1899-1914
From colonial to industrial warfare
A war between Europeans in South Africa
1895: the Jameson Raid
British military tactics: processes used
against non-European peoples (colonial
warfare)
Step 1: to provoke contact with the enemy
Step 2: the use of superior firepower (riffles +
machine guns + artillery) = swift destruction of
the enemy
The Boers: preemptive strikes
into British-held
territory
British
reinforcements
= defensive
tactic
The good use of
modern
armament
Lord Roberts’ overall
military strategy: the
occupation of enemy
territory + the destruction of
its resources + the
deportation of civilians
Phase 3: guerilla warfare
Lord Kitchener: antiguerilla warfare against
European populations
Industrial warfare
Rival imperial ambitions over
Manchuria and Korea
Russia: the need for a warm
water port (Port Arthur)
No compromise reached= war
JAPAN
RUSSIA
1- Frontal attacks unsuccessful due to 1- The massive use of artillery =
modern rifles and machine-guns
movements limited in daylight
2- War of attrition + disorganization
of Russian lines = successes
2- The need to build a complex
network of trenches + underground
3- The role of modern artillery: the fortifications
number of firing rounds per minute
increased dramatically + better 3- The evacuation of wounded made
accuracy
more difficult
The use of the
artillery + war of
trenches
Frontal attacks
unsuccessful +
heavy casualties
Atrocities against
civilian
populations
The Treaty of Westphalia (1648): the sovereignty
of states
International law: a weak concept until the mid
1860s
1864: THE FIRST GENEVA CONVENTION
The Battle of Solferino (1859)
Henri Dunant
A peace conference for
the limitation of
armaments
Safeguarding the
human rights of
individuals involved
in armed conflicts
Nicolas II
The peaceful resolution of international conflicts
Laws and customs for the conduct of war on land
The extension of the Geneva Convention of 1864 to
naval warfare
“Hostilities [between nations] must not commence
without previous and explicit warning”
“The territory of a neutral power is inviolable.”
The use of floating mines was forbidden
The Court’s
voluntary
character
Diplomatic
crisis prior to
1914 NOT
submitted to the
process of
international
arbitration
The public’s admiration for the Army and its
leaders
The fear of a devastating war
Moltke “the elder”: future European
war to last several years (1889)
NO decisive battle
“We have won our position
through the sharpness of
our sword, not through the
sharpness of our mind”
The Treaty of
London
(1839): Belgium
neutrality
guaranteed in
perpetuity
Impossible to
manage and
supply an
army of
millions for a
long time =
the need to
win through
a series of
decisive
military
engagements
Schlieffen: the use of reserve
units in the front line against
prevailing military doctrine to
achieve superiority in numbers
The French officer corps: “Les
réserves, c’est zéro”!!!
1913 Field
Regulations:
“The French
Army,
returning to its
tradition,
henceforth
admits no law
but the
offensive”
No need for
‘defensive-minded’
officers in the French
army
General Joffre
Colonel de Grandmaison: a defensive
strategy = moral inferiority leading to defeat
Correct assessment but… 30 years too soon!!!
Offensive to the limit vs. machine-guns
and heavy artillery
“Big Bertha” (1911)
The threat of the
Russian steam
roller on
Germany’s eastern
frontier
Russia’s railways inadequate
Inability to produce enough artillery shells
and riffle cartridges
Poor intelligence
Poor organization & planning
Promotion of officers through patronage
European public opinions rejected the idea of war
UNLESS
The nation’s interests were to be threatened
FATALISM
War is a ‘biological necessity’
Germany must strike the
first blow: France must be
completely crushed
General von Bernhardi
INEVITABLE confrontation between Germanic
and Slavic peoples
The Russian menace over Germany
Russian rearmament + investments in a strategic
network of railways = the Schlieffen Plan
threatened
The idea of a PREVENTIVE WAR
The loss of
Alsace-Lorraine
in 1871 NOT a
cause for war
with Germany
Legislative
elections (May
1914):
progression of
the Socialists
Great enthusiasm in cities at the news of the
German declaration of war (August 1)
Saint-Petersburg renamed Petrograd
The rural majority overwhelmingly ignorant or
indifferent
British public opinion preoccupied with
internal crises
Constitutional crisis over the powers of the
House of Lords
Widespread strikes + the suffragettes movement
The question of Home Rule in Ireland
Plans to commemorate the battle of Waterloo in 1915: one
hundred years of peace
1912: a new magazine,
The Peacemaker, to
celebrate AngloGerman friendship
The Great Illusion by Norman Angell (1910):
economic interdependence of nations = war is
unprofitable
A 20th century war would
be on such a scale to
make war ‘unthinkable’
Fatalism BUT public opinions against the idea of
war
Less diplomatic tensions following the end of the
second Balkan war
The Sarajevo assassination: the spark