usually
quite obvious once you start thinking about your topic. Sub-questions do not
extend your focus question. They are just the questions you need to answer
in order to have fully answered your main question. You should also be clear
about the time frame that your question requires you to consider. If it seems
unmanageable, then you need to change your key question so that you can
focus on a shorter period.
Read the examples of a focus question and sub-questions below, then copy
and complete the pro forma on page 169.

Focus question
W Evaluate the significance of Rasputin’s role in the downfall of the Romanov
dynasty.
Sub-questions
W Who was Rasputin?
W What is meant by the term ‘Romanov dynasty’?
W What factors contributed to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty?
W What role did Rasputin play in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty?
W How does Rasputin’s role compare with the role of other factors that
contributed to the downfall of the Romanov dynasty? (short term? long term?
An example of a focus question significant? insignificant? . . .)
and the sub-questions that come
from it

168 Retrospective
 Historical investigation — my proposal

TOPIC AREA _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOCUS QUESTION ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SUB-QUESTIONS:
• __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USEFUL SOURCES IDENTIFIED SO FAR (provide full details)

Books: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Journal articles: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Internet: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Proposal pro forma

Chapter 9 W The historical investigation 169

 Investigation underway: reading and note-making
It is tempting to do lots of research and note-making and then try to put it
all together. It is quicker and more rewarding to begin putting your work
together from the time you begin your research. There is always something
you can write up, even in the early stages of your research, for example, a
paragraph of basic (and essential) information, a sentence stating the his-
torical issue you are addressing, a sentence outlining one of the arguments
you might include or a sentence outlining some supporting evidence.

Selecting sources
The first step here is to find a range of sources (books, CD-ROMs, documen-
taries, films, historical journals, websites) that are helpful for your topic. Take
the time to choose these carefully. Make sure that they are relevant and not
too difficult to read and understand.
Begin with the sources that are easiest to understand so that you gain a
good basic grasp of your topic, then move on to those that provide more
depth of information and different viewpoints.
Ask your librarian for more ideas about resources that might help you and
use the footnotes and bibliographies in your source books to help locate more
specific information. Footnotes and bibliographies often also give good ref-
erences to journal articles. These are articles written by historians who are
experts on a particular topic. In a short article, they can often provide a good
overview of a topic and the issues and interpretations that are related to it.

Internet sources — handle with care

Choose Internet sources carefully and think about their usefulness and reliability.
It’s easy to get something onto the Internet. What you find there won’t have gone
through the months of writing, checking for accuracy and editing that books have
gone through. Some Internet material is written by students younger than you;
some doesn’t name an author, indicate the writer’s qualifications or list references.
Many people whose work is published on the Internet have a personal or political
agenda that makes their writing emotional, biased and inaccurate. Some is written
as a joke to catch people out.
Good Internet sources often have ‘edu’ in the URL, indicating that they come from
an educational institution. For these to be useful to you, you still need to know who
has written the article and her/his qualifications. You still need to verify, from other
sources, the accuracy of the information they provide.

Using sources — be critical

The fact that a source says something does not make it true. You must judge
that on the basis of comparison with other sources and consideration of the
source itself.
You have to use sources critically, by considering:
W Who was the author and what was her/his purpose in writing?
W What arguments is the author putting forward and does he/she provide
enough evidence to support them?
W Has the writer ignored evidence that contradicts her/his viewpoints?

170 Retrospective

This section deals with
books. You can use a similar
approach with other types
of written sources and also
adapt the approach for use
with other types of sources.
‘Highlight’ does not mean
‘colour in the whole
passage’! It means ‘make
something stand out’ so
you notice it. That is why
you should focus on
highlighting only the most
significant words or phrases
(not whole sentences).
W Is there any evidence of bias in the information and ideas the author
presents?
W Do other sources support or contradict this author’s view and how does
this affect the reliability and usefulness of the source?
You don’t have to write answers to these questions. You do have to think about
them and select the most useful and reliable sources for your research.
Reading for understanding
Reading reference books is different from reading a novel so you need to
approach it differently. With a novel, you usually only have to read some-
thing once to have understood it. With research materials, you need to read
the relevant parts of the book a number of times.
Begin by using the Contents and Index to locate the relevant chapter, section
and pages of the book you’re using. You don’t have to read the whole book.
When you have located the relevant pages, spend about five minutes skim-
ming through key headings, pictures, tables, maps and introductory and
concluding remarks to gain an understanding of the main points. Work out
which of your sub-questions this can help you answer.
Gaining knowledge of the overall ‘picture’ like this helps to make reading
and note making easier because it gives you an idea of something mean-
ingful to focus on — rather than just focusing on getting to the end. It helps
to have photocopies of your research materials at hand because then you can
write in sub-headings and highlight key points — something you cannot do
in library books.
What you need to do next is read to gain a more detailed understanding
and, as you go, write in margin headings and highlight any very important
words, phrases or sentences. By this time you should have a good under-
standing of what is the most useful information for your topic.
Making meaningful notes
Go back through your reading material and this time make notes on what is
useful to you. Some tips for good note making are:
W Establish a structure for your project by listing each main heading that
you will use, a dot point for each sub-heading and a dash for each point
under your sub-heading (see the examples on page 172).
W Use as few words for your notes as possible — there is no need to write
sentences.
W Use abbreviations (see the table on page 172).
W Record only what is useful for your focus question.
W Use your own words in your notes. This will force you to understand
what you are recording and make it easier for you to use your own words
in the final product.
W At the beginning of your notes, write down the full bibliographical
details of the source you are using (see the example on page 172). Use
square brackets for the relevant page numbers, so that you have a record
of exactly which page each part of your notes comes from.
If you are good at note-making, you can probably use a range of different
formats for your notes, such as mind maps, tables, diagrams and dot points.
If you are less confident about how to make good notes, the system outlined
on page 172 is a good way to start.
Chapter 9 W The historical investigation 171
 An outline of how you can make
and organise notes using the
minimum number of words (the
abbreviation c means ‘with’)
Sample notes
Source: Smith, Maria. Rasputin (Shaw Publications, New York, 2001)
[26]
• Rasputin
– Grigori Yefimovich
– 10 Jan 1869–16 Dec 1916 (Russ. dates)
– wanderer
– not monk
– seen as ‘starets’ (holy man, mystic, prophet)
– also womaniser, heavy drinker
[39]
• Link to R. dyn
– Tsarina’s desperate need: help for haemophilic son
– 1905: sent for Ras.
– Frequent success in healing boy (reasons unknown)
– Tsarina relied on Ras., called him ‘holy man’, ‘our friend’
– Pers. infl. c Tsar too
– Both saw him as relig. man who could heal c prayer

A table of commonly used Meaning Abbreviation Meaning Abbreviation

abbreviations and their meanings about, regarding re government gov’t
against, versus vs greater than 
and &, + increasing k
and others et al. leading to l
approximately y less than 
because < man/men, male(s)
circa (for dates) c. note well (this is important) n.b.
compare cf per cent %
decreasing m revolution rev’n
development dev’t therefore <
does not equal ≠ that is i.e.
equals, same as = with w/ or c
for example e.g. without w/o
good, plus, positive + woman/women, female(s) +

Every day, write up some of your notes as a contribution to the first draft
of your essay. Make sure you use a system for referencing your work and that
you include the details of your main sources in your bibliography (see pages
175–6). Doing this from the beginning saves you a lot of time at the end.

hypothesis W a suggested
explanation that needs to be
tested through research
Developing a hypothesis
Your ideas about your topic will change as you read and understand more.
You’ll start to formulate the main arguments you want to make in relation
to your focus question. You may have had a hypothesis at the beginning of
your research process. If you didn’t, you will find yourself developing one or
more as you do your research.
To use a hypothesis as an argument, it is important for you to be sure that
there is valid evidence to support it. If not, change the hypothesis to reflect
what you are discovering in your investigation.

172 Retrospective
 The writing process
Presenting your work
active voice W a sentence
construction in which the
subject is doing the action
rather than having it done by
her/him
passive voice W a sentence
construction in which the
subject is the recipient of the
action and not the person who
commits the action
Whether your final product is going to be presented in oral, written, visual
and/or multimedia form, at some stage you will probably need to produce
either a written essay or a written script. Good writing is essential for com-
municating your ideas. It is how you get your audience interested and how
you explain your ideas to someone else.
The script or essay should be the result of a number of drafts that you have
been working on from the very beginning. This will give you the time to polish
your writing, refine your ideas and take new directions when you need to.
Creating a first draft
Begin the first draft process as soon as you can, so you are having plenty of
practice at writing up your ideas. The final product will be much better if
you are working on a draft as you go rather than leaving it until you have
finished all the research.
In your first draft:
W Think about what seems like a logical plan for your essay and work
towards addressing all the different parts of it.
W Write up what you feel confident about, even if it is not in the order that
you’ll need in the final product. Word processing makes this very easy to do.
W Use your own words as this is the best way to be clear in your own mind
about what you want to say.
W Avoid ‘quote dropping’ as it can give the impression that you don’t
have anything very worthwhile to say. The fact that a historian says
something does not make it true. You need to provide arguments and
evidence. You cannot let someone else do this work for you. Use quotes
to illustrate an idea, not to have someone make a point for you. You can
make the point by briefly outlining what the historian thinks and then
commenting on why you think it is or isn’t a valid argument.
W Use historical terms and concepts. This helps show that you are
developing your skills in history and makes your work more professional.
The final draft
The final draft should be the product of an ongoing process of writing and
revision that began when you first started your research.
The goal is to communicate your ideas clearly, logically and concisely.
Start with a plan that has an introduction, a conclusion and, between these,
a number of logically sequenced paragraphs putting forward your response
to your focus question.
Each paragraph needs a topic sentence stating the main idea or argument
for that paragraph. The rest of the paragraph should be made up of the evi-
dence that supports the topic sentence.
To communicate ideas clearly and convincingly to your reader, make sure
that your paragraphs are in a logical sequence. It also helps to use short sen-
tences and to write in the active voice, not the passive voice. Active voice
sounds more convincing and forces the writer to be clear about who is doing
the action. Passive voice sounds weaker and suggests the writer has avoided
clarifying who did the action. (See some examples on page 174.)
Chapter 9 W The historical investigation 173

Examples of the difference
between active and
passive voice
plagiarism W passing off
someone else’s work as your
own original work. It includes
both using someone else’s
words as though they were
your own and using someone
else’s information and ideas as
though they were your own.
footnotes W numbered notes at
the end of a page that provide
information about where the
writer obtained the information
in a specific part of the text
174 Retrospective
You are writing about the past, so you generally need to put your verbs
in the past tense, not the present tense. You want your audience to focus on
your message, not on you, so avoid using the first person pronouns, ‘I’, ‘me’
and ‘my’.
Active and passive voice
In passive voice, the subject receives the action rather than performs it.
This makes the action rather ‘flat’ and often also fails to identify who performed the
action. For example:
W ‘In late 1916, a report commenting on the mood of the people was written.’
In active voice, the subject performs the action. Using active voice helps to
communicate your message more directly and forces you to identify who
performed the action. For example:
W ‘In late 1916, the Police Chief wrote a report commenting on the mood of the people.’
Try to identify which of the following sentences is in active voice and which is in
passive voice.
W ‘The people were shot at by the Tsar’s troops.’
W ‘The Soviets were established to provide a forum for expressing the people’s views.’
W ‘Groups outside the government increasingly undermined its power.’
Visit the website for this book and click on the ‘Active and passive voice’ weblink
for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii) to access a detailed explanation of
active and passive voice.
Referencing your research
In history, your readers expect you to produce work that is informed by other
people’s ideas and research. No-one expects you to magically come up with
information and ideas all by yourself. Show your audience where your ideas
came from, making it clear which views are yours (and don’t need refer-
encing) and which are someone else’s (and therefore do need referencing).
Referencing your work is one way to avoid plagiarism, which means
passing off someone else’s work as your own original work. Plagiarism is
stealing, so it is dishonest. It also slows up brain development! Plagiarism
prevents your audience from being able to check the sources and information
on which you base your ideas and arguments. That means you must make
careful use of a referencing system that gives recognition to other people’s
ideas. Historians use one of two systems for referencing their research —
either the Oxford system or the Harvard system.
Footnotes
The Oxford system uses footnotes to indicate the source of the writer’s
information, quote or ideas and to acknowledge what he/she has gained from
someone else’s work. Historians like this method because it provides helpful
information and makes it easier to read further and/or to check the resources
the writer has used. Footnotes are especially important if the information you
are including is controversial and/or not widely known. Sometimes writers
put all the notes together at the end of their document, in which case they
are called ‘Endnotes’.
At the relevant part of the text, the writer places a number, in superscript
type, then creates a footnote (or endnote), with the same number, that gives the
source information. The following is an example of how footnotes could look.
 The first time you use a
reference, give the full
bibliographical details and
page reference.
Full publishing details include,
authors’ names, title of
publication, edition, publisher,
place of publication, year of
publication and page
reference if applicable.
Footnotes — some examples
and explanations
Ask your librarian for more
information on the Harvard
system and the ways it can
address your specific
referencing needs.
Page reference
Author’s name
Date of publication (showing use
of up-to-date publications)
There is no page reference
for Robertson because this is
the argument he uses
throughout his book.
1. Lionel Kochan , Russia in Revolution , Granada, London, 1966, p. 37.
The author’s family name or The title is written in
surname is given second in italics or underlined.
footnotes or endnotes, whereas
in a bibliography it goes first.
2. Ibid. , p. 65.
Ibid. written in italics, or underlined, means ‘in the same place’, meaning it is from the
same source as the previous footnote, sometimes with a different page number.
3. J. N. Westwood, Endurance and Endeavour: Russian History 1812–1992,
4th edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993, pp. 150–1.
The abbreviation ‘pp.’ means ‘pages’.
4. K. Fitzlyon and T. Browning, Before the Revolution: A View of Russia under the
Last Tsar, London, 1977, pp. 109–113.
5. Kochan, op. cit., p. 257.
Op. cit. means ‘in the work by this author that has previously been cited’.
The Harvard system
The Harvard system is also known as the author–date system. Like the Oxford
system, writers use the Harvard system to acknowledge the sources of their
information. With this system, the writer uses brackets within the text to
include the surname of the author, the date of the reference work and its spe-
cific page number (see the example below). The bibliography (see page 176)
then provides full information on the reference works used.
Harvard referencing system — an example
Rasputin became an adviser to the Romanov household in 1905. Initially,
he provided advice on the treatment of the young Tsarevich’s haemophilia
( Smith 2001:45 ). Over time, and especially from 1915 onwards, the Tsar and
Tsarina gave consideration to his political views.
When the Tsar took over the war front in 1915, he let his wife take over his role
at home. The Tsarina took Rasputin’s advice seriously in relation to government
appointments and dismissals and even the direction of political policy (Jones
2004:95–96 ). Robertson ( 2001 ) considers that Rasputin’s political influence in
the period 1915–16 was critical in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty.
An example of the Harvard system of referencing, also known as the author–date system.
(This is an imaginary text extract with references to imaginary books!) The Harvard system
provides a basic reference within the text itself and full details in the bibliography.
Chapter 9 W The historical investigation 175

bibliography W a list of the
sources you have used in your
historical investigation. The list
needs to be compiled in
accordance with certain
accepted rules.
Family name or surname first
List the sources in alphabetical
order of authors’ names
Include the title, edition if
appropriate, publisher, place of
publication and year
Title of article placed in
inverted commas
Name of journal written in italics
Journal volume/issue numbers,
year and page references provided
A sample bibliography showing
its key features and the rules for
correct layout
The finished product
176 Retrospective
Compiling a bibliography
A bibliography is another important means of acknowledging the sources
of your information. Most school libraries will provide you with information
about how to compile a bibliography. It is important that you follow the estab-
lished rules below regarding what to include in a bibliography and its correct
layout. As a list of sources, the sample bibliography would be enhanced with
the inclusion of more recent sources. Your reader will be looking to see that
you have made use of current as well as older research.
Sample bibliography
Books
Christian , D., Power and Privilege: The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and the
Challenge of Modernity, 2nd edn, Pearson Education, Australia, 1994.
Ferro, Marc. Nicholas II: the Last of the Tsars, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
Hite, J., Tsarist Russia 1801–1917, Causeway Press, Lancashire, 1989.
Kochan, L., Russia in Revolution, Granada, London, 1966 .
Radzinsky, Edvard. The Rasputin File, Nan A. Talese Publications, New York, 2000.
Journal articles
Gaida, Fedor A., ‘February 1917: Revolution, Power and the Bourgeoisie’,
Russian Studies in History, 41, No. 4 (Spring 2003), pp. 52–72.
Hogan, Heather. ‘Reworking Russia’s History: Two Steps Forward, One Step
Back’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History , 30.2 (1999), pp. 273–81 .
Internet articles
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/russia/romanov.html
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/Rulers/romanov.html
The following is a checklist of essentials for a well written essay. You may use or
adapt these points as a checklist if you have used other presentation formats.
Grammar and punctuation check done and mistakes corrected
Spelling check done and mistakes corrected
Emotive language removed
Final proofread completed
‘Typos’ (typographical errors) fixed
Information is clearly and concisely communicated using active voice,
simple language and short sentences
Information is logically sequenced
Relevant historical terms and concepts included and explained where necessary
Referencing complete and consistent in format
Final product addresses task expectations and marking guidelines provided
By the time you reach the end of this task, you will have taken on some-
thing challenging that has expanded your thinking power and developed
your skills in researching, writing and presenting your information. It won’t
have all been easy. It should have been rewarding. Congratulations!
 part 3Preliminary Course
core study: the world
at the beginning of the
twentieth century
PRINCIPAL FOCUS

Students lay the foundations for their twentieth-century studies

by investigating the forces and ideas for change and continuity that
shaped the early twentieth-century world using the methods
of historical inquiry.

10 The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 178

• The nature of European society 180
• Imperialism: a world of empires 188
• Emerging forces and ideas 197
• Causes of World War I 199

177 Retrospective
10 KEY CONCEPTS
Key concepts relevant
to this chapter are:
W autocracy W democracy
W feminism W globalisation
W imperialism W industrialisation
W internationalism W liberalism
The world at the
beginning of the
twentieth century

W
This chapter focuses on aspects of the world at the beginning
of the twentieth century, in particular
The nature of European society
Imperialism
W Emerging forces and ideas
W nationalism W pan-nationalism

W sectarianism W socialism W Causes of World War I

KEY DATES

1894
T Secret court martial
convicts Captain Alfred
Dreyfus of treason
1898
T Émile Zola’s J’accuse leads
to re-opening of Dreyfus
case, seriously dividing
French society
1904
T E ntente Cordiale: France
and Great Britain join in a
friendly understanding
1905
T First Moroccan crisis
1907
T Britain and Russia (both
already allied with France)
create the Triple Entente
1908
T Austria–Hungary seizes
Bosnia–Herzegovina
Source 10.1
1911 Giacomo Brogi’s photograph of the Piazzetta San Marco in Venice, c. 1900
T Second Moroccan crisis

1912 1912–13 1914

T Soldiers shoot striking First Balkan War 28 June: assassination July crisis: failure to
workers on Russia’s Second Balkan War: of the Archduke resolve this brings
Lena goldfields Serbia gains territory Franz Ferdinand Europe to war

178 Retrospective
Introduction
‘The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there’, wrote L. P. Hartley
in the novel The Go-Between.
The world of the early twentieth century differed markedly from our world
at the beginning of the twenty-first. If you were 16 or 17 in 1901:
W it is likely you would already have left school — if you had ever been there
W you would probably have been born into poverty
W your hard physical labour — up to 12 hours a day, six days a week on the
farm, in the mine or factory — would have been essential to your family’s
economic survival
W some of the other children born into your family would have died in the
first 12 months of life
W your life expectancy could have been anywhere between 23 and 50,
depending on the area of the world into which you were born.
To return to that world would be like visiting a foreign country. While
there would be some points of familiarity, you would find that ‘they do things
differently there’.

Using sources effectively

You should use your investigation of this topic to further develop your ability to
use historical sources and judge the value of what they can offer you. For each of
the topics you encounter, think what questions a historian might come up with as
a guide to her/his research of the topic.
When you use sources, consider the following.
W Be clear about the difference between a source and the evidence that might
come from it. A source provides information which might or might not be useful
for the topic you are studying. Some or all of the source may provide answers to
your questions. If it does, it becomes evidence that can support or contradict a
viewpoint on a particular topic.
W Use the sources, both those provided here and those you find during your own
research, in a critical way. Don’t just take them at face value. Think about and
try to identify:
— who created the source and what was her/his perspective?
— when was it created?
— where did it come from, that is, what was its origin?
— what is its content?
— what was the motive, that is, what feelings, experiences, attitudes or
obligations incited the ‘author’ to create the source?
— what was the purpose of the source, that is, what was the creator’s
intended outcome?
— what is the nature of the source (diary extract, map, letter, photograph ... )?
— for the topic you are studying, is it a primary or a secondary source?
— what is the nature of the information the source provides (fact? opinion?
complete? incomplete? accurate? inaccurate? biased? subjective?
objective? reliable? useful? if so, for what?)
Think about and address these questions and you will be doing the work of a
historian. Some sources in this chapter are labelled to prompt you to think about
these questions.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 179

 The nature of European society
In 1901, the world’s population was about 1600 million and rapidly increasing.
Of the world’s population, 57 per cent of people lived in Asia; over 25 per
cent in Europe; 7.5 per cent in Africa; 5 per cent in North America; nearly
4 per cent in South America; and about 0.4 per cent in Australia and New
Zealand. While other areas of the world had higher populations, it was still
Europe that exerted the greatest power and influence. This was changing,
however, as shown by the fact that, in the period 1880–1914, around
25 million people migrated from Europe, mostly to the United States, the
‘land of opportunity’.
In Europe, as elsewhere in the world, people’s experiences of life and their
ways of thinking differed according to their sex, nationality, religion, social
class, economic position, government and location. When western Europeans,
who followed the Gregorian calendar, celebrated a new year and a new century
on 1 January 1901, Russians, Greeks, Serbs and Romanians, who followed the
Julian calendar, were still in late December — 13 days behind. Muslims, Jews
and Buddhists followed the time frames of different calendars again.

Rich and poor

An individual’s ‘membership’ of the upper, middle or lower class reflected
her or his economic role within society and the opportunities that resulted
from it.
Those born into Europe’s upper classes tended to have status derived from
their family background and wealth created from the ownership of extensive
areas of land farmed by others. The upper class dominated European politi-
cal life and often also provided the officer class within a nation’s military
forces. Its members enjoyed high status, prestige and influence that did not
necessarily reflect talent or ability. Their wealth came largely from the work
of others. They exhibited it through their grand houses, maintained by a
retinue of servants; their vacations in European resort towns; leisure pursuits
ranging from hunting to attendance at balls; expensive clothing; and access
to education, including private schooling and even tertiary education.
Source 10.2
A photograph c. 1900
showing nannies strolling
with the children in their care
through London’s Hyde Park
nature of source
date
content of source

SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 10.2
indicate about the relationship
between upper and lower
classes at the turn of the
century?

180 Retrospective
 Europe’s middle class comprised both the new group of people involved
in the development and control of industries and commercial ventures,
and those in professions such as law and medicine. Their wealth and
influence in society resulted from individual efforts more than their family
connections. They mimicked the lifestyles of the upper classes, had access
to similar educational opportunities and sought the same social and
political influence.
Great wealth and great poverty co-existed. Most Europeans belonged to
either the rural or urban working class. The working class provided the labour
for those who controlled a nation’s resources and it endured low wages and
inadequate living conditions. In a working-class family, everyone struggled
for survival. While reforms in some countries required children to attend
primary school, children usually still needed to contribute to their family’s
income in some form or other.
In the countryside, poverty resulted from the seasonal nature of much
of the available work. The urban poor lived in overcrowded conditions,
either in dormitories at their workplace or in overcrowded housing nearby.
Some lived as many as 30 to a room in houses converted into multiple flats.
Often a family holding the main lease would sublet its space, sharing their
living accommodation with others as they could not afford to pay the rent
on separate family housing. Privacy was difficult to obtain, living conditions
were unsanitary and disease was common.
Many people of other classes felt the poor deserved their fate. They
viewed them as lazy, dishonest and undeserving. With the poor receiving
low wages and having few educational opportunities, the poverty cycle was
hard to break.

Source 10.3
A photograph of a couple and
their five children in poverty in
London’s East End in the early
twentieth century. The man is
holding tickets from a pawn shop
where the family has traded
possessions for money.
Note the information the
caption reveals about the
content of the source.

SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 10.3 indicate about the nature of working-class life?

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 181


industrialisation W the
production of goods using
machinery rather than manual
labour and the consequent
replacement of industries as the
basis of a society’s economy
rather than agriculture, crafts
and trades
Source 10.4
Photograph showing the inside of
the Krupp metal foundry in
Essen, Germany, c. 1890–1900
SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 10.4
indicate about working
conditions under
industrialisation?
182 Retrospective
Industrialisation
By the end of the nineteenth century, western Europe, by embarking on
industrialisation, had undergone a revolution in the way people worked.
In urban areas, factories replaced homes as places of production; machinery
replaced manual labour; work itself became more specialised and produc-
tivity significantly greater and more efficient.
The industrial skills of the major European powers provided the military,
medical and communication technology that underpinned their success in
imperial expansion. Britain and Germany were Europe’s industrial giants.
They produced 66 per cent of Europe’s steel output. Britain’s coal and textile
production was greater than that for all of Europe together. Germany was
the world leader in engineering. The two nations competed for technological
dominance and the economic and colonial power that could come from it.
Their industrial strength enabled them to impose their political, economic,
social, cultural and religious influence throughout the world. Britain would
eventually concede its dominance to Germany and the newly emerging
industrial powers of the United States and Japan.
Industrialisation stimulated technical innovation. The 1900 Paris Exhibition
demonstrated the industrial might of the world’s great powers and heralded
the technological advances that could be expected in the new century. Elec-
tricity was providing a new power source in factories and on tramcars. The
replacement of steam trains with electric ones around 1900 aided the growth of
underground railways in Berlin, Paris, Vienna, New York and Philadelphia.
In the United States, one in 50 people had a telephone. Edison’s invention of
the gramophone gave people access to recorded music and France’s Lumière
brothers’ creation of cinema was opening up a whole new world of entertain-
ment. Other significant inventions in popular use were the mechanical carpet
sweeper, the Gillette safety razor and the typewriter. The need to promote
new products such as these encouraged the growth of advertising.
 Source 10.5
An advertisement for Kodak
cameras, c. 1900
nature of source

SOURCE QUESTION
What features of early
twentieth century life are
represented in source 10.5?
Industrialisation was a regional phenomenon. Within Europe, pockets of
industrialisation and the business and financial sectors that they encouraged
co-existed with the ongoing agrarian economy. Communities isolated from
the impact of industrialisation lived largely as they had for centuries. Russia
and the nations of southern Europe scarcely changed at all. In most other
areas of the world (with the exception of the United States), industrial power
was either limited or non-existent. Countries that had not begun to indus-
trialise or that were only making slow progress suffered from the changing
balance of power that industrialisation created.
Power, influence and the capacity to improve living standards within any
country depended on:
W the extent and nature of its industries
W its technological advances
W the degree of its commitment to modernisation.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 183

 Urbanisation
Industrialisation was a major catalyst for challenge and change to the old
political, social, economic and cultural order of the early twentieth-century
world because:
W it undermined the social and political power that had been the province of
Europe’s upper classes as a result of their control of large rural landholdings
urbanisation W the trend for W it encouraged urbanisation — the move from country to town and city.
people to leave their rural The nineteenth century witnessed a massive growth in the number, size
environments to live and work
and population densities of cities. For example, London at the beginning of
in cities and the growth and
expansion of cities that the twentieth century, with a population of 4.5 million, was over five times
occurred as a result. This the size it had been at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Berlin grew
brought about changed from a town of 600 000 in 1870 to a city of 2 million by 1910.
patterns of land use, Urbanisation saw housing erected cheaply, quickly and without the sewerage,
population distribution and
garbage and other services needed to support it. Town planning and laws to regu-
economic activities.
late much of this growth came later in response to the problems it created. Coal
fires polluted the atmosphere. The spread of disease became a major problem. The
nature and location of housing reflected the divisions between social classes.
Source 10.6
(a)
Photographs of two French
homes: (a) the drawing room in
the Paris home of the wealthy
Count de Camondo (1860–1935).
Preserved as a museum today,
the home was designed to reflect
the Count’s love of eighteenth-
century architecture and
furnishings and had all the
modern conveniences of the
time; (b) the sitting room of a
typical working class French
home, c. 1890–1900, where
bathing was in a tub by the fire

(b)

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 10.6(a)
indicate about the lifestyle
of a very wealthy Parisian
in the early twentieth
century?
2. How do you think the
lives of the working-class
family referred to in source
10.6(b) differed from those
of the Camondo family
whose home is shown in
source 10.6(a)?

184 Retrospective

democracy W government
by elected representatives
of the people
suffrage W a term used to
describe the right to vote
feminism W action to support
the attainment of political,
economic and social equality
for women
Source 10.7
‘Suffragettes who have never
been kissed’, a 1909 postcard
expressing attitudes towards
suffragettes
Note how the artist’s comment
and his portrayal of the
suffragettes provide evidence
of his own perspective
on their campaign.
sectarianism W the view that
one religious belief has
superiority over others that are
perceived as being inferior to it
anti-Semitic W attitude of
prejudice against Jews
Social change
A challenge to women’s traditional roles
Women everywhere were second-class citizens, whether or not they had the
benefits of family, wealth and position to support them. The sexual division
of labour and of roles within societies frequently limited them to the con-
fines of ‘female’ and family-oriented pursuits. Women had few opportunities
to acquire positions of power and authority in their own right and rarely
attained positions with the status or pay that were available to men.
The development of democracy in some European countries led to
demands for female suffrage (already achieved by women in Australia and
New Zealand). Demands for the vote and for women’s increased involvement
in the world of paid work helped to expand women’s experiences and oppor-
tunities and demonstrated many women’s commitment to feminism.
SOURCE QUESTION
What message did the artist want to convey with this poster?
Challenging traditional religious influence
In a world of change, many traditional views endured. In Europe, demands
for religious tolerance failed to overturn the superior position accorded to
the Christian religions and the centuries-old hostility towards Jewish people.
Within Christian religions, rivalry and even hostility between Catholics and
Protestants also provided evidence of sectarianism.
In response to these attitudes, there were increasing challenges to the
influence that religions exercised within governments, education systems,
law making and employment and promotional opportunities. This was
especially evident in relation to the ‘Dreyfus affair’ in France.
L’Affaire Dreyfus
On 15 October 1894, French army officials accused Captain Alfred Dreyfus
(1859–1935) of the crime of treason. Dreyfus was Jewish and an easy target
within the anti-Semitic culture permeating the French army. He suppos-
edly had access to confidential military documents that had been passed
on to France’s enemy, Germany. After a secret court martial, Dreyfus was
found ‘guilty’ and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in
French Guiana.
Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 185
 Source 10.8
An illustration from
Le Petit Journal ,
13 January 1895 ,
showing Captain Alfred Dreyfus
(centre left) being publicly
degraded and stripped of his
rank and status
nature
date
origin
content

SOURCE QUESTION
How would Dreyfusards and
anti-Dreyfusards have
responded to this illustration?

parliamentary democracy W
government of the people
through the decision making of
those whom they elect to
parliament
liberalism W a view of society
emphasising individuals (not
classes) and their rights to
freedom of political, religious,
intellectual and artistic
expression. The view also
incorporates the goals of
parliamentary democracy and a
free enterprise economy.
secularisation W the decline in
the influence of religion
Over time, many people came to believe that Dreyfus was innocent. They
believed that France’s right-wing politicians, militarists and the leaders of
the Catholic Church were at fault. These latter groups — known as anti-
Dreyfusards — were generally nationalistic, authoritarian, anti-Semitic and
hostile to parliamentary democracy. Their critics believed them willing to
sacrifice Dreyfus rather than damage the reputation of the French military.
Pressure from Republican supporters, left-wing politicians, socialists and
intellectuals, especially Émile Zola (1840–1902) through his famous 1898 letter
‘J’accuse’, led to the reopening of the Dreyfus case. These groups — known
as Dreyfusards — viewed the Dreyfus trial and conviction as an example
of a man’s right to individual freedom being subordinated to the needs of
a military that believed itself to be above the law and that acted outside the
limits of its authority. They were hostile to both church and military power.
For them, the Dreyfus conviction undermined liberalism.
Dreyfus was found guilty again at his new trial in 1899, even though by
that time the real traitor was known. Later that year, a new French president
gave Dreyfus a pardon. The case divided French society for many years. It
also ultimately helped unite and strengthen left-wing forces in France and
led to the separation of church and state in French politics and increased
secularisation in French society.

186 Retrospective

content
subjective language
nature of source
creator
dynastic rulers W rulers who
have inherited their power
from other family members
autocrats W rulers unwilling to
share their power or have any
limits placed on it
dynastic authority W the
power exercised by rulers as a
result of the lengthy period of
time during which their family
has ruled
constitutional monarchy W
in Britain, this means that
Parliament is the governing
body. The monarch as head of
state is an important figurehead,
whose powers are limited by a
constitution comprising both
written and unwritten sources.
The prime minister is the head
of government.
Source 10.9
A comment in the early twenty-first century by Professor Jean-Max Guieu of Georgetown
University on the impact of the Dreyfus case
Ultimately, the Dreyfus Case had notable and long term consequences for French
society and politics. The previously precarious Third Republic system survived the
crisis and would be definitely strengthened from then on. And, as the Press would
be the watchdog of public opinion, the Judiciary had to establish more rigorous
standards, independent of political influence. The blemished dignity of the Military
was restored from within its own ranks . . . but, although subdued in its privileged
status, it evolved to become the highly popular republican army which fought World
War I. Because of the tensions created by the Dreyfus Case, the Church and State
were consequently drastically separated. The distinction of Right and Left became
sharper in the French party system: the French Socialist for instance realized that
the road to democracy was a parliamentarian and not a revolutionary one.
Extract from a paper by Professor Jean-Max Guieu , ‘The Georgetown
Audio-Visual Electronic Library Project for the Study of Émile Zola and the
Dreyfus Case’, Georgetown University.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Summarise the main points that Professor Guieu is making in source 10.9.
2. Use source 10.9 and your own knowledge to explain the political and social
impact of the Dreyfus case on early twentieth-century France.
Forms of government
In 1901, dynastic rulers continued to govern a number of imperial powers,
for example:
W The Emperor Franz Josef’s family, the Hapsburgs, had ruled Austria since
the fifteenth century.
W Kaiser Wilhelm II’s family, the Hohenzollerns, had ruled different areas
of Germany from the fifteenth century onwards.
W Tsar Nicholas II was from the Romanov family that had ruled Russia
since 1613.
All ruled as autocrats and were reluctant to concede the reforms demanded by
groups who increasingly challenged their authority and that of the elites whose
interests they represented. By the early twentieth century, dynastic authority
was already under threat from forces and ideologies that had grown in influ-
ence from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. By late 1918, these centuries-old
dynasties had all disappeared.
While Great Britain also had a monarch, its system of government was
parliamentary democracy. The monarch — Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901
and then her son Edward VII until 1910 — could exercise power through the
framework of the concept of a constitutional monarchy. While having few
formal powers, they served as national figureheads and used their positions
to exercise considerable influence within government.
France’s government, La Troisième République (the Third Republic) was a
republican parliamentary democracy. At the time of its creation in 1870, many
French people still supported the idea of having a constitutional monarchy.
This did not eventuate due to the fact that the Comte de Chambord, to whom
the throne was offered, refused to accept the French flag, the Tricolore. For the
Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 187
 people, it was a symbol of the achievements of the French revolution; for him,
it was a symbol of values that he did not support.
France embarked on a republican government as an interim measure, with
plans to restore the monarchy at a later date. This did not happen. France’s
government comprised a two-chamber parliament, a prime minister and an
elected president. It remained a weak republic but pro-monarchist forces
eventually died out.

Imperialism: a world of empires

empire W a word describing the A world political map of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
peoples and territory ruled by
indicated the dominance of empires, with most areas of the world falling
one more powerful nation
under the control or influence of foreign powers (see source 10.10). Powerful
imperialism W the practice of
increasing a nation’s power by rulers had established the Chinese and Ottoman empires many centuries
taking control of other nations earlier. The Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch built their empires in the six-
and their resources teenth century. In the period c. 1817–1914, other European powers — Austria–
new imperialism W the Hungary, Britain, France, Germany and Russia — were benefiting from the
imperialism of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth gains of imperialism. In the early twentieth century, the emerging powers
centuries, characterised by — Japan and the United States — had already begun to extend their influence
nations’ aggressive pursuit of beyond existing borders.
colonies, accompanied by their
Historians now use the term new imperialism to describe the specific
intense rivalry with one another
and motivated by notions of nature of nations’ empire building in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
their own racial and intellectual centuries. In this period, an additional 23 million square kilometres of land —
superiority to the peoples whom 20 per cent of the Earth’s surface, mainly in Africa — came under imperialist
they sought to control
control. New imperialism was characterised by nations’ aggressive pursuit
of colonies and intense rivalry between nations, driven by ideas of their own
Source 10.10
racial and intellectual superiority over the people of the colonies.
Map of the world c. 1901 showing
its division into empires

ARCTIC OCEAN

Greenland Greenland

Finland Alaska
Iceland Norway Sweden Russia Empire Iceland
Netherlands
Denmark
United Dominion of Canada
Germany ATLANTIC
Kingdom
France OCEAN
Italy British United States
Portugal Spain Ottoman China Korea of
Empire Japan
French America
Tunisia Afghanistan
Morocco Persia Nepal Italian
Egypt Bhutan
Arabia India Formosa PACIFIC OCEAN German Cuba
Oman Mexico
Anglo- Eritrea Philippines Spanish British Guiana
Nigeria Egyptian Indo-china
Sudan Venezuela Dutch Guiana
Sierra Italian Ceylon Portuguese
Leone Somaliland Malaya Colombia French Guiana
Cameroon Congo
Free British East Africa Belgian Ecuador
French State Dutch East Indies
Congo German East Africa Solomon Islands Dutch
ATLANTIC Papua Acre Brazil
Angola East Timor Peru
Madagascar (Portuguese) Russian
OCEAN Fiji Bolivia
German South Portuguese
West Africa East Africa Australia USA Paraguay
INDIAN
Cape Colony OCEAN
Danish Chile Uruguay
Japanese Argentina
N
New Ottoman
Zealand
0 2000 4000 km Other countries

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Compare this map to a current world map. List the main differences between the two.
2. What conclusions could you draw from the differences in the two maps?

188 Retrospective

Source 10.11
A photograph from 1900 showing
a British official and his Indian
servants
The nature of imperial power
Britain’s empire gave it status as the world’s greatest power. The British
boasted that theirs was the empire on which ‘the sun never set’. It covered
about 25 per cent of the Earth’s surface and gave Britain control and/or
influence over 27 million square kilometres of land and 390 million people
in Canada, the West Indies, the African continent, India, New Zealand,
Australia, parts of South-East Asia and in the small South American colony
of British Guiana.
SOURCE QUESTION
In what ways does this photograph symbolise the imperial relationship between
Britain and its Indian colony?
France had the second largest empire. It took in 11 million square kilo-
metres of land and 58 million people (in addition to France’s 40 million).
Apart from French Guiana in South America, most of France’s colonies were
in Africa and Indochina.
In 1901, Germany celebrated its thirtieth birthday as a nation. As a rela-
tively new nation (see chapter 1), Germany had missed out on the ‘opportuni-
ties’ to take control of land overseas, as Britain and other European powers
had done. Germany’s empire covered 2.5 million square kilometres and gave
Germany control of 15 million people (in addition to its own 65 million).
Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 189
 Austria–Hungary established its empire through expansion within Europe.
Within the borders of its two countries, there were 50 million people of
11 different national groups. The Emperor Franz Josef moved from a policy of
suppressing the nationalist hopes of many of his subjects to one of tolerating
(although not satisfying) their demands for self-government.
Russia had also acquired its empire through expansion into Europe. The
Russian empire was huge, with a land area comprising one-sixth of the
Earth’s surface and a population of 132 million. Of these, 40 per cent were
Russian and the remaining 60 per cent included peoples of 22 different
national groups.
By the early twentieth century, Turkey’s Ottoman empire had shrunk con-
siderably from that of its sixteenth-century heyday. It comprised land on the
eastern Mediterranean, parts of present-day Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and a
small area of land in southern Europe. The Ottoman empire’s power and
influence was so much in decline by 1901 that it was nicknamed ‘the sick
man of Europe’.
Japan and the United States were emerging as new empire builders. Japan
began using the industrial and military strength that it had built up in the late
nineteenth century. Japan aimed to gain an empire that would help it stave
off the threat of being subsumed by western traders, as China had been.
The United States acquired former Spanish possessions in the Philippines and
other areas of the Pacific. The United States also took control of Cuba and Hawaii
and extended its economic influence into South America and the Caribbean.

Reasons for the growth of imperialism

Late nineteenth and early twentieth century imperialism was largely moti-
vated by competition over resources, power and status. Colonies provided
their imperial owners with food sources and raw materials largely unavail-
able in the northern hemisphere. They created opportunities to enhance the
wealth and prestige of the empire builders. Imperialists expected that the
colonies would also provide a market for the products created from their raw
materials. The European powers justified their actions with the belief that
they were bringing the political, social and cultural benefits of a ‘superior’
European civilisation to the peoples of Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
Britain was the most significant world power and newly emerging nations,
such as Germany and Italy, as well as older industrial powers, wanted to
gain similar material and status benefits to those Britain already possessed
through her colonies.
Britain’s quest for colonies largely focused on Africa and was motivated by:
W the desire to increase its share of international markets
W the creation of new investment opportunities
W the protection of existing trade
W the goal of preventing other would-be imperialists from gaining benefits.
For France, the motivation was partly one of restoring lost pride after its
humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) and also, like Britain,
the need for new markets and investment opportunities. The French govern-
ment, in keeping with its mission civilisatrice (‘civilising mission’), was also
determined to bring French civilisation to its colonies and undertook costly
building and education programs to facilitate this.

190 Retrospective
 Source 10.12
Extracts from French prime
minister Jules Ferry’s speech
before the French Chamber of
Deputies on 28 March 1884,
justifying the need for colonial
expansion
perspective?
purpose of source
evidence of the author’s
perspective and motivation
purpose
motive for source?
creator, origin and date
nationalism W sense of a
national identity developed
from belonging to a group
sharing common cultural,
linguistic and historical ties,
and the desire to work with
others to achieve common
goals related to these, at times
regardless of how this might
affect other countries
In the area of economics, I am placing before you, with the support of some
statistics, the considerations that justify the policy of colonial expansion ,
as seen from the perspective of a need, felt more and more urgently by the
industrialized population of Europe and especially the people of our rich and
hardworking country of France: the need for outlets [for exports] . . .
Yes, what our major industries [textiles, etc.], irrevocably steered by the
treaties of 1860–1 into exports, lack more and more are outlets. Why? Because
next door Germany is setting up trade barriers ; because across the ocean the
United States of America have become protectionists , and extreme protectionists
at that; because not only are these great markets . . . shrinking, becoming more
and more difficult of access, but these great states are beginning to pour into our
own markets products not seen there before . . .
Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say
openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower races . . . the
superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to
civilize the inferior races . . .
[I]n our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves with
generosity, with grandeur, and with sincerity of this superior civilizing duty . . .
At present, as you know, a warship, however perfect its design, cannot carry
more than two weeks’ supply of coal; and a vessel without coal is a wreck on the
high seas, abandoned to the first occupier. Hence the need to have places
of supply, shelters, ports for defense and provisioning . . . And that is why we
needed Tunisia; that is why we needed Saigon and Indochina; that is why we need
Madagascar . . . and why we shall never leave them! . . .
Spreading light without acting, without taking part in the affairs of the world,
keeping out of all European alliances and seeing as a trap, an adventure, all
expansion into Africa or the Orient — for a great nation to live this way, believe me,
is to abdicate and, in less time than you may think, to sink from the first rank to
the third and fourth.
From Jules François Camille Ferry, ‘Speech Before the French Chamber
of Deputies, March 28, 1884’ , in Discours et Opinions de Jules Ferry, ed. Paul
Robiquet, Armand Colin & Cie., Paris, 1897, translated by Ruth Kleinman in
Brooklyn College Core Four, Internet Modern History Sourcebook.
SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 10.12 indicate about the French government’s attitudes towards
its colonies?
For Otto von Bismarck, German Chancellor from 1871 to 1890 (see chapter 1),
colonies were potentially a means to an end rather than an end in them-
selves. He believed that competing with Britain for colonial possessions
would give him bargaining power to pressure Britain into giving in to
some of Germany’s other foreign policy goals. He encouraged French
imperialism in the hope that the pursuit of colonies would distract France
from seeking revenge against Germany following the French defeat in the
Franco–Prussian war.
Germany’s ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who forced Bismarck to resign, was
motivated more by nationalism. He was anxious to gain control of more
territory overseas to gain status for Germany as a world power. He wanted
Germany to have ‘a place in the [African] sun’ so that it could have the
advantage of Africa’s raw materials and force its peoples to provide a cheap
labour force — as Britain and France had done with their colonies.
Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 191

For information on the
impact in Asia, see chapter 5,
pages 86–9, which outlines
the impact of French
imperialism in Vietnam.
globalisation W the process
of increasing interaction and
interdependence among the
world’s peoples and the
associated export of ideas,
capital, products and culture
into new areas
infrastructure W the systems
and services that are needed
for an economy to function
effectively — for example,
communications, roads and
transport
self-determination W
a people’s right to exercise
independent control of its
own destiny
192 Retrospective
The Russian ruler, Tsar Nicholas II, pursued imperialism to gain economic
and strategic benefits. He wanted Russia to gain additional territory in
Manchuria, the Balkans and Persia (Iran), because:
W control of the Balkans would give Russia an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea
W Manchuria would provide access to rich and diverse supplies of raw
materials
W Persia was a rich source of oil.
Many United States politicians viewed imperialism as the answer to the
problems generated by the 1890s Depression. This view motivated US invest-
ment in South America. The acquisition of colonial possessions became less
significant than the acquisition of power and influence in foreign markets. In
1903, a deal with the new state of Panama enabled the United States to acquire
‘permanent’ rights to a 16-kilometre wide area necessary for the construction
of the Panama Canal that would facilitate US trade with South America.
Japan’s empire building was motivated by the usual desire to gain access
to raw materials not available within its own territory. The desire to develop
its strength so as to stave off European or American influence was also an
important factor.
Impact of imperialism on colonial peoples
Imperialism undermined the existing religious, cultural and political struc-
tures that had once created a sense of unity among a colony’s indigenous
peoples and disrupted their ongoing development. It increased the gap
between the wealth and power of the ruling nation and of the nations it gov-
erned. Imperialism displaced colonial peoples, forced them to work as cheap
labour and to pay taxes in support of the agendas of their colonial masters.
Most of the people in the colonies were too poor to be able to afford the
goods manufactured from the raw materials they provided.
Imperialism and the global interaction it generated laid the foundations for
the globalisation of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Impact of imperialism on colonial powers
By the early twentieth century, the established empires had either reached,
or had passed, the height of their powers. They required an expensive
infrastructure to sustain their colonies. As the century progressed,
indigenous peoples increasingly challenged this control and exploitation of
their lives and territory. Britain faced challenges from within its colonies
(especially India), whose indigenous peoples became increasingly vocal in
their demands for self-determination.
While France enjoyed the benefits of its empire’s raw materials and supplies
of cheap labour, the empire also undermined France’s economic strength.
France’s Indochinese colonies required considerable military expenditure to
maintain French authority over groups demanding independence.
While Austrian Emperor Franz Josef demonstrated an increasingly
conciliatory attitude towards cultural differences, the 50 per cent of the
population who were neither Austrian nor Hungarian (Magyars) gained a
growing awareness of their own cultural identities. They began to demand
independence. As this nationalism strengthened, Austria–Hungary became
increasingly difficult to govern.
 Source 10.13
Map of the Austro–Hungarian Germans

empire c. 1908 showing the Slavs RUSSIA

Czechs
Magyars Poles
different national groups within
Rumanians
its borders Ruthenians
Italians
Slovaks
GERMANY Dan
ube
Germans
Magyars

Slovenes
Rumanians

Croats

Serbs RUMANIA
and
ITALY Croats SERBIA
BOSNIA Danube
(annexed 1908)
MONTENEGRO
N

0 100 200 km

SOURCE QUESTION
How does this source help to explain the problems that faced the Austro–Hungarian
government?

Colonial rivalries
By the late nineteenth century, competition for European control over Africa,
Asia and the Pacific had increased the rivalry among the major powers
and created a climate of suspicion among them. The ‘scramble for Africa’
(c. 1870–1914) was the most dangerous because of the conflicting interests of the
key players.
Some historians would argue that conflict over African possessions dis-
tracted the powers from focusing on conflict among themselves within
Europe. Others argue that colonial rivalry heightened hostilities to the point
where nations grouped themselves into rival alliances and were willing to
choose war to improve or defend their existing possessions.
In the mid nineteenth century, Britain began to act to prevent Egypt
becoming an independent force in Africa. In the late 1870s, France and
Britain acted together to curb Egyptian nationalism. French–British relations
declined from 1881 after Britain sent in an army of occupation to take control
of Egypt and, by the end of the century, the two powers, Britain and France,
seemed on the brink of war with one another.
Britain wanted to link its territories in east Africa with those in southern
Africa and then link both those areas with the Nile Basin. In practical terms,
this plan took shape in the proposed Cape to Cairo railroad. This was the
‘brainchild’ of Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902). His plan, in keeping with the prac-
tice of always colouring British positions red on the map, was to create a ‘red’
line linking British territories from south to north Africa.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 193

 Source 10.14
Edward Linley Sambourne’s
cartoon from Punch magazine ,
10 December 1892, depicting
Cecil Rhodes and his dream
of a railroad spanning Africa
from south to north, from
Cape Town to Cairo, that
would ‘paint the map red’
nature of source
origin
content of source
Note the cartoonist’s play on the
‘Colossus of Rhodes’ (one of the
seven wonders of the ancient
world) to express his view of
Rhodes’ actions.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does the phrase ‘paint the map red’ mean in relation to source 10.14?
2. What is the cartoonist’s view of Cecil Rhodes’ role in this process?

France aimed to link its territories from west to east Africa. This meant
controlling the territory from modern-day Sénégal eastward to the southern
Sahara and linking these areas to the Nile and Niger rivers. Each nation
needed to control part of Sudan to achieve its territorial goals.
In 1898, France and Britain almost came to war over the Fashoda Incident
in the Sudan. French expedition leader, Captain Marchand, claimed Fashoda
for France. The British, unwilling to allow any other nation to move into
its ‘sphere of influence’, sent General Kitchener with troops and forced the
French to withdraw. Surprisingly, the subsequent negotiations ultimately led
to the Entente Cordiale, the 1904 ‘friendly understanding’ between the two
nations (see pages 195–7).

194 Retrospective
 Source 10.15
SPAIN ITALY
PORTUGAL
Map c. 1901 showing the Ottoman Empire
possessions acquired by the
great powers as part of their Tunisia Persia
Morocco
‘scramble for Africa’
Cairo

Egypt
Arabia

Anglo–
Eritrea
Dakar Egyptian
Sudan

Nigeria Fashoda
Sierra
Leone
Italian
Cameroon Somaliland
British
French East
Congo Africa
Congo
Free INDIAN
ATLANTIC State German
East
Africa OCEAN
British
French OCEAN
Angola
Italian
German
Spanish Madagascar
German
Portuguese South West
Belgian Africa
Portuguese
East Africa
Ottoman
N
Other countries

Cape Colony
0 1000 2000 km Cape Town

SOURCE QUESTION
Use source 10.15 to identify which countries:
(a) were involved in the ‘scramble for Africa’
(b) might become rivals as a result of their involvement in this ‘scramble’
(c) appeared to be the most and the least successful in their quest to gain a
‘place in the sun’.

The Moroccan crises

Under the terms of the 1904 Entente Cordiale, France agreed to allow Britain to
extend its influence into Egypt and Britain made similar promises regarding
France and Morocco. Kaiser Wilhelm viewed the agreement as an alliance
against Germany and was determined to undermine it. In 1905, the Kaiser
visited Tangier in Morocco and gave a speech saying it should be free of
French influence. In provoking a quarrel with France, he hoped to show that
France could not rely on Britain’s support.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 195

 Source 10.16
‘The Third Thief’, a French
cartoon from 1905 representing
three ‘cats’ (King Edward VII of
Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of
Germany and France’s foreign
minister Delcasse) toying with
a ‘mouse’ (Morocco)
perspective
Note the date and
its significance.
Note how the cartoonist has
chosen particular animals to
help convey a message.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the three thieves and why does the cartoonist refer to them in this way?
2. Which of the three is the ‘third thief’ of source 10.16?
3. Why is the cartoonist emphasising the third theft?
The 1906 Algeciras Conference was convened to solve the crisis but did just
the opposite. Britain supported France and so did Germany’s ‘ally’, Italy.

Source 10.17
If there is a war between France and Germany, it will be very difficult for
A comment from Sir Edward Grey,
us to keep out of it. The Entente and still more the constant and emphatic
the British Foreign Secretary , in
February 1906
demonstrations of affection . . . have created in France a belief that we shall
support them in war. If this expectation is disappointed, the French will never
perspective forgive us . There would also I think be a general feeling that we had behaved
message badly and left France in the lurch.
motive
SOURCE QUESTION
What is the message of Sir Edward Grey’s comments? What do they indicate about
the Kaiser’s actions?

The Morocco crisis showed the Entente Cordiale to be stronger than it

Triple Entente W
the alliance linking Britain,
France and Russia
Triple Alliance W
the alliance linking Germany,
Austria–Hungary and Italy
seemed and also encouraged Britain to settle its differences with its old
enemy, Russia. In 1907, Britain and Russia signed the Anglo–Russian Entente.
As France and Russia had already become allies in 1894, the three powers
were now allied in the Triple Entente. This served as a rival power bloc to
the Triple Alliance uniting Germany, Austria–Hungary and Italy.
In 1911, the Kaiser again intervened in France’s relationship with Morocco.
France had sent troops to the Moroccan capital, Fez, to help put down a
rebellion against the Sultan of Morocco. The Kaiser, fearing that this would
allow France to take complete control of Morocco, sent the gunboat Panther to
Agadir on the Moroccan coast. He then demanded that France give Germany
its French Congo territory in return for Germany allowing France to take
over Morocco.

196 Retrospective
 Source 10.18 PORTUGAL SPAIN ITALY
GREECE TURKEY
British Algeciras Gibraltar (British)
Map showing northern and Tunisia
French 1881
central Africa c. 1911. Note the Algeria
Italian Morocco 1830
location of Gibraltar where Britain Agadir 1911
German
had established a naval base. French North Africa Libya
Spanish 1830
Rio De Oro 1912 Egypt
Portuguese 1884

Belgian

French West Africa

Gambia
1816 Sudan
Portuguese Guinea 1899
1484
N Nigeria
SOURCE QUESTION Sierra Leone
Gold Coast
1873 1885 French
Equatorial
1787
Africa
What does the map show Liberia Togo Cameroon
1822 1884
would have been a reason for 1884
0 500 1000 km Belgian
the British to feel threatened Rio Muni Congo
1900 1908
by the Kaiser’s actions?
Britain feared that this new Moroccan crisis demonstrated Germany’s
desire to threaten British naval power and again attempt to undermine the
Entente Cordiale. Britain threatened to send in its navy. Germany had to be
content with a smaller area of the Congo than it had wanted and now had to
deal with Britain’s obvious willingness to respond with military action. Fol-
lowing these events the Anglo–French entente became virtually a military
alliance and both Britain and Germany increased their naval expenditure.

Emerging forces and ideas

socialism W a doctrine
promoting the people’s
ownership of a nation’s
resources and the
redistribution of its wealth
Marxism W theories developed
by German philosophers Karl
Marx (1818–1883) and Friedrich
Engels (1820–1895) to
demonstrate the exploitative
nature of capitalism and the
social and economic
inequalities that resulted from
it. They argued that history
was a series of class struggles
that would eventually lead to
the abolition of private
property and the creation of a
Politics of the working class
The increased population densities that characterised cities encouraged the
sharing of grievances and made it easier for workers to take group action to
redress them. The growth of worker power challenged the authority of govern-
ments, the wealthy and the emerging middle class. Workers saw hope in the
doctrines of socialism and Marxism and political parties based on socialist
principles and they looked to the protection that trade unions offered.
Source 10.19
Diagram illustrating the growth of trade union
membership in Germany
1910
1913
1900
1905
1896
1891

classless society.

344 000
409 000
SOURCE QUESTION
851 000
How might the German 1 650 000
government have felt about the
information in this diagram? 2 435 000
3 024 000

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 197


trade unionism W the
development of workers’ power
through their combination into
groups (trade unions) that
represent them and fight for
their interests
Source 10.20
Timeline showing the main
events of the 1912 strike on the
Lena goldfields
198 Retrospective
Unemployment was a constant threat as industries responded to the fluc-
tuating demands of world trade or employers introduced more labour-saving
machinery. Few countries or employers offered the protections of workers’
compensation, superannuation and sick leave that are part of today’s work
scene. Trade unionism and strikes were common features of early twen-
tieth-century life. Increasingly, workers used strikes to pressure employers
for better pay and working conditions. In 1912, on Russia’s Lena goldfields,
workers’ conditions exemplified the grievances of workers throughout the
Russian empire and the costs involved in attempting to redress them (see
source 10.20). The 1912 strike on the Lena goldfields was an example of
the kind of spontaneous popular action that had nearly brought down the
Russian government in 1905 and that did help to bring it down in February/
March 1917.
25 February Workers complain over poor quality meat.
28 February Expert identifies some of the meat as a horse’s sex organs.
Officials promise better meat next time. Strike begins.
29 February Officials for the employer, investment company Lenzoto,
ask for workers’ representatives to put demands in writing.
4 March Most mines and workshops closed for strike action. Strike
committee formed and 5000 workers approve the list of demands
to be sent to management.
5 March Reponses from St Petersburg threaten ‘unfavourable
consequences’ if the strike continues.
9 March Lenzoto refuses further discussion and begins to close mines and
prepare to fire the entire workforce. Food supplies cut off and the
company begins to evict people from their barracks — despite the
cold of late winter.
19 March Evictions cancelled by order of the government. Lenzoto claimed
incorrectly that leaders used violence to enforce the strike.
Strike leaders command workers to maintain discipline and order.
20 March Entire labour force on strike. Company promises some
concessions and that all workers who appear for work on 1 April
will be re-hired.
25 March The Minister of the Interior places all local troops under the
command of Treshchenkov, a police officer known for his
ruthlessness in suppressing strikes.
29 March Negotiations ended.
3 April Worker anger on being served more bad meat.
4 April Miners gather in anger after the arrest of 10 strike leaders.
Police and soldiers assemble to try and disperse the crowd
and prevent it delivering more petitions outlining grievances.
Without warning, the troops open fire, resulting in the deaths
of 230 workers and injuries to another 540.
Sympathy strikes and demonstrations occur throughout the
Russian empire.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 10.20 indicate about the investment company Lenzoto’s
attitudes to the workers?
2. What methods did the Lena goldfields workers use to fight for their rights?
anarchism W a political
movement aiming to overthrow
governmental authority and
replace it with the voluntary
cooperation of groups and
individuals working for the
common good
Urban life encouraged the discussion of new political ideas and increased
people’s expectations of what governments should do for them. People
demanded a role in politics that their governments were not always willing
to grant them. They gained an awareness of notions of individual rights,
the rule of law, self-determination, democracy and liberalism. Many became
adherents of socialism and some became adherents of anarchism.

Source 10.21
Mind map showing the nature of the forces and ideas that emerged in challenge to the
existing political and social order of the early twentieth-century world

Anarchism: a political movement aiming Democracy: a political philosophy

to replace government power with voluntary
cooperation among a society’s individuals
and groups. Anarchists in the late 19th and early
20th century frequently used terrorism in their
attempts to achieve their aims.
meaning the rule of the people. In the early
20th century it reflected the belief that all males
should have a say in the society’s government by
exercising their right to elect people to a
representative body, e.g. a parliament.

Emerging
forces
and ideas
Liberalism: a political philosophy from
the 15th century that became particularly
important during the French revolution in the late
18th century. It incorporated the idea that people
in a society have rights as individuals (rather than
as a class) but focused on increasing the political
power of the middle class. It was hostile
towards movements seeking to increase
working class power.
Socialism: a doctrine promoting the people’s
ownership of a nation’s resources and the use of
these for the benefit of all citizens, not just a privileged
few. The socialist movement was divided between those
who worked for change by using existing parliamentary
structures — e.g. Germany’s Social Democratic Party —
and those who believed change would only be achieved
through the revolutionary overthrow of government,
e.g. Russia’s Bolshevik Party.

SOURCE QUESTION
What types of people would have supported or rejected each of these forces/ideas?

Causes of World War I

‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in
our lifetime.’ (Sir Edward Grey, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, 3 August 1914)
From August 1914 until November 1918, the European nations were at war.
War broke out in 1914 when the great powers failed to resolve the crisis and
the nationalist tensions that resulted from the assassination of the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro–Hungarian throne. The possibility of a
European war had existed since the late nineteenth century as conflicts and
suspicion among the great European powers increased.
The outbreak of war was not inevitable. It arose from:
W unresolved conflicts made possible by the division of the great powers
into rival alliances
W the arms race that had resulted from this
W long-term rivalries such as that between France and Germany
W rivalries over colonial possessions
W newer rivalries, such as the naval race between Britain and Germany.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 199


alliances W agreements
between nations to work
together for a specific goal
200 Retrospective
The alliance system
In the period 1879–1907, the European nations formed alliances and under-
standings with one another. These agreements both increased the nations’
strength and sense of protection and fostered fear and suspicion among those
outside them.
Source 10.22
A visual representation of the alliances and understandings that nations agreed to in the
period 1879 to 1907
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Identify each of the following nations shown in source 10.22: Austria–Hungary,
Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Ottoman empire, Romania, Russia,
Serbia, the United States. What symbols or other clues helped you to identify
them? Find out which nations ‘John Bull’, ‘Marianne’ and ‘Uncle Sam’ represent.
2. To which countries did Britain link itself and in what years?
3. Which countries were not involved in formal agreements with other nations?
4. What information does the picture provide to explain why Germany and
Austria–Hungary would have felt threatened by the alliance system?
One nation’s attempts to protect its interests led others to fear its power.
The alliances reflected the threat that the powers sensed from one another
and the desire to avenge past wrongs. As a result, the alliance system came to
represent the division of Europe into two rival camps (see source 10.23).
 Source 10.23 Triple Entente
Triple Alliance
A map showing the alliances that
NORTH
had formed in Europe by 1907 SEA

GREAT
BRITAIN RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
GERMANY
BELGIUM

ATLANTIC
OCEAN FRANCE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN
EMPIRE
ITALY
BOSNIA
SPAIN SERBIA

TURKEY

AFRICA
0 300 600 km
MEDITERRANEAN SEA

National goals and rivalries

Source 10.24
A 1913 French cartoon
depicting two children looking
down at the lost provinces of
Alsace and Lorraine
French–German hostility
It was not surprising that France and Germany belonged to different alliances.
They had been enemies since France’s 1871 defeat in the Franco–Prussian war.
The German nation that emerged from this war demanded a high price from
France — the loss of its provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, the payment of
£200 million in compensation and a German army on French soil for the two
years it took France to raise the money. Many people within France spoke of
the desire for la revanche (revenge) against Germany.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who do the ghost-like figures on horseback represent?
2. What is the significance of placing children rather than adults as the observers?
3. What symbol of France does the cartoonist use?
4. What is the significance of the burial plot?
5. What does the publication date indicate about the depth of French feelings
against Germany?

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 201

 The Anglo–German naval race
In the early twentieth century, Britain was Europe’s major naval power — a
status that Germany was striving to attain. In 1898, Germany had set out to
develop a navy twice the size of Britain’s. In 1906, the British launched HMS
Dreadnought, considered to be the most powerful battleship afloat. Germany
began copying this design.
Source 10.25
Contemporary cartoon entitled
‘The marine painters of England
and Germany’

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What do the two paintings
represent?
2. Who are the artists? How
can you tell?
3. What is the motivation for
Uncle Edward’s comment?
4. What message does the
cartoonist want to convey?
The militarism evident in Anglo–German naval rivalry was also evident
in the attempt of other great powers to expand their military capabilities.
Tensions among the great powers led them to prepare strategies for use if war
broke out. Germany
developed the Schlieffen Plan
‘Schlieffen Plan’ while • Based on the idea that Germany would eventually have to fight
France and Russia but should avoid fighting both at once.
France had ‘Plan 17’. • France would expect Germany to invade from the east,
so would not be prepared for an invasion from the north.
Source 10.26 Schlieffen Plan 1905 • Germany would defeat France in the six weeks it would
Map showing the main features Plan 17 supposedly take for Russian troops to mobilise.
of Germany’s Schlieffen Plan and Then Germany would attack Russia.
Areas lost to
France’s Plan 17 Germany in 1871 HOLLAND

BELGIUM

FRANCE GERMANY

LUX.
Lin

Plan 17
e

• French troops
of
Fr

Lorraine would quickly

en

Paris
recapture
ch

SOURCE QUESTIONS
fo

Alsace Alsace and

r tr
es

1. What was Germany relying Lorraine.

se

• Troops would
s

N
on in order to achieve the then move
goals of its Schlieffen Plan? into German
2. What was the weakness of 0 50 100 km
territory.
France’s Plan 17?

202 Retrospective

pan-nationalism W the desire
to unite all people of the same
cultural and linguistic group,
even if they are located within
the national boundaries of
another nation, that is, it is
a form of nationalism that
seeks to change existing
national boundaries
Balkans W the term used
to describe the area of
south-eastern Europe on
the Balkan peninsula
Source 10.27
‘The Boiling Point’, a Punch
cartoon of 2 October 1912
The Balkan powder keg
From 1908, the Ottoman empire (Turkey) — the ‘sick man of Europe’ — began
losing control of its remaining European territories. Austria–Hungary gained
control of two of these areas — Bosnia and Herzegovina. This angered neigh-
bouring Serbia, which, in the spirit of pan-nationalism, had hoped to take
over these areas because of the large numbers of Serbs living there. It took six
months for the European powers to resolve this crisis in the Balkans.
In 1912–13, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro joined together to fight
Turkey in the First Balkan War. Turkey lost Albania and Macedonia and after
this had very little land left in Europe. Bulgaria, hoping for a larger share
of former Turkish territory, fought the Second Balkan War against Greece,
Serbia, Romania and Turkey in 1913. Serbia emerged victorious with even
more territory than it had gained in 1912.
Serbia’s increased power was a threat to Austria–Hungary and the conflict that
could arise from this threatened the peace of Europe. Austria–Hungary could
call for support from its ally, Germany, and Serbia could call on the support
of Russia. Russia, like Austria–Hungary, wanted to extend its power into the
Balkans. Any conflict involving Serbia and Austria–Hungary could potentially
draw in other powers and therefore escalate into a more major confrontation.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What are the origin and
nature of this source and
who is its audience?
2. What is the cartoonist’s
message?
3. Name from left to right the
European nations sitting on
the cauldron. If you cannot
recognise them easily,
use your knowledge of the
problems of the Balkans
to work out who they are
most likely to be.

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 203


Source 10.29
Photograph of the jacket worn by
Archduke Franz Ferdinand when
he was assassinated
SOURCE QUESTION
Why would Austrians have
kept, and later publicly
displayed, this jacket?
204 Retrospective
The Black Hand of Sarajevo
On 28 June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro–Hungarian
throne, and his wife, Sophie, were in the midst of a state visit to Bosnia.
Bosnia had been under Austrian rule since 1908. Many people living within
Bosnia supported the ideas of pan-nationalism. They were attracted by the
aim of its neighbour, Serbia, to unite the Slav peoples of southern Europe
into one nation.
June 28 was the national day of the Serbian peoples. The decision of the
Austrian Archduke to visit on this day insulted the Serbs living both in and
outside Bosnia. The ‘Black Hand’, a Serbian terrorist organisation, decided to
use the occasion to assassinate the Archduke.
Source 10.28
Photograph showing the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro–Hungarian
throne, and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, on 28 June 1914
SOURCE QUESTION
Why has this photograph become well known?
Three Serbian students from the Black Hand crossed the border into
Bosnia. One threw a bomb at the Archduke’s car as it travelled along the
streets of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. The Archduke threw the bomb off
the car and it exploded under the car travelling behind. Further on, another
student, Gavrilo Princip, was ready as the car slowed while the chauffeur
attempted to reverse after a wrong turn. Princip fired one shot into Franz
Ferdinand’s neck and another into the stomach of the Archduke’s wife. Both
died within six minutes.
The assassination became the focal point of the conflict between Serbia and
Austria–Hungary, and gave Austria–Hungary an opportunity to attempt to
destroy Serbia. Serbia and Austria–Hungary each called on their allies for
support. The resulting events developed into what became known as the July
crisis (see source 10.30).
 Source 10.30
Timeline showing the main
sequence of events known as the
‘July crisis’ of 1914. These events
followed the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Note what the content reveals
about key events in the crisis
that historians have used to
allocate blame for the outbreak of
the war on one country or another.
Think about which countries are
implicated by the events indicated.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What could the European
nations have done differently
in July 1914 to prevent the
outbreak of war?
2. Which country’s actions do
you think contributed most to
the outbreak of war in 1914?
Give reasons for your answer.
5 July Germany offered to support Austria–Hungary against Serbia in any
way that it required. This offer is known as the ‘blank cheque’.
23 July The Austro–Hungarian government sent an ultimatum to the Serbian
government threatening war if the Serbian government did not
concede to its demands.
25 July King Peter of Serbia agreed to all the demands other than the one that
required Austrian officials to be allowed into Serbia.
26 July Austria–Hungary began attacking the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
The Serbs requested help from their ally, Russia.
29 July Tsar Nicholas II ordered the Russian army to mobilise.
30 July Russian mobilisation begins. Kaiser Wilhelm telegraphed his cousin,
the Tsar, asking that he withdraw the mobilisation order. Germany
feared Russian mobilisation because it threatened the timing of the
Schlieffen Plan.
1 August Germany declared war on Russia and announced the mobilisation
of German forces. France ordered the mobilisation of its forces in
support of its ally, Russia.
2 August Germany began putting its Schlieffen Plan into operation by sending
troops towards the Belgian border.
3 August Britain honoured its 1839 Treaty of London promise to protect Belgium by
giving Kaiser Wilhelm until midnight the following day to recall his troops.
4 August There was no reply. Britain, therefore, declared war on Germany.

Source 10.31
A Punch cartoon, ‘Bravo,
Belgium!’, from August 1914

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. On which of the events
in the timeline (source
10.30) is this cartoon
commenting?
2. Who does each of the
characters represent?
What symbols does the
cartoonist use to help
convey his message?
3. What message does the
cartoonist want to convey
through this cartoon?

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 205

 Source 10.32
David Lloyd George,
Britain’s Chancellor of the
Exchequer in 1914 , describes
the atmosphere among British
politicians waiting for an answer
from the Kaiser to their
ultimatum of the previous day
author and his perspective
at a given time
Note the literary style
of the author’s description
and consider what it might
suggest about his purpose.
internationalism W the policy
of seeking international
cooperation among nations,
creating security through
focusing on common interests.
Source 10.33
Photograph depicting Belgian
refugees in 1914 escaping ahead
of the advancing German troops
SOURCE QUESTION
What information does
the photograph provide
about the impact of war
on people’s lives?
206 Retrospective
As the hour approached a deep and tense solemnity fell on the room. No one
spoke . . . Our eyes wandered anxiously from the clock to the door and from the
door to the clock, and little was said.
‘Boom!’ The deep strokes of Big Ben rang out into the night . . . A shuddering
silence fell on the room. Every face was contracted in painful intensity. ‘Doom!’
‘Doom!’ ‘Doom!’ to the last stroke. The big clock echoed in our ears like the
hammer of destiny.
David Lloyd George, quoted in A. Briggs (ed.), They Saw it Happen,
Blackwell, London, 1973.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. When did the events described in source 10.32 take place?
2. Use the timeline in source 10.30 (page 205) to identify the terms of the ultimatum.
3. What is the significance of the reference to ‘Doom! Doom! Doom!’?
4. What impression does Lloyd George’s description create regarding British
politicians’ attitudes at this time?
The great powers failed to resolve the nationalist tensions of the July
crisis and the nationalist tensions that resulted from the assassination of the
Archduke Franz Ferdinand. By 5 August 1914, Europe was at war.
The European nations called in their empires to what became more than
four years of horrific warfare. They called it the ‘Great War’ and ‘the war
to end all wars’. The British poet, Siegfried Sassoon, described it as ‘Hell’s
Last Horror’. During more than four years of fighting from damp, rat-
infested trenches, soldiers (often little older than 18) used the new weapons
that technology made available and suffered their horrific consequences.
War’s dramatic and tragic impact on soldiers and civilians alike under-
mined the political, economic and social structure of the old world. The
war became the real turning point in the transformation of ways of life,
technology, attitudes and values that would come to mark the transition
from the world of the nineteenth century to that of the twentieth century.
War also encouraged the emergence of a spirit of internationalism.
Meeting objectives and outcomes
Key features, issues, individuals and events P1.1 and P1.2
1. Which of the following do you consider to have been the most
important issue for early twentieth-century leaders to deal with?
Give reasons for your answer. (P1.2)
(a) inequalities in the distribution of wealth and power
(b) the imperialist ambitions of the European powers
(c) demands for social, economic, political and social reform
(d) population growth and increased urbanisation
(e) the challenge of socialism
(f) the dangers of militarism
2. Conduct research to find out more about each of the following
individuals, groups or influences and write about five lines on their
importance in the early twentieth century. (P1.1)
W Art Nouveau style W Punch magazine
W Ballet Russe W Seebohm Rowntree
W Germany’s Social W The Second International
Democratic Party W Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
W Pan-German League

Change and continuity over time P2.1

3. Identify the aspects of early twentieth-century life that changed
and those that remained the same. Summarise your answers in a
response of about one page. (P2.1)
4. In groups of two or three, research and present a report on one of the
following. Your report should focus on:
W the main facts relevant to your topic
W whether or not it dealt with a challenge to the existing order of the
early twentieth-century world
W how it resulted in change to or continuity of the existing order. (P2.1)

(a) the Paris Exhibition of 1900 (L’Exposition Universelle de Paris 1900)

(b) Max Planck’s work circa 1900 which formed the basis for
quantum theory
(c) the efforts of the German ironworks company Krupp to improve
facilities for its workers in order to win them away from
socialist influences
(d) Guglielmo Marconi’s pioneering work in radio communication
(e) William and Orville Wright’s 1903 flight at Kittyhawk,
North Carolina
(f) the British invasion of Tibet, 1903–04
(g) the 1904 scandal surrounding the Belgium King Leopold II’s use
of the people and resources of the Congo ‘Free’ State
(h) the 1904 Herero rebellion against German troops in south-west Africa
(i) Enver Pasha and the ‘Young Turks’ seizure of power in the
Ottoman empire in 1908
(j) the Mexican Revolution begun in 1910
(k) the assassination of French socialist leader Jean Jaurès in 1914

Chapter 10 W The world at the beginning of the twentieth century 207

 The process of historical inquiry P3.1–P3.5

5. Identify relevant sources to help you research the views of three of

the following historians on the causes of World War I.
W Sidney Bradshaw Fay (1929)
W Fritz Fischer (1961)
W Gerhard Ritter (1960s)
W Joachim Remak (1967)
W A. J. P. Taylor (1969)
W Paul Schroeder (1972)
W Paul Kennedy (1979)
W Andreas Hillgruber (1981)
W James Joll (1984)
W Samuel R. Williamson (1991)
W Niall Ferguson (1999)
W David Fromkin (2004)

(a) What is the main argument that each puts forward? What factors
does each emphasise and/or ignore?
(b) What evidence does each use to support his argument?
(c) Comment on factors influencing the usefulness and reliability of
each historian’s viewpoint.
(d) Which do you find the most convincing and why?
(e) Divide into small groups within the class to present your
findings and share your findings with other people. (P3.1–3.5)

Communicating an understanding of history P4.1 and P4.2

6. Working in small groups:

(a) provide an example of as many of each of the following concepts
as you can in the context of the early twentieth century world
(b) discuss what examples of these exist in our world of the early
twenty-first century. (P4.1)
anarchism, anti-Semitism, autocracy, capitalism, communism,
democracy, feminism, globalisation, imperialism,
industrialisation, liberalism, militarism, nationalism,
pan-nationalism, racism, sectarianism, self-determination,
socialism, trade unionism, urbanisation
7. Research and write an essay in response to the following question:
Identify and explain the main features of life at the beginning of the
twentieth century and the factors emerging to challenge the status
quo. Choose evidence from appropriate written and visual sources to
support your response. (P4.2)
8. If you could travel in time, what would you like to be involved in,
in the early twentieth century? Consider who you might like to be;
the nature of your political, economic, social and cultural situation;
events you would like to participate in. Meet in small groups to
share your ideas and choose the most interesting response from
each group to present to the class.

208 Retrospective
part 4
HSC Course core study:
World War I 1914–1919:
a source-based study
PRINCIPAL FOCUS

Students use different types of sources and acquired knowledge

to investigate key features, issues, individuals, groups and events
in the study of World War I.

11 War on the Western Front 211

12 The home fronts in Britain and Germany 250
13 Turning points 288
14 Allied victory 310

historiographical issues Z
issues related to the ways
historians have constructed
and presented history over
time and to the critical analysis
and evaluation of sources for
their usefulness and reliability
210 Retrospective
Working with the HSC core
In Stage 5 Australian History, you investigated ‘Australia and World War I’, focusing
especially on the reasons for, and nature of, Australians’ involvement in the war,
the experiences of Australians at Gallipoli and the creation of the Anzac legend.
You also looked at key aspects of war on the home front in relation to both the
conscription debates and the experiences of one group within Australian society.
The four chapters that follow in this book deal with aspects of the war that you
have not previously studied. They introduce you to the main components of the
compulsory HSC core study for the Stage 6 Modern History course — World War I
1914–1919. The war itself lasted from August 1914 until November 1918. This
topic goes one year further, into 1919, so that you can understand the peace
process that followed.
This topic allows you to look more broadly at the war by investigating the
experiences of people of different nationalities who fought in the war in Europe,
on the Western Front. You will also investigate the impact of the war on two home
fronts; important turning points in the war; and the nature of the victory that
emerged from war’s end in 1918.
Like the Preliminary Course core, this is a source-based study so it is an
opportunity and a requirement that you further develop your knowledge and skills
in using and critically assessing a variety of sources. At the same time, you should
keep in mind the historiographical issues that emerge from different parts
of this study.
In further developing your skills as a historian, you will be mainly developing
your skills in critical analysis — the essential skill in the age of ‘information
overload’. You can improve your skills in critical analysis by keeping in mind the
following main points when examining and using sources:
Z Be clear about the difference between a source and the evidence that might
come from it. A source provides information that might or might not be useful
to what you are studying. Some or all of the source may provide answers to
your questions. If it does, it becomes evidence that can support or contradict a
viewpoint on a particular topic.
Z Use the sources provided — both here and from your own research — in a
critical way. Don’t just take them at face value. Think about:
— who created the source and what was her/his perspective?
— what was the motive, that is, what feelings, experiences, attitudes or
obligations incited the ‘author’ to create the source?
— what was the purpose of the source, that is, what was the creator’s
intended outcome?
— who was its audience and how might this have affected the information the
source did/did not provide?
— what is the nature of the source and the information it provides — is it
complete? incomplete? accurate? inaccurate? biased? subjective?
emotional? objective?
— how useful and reliable is the source in improving our understanding of
particular aspects of our study of World War I?
Some sources in this chapter are labelled to prompt you to think about these
questions. Think about and address them and you will be doing the work of a
historian. You will also be engaging in and strengthening the skills that will make
you a good HSC Modern History student.
 War on the
Western Front
KEY DATES In this chapter, you will learn about the following aspects of
World War I:
1914
W August Z The reasons for the stalemate on the Western Front
Outbreak of World War I Z The nature of trench warfare and life in the trenches dealing with
W Stalemate on
Western Front; trench experiences of Allied and German soldiers
warfare established Z Overview of strategies and tactics to break the stalemate including
1915 key battles: Verdun, the Somme, Passchendaele
W April First large-scale Z Changing attitudes of Allied and German soldiers to the war over time
use of poison gas
in conflict
1916
W February–December
Battle of Verdun
W May Diphosgene gas
introduced
W July–November
Battle of the Somme
W September Tank
introduced as new
weapon
1917
W April–May
Nivelle Offensive
W July–November
Battle of Passchendaele
1918
W 11 November
Ceasefire and armistice
— Allied victory

Source 11.1
A French postcard c. 1915
depicting attitudes towards war.
The French caption translates as:
‘You won’t make tatters of our
glorious and much loved flags’.
Whose viewpoint does this
postcard represent? What is
the evidence for this?
 Introduction
stalemate Za deadlock from
which neither side can progress
total war Za government’s
mobilisation of all its resources
to support the efforts of its own
troops and undermine those of
its opponents
The reasons for the stalemate on the Western Front
Von Moltke succeeded von
Schlieffen as the German
Army Chief of Staff in 1906.
Source 11.2
A photograph of French
infantrymen in action in
Alsace during early assaults
in August 1914
212 Retrospective
In the early twentieth century, many people saw war as a heroic endeavour.
Soldiers (on all sides) going to war in August 1914 thought that it would be
over by Christmas, when they would return home triumphant at their nation’s
victory. Civilians also thought proudly of their country’s involvement in war
and little of the changes it would make to their daily lives.
Both views were unrealistic. First, only one side could win. Second, after
the initial German advances, the war developed into a stalemate that would
see war continue for years, not months. Civilians would face the loss of
loved ones. Their governments, through the imposition of total war, would
demand that they make significant sacrifices to support their troops on the
battlefront.
Once Russia began mobilising its troops, five German armies advanced
quickly, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan (see page 202), aiming to capture
France in six weeks and avoid fighting a war on two fronts. The stalemate
emerged largely from the failure of the Schlieffen Plan.
The German commander, Helmuth von Moltke (1848–1916), was worried
that strict implementation of the Schlieffen Plan would leave German armies
vulnerable in battle against Russia on the Eastern Front and also on Ger-
many’s border with Alsace and Lorraine. He deviated from the plan by
ordering additional troops to Russia and the Alsace–Lorraine area. Their
absence weakened the impact of the German armies in France and created
communication difficulties between the armies that remained.
When war broke out, the French implemented Plan 17 and advanced into
their former territory in Alsace and Lorraine. By 20 August 1914, German
artillery and machine gun fire from Germany’s sixth and seventh armies had
the French in retreat and preparing to defend Paris against German troops
advancing from the east.
 Changes to the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan (see source 10.26,
page 202) undermined its effectiveness. The Plan called for five German armies
to advance through Belgium and Luxembourg to attack France from the north.
The first German army, the troops to the far right of the German advance,
would move as far west as possible and then move east to encircle Paris.
General Alexander Von Kluck (1846–1934), leader of the first army, became
concerned at the long distance separating his army from the other German
armies. He sent his soldiers to the east instead of the west of Paris. This meant
that they would not be able to encircle the city as originally intended. It also
left the Germans vulnerable to attack from the French army retreating from
eastern France and from the soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF)
who had come to assist in the defence of France and Belgium (see source 11.3).
Belgian, French and British responses also prevented the fulfilment of the
Schlieffen Plan. Belgian troops provided stronger resistance than expected
and delayed the Germans at Liège for nearly a week. The British troops
arrived much sooner than the Germans had expected and surprised the
Germans with the speed and accuracy of their rifle fire at the Battle of Mons.
From 4 September 1914 onwards, the British and French fought the Germans
in the Battle of the Marne. By this time, the German troops were exhausted.
They had suffered in the stifling August heat; they were malnourished because
their food supplies had not kept pace with their initially rapid advance; and
the troops were weary because of the long distances they were required to
walk each day. The German retreat from the River Marne in mid September
cost Germany the quick victory over France it had expected.
1 Belgian resistance and British Source 11.3
intervention slow down the
German advance, preventing
Map showing information related to the German advance into France in 1914 and responses to it
Germany achieving a six-week
victory over France.
2 Some German troops are
diverted to Russia and
Alsace–Lorraine.
3 Distance creates
communication difficulties
between invading armies. 2
4 Von Kluck deviates from the 1
Schlieffen Plan and sends troops
east instead of west of Paris.
5 German troops become
vulnerable to attack from both
French and British forces.
6 Exhausted and malnourished,
German troops retreat from 4 3
the Battle of the Marne and
begin to build trenches from 5 6
which to defend the territory
they have gained.

SOURCE QUESTION
Explain whether source 11.3 is
more useful as an explanation
of (a) the reasons for the N
failure of the Schlieffen Plan or
(b) the reasons for the
development of the stalemate.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 213


Western Front Zthe area of
fighting in western Europe
during World War I. It
stretched from the English
Channel to the Swiss border
and encompassed territory in
Belgium and northern France.
Source 11.4
Map showing the extent of the
Britain and France went on the offensive, trying to outflank German forces
in a race to secure territory on the way to the English Channel. The Germans
by this time had begun to build trenches to protect their men and serve as
bases from which they would defend the territory they had already gained. In
doing so, they relinquished their involvement in a war of movement through
which, at that time, they might still have been able to defeat the seriously
depleted French and British forces.
The British and French built trenches to protect their men during what
they saw as a temporary situation, while they fought to try and force the
Germans to retreat. They expected to be able to resume a war of movement
in the summer months.
The development of trench warfare ended the war of movement and saw
war move into a pattern of action and reaction that spread from Belgium
across northern France to the Swiss border (see source 11.4). By late 1914, war
on the Western Front had developed into a stalemate.
GREAT North Sea
BRITAIN Central Powers

area of conflict known as the NETHERLANDS Allied Powers

Western Front Western Front

er
ov Dunkirk
D Passchendaele
f o

Calais Ypres
ait

Brussels
Str

Neuve Chapelle
BELGIUM
Loos GERMANY
Arras
Ri
ve Cambrai
r
Somme
Amiens
St Quentin
LUXEMBOURG
River
Ri

Ais

er Marn Verdun
ve

e
Riv
r

ne

St Mihiel
Paris

Seine

SOURCE QUESTION FRANCE

N
Use source 11.4 to write
your own definition of the 0 100 200 km
SWITZERLAND
Western Front.

Reasons for the continuation of the stalemate

The Allied and Central powers all attempted to break the stalemate in 1915:
the French attempted this through an unsuccessful campaign in Champagne;
the British in March at Neuve Chapelle, where they had heavy losses for only
a short-term gain; the Germans unsuccessfully at Ypres in April, where they
used poison gas for the first time; and the British at Loos in September.
In 1916, the Germans attempted to destroy the French at the Battle of Verdun
(see page 227) and the British responded at the Battle of the Somme (page 233).
These battles once again focused more on attrition (wearing down) than on
achieving a breakthrough and the resumption of a war of movement.

214 Retrospective

war of attrition Za war in
which competing sides attempt
to achieve victory through the
tactic of wearing down their
opponents’ armies, fighting
power, morale and economies
to the point of collapse
The nature of trench warfare
trench warfare Za form of
military conflict in which
opposing sides fight one
another from trenches facing
one another
dugouts Zshelters dug into the
sides of the trenches
no man’s land Zthe area
separating opposing armies in
trench warfare
salient Za military position
that bulges forward into
enemy-held territory and, as a
result, could be vulnerable to
attack from three sides
Source 11.5
An aerial photograph taken in
1917 showing the nature of the
trench system between Loos and
Hulluch
SOURCE QUESTION
What features of a trench
system can you identify from
this aerial photograph?
The stalemate continued until 1918 because:
Z the mechanisms of trench warfare — barbed wire, artillery and machine gun
fire — were more suited to defence and a war of attrition than to offence
Z the continuation of trench warfare made the cavalry charges of previous
eras impractical
Z the reconnaissance of enemy positions was poor
Z opposing armies had equivalent access to reinforcements and supplies
through railway networks
Z neither side developed either a method or weapon of warfare that would
force the resumption of a war of movement.
Trench warfare was the main form of warfare used during World War I. It
was defensive and, as such, dramatically different from the war of offensives
and cavalry charges that the generals had expected and which had been the
main form of warfare in the nineteenth century.
The trench system
The trench system generally comprised three parallel lines of trenches:
Z the front line for attack and defence
Z the support line to which front line soldiers could (if possible) retreat
during bombardment
Z the reserve line where troops waited for their leader’s call to battle.
The rear wall of the support line also contained dugouts. Communication
trenches, dug at right angles, linked the three lines of trenches.
The distance between each of the trench lines differed from army to army
and varied from about 60–90 metres between front line and support trenches
and 300–500 metres between support and reserve trenches. Armies often also
had partially constructed trench systems several kilometres further back to
be ready if their enemy forced them to retreat.
The distance between Allied and German trenches was generally from about
100 to 300 metres. Soldiers called the area that separated them no man’s land.
Trenches formed a kind of zigzag or square-toothed line. This layout
was a defensive measure. It minimised the impact of a shell landing in
the trench and it prevented attackers from having a clear line of fire down
the whole length of the trench. Sometimes a trench line formed a salient,
meaning that it ‘bulged’ forward into territory held by the enemy. This was
dangerous as it meant that opponents could attack that part of the trench
from three directions — frontally and from both sides.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 215
 Source 11.6 (a)
(a) An artist’s drawing, created in
2007, showing a cross-section of Barbed wire
the key features of a front line Parapet:
trench; (b) Diagram, created in earth/sandbags
2007, depicting the typical plan
of a trench system No man’s land
Support Enemy
trenches Shellholes trenches

Bolt Ammunition
hole shelf
Firestep

Duckboards
Drainage

(b) Reserve Support Front line Barbed Enemy

trench trench trench wire trenches
Artillery
positions
Sap

Communication
trench
No man’s
land

SOURCE QUESTION
Evaluate the extent to which
source 11.6 provides accurate
information on the key
features of a trench and the
plan of a trench system.

The condition of any trench system depended on:

Z how long and how quickly it had been established
Z whether the generals viewed it as temporary or permanent
Z the nature of the ground where it was located
Z local weather conditions
Z specific military goals at different times
Z the extent to which enemy bombardment had affected the trenches.
German trenches were generally stronger, more complex and better
equipped than the Allied ones. This was because the German army,
unlike the British, viewed trenches as a long-term rather than a short-term
proposition. German dugouts, made of reinforced concrete, ranged from about
3.6 metres to as much as three storeys in depth (although this was rare).
British dugouts ranged from about 2.4 to 4.8 metres in depth.

216 Retrospective
 Source 11.7
Australian soldiers in a front line
trench near Armentieres, France,
in May 1916

Source 11.8
British soldiers clean a Lewis gun
while others stand to in a front
line trench near Messines,
Belgium, in January 1917

SOURCE QUESTION
What features of a front line
trench can you identify in
sources 11.7 and 11.8?
Hindenburg Line Z
the German trench system,
devised by Generals Paul
von Hindenburg and Erich
Ludendorff and constructed
in northern France between
1916 and 1917. The system
shortened the front line
and enabled the Germans
to transfer men to reserve
trenches. It incorporated
concrete pillboxes armed with
machine guns. The goal was
to maximise the effectiveness
of men and munitions at
a time when both were
in short supply.
Individual nations manned their trenches differently. British commanders
put most of their men in the front line trenches. In theory, this had the advan-
tage of ensuring that they could be well defended against enemy advances.
The disadvantage was that many men could be injured or killed in the initial
bombardment that preceded an enemy attempt to capture the trench.
French commanders heavily manned some sections of the front line. They
left other sections with small numbers of soldiers and reinforced the barbed
wire in front of them. If the enemy attacked one of these weaker sections, the
barbed wire slowed the advance and gave time to send in troops from the
more heavily defended sections.
In 1916, the German commanders, General Paul von Hindenburg and
Erich Ludendorff, began development of the Hindenburg Line, a trench
system that they believed would be impregnable. Implemented in 1917, it had
between five and seven lines of trenches and kept two-thirds of the troops
behind the front line.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 217


infantry Zsoldiers that fight on
foot, generally with bayonets,
machine guns and mortars
bayonets Za knife blade which
soldiers attached to their rifles
and used in close combat with
the enemy
Source 11.9
Flow chart outlining the key
elements of the experience of
going ‘over the top’
SOURCE QUESTION
Use the information provided
in source 11.9 to write a
paragraph describing the
experience of going ‘over the
top’ in World War I.
218 Retrospective
Methods of trench warfare
War on the Western Front evolved into a war of attrition rather than break-
through. It took approximately ten times as many men to mount an attack on
an enemy trench as it did to defend it. New weapons of warfare — machine
guns, poison gas, tanks — were either more effective for defence than attack
or, at least initially, not used effectively.
This situation continued until late in the war. Technological improvements
to tanks and improved use of them in 1918 enabled armies to break through
trench lines, engage in offensive tactics and reinstate a war of movement.
For most of the war, commanders continued to rely on:
Z massive artillery bombardments of enemy positions
Z use of infantry to defend existing entrenched positions
Z infantry advances ‘over the top’ (see source 11.9), armed mainly with
rifles, bayonets and grenades, against their entrenched opponents.
These resulted in massive casualties and failed to achieve a significant
breakthrough.
W Barrage of artillery fire to weaken the defences of the enemy’s front line trenches
(men, barbed wire, the trenches themselves)
W Soldiers wait until just before sunrise for the order to advance
10 minutes before the scheduled attack time:
W Officers clarify goals, convey final orders, check equipment and offer encouragement
(British troops received a rum ration)
W Soldiers fix bayonets to their rifles
W Officer signals men to go ‘over the top’ of the trench and out into ‘no man’s land’
W Soldiers begin to move forward as their enemies race to set up their machine guns
W Some are wounded or killed as a result of enemy fire
W Soldiers attempt to advance towards enemy trenches but it is the enemy who has the advantage
W No man’s land by this time is full of smoke, shell holes and the sound of artillery fire
W Visibility is poor as soldiers try to remain with their group and avoid isolation
W Soldiers continue towards original objective amid the general chaos and confusion
W Some are wounded or killed as a result of enemy fire
W Attack succeeds in achieving its aim or
W Enemy succeeds in defending its territory or
W Attack is abandoned because of changed conditions
W Soldiers return to trenches
W Roll call to see who is missing
W Wounded taken to obtain medical care
W Soldiers wait until dark to retrieve bodies or additional wounded from no man’s land
 Source 11.10
Table showing the main weapons of trench warfare, their uses and effectiveness
Weapon Use
artillery Both armies used artillery bombardments
for both attack and defence. Gunners fired
shells from behind their own lines, both
before an attack and over the heads of
advancing troops.
bayonets Designers intended the bayonet for use
in offensive warfare. While used by both
sides for the entire period of the war,
opportunities for their use were limited by
the defensive nature of the war.
flame throwers The Germans initiated the first of 650 uses
(Flammenwerfer) of its flame throwers in October 1914. The
British and French subsequently used
similar weapons.
grenades All armies had grenadiers formed into
bombing groups that would let off
grenades along enemy trenches in
advance of occupying them. By the end
of the war, grenades were being used in
combination with infantry attacks. The
Germans had large quantities of grenades
from the very beginning of the war. The
British introduced the famous ‘Mills
bomb’ grenade in 1915. A famous use of
grenades was during over 12 hours of
continual fighting between the Australians
and Germans at Pozières in July 1916.
machine guns The Belgians began using these (in the
form of the Lewis gun) in 1914 and the
Germans followed with the Bergmann gun
soon after. From 1915, the British began
producing large numbers of Lewis guns,
which could be regulated to fire as many
as 500–600 rounds/minute, and became
very skilled in their use. The British used
them as an offensive weapon, whereas
the Germans used them for defensive
purposes. Both sides established separate
machine gun corps in 1915.
poison gas, The French used tear gas grenades in
including chlorine August 1914 and, after some use of
gas, mustard gas chemicals in shrapnel shells in late 1914,
and diphosgene the Germans used chlorine gas in cylinders
in 1915 at the second Battle of Ypres. All
the Allied armies subsequently adopted
gas weaponry, the Germans using 68 000
tonnes by 1918; the French using 36 000
tonnes; and the British 25 000 tonnes.
Effectiveness
Artillery bombardments caused 60 per cent of all
casualties on the Western Front. Initially some of these
were from the perpetrators’ own army. Bombardments
preceded a major attack and therefore gave warning of it.
They often failed to achieve their goal of destroying barbed
wire and enemy trench positions and severely damaged the
area of no man’s land over which their own soldiers had to
advance. The enemy’s counter barrage made this problem
worse. By 1918, artillery fire was more accurate.
Bayonets were of little use to soldiers facing machine gun
fire. In close combat, the bayonet was safer to use than a
bullet that might move through the enemy’s body to hit one
of the shooter’s fellow soldiers. Soldiers feared bayonet
wounds so the bayonet did have psychological impact.
The burning fuel produced by the flame thrower terrified
its victims. It was effective as a short-range weapon but
the possibility of its cylinder exploding accidentally meant
that it could also endanger its user.
For obvious reasons, grenadiers preferred grenades
with timed fuses to percussion grenades which detonated
when they hit something. These had to be handled very
carefully to prevent premature explosion. Initially unsafe
and unreliable, by 1917 the Mills bomb grenade had
become a popular and effective means of destroying
enemy pillboxes. It was a ‘fragmentation’ bomb, meaning
that it exploded into many small, sharp pieces. In 1917,
the British ‘No 36M’ reduced the number of non-exploding
grenades. Grenade supplies were difficult to carry around
and this limited their practicality.
Very effective against an infantry attack with firing power
of eight bullets per second and able to inflict casualties
very quickly. At the same time, the sheer weight of machine
guns (30–60 kg), limited their portability. Early machine
guns were often dependent on the availability of water
to cool them down. Machine guns often jammed. Despite
these problems, on average, fire from a single machine gun
was as effective as 80 rifles. Machine guns were used most
effectively as a defensive weapon with gunners positioned
to fire at an attack of enemy infantry.
Men soon learnt to fear blindness or the slow and painful
death that this weapon could ultimately cause. While they
failed to have a significant impact on battle outcomes,
gas attacks did impinge on troop morale. They also initially
had the problem that if the wind changed the gas might
blow back to injure those who had fired it (see the warning
devices in source 11.8). The development of gas shells to
be used with artillery helped to overcome this problem.
Gas attacks became less effective with the development
of improved protective devices.
(continued)
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 219
 Source 11.10

Weapon Use Effectiveness

rifles The main weapon used by infantrymen
of all armies throughout the war. It was
also the main weapon used by snipers.
The British preferred the Lee Enfield rifle;
the French, the Lebel rifle, with its slow
and dangerous loading mechanism;
and the Germans, the Mauser.
One of the most important weapons of the war, rifles
were much easier to transport than most weapons.
Effectiveness depended on the skills of the user. British
rifle fire at Mons in 1915 was so fast (15 rounds per minute)
that the Germans thought they were using machine guns.
Armies could not maintain this level of skill and accuracy
as they became reliant on non-professional soldiers. While
rifle fire was suited to targets at up to 1400 metres away,
the gunner’s accuracy declined at distances greater than
600 metres. The Lee Enfield Rifle was the most effective
rifle. Soldiers valued its sturdy design and its rapid fire.
The Mauser was more suited to use by snipers than to
situations requiring rapid fire.

tanks First used by the British at the Somme
in 1916 and subsequently by the
French from April 1917. It wasn’t until
the whole British Tank Corps took them
into operation at the Battle of Cambrai,
in November 1917, that their value really
became obvious. The Germans began
using them effectively from April 1918.
Initially of limited value as they were very slow, liable
to break down, had poor maneouvrability (they could
only move in a forwards direction) and were extremely
uncomfortable for their occupants. By early 1917, tanks
were being used more effectively in crashing through
enemy lines, although infantry support lagged far behind.
By 1918, German field guns were able to fire at them.
Australian General Sir John Monash made very effective
use of tanks in early July 1918 in coordination with artillery
and aircraft to destroy enemy positions ahead of an
infantry advance at Le Hamel. As a result, it took his forces
only 93 minutes to attain their objective.

trench mortars This was a tubular weapon from which While effective when fired from one trench to another
soldiers could fire a projectile at angles against enemy machine gun or sniper positions in a time of
above 45 degrees. The projectile then fell static warfare, the trench mortar was of little use after the
straight to the ground (if effective, into resumption of a war of movement in 1918.
the enemy trench). The Germans used the
minewerfer and the British used the Stokes
3-inch mortar.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. From the information provided in source 11.10, which weapons were
most/least effective in fighting on the Western Front?
2. Research some other weapons that could have been included in this table.
How would you rank them in comparison with those that have been included?

Life in the trenches: experiences of Allied

and German soldiers
The stalemate resulted in soldiers spending years living in trenches. This
meant years living largely outdoors — although in a confined space — in
all weather conditions. It meant years of poor health, inadequate sanitary
conditions, poor washing facilities and often unreliable access to food and
drinking water. Experiences of trench life differed according to nationality,
rank, role and the nature of the fighting at any given time. What follows here
refers mainly to general experiences of trench life.

220 Retrospective
 Source 11.11
A photograph of French troops
manning a listening post in
a snow-covered trench on
the Western Front, in the
winter of 1917

SOURCE QUESTION
Describe the conditions
in the trench shown in
this photograph.

The routine of trench life

Trench life combined feelings of boredom, comradeship, extreme discomfort,
endurance and fear. It also incorporated experiences of waiting for action,
hard and often dangerous physical labour, hunger, thirst, disease, poor sani-
tary conditions, mental breakdown and incidences of extraordinary self-
sacrifice and heroism.
Source 11.12
Evening sets in wet as we march up to the line . . . today is Sunday because Snow
An extract from E. P. F. Lynch’s
Somme Mud describing his advance who still keeps a diary told us.
to the front line. Lynch handwrote We’re a strange-looking crowd. Each man wears a wet greatcoat over which
the memoirs of his war experiences is buckled his equipment. Most of us have the breech and the muzzle of our rifle
in 1921. He typed them in the early swathed in strips of bagging or blanket to guard against the mud and rain. We
1930s in the hope of having them don’t wear puttees as the weight of the mud pulls them down around our boots,
published. Finally, one of his but strips of sandbag instead. Some of the men wear rubber knee-boots, but they
grandson’s friends edited and are not of much use in the forward trenches as they either get pulled off in the
published the material in 2006. mud or fill with mud and water.
Consider impact on reliability Onto our equipment hangs a water bottle, bayonet, entrenching tool and handle,
author whilst on our chests we wear our gas respirator bulged out over one hundred and
twenty rounds of ammunition. On our backs, our haversacks contain iron rations and
odds and ends. Six sandbags are rolled and strapped above the haversack, whilst
under it hangs a wet blanket neatly rolled into a heavy ball of dead weight. We are
SOURCE QUESTIONS lucky we aren’t carrying bags of bombs and picks and spades as well. A few miles of
1. What is the main content of lumping all this stuff along and we realise the truth of Darky’s saying, ‘A man wants to
source 11.12 and what do be strong in the back and weak in the head to make a good infantryman.’
you think was the author’s On through the mud. Away in front, enemy flares sweep up, burst, scribe a circular
purpose in recording it? luminous sweep and drop to earth . . . The flares are on three sides of us. We always
2. What does source 11.12 seem to be approaching the centre of a horseshoe of fireworks. As we near the line,
indicate about the attitudes the flares mount higher above the horizon which is marked by the belching sheet
of these infantrymen? flames of firing guns or the quick stabbing flame flowers from bursting shells . . .
3. Explain whether this is a Source: E. P. F. Lynch, Somme Mud: the War Experiences of an Australian Infantryman
primary or a secondary in France 1916–1919, Will Davies (ed.), Random House Australia, Sydney, 2006, p. 27.
source on trench life.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 221


snipers Zmarksmen who
waited in hiding for
opportunities to shoot soldiers
in the opposing trenches
cop a blighty Zobtain a
wound which was serious
enough to require the victim to
be sent back to England
shell shock Za psychological
disorder with physical
symptoms ranging from
irritability and poor
concentration to inability to
move in a coordinated manner
Source 11.13
The poem Suicide in the Trenches
by British war poet Siegfried
Sassoon. Sassoon (1886–1967)
served as an officer and was a
patient at Edinburgh’s
Craiglockhart Hospital, famed for
its treatment of shell shock
victims.
perspective
content/message
222 Retrospective
Soldiers spent differing amounts of time in each of the different sections
of the trench system. A common pattern across the entire period of the war
was 15 per cent of time in the front line trench, 20 per cent of time in the
support trench, 30 per cent of time in the reserve trench and 20 per cent of
time in a rest area. Activities such as training, travel, leave and hospitalisation
accounted for the remaining 15 per cent of time. All this changed in response
to particular events and circumstances, for example, whether or not the trench
system was fully established; whether a major attack was underway.
Boredom was a common complaint and waiting or preparing for action
was a common experience. Soldiers took turns at the various tasks needed
to maintain trench security — repairing barbed wire or duckboards, rein-
forcing sandbags, being on guard duty, carrying out reconnaissance of enemy
positions and activity, obtaining new supplies — and also tasks such as the
retrieval of bodies or of the wounded from no man’s land. Soldiers with
specialist skills acted as snipers or in constructing new trenches. Sometimes
the tedious nature of trench routine resulted in distracted soldiers being
wounded, perhaps fatally, by enemy sniper fire.
Dangers
Life in the trenches was always potentially dangerous. At dawn and dusk
each day, the times when poor visibility gave the enemy an advantage, British
soldiers followed the order to ‘stand to’. That meant they had to spend up to
an hour, armed, equipped and on the alert for an enemy attack.
From January to June 1916, before it even began the massive Somme offen-
sive (see pages 233–8), the British army sustained over 100 000 casualties. The
noise of shellfire was deafening and sniperfire an ongoing threat. Soldiers
sometimes tried to cop a blighty so that they could (at least temporarily)
escape the dangers and stress of front line action.
Soldiers suffered shell shock from the very early months of the war. It
represented the huge psychological impact of constant exposure to shellfire
and the fears associated with it. While doctors began to search for effective
treatments, military commanders often viewed shell shock as an attempt by
the cowardly to avoid or escape from military service. Shell-shocked soldiers
who wouldn’t or couldn’t obey orders sometimes deserted and even suicided.
Many received unsympathetic punishments including increased front line
duty, court martial and even execution.
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
 SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What experiences do you think might have motivated Sassoon to write this poem?
2. What is the poem’s message and what was Sassoon’s purpose in writing it?
3. List the emotive language Sassoon uses.
4. Evaluate the source’s reliability for someone investigating the impact of trench
warfare on soldiers’ attitudes.
5. How could a historian use this poem?
Gas warfare was another source of danger and fear. After some early French
and German uses of gas warfare in 1914, the German army began firing cylin-
ders of chlorine gas in 1915. Of greater concern were phosgene, which caused
death within 48 hours, and mustard gas. Victims of mustard gas didn’t feel
any effects until hours later when they developed blisters and began feeling
the excruciating pain caused by damage to the lungs and eyes.
Over time, more sophisticated gas masks came into use. Despite this, by
the end of the war, 91 000 soldiers had died as a result of gas warfare and
1.2 million had suffered its effects.

Source 11.14
Extract from the memoirs of
Anthony R. Hossack, describing
the first gas attack . Hossack
served on the Western Front
from 1914 until July 1917 and
then again in early 1918.
content
perspective
nature
content
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the perspective of
the author of source 11.14?
2. What information does
he provide about the first
gas attack and in what
ways is it useful?
It was Thursday evening, April 22nd, 1915 . . . We had just fought our first big
action in the fight for Hill 60.
We had had a gruelling time, and had left many of our comrades on its slopes.
We survivors were utterly spent and weary; but we felt in good heart, for only an
hour ago we had been personally congratulated by Sir John French . . .
As we gazed in the direction of the bombardment, where our line joined the
French, six miles away, we could see in the failing light the flash of shrapnel with
here and there the light of a rocket. But more curious than anything was a low
cloud of yellow-grey smoke or vapour, and, underlying everything, a dull confused
murmuring.
Suddenly down the road from the Yser Canal came a galloping team of horses,
the riders goading on their mounts in a frenzied way; then another and another,
till the road became a seething mass with a pall of dust over all.
Plainly something terrible was happening. What was it? . . . in the northerly
breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made
our eyes smart . . .
One man came stumbling through our lines. An officer of ours held him up with
levelled revolver, ‘What’s the matter, you bloody lot of cowards?’ says he. The
Zouave was frothing at the mouth, his eyes started from their sockets, and he fell
writhing at the officer’s feet. ‘Fall in!’ . . . The battalion is formed into line, and we
dig ourselves in.
It is quite dark now, and water is being brought round, and we hear how the
Germans have, by the use of poison gas, driven a French army corps out of the
line, creating a huge gap which the Canadians have closed pro tem . . .
About midnight we withdrew from our temporary trenches and marched about
for the rest of the night, till at dawn, we were permitted to snatch what sleep we
could under a hedge . . .
We were now in the area of the ill-fated French Colonial Corps. Ambulances
were everywhere, and the village of Brielen, through which we passed, was
choked with wounded and gassed men. We were very mystified about this gas,
and had no protection whatever against it . . .
First published in C. B. Purdom (ed.) Everyman at War (1930).

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 223

 Source 11.15
A 1918 photograph of a line of
British soldiers waiting for
treatment after being blinded by
mustard gas in a German attack
at Bethune, France

SOURCE QUESTION
What can you infer from
source 11.15 about the
military advantages of the
use of mustard gas?

Source 11.16 Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling

An extract from Dulce et
Decorum est by the British war
poet Wilfred Owen (1893–1918).
The poem describes the
experiences of soldiers walking
towards a rest area. Owen wrote
the poem between late 1917
and early 1918. He died on the
Western Front seven days
before the war ended.
perspective
content
purpose is to convey
this message
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What are the similarities and differences between sources 11.14 and 11.16?
2. Which words convey the feelings of the writer?
3. Evaluate the usefulness and reliability of these sources for a historian studying
gas warfare on the Western Front.
4. The Latin phrase in the poem means ‘It is sweet and right to die for your
country’. Why does the poet call this ‘the old Lie’?

224 Retrospective
 Trench rations
Soldiers often joked about the quality of the food they received. By 1916, the
impact of blockades meant that both Allied and German commanders strug-
gled to provide soldiers with good diets in terms of both meat and calorie
intake. British soldiers survived on daily rations of corned beef (bully beef),
days-old bread and stale biscuits. By 1917, cooks were making bread from
ground turnips and pea soup had become the staple food item. Hot food trans-
ported from the field kitchens arrived cold or at best lukewarm. Soldiers also
complained that the officers seemed to be dining very well by comparison.
Source 11.17
A comment from I was Captain Morrison’s servant . He was a multi-millionaire and he used to pay
William Jackman, for a lot of the stuff that came to the Officers’ Mess. Before we went to France
who was a private in in 1915 I had to go to Fortnum and Mason’s and arrange for what you might call
the Grenadier Guards tuck boxes to be sent out to the Battalion regularly. Then I had to go to Berry’s,
perspective the wine merchants, and place an order with them — a bottle of 1900 port to be
sent to us every three days and cases of whisky and brandy. They used to arrive
attitude
marked with a red cross. Medical comforts! . . .
content It used to arrive in batches . . . boxes of tinned stuff, mostly, like galantine
of chicken, soups, puddings, tins of fruit, tins of grouse and pheasant, ham
— everything you could think of for the Officers’ Mess. We used to have that much
stuff that we couldn’t cart it about with us, so we had to make dumps here and
there. Often we didn’t go back to the same place, so there must have been some
farmhouses who did very well out of us! . . .
Quoted in Lyn Macdonald, Somme, Penguin Books, UK, 1993 p. 274.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 11.17 indicate about the author’s perspective?
2. What do you think was his purpose in writing this account?

Source 11.18
A photograph showing a mobile field kitchen preparing food for German troops on the
Western Front in 1918
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In what way does source
11.17 support soldiers’
complaints about officers’
rations? How is it not useful
in this regard?
2. What information does
source 11.18 provide
about food facilities on the
Western Front?
3. Find two or three sources
providing comparisons
between soldiers’ and
officers’ food on the Western
Front. Giving consideration
to the usefulness and
reliability of these sources,
what are your conclusions?

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 225


trench foot Za problem caused
by long-term exposure to
conditions where feet could not
be kept dry. Untreated, it
would result in amputation.
trench fever Za disease,
caused by lice, affecting up
to 15 per cent of any army.
It kept men out of battle
but wasn’t fatal.
226 Retrospective
Health and sanitation issues
Rats, feeding off decomposing bodies, became as big as cats. With one pair of
rats able to produce 800 additional rats a year, they were a constant problem
and their attacks on bodies horrified those who saw the results.
In the first winter of the war, the British army had to deal with 20 000
cases of trench foot. The problem arose from the long periods of time
men spent with their feet, sock and boots all underwater and in unsanitary
conditions. Unless they dried their feet and changed their socks frequently,
soldiers might not realise they had a problem until it was too late to treat it.
Their feet would go numb, the skin turn blue and, once gangrene had set
in, amputation would become necessary. Supplying soldiers with multiple
pairs of socks and a protective cream made of whale oil — and making them
use them — became essential to maintaining their health.
Source 11.19
A photograph showing the damage caused by trench foot if not treated
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What do you think were the photographer’s motive and purpose in creating
source 11.19?
2. Who would have been its likely audience at the time it was created? Give
reasons for your answer.
Soldiers suffered continual infestations of body lice and often spent their
spare time discussing and implementing de-lousing strategies for getting rid
of ‘chats’. The army regularly put uniforms in delousing machines while men
went (two or three times a month) to communal washing facilities. The men,
who had already waged a battle to remove the lice from the seams of their
clothing, didn’t get their own uniform back.
Female lice produced about twelve eggs a day. Lice eggs were hard to
destroy and hatched within a month. Soldiers were constantly scratching to
relieve the terrible itching that resulted. Lice also caused the intense pain and
high temperatures associated with trench fever.

dysentery Zan illness related
to the inflammation of the
lining of the large intestine.
Symptoms include stomach
pains and diarrhoea and
perhaps also vomiting.
Tactics and strategies to break the stalemate
tactics Zactions taken to deal
with specific problems and
achieve the goal of a particular
military strategy
The ongoing impact of these
battles was evident on their
ninetieth anniversaries in
2006 and 2007. Nations and
individuals commemorated
the battles with official
ceremonies, the production
of documentaries, the
publication of new books on
their nature and
significance and special
exhibitions in war
museums.
Source 11.20
An extract from the German novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
(1899–1970), first published in Berlin in 1929. Remarque’s novel was based on his
experiences on the Western Front from mid 1917 until early 1918.
It’s a nuisance trying to kill every single louse when you’ve got hundreds of them.
The beasts are hard, and it gets to be a bore when you are forever pinching them
between your nails. So Tjaden has rigged up a boot-polish lid hanging on a piece of
wire over a burning candle-end. You just have to toss the lice into this little frying
pan — there is a sharp crack, and that’s it.
We’re sitting around, shirts on our knees, stripped to the waist in the warm air,
our fingers working on the lice . . .
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, translated from the
German by Brian Murdoch, Vintage, London, 1996, p. 54.
SOURCE QUESTION
What is the tone of source 11.20? In what ways might this source be useful to
historians?
Dysentery was another experience common to trench life. It resulted from
the poor sanitation of the latrines (communal toilet pits). The demands of
fighting often didn’t leave time for new ones to be dug and soldiers made do
by using shell holes instead. When water supplies were inadequate, soldiers
drank the often contaminated water from shell holes. The danger of dysen-
tery was that soldiers could die as a result of becoming dehydrated.
War on the Western Front was largely a war of attrition. The static nature of
trench warfare made it difficult for any nation to achieve victory. The Allies
and the Germans used a variety of tactics — including artillery barrages
followed by infantry assaults, ‘bite and hold’, ‘leapfrogging’ and infiltration
— in their attempts to break the stalemate. They also used new technology
such as machine guns, gas and tanks.
In 1916, British, French and German soldiers engaged in two of the worst
battles of the war — the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. The
high costs of both battles increased the enmity between the opposing sides,
led soldiers to question their own leaders and remained etched in their
nations’ memories for generations to come.
The Battle of Passchendaele, in the second half of 1917, also resulted in
high numbers of casualties and was the battle that became the symbol of the
futility of the tactics used to break the stalemate.
Verdun 1916: the attempt to ‘bleed the
French white’
The Battle of Verdun lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916. It was the
longest battle of the war and was engineered in response to the goal of the
German commander, General Erich Falkenhayn, to ‘bleed the French white’.
He believed that he would be able to use this attrition tactic so successfully
that the battle would break the stalemate and allow Germany to win the war
or at least be able to begin peace negotiations.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 227

Source 11.21
Photograph showing the
medieval city gate at Verdun
Source 11.22
A diagram showing the
fortifications around Verdun
by 1916
Some historians believe
that Falkenhayn only came
up with this rationale in
his post-war memoirs, in
order to justify his actions
there. Others, notably
Robert T. Foley, argue that
Falkenhayn consciously
pursued this strategy in the
knowledge that Germany
could not withstand a
protracted war.
228 Retrospective
Goals and tactics
The fortified French garrison at Verdun, 200 kilometres north-east of Paris,
was a source of French national pride even though French commanders
had decided early in the war that it provided little of military value for
them. To the French people themselves, Verdun was a fortress site that had
existed since Roman times and the last town that Prussia defeated in the
Franco-Prussian war. Given this, and the improvements made to Verdun’s
fortifications in the 1880s (see source 11.22), it would have been a huge blow
to French morale to have Verdun fall into German hands.
River Douaumont
Vaux
Souville
Verdun
M N
eu
se
Verdun salient
Fort
0 5 10 km
SOURCE QUESTION
In what ways do sources 11.21 and 11.22 indicate Verdun’s significance for France?
Falkenhayn was determined to exploit Verdun’s huge symbolic value for
the French and force them to fight a lengthy battle there which, through a
campaign of attrition, would destroy France’s ability to continue fighting.
Verdun’s location, on a French salient into German lines, gave the Germans
the advantage of being able to approach Verdun from three sides.

Visit the website for this
book and click on the Verdun
weblinks for this chapter
(see ‘Weblinks’ page viii) for
additional information on the
Battle of Verdun.
The nature of fighting
The French, acting on intelligence reports that an attack on Verdun was
imminent, called in two additional divisions and began reinforcement of the
trench system. In February 1916, the Verdun garrison contained only 30 000
soldiers. When Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander of the Fifth Army and
son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, directed the German attack there on 21 February,
he had as many as one million troops at his disposal.
The attack began on 21 February 1916 with a massive German artillery
bombardment. Then came flame throwers and attacks from three army corps.
By the end of the third day of fighting, the French had retreated to within
eight kilometres of Verdun itself, although they still controlled the forts at
Douaumont and Vaux.
Source 11.23
A photograph of French troops in the line of heavy shellfire during the Battle of Verdun,
February 1916
SOURCE QUESTION
How might a historian use source 11.23?
In response to General Joffre’s orders, General Henri-Philippe Pétain (1856–
1951) assumed command of Verdun on 24 February. He reversed the policy
of withdrawal and ordered reinforcements to come from all over the Western
Front. Ultimately, 78 per cent of French infantry regiments served at Verdun,
which became known as the ‘mincing machine’ of the French army.
Pétain organised work teams to keep open and maintain La Voie Sacrée (the
‘Sacred Way’), the only link between Verdun and its supply depot at Bar-le-
Duc. Trucks carrying men, munitions and supplies became crucial to France’s
ability to hold Verdun.
By the end of February 1916, French troops had halted the German advance
— although they had lost Fort Douaumont on 25 February. German troops
were advancing faster than the artillery that they needed to protect them and
consequently suffered high casualties for any gains they made.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 229
 Source 11.24
A 1916 cartoon by Dutch cartoonist Louis Raemaekers commenting on the German
campaign at Verdun

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the people shown in source 11.24?
2. What is the cartoonist’s message in source 11.24?
3. What techniques does he use to convey this message?

Despite major German offensives in April and May, the French continued
to hold out against them. Pétain gained a promotion and on, 1 May, General
Robert Nivelle (1856–1924) took his place. The Verdun motto Ils ne passeront
pas (‘They shall not pass’) became an inspirational catchcry in propaganda
campaigns designed to boost French morale.

230 Retrospective

diphosgene gas Zused in
artillery shells, its vapours
could penetrate gas masks
Source 11.25
A 1916 French postcard praising the efforts of the French troops in standing firm at Verdun
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who was the audience for this postcard?
2. What motivated the production of this postcard and what was its purpose?
3. What attitudes does it express and who would have supported these views?
In May 1916, the Germans introduced diphosgene gas, a new weapon of
chemical warfare. After a three-month siege, they gained control of Fort Vaux
on 7 June and, over the next month, continued on to try and break through
French lines.
The Verdun campaign was becoming as much of a drain on German
resources as on French resources. The French, despite their successes, were
near breaking point and greatly in need of the hoped-for diversion of German
troops to the Somme (see pages 233–8).
From July 1916 onwards, Germany faced more difficulties at Verdun. These
resulted from the need to send 15 German divisions to counter a Russian
offensive on the Eastern Front and additional troops to counter the British-
led offensive on the Somme. In August, General Paul von Hindenburg (1847–
1934) and his co-commander, General Erich Ludendorff (1865–1937) replaced
General Falkenhayn.
French General Nivelle favoured offensive tactics and this suited General
Charles Mangin (1866–1925), the commander of France’s Third Army at
Verdun. From October onwards, with new guns at their disposal, the French
moved on to the counter offensive. Mangin recaptured Fort Douaumont and
Fort Vaux and, by mid December 1916, had recaptured most of the land the
Germans had captured in the previous 10 months.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 231
 Source 11.26
A photograph from 1916 showing
German prisoners captured by
the French at Verdun

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who would be the likely and unlikely audiences for source 11.26 in 1916?
2. What significance would source 11.26 have for the French at Verdun in 1916?

Significance
The battle ended on 18 December 1916 with neither side having made any mil-
itary gains and both having sustained a very high cost in casualties. French
casualties totalled 378 000 (of whom nearly 32 per cent died) and German
casualties 337 000 (of whom over 29 per cent died).

Source 11.27
French historian Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau comments on his view of the significance
of the Battle of Verdun
purpose — to convey
the significance of the
Verdun . . . is a place of identity of France, of France-ness . . . There was no
Battle of Verdun for France
battle before, and no battle after, which was so important in the French
content memory . . .
purpose The French troops were unprepared in Verdun . . . [The Germans had] a huge
advantage in artillery, especialy in heavy guns . . .
French soldiers or German soldiers the same — felt completely lost,
completely abandoned . . . There are no trenches anymore because of the
heavy bombardments . . . and soldiers are alone or in small groups everywhere
with no officers . . . no stretcher-bearers. No food. No letters.
In [French soldiers’] eyes, the battle was a defense of their women, their
wives, the children . . .
Quoted in interview for the 1996 TV series
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century,
www.pbs.org/greatwar.

232 Retrospective
 SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does Audoin-Rouzeau identify as the problems facing the French at Verdun?
2. What, in his view, gave the battle meaning for French soldiers at the time?
3. In what way does this support the general view of the reasons for the Germans
initiating the battle?
4. Film source. Watch Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of Glory inspired by events
related to the struggle for control of Fort Douaumont. Discuss as a class your
answers to the following questions.
(a) Outline the main story of this film. Why do you think it was banned in France
for nearly twenty years?
(b) What does it reveal of Stanley Kubrick’s attitudes and of his purpose
and motivation in making the film?
(c) Identify aspects of the film that you think do/do not accurately depict the
experiences of soldiers in World War I.
(d) Evaluate its usefulness and reliability for a historian studying
the Battle of Verdun.

The Somme 1916: the issue of leadership

The Battle of the Somme, fought between July and November 1916, was
the British-led attempt to break through German defences, partly as attri-
tion, partly in the quest of a decisive victory. The offensive spread along a
40-kilometre front from both sides of the River Somme north of Paris. People
remember it for the huge numbers of dead and wounded that resulted from
it and also for controversy surrounding the role of the general who planned it
— General Sir Douglas Haig (1861–1928), Commander-in-Chief of the British
Expeditionary Force.

Goals and tactics

The French Commander-in-Chief, General Joseph Joffre (1852–1931), nick-
named ‘Papa’ Joffre, had initially planned an attack in the Somme area as a
French offensive with British support. It was to be part of the strategy that the
Allies agreed to at a conference at Chantilly in December 1915 — the strategy
of engaging the Central Powers in virtually simultaneous battles on all fronts
in mid 1916.
The demands on the French at Verdun changed this. General Haig and his
Newfoundland became part deputy, General Henry Rawlinson (1864–1925), took over the planning and
of Canada in 1949.
manning of the battle, with French troops in a comparatively minor role. In
addition to British forces, the Allied forces at the Somme included French
troops and troops from Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand and
South Africa. One of the main aims of the campaign became creating a reason
to force the Germans to withdraw troops from Verdun. Its tactics were a
mixture of frontal assaults aimed at achieving a breakthrough and attrition.

The nature and consequences of fighting

German aerial reconnaissance noted the beginnings of Allied preparations
on 7 April 1916. These were not taken seriously, due to the Germans’ poor
opinion of British fighting ability. In the weeks that followed, further fore-
warnings, in the form of overheard telephone messages and the movements
of British reconnaissance aircraft, led the Germans to take defensive action.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 233

 By 2 June, German reconnaissance advised the need for additional troops
at the Somme to reinforce the troops already there. Falkenhayn sent four
divisions and some heavy artillery to reinforce the German position. This
gave them up to 16 divisions divided between front line and reserve line
trenches. The German troops were well positioned. They had located their
trenches on high ground and built their concrete-lined dug-outs up to nine
metres below ground level.
On 24 June 1916, prior to sending troops over the top, Allied troops began
what was to be a five-day massive artillery bombardment of German barbed
wire and dugouts. Due to bad weather, the bombardment went on across a
seven-day period. When the attack began, troops would also explode 10 mines
that they had installed under the German trenches.
Source 11.28
A photograph (c. August 1916)
showing 8-inch howitzers being
fired as part of a British artillery
bombardment of German
trenches on the Somme

SOURCE QUESTION
Of what feature of the Somme
campaign does source 11.28
provide evidence?
Source 11.29
Major J. Marshall-Cornwall’s
account of the implementation of
British tactics at the Somme
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the main subject
matter of source 11.29?
2. Who wrote the source and
from what perspective was
he writing?
3. What did he consider to be
the ‘primary essential’?
4. What problems does he
identify and what did he
conclude were the results
of these?
The infantry had in front of them a triple line of German defences which went
back from the front line for six or eight kilometres — three lines of defence, each
defended by a chain of concrete pill-boxes, which were machine-gun posts,
surrounded by acres of barbed-wire entanglements. The whole thing depended on
our artillery being able first of all to locate and then smash up the concrete machine-
gun posts and then with the field guns to sweep away the wire entanglements. This
was the primary essential. Well, bombardments started with 1,500 British guns
— 450 of them were heavies — but, unfortunately, the weather broke. For five days
of the six of the bombardment there was low cloud and drizzle. Air observation was
impossible and artillery observation was very hampered. The fact was that neither
did they pinpoint the machine-gun posts opposite them, they also failed to cut the
wire and the failure of the cutting of the wire was most disastrous.
Our procedure at that time was to use a shrapnel shell which burst about twenty
feet above the ground and the hail of bullets going forward when the shell burst
in the air swept away the wire entanglements. But it all depended on the accurate
setting of the time fuze which ignited the shrapnel shells and our munition factories
were only just getting into full swing. There were a lot of manufacturing faults in the
fuzes. They didn’t all burn the right length and, I’m afraid, a lot of the half-trained
gunners of the New Army Divisions didn’t set the fuzes exactly accurate. The fact
was that many of the shells burst too high and the bullets dropped into the ground,
and the fuze didn’t work and it buried itself into the ground so the wire was left.
Quoted in Lyn Macdonald, Somme, Penguin, London, 1993, (First published by
Michael Joseph Ltd, 1983) pp. 48–9.

234 Retrospective
 At 7.30 am on 1 July 1916, 13 British infantry divisions and 11 divisions of
French infantry went over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Many soldiers carried packs weighing between 32 and 40 kilograms laden
with the trench repair equipment. This would enable them to successfully
defend the German trenches they captured and hold off German attempts to
regain lost territory.
General Haig ordered the soldiers to advance at walking pace in wave
formations along a 40-kilometre front towards the supposedly destroyed
German trenches. Commanders were free to develop their own individual
responses within this general framework and could order cavalry regiments
to move in as required to take up gaps in the German lines.
A British mine exploded 10 minutes early and alerted the Germans that
the attack was due to start. Geoffrey Malins, an official film cameraman
making the film The Battle of the Somme, later recorded his recollections of
this (source 11.30).

Source 11.30
Official film cameraman Geoffrey Malins’ description of the detonation of the mine at
Hawthorn Redoubt at 7.28 a.m. on 1 July 1916

The ground where I stood gave a mighty convulsion. It rocked and swayed. I
gripped hold of my tripod to steady myself. Then for all the world like a gigantic
sponge, the earth rose high in the air to the height of hundreds of feet. Higher and
higher it rose, and with a horrible grinding roar the earth settles back upon itself,
leaving in its place a mountain of smoke.
I swung my camera round onto our own parapets. Then another signal rang out,
and from the trenches in front of me, our wonderful troops went over the top. What
a picture it was.
G. H. Malins, How I Filmed the War (first published 1920),
Imperial War Museum/Battery Press, 1993, pp. 162–3.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What was the perspective of the author of source 11.30?
2. How did this differ from the perspective of the author of source 11.29? Support
your answer with evidence from the sources.

Artillery bombardment failed to achieve its goal. While it had launched

1.5 million shells at the German lines, these were dispersed across a
40-kilometre front and the bombardment failed to destroy the barbed wire
protecting the German trenches. With many poor quality shells failing to
explode, the German defences remained unaffected in many places. The
Germans’ heavily fortified dugouts protected their soldiers during the
artillery bombardment. German artillery remained intact and ready to fire
on advancing Allied troops.
When Allied soldiers advanced into the churned-up ground of no man’s
land, they advanced into a non-stop barrage of German fire. They became
easy targets as their attempts to pass through the German barbed wire
only made them become more entangled in it. The Allied troops did not
have the machine gun power needed to respond effectively. Battlefield
communications were poor and it was hours before leaders learned of
the scale of the disaster they had unleashed.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 235

 Source 11.31
A still from Geoffrey Malins’ film,
Battle of the Somme, showing a
group of British soldiers going
over the top and through barbed
wire at the start of the infantry
assault on 1 July 1916. Malins
staged recreations of some
battle scenes.

SOURCE QUESTION
How useful and reliable is source 11.31 for a historian studying British soldiers’
experiences of going ‘over the top’ on 1 July 1916?

The first of July 1916 came to be remembered as the worst day in the history
of the British-led forces. Nearly 20 000 Allied troops died on the first day and
40 000 were wounded. The attack failed to achieve a large-scale breakthrough,
although French divisions had some success.
Source 11.32
An extract from the account of
That was a stupid action, because we had to make a frontal attack on bristling
British Sergeant Bill Hay German guns and there was no shelter at all. We were at the back, but C Company
of the Royal Scots 51st really got wiped out. We had a lot of casualties but they lost all their officers,
Division, commenting on his all the NCOs, the lot — all cleaned out! We knew it was pointless, even before
experiences of the Battle of the we went over — crossing open ground like that. But, you had to go. You were
Somme in mid July 1916 between the devil and the deep blue sea. If you go forward, you’ll likely be shot.
perspective If you go back, you’ll be court-martialled and shot. So what the hell do you do? . . .
You just go forward, because the only bloke you can get your knife into is
motive for source
the bloke you’re facing.
purpose — to convey There were dead bodies all over the place . . . [from] previous attacks.
this message What a bashing we got. There were heaps of men, everywhere — not one or two
men, but heaps of men, all dead. Even before we went over, we knew this was
death. We just couldn’t take High Wood against machine guns. It was ridiculous.
There was no need for it. It was just absolute slaughter . . .
Quoted in Lyn Macdonald, Somme, Penguin, London, 1993, p. 162.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What military tactic is Hay describing in source 11.32?
2. Which words and phrases describe his attitude towards it?
3. What information does he provide about the results and which weapon does he
link to them?
4. Explain whether or not the experience Sergeant Hay describes was typical or
atypical of what soldiers encountered at the Somme.

236 Retrospective

creeping barrage Zthe use of
a wall of artillery fire
immediately in front of the
advancing infantry. As the
artillery gunners moved
forward to destroy enemy
trenches, the infantry,
following behind, was ready to
take control of a trench once
the artillery fire had ceased.
Canadian troops used
creeping barrage
successfully at the Battle of
Vimy Ridge in 1917.
Source 11.33
A photograph of a British Mark I
tank that broke down while
crossing trenches on route to
Thiepval in September 1916
SOURCE QUESTION
To what extent is source 11.33
representative of the
performance of tanks during
the Somme campaign in 1916?
Haig insisted that the campaign continue and sanctioned the use of new
tactics, including, in August 1916, that of creeping barrage. This tactic
aimed to achieve a breakthrough by utilising the dust clouds from artil-
lery bombardment to provide greater protection for infantry advancing in
a frontal assault. Unlike artillery barrages in advance of an attack, it did not
alert the enemy that an attack was imminent. In theory, the infantry could
take an enemy trench before the enemy had time to react to the cessation of
the artillery bombardment.
The weakness in the tactic was that it had to be precisely timed and coordi-
nated and did not allow for flexibility in response to changing circumstances.
Soldiers needed to advance at a pace of 50 metres a minute. Soldiers who
moved too fast might become victims of their own army’s artillery fire. At the
Somme in 1916, the infantry couldn’t keep pace with the artillery and so gave
time for the Germans to resume their positions and be ready for its arrival.
This was an important beginning that showed the potential advantages
in the simultaneous use of attack tactics. The Somme showed that creeping
barrage would be a tactic best suited to use on small targets and one that
would play a part in a strategy to break the stalemate of trench warfare.
The introduction of the tank
In August and September 1916, the battle became largely one of attrition,
although the British introduction of a new weapon of warfare — the tank
— on 15 September did maintain hopes of progress. Tanks could pass over
barbed wire and withstand machine gun fire but, at this early stage in their
development, they were too slow and unreliable to make any significant dif-
ference to the outcome of the campaign. Fewer than two-thirds of the 49
tanks available that day reached the start point; of these, only two-thirds
actually went into action; and, once in action, many became bogged in the
mud of no man’s land.
In late November 1916, with the onset of winter weather conditions,
including heavy snowfalls, General Haig decided to call a halt to the Somme
campaign. By this time, one million Allied and German soldiers were dead
and the Allies had gained, at most, only 12 kilometres of territory.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 237
 Significance: historiographical issues
Captain von Hentig, of the German Guard Reserve Division, described the
Battle of the Somme as the ‘muddy grave of the German field army’. Military
historian, Gary Sheffield, argued in his 2003 book, The Somme, that the battle
actually cost the German army the war: ‘without it the entente would not have
emerged victorious in 1918’. Clearly one historiographical issue is the extent
to which this is true. Further study and reading will help you to make up
your own mind.
The other historiographical issue relates to Haig’s leadership. Critics of
General Haig see him as a foolhardy commander who was slow to utilise
new ideas, especially in relation to new battle tactics. They claim that he
had a poor understanding of the nature of trench warfare and little respect
for the lives of his men, who, at the Somme, he effectively used as ‘cannon
fodder’. Other historians praise Haig’s success in building up the strength of
the British forces and his willingness to employ new methods of fighting that
eventually helped the Allies win the war.
Lyn Macdonald (source 11.34) warns us of stereotypes that fail to take account
of the complexity of the factors leading to a certain decision or result.

Source 11.34
An extract from historian Lyn Macdonald’s ‘Foreword’ to her book, Somme

SOURCE QUESTION
What is the author’s message
in source 11.34 in relation to
our interpretation of the Battle
of the Somme?
With the benefit of hindsight and the cultivation of the habit of criticism, it is
tempting to condemn those whose duty it was to conduct the war and even to
marvel at the attitude of those who saw it as their duty to fight it. The very horror
of their experience has given birth to a widely held emotional view of the war in
which every Tommy wears a halo and every officer above the rank of captain
a pair of horns . . .
Lyn Macdonald, Somme, Penguin, London, 1993, p. xiii.

Source 11.35
Historian Peter Simkins of London’s Imperial War Museum commenting on the Battle of
the Somme

[B]y the middle of the Battle . . . the weapon system . . . isn’t yet properly
balanced . . . There is not enough heavy artillery.
The gunners do not know how to apply all their techniques to maximum
benefit. The machine gun corps . . . has not yet worked out its tactics properly.
This is the first appearance of tanks . . . Cooperation with aircraft is not yet fully
developed; and even the poor bloody infantry on the ground — the balance of
their weapons isn’t yet right.
. . . you can get brave men to advance at any time. But it’s sustaining the
impetus of the advance once they’ve gone over the top that’s important. If they’ve
got the wrong weapons with which to fight, if they’re carrying rifles and bayonets
SOURCE QUESTION
and they’re up against machine guns, the formula is wrong . . .
What does Peter Simkins
Quoted in interview for the 1996 TV series The Great War and the
suggest in source 11.35 are
Shaping of the 20th Century, www.pbs.org/greatwar.
the lessons that the Allies
could take from the Somme?

238 Retrospective

Nivelle Offensive ZGeneral
Nivelle’s massive French attack
on German lines between Royle
and Reims in 1917. It began on
16 April and ended on 9 May.
The battle gained no territory
and resulted in 187 000 French
casualties and troops no longer
willing to support their leaders.
leap frog Zthe tactic of moving
by stages, from one objective to
another, with new troops
moving forward to take on
each successive stage
Passchendaele 1917: the war of mud
Goal and tactics
In 1917, British, Australian, New Zealander and South African soldiers
attempted to break through German lines in Belgium and gain control of the
important German railway junction at Roulers. If successful, the plan was to
then move on to capture the German naval bases at Ostende and Zeebrugge.
This followed concern about the ongoing threats to Allied shipping from
German U-boats and torpedo boats.
Engaging the Germans here would also help to draw pressure off the
French army. Since the Nivelle Offensive earlier in 1917, the French army
had been trying to address problems of desertions, mutinies and general dis-
obedience that severely threatened its ability to continue fighting.
General Haig, who commanded the campaign, believed the scheme pro-
vided an opportunity to defeat Germany. He believed that the German
army, after losses of 350 000 men in April and May, was suffering from low
morale and on the verge of collapse. While he believed a breakthrough, using
leap frog tactics, was possible, the leaders who condoned the operation
effectively only gave permission for a continuation of attrition tactics.
Nature and consequences
To gain their objective, the Allies had to gain control of the village of
Passchendaele (Passendale), near Ypres. German artillery gunners held the
high ground above the Ypres salient on the Messines Ridge.
A preliminary attack began on 7 June 1917 with massive and carefully
targeted artillery bombardment. The Allies gained a foothold on the
German-controlled Messines Ridge and control of territory from which to
launch the main offensive on 31 July.
On 18 July, the Allies resumed artillery shelling of German defences in
advance of the attack scheduled for 31 July. This alerted the Germans to
the likelihood of an attack. They also had the advantage of higher ground
and a wide view of their attackers’ movements. Allied casualties reached
32 000 on the first day.
The land around the village of Passchendaele was reclaimed swamp which,
after heavy artillery bombardment, became waist-high liquid mud. August
rain made the problem worse. Deep shell craters filled with water and joined
to form lakes of slimy water. Aerial reconnaissance was impossible. Soldiers
had to transport shells via mules walking on duckboards. They then had to
clean the shells before usage. Tanks would not work.
Over a 14-week period, Allied troops made 10 attempts to break through
to Passchendaele. By late August, despite huge numbers of casualties, there
was little gain.
Men, equipment and animals became bogged down in mud and flooded
fields. After only a short break, General Haig insisted that the attack proceed.
Advancing across no man’s land meant walking, with full kit, on duck-
boards laid on top of the muddied and shell-holed fields. Some troops drowned
because no-one could rescue them if they missed their footing and fell into the
mud. When Haig’s chief of staff visited the battlefield, he reportedly had tears
in his eyes as he said, ‘Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?’
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 239
 Source 11.36
A 1917 photograph showing
Australian troops walking across
the battlefield of Ypres in 1917
SOURCE QUESTION
What is the significance of
source 11.36 for our
understanding of the Battle of
Passchendaele?
bite and hold Za tactic
requiring soldiers to use speed
and surprise to occupy a small
section of the enemy’s front
line and then to defeat
counterattacks
The USA declared war on
Germany on 6 April 1917.
infiltration Zsmall-scale
assault platoon attacks on
poorly defended areas in the
enemy front line
240 Retrospective
Australian War Memorial
Negative No. E01220
In September 1917, General Plumer implemented the new tactic of
bite and hold — proceeding through small gains and moving from shell
hole to shell hole to take territory. By mid October, casualties had reached
100 000 and Allied forces were exhausted. With troop reinforcements
from the Eastern Front and the use of mustard gas, it seemed that the
German army had the upper hand.
Fighting continued until 6 November 1917, when the Canadians took
Passchendaele. When the Canadians began their advance in this area in late
October, they incurred 12 000 casualties for the gain of only a few hundred
metres. By early November, they had lost 80 per cent of two divisions.
Significance
The Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the third battle of Ypres (Ieper),
was the last major campaign of attrition tactics in World War I. It came to
symbolise the futility of much of the fighting on the Western Front. The Allied
forces suffered over 300 000 casualties and the Germans suffered 260 000.
Military analysts then and since have criticised Haig for having continued
the offensive — regardless of its costs in casualties — and for not having been
more flexible in the choice of tactics. Others say that Haig had to continue
trying to win the war or at least improve the Allied position (both on land
and at sea) before American troops arrived and undermined Britain’s poten-
tial to take the leading role in any subsequent peacemaking process.
The Battle of Passchendaele cost the Allies the opportunity to send reserves
in to exploit the success that the Allied Tank Corps had achieved in a break-
through at the Battle of Cambrai. The heavy losses there meant that the Allies
could not keep hold of their gains. From early April 1918, German troops
began to re-take the land they had lost.
The stalemate continued at the end of 1917. In 1918, the German army
launched an offensive which broke the stalemate. The Allied forces used this
situation to implement improved tactics of bite and hold and infiltration
(see chapter 13), and made more effective use of weaponry, especially the tank,
to gain victory.
 Change over time: Allied and German soldiers’
attitudes to the war
Source 11.37
Photographs showing
responses to the outbreak
of war in Berlin and London:
(a) A group of young men in
Berlin express their enthusiasm
at the announcement of the
general mobilisation of German
troops in 1914; (b) Photograph
outside a London recruitment
office in 1914
(a)
This section focuses on the nature of changing attitudes over the period of the
war and its aftermath up to 1919. The headings used try to capture something
of key themes and experiences that shaped attitudes at particular times.
August 1914: Enthusiasm at war’s outbreak
Looking back from the perspective of Australian attitudes in the early
twenty-first century, it is surprising to observe that, for the most part, young
men marched willingly towards war in 1914. Many believed themselves and
their nations to be superior to their enemies and that ‘might’ and ‘right’ were
on their sides. For some, the motivation to become involved arose from peer
pressure, a sense of adventure, the need to gain employment and/or the
desire to escape family problems.
Only a minority in any country actively opposed the war. This group
included socialists, opposed to the idea of fighting other workers, and consci-
entious objectors who opposed the war itself and/or whose religious values
questioned the justification for killing or wounding other human beings.
(b)
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How do you think a young man might have reacted to these photographs in 1914?
2. What do you think motivated the photographers to take these photographs?
3. What purposes could the photographs have been used for at the time?
4. Evaluate the usefulness and reliability of these photographs for a historian
studying responses to the outbreak of war in 1914.
1914: the Christmas truce
Just over four and a half months later, the experiences of warfare seemed
to have modified these nationalistic, pro-war attitudes and created a shared
sense of empathy among soldiers. They sought refuge from the horrors and
discomforts of the trenches and longed to experience the comforts, goodwill
and camaraderie traditionally associated with the Christmas season.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 241
 In the third week in December 1914, military personnel from opposing sides
on the Western Front began negotiations for a Christmas ceasefire that would
last up to five days. At the same time, many leaders feared that meeting and
mixing with the enemy could make it hard to maintain discipline.
On Christmas Day 1914, the sound of German soldiers singing familiar
Christmas carols like ‘Silent Night’ (Stille Nacht) encouraged Allied soldiers
to respond. They met with their enemies in no man’s land to exchange gifts
of cigarettes, show photos of the families and loved ones they had left behind
and communicate through song and where possible, with words. This was
made easier by the fact that a significant number of Germans spoke good
English as a result of having worked in Britain in the pre-war period.

Source 11.38
A contemporary artist’s
depiction of the beginning of the
December 1914 Christmas truce,
from The Illustrated London News,
9 January 1915

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What information does
source 11.38 provide about
the Christmas truce?
2. What was the artist’s motive
and purpose?
3. What aspects of the source
might affect its reliability and
what conclusions would you
draw about this?
Reports of such meetings
concerned leaders on both sides.
Sir John French, Commander
of the British Expeditionary
Force, ordered his officers to
prevent such occurrences.
British commanders tried to
maintain military discipline by
ordering regular artillery and
mortar bombardments by day,
and trench raids at night, to
keep the men focused on war.
Soldiers themselves did not
always support a truce. Men on
both sides of the conflict found
it hard to share ‘good times’
with people with whom they
were still currently at war. One
German officer gave a very
bitter response to a British
attempt to initiate a truce.

242 Retrospective
 Source 11.39
An extract from the response Gentlemen — You asked us yesterday temporarily to suspend hostilities and
that a German officer gave in to become friends during Christmas . . . we refuse to make any such agreement.
reply to a British attempt to Although we do not doubt that you are men of honour, every feeling of ours revolts
initiate a Christmas truce in 1914 against any friendly intercourse towards the subjects of a nation which for years
motive for source has, in underhanded ways, sought the friendship of all other nations [but our own],
purpose — to convey anti-British so that with their help they might annihilate us; a nation . . . professing Christianity
feeling and reject the attempted . . . whose greatest pleasure would be to see the political disappearance and social
Christmas truce eclipse of Germany.
Gentlemen, you are not, it is true, the responsible leaders of English
SOURCE QUESTION
politics, and so you are not directly responsible for their baseness; but you are
In what ways is the content Englishmen, whose annihilation we consider to be our duty. We therefore request
of source 11.39 supported that you take such action as will prevent your mercenaries, whom you call
and/or contradicted by your ‘soldiers’, from approaching our trenches in the future.
knowledge of the events of the
Christmas truce and to what Quoted in Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night: the Remarkable Christmas Truce
extent is it representative of of 1914, Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, London, 2002, pp. 148–9.
events at that time?
Source 11.40
A poster advertising Christian
Carion’s 2005 film Joyeux Noël
(‘Merry Christmas’), depicting
experiences related to the 1914
Christmas truce. The words at
the top of the poster mean
‘December 1914. A true story
that history has forgotten’.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
Watch the movie Joyeux Noël
then answer the following
questions.
1. What do you think
motivated the director/
producer to make this film?
2. What do you think were its
purpose and message?
3. Who was its likely
audience?
4. What information does
the film provide on
attitudes and experiences
on the Western Front in late
1914? Do some additional
research to judge the
extent of its accuracy.
5. Evaluate the usefulness
and reliability of Joyeux
Noël for a historian
studying soldiers’
attitudes in late 1914.

Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 243

 1915: still there and growing disillusioned
By 1915, experienced soldiers and newly arrived volunteers could no longer
automatically associate participation in war with ideas of ‘glory’ and national
‘greatness’. Soldiers focused on coping with the harsh realities of trench
warfare and doing what they could to find humour in difficult circumstances.
It was often easier to make fun of the hardships of war than to focus on its
grim reality and soldiers expressed these attitudes in cartoons, newspapers
and comedy skits. While most obeyed orders to go ‘over the top’, it was with
a realistic awareness of the risks and the costs.

1916: ‘Lions led by donkeys’?

Attempts to achieve a breakthrough in 1916 called into question the skills of
the commanders. In the post-war decades, English speakers began to refer
to the relationship between soldiers and their commanding officers as ‘lions
led by donkeys’. Contemporary journalists had voiced similar thoughts, often
characterising officers (making war plans from the comfort of a French château)
as largely privileged, incompetent and uncaring of how many lives they lost.
Novels like Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and
memoirs like Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That and George Coppard’s With
a Machine Gun to Cambrai, reinforced this view.
The battles of 1916 were a turning point in relation to soldiers’ attitudes.
From questioning leadership many turned to questioning why they were
there and who indeed was the real enemy — the generals of your own army
or soldiers themselves from opposing armies.

Source 11.41
An extract from George Coppard’s memoir With a Machine Gun to Cambrai. Coppard was a
volunteer who served on the Western Front from June 1915 onwards. He sent his memoirs
to the Archives of the Imperial War Museum. The Museum’s Director, impressed with the
work, helped organise its publication.

perspective Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high-water
motive for source mark. They hung there in grotesque postures. From the way the dead were
equally spread out . . . it was clear there were no gaps in the wire at the time of
note indications of purpose
the attack.
and perspective
Concentrated machine gun fire from sufficient guns to command every inch
of the wire had done its terrible work. The Germans must have been reinforcing
the wire for months. . . .
How did our planners imagine that Tommies, having survived all other
hazards . . . would get through the German wire? Had they studied the black
density of it through their powerful binoculars? Who told them that artillery
fire would pound such wire to pieces, making it possible to get through? Any
Tommy could have told them that shell fire lifts wire up and drops it down,
often in a worse tangle than before.
Quoted in Ben Walsh, Modern World History, Second edition,
Hodder Murray, London, 2001, p. 35.

244 Retrospective

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the authors of
sources 11.41 and 11.42
and from what perspective
is each of them writing?
2. What evidence do these
sources provide of soldiers’
attitudes in 1916 and what
experiences have led to
these attitudes?
3. What do the two sources
have in common?
4. Explain which of the
two authors you think
appears more bitter
about his situation.
perspective
content/message
Source 11.43
An extract describing the impact
of the Nivelle Offensive on the
French army, from Stanley
Weintraub, Silent Night.
Weintraub is Professor Emeritus
of Arts and Humanities at
Pennsylvania State University
and the author of a number of
biographies on leading literary
figures, as well as cultural and
military histories.
Source 11.42
Lord Douglas of Kirtleside, then a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, describes the impact
of the Somme
In the minds of the men of my generation the year 1916 stands for only one thing:
the battles that were waged on the Somme during the summer and the autumn.
In those battles died the last shreds of that blithe spirit with which we had set
off to the war nearly two years before, and in its place came the disillusionment
that was to enter into the hearts and the minds of so many of my generation.
The war had become a bitter test of endurance. The Battles that were waged no
longer lasted just a few days; they stretched out, in some cases over periods of
weeks, and they were all fought in highly congested areas and under the most
gruesome conditions . . . It was in that year of 1916 that the world which we had
been brought up to believe in finally seemed to fly to pieces, and the bare mention
of the Somme will never fail to give us cause to ponder for a moment and to recall,
each in his own way, what it meant to us.
From Sholto Douglas, Combat and Command, Simon & Schuster,
New York, 1963, p. 102.
1917: Mud and mutiny
The failure and high costs of the 1917 Nivelle Offensive had a devastating
and lasting impact on the morale of the French army. French morale was at
an all-time low. Troops mutinied, refusing to continue suicidal frontal attacks.
The military failure and loss of life of the Nivelle Offensive also increased
the hostility towards the autocratic and inflexible discipline exerted within
the French military. Nearly 500 French soldiers received the death penalty
after being tried for offences related to their failure to obey military orders.
Approximately 10 per cent of these sentences were carried out.
The French military eventually responded to this crisis by sacking Nivelle.
It also improved food supplies and provided longer leave entitlements.
However, the French military could no longer rely on its infantry to perform
in battle and had to abandon thoughts of further offensives for some time.
Casualties had become so vast by mid April in 1917 that mutinous poilu [name
given to French soldiers in World War I] in division strength, refused to return to
the trenches on one French front at Aisne. What officialdom later down-played as
‘collective indiscipline’ would be suppressed and lead to 3,427 court martials and
554 death sentences unreported in censored French newspapers. (Only forty-nine
soldiers — fifty-three by other accounts — were actually shot.) Germans too, in
regimental numbers, refused to return to the front.
Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night: the Remarkable Christmas Truce of 1914,
Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster, London, 2002, p. 198.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who is the author of source 11.43?
2. What problem is he describing and what two pieces of evidence does he provide
in support of this view?
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 245
 At the beginning of the war, military law allowed the death sentence for
offences including sleeping or being drunk on guard duty; self-inflicted
wounds; disobeying orders; assaulting an officer; desertion; mutiny and com-
munication with the enemy. The British army imposed the death penalty on
304 soldiers between 1914 and 1918, mostly for offences committed on the
Western Front. Fifty-three per cent of those who received the death penalty
had been found guilty of desertion in the years 1916 and 1917.
Soldiers themselves were often sympathetic towards the plight of those
condemned to death both because of their youth and because they were often
victims of shell shock. Soldiers who participated in firing squads recorded
their own reluctance to carry out such duties and the fact that it was often
left to an officer to ‘finish off’ the execution because the shots fired had either
missed the prisoner or failed to kill him.
Source 11.44
An extract from George Coppard’s I believe that an important modification of the death sentence also took
With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, place in 1917. It appeared that the military authorities were compelled to take
published in 1969. In October heed of the clamour against the death sentences imposed by courts martial.
1916, Coppard was wrongly There had been too many of them. As a result, a man who would otherwise
accused of having a self-inflicted have been executed was instead . . . purposely placed in the first wave to cross
wound. He was later exonerated. No Man’s Land and it was left to the Almighty to decide his fate. This was the
motive for source situation as we Tommies understood it, but nothing official reached our ears . . .
Shylock, in demanding his pound of flesh, had got nothing on the military
message bigwigs in 1917.
note attitude and Quoted at www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.
subjective language

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What information does Coppard provide in source 11.44?
2. What does it suggest about the attitudes of both soldiers and their leaders in 1917?
3. What does it indicate about Coppard’s own attitude and what evidence does the
source provide to support this?

1918: Victory and defeat

War weariness affected soldiers of all armies in 1918. It resulted from:
Z the long period of time that nations had been engaged in war
Z the apparent futility of many of the tactics used
Z increased difficulties in maintaining supplies to the battlefront as the
home fronts of various nations were at or near collapse.
French commanders could no longer rely on troops to go ‘over the top’
on order. Increasingly, soldiers engaged in mutinous behaviour or chose to
desert. Officials responded desperately by meting out harsher punishments
and threatening violence towards those who refused to obey orders.
By 1918, the German home front was no longer either able or willing to
support the war effort. Soldier morale was hard to maintain in an atmosphere
where many had come to question what they were fighting for and why their
leaders had not yet made peace. Soldiers home on leave joined anti-war pro-
tests in cities all over the nation. By late 1918, it was clear that Germany was
facing defeat and that the nation was on the brink of a revolution.

246 Retrospective

perspective
nature of source
note significance of this
comment in relation to
changed attitudes over time
motive for source
date
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is Remarque’s
message in source 11.45
and what do you think
was his motivation
and purpose?
2. Create your own file
of sources that provide
evidence of Allied and
German attitudes in each
of the years 1914 to 1919.
Try to find sources from
a wide range of the Allies
who fought on the Western
Front. Analyse your sources
and try to identify:
(a) differences in attitudes
according to rank,
nationality, class and
religious affiliation
(b) similarities in attitudes
across nationalities
(c) attitudes expressed
in response to a
particular battle
(d) what the sources
emphasise, ignore
and do/do not provide
evidence of
(d) change over time and
indicators of turning
points in relation to
attitudes.
Use this as the basis for
writing up your conclusions
under the heading ‘Allied
and German soldiers’
attitudes to war’.
Bolshevik Revolution Z
Russian revolution of 1917,
which brought to power a
government proclaiming
to recreate society for the
benefit of its workers
Source 11.45
An extract from German soldier Erich Maria Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front,
which was based on his experiences on the Western Front from mid 1917 until early 1918
Everyone is talking about peace or an armistice. Everyone is waiting. If there is
another disappointment, they will collapse, the hopes are too strong, they can
no longer be pushed aside without exploding. If there is no peace, then there will
be a revolution . . .
If we had come back in 1916, we could have unleashed a storm out of the pain
and intensity of our experiences. If we go back now we shall be weary, broken-
down, burnt-out, rootless and devoid of hope. We shall no longer be able to cope.
No one will understand us — because in front of us there is a generation of
men who did, it is true, share the years out here with us, but who already had
a bed and a job and who are going back to their old positions, where they will
forget all about the war — and behind us, a new generation is growing up, one
like we used to be, and that generation will be strangers to us and will push
us aside. We are superfluous even to ourselves, we shall grow older, a few will
adapt, others will make adjustments, and many of us will not know what to do
— the years will trickle away, and eventually we shall perish . . .
I am very calm. Let the months come, and the years, they’ll take nothing more
from me, they can take nothing more from me. I am so alone and so devoid of
any hope that I can confront them without fear. Life, which carried me through
these years, is still there in my hands and in my eyes. Whether or not I have
mastered it, I do not know. But as long as life is there it will make its own way,
whether my conscious self likes it or not.
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (translated from the
German by Brian Murdoch), Vintage, London, 1996, pp. 206–7
(first published Berlin, 1929).
‘A land fit for heroes?’
In the aftermath of the war, soldiers felt angry at the slowness of attempts to
repatriate them. Once home, they often found it difficult to adjust to everyday
life and many felt their efforts were not sufficiently recognised or rewarded.
Shared wartime experiences, which had created a sense of camaraderie among
one another, had isolated some from the societies and loved ones from which
they had come.
Governments failed to live up to soldiers’ expectations that they create
what the British termed a ‘land fit for heroes’. Defeated nations, soon to be
burdened by the economic demands of peace treaties and reconstruction,
struggled to address the peacetime needs of those whose sacrifices resulted
in defeat. Many felt betrayed. In Germany, this became a factor that assisted
the growth of right-wing parties like the Nazi Party under the leadership of
Adolph Hitler.
The victors struggled to address working-class ex-soldiers’ expectations
that their governments provide them with improved quality of life and
opportunities. The Bolshevik Revolution inspired many working-class
ex-soldiers to become more politically active in the post-war years. Most had
no desire to be called to military service again.
Chapter 11 Z War on the Western Front 247
 HSC exam practice
Source-based questions: War on the Western Front 25 marks
Attempt Questions 1–3.
Allow about 45 minutes for this section.

Question 1 (5 marks) Marks

(a) What, according to Source A, did trench defences provide? 2
(b) List two features of war on the Western Front that you can identify in Source B. 2
(c) From the information provided in Source B, name one benefit that the tank
could potentially provide. 1

Question 2 (10 marks)

Explain why attempts to break the stalemate failed in the period 1914–1918.
Use Sources A and B and your own knowledge to answer this question. 10

Question 3 (10 marks)

Assess how useful Sources C and D would be for an historian studying the changing
attitudes of Allied and German soldiers over the period 1914–1918.
In your answer, consider the perspectives provided by the TWO sources and the
reliability of each one. 10

Source A
An extract from The First World War (1999, p. 57) by military historians Robin Prior and Trevor Marshall

As late as 25 December [1914] . . . Joffre sent his forces forward against strongly entrenched
opponents in conditions of blinding snow, low cloud, fog and mud. Their endeavours availed
nothing. Like First Ypres, they simply reinforced the grim message that had proclaimed itself
in the west since the Aisne in September: that trench defences serviced by ample manpower
and sufficient weaponry possess a terrible capacity to repel attack.

Source B
Photograph from
1917 showing a
British Mark III tank
crossing a trench on
the Western Front

248 Retrospective
 Source C
An extract from Siegfried Sassoon’s ‘Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration’. He wrote
this to his commanding officer in July 1917, not long after his friend, David Cuthbert Thomas,
died on the Western Front. It was subsequently published in the British press and read
in Parliament.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because

I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end
it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war,
on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression
and conquest . . .
I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to
prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.
I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and
insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed . . .
On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception
which is being practiced on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous
complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies
which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realise.
S. Sassoon, July 1917

Source D
An extract from Stanley Weintraub, Silent Night (2002, pp. 197–8), in relation to the Christmas truce
of 1914

Although the unchanged reality of war is that the shots ordered by increasingly remote
presences are absorbed by ordinary humans, Christmas 1914 reopened imaginations to the
unsettling truth that at each end of a rifle, men were indeed the same.
Only a few failed attempts at truce occurred in 1916 and 1917. But as New Year’s Day
came in 1918 the commanding officer of the 1st Hampshires noted in his diary, ‘Enemy
attempted to fraternize on our left, but were shot at by us, otherwise a quiet day’.

Chapter 3 Z Yankees and Confederates in the AmericanChapter 11the

states in Z War
midonnineteenth
the Western
century
Front 249
12 KEY DATES

1914
T Defence
(Britain)
of the Realm Act

T August: Britain begins

naval blockade of Germany
The home fronts in
Britain and Germany

W
In this chapter, you will learn about the following aspects
of World War I:
Total war and its social and economic impact on civilians
in Britain and Germany
Recruitment, conscription, censorship and propaganda
T War Propaganda Bureau
in Britain and Germany
created in Britain
W The variety of attitudes to the war and how they changed over time
1915 in Britain and Germany
T January: German Zeppelin
raid on Britain W The impact of the war on women’s lives and experiences in Britain
T National Registration Act
(Britain)
T Munitions of War Act
(Britain)
1916
T Conscription introduced in
Britain
T Auxiliary Services Law
in Germany conscripts
males aged 17–60 into the
workforce
T German government
enacts 258 laws
controlling supply of
essential goods
1917
T Women’s Land Army
formed in Britain
1918
T Rationing introduced
T Representation of the
People Act (Britain)
1919
T Restoration of Pre-War
Practices Act (Britain)

Source 12.1
In this painting by Italian artist
Achille Beltrame, painted in 1915,
the artist depicts the attacks on
German-owned shops in London
following news of the sinking of the
British steamship, Lusitania.
250 Retrospective
 Introduction
Total war and its social and economic impact on
civilians in Britain and Germany
total war W a government’s
mobilisation of all its resources
to support the efforts of its own
troops and undermine those of
its opponents
stalemate W a deadlock from
which neither side can progress
Source 12.2
A photograph dated 28 October
1915 showing damage to London
homes from the bombing raids by
German Zeppelins
SOURCE QUESTION
What effect do you think
the photograph in source
12.2 would have on the
British public?
Before 1914, wars were fought by relatively small armies on distant battle-
fields. World War I was fought on a scale like no other in history. The war
effort pushed armies numbering millions of men into trenches stretching in
a continuous line from the English Channel to Switzerland. The staggering
proportions of this war changed the world forever. Politicians and generals
were not prepared because they had never experienced a conflict like it.
World War I was fought on many battlefields. Its outcome was determined
as much by the actions and effort of people at home as it was by the courage
and endurance of soldiers on the front line.
World War I was a product of the industrial age. It demonstrated the killing
power of the modern state. Modern industrial societies could now keep mil-
lions of men fed and free of epidemic indefinitely. The ‘People’s War’, as World
War I was initially called, was transformed into a total war. Each nation had
to mobilise its economic, social and political systems for the waging of this
total war effort.
Nations could not fund and maintain World War I without the widespread
belief that it was a fight for a noble cause. The war effort harnessed the power
of patriotism and citizenship. Both soldier and civilian were expected to
make great personal sacrifices. When the war became bogged down in the
stalemate that no-one had predicted, the warring nations had to organise
people as never before to produce unprecedented quantities of materials. The
military depended on the home front for the support essential for continuing
war on this scale. Citizens were expected to take up war loans, accept the
‘call up’ and go about life without complaint.
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 251

internal combustion W an
engine of one or more working
cylinders in which the process
of combustion takes place
within the cylinders
Source 12.3
David Lloyd George was British
Prime Minister from 1916 until
1922. In this extract from his
memoirs, he comments on the
nature of modern warfare.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does David Lloyd
George identify as being
the characteristics of
modern war?
2. Lloyd George wrote his
memoirs in the 1930s.
What effect might the
passing of time have had
on his accounts?
war of attrition W a war in
which competing sides attempt
to achieve victory through the
tactic of wearing down their
opponents’ armies, fighting
power, morale and economies
to the point of collapse
252 Retrospective
Entire societies were engaged in combat against each other. The mills, fac-
tories and furnaces of Europe worked as they never had before in providing
supplies for the millions of men in the field. The war effort required arms and
ammunition, food, clothing, medical equipment and machines in huge quan-
tities. This was the first war of the internal combustion engine. Automobiles
and diesel driven ocean-going submarines made their appearance, while the
railways and steamships that had revolutionised nineteenth-century Europe
now helped to move massive armies over vast distances in just a few days.
Military superiority came from the production of increasingly sophisticated
explosives, firearms and artillery combined with innovative developments in
communications, such as the electric telegraph, telephones and radio. Victory
would come from the ability to continue supplying the troops with trucks,
tractors and technology.
Modern warfare, we discovered, was to a far greater extent than ever before a
conflict of chemists and manufacturers. Manpower, it is true, was indispensable,
and generalship will always, whatever the conditions, have a vital part to play.
But troops, however brave and well led, were powerless under modern conditions
unless equipped with adequate and up-to-date artillery (with masses of explosive
shell), machine-guns, aircraft and other supplies. Against enemy machine-gun
posts and wire entanglements the most gallant and best-led men could only throw
away their precious lives in successive waves of heroic martyrdom. Their costly
sacrifice could avail nothing for the winning of victory.
David Lloyd George, The War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, Vol. 1, Odhams,
London, 1938, p. 137.
The generals and political leaders of Europe may have started the conflict
and taken the decisions that caused the outbreak of war, but they could not
continue it without the cooperation of their community. The war continued
in the fundamental belief that both sides presumed that they could win, even
if they were unsure how long it would take. It had begun with hopes for a
quick victory that would be ‘over by Christmas’. The wartime reality proved
to be very different. The unprecedented level of pre-war military planning
had not been based on the reality of a ‘stalemate’, or the war of attrition
fought in the trenches.
Source 12.4
An extract from Punch magazine in November 1914, commenting on the social change
the outbreak of war brought to Britain
The war is costing a million a day. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has launched a
war loan of 230 millions and doubled our income tax. The Prime Minister asks for
an addition of a million men to the Regular Army. But the country has not yet fully
awakened to the realities of war. Football clubs are concerned with the ‘jostling
of the ordinary patrons’ by men in uniform. ‘Business as usual’ is interpreted as
‘pleasure as usual’ in some quarters . . .
SOURCE QUESTION
Source 12.4 comments on the gap between the reality of war and British attitudes
in 1914. What insight does the source provide into conditions on the home front
at the outbreak of war?

Zeppelin W a large airship or
dirigible used by the Germans
in the war for reconnaissance
and bombing
Source 12.5
Extract from London’s Daily Mail, 2 April 1915, describing wartime Britain
We see khaki everywhere. Military searchlights send staggering gleams across
the sky, taking the place of the flickering advertisements which did so much to
make London look gay by night.
Hundreds of thousands of men — colliers, shipwrights, munition makers, and
the like — will be at work who in normal times would be at play. There will be
few visitors to Scotland and the north, for on these long journeys the ordinary
fares are more than double the excursion fares. For the normal holiday traffic
to the Continent, all brightness and new frocks and motor-cars and golf-clubs,
is substituted an exodus of a different kind. True the Folkestone boats are full;
but there is very little joviality and holiday tackle. People go quietly, with grave
faces, to visit wounded friends in hospital.
SOURCE QUESTION
Using sources 12.4 and 12.5, explain how home front conditions changed in the first
twelve months of war.
Source 12.6
The wording of an advertisement published in the London press and on posters in which Sir
Douglas Haig, British Commander-in-Chief, appeals to the British people to give the war
effort their total support
Postpone your Holidays
An appeal to the nation by Sir Douglas Haig
‘Let the whole nation forego any idea of a general holiday until our goal is
reached. A speedy and decisive victory will then be ours.’ Sir Douglas Haig
This Appeal is addressed not only to Munition Workers, but to all classes
of the community.
Support the men at the front
Postpone your Holidays
SOURCE QUESTION
When war was first declared, it was widely and enthusiastically supported. Refer to
source 12.6 and suggest why attitudes began to change.
The British home front
Nationalism swept through the British community when the government
declared war on Germany. Total war meant that the war had to be fought
on many fronts. The inclusion of the British home front in the war effort had
far-reaching implications. During the nineteenth century, the lives of ordi-
nary British civilians were largely unaffected by the nation’s involvement
in foreign wars. The ‘Great War’ changed that. Civilians became targets of
military operations. National security was challenged along with the social,
political and economic life of the nation. Zeppelin raids on London in April
1915 pulled Britons from all walks of life into the war effort. The civilians of
Britain became the ‘soldiers’ of the home front.
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 253
 Source 12.7
A World War I British recruitment
poster featuring the threat of air
raids by the German Zeppelin
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Winston Churchill rallied
the home front to action
by describing the war as
a life and death struggle
between nations. Explain
what you think are the
purpose and message of
source 12.7.
2. What impact would posters
like this have had on the
home front in the early
stages of the war?
liberal W favouring reform
and progress
laissez-faire W the attitude
of minimum interference
by a government in the lives
of people and the conduct
of business
254 Retrospective
The British government
introduced laws and regu-
lations to provide authori-
ties with the power to
restrict people’s lives and
transform peacetime com-
munities into military
support units. Initially,
the government did not
need to make extensive
use of the new legislation.
The British people mobi-
lised themselves for the
war effort and supported
their leaders’ commitment
to continue the war until
victory was achieved. The
government’s message was
clear to Britons; they were
engaged in a fight against
aggression and they had to
make sacrifices willingly.
Social and political unity
was essential for victory.
At the outbreak of hostilities, the British government adopted a ‘business as
usual’ policy. Recruitment was on a voluntary basis and the main responsi-
bility for the daily running of the war was in the hands of the military. As the
war escalated and dragged on, the liberal principles of laissez-faire and free
trade began to give way to state intervention and protection. Manufacturing,
farming, shipping, transport and communications systems had to become
part of the war effort. Increasing military demands for goods and services
forced governments to take an active role in controlling the economy.
DORA
In 1914, the Defence of the Realm Act, known as DORA, expressed the
change that ‘home front’ and ‘total war’ would bring Britain. DORA pro-
vided the British government with powers to intervene in the daily life of
the British people. The Act entitled the government to regulate any aspect
of life, or any person, that could be seen to impact on the course of the
war. Manufacturing, agriculture, security and information came under the
scrutiny of DORA.
DORA’s impact was sweeping. It could be used to imprison without trial,
cut social activities such as sport and entertainment and introduce day-
light saving. Prime Minister Lloyd George was determined to improve the
health of the nation to ensure fitness for extended working hours. DORA
restricted the opening hours of public houses in an effort to cut national
levels of alcohol consumption. According to Lloyd George: ‘We are fighting
Germany, Austria and drink, and as far as I am concerned the greatest of
these foes is drink’.
 Source 12.8
Description of the social change
and social problems that came
with a war economy
SOURCE QUESTION
In small groups, brainstorm
to compile a list of ways in
which total war could change
society. Compare your list
with the evidence of emerging
social problems identified in
source 12.8. Explain Lloyd
George’s concern.
[T]he rise in drunkenness . . . was largely due to the sudden increased affluence
of war workers, and . . . the ‘eat-drink-and-be-merry’ attitude to life engendered by
the war. Excessive drinking had soon begun to affect war production, and by the
start of 1915 had become enough of a problem to worry the Government seriously
and provoke temperance reformers to demand total prohibition. In the words of
Lloyd George it was . . . ‘our most dangerous foe’ . . .
J. Williams, The Home Fronts, Constable, London, 1972.
As the government encouraged the British to channel their nationalist sen-
timents into working for the war effort, some serious shortcomings in the
British economy became apparent. For the previous 200 years, the British
had felt secure in the belief their economy was the world’s most powerful.
However, towards the close of the nineteenth century, British manufacturing
capabilities had fallen behind those of Germany. Britain was inadequately
prepared for mass production, while chemical and light engineering indus-
tries were well below the standard found in Germany. Britain had also
become reliant on the raw materials obtained from its empire and so was
dependent on the security of its sea
lanes (shipping routes) to continue
the supply of essential materials.
A serious shortage of skilled labour
became an additional issue when the
war effort placed increased demand
on the manufacturing sector.
Shell shortages
The legendary British commander,
Lord Horatio Kitchener, was
appointed Secretary of State for
War at the outbreak of the war in
1914. Kitchener had startled the
government of the day when he
claimed that victory would ulti-
mately require armies of millions
of men maintained on the field of
battle for years. Kitchener directed
the war strategy and planned for
this lengthy conflict by expanding
the army from 20 to 70 divisions.
Source 12.9
A famous British World War I recruitment
poster featuring Lord Kitchener
SOURCE QUESTION
Source 12.9 is one of the most
famous recruitment posters ever
produced. Who was Lord Kitchener?
To what values and attitudes is he
trying to appeal?
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 255

munitions W materials used in
war, especially weapons and
ammunition
Source 12.10
Female workers filling shells in a
British munitions factory during
World War I. Munitions work was
dangerous as shells were filled
with a poisonous substance
known as TNT, used to make
explosives.
SOURCE QUESTION
Consider life on the home
front from the perspective
of the women pictured in
source 12.10. How do you
think the war would have
altered their lives?
256 Retrospective
The government policy of ‘business as usual’ was challenged in 1915 with
the ‘shortage of shells’ scandal. This political crisis revealed the full extent
of the British government’s lack of preparedness for the length or scale of
the war. The scandal began with publication in the powerful Times and Daily
Mail newspapers of the British Commander in Chief’s view that a shortage of
munitions led to the failure of the British offensive at Neuve Chapelle. There
were further claims that competing manufacturers were producing inade-
quate supplies of poor quality munitions. At this point in the war, munitions
factories had produced only two million rounds of shells for the British sol-
diers in France. By the end of the war, the British had sent 187 million rounds
of shells to France.
Lord Kitchener was discredited and blamed for the 1915 inefficiency in the
production of British munitions. Kitchener did not have the support of his
War Cabinet and so was stripped of his control of war strategy. The crisis
was resolved in May 1915 with the defeat of the Liberal government. A
new coalition government took office, consisting of Liberals, unionists and
Labour politicians. Under the leadership of Herbert Asquith, the new govern-
ment created a Ministry of Munitions with David Lloyd George appointed
to manage British industry. This ministry brought an end to the laissez-faire
policies of the past and transformed British factories and workers into a pro-
duction machine for the front line. The 1915 Munitions Act was an acknowl-
edgement that Kitchener’s advice had been correct. The war would not be
over in a short time, ‘business as usual’ could not continue and British labour
was not inexhaustible.
The shell shortages scandal began the extension of government control into
new areas of British life such as:
W rent control — 1915
W conscription — 1916
W price control — 1917
W rationing — 1918.

nationalists W supporters of
nationalism, a powerful
movement in the nineteenth
century and one of the causes
of World War I. Nationalists
believed that people of a
common religious, linguistic,
cultural and geographic
heritage should be united as
one nation.
solidarity W a union or
fellowship
inflation W a rise in prices and
cost of living
profiteering W making
excessive profits by taking
advantage of the public at a
time of need
conscription W calling people
up for compulsory service
Trade unions
In Britain, the declaration of war was followed by a political ‘truce’ between
groups as diverse as political leaders, Irish nationalists and churchmen of all
denominations. Trade unionists renounced strikes and active campaigns for
increased wages in their support of the war effort. Middle-class professionals
gave their support as readily as members of the international, working-class
solidarity movements in Britain. At conferences held by the British labour
movement, attendees supported the motions that endorsed the government’s
commitment to fight on until victory was achieved.
Despite the initial widespread commitment to Britain’s war effort, indus-
trial relations were strained. From 1914 to 1918, trade union membership
doubled, from a little over 4 million to over 8 million. In 1915, there were
3 million working days lost to strikes, with a further 2.5 million in 1916. The
demands of a war economy inevitably brought longer working hours without
extra pay and a general deterioration in workers’ rights and conditions.
Inflation followed when the price of food and goods rose sharply. Food
queues formed when the government introduced rationing of bread, milk,
sugar and tea (see pages 258–60). When wage rates did not follow cost of
living increases, strike action ensued. The unrest was heightened by accu-
sations of war profiteering. It appeared to some workers that the control of
industry remained in the hands of employers who were continuing to make
handsome profits from the workers’ contribution to the war effort.
Over one million British men enlisted for service between the declaration
of war in August 1914 and the end of that year. The success of the recruitment
drive resulted in a shortage of skilled labour in industry and agriculture.
A conflict developed between the need to keep workers producing muni-
tions and food, and the need for soldiers. Many soldiers had been working
in industries essential to the
war effort. DORA gave the
government the power to
direct workers into particular
jobs. Industrial conscription
was therefore introduced to
prevent workers from certain
vital industries enlisting.
Source 12.11
British women and men between
16 and 65 years of age were
required to carry a National
Registration Act certificate at all
times. The certificate allowed the
government to monitor each
individual’s employment status.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Examine source 12.11.
When was the National
Registration Act passed?
2. What was the purpose of
such documents?
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 257
 arbitration W to settle a
dispute, or reach an agreement,
through a hearing held by a
person appointed by the law
Source 12.12
A British Ministry of Food poster
from The Graphic, 2 June 1917,
expressing the U-boat threat and
the need to prevent waste
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. World War I posters used
nationalism as a means
of reinforcing government
policy. How has nationalism
been appealed to in source
12.12 and how effective do
you think it is?
2. Avoiding wastage was
portrayed as being patriotic
and critical to the total
war effort. What images
are used to convey this
message to the home front
in the source 12.12 poster?
258 Retrospective
To ensure production of materials, the British government introduced a
scheme to replace the skilled workers with a semi-skilled workforce of older
men and women. Trade unions agreed, on the condition that:
W local committees representing the unions would have a role in the
direction of industry
W laws would be put into place to stop profiteering from the war.
In a desperate effort to avoid strikes and disruptions to war production,
the government held a meeting with the unions. The agreement that
came from this trade union and government cooperation was known as
the Munitions of War Act 1915. The Act
determined that:
W strikes were banned in industries vital to
munitions production
W labour disputes were settled by voluntary
arbitration
W the Ministry of Munitions would control
wages and working conditions in factories
involved in vital war production
W munitions workers were bound to the place
of employment by the ‘leaving certificate’
requirement. Clause 7 of the Munitions of
War Act restricted the movement of men
and women out of the munitions industry
by stipulating that munitions workers
could only change jobs if they received
permission from their employer.
Two representatives of the trade union
movement, John Hodge and George Barnes,
were also brought into Britain’s War Cabinet.
In 1917 and 1918, work stoppages and
strikes became more frequent as the unions
expressed grievances over continued high
prices, liquor control and pay disputes.
Workers were fatigued from constant require-
ments to work overtime without the advantage
of any improvement in housing and general
living conditions.
Rationing: Save the wheat and help the fleet
Shortly after the outbreak of war, the German navy began to use submarines,
known as U-boats. Germany used unrestricted U-boat warfare to isolate
the British economy by halting the supply of essential goods into Britain.
By the end of 1916, the U-boats were destroying on average 300 000 tonnes
of imports a month. In February 1917, Britain lost 230 ships as a result of the
U-boat campaign. Britain’s main imports had to cross the Atlantic Ocean as
they came from America and Canada. The merchant ships were the U-boat
target. The attacks came without warning, giving the crews of the targeted
ships little chance to escape. By the end of 1917, destroyers — small, fast
warships — were used to herd merchant ships into convoys, providing
protection against the U-boat threat and restoring essential supply links.

rationing W a system of
limiting the quantities of food
and essential goods by setting
a fixed allowance
Source 12.13
A cartoon by Joyce Dennys,
c. 1917, showing a well-dressed
mother and reluctant daughter
on the way to a wartime
cookery class
U-boat attacks combined with the poor harvests of 1916 to threaten Brit-
ain’s food supplies. In April of that year, Britain had only six weeks of wheat
supply left for the production of bread. It was a bleak year: food prices rose,
coal was in short supply and the Battle of the Somme saw the loss of thou-
sands of young men’s lives.
Relief came with the 1917 harvest, on record as one of the best in Britain’s
history. British people had converted any area that could grow food into veg-
etable gardens and kept chickens in their backyards. By the end of the war,
the British had developed an extra three million acres of land for farming.
Basic food items such as potatoes and meat were still difficult to obtain. At
the end of 1917, panic buying began as the population feared supplies of food
would run short again.
As the needs of the nation changed, the government introduced further
administrative and legislative controls. In early 1918, the government used
DORA to introduce rationing in a bid to gain a tighter control on the distri-
bution of basic goods. Rationing was introduced for meat, sugar and butter,
but not for bread. As the year progressed, more items were added to the ration
list. The government issued ration cards, requiring all citizens to register
with a butcher and a grocer. The wasting of food became an act punishable
by fines. DORA forbade anyone from giving bread to horses or chickens.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What particular group
in British society is the
cartoonist portraying in
source 12.13?
2. What does the woman’s
dress and the girl’s attitude
suggest about:
(a) the British response to
wartime rationing
(b) the perspective of the
cartoonist?

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 259

 Source 12.14
Lloyd George’s assessment of
the reasons for the success of
Britain’s rationing system
[T]his rationing system, troublesome though it was in some respects to [the
British people], ensured a regular and sufficient food supply; and it made it
possible for those in charge to calculate with some precision how best they
could make the stocks of available food-stuffs go round equitably. When meat
was slightly more plentiful, the ration could be raised. When it grew scarcer, the
amount purchasable with each meat coupon was cut down . . . Credit is due to
our people for the loyal manner in which they submitted themselves to these
strange and unwelcome restrictions. Without general goodwill it would have been
impossible to make the regulations effective.
David Lloyd George, The War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, Vol. I, Odhams,
London, 1938.

Source 12.15
As shortages of food hit the
home front, the British people
began to supplement their
rations by farming all available
land to produce vegetables. Two
schoolgirls are shown in this
photograph from World War I
harvesting marrows from their
school’s vegetable patch.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Explain what source 12.14
reveals about:
(a) the benefits of the
rationing system
(b) how people responded
to it.
2. In what way would
source 12.15 be useful
to a historian?

Rationing succeeded in ensuring that supplies were guaranteed and no

Briton starved during the wartime. In this war of attrition, the economy
became a weapon used to channel resources. It was the economy that sus-
tained the massive war-making power of the European nations.

260 Retrospective

autocratic W unwilling to share
power or have any limits
placed on it
capitalist W one who is
involved in the running and
owning of private business
enterprises
The German home front
At the outbreak of war, Germany was newly unified and nationalistic. During
the previous 40 years, the autocratic rule of German emperors (see chapter
1) had forged a powerful, modern, capitalist economy. Germany appeared to
be the nation most prepared for war with a massive manufacturing sector and
reserves of iron and coal. Germany was self-sufficient in food production but
imported huge quantities of vital raw materials to feed its industries. The power
of the German economy relied on trade with the European community.

German war economy

conservative W favouring the
preservation of existing
conditions and institutions
Reichstag W the lower house or
popularly elected assembly of
the German parliament
Germans believed that the war had been forced upon them and had to be
fought for the good of ‘Greater Germany’. In 1914, German political groups
were broadly supportive of the war effort, the Kaiser (emperor) and his
conservative government. When Germany entered the prolonged conflict
of World War I, any power the Reichstag had gained was transferred to the
Kaiser and his generals.

Source 12.16
‘Help the Protector of Your Joy.’
A World War I poster encouraging
the German people to get behind
the war effort by putting their
money into war loans.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the image of
the German people that
is communicated in the
source 12.16 poster?
2 What is the artist’s
message and what
techniques does the
artist use to reinforce
the message?

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 261


Source 12.17
Extract from Walter Rathenau’s
discussion of the work of the
War Raw Materials Department,
established in 1914 to ensure
supply of essential goods.
occupied W territory that has
been invaded and taken
possession of
Source 12.18
Posters widely displayed
in all public places in Germany
strongly encouraged people to
conserve food. These extracts
from a 1917 German poster
stress the need to save bread.
War bread was made from a
mixture of rye and potato.
perspective
purpose
message
262 Retrospective
The German industrialist, Walter Rathenau, was appointed economic
director during the war. Rathenau believed that the biggest challenge facing
Germany’s war effort was maintaining access to raw materials. Rathenau
directed that Germany’s war economy, or Kriegswirtschaft, required regulation.
The supply of vital raw materials was to be guaranteed through rationing
and careful control of production.
Metals are subject to control, as are chemicals and textiles if based on wool
and jute, and a great number of other products — leather, rubber, linen, cotton
— will shortly be controlled. The most vulnerable item was saltpetre which forms
the basis of all our explosives, supplies of which would have irretrievably run out in
the first half of next year without intervention. I have initiated the construction
of big saltpetre factories to be built by private enterprise with state subsidies . . .
It is the campaign for materials which we have organised in these seven weeks
at the Ministry of War.
Walter Rathenau, Von kommenden Dingen (‘In Days to Come’), Germany, 1917.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What items were identified by Walter Rathenau as being in short supply?
2. What does Rathenau suggest is the responsibility of the War Office?
3. From your reading of the sources and the text, suggest what the requirements
of a war economy would be.
Under Rathenau, the Department of Raw Materials, or KRA, became the
model of cooperation between German industry and government. It was
run by businessmen who monitored and controlled the use and allocation of
raw materials coming from all German-occupied territory, such as the rich
mining and industrial areas of occupied France and Belgium. The KRA also
encouraged the search for substitutes for raw materials that were in short
supply. KRA chemists discovered replacements for gunpowder ingredients,
synthetic rubber and the use of oil as a replacement for coal in machinery.
The use of substitutes also helped to stretch food supplies. Potatoes, turnips
and rye were the substitutes used to make war bread, until 1918 when sawdust
and chalk became the ingredients.
[Enemies] . . . wish to starve us out like a besieged fortress. They will . . . fail in
that because we have enough breadstuffs in the country to nourish our population
until the next harvest, but nothing must be wasted.
Breadstuffs must not be used as fodder . . .
Do not despise even a single piece of bread because it is no longer fresh . . .
Think always of our soldiers in the field who . . . would rejoice to have the bread
which thou wastest.
Eat war bread. It is recognisable by the letter K. It satisfies and nourishes as
thoroughly as any other kind . . .
Whoever first peels potatoes before cooking them wastes much. Therefore cook
potatoes with the jackets on . . .
Leavings of potatoes, meat, vegetables etc which thou cannot use, throw not
away, but collect them as fodder for cattle . . .
H. W. Wilson, The Great War, Vol. 4, Amalgamated Press, London, 1919.
 Source 12.19
Ethel Cooper, an Australian
woman living in 1917 Germany,
describes the hardships of
wartime in this extract from a
letter to her family in Australia,
dated 11 February 1917.
No coal, electric light turned off, the gas power turned down . . . and practically no
food — there seems to be no more potatoes — each of us has been given half a
pound of what they call potato-flocken . . . they seem to me to be the dried parings
of potatoes – you have to soak them overnight, then rub them through a sieve,
and the dark parings remain in the sieve, and you can use the rest in soup . . .
Decie Denholm (ed.), Behind the Lines: One Woman’s War, 1914–18. The Letters of
Caroline Ethel Cooper, Collins, Sydney, 1982.

SOURCE QUESTION
Sources 12.18 and 12.19 communicate an image of conditions on the German home
front. Write a short description of the impact of war on the German people and the
attitude the German government is trying to instil in the population.
In 1916, Paul Hindenburg, the German Field Marshal and conservative pol-
itician, created the Supreme War Office, Kriegsamt. The KRA had been unable
to deal with the major problem of the short supply of labour. The terrible
casualty rate and the huge number of men being conscripted brought chronic
labour shortages to the home front. Forced labour from countries that were
occupied by Germany did provide another source of workers, but it was still
inadequate for the needs of the war economy. Hindenburg’s aim was a total
war effort through total mobilisation of labour in the service of ‘the father-
land’. Kriegsamt had total control of:
W civilian labour
W manufacturing
W transport.
Labour was controlled by the National Service Law which mobilised all men
between 17 and 60 years of age. This was later extended to mobilise all men,
women, juveniles, disabled servicemen and prisoners of war. Universities and
colleges closed down and working rosters operated for seven days a week.

Civilians and supplies

When war broke out, Britain used its navy to blockade German supply ships,
preventing them from reaching German ports. This strategy was successful
in cutting off vital supplies and raw materials from the German army and
devastating the home front economy. The robust German economy began to
shrink after 1915, with the result that working and living conditions began to
deteriorate rapidly. By 1916, basic goods were in very short supply, agricultural
production was down, food prices doubled and the cost of living rose dramat-
ically. All of this seriously undermined the patriotism and unity of Germany.

Source 12.20
The search for substitutes was
evidence of the severity of the
shortages in wartime Germany.
The chef and the housewife learned a new domestic lore and cooked
attractive dishes of stuff that once would hardly have been given to cattle . . .
Coffee-substitute was produced from roasted barley, rye, chicory and figs; . . .
coffee ‘substitute-substitute’ was brewed from ground acorns and beech nuts; . . .
butter-substitute was made from curdled milk, sugar and colouring matter; . . .
egg-substitute from maize and potato-meal; ‘chocolate-powder’ from ground
cocoa shells; . . . pepper from ashes; sausages from offal . . .
Frank P. Chambers, The War Behind the War, 1914–1918: A History of the Political and
Civilian Fronts, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 263

 Source 12.21
Food in the cities came to be in such short supply that many people relied on government
soup kitchens, such as the one shown in this photograph on the streets of Berlin. During
World War I, kitchens such as this provided 25 000 meals every day.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What evidence do sources 12.20 and 12.21 provide about the severity of the
shortages in Germany?
2. Imagine it is 1917 and you are a foreign journalist on assignment in wartime
Germany. Using the sources and the information from the text write a
newspaper article informing your readers about the reality of life on the
German home front.
Those who suffered most were the civilian populations of the cities.
The army held the essential supplies while German communities in rural
areas were reluctant to share their produce. In an effort to control the dis-
tribution of food, the local government authorities set prices on essential
commodities. German farmers then simply directed their produce to the
regions they anticipated would give them the highest price. Organisations
representing farmers and merchants purchased the entire supply of essential
goods and determined how food was sold to the public. Further government
intervention to control prices and supply only exacerbated the problems and
divided the nation.
In the urban and industrial areas where shortages were most severe, the
government had not put plans in place for feeding the civilian population.
Germany was struck by mass famine and starvation. Alarming numbers of
schoolchildren were reported to be suffering diseases related to poor nutri-
tion and living conditions, such as tuberculosis (a lung disease) and anaemia
(a deficiency in the blood causing weakness and breathlessness). In 1915,
bread was rationed and this was followed by rationing of most key commod-
ities in the summer of 1916. By 1917, the official rations for German civilians
provided only half the average daily calorie requirements.

264 Retrospective
 Source 12.22
A photograph from the later
years of the war showing
German women queuing for
new ration books

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is being depicted
in the source 12.22
photograph?
2 What image of the home
front is communicated in
the source and how does it
conflict with the images of
propaganda posters such
as source 12.16?
A family could not survive on the official rations so city dwellers resorted
to the black market to obtain sufficient supplies to stay alive. Law and order
began to break down within Germany. Long queues formed to obtain the
most basic provisions. In the working class districts of Berlin, ‘butter riots’
erupted in August 1916 when the patience of the women waiting for their
rations broke. The harshest times came with the bitter cold of each winter.
The cold and wet autumn of 1916 was followed by freezing conditions that
destroyed half of that year’s harvest. Available supplies of cereal, eggs, milk
and meat plummeted. Turnips became the staple diet with the failure of the
potato crop. During the ‘turnip winter’, the declining morale and health of the
civilian workforce led to a drop in production levels. The transport system
and coal distribution also failed, leaving the civilians in cities stranded
without heating or cooking facilities.

Source 12.23
Extract from an account by the
American ambassador to Germany,
James W. Gerard, of life in the
German cities where he spent four
years from 1912 to 1916
SOURCE QUESTION
Using source 12.23 as your
starting point, describe the
impact three years of war was
having on the German economy.
In your description consider
reasons why the experience in the
cities differed to the rural areas,
and the impact of the economy on
aspects of German life such as
transport and small business.
All public places, such as theatres, picture galleries, museums, and
cinematograph shows, were closed in Munich for want of coal. In Berlin . . .
the elephants from Hagenbecks’ show were pressed into service to draw
the coal carts from the railway stations. Light was economised. All apartment
houses . . . were closed at nine o’ clock. Stores were forbidden to illuminate their
windows, and all theatres were closed at ten. Only every other street electric light
was lit . . .
James W. Gerard, My Four Years in Germany, Doran, New York, 1917, p. 299.
The government responded to the continuing crisis by imposing even more
rules and formal controls. In 1916, the War Food Office enacted 258 new laws
to control the supply and distribution of essential goods, including hours of
sale, prices, lengths of dresses, types of meat that could be sold on nominated
days and so on. The Imperial Potato Office supervised the distribution of this
essential produce.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 265

 In 1914, Germany’s trade union movement had renounced industrial action
and pledged to abide by existing wage agreements for the duration of the
war. By 1916, public outrage at the suffering and continued deprivation led to
months of civil unrest. Germany was hit by strikes as the economy crumbled
and the war dragged on without a solution in sight. Inflation and starvation
in the cities brought Germany to a crisis of national morale.
Sharp increases in strikes and demonstrations indicated the depth of
political discontent in Germany during 1917 and 1918. By 1918, around
100 000 German workers were on strike every month. From 1917, strikes
carried political demands, with military defeat increasing the level of anti-
war sentiment on the German home front.
Germany became politically divided between those who advocated a con-
tinuation of the war effort and those demanding peace. The German Socialist
leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, led political protest move-
ments opposed to the continuation of the war. Following an unsuccessful
revolt in Berlin in 1919, army officers murdered Luxemburg and Liebknecht.
The military suppressed the socialist protest movement until revolution in
Germany finally destroyed the power of the Kaiser and his government.
With the final failure of the Ludendorff Offensive in 1918 (see chapter
13), the nation was paralysed. The men and materials needed to supply the
army ran out and starvation hit the home front. The consumption of meat in
Germany in 1918 was 12 per cent of the pre-war level and fish consumption
had dropped to 5 per cent.
In 1915, the number of deaths in Germany recorded as being due to the
effects of starvation was 88 000; in 1917, it was 260 000; and, in 1918, the
number reached 294 000.
Source 12.24
A photograph of German guards
outside a delicatessen in Berlin
after it was looted by desperate
civilians, c. 1918

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does the photograph
in source 12.24 indicate
about the situation for
civilians in German cities
after 1916?
2. What impact would images
such as that in source
12.24 have on German
home front morale?
3. Using the information in the
text and in source 12.24,
explain the crisis on the
German home front in 1918. Supplying and funding the German war effort came at a huge cost. In 1918,
the revenue of the German government was 762 million Reichsmarks, while
government spending exceeded 41 billion Reichsmarks. The German economy
was fragile and the cost of living for the civilian population increased at an
alarming rate. By 1917, the purchasing power of workers’ wages on the home
front had fallen to just over 50 per cent of the pre-war level.

266 Retrospective

Recruitment, conscription, censorship
and propaganda in Britain and Germany
suffrage W the right to vote
Source 12.25
Extract from a poem ‘The Women’s
Message’, by Margaret Peterson,
published by Britain’s
Parliamentary Recruiting
Committee in 1915 and expressing
the attitude many women had to
the war effort and enlistment
SOURCE QUESTION
Read source 12.25 and then
summarise the message and
the attitude towards war that
is being communicated.
In September 1918, the loss of morale on the German home front was com-
plete and the German war effort was defeated. Providing for the returning
soldiers placed even greater demands on the nation’s meagre supplies. Food
riots escalated into calls for political revolution across Germany. The unified
Germany, proclaimed in January 1871 (see chapter 1), was unravelling. In
November 1918, Germany was in the grip of revolution from Berlin to Bavaria.
Bavaria expressed the mood of the nation when it declared its independence
from Germany. In Berlin, the Kaiser abdicated, elections were called to form
a new German Republic and the once powerful German empire collapsed.
Recruitment in Britain
The war had an insatiable appetite for manpower. While a massive civilian
workforce was required to keep soldiers on the battlefield, the army had the
greatest claim on manpower. At the outbreak of war, the British army was
relatively small. It consisted of just over 730 000 officers and men. One-third
of these soldiers served in the regular army, with most stationed in reserve
formations. The Territorial Force, the most highly regarded of the reserve
forces, were volunteers who were not compelled to serve outside Britain.
British officers were recruited from Britain’s upper classes while most of the
rank-and-file soldiers were unskilled labourers.
Britain’s small professional volunteer army of 1914 was totally inadequate
for meeting the demands of a major conflict in Europe. Lord Kitchener made
an urgent appeal for more men, realising that increasing recruitment into the
British army was imperative. Kitchener initiated a recruitment campaign of
public meetings, bands playing military music, posters and recruitment agents
travelling through the country. British newspapers and magazines ran stories
of British bravery and German cruelty, with cartoons and photos supporting
the war effort. British church leaders delivered weekly sermons encouraging
young men to do their duty and enlist. Public institutions of all sorts mobilised
to aid in recruitment for the war effort. Even the women’s suffrage movement
played a part in encouraging young men to enlist. Some women were such
enthusiastic patriots that they suggested presenting white feathers (the sign of
cowardice) in the streets to men of enlistment age who were not in uniform.
This is the women’s message, they that have given their all
Husbands and sons to the battle, lest the faith of an Empire fall.
Well have they borne their burden and paid the bitter cost,
This is the women’s message in the name of all they have lost.
‘O ye who might have been soldiers, and yet have stood aside,
What is your place in this kingdom, for which our men have died?
Shall ye share in the day of triumph the peace that dawns afar,
Ye who have hidden your manhood under a coward’s star?
Now by the joy of women when Love walks light upon earth,
And by the mother courage that fought to give you birth,
Throw back these doubts that hold you, stand forth and play your parts,
Lest shame for having loved you wake in the women’s hearts . . .’
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 267
 Source 12.26
A World War I poster directed at
the ‘young women of London’
SOURCE QUESTION
Using source 12.26 and
your own knowledge, explain
the methods and arguments
that governments used to
enlist the massive numbers
of soldiers required for the
war effort.
268 Retrospective
In 1914, the number of men of military age in Britain was 5.5 million and
approximately half a million more became eligible to enlist each year. In what
was known as ‘August madness’, 30 000 men were enlisting every day, until
over two million British men
had enlisted by late September.
In reserve occupations, there
were another 1.5 million men.
The new recruits came from
all regions of the British Isles
and from all social classes.
Until the end of 1915, the vol-
unteers for military service
were organised into units
known as the ‘New Army’.
They were also known as
‘Kitchener’s men’. This was the
year of patriotic optimism
when it was popularly believed
the war would be ‘over by
Christmas’. For many young
working-class men, the army
was an opportunity to escape
the grinding poverty of their
lives. Enlistment offered
regular pay, good food and
clothing, adventure and com-
radeship. In 1915, the War
Office found that there were
far more men enlisting than
could be fed, trained, equipped
and accommodated.
The heavy casualties of 1915
meant that, by the following
year, Britain had insufficient
men to fill the trenches and
it was becoming harder for
recruiters to find suitable
replacements. The poverty
of the urban communities in
Britain before the war had
left a sad legacy. Recruiters
found that almost two in
every five volunteers were
unfit for military service because of their poor physical health. The British
government was reluctant to overturn the British tradition of voluntary
enlistment in the army and so introduced the Derby Scheme. Persuasion
rather than conscription was the aim of Lord Derby, Under-Secretary of State
for War. The scheme called upon every man between 18 and 41 to ‘attest’
that they would voluntarily enlist when required to do so. The king made a
special appeal to the nation encouraging able-bodied men to commit to the
war effort.
 Source 12.27
A photograph of some of the new
British recruits for World War I.
The poor nutrition of many
working-class children at the
beginning of the twentieth
century became evident during
Britain’s recruitment drive.

SOURCE QUESTION
How does the source 12.27
photo contradict the image of
the British soldier as
presented in the propaganda
posters?

Conscription in Britain
The Derby Scheme brought forward another 343 000 eligible men. The British
government realised this was inadequate and so conscription was on the
agenda and became the most important political debate in Britain. Of all the
major powers involved in World War I, only Britain relied upon a volunteer
army. Five million British men of military age were eligible for enlistment; it
was estimated there were still two million who had not volunteered.
David Lloyd George, backed by the Conservative party and the influential
newspapers of Viscount Northcliffe, strenuously argued for the introduction
of conscription. The arguments put for conscription were to:
W promote commitment to a unified war effort across all sections of society
W identify ‘shirkers’ and force them to meet their responsibilities
W ensure the skilled workers remained in essential industries and were not
sent off to the battlefield
W provide sufficient numbers of men to the army to cover the high
casualty rates.
Herbert Asquith, the British Prime Minister, attempted to delay the introduc-
tion of conscription because he was a Liberal and opposed to the policy. Finally,
in January 1916, his government introduced the Military Service Bill, conscripting
childless single men and widowers between 18 and 40 years of age.
Clergymen and workers in essential industries were exempt from military
service as were the physically unfit and approved conscientious objectors.
During the war there were approximately 16 000 conscientious objectors,
popularly known as ‘conchies’. They were opposed to the war for political,
religious or moral reasons. Some were prepared to take on alternative non-
combatant work, such as ambulance driving. The ‘absolutists’ were people
who refused to take any part in the war effort. These people were arrested,
court martialled and imprisoned. As a result of mistreatment, approximately
70 absolutists died while in prison.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 269

 Source 12.28
A cartoon by Frank Holland
published during World War I,
entitled ‘An Object Lesson: This
Little Pig Stayed at Home’

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What comment is the
cartoonist making about
conscientious objectors?
2. Explain how representative
you think the cartoonist’s
view would have been of
community attitudes in
Britain to the 160 000
conscientious objectors.
3. Suggest reasons why
community attitudes were
so strong.

World War I was the first time

in British history that the gov-
ernment called upon conscrip-
tion. At war’s end, the nation
was shocked at the extent of the
human sacrifice. By 1918, over
five million men had joined the
ranks of the British Army.

Source 12.29
British recruitment poster from
World War I depicting an image of
battlefront excitement and courage

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is the image of warfare
that is expressed in the source
12.29 enlistment poster?
2. How useful do you believe
this poster is as a source of
information about World War I?
3. Imagine that the year is 1916
and the future of the nation is
a stake. Select two teams from
the class and hold a debate
on the topic: That Britain must
introduce conscription.

270 Retrospective

Source 12.30
A photograph of men, women
and boys working in an aeroplane
factory in Germany in 1918
SOURCE QUESTION
Imagine it is 1917 and you are
a journalist given the task of
lifting German home front
morale. Using source 12.30 as
your focus, write a short
newspaper article outlining:
(a) the critical role of the home
front in the war effort
(b) the significance of the
production of the modern
technology of warfare.
censorship W government
control over what the public
can view, read or hear
Manpower for the German armed forces
Germany already had a very large trained army reserve when war broke
out. Conscription was not a controversial issue in Germany because reserve
training had been a matter of standard policy in Germany during the nine-
teenth century. Every German male between 17 and 45 years of age was liable
for military service. At the start of World War I, the German army was quickly
reinforced with the reservists and new conscripts. German armed forces aver-
aged between 6 and 7 million troops, with 5 million in the field army. During
the course of the war Germany mobilised over 13 million men, which amounted
to 85 per cent of the male population between 17 and 50 years of age.
The massive numbers of men mobilised across Europe intensified the battles
of 1915 and 1916. The German home front was hard hit by the extremely high
casualty rates and increased call-up for military service. Requests to release
some essential workers from the army to relieve the home front manpower
shortages were immediately rejected by German military authorities. By 1917,
all the combatant nations were in a manpower crisis.
Censorship in Britain and Germany
Wartime regulations in both Britain and Germany affected all aspects of
community life, from what people ate to what they thought. Governments
controlled all forms of information during World War I through censorship,
to ensure that community attitudes were in support of the government and
the war effort.
In a total war, it was essential that all publications be approved by the
censor to ensure they contained nothing that could be regarded as having a
negative effect on community morale. The published numbers and lists of the
casualties of war were likely to be acceptable to the government rather than
accurate. British newspapers did not write stories about the return to London,
in the middle of the night, of the trainloads of wounded soldiers. In Britain,
the Fleet Street newspaper publishers self-censored and willingly followed
the government line.
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 271

Source 12.31
Ethel Cooper, an Australian living
in 1917 Germany, describes a
censored event in Leipzig,
Germany, in this extract from a
letter to her family in Australia.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Suggest reasons why
the event described in
source 12.31 would have
been censored.
2. Explain why censorship
was introduced in World
War I and how it was used.
propaganda W information,
ideas, arguments or doctrine
used to further a cause or to
damage an opponent’s cause
272 Retrospective
Censorship was also regarded as necessary for the protection of national
security. All mail, particularly if it came from overseas, was scrutinised by the
censor. On the battlefield, British soldiers were not allowed to keep diaries.
No-one could discuss information about munitions, movement of ships,
location of British troops or military action.
In Britain, from 1915, the Directorate of Special Intelligence coordinated
censorship. Not all British citizens accepted the right of the government
to conrol information. Organisations such as the National Council for Civil
Liberties argued that the government used the war as an opportunity to
attack British legal rights and democratic principles.
In Germany, the Central Censorship Office and the War Press Office pro-
vided very detailed rules on what could not be published in newspapers. The
Wolff Telegraph Bureau was Germany’s exclusive official war news agency.
The foreign ministry checked all news items before publication. German
news told the public they were fighting a defensive war because the war had
broken out when their land was invaded by the French.
We had an excitement on Thursday at midday when the Leipzig airship shed was
blown up. Till last night no paper in Germany mentioned it. Then came an official report
to say that owing to an accumulation of snow on the roof it had fallen in, pulling down
the walls, and wounding 30 workmen who were having their dinner in the shed!! Now
those great sheds were of solid concrete, and though there is a lot of snow lying about,
yet it has neither broken down the roofs and walls of any other building in Leipzig . . . Do
they really expect people to believe such things when they print them officially? . . .
Decie Denholm (ed.), Behind the Lines: One Woman’s War, 1914–18. The Letters of
Caroline Ethel Cooper, Collins, Sydney, 1982.
Censorship regulations in Germany determined what could be discussed
by the public. Censorship suppressed any item regarded as controversial and
any reporting of military defeat, casualty numbers, food shortages and peace
demonstrations. Censorship laws also applied to the cinema, theatre, music
halls, opera, cabaret, postcards and popular literature. Any publication or
performance required the censor’s approval. The goal of censorship was to
promote patriotism, strong government, national unity and morale.
Propaganda
The truth of World War I was often hidden behind censorship, falsified figures
and propaganda. In Germany and Britain, newspaper headlines and posters
were designed to stir the emotions of the nation and feed the hatred of an enemy
that was no longer depicted as human. Lurid illustrations and posters gave added
drama to horrific stories. Propaganda posters were also a means of justifying
involvement in the war and the loss of life that came from it. All the combatants
used propaganda as a means of procuring more money, men and materials.
In Britain, the government created the War Propaganda Bureau, under
the leadership of Sir Gilbert Parker, in September 1914. An efficient and
centralised propaganda campaign manipulated and managed public opinion
and helped galvanise the total war effort in Britain. The Liberal MP Charles
Masterman recruited numerous highly regarded authors, such as Thomas
Hardy, H. G. Wells and John Masefield, to contribute to the war propaganda
effort. Within a year, the War Propaganda Bureau had over 2.5 million
publications in circulation.

self-determination W a
people’s right to express their
own identity and determine
their own destiny
Source 12.32
British propaganda poster aimed
at dehumanising the enemy by
depicting German women lacking
a British woman’s compassion
In Germany, mainly private organisations produced the propaganda and so it
lacked the power of Britain’s central coordination and government direction.
In 1918, Britain and its allies launched an aggressive new propaganda cam-
paign against Germany. In March, the government appointed a Director of
Propaganda in Eastern Countries and a Minister of Information. The objec-
tive was to encourage the people’s demands for self-determination and
independence in regions formerly under the control of Britain’s enemies, such
as Austria–Hungary. British military intelligence also deluged enemy armies
with propaganda. They dropped pamphlets from balloons and smuggled
British newspapers into Germany. In 1918, the British were producing one
million propaganda leaflets every month. The rapid growth of propaganda
signalled a new phase in the war. Britain had been able to feed its people and
maintain national unity, a stable currency and political stability. Britain was
determined to use this information to break German morale.
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 273
 Source 12.33
German soldiers were reduced
to brutal ‘huns’ in British
propaganda posters. ‘Huns’ was
a colloquial term used by the
Allies to describe German
soldiers during World War I and
II, from the name of a group of
people who devastated Europe
in the fourth century.

Source 12.34
A description of an
anti-British campaign in
Germany in World War I

[The] Germans adopted a

new greeting, Gott strafe
England (‘May God punish
England’). The slogan
soon became popular
throughout the nation
and was widely used
as propaganda: stamped
on envelopes, engraved
on scarf pins, cuff-links,
pots and pans, pocket
knives, brooches, rings
and on the black, red
and white braces worn
by German soldiers.
There were also attempts
to remove all words
of foreign origin from
the German language.
For example, the Hotel
Westminster in Berlin
became the Lindenhof . . .
Susan Johnston,
Experiences of the Great
War 1914–1918, Longman SOURCE QUESTIONS
Cheshire, Melbourne, 1. What are the atrocities depicted and recounted in sources 12.32 and 12.33?
1987, p. 240.
2. To what emotions do the propaganda posters and stories appeal?
3. Suggest reasons why the home front was inundated with so much propaganda.
4. From your study of the propaganda posters, explain what a ‘hun’ was
and why the term appeared so frequently in British propaganda material.
5. Access the website for this book and click on the Propaganda weblinks
for this chapter (see ‘Weblinks’, page viii) to view more examples of World War I
photographs and posters. Collect some other images and accounts of the home
front to add to the sources in this text and create a set of images that represent
the home front experience. Analyse the images and add explanatory text to
create your own presentation of ‘The home fronts in Britain and Germany’.

274 Retrospective
The variety of attitudes to the war and how they
changed over time in Britain and Germany
The ‘Great War’, as this terrible conflict was known in Britain, began with
patriotic enthusiasm and an apparent lack of awareness of the scale of the
tragedy that was about to unfold. In July 1914, the British Cabinet met to
discuss foreign affairs. Cabinet concluded that, following the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, war was likely to break out in Europe,
but it was unlikely that Britain would be dragged into the conflict. Of greater
concern to the British government was the threat of industrial unrest culmi-
nating in a general strike.
When Britain did become
embroiled in the conflict
and declared war in August
1914, crowds gathered out-
side Buckingham Palace in
London to sing the national
anthem and cheer the king
and queen. The Labour party
leader, Ramsay MacDonald,
gloomily noted that this
conflict was set to be-
come ‘the most popular war
Britain had ever fought’.
It was a particularly hot
summer and many Britons
were enjoying their annual
holidays. The general con-
sensus was that Britain would
deal with the European
crisis then bring the troops
home for Christmas. In
both Britain and Germany,
the people buried their
political differences and
gave whole-hearted support
to the war effort.

Source 12.35
This advertisement from
The llustrated London News in
August 1914 depicts a world far
removed from the brutality and
suffering of war.

SOURCE QUESTION
Describe British society in
1914 as it is portrayed in the
source 12.35 advertisement.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 275

 The declaration of war brought a general sense of excitement. British boys
had grown up on stories of war adventures and bravery. German literature
traditionally explored themes of heroism and national pride. People wanted
to feel they were making their contribution to the war effort and so initially
became involved in a range of activities that did little to prepare the nation for
the reality of war. The planning and structures necessary for coordinating a
war effort took time to put in place. A host of committees and working parties
were established in Britain. Well-meaning community groups embarked on
projects to sew underwear for soldiers, while in Germany people sang hymns
and waved the flags and banners of the newly united German nation.

Source 12.36
The outbreak of World War I in Britain was met with enthusiastic sewing and knitting,
organised by women’s social groups in Britain. These women gathered at Claridges Hotel
in London in 1914 to sew woollen shirts for Britain’s hospital ships.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How does source 12.36 support the claim that, in 1914, people on the home
front were unaware of the reality of war?
2. Consider the image of 1914 society presented in sources 12.35 and 12.36 and
suggest reasons why war was greeted by so many with patriotic enthusiasm.

‘Your king and country needs you’ became the rallying cry the British
government used to recruit soldiers for their army. A wave of support for the
war effort was reflected in the long queues of young men outside recruitment
offices and the words of the popular songs in the theatres and dance halls:
‘We don’t want to lose you, but we think you ought to go’. Even with the
introduction of conscription, the British attitude remained firmly behind the
war effort with little tolerance for any opposing viewpoint.

276 Retrospective

Source 12.37
A photograph of anti-German
riots in east London in 1915.
Several shops and businesses in
Britain that were owned by
Germans were wrecked and
looted by angry crowds.
interned W held and prohibited
from leaving a certain
prescribed area
Enemy aliens
In Britain, the outbreak of war unleashed anti-German sentiment which
continued to run high throughout the war. It was fed by stories of atrocity
and brutality and led to persecution of anyone in Britain who bore a German
sounding name. Newspaper attacks on Prince Louis of Battenberg, the First
Sea Lord and a cousin of the king, forced his resignation despite having
been a naturalised Briton for over 40 years. Even the king chose to change
the name of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.
Anti-German talk culminated in the smashing and looting of British
businesses believed to be owned by Germans.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What is happening to the store in source 12.37?
2. What appears to be the general attitude of the people pictured in source 12.37?
3. Referring to this photograph and to the painting in source 12.1 (page 250),
suggest reasons why anti-German attitudes were so strongly encouraged
on the home front.
In May 1915, the sinking of the British liner, Lusitania (see chapter 13,
page 298), prompted anti-German riots in the streets of London. The many
thousands of Germans and Austrians who had been living in Britain for years
were classified as ‘enemy aliens’ and then deported, interned, or restricted
in their movements around the country.
Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 277
 Source 12.38
A 1915 British enlistment poster
published by the Parliamentary
Recruiting Committee

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How were Germans
portrayed in this example
of British war propaganda?
2. What impact would the
propaganda campaign
have had on community
attitudes towards British
citizens of German
ancestry? (Consult the
text to find out what
happened to them.)

socialist W belief in a doctrine
promoting the people’s
ownership of a nation’s
resources and the
redistribution of its wealth
War weariness
War weariness cracked political unity and commitment to the war effort
in 1916 and 1917. In Germany as in Britain, the outbreak of war had been
greeted with enthusiasm and determination. German propaganda portrayed
Britain as the aggressor who had declared war on Germany. The failure of
the Schlieffen Plan (see chapter 11, page 213) began the erosion of confidence
in Germany’s war plan and capabilities. By 1916, the change in public mood
in Germany was evident in:
W strike action by workers across Germany
W a peace demonstration attended by 30 000 people in Frankfurt
W food riots in over 30 German cities
W increasing socialist protests against the war and questioning
of German war aims
W imprisoning of socialist leaders, such as Karl Liebknecht
and Rosa Luxembourg, for anti-war activities
W re-emergence of serious political unrest.

278 Retrospective
 In Britain, despite a determination to see the war through until victory
was achieved, patriotic unity was also eroding. The Battle of the Somme in
1916 marked a turning point in the British people’s attitude towards the war
effort. During the five months of the battle, Britain and its allies lost over
600 000 men for 32 kilometres of territory. Lord Kitchener’s new army was
decimated. Along with the appalling waste of young life, the public mood
was affected by:
W food queues and shortages of essential items
W stories of war profiteering from the trade of war goods
W unequal distribution of resources
W lack of adequate housing
W long working hours
W bombing raids and British losses at sea.
An increase in labour disputes and unofficial strikes also showed the nation
was tired of war. This changing mood was reflected in the increased activity
and membership of peace movements. Rallies were held opposing the war
where pamphlets were handed out expressing criticism of the British gov-
ernment and military. The suffrage movement that had initially given such
strident support for the war effort now expressed strong opposition through
groups like the Women’s Peace Crusade.
Voices against the war were gaining greater authority and coming from
broader sections within the community. The development of a mass anti-war
movement in Britain was nevertheless hindered by government legislation
that closely monitored security through censorship and propaganda.
Source 12.39
A photograph from October 1916
of a British mother and her six
children taking part in a protest
against rising prices, shortages
and decline in the general
standard of living

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who is protesting
in source 12.39?
2. What do the banners indicate
the protest is about?
3. The source 12.39
photograph was taken in
1916. What is the attitude
towards war suggested in
this source and how do you
think it has changed with
the course of the war?
Despite this discontent, public support for the war effort remained gener-
ally stronger in Britain than in Germany. The people of Germany paid the
highest price for war. The horrible statistics of this world war provide an
explanation as to why the German public attitude changed so profoundly.
Germany had to deal with the highest casualty rate of the warring nations
and experienced starvation on the home front.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 279

 Even with the collapse of the transport system and an inflation rate that
was destroying the German economy, the military hierarchy continued to
reject any attempts to give powers to the civilian Social Democrat government.
Germany had entered the war as the newly unified economic powerhouse of
Europe, and ended it exhausted and impoverished. World War I damaged
Germany’s economy, government and security.
Source 12.40
French and Russian they matter not,
Germans’ ‘hate’ of the English as
expressed through the words of A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot,
this extract from the German We fight the battle with bronze and steel,
‘Hymn of Hate’ by Ernest And the time that is coming Peace will seal.
Lissauer, from World War I You will we hate with a lasting hate,
We will never forgo our hate,
SOURCE QUESTIONS Hate by water and hate by land,
Hate of the head and hate of the hand,
1. What views are being
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown,
expressed in source 12.40?
Hate of seventy millions, choking down.
2. Why do you think the German We love as one, we hate as one,
government encouraged We have one foe, and one alone —
attitudes such as those ENGLAND!
expressed in source 12.40?

The impact of the war on women’s lives

and experiences in Britain
‘Total war’ brought a re-evaluation of the role of women in civilian life.
Women filled many jobs brought into existence by wartime needs. In Britain,
the introduction of conscription in 1916 gave even greater impetus to the
movement of women into the workforce. The number of women in employ-
ment in Britain increased from just over 3 million in July 1914 to nearly
5 million by January 1918. As women were mobilised into the workplace, they
gradually took positions traditionally regarded as ‘men’s work’, particularly
in war-related industries.

Source 12.41
A British postcard from 1918
acknowledging ‘Britain’s
war workers

SOURCE QUESTION
What does source 12.41
indicate about how war
has changed women’s roles
in society?

280 Retrospective
 The highly dangerous munitions industry was the biggest employer of
British women. About one million working-class women, called ‘munitionettes’,
were attracted by higher pay to work in the production of munitions. There
was also a particular demand for women to do heavy work, such as unloading
coal, stoking furnaces and building ships. Women worked as conductors on
trams and buses. A quarter of a million British women worked on the land,
with another half a million employed as clerical officers in private business
and government departments. Women were also employed in the fields of
banking, education and medicine. Female doctors increased in numbers, as
did the number of policewomen; the six British policewomen in the police
force in 1914 grew to 650 by 1918.
Source 12.42
A recruitment poster
for women in the munitions
industry, widely regarded
as the most dangerous home
front occupation for women

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How is the woman in the
source 12.42 recruitment
poster portrayed?
2. What does the soldier in the
poster represent?
3. What does the poster
suggest about the role of
women on the home front?

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 281


forage W the act of searching
for provisions
franchise W the right of a
citizen to vote
Women were increasingly used in the armed forces in non-combatant
roles, such as transport work and nursing. The Women’s Land Army was
formed early in 1917 in an effort to increase food production in Britain. The
three sections that women could join were agriculture, timber-cutting and
forage. A range of services also applied to nursing. Women could work in
the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) where they could provide help for the
sick and wounded. The VAD also employed women as drivers, cooks and
clerks. By the end of the war, over 80 000 women had served in the British
women’s forces. The contribution women made to the war effort was finally
recognised in 1918 with the Representation of the People Act, which extended
the franchise to women over the age of 30.

Source 12.43 Source 12.44

Recruitment poster for women to work The Women’s Royal Air Force was formed in 1918. It offered women a broad
in the Women’s Land Army range of employment opportunities.

SOURCE QUESTION
War brought great hardship but also
opportunities. Using sources 12.43, 12.44
and 12.45 as your starting point, discuss
the range of opportunities you think may
have opened up for women as a result of
the wartime experience.

282 Retrospective
 Source 12.45
A photograph of a munitionettes’
football team from the AEC
Munitions Factory in London,
with the nurse who always
accompanied female sporting
teams to their games

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What do sources
12.43–12.45 suggest
has changed for women
during the war? What new
responsibilities did women
have during the war?
2. Suggest reasons why some
members of the community
were so reluctant to permit
women into non-traditional
roles on the home front.

gender stereotype W a belief
or idea determined by an
image of how a particular
sex should behave
Women’s pay rates were significantly less than men’s. There were claims
that some employers used the war to undercut men’s pay and conditions
through the exploitation of women and their cheaper labour. Male trade
unionists resisted women taking the place of men in industry because they
feared the jobs would be lost to men in peacetime. The government and
unions made wartime labour agreements to protect men’s jobs and ensure
they would be returned to them. For those jobs not protected by trade union
agreements, the government passed a special Act of Parliament in 1919 called
the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act. The Act directed women to leave their
jobs when war ended.
Women’s participation in the workplace boosted the war effort but did not
bring long-term changes to gender stereotypes and roles in British society.

feminists W advocates of
equal rights and opportunity
for women
militant W a combative or
aggressive person working for
a particular cause
The suffragettes
In the decade before the outbreak of war, feminists from Germany and
Britain pledged to work for political power for women and peace. In 1914, the
feminist movements were swept up by popular patriotism and shifted their
allegiance to their respective governments.
The militant suffragette movement ended in Britain in 1914. As avid
patriots, many British feminists commenced campaigning for the war effort
and announced that political agitation was suspended until Britain had
achieved victory on the battlefield. The British government responded by
announcing that it would release all suffragettes from prison. High-profile
British suffragettes, such as Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter, Christabel
Pankhurst, became influential speakers at recruitment meetings. As leader of
the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), Emmeline Pankhurst joined
Lloyd George in arguing for participation of women in industries that had
previously excluded them, such as in armaments manufacture.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 283

 The British suffragettte newspaper, called The Suffragette, changed its name
to Britannia in October 1915. The focus of the paper was reflected in the new
slogan: ‘For king, for country, for freedom’. The paper attacked anti-war
activists, trade unionists, politicians and military leaders not seen as doing
enough to bolster the war effort.
The war destroyed the broad base that the feminist movement had worked
hard to develop. In the years after the war, ‘feminism’ in Britain ceased to
exist as a popular mass movement.
Source 12.46
A photograph of a procession in
London in 1915 pushing for the
right of women to join the
workforce in a range of jobs,
particularly those that had been
traditionally reserved for men.
The banner proclaimed ‘The men
of the Empire are fighting — the
women of the Empire are working’.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Women over the age of 30
voted for the first time in
Britain in the 1918 general
election. Refer to source
12.46 and then explain why
it could be claimed that the
vote finally came to British
women because of their
contribution to total war.
2. Using source 12.46 and
your own knowledge,
design a poster promoting
the right of women to vote
in the 1918 election. In
your poster focus upon the
contribution women made
to the home front.
Working for change
The active wartime role of women in the British workforce was evident in
changes to clothing that was more suitable to the workplace. Women wore
less restrictive and more comfortable clothes, they used cosmetics, cut their
hemlines and hair short, dined out, went dancing and saw moving pictures
at the cinema. Changes to moral standards also appeared in increases in
divorce rates and early marriage.
liberated W released to a state The idea that the experience of war had liberated women and destroyed
of freedom from oppression the old sex-role stereotypes is, however, misleading. Women had been seeking
work outside of the domestic environment since the 1870s. Before the war, the
new technologies such as typing and telephone operations offered employ-
ment opportunities for women. The birth of the early twentieth century
feminist movement had brought women’s issues to attention and opened up
opportunities in white collar and manufacturing occupations.

284 Retrospective
 The wartime experience gave many women new freedoms and opportuni-
ties. These gender changes were generally short-lived when, at the end of the
war, attitudes to the role of women at home and at work reverted to the tra-
ditional images. In escaping from the horror of World War I, British society
sought to re-establish a sense of security through the cultural and social
norms of previous times. Conditions for the civilians on the home front were
harsh during the war years. For many women in Britain and Germany, the
war did not bring a sense of liberation, but rather a life of 12-hour shifts spent
working at heavy machinery in filthy munitions factories. They shouldered
the double burden of also continuing to be responsible for their domestic
duties when the working day was over.
The experience of women in World War I was diverse. Each individual’s
story was shaped by factors such as age, social background, education and
location. With the return of their men, most women went willingly back to
their traditional roles and occupations. The war had, nevertheless, given
unprecedented numbers of women the new experience of social and finan-
cial independence. The knowledge that women gained from having played a
crucial role in a total war effort would eventually bring real change.
Source 12.47
[A]n adequate supply of food, not only for the troops, but for the civilian
In this extract from his
memoirs, the wartime British population, was an essential condition of their continuance in the War. The final
Prime Minister, David Lloyd event depended more on food than on fighting. The drain on man-power, and the
George, summed up the impact concentration of transport on the provision of war material and the carrying of it
of total war. to the various fronts, were already having a serious effect on food supplies.
[W]ar is organised cruelty. Those who think they can restrict its barbarities will
perspective
find in the end that savagery is of its essence and civilized warfare only means
purpose that men have changed the instruments and methods of torture. The sum total of
message the agony inflicted on mankind by war was never as great as it proved to be in the
World War of 1914–18. Men, women and children all suffered the horrors of war.
The deaths behind the fighting lines owing to the effects of underfeeding and bad
feeding were more numerous than those of the slain in the stricken field.
When Verdun and the Somme had both failed to achieve a military decision, the
belligerents [promoters of fighting] were confronted with a war of starvation.
David Lloyd George, The War Memoirs of David Lloyd George, Vol. 1, Odhams,
London, 1938.

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Lloyd George wrote his memoirs in the 1930s. What is his attitude to war
when reflecting on it years after the event?
2. Using source 12.47 and your own knowledge, write an essay response on the
following topic: ‘The home front effort determined the outcome of the war’. Discuss.
3. Examine the posters presented in this chapter. Select five of the posters
and write a short report on their purpose and intended audience, message,
effectiveness and usefulness as reliable sources of information about the
home front experience.
4. The visual sources in this chapter provide a range of images of life during
World War I in Britain and Germany. Brainstorm your ideas on what the source
material communicates about changes that the war brought in public attitudes,
government policies, civil liberties, daily life, employment and working
conditions. Record your ideas under the relevant headings and then use them for
the basis of a class mind map headed ‘The impact of total war on the home front’.

Chapter 12 W The home fronts in Britain and Germany 285

 HSC exam practice
Source-based questions: The home fronts in Britain and Germany 25 marks
Attempt Questions 1–3.
Allow about 45 minutes for this section.

Question 1 (5 marks) Marks

(a) According to source A, wartime provided Joan Williams with new experiences.
What were two of these experiences? 2
(b) Using source B, explain the responsibility of the civilian population
and why their cooperation is so important. 2
(c) Using source C, describe how rations were allocated during World War I. 1

Question 2 (10 marks)

Use sources C and D and your own knowledge to answer this question.
What role did the home front play in recruiting and maintaining the armed forces
in World War I? 10

Question 3 (10 marks)

Assess how useful sources A and B would be for a historian studying the experience
of women during World War I. 10

Source A
Extracts from the introduction to Miss Joan Williams’ memoirs, A Munitions Worker’s Career
at Messrs Gwynne’s, Chiswick — 1915–1919

I was very glad … when I saw a notice in the papers advertising an engineering class for
women got up under the auspices of the Women’s Suffrage Society … I began my training
early in November 1915, paying … a guinea a week and having to buy a few necessary
tools and hand book on engineering …
I don’t think any worker can have enjoyed their work more than I did … it was
nothing to leap out of bed at 5.15 on a frosty morning … at the prospect of the day’s
work before me …
My own lathe was a 7 ft. Drummond, but I also worked at times on the four or
five different makes of centre lathes in the shop and … learnt a bit of the mill-wrights’
business …
A good many of the workers … had never come up against the upper classes at all
… Most ladies were to them people who ‘drew away their skirts’ on encountering any
working people, so I was very glad when they found it was quite possible to make friends
with the despised class.

286 Retrospective
 Source B
Extracts from a poster published by Britain’s National War Savings Committee in 1916

Every household must help to win the war. Lord Kitchener said: ‘Either the civilian population
must go short of many things to which it is accustomed in times of peace or our armies
must go short of munitions and other things indispensable to them.’ Which is it to be?
Economy in the household or shortage in the Navy and Army?
If our sailors and our soldiers are to have all they need, and the war is to be carried to a
victorious end, every member of every household must do without comforts, luxuries, and all
else that is not essential to health and efficiency …
To waste nothing, to save in everything, and to lend to the country all you can is the
truest patriotism. All that the household saves helps our sailors and soldiers.

Source C
A British food ration leaflet
from World War I

Source D
A British enlistment poster from
1915 encouraging men to join
the war effort and defend the
British homeland

Chapter 3 W Yankees and Confederates inChapter 12 W Thestates

the American homeinfronts
the mid
in Britain
nineteenth
and Germany
century 287
13 KEY DATES

1917
T February Germany
commences unrestricted
Turning points

W
In this chapter, you will learn about the following aspects
of World War I:
impacts of the entry of the USA and of the Russian withdrawal
submarine warfare on W Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive and the Allied response
merchant ships
T March Tsar Nicholas II
abdicates
T April United States
declares war on Germany
T October Bolsheviks win
power in Russia; Russia
withdraws from war
T December Russia signs
armistice with Germany
1918
T March Treaty of
Brest–Litovsk is signed
on 3 March
T March Ludendorff
launches Spring Offensive
on Western Front
T April Germany
commences massive
advance against British
divisions in Flanders
T June Pace of the German
offensive slows with
the failure of Operation
Gneisau and French
counterattack
T July Allies break through
German lines; Germany
in retreat

Source 13.1
A photograph dated 1917 showing
German leaders studying maps:
from left, Field Marshall Paul von
Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II; and
General Erich Ludendorff

288 Retrospective
 Introduction
isolationism W a principle
of foreign policy that avoided
direct involvement in
European affairs
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Read source 13.2 which
describes the start of the new
year in the trenches in 1917.
1. Describe the mood that
is suggested at this point
in the war.
2. Using the source and your
own knowledge, explain the
characteristics of war on
the Western Front at the
beginning of 1917.
Impact of the Russian withdrawal
logistical W organisation
behind the transport, supply
and movement of troops
The year 1917 marked two turning points in the course of the war:
W in April, the United States broke its policy of isolationism and entered
the war on the side of the Allies
W in November, Russia’s Bolshevik party, having staged a successful
revolution, fulfilled its promise to withdraw Russia from the war.
While the first event seemed to strengthen the position of the Allies, the
second, at a time when the war was going badly for the Allies, potentially
weakened them severely.
Source 13.2
Extract from Leon Wolff’s In Flanders Fields, describing the start of the new year, 1917
Somewhere in the limitless darkness a man coughed, a bird twittered an isolated
phrase, a muffled voice spoke up. Many miles behind the front thousands of
lorries, wagons, gun limbers, horses and men moving endlessly along the
Belgian roads furnished a soft, pulsating background . . . Here in the advance
zone of the dread Salient around Ypres hardly a man moved, nor did many even
know or care that the old year was dying.
The officer standing beside the field piece watched the glowing second hand
of his wrist-watch. At the stroke of midnight he said ‘Fire!’ The gun roared, and
a shell was lobbed somewhere into the German positions. A few seconds later
there was a single, distinct, far-off explosion, following which a strained silence
hung in the air. Then the enemy threw up anxious flares, ghastly green but of
great beauty. These illuminated no-man’s land lingeringly, froze it briefly into the
aspect of a charcoal sketch and then faded away.
The British battery fired nine more rounds in erratic succession, paused,
and then another seven more. Thus the new year, 1917, was advertised by
seventeen shells . . . the rest of the evening passed in relative peace there and
elsewhere on the Western Front . . .
Leon Wolff, In Flanders Fields: the 1917 Campaign,
Penguin, 2003, first published in 1959.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Russia had the largest army in the world but
was also a nation plagued by serious internal problems.
War on the Eastern Front began on 17 August 1914 when Russia launched
a full-scale offensive against Prussia. By 30 August, General Hindenburg’s
German forces defeated a massive Russian force at the Battle of Tannenburg.
Russia suffered tens of thousands of casualties and lost 92 000 troops as
prisoners of war. The inadequacies of Russia’s logistical planning became
a catastrophic short-coming when faced with a highly industrialised and
organised opponent.
The immense difficulty in supplying and maintaining the massive Russian
army placed a great strain on Russia’s total war effort. At the outset of
war, the Russian people had supported the war effort, but the brutal toll in
Russian lives and terrible suffering brought rebellion.
Chapter 13 W Turning points 289
 Source 13.3
A photograph showing Tsar
Nicholas addressing some of his
Cossack troops on the Eastern
Front in December 1914

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe the image of
the Tsar and his forces
that is communicated in
this photograph from the
Eastern Front.
2. With reference to the text,
explain the image of Russian
forces and the Tsar in 1917.

Source 13.4
Map of the Western and Eastern Eastern Front 1917
Fronts in 1917 Western Front 1917
Petrograd

NORTH

SEA
A Riga
DENMARK SE
IC
LT
BA

Hamburg
NETHERLANDS R U S S I A
Berlin
Warsaw
Brussels G E R M A N Y
BELGIUM
Frankfurt Kiev
Paris
Prague
LUXEMBOURG
Munich
FRANCE AUSTRIA–HUNGARY
SWITZERLAND

N
ITALY
Black
0 300 600 km RUMANIA Sea

abdicate W to give up or
renounce a position of power,
right or claim
provisional W a temporary
and conditional agreement
or system
By May 1915, Germany had taken command of the Eastern Front and,
during the course of the year, Russia lost two million troops. With soldiers
sent to their deaths on the Eastern Front and economic collapse at home,
discontent among the Russian people grew stronger. Russia edged closer to
revolution as the people’s support for the Tsar and his war disintegrated.
By February 1917, the demoralised Russian army had suffered eight million
casualties and one million more Russian soldiers had deserted. With the Tsar’s
authority shattered, the government collapsed and Russia was in revolution.
On 2 March 1917, over three centuries of Romanov rule ended when Tsar
Nicholas II abdicated. Key politicians formed Russia’s new Provisional
Government.

290 Retrospective
 The Allies welcomed the willingness of the new Provisional Government to
continue Russia’s involvement in the war and honour its military obligations
to its French and British allies. The Russian population did not support this
decision and, in the ensuing months, more and more people transferred their
loyalty to the government’s Bolshevik opponents who promised to end the
war and relieve the sufferings it had induced.

Source 13.5
A Bolshevik propaganda poster
entitled ‘the tired Russian soldier’

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What opinion about the war
is expressed in the source
13.5 poster?
2. How could the source 13.5
poster be interpreted as a
powerful piece of Bolshevik
propaganda?

Chapter 13 W Turning points 291

 Bolsheviks W members of
the Bolshevik party that took
power in Russia in October
1917 after another revolution
armistice W a temporary halt
to fighting in order to allow
peace negotiations
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Describe what is
happening in the source
13.6 photograph.
2. Assess the usefulness
of this source for providing
an understanding of the
impact of the war on
Russia’s effectiveness
as an ally.
annexations W territories
lost through takeover
indemnities W payments
of compensation for damage
or loss
self-determination W the right
of an identifiable group of
people to determine their own
form of government and the
nation to which they belong
292 Retrospective
In October 1917, a second revolution gave the Bolsheviks power. The
Bolshevik leader, Lenin, called for a separate peace and signed an armistice
with Germany in December 1917. More than three million men had died and
more than nine million were wounded during Russia’s three years of fighting
on the Eastern Front.
Source 13.6
A photograph of Russian and German soldiers dancing and celebrating the end of war on the
Eastern Front in the winter of 1917–18
Treaty of Brest–Litovsk
The Russian government’s withdrawal from World War I in 1917 and the subse-
quent Treaty of Brest–Litovsk effectively ended the war on the Eastern Front.
The Bolshevik government declared an armistice with Germany in
December 1917 and, soon after, Lenin instructed his representative,
Adolf Joffe, to commence peace negotiations with Germany and Austria
at Brest–Litovsk. Lenin demanded a peace without annexations or
indemnities and based on Russia’s right to self-determination. Germany
was determined to assert its authority over Russia and dictated harsh
conditions for peace. The Bolshevik delegates declared the terms too
objectionable to sign and stopped negotiations.
On 18 February 1918, the German forces resumed their advance on Russia
and the Bolsheviks were forced to accept the punishment meted out by the
Treaty of Brest–Litovsk. The treaty was a national humiliation for Russia.
By the terms of the treaty, Russia lost a quarter of its European territory,
which meant:
W 34 per cent of the population
W 89 per cent of the coal mines
W 32 per cent of the agricultural land.
By the time the treaty was signed on 3 March 1918, Germany was in control
of almost half of Russia to the east of Moscow. One of the Bolshevik del-
egates, Sokolnikov, declared this ‘a peace which Russia, grinding its teeth, is
forced to accept’.
 Source 13.7
Extracts from the peace treaty
agreed at Brest–Litovsk,
3 March 1918
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In your own words,
state the main condition
expressed in each of the
six Articles of the Treaty
of Brest–Litovsk.
2. Explain why the Russians
regarded the treaty as a
national humiliation.
3. Suggest what you think
Germany wanted to achieve
through the Treaty of
Brest–Litovsk.
Article I: Germany, Austria–Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, for the one part,
and Russia, for the other part, declare that the state of war between them
has ceased. They are resolved to live henceforth in peace and amity with
one another.
Article II: The contracting parties will refrain from any agitation or propaganda
against the Government or the public and military institutions of the other
party. In so far as this obligation devolves upon Russia, it holds good also for the
territories occupied by the Powers of the Quadruple Alliance.
Article III: The territories lying to the west of the line agreed upon by the
contracting parties which formerly belonged to Russia, will no longer be
subject to Russian sovereignty; the line agreed upon is traced on the map
submitted as an essential part of this treaty of peace . . . No obligations whatever
toward Russia shall devolve upon the territories referred to, arising from the
fact that they formerly belonged to Russia. Russia refrains from all interference
in the internal relations of these territories. Germany and Austria–Hungary
purpose to determine the future status of these territories in agreement with
their population.
Article IV: As soon as a general peace is concluded and Russian demobilization is
carried out completely Germany will evacuate the territory lying to the east
of the line designated in paragraph 1 of Article III, in so far as Article IV does
not determine otherwise. Russia will do all within her power to insure the
immediate evacuation of the provinces of eastern Anatolia and their lawful
return to Turkey . . .
Article V: Russia will, without delay, carry out the full demobilization of her
army inclusive of those units recently organized by the present Government.
Furthermore, Russia will either bring her warships into Russian ports and
there detain them until the day of the conclusion of a general peace, or disarm
them forthwith. Warships of the States which continue in the state of war
with the Powers of the Quadruple Alliance, in so far as they are within Russian
sovereignty, will be treated as Russian warships . . .
Article XI: The contracting parties mutually renounce compensation for their war
expenses, i.e., of the public expenditures for the conduct of the war, as well as
compensation for war losses, i.e., such losses as were caused [by] them and
their nationals within the war zones by military measures . . .

Military mastery in the west

The Russian collapse enabled Germany to shift its military divisions —
comprising one million men — and resources from the Eastern to the Western
Front. Russia’s allies were enraged by Russia’s withdrawal from the war
and labelled it an act of treachery. At the end of 1917, the military situation
looked bleak for the Allied forces. The Allies predicted they would face a
reinvigorated German military attack in the spring of 1918.
Victory in the east gave the German High Command the confidence needed
to drive a wedge between the British and French armies and force the British
back to the coast of the English Channel. The Central Powers were closer to
victory in the west than they had been since before the Battle of the Marne
in September 1914. The focus of fighting now became military mastery of the
Western Front.

Chapter 13 W Turning points 293

 Source 13.8
‘The Caged British Lion’, a German
propaganda cartoon by Arthur
Johnson from the German journal
Kladderadatsch, 28 April 1918

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. How are Britain and
Germany depicted in the
source 13.8 cartoon?
2. What comment does the
cartoon make about the
course of the war in the
period immediately after
Russia was forced to
accept the Treaty of
Brest–Litovsk?

Impact of the United States’ entry into World War I

neutrality W a nation which
does not become involved in
the wars of others
mediation W to settle disputes
through agreement and
reconciliation
At the outbreak of war in 1914, America had declared its neutrality. American
public opinion did not favour one side over the other while its isolationism
reinforced the idea that the war was a European conflict. Little more than
two months before America entered the war against Germany, US President
Woodrow Wilson addressed the Senate and appealed for a settlement of the
European conflict based on ‘peace without victory’ (see source 13.9).
Wilson was a progressive thinker who embraced the ideals of a democratic
peace. Believing in mediation, he set up secret negotiations with Britain
and Germany to establish a peace plan agreement. Wilson’s vision for peace
was rejected.

294 Retrospective
 Source 13.9
Extracts from President
Wilson’s ‘Peace Without Victory’
speech to the US Senate on
22 January 1917
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who delivered the
source 13.9 speech?
2. Who was the audience?
3. When was the speech
given?
4. Explain what the purpose
of this speech would
have been.
Source 13.10
A historian’s comment on
the change in attitude of the
United States and President
Woodrow Wilson
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Read sources 13.9 and 13.10
and answer the following
questions.
1. Explain the two important
developments of 1917.
2. What was the general
American attitude towards
the war two months before
America’s declaration?
3. What had President Wilson
hoped his attempts at
mediation would bring?
4. What ideals did President
Wilson stand for?
On the 18th of December last, I addressed an identical note to the governments
of the nations now at war requesting them to state, more definitely than they had
yet been stated by either group of belligerents, the terms upon which they would
deem it possible to make peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of
all neutral nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts
in constant jeopardy . . .
The question upon which the whole future peace and policy of the world depends
is this: Is the present war a struggle for a just and secure peace, or only for a new
balance of power? If it be only a struggle for a new balance of power, who will
guarantee, who can guarantee the stable equilibrium of the new arrangement? Only a
tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. There must be, not a balance of power, but a
community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized common peace . . .
. . . [I]t must be a peace without victory . . . Victory would mean peace forced
upon the loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be
accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would
leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would
rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals
can last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common
participation in a common benefit. The right state of mind, the right feeling
between nations, is as necessary for a lasting peace as is the just settlement of
vexed questions of territory or of racial and national allegiance.
The equality of nations upon which peace must be founded if it is to last must be
an equality of rights; the guarantees exchanged must neither recognize nor imply
a difference between big nations and small, between those that are powerful and
those that are weak. Right must be based upon the common strength, not upon the
individual strength, of the nations upon whose concert peace will depend. Equality of
territory or of resources there of course cannot be; nor any sort of equality not gained
in the ordinary peaceful and legitimate development of the peoples themselves. But no
one asks or expects anything more than an equality of rights. Mankind is looking now
for freedom of life, not for equipoises of power . . .
While one pro-war consensus fragmented in Russia another crystallised across
the Atlantic. This development was sudden. Barely two months before America
declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, there seemed hardly any wish among the
public or in Congress for intervention, and no desire by Wilson to propose it. During
1916 American entry alongside the Allies had seemed increasingly unlikely . . .
[T]he Democrats projected the president as ‘the man who kept us out of the war’.
Wilson’s diplomacy, however, revolved around three interlocking themes: trade
and loans, blockade and U-boats, and his urge to mediate. His mediation attempts
forced him to elaborate his vision of the peace settlement and whetted his
appetite for involvement in it. From early in the conflict he contemplated creating
an international collective security organization, and pressure groups lobbied for
the same objective. In a speech in May 1916 to the most prominent of them, the
League to Enforce Peace, he declared himself in favour of establishing such an
organization and of American membership in it . . .
Hence in addition to the League of Nations he embraced the ideal of a
democratic peace, based on the consent of the governed, national self-
determination, and freedom of the seas.
David Stevenson, 1914–1918: The History of the First World War,
Penguin, London, 2004, pp. 310–11.
Chapter 13 W Turning points 295

convoy W an armed force or
formation of ships that acts as
an escort for protection
destroyers W small, fast
warships
Source 13.11
Extracts from President Wilson’s
speech to the US Congress
signalling the US declaration of
war with Germany, 2 April 1917
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Read the source 13.11
speech and explain how
President Wilson’s address
to Congress changed
between January and April.
2. According to source 13.11,
why did America go to war
and what did it involve?
296 Retrospective
In 1917, Germany was determined to break the power of the Allies at sea.
The German High Command declared unrestricted submarine warfare on mer-
chant (trading) ships. Between February and March 1917, merchant ships were
sunk in an effort to deprive Britain of food and munitions. In April, a further
196 ships were sunk. British supply lines and sea routes were secured when a
convoy system was established that was supported by US destroyers.
On 2 April 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appeared before the American
Congress and asked them to make the ‘world safe for democracy’ by declaring
war against Germany. America thus entered the war that had ravaged Europe
for over three years. America’s massive industrial and economic resources were
now available to the Allied war effort. American forces brought hundreds of
thousands of new soldiers into the war and this was a great boost to Allied
solders’ morale.
I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are serious,
very serious, choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it
was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the
responsibility of making.
On the third of February last I officially laid before you the extraordinary
announcement of the Imperial German Government that on and after the first day
of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or of humanity and
use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach either the ports
of Great Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or any of the ports
controlled by the enemies of Germany within the Mediterranean . . .
I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious
as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of
non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have
always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent
and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people
cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare
against mankind.
It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives
taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and
people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in
the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination.
The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will
meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation
of counsel and a temperateness for judgement befitting our character and our
motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be
revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only
the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion . . .
It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I
have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of
fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful
people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself
seeming to be in the balance.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things
which we have always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the right of
those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the
rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a
concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the
world itself at last free . . .
 Source 13.12
American government poster
from 1918 aimed at bolstering
popular support for the
military effort

SOURCE QUESTIONS

1. What is the subject of the source 13.12 poster and what is the main idea
that is communicated?
2. Millions of Americans were steadfastly opposed to sending troops into war
before 1917. How could the source 13.12 poster have been instrumental in
changing their minds?

Chapter 13 W Turning points 297


To view and read about the
decoding of the telegram,
access the website for
this book and click on
the ‘Zimmerman telegram’
weblink for this chapter
(see ‘Weblinks’, page viii).
Source 13.13
The front page of The New York
Times on 8 May 1915,
announcing the sinking of the
Lusitania by a German
submarine. Inset (at right) is a
German advertisement from
inside the newspaper warning
travellers of the dangers of
travelling across the Atlantic on
British vessels.
298 Retrospective
The American decision to declare war on Germany was evolutionary, and
not triggered by a single event. The factors that finally culminated in Amer-
ican involvement were:
W anti-German feeling that came from the U-boat sinking of the British
liner Lusitania on 8 May 1915, in which 1924 lives were lost, 128 of them
Americans (see source 13.13)
W unrestricted warfare infringing the freedom of the seas and the loss
of further American lives from sinking of American ships by German
U-boats. Germany declared unrestricted U-boat warfare on 1 February
1917; two days later America broke off diplomatic relations with Germany.
W large sums of money loaned by the Americans to Britain. German victory
would have involved financial loss for America.
W Allied propaganda presenting Germany as the aggressor, for example, the
German invasion of Belgium
W release of the ‘Zimmerman telegram’ — a German attempt to negotiate
an alliance with Mexico and Japan against the United States. Arthur
Zimmerman, German ambassador to Mexico, proposed a Mexican and
German alliance in the event of war between America and Germany.
W with German victory, the former Mexican territories of Arizona, New
Mexico and Texas would be restored to Mexico.
 Source 13.14
An American recruitment poster aimed at stirring the emotions of the American people
following the heavy loss of life in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915

SOURCE QUESTION
The sinking of the Lusitania
occurred two years before
America declared war on
Germany. Using sources 13.13,
13.14 and the information
from the text, explain:
(a) what kind of vessel
the Lusitania was
(b) why it was sunk
(c) what it represented
(d) how the sinking came
to be used as such a
powerful piece of Allied
propaganda.

The American Expeditionary Force

The Allies were delighted at the American entry into the conflict because
they believed it assured victory. General John J. Pershing was chosen to
head the American Expeditionary Force. American forces were given a
mandate to cooperate with Allies, but fought under their own flag under
American leadership.

Chapter 13 W Turning points 299

 Source 13.15
A photograph of General
Pershing, head of American
Expeditionary Force, arriving in
France in 1917

SOURCE QUESTIONS
Examine the source 13.15
image of General Pershing
then answer the following
questions.
1. Who was General Pershing?
2. What sort of a character
does General Pershing
appear in the photo?
3. Why would General
Pershing’s arrival in Europe
be seen as a turning point
in the war?
4. What do you think the
Allied leaders would expect
the role of the AEF to be
in Europe?

howitzers W short-barrelled
artillery, particularly useful for
shelling at a steep angle
mortars W short tubular
weapons used to fire shells at
high angles
The build-up of American forces and strength in Europe was slow and
did not provide the immediate Allied salvation that many had hoped for.
The United States had not spent years preparing for the war and so had few
modern weapons, such as howitzers, tanks, mortars, rifle grenades or air-
craft. President Wilson’s declaration of war committed American supplies,
extended loans, supply of naval power and the call-up of half a million Amer-
ican conscripts. However, America was not a military force on the Western
Front until 1918, so their contribution to fighting was limited. It was America’s
potential power that became vital to the Allied war effort. The German forces,
under General Erich Ludendorff, knew that they now had to win, or nego-
tiate a peace, before American support increased to a point where Germany
would be outnumbered on the Western Front.

300 Retrospective
 General Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive
Source 13.16
A photograph from 1917 showing
German military leaders Paul von
Hindenburg (in the pale coat) and
Erich Ludendorff (left) reviewing
troops in 1917
Nineteen seventeen was a harrowing year for Great Britain and its allies.
Britain had suffered nearly 400 000 casualties in the costly and unsuccessful
offensive called Passchendaele (see chapter 11, pages 239–40). German
U-boats had inflicted further suffering on the British people. Losses at the front
combined with hardship at home to bring all the warring nations to a state
of national war weariness.
In Germany, the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany’s comprehensive
scheme for winning the war (see chapter 11, page 213), had destroyed Kaiser
Wilhelm’s ability to make the decisions required of a leader. German govern-
ment in 1917 was in the hands of General Erich Ludendorff and Field Mar-
shall Paul von Hindenburg. Germany had become a military dictatorship.
SOURCE QUESTION
Explain the power and influence of the two German leaders shown in source 13.16, in
1917.
By the close of 1917, Germany’s military reputation was at stake. General
Ludendorff knew he needed to act quickly to gain a victory before the weight
of American power could swing the war against Germany. Ludendorff was
also determined to place Germany in a stronger position to negotiate at the
future peace talks. Germany had to make immediate use of the advantage
that the Russian surrender gave.
Chapter 13 W Turning points 301
 Despite the loss of thousands of lives on the Western Front during 1917, the
military position had changed very little. Ludendorff moved for an all-out
bid for victory by launching an enormous offensive in the west. The German
divisions freed from the east could now be deployed to the Western Front.
The German plan of attack was designed to draw Allied forces away from the
Channel ports that were the lifeline of British supplies, capture the ports and
then destroy Allied communications. In the spring of 1918, General Luden-
dorff launched the offensive that could provide Germany with the break-
through to victory.
The 52 German divisions in the east that transferred to the Western
Front provided the numerical superiority on the ground that German
forces needed. Ludendorff knew that the American forces could bring an
additional one million soldiers to France during 1918. In the early spring of
1918, the reinforcements from America were only just beginning to arrive.
The American presence would be catastrophic unless Germany acted rapidly.
Britain and its allies were vulnerable as the offensives of 1917 continued to
take a heavy toll.

Source 13.17
Map showing the Western Front in 1918 and the Channel ports that Germany aimed to
capture

German advance
by mid–1918
GREAT Ostend
BRITAIN ver
Do
of
t
ai Calais
r
St

Ypres
Brussels
Boulogne

Loos B E L G I U M
Arras

Riv
er
e
Somm

LUXEMBOURG
Cantigny

ise sn
e
F R A N C E O
River
Ai

Compiegne

r Reims
ve
Ri

Ri
ve

M Verdun
r

arn
e
r
N Rive
Paris
0 50 100 km
Se
ine

SOURCE QUESTION
Where were the Channel ports located and why do you think they became so
important to Germany’s military objectives in 1918?

302 Retrospective

creeping barrage W the use
of a wall of artillery fire
immediately in front of the
advancing infantry. As the
artillery gunners moved
forward to destroy enemy
trenches, the infantry,
following behind, was ready to
take control of a trench once
the artillery fire had ceased.
Source 13.18
Historian Les Carlyon describes
the mood in Germany in 1918
and Ludendorff’s plan to break
the British and French forces
perspective
purpose
The Kaiser’s Battle
General Ludendorff named the Spring Offensive on the Western Front
Kaiserschlacht — the ‘Kaiser’s Battle’. The military objective was to drive a
wedge between the British and French armies by launching the massive
German assault on Anglo–French lines. The German plan was to force
the British back to the Channel coast and then take Paris. Ludendorff was
looking for an opportunity for Germany to achieve its territorial demands
— the control of Belgium and north-eastern France.
There were two key elements to the German assault:
W rapid surprise attacks of ‘storm units’, small squads of elite shock troops
W the Feuerwalze, intensive and overwhelming artillery and infantry
bombardment of the enemy command and communications, artillery
and front line; reserves were used to exploit the gap created by
creeping barrage.
Hindenburg thought a victory would lift morale at home, raise the people above
their ‘sullen brooding’. Hindenburg didn’t know much about people either. Those
in Berlin and Munich were supposed to look at their sickly children, their cold
hearths, the turnips on the dinner table, the photograph of the dead son on the
mantelpiece, and take heart that Hindenburg had made a lunge for Paris or the
Channel ports. Hindenburg and Ludendorff, one suspects, thought a victory
would create a momentum of its own. There didn’t seem to be much more to their
strategy than that . . .
Ludendorff decided late in January on a scheme called ‘Michael’. The Germans
would attack on a long front between St Quentin in the south and Arras in the
north, across the old Somme battlefield. The original idea was not, as some
thought, to go for Amiens and then on to the coast. Having broken through, the
Germans would turn right and push the British north, presumably all the way to
the Channel ports. It was rather like Haig’s plan for the Somme in 1916 in reverse.
But the German attack was much more ambitious: the front was to be about fifty
miles, around three times longer than Haig’s of 1916. Ludendorff was going to
direct the battle himself. He set up an advanced headquarters behind Cambrai. He
wanted to be where he could easily reach the front by car. The attack would open
on March 21.
Ludendorff told the Kaiser in mid-February: ‘We must not imagine that this
offensive will be like those in Galicia or Italy; it will be an immense struggle that
will begin at one point, continue at another, and take a long time; it is difficult, but
it will be victorious . . .’
Les Carlyon, The Great War, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2006, p. 543.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Read source 13.18 and answer the following questions.
1. What does the writer suggest was the feeling among the German public about
the forthcoming ‘lunge for Paris and the Channel ports’?
2. What did Hindenburg and Ludendorff hope the Spring Offensive would achieve?
3. Briefly explain the strategy behind Operation Michael.
4. What might be the shortcomings of Operation Michael?
Chapter 13 W Turning points 303

Source 13.19
A photograph showing
German troops advancing
towards the Allies’ front line near
Villers-Bretonneux in March 1918
SOURCE QUESTION
Consider the battle scene
in source 13.19 then write
a short newspaper report to
accompany the photograph.
In your report, explain the
sequence of events that
began with the launching
of Operation Michael,
and the Allied response.
304 Retrospective
Operation Michael, March 1918
Ludendorff launched his offensive with an initial attack, codenamed ‘Michael’.
It began with great shattering explosions at several points along the Allied
lines on 21 March 1918. A barrage of 6000 heavy guns and 30 000 mortars
commenced the offensive. Over two million poison gas shells were fired
during the operation. The weather also came to Germany’s aid on the first
day. When the mustard gas was released, Allied troops were confused even
further by a heavy fog. Five hours after the initial bombardment, and under
the cover of the thick fog, the German infantry moved into the territory held
by the Allies. Small squads of mobile shock troops, with flame throwers and
trench mortars, directed rapid surprise attacks at the Allied front line.
By the end of the first day, 21 000 British soldiers were prisoners of the
Germans. The British and French forces were rapidly driven back. With the
Allied retreat, huge columns of troops were on the move, trudging west
with their wagonloads of wounded. Allied communications had also broken
down and the Allied command was in disarray. In desperation, British Prime
Minister Lloyd George telegraphed US President Woodrow Wilson
requesting American troops to assist the British fighting force. The American
President agreed.
By the end of the first four days of the German attack, the German troops
had crossed the old Somme battlefield, nearly divided British and French
forces at the Front and taken 45 000 Allied prisoners. On the fifth day, the
British rallied and took the Germans by surprise when they launched a
number of small counter-attacks.

See page 309 to read the
full text of General Haig’s
‘Order of the Day’.
flank W the extreme left or right
wing of an army or fleet, or the
subdivision of an army or fleet
By the tenth day of the Spring Offensive, the Germans had smashed the
British Fifth Army under the command of Sir Hubert Gough, regained all
the ground they had lost on the Somme, taken 90 000 prisoners and cap-
tured 1300 guns. Germans forces gained more ground than at any other time
during the war.
The inspirational French general, Ferdinand Foch, was appointed com-
mander in chief of the Allied armies on 26 March 1918. The German Offen-
sive had inadvertently brought about a unified command of the Allied forces.
Foch took control and issued the instruction: ‘We must stop where we are
now. As we have not been able to stop the Germans at the Somme, we must
not retire a single centimetre!’
Operation Michael was followed by four more offensives.
Second Offensive: Operation Georgette, April 1918
This was a 16-kilometre German advance in Flanders, east of the River Lys.
Germany used massive artillery power to attack British divisions holding the
fronts of the First and Second Armies in Flanders. In the first day, German
forces pushed approximately six kilometres into Allied territory.
The British position was desperate and, on 11 April 1918, General Haig
appealed to his soldiers: ‘There is no other course open to us but to fight it
out!’. After three weeks of bitter fighting, the British denied German access to
the Channel ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk.
In the 40 days of fighting, the first two offensives of 1918 had resulted in over
700 000 casualties. The German advance stalled when its flank was exposed
and the Allies launched a joint British, French, American, Canadian and
ANZAC counterattack. General Ludendorff called off Georgette on 29 April.
Third Offensive: Operation Blucher-Yorck, May 1918
The Third Offensive aimed to take the French forces located in the Chemin
des Dames sector of Champagne. The German advance met no resistance
because it took the French by surprise. British and French front line forces
were bombarded by howitzer and mortar fire and high explosives laced with
gas. On 30 May, at the Battle of the Aisne, the Germans drove the French back
32 kilometres to the banks of the River Marne.
The German advance was halted by 6 June with the assistance of fresh
American reinforcements. The total number of American personnel in France
in March was 284 000; by July it had risen to over one million; by November
there were nearly 2 million Americans in France. US troops provided new
sources of manpower that could not be matched by Germany and its allies.
American troops were being transported to France on board the former ocean
liner Aquitania. With every trans-Atlantic voyage, another 15 000 American
reinforcements arrived in France.
Fourth Offensive: Operation Gneisenau, June 1918
Operation Gneisenau commenced with artillery fire on 9 June. The French
were prepared for the attack due to information they had gathered from
German prisoners. The German army took 8000 prisoners within the first day
and managed to advance over 12 kilometres. Despite having gained ground,
the Germans achieved no strategic objective and the pace of the offensive
slowed. At Compiègne, a French counterattack caught the Germans by sur-
prise and signalled the end of Operation Gneisenau on 12 June.
Chapter 13 W Turning points 305

Source 13.20
A photograph of one of the
powerful and manoeuvrable
British Mark IV tanks poised to
cross a ridge near German
positions, 1917–18
The Allied response
snipers W marksmen
who waited in hiding for
opportunities to shoot soldiers
in the opposing trenches
306 Retrospective
Fifth Offensive: Operation Friedensturm, July 1918
Launched on 15 July in the Champagne region, the Fifth Offensive began with
the firing of 9000 tonnes of gas. At one of the main attack points, the French
General, Henri Pétain, had set up a line of unmanned trenches. The Germans
directed much of their gas attack against this line. Manned trenches located
further back were untouched by the bombardment. Fierce resistance and
counterattack by French and American forces halted the German advance.
On 18 July, Foch launched an attack along a 43-kilometre front that sent the
German army into full retreat. The Allies had broken the German line and
took 20 000 German prisoners.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In what way is source 13.20 evidence of the ‘turning point’ in the war?
2. How significant do you think technology, such as the tank featured in source
13.20, was in changing the course of the war?
Read more about the evolution of the tank by accessing the website for this book
and clicking on the Tanks in World War I weblink for this chapter.
By the end of July 1918, Germany’s Spring Offensive had failed. The Allies had
developed a number of defensive strategies in response to the German tactics.
The proportion of Allied troops on the front line had been reduced, with the
bulk of the fighting force located beyond German artillery range. The front
line became an outpost zone that was primarily defended by snipers and
machine gun posts. Behind the front line positions lay the ‘battle zone’, the
point at which the greatest resistance to the assault lay. The reserves of the
‘rear zone’ were ready to counterattack and push back any force that broke
through the battle zone.
 After the Kaiser’s Battle had yielded Germany large territorial gains, the
front line moved every day until Germany was within striking range of
Paris. The German armies had stood on the banks of the River Marne and
struck fear into the heart of France. Despite this huge and brilliant victory,
Germany failed to breach the Allied front. Ludendorff had gambled every-
thing on attaining the strategic objective of a quick victory.
When Germany launched its final great offensive on 15 July, Ludendorff’s
army was already depleted and near exhaustion. In the space of the following
six months, the ranks of the German army fell from 5.1 million fighting men
to 4.2 million. To cover the losses they had to endure, the German High
Command required 200 000 new recruits every month. Germany could not
provide the manpower or maintain the supply of provisions required to
support the military advances. Germany lost the initiative.
Despite the terrible losses, the Allied forces had not been broken. After
the four years of this relentless war, the Allies had managed to hold on in
the face of the onslaught. With the arrival of the American reinforcements,
the Allies could absorb their losses. The greater numbers combined with
superior equipment to produce a formidable Anglo–French force. As we will
see in chapter 14, as the Spring Offensive moved into summer, the balance of
war finally shifted.

Source 13.21
Extracts from the novel All Quiet
on the Western Front by German
soldier Erich Maria Remarque,
describing the failure of the
Spring Offensive from the
German perspective
SOURCE QUESTION
As an 18 year old, German
soldier Erich Remarque was
sent to the Western Front.
How does his source 13.21
account, from his novel All
Quiet on the Western Front,
contribute to our
understanding of:
(a) what had happened to the
armies of 1917 and 1918
(b) why Germany was
ultimately defeated?
Tanks, which used to be objects of ridicule, have become a major weapon. They
come rolling forward in a long line, heavily armoured, and they embody the
horror of war for us more than anything else.
We cannot see the gun batteries that are bombarding us, and the oncoming
waves of enemy attackers are human beings just like we are — but tanks are
machines, and their caterpillar tracks run on as endlessly as the war itself.
They spell out annihilation when they roll without feeling into the shell holes
and then climb out again, inexorably, a fleet of steel beasts that crush the dead
and the wounded. Before these we shrivel down into our thin skins, in the face
of their colossal force our arms are like straws and our handgrenades are
like matches . . .
The months drag on. The summer of 1918 is the bloodiest and the hardest
. . . Everyone knows that we are losing the war. Nobody talks about it much. We
are retreating. We won’t be able to attack again after this massive offensive. We
have no more men and no more ammunition . . .
Summer 1918. Never has life at the front been more bitter and more full of
horror than when we are under fire, when the pallid faces are pressed into the
mud and the fists are clenched and your whole being is saying, No! No! No, not
now! Not now at the very last minute! . . .
There are so many airmen here, and they are so skilful that they can hunt
down individuals like rabbits. For every German aircraft there are five British
or American ones. For every hungry, tired German soldier in the trenches there
are five strong, fresh men on the enemy side. For every German army-issue loaf
there are fifty cans of beef over there. We haven’t been defeated, because as
soldiers we are better and more experienced; we have simply been crushed and
pushed back by forces many times superior to ours . . .
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, translated from the
German by Brian Murdoch, Vintage, London, 1996, pp. 198–201.

Chapter 13 W Turning points 307

 HSC exam practice
Question 1 (5 marks) Marks
(a) Which group is referred to as ‘Pershing’s Crusaders’ in the source A poster? 2
(b) Using source C, explain in what way the war on the British front changed
in March and April 1918. 2
(c) From the information provided in source D, explain what General Haig considered
to be the German military objective and the necessary Allied military response. 1

Question 2 (10 marks)

How significant was the entry of America into the war in preparing the way for Allied victory?
Use sources A and B and your own knowledge to answer this question.

Question 3 (10 marks)

Assess how useful sources C and D would be for historians studying the impact of the Spring
Offensive on the course of the war and why it was regarded as a ‘turning point’ in World War I.
In your answer, consider the perspectives provided by the TWO sources and the reliability of each one.

Source A Source B
A US poster for the 1918 war film Captain T. Helby of the Royal Garrison
Pershing’s Crusaders Artillery recalls the events of 1918

In March 1918 our retreat had taken

us straight across a series of the old
Somme trenches. These had been
bridged by the Sappers with temporary
wooden bridges of doubtful strength
and just wide enough to take the gun
wheels. Any mistake at one of these
bridges would have been disastrous
— for a gun wheel dropped in a trench
would have blocked the whole road.
However, with the Hun behind us
and perhaps not too far at that, the
driving was superb. No body, nor horse,
put a foot wrong. But when we were
advancing across the Canal du Nord
in September our route went across
a large open field in which there was
one solitary shell hole. One of the guns
managed to put a wheel into that shell
hole! Such is the difference between
withdrawing with a threat of a German
bayonet behind you and advancing
against crumbling opposition.
Quoted in L. Macdonald, 1914–1918:
Voices and Images of the Great War,
Michael Joseph Ltd, London, 1988, p. 283.

308 Retrospective
 Source C
Extracts from Les Carlyon’s The Great War describing the impact of Operation Michael on Allied
forces

The last days of March and the first days of April [1918] were strange times on the British
front. Not since 1914 had the war been so errant, so confused. The era of trench stalemate,
its certainties and rituals, had passed. The frontline now changed by the hour. In many
places there was no such thing, just lines of outposts. In the morning they were here and
in the evening they were there; they were hardly ever where the generals thought they
were. Haig’s army had prided itself on its orderliness. In the last days of March many of
the divisions that faced Ludendorff’s onslaught lived in chaos and listened to rumours.
Formations south of the river were hopelessly mixed up. Gough’s 5th Army — what
was left of it — had become Rawlinson’s 4th Army. Enterprising officers would cobble up
scratch ‘divisions’ from labour companies, lost infantrymen, railway workers, walking
wounded, the odd American and passing cavalrymen carrying lances . . .
Les Carlyon, The Great War, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2006, p. 579.

Source D
Order of the day, from British Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig to all the British Forces in France,
dated 11 April 1918

Three weeks ago today the enemy began his terrific attacks against us on a fifty-mile front.
His objects are to separate us from the French, to take the Channel ports and destroy the
British Army.
In spite of throwing already 106 divisions into the battle and enduring the most reckless
sacrifice of human life, he has as yet made little progress towards his goals.
We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our troops. Words fail me to
express the admiration which I feel for the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our
Army under the most trying circumstances.
Many amongst us now are tired. To those I would say that victory will belong to the
side which holds out the longest. The French army is moving rapidly and in great force to
our support.
There is no other course open to us but to fight it out! Every position must be held to
the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the
justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and
the freedom of mankind alike depend on the conduct of each one of us at this
critical moment.
Signed D. Haig F.M.
Commander-in-Chief
British Armies in France

Chapter 3 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the

Chapter 13 W Turningcentury
mid nineteenth points 309
14 KEY DATES

1918
T January President
Wilson presents
Allied victory

W
In this chapter, you will learn about the following aspects of
World War I:
Events leading to the Armistice, 1918
W Reasons for the Allied victory and German collapse
‘14 points’ to US
Congress W The roles and differing goals of Clemenceau, Lloyd George
T June Allied
and Wilson in creating the Treaty of Versailles
counter-offensive
launched near Paris
T July US forces launch
attack on German forces
south of River Somme
T August Battle of
Amiens shatters
German resistance
T September Hindenburg
Line is broken and
Germany defeated
T October General
Ludendorff resigns
T November Mutiny in
Germany — military and
civil disobedience
T Kaiser Wilhelm II
abdicates; new German
republic is declared
T Armistice and end of

World War I

1919
T May German delegation
receive terms of
Treaty of Versailles
T June Germany signs
Treaty of Versailles

Source 14.1
This photograph shows American and French troops joining in the celebration of victory
in the streets of Paris, 11 November 1918

310 Retrospective
 Introduction
The Spring Offensive had cost Germany dearly. The attempt to drive the
‘French, British and Belgians into the sea’ left Germany with a critical man-
power shortage. By September 1918, the German army had no fresh reserve
forces to draw upon. Germany’s Spring Offensive had battered the Allied line
and broken it in places, but the Allied forces held on. The ranks of the depleted
Allied forces were reinforced by a new source of manpower that Germany
could not equal; by the end of July, one million Americans had replaced the
800 000 Allied casualties. Time became Germany’s enemy. The tide of the war
turned against it with each new arrival of American troops on French soil.

Events leading to the Armistice, 1918

Technology and tactics
In 1917 and 1918, a new style of warfare had emerged. The technology of tanks
provided troops with the opportunity to fight with greater ‘flexibility’. The prin-
ciple of holding ground and defending the front line was no longer critical to
ultimate victory. At the end of 1916, German tacticians adopted a new approach
to the battlefield, but they lacked the manpower and the resources to make the
most of their innovations. Improved tanks could now advance across trenches
and break the static warfare of attrition. At the last stages of the war, aeroplanes
could be used to gather vital intelligence information, drop supplies and bomb
enemy formations and communications. Superior varieties of shells were devised,
carrying shrapnel, gas and explosives. Artillery also had greater accuracy.
Source 14.2
A painting, by German artist
Michael Zeno Diemer, of a dog fight
between German and Allied aircraft
in World War I, published in the
German weekly magazine Jugend
in November 1918
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. With reference to source
14.2, explain how the
introduction of aeroplanes
aided in the development of
a ‘new style of warfare’.
2. How does the painting suggest
the term ‘dog fight’ came to
be used to describe the aerial
combat of World War I?
3. Visit the website for this book
and click on the War in the Air
weblink for this chapter (see
‘Weblinks’, page viii). Prepare a
PowerPoint presentation on a
topic or person that interests
you, such as a World War I
‘ace pilot’ or an aircraft and its
achievements.

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 311


Source 14.3
Extracts from Les Carlyon’s The
Great War, describing the World
War I revolution in technology
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. In source 14.3, Les Carlyon
describes World War I as
‘the epoch of the howitzer’.
Using the sources and the
information from the text,
explain the impact that
technology had on the style
of warfare and outcome of
World War I.
2. What would be required of
the home front in response
to the technological change
outlined in source 14.3?
scourge W an affliction or
disaster
The Allied home front also proved its worth in 1918. After the initial retreat
of the Spring Offensive, and the loss of life and armaments, the Allied home
front responded with delivery of new tanks, mortars, shells and guns. By July
1918, the British provided their troops with more guns than they had at the
commencement of the Spring Offensive. British battalions were well fed, well
supplied and reinforced with tanks.
The new colours were khaki and field grey, the right hues for the industrial age
and its armies of conscripts. The war here was about machines: howitzers and
mortars, machine guns and trains, wafer-like aircraft and tanks so ponderous that
one could outpace them on foot, poisonous gas and flamethrowers . . .
Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik firebrand living in exile in Switzerland, wrote at
the outbreak of war in 1914: ‘the epoch of the bayonet has begun’. He was wrong.
Bayonets caused less than one per cent of deaths on the western front. This was
the epoch of the howitzer . . .
Les Carlyon, The Great War, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2006, pp. 16–17.
Collapse of German morale
Morale crumbled in Germany with home front food shortages, years of
hardship and the realisation of defeat on the Western Front. After the initial
success of Operation Michael turned to defeat, the collapse of German morale
accelerated further. War weariness and sustained Allied propaganda hit
the exhausted German troops. Discipline broke down as rates of desertion
increased and hungry soldiers scavenged to supply themselves. The tactics
used during the Spring Offensive had cost half a million German lives, and
so, in an effort to replenish the ranks, German boys were recruited. In July,
Ludendorff was almost forced to postpone a planned attack on the Western
Front because so many of his troops had rapidly fallen ill and died from a
new scourge called the Spanish ’flu. Germany had had enough of war.

Source 14.4
A photograph of young German
prisoners being questioned by a
French officer in 1918

SOURCE QUESTION
What evidence does
source 14.4 provide about
Germany’s fighting capacity
at this stage of the war?

312 Retrospective

strafe W to attack by aircraft
with heavy, persistent machine
gun fire or to bomb heavily
The Allied counter-offensive
In June 1918, the Allied counter-offensive began at Belleau Wood, in the sector
of the front line nearest to Paris. It was an attack of great significance because
American troops were in the fight. In the two cemeteries that mark the place
of the battle today lie the graves of 2288 American soldiers and the names of
another 1060 Americans whose remains were not located. The savage fight at
Belleau Wood cost nearly 12 000 lives.
The new tactics of war were then demonstrated at the Battle of Hamel on
4 July, American Independence Day. American troops went into action along-
side Australians in launching an attack against a weak German sector south
of the River Somme. Within two hours, the village of Hamel was captured
and over a thousand German prisoners taken. The attack commenced with a
surprise bombardment by 600 guns, followed by 60 Mark V tanks that were
combined with specially trained infantry. The infantry were heavily armed
with Lewis guns and grenade-throwing rifles. Allied aircraft strafed and
bombed the enemy front lines while a gas and high explosive barrage, located
beyond the attack zone, provided defence against a German countermove.
The lessons learnt and tactics tried at the Battle of Hamel became a model for
the larger scale Allied counterattack that would follow.

Source 14.5
Map showing the line of the Western Front by November 1918
German retreat to
Zeebrugge
HOLLAND
Hindenburg Line,
February 1917
GREAT
Ostend Western Front,
BRITAIN ver 11 November 1918
Do Antwerp
of
a it Calais
Passchendaele
Ghent
r
St

Ypres
Messines Brussels
Boulogne
Neuve Chapelle

Mons
Loos
B E L G I U M
Arras

Riv Cambrai
er
me
Som
Amiens St Quentin LUXEMBOURG

F R A N C E se Aisne
Oi
River
Compiegne
Reims
r
ve
Ri

Ri
ve

r Verdun
r

R ive M
ar
ne
N
Paris
0 50 100 km
Sei
ne

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Examine the source 14.5 map and then explain where the Hindenburg Line
was located.
2. Why do you think crossing the Hindenburg Line was so critical to Allied victory?

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 313


Source 14.6
Summary of the significance
of the Battle of Amiens, as
expressed in an official German
monograph about the battle
purpose
perspective
SOURCE QUESTION
Official documents are usually
prepared by people well
informed about the events
being recorded. Considering
the nature of source 14.6,
explain how useful it would be
to historians examining the
reasons for Allied victory.
314 Retrospective
Battle of Amiens
On 8 August 1918, Germany suffered its ‘black day’ when the Allied assault
on Amiens finally shattered German resistance. The Battle of Amiens began
as a spectacular massed tank operation that was the largest of its kind during
World War I. The entire tank fleet of 552 vehicles moved secretly into place.
The tank engine noise was drowned out by the sound of 800 aircraft overhead.
Field guns shielded the Allied infantry, the heavy artillery blasted enemy lines
with high explosives and the German forces were outnumbered two to one.
The battle began at 4.20 a.m. By mid-afternoon, the main fighting was over
and the Allies had advanced 13 kilometres, capturing 12 000 prisoners and
over 400 guns. Low flying aircraft had attacked machine gun posts, horse-
drawn transport convoys, staff cars and infantry formations. By the end of
the third day of the offensive, the Allies had taken 24 000 German prisoners
and there was mass surrender. General Ludendorff was reported to have told
a member of his staff: ‘There is no more hope for the offensive, the generals
have lost their foothold’.
As the sun set on August 8th on the battlefield the greatest defeat which the
German Army had suffered since the beginning of the war was an accomplished
fact. The position divisions between the Avre and the Somme which had been
struck by the enemy attack were nearly completely annihilated. The troops in
the front line north of the Somme had also suffered seriously, as also the reserve
divisions thrown into the battle in the course of the day. The total loss of the
formations employed in the Second Army area is estimated at 650 to 700 officers
and 26 000 to 27 000 other ranks. More than 400 guns, besides a huge number of
machine guns, trench mortars, and other war material had been lost . . . More than
two-thirds of the total loss had surrendered as prisoners.
Thilo von Bose, Die Katastrophe des 8 August 1918, Oldenburg, Stalling, p. 114.
Source 14.7
A photograph of some of the thousands of German soldiers taken prisoner following the
Battle of Amiens in August 1918
 Source 14.8
A British postcard showing
the German railway gun, which
became known as the Amiens gun,
captured by Australian troops on
8 August 1918. The 28 cm calibre
gun, built by German metals
manufacturer Krupps, weighed
185 tonnes. The barrel and roof
section are part of the Australian
War Memorial’s National Collection.
SOURCE QUESTION
Using the evidence provided
by sources 14.6, 14.7 and
14.8, explain why the Battle of
Amiens could be regarded as
one of the decisive events in
the lead-up to the armistice.
Source 14.9
Extract from the memoirs of
German Commander Paul von
Hindenburg recounting the Battle
of Amiens on 8 August 1918
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. According to the source
14.9 extract from
Hindenburg’s memoirs,
tanks provided the British
with immediate success.
How does Hindenburg
explain the military
advantage provided by the
‘great tank’?
2. What impact did the ‘tank
attack of the enemy’ have
on German morale?
Australian War Memorial
Negative No. P05359.001
In a very thick haze a strong English tank attack had met with immediate
success . . . the tanks had met no special obstacles, natural or — unfortunately
— artificial. The troops on this front had certainly been thinking too much about
continuing the offensive and not enough of defence.
In any case, it would have cost us heavy losses to dig trenches and construct
obstacles when we were in direct contact with the enemy, for as soon as the
hostile observers noticed any movement, even if it were a matter of a few
individuals, their artillery immediately opened fire . . .
It was not only that little work had been done on the first line; even less had
been done on the support and rear lines. There was nothing available but isolated
sections of trenches and scattered strong points. On these so-called quiet fronts
the troops were not numerous enough for trench-digging on any large scale . . .
The great tank attack of the enemy had penetrated to a surprising depth. The tanks,
which were faster than hitherto, had surprised Divisional Staffs in their headquarters
and torn up the telephone lines which communicated with the battle front. The Higher
Command-posts were thus isolated, and orders could not reach the front line . . .
Of course our anti-tank guns fired in the direction from which the sound of motors
and the rattle of chains seemed to come, but they were frequently surprised by the
sight of these steel colossi suddenly emerging from some totally different quarter.
The wildest rumours began to spread in our lines. It was said that masses of English
cavalry were already far in rear of the foremost German infantry lines. Some of the
men lost their nerve, left positions from which they had only just beaten off strong
enemy attacks and tried to get in touch with the rear again. Imagination conjured up all
kinds of phantoms and translated them into real dangers . . .
In situations such as these the old war-hardened soldier does not lose his
self-possession. He does not imagine; he thinks! Unfortunately these old soldiers
were in a fast vanishing minority and, moreover, their influence did not always
and everywhere prevail. Other influences made themselves felt. Ill humour and
disappointment that the war seemed to have no end, in spite of all our victories,
had ruined the character of many of our brave men.
Dangers and hardships in the field, battle and turmoil, on top of which came the
complaints from home about many real and some imaginary privations! All this
gradually had a demoralizing effect . . .
Quoted in Charles F. Horne (ed.), Source Records of the Great War,
Vol. VI, National Alumni, 1923.
Chapter 14 W Allied victory 315
 Source 14.10
Extracts from a newspaper
report of 27 August 1918,
by British wartime reporter
Philip Gibbs, describing the
changes that occurred with
the Battle of Amiens
batteries W fortifications
equipped with artillery
salient W a military position
that bulges forward into
enemy-held territory and, as a
result, could be vulnerable to
attack from three sides
316 Retrospective
After [July] the tide turned in an astonishing way. It is now the enemy who is on
the defensive, dreading the hammer blows that fall upon him day after day, and
the initiative of attack is so completely in our hands that we are able to strike him
at many different places.
Since August 8th we must have taken nearly 50 000 prisoners and nearly
500 guns, and the tale is not yet told because our men are going on, taking new
strides, new batches of Germans, and more batteries.
The change has been greater in the minds of men than in the taking of
territory. On our side the army seems to be buoyed up with the enormous hope
of getting on with this business quickly. They are fighting for a quick victory and
a quick peace so they may get back to normal life and wipe this thing clean from
the map of Europe and restore the world to sane purposes . . .
But there is a change also in the enemy’s mind. Those German soldiers and their
officers are changed men since March 21st, when they launched their offensive.
They no longer have even a dim hope of victory on this western front. All they hope
for now is to defend themselves long enough to gain peace by negotiation.
Quoted in Charles F. Horne (ed.), Source Records of the Great War,
Vol. VI, National Alumni, 1923.
SOURCE QUESTION
According to the British wartime reporter, Philip Gibbs, the Battle of Amiens
brought a great change in the course of the war. With reference to source 14.10
and your own knowledge, write a short report on the significance of the Battle of
Amiens. In your report, you should consider:
(a) when and how the battle began
(b) the battle strategy and tactics
(c) the impact of the battle on the soldiers who fought
(d) the military outcome.
You may wish to access more information by going to the website for this book
and clicking on the Amiens weblink for this chapter.
The German army’s official history declared Amiens the worst defeat since
the beginning of the war. General Ludendorff recommended that Germany now
pursue a policy of wearing the Allies down so that they would be agreeable
to commencing negotiations for peace. Germany still controlled large areas of
French and Belgian territory, useful for striking a bargain at future peace talks.
The Allied firepower of 1918 meant that enemy trenches could be taken
without the terrible loss of life that had accompanied the war on the Western
Front in 1916. Allied foot soldiers were now protected by counter-battery fire,
smoke barrages, tanks, air power and seven times the number of Lewis guns
each Allied battalion had been equipped with two years previously.
In 1918, the British gunners of Amiens already knew the location of 95 per
cent of the German batteries aimed at them. This technology, and the tactics
that came from it, was the basis of the Allied ‘freeing offensive’ that began
in August 1918. As British, Canadian and Australian troops pushed on with
Amiens, the Americans launched their attack on the St Mihiel salient and
General Mangin’s French forces launched a counter-attack on the Marne. The
German salient on the Marne was so close to the French capital that Paris-
ians could clearly see the artillery explosions glowing in the night sky. Four
American divisions and 500 tanks supported Mangin’s attack.
 The final offensive
The Allies gave Germany no rest after its ‘black day’. The Supreme Allied
Commander, General Ferdinand Foch, determined to rupture the last German
line of defence, gave orders for the Allied final offensive to be launched on
3 September 1918. In mid September, Allied forces pressed forward along
the length of the Hindenburg Line, the series of heavily fortified areas that
the Germans had constructed behind their lines in 1916. The Allies gained
valuable strategic positions from which they could commence their final and
decisive breakthrough.
Source 14.11
A photograph of Allied Supreme
Commander Ferdinand Foch (left)
with US General John J. Pershing,
c. 1918

SOURCE QUESTION
Imagine you are a British
journalist sent to France
to report on the arrival of
the American reinforcements.
You have just photographed
General Foch and General
Pershing. Write a short report
on what you believe to be:
(a) the significance of the
partnership between
these two generals
(b) the role they play in
bringing the Great War
to an end.
Consult the text for factual detail.

The key breakthrough action was planned for 26 September, with the
American army driving into Argonne. Within 24 hours of the opening of
the Argonne offensive, the Allies had taken 23 000 German prisoners. The
following day, the British First and Third Armies attacked north of Arras.
On 28 September, the British, French and Belgian forces attacked in Flan-
ders and finally, on 29 September, the British Fourth and French First Armies
advanced on the Somme. Collectively, this offensive was the largest and most
decisive of the entire World War I. The British Fourth Army broke through
the powerful Hindenburg Line by the end of the first day. With the fall of the
Hindenburg Line, Germany was defeated.

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 317

 Source 14.12
A photograph of a mass
of British soldiers from the
46th Division lining the steep
slope of the Saint Quentin Canal,
as they are addressed by
their Brigadier, J. V. Campbell,
during the breaking of the
Hindenburg Line

SOURCE QUESTION
Source 14.12 is a striking
image from the closing weeks
of World War I. Explain how
this source can help to create
an understanding of:
(a) the nature of warfare
during this period
in history
(b) the particular significance
to the Allied forces of
the breaking of the
Hindenburg Line.

The defeat of the Central Powers

sue W to make an appeal
armistice W a temporary halt
to fighting in order to allow
peace negotiations
In the smaller theatres of war, Germany’s allies were collapsing. On
29 September 1918, the Allied forces stationed in Salonika in Greece invaded
Bulgaria. Bulgaria sued for peace and was given an armistice with severe
terms. Turkey lost Damascus and Aleppo. The Allies destroyed the army of
the Ottoman Empire and so Turkey capitulated on 30 October. On the same
day, Austria sued for an armistice. The Austro–Hungarian Empire had fallen
apart, the Czechoslovaks had declared independence on 21 October and, in
the following week, the Yugoslavs declared the same. This was the first step
in the complete separation of Austria and Hungary. As the will of the Central
Powers to continue the war disintegrated, Ludendorff and Hindenburg
sought an audience with Kaiser Wilhelm II and advised him to arrange a
German armistice ‘as early as possible’, with America’s President Wilson as
the facilitator. Events moved rapidly.

318 Retrospective

Hohenzollern W the German
family that ruled Prussia
from 1701, and became rulers
of Germany in 1871 until
Wilhelm II was dethroned
in 1918
Source 14.13
A historian’s description of
the cessation of hostilities on
11 November 1918
message
note attitude and
subjective language
On 27 October, Erich Ludendorff resigned and the German government
attempted to reform the constitution in the hope that a more democratic par-
liamentary regime may obtain more favourable peace terms. At the beginning
of November, mutiny broke out in Germany, unleashing military disobedience
on a massive scale. Within days, the revolt spread through most of northern
Germany. Ludendorff claimed that socialist ideas were poisoning Germany’s
fighting forces and that his confidence in the loyalty of the troops was lost.
On 9 November, revolution in Berlin brought an end to the Hohenzollern
dynasty with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. As a result of pressure
from the Allies, a new German republican government was declared. The
government was keen to bring an end to war before Allied troops could
advance onto German soil.
At 5.30 a.m. on 11 November 1918, the representatives of the Allied powers
finalised negotiations for an armistice with Germany’s newly created civilian
government. Radio broadcasts directed armies to cease fighting at eleven
o’clock that same morning. Private George Price, a Canadian soldier, was
shot by a German sniper at two minutes to eleven. His death in the village of
Ville-sur-Haine is recorded as one of the last casualties of World War I.
The carnage of the ‘Great War’ finally came to an end at the eleventh hour
of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. The Allied Powers had lost
more than five million soldiers; the Central Powers had lost over three and
a half million. For the nations that had endured warfare on their soil, the
numbers of civilians killed were almost as terrible as the military statistics.
The war ended as abruptly as it had begun. The Imperial War Museum have a
field message written on the squared notepaper of a field service notebook. It is
marked ‘Urgent’ and timed at 9.30 am on 11 November 1918. It announced that
‘hostilities will cease at 11 am today. Form up and march independently to the
Chateau Harveng AT ONCE. Do not forget to bring your cookers with you.’ Just
as the emphasis on exact time reflects the punctiliousness of the industrialized
combatants involved, so the somewhat breathless announcement just an hour
and a half before the momentous fact suggests how unexpectedly events had
turned out.
Exactness was extended to its limit. Rollfilm records of artillery sound ranging
show much firing up to 10.59 am then total silence. Harrison recorded a trench raid
on the morning of the eleventh in his diary. At Le Cateau, Nicholson remembered
vigorous skirmishing to the end, particularly from one enemy machine-gun nest.
On the stroke of the hour, Harrison wrote, the Germans threw their helmets and
rifles into the air and came over to shake hands, while Nicholson recorded a 1000-
round burst from the troublesome machine-gun, the gunners then standing up and
taking off their forage caps to the English and walking away without looking back . . .
Denis Winter, Death’s Men: Soldiers of the Great War,
Penguin Books, London, 1979, p. 235.
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. When did World War I officially end?
2. Using source 14.13 and your own knowledge, briefly describe the events
immediately prior to the armistice taking effect.
3. What evidence does source 14.13 provide regarding the abrupt nature
of the end of the war?
Chapter 14 W Allied victory 319
 Reasons for Allied victory and German collapse
scapegoats W people made
to bear the blame for
others’ actions
blockade W the closing off
of a port or harbour by hostile
ships, preventing entrance
or exit
The Treaty of Versailles
320 Retrospective
Germany’s ‘Black Day’ brought the realisation that Germany was losing the
war on many fronts. The Allies’ final victory came from the advantage of being
able to draw upon more personnel, more equipment and more supplies.
The main reasons for the Allied victory can be summarised as follows.
W The Allied command structure allowed more efficient organisation
of resources and the ability to direct a highly coordinated and a well
prepared counter-offence. Ferdinand Foch, as Allied commander,
provided unity of purpose and planning. His leadership style
encouraged flexibility, allowing generals to devise the strategies
best suited to local conditions. In 1918, the Allied forces showed
greater skill and leadership in the coordination of infantry, armour,
artillery and aircraft operations. Ludendorff, by contrast, looked for
scapegoats and appeared indecisive in the closing months of the war.
W Allied factories provided troops with the weaponry and more
sophisticated technology necessary for breaking the deadlock and
maintaining the counter-attack. Allied mass production of the machine
gun provided mobile fire, large numbers of tanks provided troop
protection while aircraft bombed and strafed behind enemy lines.
W The Allied nations achieved greater industrial and agricultural output
and drew on the vast resources of the British and French empires.
W The British enjoyed naval supremacy and the Allies established
a naval blockade that prevented German access to its resources
and so denied supplies to the Central Powers. Germany’s U-boat
warfare failed to break the naval blockade.
W The American alliance provided troop reinforcements at the critical
time for the Allies, while German manpower was stretched beyond
breaking point and home front morale was low. The American
alliance also provided financial support and strengthened the
Allied resources, while Germany’s allies were a burden. Bulgaria,
Austria–Hungary and Turkey were not able to break through on any
front between 1914 and 1917. The war effort of the Central Powers
collapsed when German troops withdrew. By September 1918,
Austria was seeking a separate peace settlement with the Allied
forces and the strength of the Ottoman Empire had crumbled.
The terms of the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 expressed the Allies’
determination that Germany should accept responsibility for the horror of
World War I. At the Paris Peace Conference, from November 1918 to June
1919, the representatives of the victors sat in judgement of the vanquished. No
delegates of the Central Powers or the new Bolshevik government attended
the conference. The Treaty of Versailles was the agreement imposed upon
Germany by a supreme council, composed of representatives of the five
nations: France, Britain, the United States, Italy and Japan.
 Source 14.14
A 1919 photograph of three of the representatives of the Allied nations at the Versailles
Peace Conference: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George (left), French Prime Minister
Georges Clemenceau (centre) and US President Woodrow Wilson (right)

SOURCE QUESTION
Source 14.14 captures an image of the three leaders who represented the Allied
forces at the peace conferences. Who were these men and why were they on their
way to Versailles?
At the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had already surren-
dered all its armaments, aircraft and naval vessels. To ensure that Germany
did not back out of signing the final agreement, the Allies maintained the
naval blockade of Germany.

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 321


plebiscite W a direct vote
by the people of a state on a
question of public importance
or political affiliation
demilitarise W to prevent by
treaty or force an independent
state from arming itself
mandate W a responsibility
granted to a nation, by an
official body, to administer the
government and affairs of a
people in an underdeveloped
nation or territory
reparations W the
compensation in money paid
by a defeated nation for
damage and injury
322 Retrospective
The terms of the Treaty were designed to punish and contain German power.
According to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was:
W deprived of six million people and 13 per cent of its European territory:
— France reclaimed the Province of Alsace–Lorraine and the right
to work the coalmines of the Saar Basin for 15 years
— Poland was granted Posen and a 60-milewide corridor to the Baltic Sea
— Belgium was granted Moresnet, Eupen and Malmedy
— Danzig was established as a free city under the League of Nations’
supervision
— City of Memel was taken from Germany and given to Lithuania
(newly created state)
— plebiscites were held in Schleswig (given to Denmark), areas of East
Prussia and Upper Silesia (given to Poland)
W not permitted to have tanks, heavy artillery, poison gas supplies or a
naval and military air force
W forbidden to have conscription for military service, with the bulk of the
navy surrendered to the Allies:
— German army restricted to a maximum of 100 000 personnel,
navy to 15 000
— production of arms supervised by an Allied Commission
W permitted only a severely restricted tonnage of naval vessels:
— submarines and dreadnoughts (battleships) were forbidden
— Kiel Canal to be demilitarised
— significant fortifications, such as the Helgoland Naval Base,
to be dismantled
W forced to demilitarise the Rhineland forever to ensure French security;
Allied forces to occupy the Rhineland for 15 years
W denied overseas investments and colonies; Germany was declared
colonially unworthy so its possessions in China, the Pacific Ocean
and Africa were confiscated and given to Britain, France, Belgium
and Japan as territories under mandate from the League of Nations
W forced to accept Allied control of trade and shipping carried out through
the Elbe, Oder and Rhine Rivers:
— all German merchant ships over 1600 tonnes were confiscated
— Luxembourg withdrawn from the German customs union with its
trade going to Belgium
W forbidden Anschluss, or union, with Austria to prevent a potential means
of forming a greater Germany
W forced to accept the blame for the war according to Article 231 (the ‘war
guilt clause’) which stated that: ‘The Allied and Associated governments
affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies
for causing the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated
governments have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed
upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.’ In having the
treaty imposed on it, Germany was forced to accept responsibility
through the ‘war guilt clause’. Germany was committed to paying
reparations, the amount to be determined by the Reparations
Commission (in April 1921 the amount was set at 66 hundred million
pounds, plus interest).
 The roles and differing goals of the peacemakers
humanitarian W someone
who has regard for the interest
of all mankind
Source 14.15
A photograph of (seated) Orlando,
Lloyd George, Clemenceau and
Woodrow Wilson at Wilson’s Paris
residence in 1919, prior to signing
the Versailles Treaty
SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What does source 14.15
suggest about the
relationship between these
four world leaders?
2. Draw up three columns
for the statesmen who
dominated at Versailles.
Identify who each personality
is, who he represented and
what he wanted to achieve
from the peace settlement.
The conflicting motives and aims driving the representatives of the victorious
nations became clear when discussion of the war settlement began. There had
been talk in 1917 and 1918 of ensuring this conflict became ‘the war to end
all wars’. The aims of three statesmen soon dominated the conference: Great
Britain’s Prime Minister David Lloyd George, Premier Georges Clemenceau
of France and President Woodrow Wilson from the United States of America.
Vittorio Orlando, Prime Minister of Italy, also attended but resigned when
the other leaders rejected his demands for German colonial possessions in
Africa. Japan was not included in the Versailles negotiations; its influence
was confined to Asian and Pacific settlements.
With the drafting of the Versailles Treaty, relations between Clemenceau,
Lloyd George and Wilson came close to breaking point. During the early
stages of the conference, Wilson and Lloyd George came to an understanding
that the treaty should address issues of universal justice, as well as delivering
compensation for the Allied war cost and suffering. In promoting the idea
that Versailles offered an opportunity for a considered and reasonable peace,
Woodrow Wilson was depicted as a naïve humanitarian. Lloyd George was
not personally in favour of imposing a harsh peace on Germany, but he had
recently won an election in Britain (known as ‘Khaki election’ as it was driven
by war) where he had publicly committed to ‘make Germany pay’. In telling
the British people that ‘Germany would be squeezed like a lemon until you
can hear the pips squeak’, Lloyd George was forced to pursue the treaty as an
opportunity for German punishment.
Throughout negotiations, Clemenceau insisted that Germany remained
a potential threat and severe measures were justified to ensure German
disarmament and the future security of France. Clemenceau held Germany
accountable for devastating his country and killing 1.4 million French
soldiers. Clemenceau resented the American president’s attempts to dictate
terms for Britain and France’s settlement with Germany. Wilson’s nation had
not suffered as France had. Clemenceau demanded revenge and reparations.
Chapter 14 W Allied victory 323
 Congress W the national
legislative body of the
United States
Source 14.16
Extracts from the ‘Fourteen
Points’, President Woodrow
Wilson’s address on 8 January
1918 to the US Congress,
10 months before the armistice
that ended World War I
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Read source 14.16
and then answer the
following questions.
1. Why did America enter
the war and what goals
were set when peace
was achieved?
2. What role does Woodrow
Wilson suggest ‘diplomacy’
had in the future?
3. How does Wilson suggest
‘political independence’
and ‘territorial integrity’
could be guaranteed?
4. How does Wilson believe
a ‘just and stable peace’
could be achieved?
5. What does President
Wilson hope would become
Germany’s ‘place’ in
the world?
forum W an assembly for the
discussion of questions of
public interest
324 Retrospective
In his address to the US Congress in January 1918, Woodrow Wilson had
proposed 14 points as general principles forming the basis of a World War I
settlement (see source 14.16). Many Germans claimed they had agreed to an
armistice in the belief that Wilson’s 14 points would be enshrined within the
peace treaty. During the months of negotiation, Woodrow Wilson was forced
to sacrifice many of his ideals, but he refused to compromise on one of the
points — his vision for the League of Nations.
We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to
the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected
and the world secure once for all against their recurrence. What we demand in this
war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and
safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation
which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be
assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force
and selfish aggression. All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this
interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to
others it will not be done to us. The programme of the world’s peace, therefore, is our
programme; and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this:
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private
international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always
frankly and in the public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike
in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by
international action for the enforcement of international covenants . . .
XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants
for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and
territorial integrity to great and small states alike.
In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel
ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated
together against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in
purpose. We stand together until the end.
For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue
to fight until they are achieved; but only because we wish the right to prevail and
desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief
provocations to war, which this programme does remove. We have no jealousy
of German greatness, and there is nothing in this programme that impairs it. We
grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such
as have made her record very bright and very enviable. We do not wish to injure
her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to
fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing
to associate herself with us and the other peaceloving nations of the world in
covenants of justice and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a place
of equality among the peoples of the world — the new world in which we now live
— instead of a place of mastery.
The League of Nations became the peace conference’s first major item of
business. Wilson’s vision for the League of Nations was the creation of an
open forum for the discussion of international disputes and the abolition of
secret treaties. Through an association of nations, the territorial integrity and
independence of ‘great and small states alike’ could be guaranteed. Wilson
also called for an international court of justice for the settlement of disputes
through arbitration. International aggression could be dealt with by collective
security and joint action.
 Source 14.17
Punch magazine cartoon
of 25 March 1919 depicting
US President Woodrow Wilson’s
efforts to secure future world
peace through the creation
of the League of Nations

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. What comment does the
source 14.17 cartoon make
on the ideal expressed
in President Wilson’s
fourteenth point?
2. How does the cartoonist
view President Wilson?

Source 14.18
Cartoon from the Daily Herald,
17 May 1919, expressing a
contemporary view of the
peace settlements

SOURCE QUESTIONS
1. Who are the political
leaders depicted in
source 14.18?
2. What comment does the
cartoon make about the
Treaty of Versailles
and the legacy left for
future generations?

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 325

 The ‘just’ peace
The ‘Big Three’ who dominated the work of the peace conference lacked
common goals and unity of purpose. In a climate of distrust, it was not
possible to shape a settlement that would have the chance to ‘end all wars’.
Despite the division, the Treaty of Versailles did make provision for the
setting up of the League of Nations. The European press, politicians and
public supported Wilson’s idea. In April 1919, the peace settlement delegates
unanimously accepted the principles underlying the League. The League
was then assigned the responsibility of administering many of the peace
treaty provisions.
It was said of the men who made the peace at Versailles that they had entered
negotiations with ‘their mouths full of fine phrases, but their brains seething
with dark thoughts’. The treaty created by the leaders of the victorious nations
left a legacy of bitter resentment. Clemenceau had wanted to destroy German
power and ensure French security, but German militarism was not dead. The
treaty left the way open for a German dictator who would scorn the democratic
government that had accepted the German humiliation.

Source 14.19
SOURCE QUESTIONS
Extracts from one historian’s analysis of the peacemakers
Read source 14.19 then answer
the following questions. The men in Paris never had a free hand. Constricted not only by their wartime
1. Identify the ‘men in Paris’. agreements with one another and by pledges at home, but also by the accumulated
2. What were the ‘constrictions’ debris of war itself, they could do no more than try to produce some order from
placed upon them? chaos, determine details of frontiers and plan projects of compensation, and leave
3. What was their task at the the achievement of greater precision and perfection to subsequent negotiation and
meetings in Paris? good sense. They were not, as they have sometimes been depicted, men behaving
like gods and reshaping a new heaven on earth . . . Perhaps the biggest mistake they
4. What could they not do and
made was to mention at all ideals of absolute justice or perpetual peace; for these,
what was their mistake?
surely, were a most impossible outcome of the conditions in which Europe found
5. How does David Thomson itself when the guns no longer thundered and the men came marching home . . .
judge the work of the
peacemakers in shaping David Thomson, Europe Since Napoleon, Revised edition,
Penguin, London 1990.
the Treaty of Versailles?
On 7 May 1919, the German delegation received the terms of the treaty.
Germany had expected a peace based on President Wilson’s 14 points, but
was forced instead into signing a treaty it regarded as a diktat — a punish-
ment dictated to Germany.
Lloyd George feared the Allies had pushed Germany too far. He wrote a
memorandum at Fontainebleau in which he argued the terms of the treaty
were too severe and would jeopardise the future peace and stability of Europe.
The representatives of the German government that signed the Treaty of Ver-
sailles did so under great protest. Germany’s new democratic government,
formed in Weimar, was left with a heavy burden to bear.
Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. This was five years
to the day since the assassination of Emperor Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo.
The peace that marked the end of war opened up a new era of thwarted
ambition and discontent. In following principles of self-determination, the
treaties of World War I recognised the new European nations that arose from
the shattered Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.
These new nations were composed of many racial minorities who believed

326 Retrospective
 the new map of Europe had cut them away from their homelands. The Treaty
of Versailles was not capable of delivering peace and justice for all.
On 11 November 1918, David Lloyd George had announced the armistice to
the British House of Commons. After the years of suffering, he expressed the
hope for world peace: ‘Thus at eleven o’clock this morning came to an end the
cruellest and most terrible war that has ever scourged mankind. I hope that
we may say that thus, this fateful morning, came to an end all wars.’
Source 14.20 Australian War Memorial
Negative No. E04942B
A photograph taken on 3 October
1918 showing the bodies of
American soldiers, with their grave
markers, awaiting burial after a
battle near Guillemont Farm, on
the Hindenburg Line. Stretchers
are stacked up in the background.

SOURCE QUESTION
Source 14.20 is a poignant
reminder of the cost of war.
In small groups, discuss what
you believe to be the key
features and issues that need
to be identified in a study of
World War I. Share your
findings with the class.

Source 14.21
You keep thinking about this man, or rather that huddle of clay-smeared bones . . .
Extracts from Les Carlyon’s which is absurd because you know nothing about him and never will. Maybe that’s
The Great War
why you keep thinking about him. What was he doing when the shell hit? Was he on
sentry duty, scratching away at lice as he stared into a black night, or was he hopping
the bags? Did he hear the shell coming? Was he young or old? Did he have a wife and
children? What did he think about the war? Who wept when he was reported missing?
The Great War is long ago and far away. And in the clay that is soft and springy
under your feet at Boesinghe [Belgian battlefield] it is still with us, loaded with
mysteries and heavy with sadness and thoughts of things that are unspeakable.
All the Australians who fought on the western front are gone now. There were so
many of them, and we never really saw them.
Les Carlyon, The Great War, Pan Macmillan Australia, Sydney, 2006, p. 777.

SOURCE QUESTION
Source 14.21 expresses the difficulty historians face in reconstructing and creating
an understanding of past events. Using a variety of source materials as the basis
for your work, create a PowerPoint presentation of one of the World War I syllabus
points. ‘Events leading to the armistice’, for example, may be communicated to the
class through a series of source images of the changing technology of warfare
followed by photos of soldiers in action at the Battle of Amiens. At the conclusion
of your presentation, briefly explain what problems you encountered in trying to
explore the past. Identify any gaps in the evidence, and any obvious bias or
inconsistency in the source material.

Chapter 14 W Allied victory 327

 HSC exam practice
Question 1 (5 marks) Marks
(a) Using source A, explain the reaction of the Australian infantry
to the events of the March 1918 Spring Offensive. 2
(b) According to source B, what is the cartoonist’s opinion of the impact
of the Versailles Treaty on Germany and who is held responsible? 2
(c) According to source C, what was the breakthrough that brought four years
of ‘static warfare’ to an end? 1

Question 2 (10 marks)

Explain the reasons for the German collapse at the end of the Great War of 1914–18.
Use sources A and C and your own knowledge to answer this question. 10

Question 3 (10 marks)

Assess how useful sources B and D would be for historians studying the roles and objectives
of the statesmen who created the Treaty of Versailles.
In your answer, consider the perspectives provided by the TWO sources and the reliability
of each one.

Source A
An account by Australia’s World War I official correspondent C. E. W. Bean about the events
of March 1918

The Australians . . . had, like other British troops, heard with entire confidence of the
German onslaught on 21st March. Let the Germans come, was the general feeling. The
enemy would only batter himself to bits! But by the 25th men read in the communiqués
with amazement the names of familiar towns — Peronne, Bapaume, and — on later days
— the old villages whose ruins marked, though sometimes with a heap of rubble, the
man-made wilderness of the Somme battlefield. On 25th March it was stated at the Press
headquarters in bomb-shaken Amiens that there was possibly no British division between
there and the Germans, some twenty-eight miles away. Also came word that some big
German gun was shelling Paris from a forest seventy miles distant.
In the crisis the Australian infantry divisions began to strain on the leash which held
them idle in the north . . . By March 25th the 3rd and 4th Divisions were on their way to
train or bus — their bands playing ‘Colonel Bogey’ or the men singing old marching songs
with a new spirit . . . they could see every step led directly towards beating the German . . .
C. E. W. Bean, Anzacs to Amiens,
Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1946, pp. 408–9.

328 Retrospective
 Source B
‘The Allies are burying
Germany with the Versailles
terms’, a cartoon by German
artist Wilhelm Schulz published
in August 1919 in Simplicissimus,
a weekly German magazine

Source C
An extract from a diary
entry of a German soldier,
March 1918

I’d like to write volumes

about this day; it really
must be the greatest in
the history of the world!
So the impossible thing
has been achieved;
the breakthrough has
succeeded! The last night
of the four years of static
warfare passed . . . in the
greatest excitement . . . The
first prisoners are coming
through, well-built chaps,
with very good uniforms
Source D
and equipment . . . all
thorough-going ‘Tommies’ Speech by Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, the German delegate
walking along cheerfully presented with the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919
with a fag in their
mouths. I had a quick Gentlemen,
word with the British We are deeply impressed with the great mission
gunners, they had been that has brought us here to give to the world forthwith
completely surprised and a lasting peace … we know the intensity of the hatred
were speechless at our which meets us, and we have heard the victor’s passionate
massed infantry assault . . . demand that as the vanquished we shall be made to pay,
Herbert Sulzbach, and as the guilty we shall be punished. The demand is
With the German Guns, made that we shall acknowledge that we alone are guilty
Leo Cooper, London, 1973 of having caused the war. Such a confession in my mouth
(originally published would be a lie.
1953), pp. 150–1.

Chapter 3 W Yankees and Confederates in the American states in the

Chapter 14 W Alliedcentury
mid nineteenth victory 329
 Glossary
abdicate to give up or renounce a position of power,
right or claim (p. 290)
abdication the giving up or renouncing of a position
of power or of a right or claim (p. 58)
abolitionist a person who campaigned for the ending
of slavery (p. 26)
absolute power the complete power to make laws,
overrule laws, and appoint or dismiss ministers and
advisors, at will (p. 44)
active voice a sentence construction in which the subject historical investigation. The list needs to be compiled in
is doing the action rather than having it done by her/him accordance with certain accepted rules. (p. 176)
(p. 173)
agrarian relating to rural or agricultural life (p. 22)
alliances agreements between nations to work together
for a specific goal (p. 200)
anarchism a political movement aiming to overthrow
governmental authority and replace it with the voluntary dressed in black trousers, black leather jackets, black
cooperation of groups and individuals working for the
common good (p. 199)
annex to take possession of new territory (p. 4)
annexations territories lost through takeover (p. 292)
anti-Semitism or anti-Semitic an attitude of prejudice
against Jews (pp. 43, 67, 185)
arbitration to settle a dispute, or reach an agreement,
through a hearing held by a person appointed by the law ships, preventing entrance or exit (p. 320)
(p. 258)
armistice a temporary halt to fighting in order to allow
peace negotiations (pp. 292, 318)
artillery mounted guns, movable or stationary, as
distinguished from small weapons (p. 10)
assassination the murder of someone significant or
important, usually someone powerful in the political
world. The assassin’s purpose might be the pursuit of an
ideological or political goal or revenge. (pp. 52, 146)
atolls lagoons in the ocean, surrounded by coral reefs in individual/group to engage in different behaviour.
a ring-like formation (p. 106)
autocracy a form of government in which the ruler is
unwilling to share her/his political power or have any
limits placed on it (p. 43)
autocrat a ruler who is unwilling to share his power or
have any limits placed on it (pp. 44, 187)
330 Glossary
autocratic uncontrolled or unlimited authority over
others; unwilling to share power or have any limits
placed on it (pp. 2, 6, 261)
Balkans the term used to describe the area of south-
eastern Europe on the Balkan peninsula (p. 203)
batteries fortifications equipped with artillery (p. 316)
bayonet a knife blade which soldiers attached to their
rifles and used in close combat with the enemy (p. 218)
bibliography a list of the sources you have used in your
bite and hold a tactic requiring soldiers to use speed
and surprise to occupy a small section of the enemy’s
front line and then to defeat counterattacks (p. 240)
Black Panthers a militant political party established by
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966 with the goal of
gaining equality for African Americans. Its members
berets and blue shirts. (p. 140)
Black Power a movement from the 1960s onwards
promoting African Americans’ control of their own
political and cultural organisations with the goals of
promoting pride in their race and achieving equality
(p. 139)
blockade the closing off of a port or harbour by hostile
Bolshevik Revolution Russian revolution of 1917, which
brought to power a government proclaiming to recreate
society for the benefit of its workers (p. 247)
Bolsheviks members of the Bolshevik party which
created the revolution of October 1917 that brought it
to power. An earlier revolution in February 1917 had
resulted in the Tsar’s loss of power. (pp. 42, 292)
boycott the policy of refusing to use or purchase
the goods or services provided by an individual
or group. The purpose is to bring pressure on the
(pp. 116, 131)
bureaucracy officials appointed to put political decisions
into practice (p. 47)
Cabinet members of the House of Representatives
appointed by the president to decide government policy
(p. 23)
capitalism an economic system based on private
ownership of the means of production and pursuit of
business opportunities for the owner’s individual profits
(p. 96)
capitalist one who is involved in the running and
owning of private business enterprises (p. 261)
censorship government control over what the public can
view, read or hear (p. 271)
civil disobedience a campaign in which participants
refuse to obey laws that they believe to be unjust (p. 132)
civil rights rights that anyone in a given society is
entitled to as a member of that society; the rights that the
US Constitution gives to its citizens (p. 131)
Civil Rights Movement a program of protest and civil
disobedience undertaken by African Americans and
their supporters in the 1950s and 1960s to overcome
racist policies that denied them their civil rights (p. 126)
civil war a war between groups or regions within their
own country (p. 22)
clemency mercy or kindness, particularly that shown
to an enemy (p. 12)
Cold War the period of political, economic and
ideological rivalry between the United States and the
Soviet Union, from around 1945 to 1991. While the
two nations did not engage in direct military conflict,
they did supply troops, weaponry and finances to one
another’s enemies. (pp. 97, 104)
colony land settled and ruled by a foreign power
which exploits the colony’s people and resources while
maintaining a distinction between the ruling nation and
the colonial people it views as inferior (p. 86)
commune the main system for organising farming
between 1861 and 1905. Each Russian commune owned
the land its peasants worked and its village council
organised the farming tasks. (p. 46)
communism a political ideology and economic system,
developed by Karl Marx (1818–83), in which people
share equally the ownership of their society’s resources,
contribute to its work according to their abilities and
are provided for according to their needs. Its main ideas
include the abolition of private ownership of property;
government control of the nation’s resources; and the
elimination of classes. (pp. 59, 91, 147)
Confederates the popular name of the seven (later
eleven) Southern states that seceded (withdrew) from the
American Union in 1861 (p. 22)
Confederation a league or alliance (p. 4)
Congress national legislature of the United States,
consisting of the House of Representatives and the
Senate. Both groups are elected by popular vote.
(pp. 23, 324)
conscription calling people up for compulsory service
(p. 257)
conservative wanting conditions to remain as they
are, unchanged; favouring the preservation of existing
conditions and institutions (pp. 2, 261)
conspiracy a secret agreement between two or more
people to commit an illegal act (p. 158)
constitution the rules (usually written) that set out how
a state will be organised and the nature and limits of the
government’s powers within it (p. 24)
constitutional government carried out in accordance
with rules about how a state will be organised and
the nature and limits of the government’s power
within it (p. 4)
constitutional monarchy in Britain, this means that
Parliament is the governing body. The monarch as head
of state is an important figurehead, whose powers are
limited by a constitution comprising both written and
unwritten sources. The prime minister is the head of
government. (p. 187)
convoy an armed force or formation of ships that acts as
an escort for protection (p. 296)
cop a blighty obtain a wound which was serious enough
to require the victim to be sent back to England (p. 222)
counterrevolution a movement that opposes the
changes brought about by revolution. During the French
Revolution there was counterrevolutionary activity in the
countryside of France. (p. 2)
creeping barrage the use of a wall of artillery fire
immediately in front of the advancing infantry. As the
artillery gunners moved forward to destroy enemy
trenches, the infantry, following behind, was ready to
take control of a trench once the artillery fire had ceased.
(pp. 237, 303)
decolonisation the freeing of a colony from imperial
rule and granting of self-government (pp. 92, 105)
demilitarise to prevent by treaty or force an
independent state from arming itself (p. 322)
democracy government by elected representatives of the
people (pp. 9, 32, 45, 90, 127, 185)
Democrat the other main political party in the United
States, formed by Thomas Jefferson in 1792 to defend the
rights of the individual states against a central, federal
government (p. 29)
desegregation the policy of breaking down differences
that have existed between racial groups (p. 129)
destroyers small, fast warships (p. 296)
Diaspora meaning ‘the dispersion’; in Jewish history, the
term refers to those periods when the Jews were forced
out of their homeland (p. 65)
dictabelt a device that records sound for playback at a
later time (p. 159)
diphosgene gas used in artillery shells, its vapours
could penetrate gas masks (p. 231)
diplomacy the use of communication and negotiation
between countries as a means of settling disputes and
resolving differences (p. 10)
discrimination treating an individual or a group
differently on the basis of race, age, religion, sex or some
other factor (p. 132)
Glossary 331
 divine right a belief that a monarch’s right to rule was
given by God, and not by the people (p. 9)
domino effect the view, put forward by the United
States during the Cold War, that the ‘fall’ of one country
to communism would be followed by the ‘fall’ of its
neighbours. As a result, the United States sought to
‘contain’ communism by military intervention in areas it
considered under threat. (p. 96)
dugouts shelters dug into the sides of the trenches
(p. 215)
duma an elected parliament for Russia, with the power
to make laws (p. 50)
dynastic authority the power exercised by rulers as a
result of the lengthy period of time during which their
family has ruled (p. 187)
dynastic rulers rulers who have inherited their power
from other family members (p. 187)
dysentery an illness related to the inflammation of the
lining of the large intestine. Symptoms include stomach
pains and diarrhoea and perhaps also vomiting. (p. 227)
emancipate set free from slavery or from other restraints
on a person’s freedom (p. 26)
emancipation the 1861 decree from Tsar Alexander II
announcing that Russia’s peasants would be granted
their freedom from ownership and some land to assist
them in their new lives (p. 46)
empire a word describing the peoples and territory ruled
by one more powerful nation (p. 188)
Enlightenment period in the late seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries when it was believed that
institutions should be established on the basis of reason
rather than tradition and superstition (pp. 2, 69)
federal the central government for a union of states
(p. 24)
feminism action to support the attainment of political,
economic and social equality for women (p. 185)
feminists advocates of equal rights and opportunity for
women (p. 283)
feudal system structured society based on land
ownership in which royalty and wealthy nobles owned
land and controlled power and the lower classes worked
for them (p. 2)
fission the splitting of the nucleus of a heavy atom to
form the nuclei of lighter atoms (p. 108)
flank the extreme left or right wing of an army or fleet,
or the subdivision of an army or fleet (p. 305)
footnotes numbered notes at the end of a page that
provide information about where the writer obtained the
information in a specific part of the text (p. 174)
forage the act of searching for provisions (p. 282)
forum an assembly for the discussion of questions
of public interest (p. 324)
Founding Fathers delegates appointed to the 1787
Philadelphia Convention and entrusted with the drafting
of the American constitution (p. 24)
332 Glossary
franchise the right of a citizen to vote (p. 282)
fraternity group of people bound together through a
common purpose; a brotherhood (p. 2)
gender stereotype a belief or idea determined by an
image of how a particular sex should behave (p. 283)
ghetto an area of a city where a minority group lives
(p. 140)
globalisation the process of increasing interaction and
interdependence among the world’s peoples and the
associated export of ideas, capital, products and culture
into new areas (p. 192)
guerrilla warfare method of warfare in which small
groups engage in surprise attacks on enemy facilities,
troops and supply routes (p. 93)
guerrillas locals who fight the enemy by engaging in
surprise attacks on enemy facilities, troops and supply
routes (p. 89)
Haganah (Hebrew, meaning ‘the defence’) a Jewish
paramilitary organisation in the British Mandate of
Palestine from 1920 to 1948
Hindenburg Line the German trench system, devised
by Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff
and constructed in northern France between 1916 and
1917. The system shortened the front line and enabled
the Germans to transfer men to reserve trenches. It
incorporated concrete pillboxes armed with machine
guns. The goal was to maximise the effectiveness of men
and munitions at a time when both were in short supply.
(p. 217)
historians people who are trained to investigate the
past. The term is usually used nowadays to describe
someone who is a professional historian with a number
of degrees in this subject. (p. 167)
historiographical issues issues related to the ways
historians have constructed and presented history
over time and to the critical analysis and evaluation of
sources for their usefulness and reliability (p. 210)
history the study of the past to investigate, record and
interpret it (p. 166)
Hohenzollern the German family that ruled Prussia
from 1701, and became rulers of Germany in 1871 until
Wilhelm II was dethroned in 1918 (p. 319)
howitzers short-barrelled artillery, particularly useful
for shelling at a steep angle (p. 300)
humanitarian someone who has regard for the interest
of all mankind (p. 323)
hypothesis a suggested explanation that needs to be
tested through research (p. 172)
imperialism the practice of increasing a nation’s power
by taking control of other nations and their resources
(pp. 86, 188)
inauguration the ceremony for inducting a president
into office (p. 30)
indemnities payments of compensation for damage or
loss (p. 292)
industrialisation production of goods using machinery
rather than manual labour and the growth of industries
rather than agriculture as the basis of the nation’s
economy (pp. 22, 43, 182)
infantry soldiers that fight on foot, generally with
bayonets, machine guns and mortars (p. 218)
infiltration small-scale assault platoon attacks on poorly
defended areas in the enemy front line (p. 240)
inflation a rise in prices and cost of living (p. 257)
infrastructure the systems and services that are needed
for an economy to function effectively — for example,
communications, roads and transport (p. 192)
integration the policy of encouraging contact between
different racial groups and ensuring that they share the
use of facilities (p. 129)
internal combustion an engine of one or more working
cylinders in which the process of combustion takes place
within the cylinders (p. 252)
interned held and prohibited from leaving a certain
prescribed area (p. 277)
irradiated contaminated by radiation (p. 115)
Islam religion based on the teachings of the prophet
Mohammed (c. 570–c. 632) as set down in the Qur’an.
The word means ‘submission to the will of God’. (p. 66)
isolationism a principle of foreign policy that avoided
direct involvement in European affairs (p. 289)
Jim Crow laws state laws, dating back to the 1880s,
aimed at enforcing segregation between whites and
blacks in the use of transport and public facilities, and in
the outlawing of marriage between the two racial groups
(pp. 37, 127)
John Birch Society an ultra right-wing society founded
by Robert Welch in 1958. Named for John Birch, who
had been killed by Chinese communists in 1945, it was
against communism, liberalism, civil rights, the UN and
John Kennedy. In 1964, it employed 200 people and had a
budget of $3 million at its disposal. (p. 148)
Ku Klux Klan an organisation, founded originally in
1865, whose members engaged in campaigns of terror
and intimidation against African Americans and those
who supported them (p. 129)
laissez-faire the attitude of minimum interference by
a government in the lives of people and the conduct of
business (pp. 67, 254)
leap frog the tactic of moving by stages, from one
objective to another, with new troops moving forward to
take on each successive stage (p. 239)
liberal favouring reform and progress (p. 254)
liberalism a view of society emphasising
individuals (not classes) and their rights to
freedom of political, religious, intellectual and
artistic expression. The view also incorporates
the goals of parliamentary democracy and a free
enterprise economy. (pp. 6, 186)
liberals supporters of liberalism, a view that supported
individuals’ rights and freedoms, a system of
parliamentary democracy and a free enterprise economy
(p. 45)
liberated released to a state of freedom from oppression
(p. 284)
logistical organisation behind the transport, supply and
movement of troops (p. 289)
mandate a responsibility granted to a nation, by an
official body, to administer the government and affairs
of a people in an underdeveloped nation or territory
(pp. 106, 322); in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict,
refers to a trusteeship system established by the League
of Nations under which former colonies of Germany
and the Ottoman empire would be given to particular
states with the responsibility of guiding them to self-
government (p. 74)
Marxism theories developed by German philosophers
Karl Marx (1818–83) and Friedrich Engels (1820–95) to
demonstrate the exploitative nature of capitalism and the
social and economic inequalities that resulted from it.
They argued that history was a series of class struggles
that would eventually lead to the abolition of private
property and the creation of a classless society (p. 197)
mediation to settle disputes through agreement and
reconciliation (p. 294)
militant wanting to take aggressive action in support
of a cause; (noun) a combative or aggressive person
working for a particular cause (pp. 139, 283)
mobilisation the organising of military forces in
preparation for active service (p. 13)
monotheism refers to the characteristics of religions,
such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity, where there is a
belief in only one god (p. 65)
mortars short tubular weapons used to fire shells at
high angles (p. 300)
munitions materials used in war, especially weapons
and ammunition (p. 256)
Napoleonic Wars named after the French General
Napoleon who made himself dictator in 1799. From 1803,
he conquered most of Europe until defeat by the British
at the Battle of Waterloo. (p. 22)
Nation of Islam an organisation founded in 1930 and
led by Elijah Mohammed from 1934 until 1975 (p. 139)
nationalism a sense of a national identity developed
from belonging to a group sharing common cultural,
linguistic and historical ties and the desire to work with
others to achieve common goals related to these, at times
regardless of how this might affect other countries (pp. 6,
89, 191)
nationalists supporters of nationalism,
a powerful movement in the nineteenth century
and one of the causes of World War I. Nationalists
believed that people of a common religious, linguistic,
cultural and geographic heritage should be united
as one nation. (p. 257)
Glossary 333
 neutrality a nation which does not become involved in
the wars of others (p. 294)
new imperialism the imperialism of the late nineteenth racist the attitude that people of a different race/colour
and early twentieth centuries, characterised by nations’ are inferior to those of one’s own race/colour (pp. 37, 127)
aggressive pursuit of colonies, accompanied by their
intense rivalry with one another and motivated by
notions of their own racial and intellectual superiority Red Army army formed by Russia’s Bolshevik party in
to the peoples whom they sought to control. (p. 188)
Nivelle Offensive General Nivelle’s massive
French attack on German lines between Royle and
Reims in 1917. It began on 16 April and ended on
9 May. The battle gained no territory and resulted in
187 000 French casualties and troops no longer willing
to support their leaders. (p. 239)
no man’s land the area separating opposing armies in
trench warfare (p. 215)
occupied territory that has been invaded and taken
possession of (p. 262)
Ottoman the Turkish Islamic empire, with its capital at
Constantinople (now Istanbul) (p. 68)
pan-nationalism the desire to unite all people of the
same cultural and linguistic group, even if they are
located within the national boundaries of another nation, (pp. 2, 45)
that is, it is a form of nationalism that seeks to change Royal Commission a major government inquiry or
existing national boundaries (p. 203)
parliamentary democracy government of the people
through the decision making of those whom they elect to Russification the government policy of enforcing
parliament (p. 186)
partition to divide a state into two or more separate
states (p. 77)
passive voice a sentence construction in which the
subject is the recipient of the action and not the person
who commits the action (p. 173)
patriotism devotion to and support for one’s country
(pp. 9, 53)
plagiarism passing off someone else’s work as your
own original work. It includes both using someone
else’s words as though they were your own and using
someone else’s information and ideas as though they
were your own. (p. 174)
plebiscite a direct vote by the people of a state
on a question of public importance or political
affiliation (p. 322)
plutonium a radioactive element capable of fission
(p. 115)
profiteering making excessive profits by taking
advantage of the public at a time of need (p. 257)
propaganda information, ideas, arguments or doctrine
used to further a cause or damage an opponent’s cause
(p. 272)
provisional a temporary and conditional agreement or
system (p. 290)
quoc ngu the romanised script, used for the Vietnamese exercise independent control of its own destiny (pp. 88,
language. It replaced the Chinese script. (p. 90)
334 Glossary
racism one group’s view that its race is superior to that
of another group (p. 87)
rationing a system of limiting the quantities of food and
essential goods by setting a fixed allowance (p. 259)
January 1918 to protect the gains of the October 1917
Bolshevik Revolution that had brought it to government
(p. 42)
Reichstag the lower house, or popularly elected
assembly of the German parliament (pp. 16, 261)
reparations the compensation in money paid by a
defeated nation for damage and injury (p. 322)
representative government a government founded
on the principle that the people should elect their
representatives (p. 6)
Republican one of the United States’ two main political
parties, formed to support protective tariffs and
industrial expansion (p. 29)
revolution period of rapid, extensive change in political
and social structures, including a change in sovereignty
investigation into a particular issue, the findings of
which are made public (p. 121)
support of Russian language, culture and traditions and
suppressing any support for the language, culture and
traditions of other groups living within the Russian
empire (p. 50)
salient a military position that bulges forward into
enemy-held territory and, as a result, could be vulnerable
to attack from three sides (pp. 215, 316)
scapegoats a person or group made to bear the blame
for others’ actions or for suffering caused by other
people or events (pp. 66, 320)
scourge an affliction or disaster (p. 312)
secession withdrawal from an alliance or association,
in this case from the American Union (p. 30)
sectarianism the view that one religious belief has
superiority over others that are perceived as being
inferior to it (p. 185)
sectionalism division of a nation into economic
and social regions (p. 24)
secularisation the decline in the influence of religion
(p. 186)
segregation the policy of separating racial groups in
all aspects of their lives so as to ensure that whites
maintained supremacy over African Americans (pp. 37,
127)
self-determination a people’s right to express its own
identity; determine its own form of government and
113, 139, 192, 273, 292)
shell shock a psychological
disorder with physical symptoms
ranging from irritability and poor
concentration to inability to move in
a coordinated manner (p. 222)
Shoah (or Holocaust) Shoah (Jewish
for ‘catastrophe’) or Holocaust (‘total
destruction by fire’) refer to Hitler’s
attempt to exterminate the Jewish
population (p. 67)
SNCC Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee,
established in response to the
success of the ‘sit-ins’ (p. 134)
snipers marksmen who waited in
hiding for opportunities to shoot
soldiers in the opposing trenches
(pp. 222, 306)
socialism a doctrine promoting
the people’s ownershipof a nation’s
resources and the redistribution of
its wealth (pp. 9, 45, 197)
socialist belief in a doctrine
promoting the people’s ownership
of a nation’s resources and the
redistribution of its wealth (p. 278)
solidarity a union or fellowship
(p. 257)
soviets councils where workers’
representatives would voice their
grievances (p. 50)
Soviet Union a union of 15
republics headed by Russia, in
eastern Europe and western and
northern Asia (p. 115)
stalemate a deadlock from which
neither side can progress (pp. 212,
251)
state of emergency a situation in
which a government is under threat
in its attempts to assert its authority
and control over events and the
actions of particular groups (p. 51)
strafe to attack by aircraft with
heavy, persistent machine gun fire
or to bomb heavily (p. 313)
sue to make an appeal (p. 318)
suffrage the right to vote (pp. 27,
185, 267)
superpowers the term used in the
second half of the twentieth century
to describe the political and military
power of nations like the United
States and the Soviet Union.
Supreme Court the highest court to
which states could appeal (p. 26)
tactics actions taken to deal with
specific problems and achieve the
goal of a particular military strategy
(p. 227)
tariff a duty or custom imposed by
a government on exports or imports
(pp. 7, 24)
telegraph an instrument that sends
and receives messages over long
distances (p. 18)
terrorism the use of violence to
gain political change (pp. 45, 90)
thermonuclear nuclear fusion
capable of producing extremely high
temperatures (p. 109)
total war a government’s
mobilisation of all its resources
to support the efforts of its own
troops and undermine those of its
opponents (pp. 212, 251)
trade union an organisation of
employed workers formed to
undertake collective bargaining
with employers to achieve improved
working conditions (p. 22)
trade unionism the development
of workers’ power through their
combination into groups (trade
unions) that represent them and
fight for their interests (p. 198)
trench fever a disease, caused by
lice, affecting up to 15 per cent of
any army. It kept men out of battle
but wasn’t fatal. (p. 226)
trench foot a problem caused by
long-term exposure to conditions
where feet could not be kept
dry. Untreated, it would result in
amputation. (p. 226)
trench warfare a form of military
conflict in which opposing sides
fight one another from trenches
facing one another (p. 215)
Triple Alliance the alliance linking
Germany, Austria–Hungary and
Italy (p. 196)
Triple Entente the alliance linking
Britain, France and Russia (p. 196)
unification the bringing together of
separate entities to form a unit (p. 6)
Union formed by the colonies after
they adopted the 1776 Declaration of
Independence (p. 24)
universal male suffrage the right to
vote given to all males at a certain
age (p. 50)
urbanisation the trend for people
to leave their rural environments
to live and work in cities and the
growth and expansion of cities that
occurred as a result. This brought
about changed patterns of land
use, population distribution and
economic activities. (pp. 47, 184)
USSR the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics, also known as the Soviet
Union (p. 100)
Vichy government French
government headed by Marshall
Pétain that cooperated with the Nazi
government controlling the northern
part of France (p. 92)
Viet Minh a group incorporating
Vietnamese nationalists who fought
to gain independence from foreign
control of Vietnam (p. 92)
Wailing Wall a wall that remains
from the temple of Jerusalem, where
Jews still assemble for lamentation
and prayers (p. 65)
war armed conflict between nations
(p. 206)
war of attrition a war in which
competing sides attempt to achieve
victory through the tactic of
wearing down their opponents’
armies, fighting power, morale and
economies to the point of collapse
(pp. 215, 252)
Western Front the area of fighting
in western Europe during World
War I. It stretched from the English
Channel to the Swiss border and
encompassed territory in Belgium
and northern France. (p. 214)
Yankees the Civil War term applied
by Southerners to any Northerner or
member of the Union army (p. 22)
Zeppelin a large airship or dirigible
used by the Germans in the war for
reconnaissance and bombing (p. 253)
Zionism a cultural then political
movement with the aim of creating
a Jewish state as a refuge against
persecution (p. 67)
Glossary 335
 Index
A Arab–Israeli conflict 64 Britain 4
Abd-El-Hamid (Ottoman Sultan) 68 Arabs arms race 104
abdication 58, 290 in the ancient period 66 Balfour Declaration 72–5
abolitionist 26 response to Balfour Declaration 74–5 ban on nuclear testing 103, 115
Aborigines, impact of nuclear response to British Mandate of censorship during war 271–2
testing 119–22 Palestine 76–8 changing attitudes to World War I
absolute power 44 response to partition of Palestine 82 275–80
active voice 173–4 response to proposed Jewish competition with France for control over
Africa, European competition for homeland 78–9 Africa 193–7
control 193–7 arbitration 258 conscription 269–70
Agassiz, Louis 28 Argentina 68 Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) 254–5,
Age of Reason see Enlightenment armistice 292, 318 257, 259
Age of Revolution 2 arms race 104, 106 homefront during World War I 253–60
agrarian 22 artillery 10, 15 impact of war on women’s lives 280–5
agrarian reform 52 assassination 52, 146 influence in Middle East at start of 20th
Alexander II (Tsar of Russia) 46 Assyrian Empire 64 century 69, 69
Alexandra (Tsarina of Russia) 41, 41, 42, atolls 106 McMahon–Hussein correspondence 63,
55–6 atomic bomb 104 70
Algeria 113 Auld, Sophia 27 Munitions of War Act 258
alliances 15 Australia 68, 77, 118–22 nuclear testing on Monte Bello
Alsace 13 Austro–Hungarian empire 3, 5, 193 Island 103, 118
America Austro–Prussian (Seven Weeks) War 3, occupation of Egypt 69, 70
African Americans 27, 36, 37, 126 11–12 Operation Buffalo at Maralinga 103,
Congress 23, 38 autocracy 43, 44 118–22
Democrat Party 29, 37 propaganda 272–4
autocratic 261
Founding Fathers 24 protectorate over Kuwait 69
autocrats 2, 6, 44, 187
Freedmen’s Bureau 36 rationing during war 258–60
Avdonin, Alexander 59
recruitment to armed services 267–8
Gettysburg address 33
Jim Crow laws 21, 37, 127 B Sykes–Picot agreement 63, 70–1, 72
Babylonian Empire 64 war weariness 278–80
Kansas–Nebraska Bill/Act 25, 26
Balkans 203 White Paper of 1939 77
Mason–Dixon Line 23, 25
Barton, Clara 32 British Mandate of Palestine 63, 64, 74–8,
mass immigration 22
batteries 316 80
the north and national unity 29–33
Battle of Austerlitz 4 Brown, John 21, 26–7, 27
north and west states in 19th
Battle of Waterloo 22 bureaucracy 47
century 22, 23, 38
Republican Party 29 bayonets 218 C
secession and formation of Confederate Belgium 4 Cabinet 23
states 21, 30–1 Ben-Gurion, David 82, 83 Cambodia 86, 100
sectionalism and the South 24–6 Benedetti, Count (French ambassador) 12 Canaanites 64
southern states 23–4, 23, 38 bibliography 176 capitalism 96
Yankees 22 Bikini Atoll 103, 108–9, 111 capitalist 261
see also names of presidents; slavery; Bismarck, Otto von 3, 3, 8–9, 15, 16–18, 20 Carlsbad Decrees 7
United States Bismarckian foreign policy 10–12, 15 censorship 7, 44, 271–2
American Civil War 21, 22, 23, 25, 30–8 bite and hold 240 China 96, 97
American Declaration of Independence 2, Black Hand 204 Christian church 2
24 Black Panthers 140 Christian IX (King of Denmark) 10, 11
American Union 22, 24 Black Power movement 139–40 Christmas Island (Kiritimati) 111, 112
anarchism 199 blockade 320 Churchill, Winston 75
Anglo–German naval race 202 Blumstein, Hannah 78 citizenship 35, 36, 136
annexation 4, 292 Bolshevik Revolution 41, 57–8, 247, 292 civil disobedience 132
anti-Semitism 43, 67–8, 185 Bolsheviks 292 civil rights 32, 35, 131
Anzacs 70 Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon 8 Civil Rights Movement 126, 127, 131, 147
Arab identity 66 Bonaparte, Napoleon 3, 4, 18 civil war 2, 22, 25
Arab League of 12 Nations 78 Booth, John Wilkes 35 Civil War Times 28, 29
Arab nationalism 69 boycott 116, 131 class see social class

336 Index
Clemenceau, Georges (French Entente Cordiale 197 economic strength 18
Premier) 323, 326 equality before the law 4, 67 extent by 1871 14
clemency 12 Europe homefront in World War I 261–7
Clinton, Bill (US President) 22 1848 revolutions 3, 7–8 map 14
Cold War 97, 101, 103, 104 balance of power 15–16 military power 13, 15, 18
colony 86 forces and ideas at start of 20th propaganda 272–4
commune 46, 52 century 197–9 recruitment to armed forces 271
communication revolution 18 forms of government 187–8 Reichstag 261
communism 59, 91, 148 international relations 15 Schlieffen Plan 202, 212–13

Prelim heading
‘Concert of Europe’ 5, 18
Confederate army 21, 34
Confederate States of America 30
Confederates 22
national goals and rivalries 18, 201–3
social change 185–7
society at beginning of 20th
century 180–7
socialist protest movement 266
Spring Offensive on Western
Front 301–6
‘state socialism’ 18
confederation 4 war and peace in 19th century 18 war on Eastern Front 289–93
Congress of Vienna 3, 4, 4 Evers, Medgar 135 war economy 261–3
conscription 257, 269–70 war weariness 278–80, 312
F wartime shortages 263–7
conservative 2, 261 Fangataufa Atoll 113
conspiracy 158 German nationalism 6, 8
federal government 24 German states 4, 5, 12
Constantinople 68 Feisal, Emir (Syria) 74
constitution 24 in 1815 5
feminism 185, 283–4 German unification 7, 11–14
constitutional government 4 Feodorovna, Maria 60 ‘blood and iron nationalism 15
constitutional monarchy 187 feudal system 2 immediate consequences of 15–16
convoy 296 Finland 43 Patriotic Student Society 6
cop a blighty 222 First Indochinese War 85, 95–100 Germany
counterrevolution 2 fission 108 Nazi persecution of Jews 77
creeping barrage 237, 303 flank 305 rise of Nazi Party 67
Cuban Missile Crisis 147 footnotes 174–5 ghetto 140
Curie, Madame Marie 104 forage 282 globalisation 192
D forum 324 Goldschmidt, Bertrand 104
Davis, Jefferson 29, 30 France Gorbachev, Mikhail 59
administrative areas in Indochina government, forms of 187
decolonisation 92, 105, 113
86–87 Grant, Ulysses S. 34
demilitarise 322
defeat by Viet Minh at Dien Bien Great Depression 92
democracy 9, 32, 45, 90, 94, 127, 185, 199
Phu 85, 98–9, 99 Gregorian calendar 42
Democratic Republic of Vietnam 101
Dreyfus affair 67, 185–7 Guam 106
Denmark 3, 10–11
ends nuclear testing in Pacific 103, guerrilla warfare 93
desegregation 129–30
112–17 guerrillas 89
destroyers 296
gains control of Indochina 85
diaspora 65 H
interest in the Middle East 70–1, 72
dictabelt 159 Mandate in Middle East 74 Hadrian (Roman Emperor) 65
Die Judenstaat (‘The Jewish State’) 68 rejection of Vietnamese proclamation of Haganah 77
diphosgene gas 231 independence 85, 95 Haig, Douglas (General) 233, 235, 237,
diplomacy 10 Third Republic 187–8 238, 240
discrimination 132 Vichy government 92 Hammond, James Henry 25
divine right 9, 17, 43 franchise 282 Hanoi 85, 86
domino effect 96 Franco–Prussian War 3, 12–14, 15 Hanoverian dynasty 4
Douglass, Clara 32 Franz Ferdinand (Archduke) 199, 204 Hapsburg dynasty 187
Douglass, Frederick 27, 27, 29, 35 Franz Josef I (Austria) 11 Hardinge, Charles 48–9
Dred Scott case 26 fraternity 2 Harvard referencing system 175
Dreyfus affair 67, 185–7 Frederick III (Prussia) 16 Herzl, Theodor 67–8, 67
Dreyfus, Alfred 185–7 Frederick VII (King of Denmark) 10 Hindenburg Line 217, 317
dugouts 215 Frederick, (Crown Prince of Denmark) 60 Hindenburg, Paul von (General) 217, 231,
Duma 42, 50, 51–2 French Confederation of the Rhine 3, 4 263, 288, 301, 318
Durnovo, Peter 53 French Indochina 86, 92, 100–1 historical investigation
Duy Tan Hoi (Reformation Society) 90 French Polynesia 103, 112–17, 113 choosing a topic 166–7
dynastic authority 187 French Revolution 2, 4, 6, 67, 90 designing a good question 167–8
dynastic rulers 187 French–German hostility 201 developing a hypothesis 172
dysentry 227 developing a proposal 168–9
G presentation of work 173–6
E Gallipoli 70 reading and note-making 170–2
economic cooperation 7 gas warfare 223–4, 231 writing process 173
Egypt, occupation by British 69, 70 Gastein Convention 11 historiographical issues 210
Eisenhower, D. (US President) 130, 132 Gaulle, Charles de 113, 115–16 history 166
Elizabeth II, Queen 60 gender stereotype 283 Ho Chi Minh
emancipation 26, 46 Geneva Accords 85, 100–5 communist political ideology 92
Emancipation Proclamation 21, 35, 136 Geneva Conference 99, 100–1 establishes ICP 85, 91
empires 188, 188 German Confederation 3, 5, 7, 10, 11 founds Viet Minh 92–3
Ems telegram 12, 13 German Empire leads Democratic Republic of
Emu Field 118 censorship 271–2 Vietnam 101
Enewetak Atoll 111 changing attitudes to World War I 275–80 proclaims Vietnamese
Enlightenment 2, 69 competition with Great Britain 17 independence 85, 94–5

Index 337
 Hohenzollern dynasty 4, 187, 319 proposal 78–9 liberals 45, 50
Holland 4 western support for 72–3, 76, 78 liberated 284
Holocaust (Shoah) 63, 67, 78 Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) 64 liberty 2
Holstein 3, 10–11 Jewish terrorists 80 Liebknecht, Karl 266, 278
howitzers 300 Jews Lincoln, Abraham 21, 27, 29, 29, 30, 32,
human rights 2, 26–8 Die Judenstaat (‘The Jewish State’) 68 33, 34, 35
humanitarian 323 early history in Middle East 64–6 Lloyd George, David (British Prime
Hussein, Amir 70 Great Diaspora 65–6 Minister) 254, 256, 260, 269, 283, 304,
Hussein, Saddam 22 Haganah defence force 77, 79 323, 326, 327

Prelim heading
hydrogen bomb 104
hypothesis 172
I
imperial power, nature of 189–90
immigration to Palestine (Israel) 76–8
Irgun 77, 78
Nazi persecution 77
origins and aspirations of Zionism 67–73
logistical 289
Lorraine 13
Louis XIV (French King) 2
Ludendorff, Erich (General) 217, 231,
pogroms against 67 301–4, 305, 314, 318, 319
imperialism 86
refugees from Europe 79 Luxemburg, Rosa 266, 278
by European powers 188
reponse to British Mandate of lynching 127
colonial rivalries 193–7
Palestine 76–8
impact on colonial peoples 192
response to proposed Jewish
M
impact on colonial powers 192 McClellan, George 29
homeland 78–9
reasons for growth of 190–2 McMahon, Henry (Sir) 70
as scapegoats 66
inauguration 30 McMahon–Hussein correspondence 63,
see also anti-Semitism; Holocaust (Shoa)
indemnities 292 70
Jim Crow laws 21, 37, 127
Indochina Malcolm X 139
John Birch Society 148
French administrative areas 86, 87 mandate 74, 106, 322
Johnson, Andrew (American
French attitudes and influence 87–9 Maralinga 103, 118–22
president) 27, 35, 36
Geneva Accords 85 Marshall Islands 103, 106, 109
Johnson, Lindon Baines (US
impact of French imperialism 86–9 Marx, Karl 45, 91
President) 137, 138, 150, 153, 157, 158
impact of World War II 92 Marxism 197
Johnston Atoll 111
see also French Indochina Mary, Princess (Denmark) 60
Jordan 66, 74
Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) Mecca 66
Julian calendar 42
establishment 85, 91 mediation 294
‘Junkers’ 8
policy in 1930s 92 Medina 66
Indochinese Union 86 K Mendes-France, Pierre 113
industrial conscription 257 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (US President) Metternich, Klemens von (Prince of
industrialisation 22, 43, 182–3 assassination 137, 145, 146–53 Austria) 4, 5, 7, 7
infantry 218 conspiracy theories about Micronesia 105, 106
infiltration 240 assassination 158–62 middle class 6, 8, 47, 181
inflation 257 funeral 145, 157 Middle East
infrastructure 192 impact and aftermath of in 1900 68–9
integration 129 assassination 153–8, 162 Arabs in the ancient period 66
internal combustion 252 Jim Garrison’s conspiracy case 160 Balfour Declaration 72–6
International Court of Justice 82 key dates 145 British and French Mandates 74
International Red Cross 32 response to civil rights movement 134, British influence 69, 69
interned 277 135, 147 conflict 64
Iraq 22, 74 Warren Commission report 156, 158–61 early empires 64, 64
irradiated 115 Zapruder film 160 early history of Jews 64–6
Islam 66 Khabalov, General 57 impact of World War I 70–4
isolationism 289 King, Martin Luther 132, 133–8 McMahon–Hussein correspondence 63,
Israel, proclamation of state 82 Kitchener, Horatio (Lord) 255, 256, 267, 70
Israeli War of Independence 82 268 Russian influence 69
Italian states 4, 15 Knights of the White Camellia see Ku Klux Sykes–Picot agreement 63, 70–1, 72
Italy 3, 15 Klan Mikhail, Grand Duke (Russia) 58
Kollantai, Aleksandra 49 militant 139, 283
J Korean War 100 Missouri Compromise 21, 25
Japan
Kosovo 22 mobilisation 13
occupies French Indochina 85, 92
Ku Klux Klan 37, 39, 129, 131, 141 modern western political thought 2
US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima
Kwajalein Island 109 Mohammed 66
and Nagasaki 103, 104
Moltke, Helmuth von (Prussian
war with Russia 47 L Count) 13, 212
Jefferson, Thomas 29 laissez-faire 67, 254
monotheism 65
Jericho 64 Laos 86, 100
Monte Bello Island 103, 118
Jerusalem Lauenburg 11
Moroccan crises 195–7
Al Aqsa Mosque 63, 76 law 2, 4, 44
mortars 300
bombing of King David Hotel 80, 80 Lawrence, T. E. (‘Lawrence of Arabia’) 70
munitions 256
capture by Arabs 66 League of Nations 74, 81, 324–5, 326
Mururoa Atoll 103, 112–17
Dome of the Rock 63, 66 leap frog 239
Great Temple 64, 65 Lebanon 74 N
occupying powers 64–5 Lee, Robert E. 34 Napoleonic era 4–6
Western Wall (Wailing Wall) 63, 65, liberal 254 Napoleonic legal code 4
65, 76 liberalism 6, 45, 186, 199 Napoleonic Wars 22
Jewish homeland and economic cooperation 7 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,
Arab and Jewish responses to and German unity 6–7 an American slave 27

338 Index
Nation of Islam 139–40 and Zionism 68 dissent and protest 48–50, 53
National Association for the Advancement Palestinian Arabs’ rights 74, 80 failure of the duma 51–2
of Coloured People (NAACP) 128, pan-nationalism 203 Fundamental Laws 51
131, 135 Pankhurst, Emmeline 283 industrialisation and discontent 47
National Era (newspaper) 27 Parks, Rosa 131 influence in Middle East 69
national identity 6 parliamentary democracy 186 involvement in World War I 53–7, 70,
nationalism 2, 6, 191 partition 77 289–94
and economic cooperation 7 passive voice 173–4 lack of peasant support for Tsar 52
and German unification 15 patriotism 9, 53 October Manifesto 50

Prelim heading
and German unity 6, 7
rise in Vietnam 89–94
nationalists 257
Nebuchadnezzar, (Babylonian King) 64
Persian Empire 64, 66
Pham Van Gond 92
Phan Boi Chau 90
Phan Chu Trinh 90
Octobrist Party 50, 52, 57
Okhrana (secret police) 44, 55
peasant poverty 46
political, social and economic
neutrality 294 Philip, Prince (Duke of Edinburgh) 60 grievances 44–6
new imperialism 188 Picot, George 70 Provisional Government following
New Zealand, monitoring of French plagiarism 174 abdication of Tsar 291
nuclear testing in the Pacific 116, 117 plebiscite 322 Russification policy 50
Ngo Dinh Diem 101 plutonium 115 Social Democratic Party 45, 47
Nguyen Van Vinh 90 pogrom 67 Socialist Revolutionary Party 45, 47, 50
Nicholas II (Tsar of Russia) Poland 43 Treaty of Brest–Litovsk 292–3
abdication 58, 291 political ideologies 199 Union of Liberation 45
autocratic rule 43–4, 45, 50, 51 political thought 2 war against Japan 47
becomes Tsar 43, 43 Pouvan’a, Oopa 113 see also Nicholas II; Romanov dynasty
decline in authority 55–7 profiteering 257 Russian Orthodox Church 44, 60
downfall of regime 53–8 propaganda 272–4
failure to make duma work 51–2 property owners, rights of 4
S
salient 215, 316
failure to win support of peasants 52 provisional 290
Samuel, Herbert (Sir) 76
fate 41, 41, 42, 59–60 Prussia 3, 4, 5, 7–8, 9, 10, 11
San Remo Conference 74
October Manifesto 41, 50 Punch magazine 24
Sandstrom, Emil 81
no man’s land 215 Putin, Vladimir 60
Saudi Arabia 69
non-violent protest 132 Puttkamer, Johanna von 9
scapegoats 66, 320
North German Confederation 3, 11–12, 13 R Schleswig 3, 10–11
North Star (newspaper) 27 racial discrimination 126, 127–32 scourge 312
North Vietnam 101, 101 racial prejudice 43 secession 30
nuclear testing racism 87–8 Second Indochinese War see Vietnam War
by British in Australia 103 racist 37, 127 sectarianism 185
by French in the Pacific 112–17 radiation poisoning 109–10 sectionalism 24, 29
by US in the Pacific 103, 106–112 Radical Republicans 36, 37 secularisation 186
by western powers in the Pacific 104–6 Randolph, A. Philip 136 segregation 37, 127
global protest against French 116 Rasputin 41, 56, 57 self-determination 88, 94, 113, 139, 192,
impact on ex-servicemen 119–22 Rathenau, Walter 262 273, 292
impact on indigenous people 109–10, Red Army 42 Sergeyev, Ivan 42
114–17, 119–22 Reichstag 16 Seven Days War see Franco–Prussian War
US, Russia and Britain agree on religion, challenges to traditional shell shock 222
ban 103, 115, 147 influence 185–7 slavery 22–8, 32, 35
nuclear weapons 104 religious freedom 4 snipers 222, 306
O reparations 322 social change 185–7
Obama, Barak 125, 126 representative government 6 social class 180–1
occupied territory 262 repression of dissent 7, 44 socialism 9, 45, 197, 199
Oswald, Lee Harvey 154–6 Republic of Vietnam 101 Sokolov, Nicolai 42
Ottoman Empire revolution 2, 45 solidarity 257
allies with Germany 63 Riabov, Gueli 59 South Vietnam 101, 101
at start of 20th century 69 Rockefeller, John D. 32 Southern Christian Leadership Conference
British and French Mandates in Middle Roman Empire 65 (SCLC) 132, 134, 137
East 74 Romanov, Alexei 41, 42, 56, 58, 60 Soviet Union 82, 97, 103, 104, 115
modernisation and decline 69 Romanov, Anastasia 41, 42 soviets 50
and Zionist movement 68 Romanov dynasty 4, 43, 53, 58, 59, 187 Spanish–American War 106
Romanov family 41, 42, 42, 59–60 stalemate 212, 251
P Rongelap Atoll 109–10 state of emergency 51
Pacific islands 103, 105, 106–7 Rongerik Atoll 109 ‘state socialism’ 15, 18
see also nuclear testing Royal Commission 121 states’ rights 29, 30
Palace of Versailles 13, 14 Ruby, Jack 155 Stern-Yair, Abraham 78
Palestine Russia (post-Communist era) 60 Stevens, Thadeus 36
British Mandate 63, 64, 74–8, 80 see also Russian Empire; Soviet Union Stolypin, (Prime Minister, Russia)
General Strike by Arabs 77 Russian Civil War 59 41, 50, 51
Jewish migration 76–7, 77, 78 Russian communism 92 strafe 313
Palestinian Arab rebellion 63 Russian Empire 4 Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Peel Commission 63, 77 1912 strike on Lena goldfields 198 Committee (SNCC) 134, 137, 138
population in 1900 68 Bloody Sunday massacre and 1905 sue 318
population 1922–1940 77 revolution 41, 48–50 suffrage 27, 50, 185, 267
United Nations partition 81–3 Bolshevik Party 41, 42, 58, 59 Sumner, Charles 36

Index 339
 superpowers 101 nuclear testing in the Pacific 106–12 Vladimirovna, Maria (Grand Duchess,
Supreme Court 26 Operation Castle Bravo in Marshall Russia) 60
Sykes, Mark (Sir) 70 Islands 103, 109–10 Vo Nguyen Giap 92, 93, 97
Sykes–Picot agreement 63, 70–1, 72 Operation Crossroads at Bikini
Syria 74 Atoll 103, 108–9 W
racial segregation in the 1950s 127–32 war of attrition 215, 252
T support for UN partition of Palestine 82 Weizmann, Chaim 74
tactics 227 Wilhelm I (King of Prussia/Emperor of
Tahiti 112–14 Voting Rights Act 138
Warren Commission 156, 158–61 Germany) 3, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16
Taney, Roger 26

Prelim heading
tariffs 7, 24
telegraph 18
terrorism 45, 80, 90
see also America; names of presidents
United States Congress 324
United States Constitution 127, 128
universal male suffrage 50
Wilhelm II (Kaiser) 3, 16–17, 191, 267, 301,
318, 319
Wilson, Woodrow (US President) 294–5,
296, 304, 323–6
thermonuclear 109
Tonkin 86 upper class 180 women
total war 212, 251 urbanisation 47, 184 challenge to traditional roles 185, 280–3
trade unionism 198 impact of war in Britain 280–5
trade unions 22, 47, 257–8, 283
V suffrage movement 185, 267, 282, 283–4
Vanuatu 117
Transjordan 74 working class 181
Vespasian (Roman Emperor) 65
Treaty of Frankfurt 13 growth of working class
Victoria (Queen of Britain) 16
Treaty of Paris 2 consciousness 8
Viet Minh (Revolutionary League for the
Treaty of Prague 11 improved conditions in Germany 15, 18
Independence of Vietnam)
Treaty of Versailles 320–2 politics of 197–9
defeat French 85, 98–9, 99
trench fever 226 World War I
founding of 85, 92–3
trench foot 226 1914 Christmas truce 241–3
trench warfare 215–20 guerilla warfare against Japanese and
French 85, 93, 95, 98 Allied counter-offensive 313
Triple Alliance 3, 15, 196 Allied final offensive 317–18
Triple Entente 196 strategies 92–3
support from China and Soviet Allied and German soldiers’ attitudes to
Truman, Harry (US President) 127
Union 97 the war 241–7
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands 103,
takes control of Hanoi and Saigon 85, 94 Allied response to Spring
106–7
US military intelligence support 93, 97 Offensive 306–7
U Viet Nam Cong Hien Hoi (Vietnam Public Battle of Amiens 314–17
Uganda 68 Offering Society) 90 Battle of Passchendaele 239–40
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 21, 27 Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (Vietnam Battle of the Somme 233–8
Union army 22, 35, 35 Restoration Society) 90 Battle of Verdun 227–33
United Nations partition of Palestine 80, Vietnam causes of 15, 199–206
81–3 17th parallel 100, 101 defeat of Central Powers 318
United Nations General Assembly Annam 86, 87 Eastern Front 290, 292
Resolution 181 82 Cochinchina 86, 87, 89 European alliance system 200, 201
United Nations Security Council 82 defeat of French at Dien Bien Phu 85, events leading to armistice 311–20
United Nations Special Committee on 98–9, 99
Palestine (UNSCOP) 81 impact of entry of United States
division of country into two 294–300
United States
sectors 100–1 impact on the Middle East 70–4
1963 March on Washington 136–7
Emperor Bao Dai 94, 101 impact of Russian withdrawal 289–94
achievements of civil rights
French administrative areas 86, 87 Nivelle Offensive 239, 245
movement 141–2
gains independence from France 100–1 reasons for Allied victory and German
administration of Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands 103, 106–7 Geneva Accords 85, 100–1 collapse 320
agrees to ban on nuclear testing 103, impact of World War I 90 roles and goals of peacemakers 323–7
115, 147 place in Cold War 97, 101
Spring Offensive on Western
American Expeditionary Force 299–300 pro-independence organisations 90
Front 301–6
arms race 104 radical revolutionary groups 91
stalemate on Western Front 212–15
Black Power movement 139–40 resistance to French rule 89–90
tactics to break the stalemate 227–40
Bloody Sunday 137–8 road to independence 86, 97
technology and tactics 311–12
Civil Rights Acts 132, 141 starvation in Quang Tri province 94
terrorism 90 Treaty of Brest–Litovsk 292–3
Democratic Party 126, 147 Treaty of Versailles 320–2
development of atomic bomb 104 Thai Nguyen province 90
Tonkin 86, 87 trench warfare 214–20
drops atomic bombs on Japan 103, 104
use of quoc ngu (national script) 90 World War II, Nazi persecution of Jews 77
fear of spread of communism in
Indochina 96 see also North Vietnam; South Vietnam Y
forward defence military policy 105 Vietnam War 101 Yekaterinburg 42, 59–60
Freedom Summer 137 Vietnamese national identity 89, 90 Yemen 66
impact of entry into World War I Vietnamese nationalism, rise of 89–93 Yurovsky, Yakov 59, 60
294–300 Vietnamese nationalism/communism,
Montgomery Bus Boycott 131–2 growth of 94–8 Z
non-violent protest to achieve civil Vietnamese Nationalist Party Zionism 63, 67–73
rights 132–8 (VNQDD) 91 Zollverein (Prussian union) 7

340 Index