(^176) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
The reality was a war of nearly five years of trench warfare and the conversion of entire
economies to the war effort. As both sides literally dug in, soldiers fought from a network
of trenches up to 30 feet deep, often flooded with water and infested with rats and lice.
Military commanders, who commanded from rear-guard positions, continued to launch
offensive attacks, ordering soldiers “over the top” to the mercy of the machine guns that
lined enemy trenches. Trench warfare, the use of mustard gas, tanks, water-cooled machine
guns, and aircraft primarily for reconnaissance were some of the innovations of WWI.
They marked the beginning of thoroughly modern warfare characterized by impersonal
and efficient killing.
Total war also meant changes on the home front, some of which would have lasting
consequences:
• Governments took direct control of industries vital to the war effort.
• Labor unions worked with businesses and government to relax regulations on working
hours and conditions.
• Class lines were blurred as people from all walks of life worked side by side to aid the
war effort.
• Women were drawn into the industrial workforce in greater numbers and gained access
to jobs that had traditionally been reserved for men.
1916: “The Year of Bloodletting”
In 1916, a war of attrition was fought in trenches in France and Belgium, as each side tried
to exhaust the resources of the other.
• In February 1916, French troops, led by Marshall Petain, repulsed a German offensive
at the Battle of Verdun; 700,000 men were killed.
• From July to November 1916, the British attempted an offensive that has come to be
known as the Battle of the Somme; by its end, 400,000 British; 200,000 French; and
500,000 German soldiers lay dead.
• On April 6, 1917, America declared war on Germany. Several factors triggered the
American entry, including the sinking of American vessels by German U-boats and
the Zimmermann Note (a diplomatic correspondence of dubious origin, purporting to
reveal a deal between Germany and Mexico).Russian Revolution and Withdrawal
In March 1917, food shortages and disgust with the huge loss of life (more than a million
soldiers dead) exploded into a revolution that forced the tsar’s abdication. The new govern-
ment, dominated by a coalition of liberal reformers and moderate socialists (sometimes
referred to as Mensheviks), opted to continue the war effort.
In November 1917, a second revolution brought the Bolsheviks to power. A party of
revolutionary Marxists, led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, who went by the name of Lenin,
the Bolsheviks saw the war as a battle between two segments of the bourgeoisie fighting
over the power to exploit the proletariat. Accordingly, the Bolsheviks decided to abandon
the war and consolidate their revolutionary gains within Russia. They signed the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, surrendering Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and
the Baltic provinces to Germany.21_Bartolini_Ch21_171-180.indd 176 27/04/18 1:55 PM