The major wartime commanders in the fight against the Third Reich gathered in the Crimean resort of Yalta from February 4–11, 1945 to plan for a new global order in the wake of Germany’s impending defeat. The leaders of the world’s three superpowers were all there: Joseph Stalin for the Soviet Union, Winston Churchill for the United Kingdom, and Franklin D. Roosevelt for the United States.
For several days, they will strive to come to a consensus on how to go forward in order to set the tone for this momentous conference. The goal was to finish the war as quickly as possible but also to establish the groundwork for a durable restoration of peace in a Europe freed from Nazi rule. At the conclusion of this conference, the United Nations Organization (UNO) was formed to ensure global stability.
How does the Yalta Conference fit into history?
The three major World War II winners—Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt—met at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. World War II broke out in September 1939. The main goal of this conference was to find solutions to the problems brought on by the impending defeat of Nazi Germany. While this historic and significant meeting was focused on the conditions of the German surrender, it also signaled the start of a protracted process of talks between the winners of this brutal conflict to create a new international order.
What were the dates and location of the conference?
In retrospect, it’s clear how pivotal a role this meeting played in World War II was. It took place at Yalta, Ukraine, between February 4 and 11, 1945. Yalta is a popular vacation destination in the Crimea, and it can be found on the northern coast of the Black Sea, not far from the city of Livadia. The summit took place at the Livadia Palace, the summer palace of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II.
What was the purpose of the Yalta conference?
Germany’s capitulation seemed inevitable, and with it, the end of World War II. After almost six years of war against Nazi Germany, the world’s top leaders gathered at Yalta to establish a new international order. As a result of Hitler’s defeat, the many goals of this landmark summit were as follows:
Use of a coordinated plan of action to hasten the war’s conclusion, primarily via the involvement of the Soviet Union in the fight against Japan.
The planning for the future of a Europe freed from Nazi Germany and Hitler’s oppression.
The establishment of the United Nations, a global body with the power and duty to keep the peace.
Why was France not present at the Yalta conference?
The Yalta conference, which reunited the Allied powers, was the summit gathering of the three main postwar conquerors. Even though General de Gaulle’s temporary government of the French Republic was recognized by the Allies in October 1944, it was not invited to the Yalta conference. Because of this, France was not seen as a triumphant state symbolically throughout World War II. A further humiliation, following the conclusion of four years of occupation endured by the French people, was felt by the French delegate when he was not invited to participate in the meeting.
But why such an exclusion of France?
The French weren’t at Yalta for a variety of reasons. To begin with, General de Gaulle was viewed with suspicion by the United States and Franklin Roosevelt in particular. He was labeled an “apprentice dictator” by the opposition. In contrast to the General’s optimism, the Soviets did not seem persuaded by his suggested strategy of continental balancing. Among the British, Churchill was the lone dissenter who advocated excluding France from the negotiations and instead sparing the country. In fact, the British prime minister desired to have France become a powerful continental partner in the fight against Stalin.
What decisions were taken at the conference?
During World War II, the Allies met for days to debate and negotiate the Yalta Accords, which included:
The development of democratic administrations via free elections in the freed European republics.
The United Nations was formally established when the United Nations Charter was signed during the San Francisco summit between April 25 and June 26, 1945.
The USSR’s entry into the war against Japan.
The eradication of German militarism and weapons.
The victorious Allies partitioned Germany into three sections, which they then occupied in turn. After some time, France was granted a fourth zone of occupation thanks to Churchill’s backing and General de Gaulle’s mobilization.
Poland’s relocation to the western side of the Soviet Union was to create new boundary lines. This nation gave up some land to the Soviet Union but gained back some areas that Germany had occupied.
The formation and operation of the UN is a guarantee of peace and security throughout the globe. The United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and China, all of whom have the authority to veto any decisions made by the Security Council, will agree on its foundation.
What are the results of the Yalta conference?
The Yalta Conference in February 1945 was a watershed moment. In light of the impending defeat of Nazi Germany, it seemed to be the only way to deepen the links of trust and collaboration that united the major Allies and winners of World War II. Germany was to be demilitarized and divided into three occupation zones, and this plan was agreed upon by all parties involved. A fourth zone would be added to France in the future. By holding fair elections, the other European nations will have the same chance at self-determination.
However, additional demands will emerge from these concerns of collaboration and peace, and many of the various aspirations of the allied countries will become clear. As a result, the Yalta accords give the appearance of being a huge victory for Stalin. Although he advocated for peace, all of Eastern Europe was ultimately subject to Soviet dominance. In a short amount of time, the continent was effectively split in two by the Iron Curtain, which marked the beginning of almost fifty years of conflict between two radically different philosophies. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the Cold War emerged as another significant war with no open hostilities between opposing nations.
Bibliography:
Beevor, Antony (2012). The Second World War. New York: Little, Brown and Company. p. 709. ISBN 978-0-316-02374-0.
Truman 1973, p. 208
Fenby, Jonathan (2012). The General; Charles de Gaulle and the France he saved. Skyhorse. pp. 280–90.
Pavel Polian. Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR. Central European University Press 2003 ISBN 963-9241-68-7 pp. 244–49
“Agreement Regarding Japan,” Protocol Proceedings of the Crimea Conference (February 11, 1945). Online.
Leffler, Melvyn P. (1986). “Adherence to Agreements: Yalta and the Experiences of the Early Cold War”. International Security. 11 (1): 88–123. doi:10.2307/2538877. JSTOR 2538877. S2CID 153352217.
Distress in the economy in 1929 In response to his administration’s role in plunging the country into the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the interventionist New Deal. In response to firm failures and steadily rising unemployment, the state implemented social and economic measures to mitigate the situation. After its implementation in 1933, this strategy lasted until 1938. The New Deal established union rights, controlled business practices, and transformed the financial sector.
What Is the New Deal?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In the wake of the 1929 stock market collapse, the United States saw a wave of bankruptcies and a subsequent surge in the unemployment rate. The Great Depression affected the United States throughout the 1930s. Roosevelt took extraordinary political action to mitigate the economic damage. Indeed, it was the New Deal.
The New Deal was a vast economic recovery program implemented between 1933 and 1938 by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to counteract the effects of the Great Depression caused by the stock market crash of 1929. Beyond the rapid recovery of consumption and investment, this “New Deal” aimed to thoroughly reform the American economic system to prevent new crises.
The New Deal profoundly transformed American society, which until then had been opposed to any federal government intervention in the economy. It also inspired many economists, including John Maynard Keynes, who published his “General Theory” in 1936, a work that advocated government intervention, including budget deficits, to ensure full employment.
Why Did Franklin D. Roosevelt Create the New Deal?
Despite the efforts of the previous president, Herbert Hoover, the economic situation in the country was catastrophic. The unemployment rate was around 25%, the GDP had fallen sharply, the financial situation was precarious, millions of savers and farmers had been ruined. Between 1930 and 1933, American industrial production fell by half, or even by two-thirds in some sectors, agricultural prices fell by 25% to 50% depending on the product, and 14 million Americans were unemployed in 1933, that is, a quarter of the working population, who could only survive thanks to soup kitchens.
These were all indicators of an unprecedented economic crisis that saw the resurgence of demonstrations of revolt that were thought to be from another time and another world: the food riots.
Many businesses failed, and the number of people without jobs rose dramatically after the stock market crash of 1929. During Herbert Hoover’s presidency, the first signs of the Great Depression emerged. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who assumed office after him, reformed the financial markets to stimulate the U.S. economy. It was the principles of economist and “Keynesian” movement founder John Maynard Keynes that influenced his interventionist New Deal strategy.
When and Where Did the New Deal Take Place?
First implemented in the United States in 1933, the New Deal strategy sought to improve economic conditions. The first noticeable effects of these and other policies, most notably those affecting the allocation of resources and economic power, were apparent in 1935. The five-year period of this interventionist program ended in 1938. The United States gradually shifted towards a military economy during this time.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was significant in that it ushered in the period of state intervention (theorized by John Maynard Keynes) in a market economy that had become weak due to its length, scope (beyond the United States, the crisis grew international), and societal hardship.
In light of this crisis, President Roosevelt and his advisors made the decision to increase Federal State involvement in economic regulation. This required a crackdown on certain financial activities (particularly credit and debt management), the creation of a massive public works program, and the establishment of a social welfare state. Far from it, this bold strategy did not have widespread support. Many economists panned it for the restrictions it placed on free markets, while the media and some politicians called it dictatorial and too centralized to fit with American ideals.
How Was the New Deal Put Into Action?
Initiated in 1933, the New Deal sought to rapidly implement Roosevelt’s economic and social initiatives. In these “First 100 Days,” policies like welfare, workfare, and financial reform were implemented as an emergency response. In 1935, a new New Deal was enacted, which included redistribution of wealth and protections for labor unions. The New Deal officially ended in 1938, while several of its initiatives continued for a while thereafter.
As part of his plan to end the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt heavily intervened in the economy by creating new government agencies, subsidized programs, and public services in an effort to bring about a period of economic growth and job creation. The president relied on a committee of advisers, the brain trust, made up mostly of academics from Harvard (Boston) and Columbia (New York), each of whom represented a distinct school of thought in economics, to help him make these decisions.
There were two camps: the “planners,” who favored long-term changes to the system, and the “spenders,” who thought it was sufficient to just pump money into the economy to get things moving.
Roosevelt significantly expanded government expenditure by resorting to the practice of budget deficits ($3.5 billion in 1936). Among the main measures of the New Deal were;
reviving industry and regulating competition (National Industrial Recovery Act or NIRA, 1933);
combating unemployment through a policy of massive public works, most notably the development of the Tennessee Valley in 1933 (see the Tennessee Valley Authority or TVA);
abandoning the gold standard and devaluing the dollar to 59% of its former value in gold (Gold Reserve Act of 1934);
aid to farmers and the fight against agricultural overproduction (Agricultural Adjustment Act or AAA);
and the creation of a social security system (Social Security Act, 1935), instituting old age insurance and unemployment insurance, within the framework of the Welfare State were all central tenets of the New Deal.
The Work Project Administration (WPA)
The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was founded on May 6, 1935, as a government organization that focuses on large-scale building projects (renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration). The construction and restoration of private homes and public structures were both within the WPA’s purview. The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, one of its most famous works, was a testament to its excellence. Through the FAP (Federal Art Project), it served a vital function in the cultural sphere. On June 30th, 1943, President Roosevelt signed an act disbanding the WPA.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA)
On June 20, 1933, Congress created a new government agency called the National Recovery Administration (NRA) to oversee matters related to the economy, workers, and the workplace. The NIRA mandated a level playing field for industries in need of revival. Businesses were now permitted to set a floor price for their products. The length of the work week and the minimum pay were both regulated by the NRA. On May 27, 1935, it was formally disbanded.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
Pumping water by hand from the sole water supply in this section of Wilder, Tennessee (Tennessee Valley Authority, 1942).
The TVA was a government agency that managed power plants, waterways, and flood protection in the Tennessee Valley. Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, and Mississippi were all included in the TVA’s service area. It has been around since 1933, when it was first established. Hydroelectric and nuclear power generation are the primary focuses of its output. Thermal power plants are another asset of the TVA’s.
The Results of the New Deal
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, and Robert Fechner in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Image: National Archives NextGen Catalog
Though the New Deal had a mixed record when it came to the economy as a whole (in 1939, the national income still hadn’t returned to its 1929 level), it did contribute to long-term improvements in the country’s infrastructure. During the New Deal, the federal government refined its monetary (activity on the money supply) and fiscal (new taxes, practice of budget deficits) policy tools, which it would subsequently use to mitigate the consequences of economic downturns.
On the other hand, the social front saw tensions escalate during the major strikes of 1937, which were exacerbated by the crisis and the expanded privileges of trade unions. Although the jobless, single women, and the crippled had been marginalized in the 1920s, they were able to participate in American society again because of the New Deal’s social security programs.
After a promising start, another crisis in 1937 threatened to derail this strategy (or rather these policies, since priorities shifted over Rooselvelt’s first two mandates). Even while the New Deal’s impact on society is indisputable, its economic effectiveness is open to debate. Many people believed that it was America’s rearmament and subsequent involvement in the war in 1941 that helped lift the country’s economy out of its rut.
The consequences of Roosevelt’s economic strategy during the Great Depression are disputed, and at best they are seen as negligible. But the New Deal’s positive influence on society is undeniable. The president kept in close contact with the populace by holding frequent news conferences.
Due to the revisions, new laws could now be enacted to protect workers’ rights in the workplace and regulate the financial sector. The New Deal left a significant political and social legacy since it authorized the establishment of several government agencies, most notably those tasked with protecting individuals’ civil liberties.
The Global Impact of the New Deal
With the New Deal, a new kind of “experimental” interventionism was born in an emergency setting to try to alleviate shortages. Keynesianism is most often understood as a method entirely linking social expenditure with economic recovery, and after WWII it was applied to all developed nations.
Public interventionism, however, was originally intended as a mechanism fulfilling a function similar to that of a liberal economy: to secure, as far as possible, an optimum equilibrium in all markets, whether they be for commodities and services, the labor market, or the money market.
This has led to an increase in the number of separate interventions across different economic sectors, with the state increasingly taking on the role of an entrepreneur by intervening directly in the workings of the economy through measures such as nationalizations, price controls, and banking dirigisme rather than simply seeking to correct imbalances on a macro level. The role of the state is central to the discussion, since this interventionism is often seen to be the driving force behind the “pure” liberalism that has defined the economies of the industrialized world since the mid-1980s.
FOCUS DATES OF THE NEW DEAL
The Black Thursday, October 24, 1929: The Wall Street Crash
Black Thursday, October 24, 1929, was the beginning of the “great panic” in the financial markets. First to go was the New York Stock Exchange, where 12 million shares were sold. On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, a price decline of 30 percent was recorded, triggering the worst economic catastrophe in human history. The name for this event is the 1929 stock market collapse.
A bankruptcy for the Creditanstalt was filed on May 11, 1931.
The international repercussions of the 1929 crisis may be seen even now. Creditanstalt, an Austrian financial institution, collapsed two years later. As a result, the Austrian stock market crashed, followed by Germany’s, and the European economy went into a tailspin.
The financial collapse of the Danat Bank on July 13, 1931
Both the Danat Bank and the Creditanstalt filed for bankruptcy in 1931. The American companies’ approach of buying up failing foreign companies in an effort to mitigate the economic fallout from the Great Depression of 1929 had a devastating effect on a German bank. They were able to recoup their losses by selling the stocks they had purchased overseas.
September 21, 1931 – The pound sterling is devalued
The depreciation of the British pound sterling occurred after the stock market crisis of 1929. In a little over a year, the value of the pound dropped by about 40%. As part of this process, the government also gave up the gold standard for its currency.
During a speech on July 2, 1932, President Roosevelt brought up the “New Deal”
As early as 1932, Roosevelt laid out the foundations of the New Deal. Several of his close associates, such as the economist John Maynard Keynes, were mentioned, along with their suggested economic and social policies. The goal of this interventionist strategy was to reduce the damage caused by the Great Depression of 1929. It put an emphasis on reworking financial markets, building real estate, and expanding welfare services.
Formed by Roosevelt on March 4, 1933, “A New Deal for the People”
Soon after his election as president, Roosevelt began making plans to enact the New Deal in order to mitigate the economic downturn. This included building large-scale projects around the country and establishing agencies and initiatives to boost the economy.
The United States banks were shut down by President Roosevelt on March 5, 1933
All American banks were closed for four days after Roosevelt’s inauguration. This step was an attempt to calm the market after a string of bankruptcies. Creditors were to be repaid on March 9, 1933, and banks were to be permitted to reopen.
On March 6th, 1933, President Roosevelt instituted a ban on the trading of gold
As part of his plan to end the Great Depression, Roosevelt imposed a ban on the export of gold. After abandoning the gold standard in April 1933, the president reaffirmed this policy approach.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was established on March 31st, 1933
A job-creation initiative launched by the Roosevelt administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided training and paid employment to young people who were otherwise without opportunities. Planting trees and fixing up old buildings were meant to be the means by which poverty and crime were kept at bay. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was an organization established during the New Deal that is famous for its role in constructing bridges, towers, and trails throughout the United States.
Agricultural New Deal programs launched on May 12, 1933
The New Deal policies had an impact on the agriculture industry in the United States. The AAA’s restrictions on agricultural output were enforced by the government. The government provided monetary compensation in exchange. Overproduction, which led to a drop in raw material prices, was the target.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was established on May 18th, 1933
The TVA was a government agency whose mission was to lower the rate of unemployment in the Tennessee Valley. After years of research and development, it was optimized for the generation of energy. In use even now, it has established itself as a pioneer in the fields of hydroelectric and nuclear power.
The National Industrial Recovery Act was signed into law on June 16, 1933
The New Deal included the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) vote, which was focused on the manufacturing sector. It stipulated a code of fair competition and the implementation of minimum pricing on the worth of goods and services. These orders were carried out by the NRA (National Recovery Administration). It’s important to notice that there was a floor under which both hours worked and money earned had to fall.
The Social Security Act was signed into law on August 14, 1935
The United States now has a system of social assistance thanks to the passage of the Social Security Act. The elderly, the jobless, single mothers, and their children without father figures were the primary targets. In the midst of extreme poverty, it was referred to as a “welfare state” and a kind of social insurance.
The Battle of Kursk, fought in western Russia from July 5 to July 13, 1943, was a defining moment of World War II. As the largest tank battle in history, it involved over 2 million men and over 3,000 Russian and German tanks. More than 100,000 Nazi soldiers died in the final large-scale offensive attempt on the Eastern Front, and Adolf Hitler suffered irreparable losses to his armored divisions, which had been unbeatable up until that point. The Soviet Union’s victory demonstrated to the world that the German Panzerwaffe was vulnerable to attack. Peaceful conditions improved to the point where the great liberating offensives of 1944 could be launched.
The Context of the Battle of Kursk
German Panzer IV and Sd.Kfz. 251 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251).
Since most German units were located in the east, it was only logical that the West German government would intervene against the Soviets. It’s crucial, first and foremost, to put to rest the horrors of Stalingrad (the Battle of Stalingrad), but it’s also important to bring back Germany’s struggling allies (be it Italy, Hungary, or Romania). In addition to protecting “Fortress Europe” (Festung Europa), Hitler planned to bleed to death a Soviet Union that he believed had been weakened by two years of war with a new successful offensive in the east.
The real start-up of the war economy (the famous Totaler Krieg of Goebbels’ speech of February 1943) organized by Speer was likely to reinforce Berlin’s optimism. This allowed the Germans to reassemble their best offensive weapon: tanks. The latter was fortified and reorganized under the leadership of General Guderian (who became Inspector General of Armor), who drew inspiration from his experiences fighting Soviet armored formations (and their famous T-34). Hitler had high hopes for new equipment like the Tiger tank and the Panther tank, which could take on the most powerful Soviet armored vehicles.
In 1943, the Allies decided to launch an offensive somewhere in the eastern hemisphere. If you look at a map of the front from that period, you’ll see that the answer is obvious: Kursk. The winter Soviet offensives did create a salient, roughly 180 km (north to south) by 140 km (east to west). Kursk, a major railroad hub in the middle, provided the Red Army with a strong foothold from which to launch attacks south (Kharkov) or north (Moscow) (Orel).
The German high command hoped that by attacking Kursk preemptively, they could shorten Stalin’s front by about 280 kilometers and thus deprive him of his best troops (the Central Front and the Voronezh Front), an economy of about twenty divisions. Due to the salient’s shape, Operation Citadel will resemble a traditional pincer movement. In the south, Field Marshal von Manstein’s army group was in charge of a “pincer” maneuver.
Hitler had faith in Manstein because of his ability to turn around hopeless situations, and he did so by arranging impressive formations on paper. Hermann Hoth’s Fourth Armored Army, on the left, consists of 10 divisions, 200,000 men, and around 1100 armored vehicles (including the elite of the armored and mechanized formations, such as the SS Armored Corps of Hausser). This is a detachment of the Kempf army, on the right, with three mechanized brigades. General Model’s 9th Army was in charge of the northern end of the pincer. Model, a defense expert who was popular with his troops but particularly harsh, fielded 21 divisions, 335 thousand men, and nearly 900 armored vehicles.
It became immediately clear that Manstein’s units would be responsible for the bulk of the offensive effort due to the temperament of the two concerned leaders and the disparity of their forces (and the air support that could be offered by a Luftwaffe already reduced by the lack of fuel). The victor of Sevastopol, in contrast to Model, was confident that his tanks could breach the Soviet defensive system’s fortifications and depth. Weak German intelligence was the cause of an overconfident outlook.
The Citadel of Stalin
Zhukov with Ivan Konev, commander of the Steppe Front, during the Battle of Kursk. CC BY 4.0.
The German military intelligence consistently underestimates the strength of the Red Army throughout the German-Soviet war. However, the partisans and an advanced eavesdropping system meant that the Soviets, despite their reputation as disinformation experts, were in the dark about German intentions. That allowed them to construct a strong defense. Beginning in March of 1943, more than 300,000 troops and civilians in the Kursk region set up eight defense lines, each one 300 kilometers in depth.
The German attack formations were supposed to be channeled by the trenches, minefields, and fortified points, and then destroyed by the armored reserves. The entire operation was kept secret using tried and true maskirovka methods, which was why the Germans had no idea of the full extent of the resistance mounted against them. Without a doubt, Model would have hesitated to launch the attack with his 9th army if he had known that he would have to face 80,000 mines, 2800 artillery pieces, and 537 multiple rocket launchers.
Stalin, who had recently granted Soviet generals greater autonomy, had obviously devoted a large amount of resources to protecting the Kursk salient. So that he can develop his own offensives (primarily Operation Kutusov towards Orel) in peace, the master of the USSR plans to make this salient a fixation point for the best German units. Central Front was led by General Rokossovski (Polish-born and a victim of the purges of 1937), who was stationed in the north to face Model. In order to complete his mission, the brilliant officer had access to multiple armies, or a total of 700,000 men and 1,800 armored vehicles (Soviet armies and divisions were smaller than their German counterparts). Rokossoskvi had time on his side and the option to use the reserves Stalin prudently amassed on his back if Model needs to break through in two days.
Young general Vatutin’s (42 years old) Voronezh Front is aligned with Manstein. Vatutin, a local who was familiar with his opponent, had a total of six armies at his disposal (two of which would not be attacked and would serve as reserves). There were a total of 1700 tanks and 625,000 men represented here. Not enough to stop Manstein’s offensive, but sufficient to set up a devastating counterattack. In fact, Vatutin, like Rokossovski, was aware that, in the long run, he can count on the assistance of two reserve groups he had amassed (including the Steppe Front) in order to counter the salient. The STAVKA (Soviet High Command) will send their two best officers, the brutal Zhukov and the level-headed Vassilievsky, to Kursk to coordinate their actions. A dynamic duo whose skillsets perfectly complement one another, able to hold their own against their Germanic rivals.
Two Weeks to Change the Course of the War
Battle of Kursk (map).
Operation Citadel’s official launch date was finally settled on July 4th, 1943, after several delays caused in part by Hitler’s desire to supply his armored formations with the latest equipment (Panthers tanks, among others). With four months of planning and practice under their belts, the Luftwaffe Stukas will fly into action at 4 o’clock. The objective was to set up for the on-the-ground charge of Hoth’s 4th armored army.
Vatutin was unfazed by the brutality of the mechanized attack and maintains his composure. Russian defenses were strong because they were positioned on higher ground. The Soviet Union’s counterbattery fire and minefields were both highly effective. When the Luftwaffe took to the skies, the red-star planes severely hampered their ability to fight. But Hoth’s woes were compounded by the fact that the 200 Panthers making up its front line have been plagued by persistent mechanical issues. While in 1941 it would have been several dozen kilometers, on the evening of July 6 it was only a few kilometers.
Model had an even more trying time of it than everyone else. The 9th Army commander wisely followed the Soviet playbook and went in with infantry, later exploiting the situation with tanks (while Hoth rushes with its armor in the lead … to the Germans). Nonetheless, the implementation of these units was hampered by the activity of an admirably informed Soviet artillery late on the night of the 4th/5th (by deserters, among others). The Red Army’s resistance was strong, and the minefields significantly slowed the German advance, just as they had in the south. The 9th Army, at a cost of nearly 10% of its potential, broke through a 20 km wide and 7 km deep corner on the evening of July 5. The 6th Rokossovski had already begun their counterattack, so it would be a waste of money and a poor use of their time. Even though the Soviets suffer heavy casualties due to the poorly coordinated attack, the 9th army only loses a day. Sufficient time for Rokossovski to reflect on his setback and rethink his approach.
The Last German Great Eastern Offensive at Kursk
Soviet troops of the Voronezh Front counterattacking behind T-34 tanks at Prokhorovka, 12 July 1943.
By July 6, the Germans learn some encouraging news from the south. The 2nd SS armored corps (Hausser) was given the opportunity to attack in a poorly guarded area and made its way through toward Prokhorovka. The other Hoth army corps joined the breakthrough on the 7th, and the entire 2nd Soviet defense line was broken. As a result of the crisis, Stalin sent a large number of reserve formations, including the 5th Tank Army of Romistrov’s Guard, and Vatutin’s general staff was forced to respond (from Voronezh). Stalin had reason to be optimistic about continuing the operations despite Vatutin’s concerns. Even though the Hoth armored army had great success, the Kempf army detachment almost stalled in the north.
The 9th Army’s formations were showing signs of wear and tear due to constant bombing by Soviet aircraft. The strongest sectors of Rokossovski’s system were surrendered on July 9 by a Model that was unable to maneuver and was stuck in a logic of frontal assault. Model, a defense expert, realized right away that he was at a loss. On July 12, his superior, Marshal Von Kluge (Army Group Center), worried about his northern flank, ordered him to begin withdrawing. Half of the Battle of Kursk had been won by the Soviets at that point.
Therefore, the onus fell upon von Manstein to turn the tide. To be sure, he was upbeat because he had no idea how significant the Soviet Union’s upcoming reserves were. Hoth, frustrated by the positioning of Soviet forces, spends September 9th through 12th making his way to Prokhorovka, where the Schutzstaffel (SS) Panzers appear to have cleared the road. Killing Vatutin’s armored reserve would clear the way to Kursk, which was why he plans to do it. Nonetheless, the onslaught of Romistrov’s Guards tanks caught him and Hausser’s SS by surprise.
On July 12, the finest Soviet and German armored weapons will face off along a front of 8 km on both sides of the local railroad. Most recent studies agree that Prokhorovka was not the “swan song of the Panzerwaffe,” despite the fact that the battle was made out to be much more difficult than it actually was by Soviet propaganda. Although the SS armor was victorious on the defensive to some extent, they were unable to take the Prokhorovka railway junction due to heavy casualties and a lack of reinforcements.
Hitler called Manstein and Kluge to his headquarters in Rastenburg, East Prussia on the 13th. Though he was troubled by Hausser’s demise, he was even more so by some other information. The Western Allies had landed in Sicily and taken Syracuse three days prior. The Italian defense had been so ineffective that the island may as well be abandoned for the time being.
Thus, Hitler was compelled to organize a reserve army to protect the southern flank of Fortress Europe. This force could only count on the political stability of Hausser’s SS. The planet of Hoth cannot make significant progress without its spearhead. As a result, on the 17th, work on the Citadel was permanently halted. The gamble didn’t pay off, and the Führer had lost the upper hand on the Eastern Front. As a result, the German armies had no choice but to withdraw.
A Critical Moment in World War II
A major setback for the Hitler Reich was the inability of the Germans to take Kursk and completely destroy the Central and Voronezh Fronts. Although the Eastern Front did not shrink, the Red Army’s operational situation improved thanks to the creation of a strategic reserve. Worse, the Soviets still went ahead with Operation Kutusov on July 12 after Operation Citadel cost them 250,000 men against 60,000 Germans.
The myth of German invincibility was put to rest at Kursk. In the summer of 1943, the Red Army begins its campaign with a renewed vigor and the assurance that comes from knowing it can hold its own in mechanized combat. It had run out of chances to win.
Bibliography:
Healy, Mark (1992). Kursk 1943: Tide Turns in the East. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-211-0.
Jentz, Thomas (1995). Germany’s Panther Tank. Atglen: Schiffer Pub. ISBN 0-88740-812-5.
Jacobsen, Hans Adolf; Rohwer, Jürgen (1965). Decisive battles of World War II; the German view. New York, NY: Putnam. OCLC 1171523193.
Following France’s defeat at the hands of Germany in World War II, the Third Republic was replaced by Vichy France on July 10, 1940. Marshal Pétain was granted absolute power and promptly established the “French State,” relocating his government to the free zone city of Vichy. The marshal then took center stage as World War I‘s heroic “providential man,” the man who would help France recover from its devastating loss to Germany, which had occupied the country’s northern and western regions.
With daily interactions with the Germans, the Marshal used all the power at his disposal to introduce new principles; this was collaboration. The Germans evacuated France upon the arrival of the Allies on August 20, 1944, and General de Gaulle assumed the presidency of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, bringing an end to the Vichy regime.
How Did the Vichy Regime Collaborate With Germany?
Personal flag of Philippe Pétain, Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l’État Français).
The “French State,” or Vichy France, was nominally independent after the German occupier handed over administration of France to them. Towards the end of October 1940, Philippe Pétain gave a speech in which he openly supported collaboration. There was a meeting between Hitler and the Marshal in Montoire-sur-le-Loir on October 24th, 1940. Immediately following the German invasion of the free zone on November 11, 1942, collaboration intensified. Compulsory Work Service (Service du travail obligatoire, STO), increased repression of opponents, establishment of the SOL (Legionary Order Service) and then the French Militia, economic measures favoring Germany, etc. all served German ideology under the Vichy regime. Moreover, anti-Semitic laws (such as the mandatory wearing of the yellow star and the confiscation of property) were enacted, as well as the establishment of a General Commissariat for Jewish Questions (CGQJ) and Jewish roundups like the Vel’ d’Hiv’.
Was the Vichy France an Anti-republican Regime?
The anti-republican Vichy regime had Marshal Pétain exercising legislative and executive powers and had abolished Parliament. It was a dictatorship, in which one man made all the decisions without consulting the people. The regime’s anti-republican tenor was bolstered in 1943 when a militia was formed to combat resistance fighters and apprehend Jews. After a short period of time, references to the “French Republic” were removed from all government publications.
What Was the Composition of the Vichy Government?
Secretary of State members served alongside French President Philippe Pétain. François Darlan succeeded Pierre-Étienne Flandin as Vice President of the Council after Pierre Laval stepped down. In April 1942, Pierre Laval became the Head of Government of Vichy France, a position he combined with his duties as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Information. Financial Minister Yves Bouthillier was succeeded by Pierre Cathala. Pierre Pucheu (Minister of the Interior) and Paul Baudouin (Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Minister of Information) were just two examples of the many different people who have held high offices in France. There were then separate ministers of state in charge of the air force, the navy, and the war.
What Were the Symbols of the Vichy France?
Propaganda image with the motto and Philippe Pétain above a scene of rural and industrial France.
The motto “Travail, Famille, Patrie” (Work, Family, Homeland) replaced the French Republic’s former motto of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) as the defining symbol of the Vichy regime, its ideology of “national revolution,” and its new moral order.
Official emblem of Marshal Pétain and de facto coat of arms of the Vichy regime.
The francisque, the national symbol, comes next. It’s a battle axe with both sides decorated in the blue, white, and red of France, and it’s been kept in mint condition. It was used on all government publications, advertisements, and trophies. The song “Maréchal, nous voilà!” was taught to every schoolchild in Vichy France and quickly became the unofficial anthem of the regime.
KEY DATES IN VICHY FRANCE
April 5, 1939 – Albert Lebrun was re-elected President of the Republic
The newly re-elected French President Albert Lebrun fought against signing an armistice with Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Eventually, he had to cede power to Marshal Pétain, who was elected president of the Council. In the end, authorities in the Austrian Tyrol captured and imprisoned Albert Lebrun.
Pétain was elected Council President on June 16, 1940
Pétain served as President of the Council of the Third Republic prior to becoming head of state of France (Vichy regime). On the same day he took office, he was replaced by a government formed after Paul Reynaud’s resignation. As required by the Constitution, this change had taken place.
When Pétain was in charge, his administration went by that name. The Marshal was already 84 years old. After signing the armistice on June 22, 1940, Philippe Pétain immediately established a new government in Vichy.
France and Germany sign an armistice on June 22, 1940
France’s Council President Philippe Pétain officially ends hostilities with Germany. The country of France was effectively divided in half, with the northern and western regions under German control and the southern region remaining independent. There was a line drawn in the sand that divided the two halves. The Marshal set up his new government in the southern city of Vichy.
July 2, 1940 – The Pétain government settled in Vichy
Pétain’s government established its headquarters in the free zone city of Vichy. Considering its proximity to the demarcation line with the occupied zone and its convenient train connections to Paris, this was a calculated move. The hotel’s facilities also made it simple to house the government officials. Since the government settled here, its rule was known as the Vichy regime.
French State was founded by Pétain on July 10, 1940
On this day, the “French State” officially began. The Third Republic ended when Marshal Pétain was given absolute power by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Assembly business was settled at the Grand Casino in Vichy. There were 569 in favor of Marshal Pétain and 80 opposed; 19 people didn’t vote. To legitimize the establishment of the “French State,” now known as the Vichy France, a new constitution was enacted. “Work, Family, Country” became the new national motto of France.
July 12, 1940 – Pierre Laval vice-president of the Council
Phillipe Pétain named Pierre Laval vice president of the Council and his successor on July 12. After the Allies won the war in Europe in August 1944, the “French State” was no more.
Churchill officially recognized de Gaulle as the legitimate leader of France on August 7th, 1940
Churchill’s official endorsement gave General de Gaulle the confidence he needed to take decisive action. Britain officially recognized the independence of the Free French Forces (FFL) after he signed agreements with Churchill on that day. Agreements like these provided the FFL with the funds it needed to take action and ensured that French possessions would be returned upon the country’s liberation.
Léon Blum was taken into custody on September 15, 1940
Léon Blum, the founder of major social laws and the Popular Front’s president in 1936, voted against giving Marshal Pétain full powers on July 10, 1940. As both a Jew and a socialist, he was targeted for arrest by the Vichy regime on September 15 and sent to Chazeron prison, where he attempted to coordinate resistance efforts from behind bars. After being tried in Riom and found guilty of leading France to defeat, he was turned over to the Germans and sent to Buchenwald.
Position of Jews in the Neutral Zone as of October 3, 1940
The Vichy government issued a new law regarding the status of Jews without any influence from the Nazi regime. According to Article 1, a person was considered Jewish if they have at least three Jewish grandparents or two non-Jewish grandparents whose spouse was Jewish. This was the first of a series of measures that will progressively worsen over time. Jews were restricted from working in many fields. Marshal Pétain’s collaboration led to the deportation of 75,721, including 6,012 children.
Pétain and Hitler shake hands on October 24, 1940
This handshake took place at the Montoire meeting and was captured on film forever. This was a visual representation of the Nazi regime’s cooperation with the Vichy government. After their interview at the train station, Hitler and Pétain continued their discussion in Hitler’s private carriage. On October 30, Pétain addressed the French people and urged them to “collaborate,” explaining that he had sought to improve France’s situation with the war’s victor.
December 13, 1940: Pierre Laval was dismissed
After being accused of having too close of ties to Germany, Philippe Pétain removed Pierre Laval as vice president of the Council and put him under house arrest. Adolf Hitler did not agree with the new Vichy government leader, so he had Laval released. In April of 1942, Pierre Laval regained prominence when he was appointed prime minister, foreign minister, interior minister, and minister of information all at the same time.
French strike ban on October 4, 1941
The law of October 4, 1941, known as the “Labor Charter”, was passed by the Vichy regime. It prohibited strikes and established the principle of single, compulsory unions.
The Riom trial began on February 19, 1942
On February 19, 1942, the Vichy regime initiated the Riom trial in an effort to establish the guilt of Third Republic politicians for the defeat of 1940. The likes of Léon Blum and Édouard Daladier, among others, were among those who stood accused. However, the defense presented compelling evidence that the loss was a result of military failure rather than political missteps. The trial was put on hold because it did not result in an indictment. With his newfound authority, Marshal Pétain decided to hand down a conviction himself.
22 February 1942 – Creation of the Service d’Ordre Légionnaire (SOL)
Joseph Darnand established the “Service d’Ordre Légionnaire” (Legionary Order Service) on February 22, 1942. They were a Vichy regime military group. They took an oath to “fight against democracy and the Jewish leprosy” and pledged their allegiance to the Nazi regime in exchange for membership in this openly collaborator army. After initially supporting the Vichy regime, the Service d’ordre légionnaire eventually broke away and aligned itself with less extreme collaborationist regimes. Joseph Darnand continued to lead the SOL after it morphed into the French Militia in 1943.
Vel’ d’Hiv’ raid, 17 July, 1942
A total of over 13,000 Jews, including around 4,100 children, were arrested in the Paris area overnight. René Bousquet, the French police’s General Secretary, was the one to carry out the order from the Vichy government. The Vel’ d’Hiv’ round-up got its name from the days the prisoners were stacked up at the Velodrome d’Hiver. Their next stop was Drancy, before they were shipped off to Auschwitz.
German forces invade the free zone on November 11, 1942
To counter the Allied invasion of North Africa, Adolf Hitler launched “Operation Attila” against France on November 8. The Germans invaded the southern part of the country, which had been a “free zone,” despite the name. Germany exerted full control and influence over the Vichy government.
February 16, 1943 – Institution of the STO
Vichy France passed a law instituting the Obligatory Labor Service because the “relief” and volunteer systems weren’t enough to meet German demand for labor. Every single man between the ages of 21 and 23 was shipped off to Germany to work for a total of four years. Some of the young men, however, defied the authority. People who didn’t want to sign the STO formed the maquis.
April 26, 1945 – Pétain took himself prisoner
Philippe Pétain, facing charges of “intelligence with the enemy” and “high treason,” decided to surrender as a prisoner in Switzerland. A few months later, there was no question about the verdict: he was sentenced to death. The sentence was changed from death to life in prison by General de Gaulle.
July 23, 1945 – Philippe Pétain’s trial opens
Marshal Pétain, a hero of World War I, went on trial in the High Court of Justice on July 23, 1945. In his trial, where he remained silent, questions were raised about his possible collaboration and his reasons for sparing France. It took a long time, but he was ultimately found guilty and given the death penalty. He was given a life sentence instead of death because General de Gaulle intervened on his behalf.
October 4, 1945: Pierre Laval’s trial opens
Pierre Laval, who had no idea how unpopular he was, learned the hard way during his trial, when he was subjected to jeers and insults from the crowd. The trial was hastily wrapped up, and the defendant was found guilty of high treason and conspiracy against the internal security of the State. For this reason, Pierre Laval was given the death penalty.
An armistice is a political agreement to temporarily suspend hostilities between warring parties, whereas a surrender is a military act. Students, and even communicators or the media, might be prone to mistaking an armistice for surrender because of a lack of education or experience with the terms. However, as the instances we have selected to demonstrate this misunderstanding reveal, the distinction is not only semantic, since the outcomes for the nations in question are not identical.
The differences between a surrender and an armistice
When a city (in the event of the conclusion of a siege), a province (in the case of a military campaign), or a country (in the case of a total loss) surrenders, all hostilities between the two sides are immediately and permanently halted. It’s the choice of an army’s commander, and it usually means giving up control of the land in question to the enemy. The statute acknowledges the command structure’s direct accountability.
We may point to many episodes of capitulation or surrender throughout history, including:
The American Civil War ended in 1865 with the unconditional surrender of Southern forces.
It wasn’t until Germany surrendered on May 7–8, 1945, that the war in Europe was finally over.
Japan’s surrendered on September 2, 1945.
The Argentine surrender in 1982 signaled the end of hostilities in the Falklands War.
But an armistice, which is an agreement accepted by both sides, officially ends hostilities even though both sides may theoretically resume fighting at any time. It’s the consequence of a political compromise that lets the loser keep running things in its seized area.
Armistices are not uncommon throughout history; a few notable instances include:
Napoleon Bonaparte‘s armistice with the Prussians, signed at Pläswitz on June 4, 1813 (Truce of Pläswitz)
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was officially ended by the Franco-German Armistice on January 28, 1871.
An armistice was struck between the Allies and Germany on November 11, 1918; the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year.
The French and Germans called an armistice on June 22, 1940, thereby ending the Battle of France.
In an armistice signed on July 20, 1954, France and North Vietnam, ended the First Indochina War.
The meaning of “armistice”
The Latin term “armistice” means “a cessation of hostilities” between opposing sides. As early as the 1600s, it was utilized in the form of a convention wherein the warring parties agreed to a temporary halt in fighting.
Armistices of 11 November 1918 and 22 June 1940
Given the advances gained (which signaled the end of trench warfare) and the possibility of a more enormous commitment by the recently landed American soldiers, it was evident that the Allies had acquired the upper hand against the German army by the year’s end of 1918.
The German leadership made the wise choice to end hostilities knowing that continuing the war would have resulted in millions of extra fatalities and possibly destroyed a significant portion of German land.
However, nationalist and revolutionary currents argued against and capitalized on this choice, arguing that it would have been a “stab in the back” for the supposedly “undefeated” German army.
In June of 1940, when France was already on the verge of defeat, Philippe Pétain and Maxime Weygand’s influence led them to decide to call an armistice to let the politicians take the blame. A surrender of the army in metropolitan France was an option. With that, all governmental control would be handed to the victors.
With an entire French navy and French soldiers in North Africa and several other colonies, the war might have continued abroad while the two countries were nominally at war.
May 7 and 8, 1945 – The German surrender
In January 1943, with the fate of World War II still uncertain, the Allies convened for the Casablanca Conference. None of the Allied leaders would consider an end to the war other than with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and the other Axis states, and no armistice or separate peace would be contemplated.
Two years later, the German army sought to negotiate a separate peace to concentrate its troops on the Eastern Front after being crushed by the Soviet counterattack and locked in a vice after the Allied arrival in Normandy. Instead, the Allies demanded an unconditional surrender. Even though Adolf Hitler was dead and there were only a few hundred thousand men remaining to fight when Berlin fell, and even though a few fanatical Nazis were ready to resist the occupation by withdrawing to the mountainous territories of Austria, the army was clearly defeated and had surrendered or capitulated.
Instances of high-level state confusion between armistice and surrender
Even the states get confused between capitulation and armistice. In 2010, the President of the French Republic gave the impression of a lukewarm interest in history by referring to the “65th anniversary of the armistice of 1945” in a message meant to prepare for a commemorative event honoring the end of hostilities in Europe in May.
However, the German army did really sign an unconditional surrender on May 7 and 8, 1945. To say the least, it’s puzzling that this muddled state of affairs has been perpetuated several times at the very top… Not only do words have significance, but they also have a story.
The United States achieved naval air superiority over Japan in the Pacific Ocean following the decisive Battle of Midway during World War II. The fighting occurred in the waters off the Midway Islands, to the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands, from June 3-7, 1942. The Japanese plan to encircle this atoll with an underwater barrage was thwarted by the American military, who achieved a major victory. This effectively ended any further maritime expansion by the imperial army, as the United States military effectively cut off their supply lines. As much as the Allied victory on the Russian front or in North Africa, the sinking of four aircraft carriers, three destroyers, and two hundred and sixty-one fighter planes at Midway shifted the balance of power in the war.
The Midway trap
After five months of defeats since Pearl Harbor, the Americans’ luck appeared to be changing with the paradoxical victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Admiral Yamamoto, however, had not finished speaking, and he planned to trap the enemy carriers. Despite the setback at the Coral Sea for the operation against Australia and New Guinea, Admiral Yamamoto decided to maintain the initiative by preparing a new offensive. Although the primary goal was relatively unimportant, it was actually meant to lure the enemy fleet so that it could be destroyed.
Actually, Yamamoto had his sights set on Midway, a Pacific atoll that was far from everything and of little strategic interest, but a landing there would still force the Americans to react. The Japanese admiral expected the American fleet to be depleted since Pearl Harbor, but he also anticipated that after the loss of the Lexington in the Coral Sea, the United States would be compelled to commit its last remaining forces to this battle.
It was also decided to launch a parallel attack on the Aleutian Islands; if the goal was to confuse the Americans, this also had the disadvantage of complicating the Japanese plan and even dividing the forces for no real reason. This strategic flaw would prove to be a recurring theme for the Japanese throughout the war.
The American surprises
As a whole, the American fleet’s experience at the Battle of the Coral Sea was mixed. While they were successful in stopping the Japanese offensive on Australia, they also suffered heavy losses, including the destruction of the aircraft carrier Lexington and the severe damage sustained by the battleship Yorktown.
The intelligence services had made great strides since Pearl Harbor, and it appeared that they had identified the next enemy target by breaking the Japanese code: Midway. This was the first good news Admiral Nimitz received. While it may have appeared that the Yorktown (commanded by Fletcher) was in dry dock for weeks, its repairs were actually completed in record time thanks to Chester Nimitz’s orders to bring the carrier to Pearl Harbor.
The aircraft carriers Enterprise and Hornet (commanded by Spruance) should be able to get to the area quickly, so the Admiral had that going for him as well. The Japanese did not realize that the forces were even.
Beginnings of the Midway conflict
The Japanese were so intent on carrying out their complex plan that they failed to anticipate facing not one, not two, but three aircraft carriers; they had been led to believe that the Yorktown had been sunk in the Coral Sea. Worse, they had to make do without the Shokaku and the Zuikaku, both of which were damaged in this conflict. Consequently, Yamamoto “only” had four aircraft carriers—the Kaga, the Hiryu, the Akagi, and the Soryu—for the Midway attack.
One thing to keep in mind was that they were all there when Pearl Harbor was bombed.
The majority of the Japanese fleet set sail for Midway and the Aleutians on May 26, 1941. They left Pearl Harbor the following day without the enemy knowing it, and the Japanese command thought the Enterprise and the Hornet were still operating in the Solomon Islands. The U.S. had won the intelligence war long ago.
On June 3, much to the shock of the Japanese, who had assumed they would not be attacked, the first contact was made when B-25s from Midway began bombing their island. The only thing that really got damaged was the Japanese pride after it became clear that the Americans hadn’t fallen for the Aleutian trap.
Raid on Midway and reconnaissance
Even so, Yamamoto continued to launch his assault. When he gave the order to invade the atoll on June 4, 1942, Nagumo was ready. The first attack ended at 7:10 a.m., and the Japanese pilots promptly requested another one. While passing through Midway, they ran into the American air force, which launched an unsuccessful attack on the Japanese fleet. The atoll-based air force did not cease to exist until 9 a.m. However, their efforts were not in vain, as the Japanese had already spotted the American fleet by the time the Midway raid took place, but were unable to attack it due to the destruction of their aircraft.
The reconnaissance ballet had been going on for hours. Disturbing and sometimes muddled messages were sent to Admiral Nagumo, one of which mentioned an American aircraft carrier being nearby. In the end, he decided to wait until the Midway raids were over before launching an attack, despite his initial reluctance. The Japanese mechanics were so confused that they had to switch the plane’s ammunition twice; once from torpedoes to bombs and once back again. A technical issue arose and all four Japanese aircraft carriers were in complete disarray. What the Japanese feared most came true: the Americans had also spotted them.
The American Box
An American reconnaissance plane spotted the Japanese fleet at 5 a.m., hours before the Japanese had signaled Fletcher’s aircraft carrier, the Yorktown. After two hours of the Midway raid, Enterprise’s planes were the first to make contact with the Japanese fleet, but the old Devastator torpedo boats had little effect and were shot down like rabbits by Japanese flak. Though flawed, they accomplished their goal of clearing the skies of enemy fighters for the subsequent aircraft, most notably the Dauntless dive bombers.
The Nagumo fleet was then hit by a barrage of bombs. Within minutes, the Kaga, the Akagi, and the Soryu were all either sunk or rendered inoperable.
Not helping matters were the planes waiting on the decks to convert their bombs into torpedoes. After the twenty-minute American raid, the Japanese fleet had only the aircraft carrier Hiryu to launch planes.
Farewell to Yorktown
At 10:40 a.m., aircraft from the Hiryu began their assault. The Yorktown, an aircraft carrier spotted early in the day, was their intended prey. Three bombs severely damaged the hero of the Battle of the Coral Sea, followed by a second wave, this time with two torpedoes. All hope was lost when the aircraft carrier was finally destroyed by a submarine two days later. The submarine also managed to sink the destroyer that had been protecting the carrier. Meanwhile, the aircraft launched a new attack on Nagumo’s fleet and sank the Hiryu; the vengeance for the Yorktown continued with a two-day pursuit of the heavy cruisers Mikuma and Mogami, the first of which was ultimately sunk, and the second of which was very seriously damaged.
As a result of arriving late to the scene, Admiral Yamamoto missed his chance to save Nagumo. He issued a retreat order. It was a devastating setback.
Results and implications of the Midway conflict
Unlike in the Coral Sea conflict, there was no ambiguity about the outcome this time! Whereas the Americans only abandoned one, the Japanese abandoned four. And most importantly, the war would ultimately come down to the loss of far too many of the Japanese fleet’s most experienced pilots.
Admiral Yamamoto’s attempt to capture Midway was a strategic failure, and he lost the initiative as a result. From Midway on, the Japanese advance was stopped for good, and more importantly, the Americans were able to launch a counterattack, which they did on Guadalcanal. As with the Allied victories on the Russian front and in North Africa, this was a turning point in the Pacific War.
Ultimately, the outcome of this naval engagement proved once and for all that aircraft carriers are superior to battleships. The ultimate defeat of the two titans, Musashi and Yamato, later in the war served as a symbolic confirmation of this. However, we still have a ways to go.
TIMELINE OF THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY
December 7, 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 a.m., Japanese air forces launched an attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base. Over 2,000 Americans and roughly 100 Japanese were killed in the conflict. The Japanese Empire sought to destroy all U.S. naval and air vessels. They wanted to solidify their dominance in the Pacific by launching campaigns in Australia and Malaysia.
December 8, 1941: The United States declared war on Japan
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States ends its state of neutrality. Involvement in World War II and the Pacific War begins with a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan.
May 4, 1942: Battle of the Coral Sea
The United States and Japan fought each other off the coast of Australia in the Coral Sea. The dates of May 4–May 8 of 1942 were crucial to this conflict. In spite of being the first naval air battle ever recorded, the outcome was a draw. The United States claimed a strategic victory, while the Japanese Empire won on the ground. The resolution of this conflict was exploited by both parties.
June 7, 1942: American victory in the Battle of Midway
The United States won the Battle of Midway on the fourth day of fighting. Air strikes on both sides’ naval fleets were a defining feature of this conflict. Both the strategic mistakes of the Japanese empire and the deciphering of their communications helped the Allies win the war. Japan will no longer be the one to initiate attacks during the Pacific War.
August 7, 1942: Marines land at Guadalcanal
The Solomon Islands campaign officially kicked off with the landing on Guadalcanal. The Allies were able to retake the strategic position from the Japanese in just six months.
During this assault, 3,100 Americans and 31,000 Japanese were killed. Hundreds of airplanes and ships were lost on both sides.
Bibliography:
Morison, Samuel E. (1949). Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions: May 1942 – August 1942. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 4. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-58304-6.
Isom, Dallas Woodbury (2007). Midway Inquest: Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34904-0.
Lord, Walter (1967). Incredible Victory. New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 1-58080-059-9.
Buell, Thomas B. (1987). The Quiet Warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-562-0.
Symonds, Craig L. (2018). World War Two at Sea: A Global History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-1902-4367-8.
Combat between German and French forces at Verdun raged from February 21 to December 18, 1916. The Germans launched an assault meant to “bleed the French army dry.” In short order, General Pétain was given responsibility for defending this section of the front, and he organized the front’s supply by building the “sacred way,” a road that was widened and maintained to allow two lines of trucks to pass each other without stopping. French resistance forces were able to slow the German advance, but at an unbelievable cost in lives and injuries. France’s victorious offensive at Verdun was widely regarded as a turning point in World War I (1914–1918).
Why Was the Battle of Verdun Fought?
Assaulting French soldiers emerge from their trenches during the Battle of Verdun, 1916.
Since the Battle of the Marne, the war of movement had been transformed into a war of positions: the combatants buried themselves in trenches, fought in horrible conditions, folded in the mud in the midst of rats, were surrounded by corpses that were not always possible to evacuate, and above all, survived in fear. General Erich von Falkenhayn planned to “bleed the French army white” on the Verdun salient with the fire of thousands of cannons, meaning to exhaust it both morally and physically before completely defeating it. The Kronprinz, William II’s eldest son, who was also intent on destroying the French army and who described Verdun as the symbolic “heart of France,” backed him up in this mission.
The location on the Meuse in Lorraine and its fortifications made it a strategic issue and a matter of national honor for the French, and the Germans knew this. The military history of Verdun’s defense was extensive, beginning with the construction of fortifications in the 14th century and continuing with the construction of an underground citadel under Louis XIII, its consolidation under Louis XIV with Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, and its reinforcement once more at the end of the 19th century. The Prussians besieged and conquered the city twice: in 1792 and again in 1870.
Due to the salient in the front and the dividing Meuse River, Verdun was a very difficult battlefield to defend. The Germans were also aware of the difficulty the French would have in reaching the Verdun-based troops due to the lack of a proper railway line.
Since Joffre believed the Verdun defenses to be nearly invulnerable, he failed to adequately staff the forts with sufficient numbers of men and equip them with adequate weapons. Also, in August 1915, military leaders decided to relocate around forty heavy batteries and twelve field batteries to safer areas. A battle in Champagne was expected, so the outbreak of fighting at Verdun came as a shock to the French.
A Meticulously Prepared Offensive
The German high command had decided in December 1915 that Verdun would be a decisive battle, and they had prepared for it accordingly. German forces were increased from six to eight divisions, and concrete tunnels were constructed as close as possible to the French positions. The German army was spread out over a dozen-kilometer-long front, and 221 artillery batteries were set up to support them. These plans were kept secret, but the French intelligence services were aware of an attack on February 11. Although some reinforcements were dispatched to the site just in case, military authorities didn’t put much stock in this unexpected information. The assault was delayed for a few days due to bad weather.
A German artillery barrage began at 7:30 a.m. on February 21. It had over 1.2 million cannons, including 13 mighty 420-mm Krupps. Bombs rained down on the three French divisions that were stationed along this fifteen-kilometer front. With only 65 artillery batteries and 270 cannons, von Falkenhayn planned to wipe out as much of the enemy infantry as possible. After nine hours of bombardments, German artillery finally gave way to infantry: German infantrymen launched themselves against French positions, and, for the first time, the formidable weapon of the flamethrower was used.
Two million shells were fired at French positions in the first 48 hours of the war, and the French front was pushed back about ten kilometers in that time. German artillery was relentless, but the French defenders’ tenacity in the face of isolation and a lack of leadership surprised the occupiers. Joffre ordered the French to resist at all costs, declaring with resolve, “They will not pass!” on February 25, after the French had lost 20,000 men and the fort of Douaumont had fallen. In order to defend Verdun, he put General Philippe Pétain in charge, with support from Generals Nivelle and Mangin of the 2nd army.
Pétain Organized the Defense
Pétain had a plan to close the gap the enemy had left and establish communication with the rear starting on February 26. Over the course of 24 hours, reinforcements and supplies of food and ammunition were brought in via the 6,000 trucks that took the “sacred road” connecting Bar-le-Duc and Verdun. They brought back a lot of wounded soldiers when they got home. From that point on, weekly transports included 90,000 men and 50,000 tons of equipment. Additionally, Pétain established a rotation of units that led to two-thirds of the French army taking part in the fighting at Verdun in an effort to minimize losses within each division and provide some respite for the poilus in the area around Bar-le-Duc.
The French army grew from 230,000 to 584,000 strong between February and April, with the artillery nearing 2,000 pieces, of which a quarter were heavy weapons. But the Germans continued to show their strength; on February 27, they captured the fort of Douaumont, which had been defended by only 60 men. The Germans launched their attack on the left bank of the Meuse on March 6 and quickly gained control of Cumières Wood on March 7, Mort-Homme Ridge on March 14, and Hill 304 on May 24.
The German offensive launched in the early spring was repelled on both the eastern and western fronts, and by the end of March, the enemy’s breach had been sealed. Despite the initial setback on April 9, the Germans rallied quickly, and General Mangin was unable to retake Douaumont between May 22 and May 24. Massive casualties were sustained in the so-called “hell of Verdun,” but the war of attrition nonetheless continued. The Germans captured Vaux Fort on June 7, and at the month’s end, they launched a fresh assault on Thiaumont, Fleury, and the area around Froi-deterre.
The Germans advanced three kilometers, endangering French positions on the right bank of the Meuse, and the terrible phosgene bombs made their first appearance. But the situation on the Somme, further north, gradually shifted the balance of power; on July 1, the French and British forces launched a massive offensive that compelled the Germans to reduce their numbers in Verdun in order to hold their positions on the Somme.
The Battle of Verdun Turns to the Advantage of the French
On July 11, the Kronprinz attempted a fresh assault on the fort of Souville in Verdun, but the French artillery response and counterattacks saved the situation just in time. In light of the setbacks suffered by the German forces, Marshal Hindenburg, aided once more by General Ludendorff, relieved General von Falkenhayn of his command on August 29, 1916.
General Robert Nivelle, who had replaced General Pétain as head of the 2nd Army (Pétain was given command of the Army Group Centre), began a counteroffensive against Verdun on the 24th. After losing ground steadily since February, this allowed the Allies to turn the tide and recover quickly, retaking the forts of Douaumont and Vaux within a matter of hours and two months, respectively. Along the right bank of the Meuse, between Champneuville and Bezonvaux, the front had steadied.
The French triumphed at Verdun on December 18, 1916.
The “Massacre” of Verdun
Considering the previous ten months of bloodshed and 37 million shells fired, this victory was monumental. Despite nearly 380,000 dead, missing, and wounded, France maintained its advantage in the Verdun region. It was a double loss for Germany: first, they were unable to break through the French front, and second, their casualty count (estimated at 335,000 killed, missing, and wounded) was nearly as high as France’s. After the Somme, the Battle of Verdun was the bloodiest in World War I.
KEY DATES OF THE BATTLE OF VERDUN
Fort Douaumont before the battle (German aerial photograph).
German forces stormed and captured Douaumont Fort on February 25, 1916. General Pétain was given control of the fortified Verdun area after the French army suffered this symbolic defeat.
The Germans made a small gain for their efforts on April 9, 1916, when they captured the Mort-Homme observation point. General Pétain issued a historic rallying cry the following day: “Courage, we will get them!”
On May 1, 1916, General Joffre appointed General Nivelle to replace Pétain because Joffre found Nivelle more offensive than Pétain.
On May 22, 23, and 24, 1916, General Mangin, acting on orders from General Nivelle, led a major French offensive that ultimately failed to retake the Fort of Douaumont. No adequate artillery preparations were made.
On June 7, 1916, the defenders of Vaux Fort signed a document surrendering the fort. When they realized they wouldn’t have enough water to make it, the local troops under Major Raynal’s command surrendered. The Germans took control of the area.
Following a nonstop barrage of poison gas shells on June 23, 1916, 60,000 German soldiers attacked along a 6-kilometer front. Fleury was taken. Despite this, Germany’s efforts to capture Verdun persisted in failing, producing disappointing results despite the enormous effort.
The German army’s final offensive began in the Souville sector on July 12, 1916. There was no success. The enemy’s greatest advance during the Battle of Verdun occurred here. This was yet another setback for Kronprinz Wilhelm of Prussia’s troops, who had been told to stick to defensive measures.
Douaumont after the battle.
After months of planning the “artillery fire” phase, the French forces successfully retook Fort Douaumont from the Germans on October 24, 1916, effectively ending the Battle of Verdun.
Battle of Verdun at a Glance
What was the Battle of Verdun?
The Battle of Verdun was a major battle fought between German and French forces during World War I. It was one of the longest and deadliest battles of the war and took place in and around the city of Verdun in northeastern France.
What was the significance of the Battle of Verdun?
The Battle of Verdun is considered significant because it became a symbol of the tenacity and resilience of the French forces. It also represented a turning point in the war, with both sides suffering heavy casualties and the battle ultimately resulting in a stalemate.
What were the objectives of the German offensive?
The German objective was to capture the strategic city of Verdun and inflict heavy casualties on the French army, hoping to break their morale and force them to divert resources from other parts of the front.
What was Falkenhayn’s strategy in the Battle of Verdun?
German General Erich von Falkenhayn’s strategy was to engage the French in a battle of attrition at Verdun, hoping to bleed the French army and force them to commit significant resources to defend the area. His intention was to wear down French morale and create a favorable situation for German victory elsewhere
What role did trench warfare play in the Battle of Verdun?
Trench warfare was a defining characteristic of the Battle of Verdun. Both sides constructed extensive networks of trenches, which served as defensive lines and provided protection from enemy fire. The battle involved fierce fighting over small sections of land between the opposing trench systems.
Bibliography:
Martin, W. (2001). Verdun 1916. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-85532-993-5.
Windrow, M. (2004). The Last Valley: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-84671-0.
Horne, A. (2007) [1962]. The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 (pbk. repr. Penguin ed.). London. ISBN 978-0-14-193752-6.
From July to November of 1916, the Allies and the Germans fought in the Somme region of northern France in the bloody and protracted Battle of the Somme. The British first engaged some 40 tanks on September 15 at Flers, and the ensuing bloodbath was a turning point in the war. But this initial major Franco-British offensive, led by General Foch and Douglas Haig, did not result in any significant Allied advances on the Western Front (contrary to the expectations of the general staff). Joffre called off the offensive on November 18, 1916, due to bad weather, the exhaustion of the troops, and the small amount of territory gained.
What was the goal of the Battle of the Somme?
According to the command, the lack of resources was to blame for the failure of the Allied offensives in 1915. Generals believed they could win with heavy artillery preparations, which would clear the way for the advance of the troops as production of guns and shells increased. On December 6, 7, and 8, 1915, the Allies convened at Chantilly, in the French Grand Quartier Général under the command of General Joffre, with this goal in mind.
Each of the major players in World War I—the French, the British, the Italians, and the Russians—had the same idea: to launch an offensive at the same time on multiple fronts. The Russians would launch a general attack in the east; the Italians would launch an attack on the Isonzo; and the French and British would launch a massive offensive on the Somme at the end of spring or the beginning of summer 1916. At the same time, the Germans, influenced by Falkenhyan, decided to “bleed the French army dry” by leading an assault on Verdun.
The Battle of Verdun altered the original plan
Due to the unexpected start of the Battle of Verdun on February 21, 1916, plans were severely hampered. While the Somme offensive was planned as a joint French and British effort in which both sides would play an equal role, the French demanded in February that the British contribute more to the offensive through the head of the French Military Mission to the British Army. The attack’s front was also drastically shortened, from 70 to 40 kilometers, with the British portion reaching 28 kilometers; the Battle of the Somme would henceforth be fought primarily by the British.
The area of Albert, which the Allies control, and the surrounding area of Péronne (controlled by the Germans), would be where the operation would take place. There was a lot of room for interpretation in the objectives, which Jean-Jacques Becker claims were as much about wearing down the German army as they were about finding the decisive battle that would lead to final victory.
Harmful attack, but not much accomplished
Several days of intensive artillery preparation culminated in an assault on German defenses by French and British armies on July 1, 1916. Although the French VIth saw some success in the south, the British army suffered catastrophic losses, with 10,000 dead and 60,000 wounded by July 1. The attackers were met with partially intact defenses and German machine gun fire despite the extensive preemptive bombardment.
The battle, which spanned a significant amount of time, can be broken down into three distinct parts: the initial offensive, which occurred from July 1 to 20, the long stagnation that occurred from July 20 to September 3, and the slight advancement that occurred from September 3 to November 18. The British lost 420,000 men, including over 100,000 dead, and the French lost 200,000 men, including over 100,000 dead, for an advance of only a few kilometers. Over 500,000 German soldiers died in the conflict.
The British Army deployed tanks (Mark IV) for the first time on September 15, 1916, at Flers. Many of them were unable to reach the front lines, but others made remarkable progress. In spite of this, there weren’t enough of them, and they were too sluggish and unreliable.
Its many flaws, especially its slowness (barely 6 km/h on the road), gave it an effect that was more psychological than real, with most of the examples involved in the fighting being destroyed or captured. This was also true of the French and German tanks that appeared a few months later. A few months later, tanks finally became a game-changer.
By the end of 1916, it appeared that the Somme offensive had failed because the enemy lines were not breached. With Germany’s continued occupation of northeastern France, the balance of power remained in the hands of the central powers. Worse, it appeared that neither side could win the war decisively.
Battle of the Somme; a turning point
The Battle of the Somme was a turning point in the Great War for a number of reasons. While the Battle of Verdun is not prominent in German accounts of the war, the Battle of the Somme is. While fighting on French territory, German soldiers saw themselves as defending their homeland from the British invaders and took a defensive position in underground shelters.
The French were discouraged after the failure of the Somme, and this fed a weariness that began at the end of 1916 and was expressed more forcefully in 1917. The volunteers, who made up the bulk of the troops sent and were decimated on July 1, 1916, were replaced by conscripts, whose formation had begun at the start of 1916, and the Somme marked the beginning of the end for the volunteer army.
The French and British worked together exceptionally well on the Somme, marking a turning point in the war. The French and British armies had to employ liaison officers to facilitate better communication between the two sides as liaison tactics began to be put into practice. The Somme campaign failed and cost a lot of lives, but it showed Allied commanders that they needed to work together better and train harder to defeat the Germans. It’s true that the Allies were able to learn from this massive material battle, especially with regards to the use of artillery, which ultimately led to their victory in 1918 despite the terrible weather and serious tactical errors.
Memory of the Battle of the Somme
British people’s recollections of World War I will always include the bloody Battle of the Somme. The first day of the offensive was the bloodiest day in British history, and many accounts detail the carnage that ensued. When the Scottish lieutenant and his two men finally reached the German lines, the man in charge is rumored to have exclaimed, “My God, where are the rest of the boys?”
Also quickly remembered was the Somme Battle. The Thiepval (Somme) Memorial, by Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932 at the behest of the British government. The monument, which stands at 45 meters tall and is shaped like a triumphal arch, honors the 73,367 British and South African soldiers who lost their lives on the Somme. Nearly 160,000 people visit the memorial annually, and it is located next to a military cemetery that adheres to British standards, meaning that all names are engraved on uniform steles regardless of the person’s rank or grade.
In addition, the “circuit of remembrance” of the Battle of the Somme has been developed, making it possible to see the scars left by the Great War on the landscape and to see the most significant memorials to the conflict: Somme commemorations have recently taken place at the Ulster Tower (Irish memorial) and the ANZAC memorial (Australian and New Zealand memorial).
TIMELINE OF THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME
The British failed on July 1st, 1916
The Allies began their assault early in the morning after several days of artillery preparation were delayed, in part, by bad weather. The British, carrying more than 30 kilos of equipment, moved at a snail’s pace because their command didn’t want them to disperse or think about the decimated German forces from the previous days’ bombardments. The majority of British casualties were the result of German machine gun fire.
July-August 1916: The slow progression
The British command wanted to halt the attack on the Somme front after the disastrous results of the July 1st offensive, but Marshal Joffre, commander-in-chief of the French armies, refused. During the subsequent two months of attacks and counterattacks, both sides made only minimal gains (at Langeval Wood for the British and Flaucourt Plateau for the French, respectively) and suffered significant casualties.
Movement of German Troops
However, the German general staff was concerned that the front lines on the Somme had been breached. As a result, in the month of July, the decision was made to pull thirteen divisions back from the Verdun front and two from the Ypres sector. This relieved some of the stress on the Allies at Verdun. In the weeks that followed, other divisions were scheduled to be deactivated as well. The German writer Paul Zech, who survived Verdun and was sent as reinforcement to the Somme front, testifies in a letter, “Here, everything is brought to its extreme: hatred, dehumanization, horror, and blood (…).” I don’t know anymore what can happen to us.
September-October 1916: intensification of the allied offensives
Several German positions were quickly taken despite the persistent rain and the battlefield’s transformation into a quagmire. On September 9, the British recovered Ginchy, in particular. On September 15th, they deployed their first tanks, which they dubbed “tanks” Mark I, with mixed results due to their clumsiness, but which did allow them to seize a number of positions (Courcelette, Martinpuich…). The French were successful in capturing large portions of territory from the Germans and capturing thousands of prisoners. On September 25th, the British and the French launched a combined offensive that would continue until September 28th. They allowed the Allies to retake Combles and Thiepval and strengthen their positions, but their strength waned in October.
November 1916: Against all odds, the end of the battle
However, despite some Allied victories in November, the fighting appeared to stall. The weather turned bad in the second half of the month, bringing icy rain, blizzards, and snow to the soldiers and effectively halting any offensives. This, oddly enough, was the catalyst for the end of the Battle of the Somme, as on November 21, General Haig, commanding the British army, decided to end the offensive. On the 11th of December, 1916, General Foch, who was in command of the French army on the Somme, did the same thing. On December 18, French Army Chief of Staff Marshal Joffre declared an end to the Somme offensive. The primary goals of Bapaume and Péronne were not accomplished by this war of attrition, which resembled Verdun.
Western Europe, but also Eastern Europe and the Balkans, was ground zero for World War I (known as the First World War, Great War, or WW1), which raged from July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918. It quickly gained the label “world war” because of the participation of the majority of the world’s leading powers at the time. Many historians call it “The Great War” because they believed it would be the final conflict in their country. World War I was fought between central empires like Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary and the Allies like France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the United States. It was characterized by the mobilization of so many soldiers, trench warfare, and the introduction of new weapons like airplanes, tanks, and gas, and it resulted in the deaths of 18 million people (military and civilian alike). When the Allies won the war, a lot of the old empires fell apart and were replaced by new countries.
How did World War I start?
It all started with an assassination attempt on June 28th, 1914, which triggered a major crisis across Europe. Sarajevo was the scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the throne of the Austria-Hungary (Austro-Hungarian Empire), by a Bosnian Serb student. The latter group was advocating for Serbia to annex Bosnia. On July 28, 1914, the Austria-Hungary Empire used this as justification for an attack on Serbia.
The Serbs wanted to recover Bosnia, which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary, so that they could gain access to the Adriatic Sea and unite all the Slavs of the Balkans under a single kingdom. It was the catalyst for the political maneuvering that ultimately led to World War I. On July 30, Russia began mobilizing its military forces to aid Serbia. Austria-Hungary’s ally, Germany, went to war with Russia and then France. Thereafter, the United Kingdom declares its allegiance to France. Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914. Next up was the Ardennes Offensive.
What were the causes of World War I?
Examining a world map from the start of 1914 was essential for comprehending the factors that led to the outbreak of World War I. Many people lived in what was then known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Romanians, Poles, Serbs, etc.). The Russian Empire, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary all had a piece of Poland. There was a change in Turkey’s name to the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the war in 1870–1871, Germany had taken Alsace and a portion of Lorraine from France. Tense diplomatic relations were a result of territorial disputes between multiple countries and empires.
Who were the actors in World War I?
At the outset of World War I, in 1914, two alliances squared off against one another:
The United States, Japan, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Greece, Brazil, and many other countries backed the Triple Entente, which was made up of the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire.
The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria supported the Triple Alliance, which consisted of the German, Austria-Hungary, and Italian Empires, and which joined the Triple Entente in 1915.
All these nations quickly went to war with one another because of the complex web of alliances that existed between them.
Verdun and the other battles of 1914–1918
French soldiers attacking from their trench
During World War I, battles were fought simultaneously on numerous fronts. A front line was forming on the western border of France and Italy. From the Baltic to the Black Sea in the East, the Russian Empire was at odds with the Triple Alliance. A third great front was present in the Balkans. However, the World War I was felt on every continent, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and on every ocean. There were three distinct eras of World War I on the Western Front. The months of August through November of 1914 were characterized by constant troop and supply shifts. These rapid advances in a war of positions from the end of 1914 to March 1918 will be halted, however, by the use of new, very deadly weapons (heavy artillery, shells, etc.). As a result, the fighting evolves into a trench war. In March of 1918, tanks and planes began arriving in large numbers, marking the beginning of maneuver warfare.
In light of these three main epochs, the following is a list of the most significant battles fought on the Western Front during World War I:
The First Battle of the Marne killed 250,000 people between September 5 and September 12, 1914.
The Dardanelles campaign, which lasted from February 1915 to January 1916, claimed the lives of 250,000.
The Battle of Verdun took place from February 21 to December 31, 1916, and caused 700,000 deaths.
From July 1st to November 18th, 1916, the Battle of the Somme kills 1.2 million people.
The Battle of the Chemin des Dames took place from April 16 to May 9, 1917, and resulted in 180,000 French deaths.
On July 18, 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne occurred, killing 200,000 people.
Was World War I a total war?
One could say that World War I was a total war because it affected every aspect of life in the countries that were involved.
Military mobilization: The European conflict exploded onto the world stage with the involvement of the colonial empires (France, Britain, and Russia), the United States, and Japan. Each nation sent a sizable number of its men to the battlefield.
Economic mobilization: The war effort receives significant contributions from all belligerent nations’ industrial output. The French government had also begun issuing loans to the general public. Civilian life was also affected. Male farmhands and factory workers have been replaced by female counterparts. Rationing was the norm because food supplies were more difficult to distribute.
How did World War I end?
In 1917, American troops arrived on the Western Front. While Germany and Austria-Hungary continued to fight on the Eastern Front, Russia, caught up in communist revolutions since March 1917, withdrew its forces. When the Germans tried to push through to the West in 1918, the Entente powers made a breakthrough instead. Unsettled by the uprising, Germany requested an armistice, which was signed with representatives of the new German Republic on November 11, 1918, in Rethondes, France.
How many people died in the World War I?
One of the deadliest wars ever was World War I, which claimed more lives than World War II. A total of 18 million people, including 10 million soldiers, lost their lives as a result. The French military suffered a loss of 1.4 million men and women. Two million German soldiers were killed in action. Keep in mind the 21 million wounded, especially the “gueules cassées,” or amputated or disfigured soldiers. Europeans began to feel the effects of the Spanish flu in April 1918, which continued through the summer of 1919. The physical resilience of the population had been depleted by years of fighting. More than 2 million people in Europe would have died if this virus had spread.
The results of World War I
Many lives were lost and many bodies were broken during World War I. The affected nations were unsettled and saddled with debt. There was a lot of damage as a result. Not least, it had a geographic impact:
The French states of Alsace and Lorraine were reclaimed by the French government.
Austria and Hungary emerged from the fragmentation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. New nations were created from the remaining parts of the empire: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, etc.
The Ottoman territory was split up, occupied, and ultimately lost. In 1923, Turkey came into being.
After the German Empire fell, a new country called the German Republic was formed, but it quickly lost land to Poland in the form of Alsace-Lorraine and the “Danzig corridor.”
Finnish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian nationalists successfully pushed for independence from the Russian Empire, which had also become a Republic.
The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, exacted a steep price from Germany. The brand-spanking-new German Republic was taxed heavily. Its colonies were destroyed, and its military was whittled down to nothing. Adolf Hitler would later use German resentment of the “diktat” of Versailles to his advantage during the 1930s.
TIMELINE OF WORLD WAR I
May 25, 1882: Birth of the Triple Alliance
It was in 1882 that the Triple Alliance (or Triplice) between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy was formed for defensive purposes. Thus, Germany was bolstered in the face of an antagonistic France that had not been friendly since the war of 1870, and Austria-Hungary found allies in the face of threats posed by Russian expansionist policies in the Balkans. The Italians, for their part, craved power above all else so that they could better counter France’s colonial agenda. All of them took part in cutting diplomatic ties with France. The signing of this treaty was crucial in setting the stage for World War I. It was broken in May 1915 when Italy sided with the opposing camp.
French and Russian military officials signed an agreement on August 18, 1892
A diplomatic and military agreement between France and Russia allowed them to end their diplomatic isolation from the Triplice. This treaty not only formalizes a military partnership but also sets out the parameters for the Empire to take out a loan from Russia. The relationship between the two countries and Britain got better over time, which led to the Triple Entente and made things more tense before World War I.
April 8, 1904: Signature of the Entente Cordiale
The European situation was becoming increasingly tense, and the Triple Alliance posed a threat of an imbalance of power among the other countries, so the United Kingdom and France were able to reach an agreement to end their colonial disputes. Thus, the two powers initiated a rapprochement in four articles covering topics such as fishing in Newfoundland, control of Egypt for one country and Morocco for the other, and the formation of what would be called the “Triple Entente,” a military alliance with Russia.
March 13, 1905: Reinforcement of the Blockade of Germany
A decree issued by France stipulated that all goods originating from or destined for Germany would be intercepted, further solidifying the country’s policy of economic warfare and blockade against the country. The German declaration of war in the English Channel and the waters near France and the United Kingdom on February 4 prompted the signing of this treaty. When the French got similar orders from the British on February 9, they worked together with them to make a plan.
The Triple Entente was founded on August 31, 1907
France and the United Kingdom had been informally discussing military cooperation for a year before Britain signed an agreement with Russia. This deal not only allowed the three countries to connect indirectly, but it also defined the spheres of influence of each nation in Afghanistan and Iran. After that point, France’s allies included the Russian Empire, the British Empire, and finally France itself. This agreement was crucial in light of the war that broke out seven years later.
July 1, 1911: Episode of the Gunboat “Panther”
Colonial rivalries sparked a severe crisis at a pivotal time in the buildup to World War I. As an official measure, Germany dispatched the gunboat “Panther” to the port of Agadir. A message was sent to France, which had backed Sultan Moulay Hafiz against a Berber uprising by sending an armed ship. Their sights were set on Morocco, and Germany did not take kindly to France’s efforts to increase its military presence and, by extension, its influence there. The strength of the Entente Cordiale was underlined by the United Kingdom’s intervention on behalf of France, and everyone made preparations for war. Eventually, Germany caved into economic pressures and retracted its position in the fall.
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered in Sarajevo
While in Sarajevo, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie of Hoenberg, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, were murdered by 19-year-old Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. The attack ignited Europe, which was then split between the Triple Alliance (Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Russia, France, and Great Britain). World War I began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28. Over the course of four years, 18 million lives will be lost.
The 28th of July, 1914, saw the declaration of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo prompted Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia a month later. As the chain of alliances widens, the conflict will become more widespread: on the one hand, the Triple Entente (Russia, France, and Great Britain); on the other, the Triple Alliance (America, Japan, and Germany) (Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy).
First Day of War: August 1, 1914
The Germans declared war on Russia, and the French ordered general mobilization four days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in response to the assassination of the Archduke of Austria in Sarajevo. The invasion of neutral Belgium by German troops began on August 4, following Germany’s August 3 declaration of war against France. All of Europe’s major powers expect the war to be brief.
German forces invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914
Even though Belgium claimed to be neutral, German troops invaded under the Schlieffen plan. When France and Russia joined forces, this strategy was born. To avoid a frontal assault, the Germans planned to avoid the “risky” French zones. Even though the army led by King Albert I put up a fierce fight, much of the country was still occupied. The Canton territories of Eupen, Malmedy, and Saint-Virth were formally recognized as part of Belgium after World War I thanks to the Treaty of Versailles. The country of Belgium now had a mandate over the country of Ruanda-Urundi (later Rwanda-Burundi). Conflict will eventually force it to abandon its neutral stance.
The First Battle of the Bulge began on this day in 1914
In spite of their best efforts, French forces were unable to halt the advance of the German army. Movement was a core principle for both sides, and the battles were planned in accordance with each camp’s underlying theory. In the so-called “battle of the borders,” the French were initially defeated and forced to retreat. This led to their defeat in the Ardennes, a battle they would later go on to win in the Marne.
August 30, 1914, Russian defeat at Tannenberg
A month had passed since the war began. When the French asked the Russians to open a front in the East, they did so in order to get Germany to split its forces. The Germans were able to attack and push the Russians back at Tannenberg in East Prussia because they intercepted Russian messages. In addition to capturing 500 cannons, the Germans also managed to capture over 92,000 Russian soldiers.
The Triple Entente was formally established on September 3, 1914
By bolstering their military pacts, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia provide the Triple Entente with a solid political foundation. They’ve agreed to forego signing any bilateral accords.
The French won the Battle of the Marne on September 12, 1914
We’re now a month into this war. In the face of the German offensive, French General Joffre and British General Maunoury, leading the Franco-British forces, were forced to continually withdraw from the Belgian border. Joffre made the decision to launch a counterattack and had new troops brought in from Paris in taxis (the cabs of the Marne). There was a decisive defeat for the Germans, and they were forced to retreat. The French army managed to escape.
October 5, 1914: First air combat
In World War I, a German Aviatik piloted by Lieutenant Von Zangen was shot down near Reims by a French Voisin III piloted by Sergeant Frantz and Corporal Quénault. As far as we know, this was the first aerial battle ever fought. Prior to the outbreak of the first international conflict, it was common practice to use military aircraft to take photographs of the locations of the combatants. They served as informants but had no weapons.
17 October 1914: The locks stop the German advance on the Yser front
By opening the locks and flooding the plain, the Belgian army was able to cut off the Germans’ access to the sea. Even though they were outnumbered, the Belgians were able to stop the enemy from moving forward and set up a strong barrier thanks to this planned flooding. This was done after their victories in the Marne.
The Germans won the Battle of Coronel on November 1, 1914
A battle broke out off the coast of Chile when two battleships from the esteemed Royal Navy ran into German cruisers. The two British ships were sunk without too much damage by German Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee. People still talk about how shocking this victory was, and in the Battle of the Falklands Islands, the Royal Navy got its revenge.
On November 5th, 1914, France and Great Britain declared war on Turkey
After Russia went to war with the Ottoman Empire, England and France joined in two days later. On October 28, Turkey joined Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in World War I as part of their Central Powers.
The Battle of the Falklands began on December 8th, 1914
After the British navy spotted two German ships, they pursued them and fought a German squadron led by Vice Admiral Maximilian Von Spee a few hours later. The United Kingdom successfully defended itself from this attack near the Falkland Islands. The Royal Navy gets its revenge on the vice admiral, but more importantly, the British are able to maintain control over important trade routes.
April 22, 1915: The first use of asphyxiating gas
The Germans introduced a new weapon into the trench warfare in Ypres (Belgium): asphyxiating gas. At first, the Allies’ defense against these gases was limited to goggles and pads. Then they will put on masks for safety. In the years 1915 and 1916, nearly 100,000 soldiers were killed by this poisonous weapon, which had been outlawed by the Hague Declaration of 1899. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 and United Nations Resolution 2603 of 1969 contain more recent provisions regarding gas use.
Landing at Gallipoli, April 24, 1915
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) at the trenches of Gallipoli during World War I. Taken on June 17, 1915 by Haydar Alganer.
The Allies’ naval expedition through the Dardanelles encountered Ottoman resistance and underwater mines on its way to Constantinople. Seventy-five thousand reinforcements were dropped off at Gallipoli. The Ottomans beefed up their security in anticipation of the Allied invasion. Although reinforcements were sent in August, that month brought no noticeable improvement. Despite a total of 200,000 casualties and 120,000 wounds, the offensive was unsuccessful. Between December and January of 1916, the Allies withdrew.
7 May 1915: A submarine sinks the “Lusitania”
Off the coast of Ireland, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed the British liner Lusitania as it sailed from New York. When the ship sank quickly, 1,198 people, including 128 Americans, lost their lives. American public opinion was already leaning toward supporting military action against the “Central Powers” before this tragedy struck, but it shifted dramatically afterward. Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered a full submarine war to begin again in 1917, prompting President Wilson to declare war on Germany.
On May 23, 1915, Italy and Austria-Hungary went to war
Italy went to war with Austria-Hungary, a country it had been allied with the year before. The agreements signed a month earlier in London with the Triple Entente allowed for this about-face against an ally that it had never taken to its heart. The latter capitalized on Italy’s desire to expand its influence into parts of Austria-Hungary, most notably Istria. At the beginning of the war, Italy was a part of the Triple Alliance but had not yet joined the conflict. Since it considered these allies to be the aggressors, it owed them nothing.
October 6, 1915: Austria-Hungary invades Serbia
More than a year after the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, that country began to feel the effects of the conflict that had engulfed Europe. Austria-Hungary didn’t actually invade Serbia until fourteen months after it declared war on the country. In one day, Belgrade will be no more.
On October 12th, 1915, Edith Cavell was brutally murdered
Edith Louisa Cavell, an English nurse, was shot to death by German troops in Belgium. She faced accusations that she aided the Allied forces in reaching Holland to resume fighting there. The occupied Belgian territory where a prominent Brussels hospital’s head nurse was employed. Because of what she did, 170 men made it to the Netherlands in a matter of months. There was no denial on her part when she was taken into custody. Rather, she was completely forthright with Germany about everything.
Paris was attacked by a German zeppelin on January 29, 1916
Twenty-six people were killed and thirty-two were injured when a German zeppelin dropped bombs on the neighborhoods of Belleville and Ménilmontant. However, it went down on the return trip. It was decided to switch to a combination of cannon (the Grosse Bertha) and aerial bombing because the previous strategy was too expensive and ineffective.
In 1916, on February 21, the Battle of Verdun began
At 7:30 a.m., German infantrymen, led by Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn, attacked the Verdun forts and trenches. For a distance of nearly 15 kilometers and for nearly 9 hours, German artillery pounded the three French divisions present. Hill 304 lost 7 meters of elevation due to the heavy artillery fire. German forces launched an initial push to the south bank of the Meuse, capturing a number of positions. Philippe Pétain, the French army’s general, oversaw the country’s response. Ten months from December 15th, 1916, would pass before the Verdun battle would be declared over. More than 700,000 people lost their lives, making this one of the deadliest battles of World War I.
On February 25, 1916, Pétain assumed command of the French forces at Verdun
Four days after the German offensive began, General Philippe Pétain was put in charge of defending Verdun. As soon as he took command, he instituted a rotation of men at the front along the Meuse’s banks. He restocked the forts’ arsenal and sent in the air force to scout the opposition. His victory at Verdun earned him the title “Man of Verdun” among the French.
April 10th, 1916: “We’ll get them!” Pétain’s legendary order
Pétain held regular meetings with his troops and communicated with them daily. In his 94th general order, issued on April 10, 1916, he congratulated the French on their victory the day before and urged the French soldiers to be courageous, writing, “We’ll get them!” The newspapers printed these three words on the front page, and they were soon being shouted and sung in the trenches and even in the rear.
Nivelle took over as leader on May 1, 1916
To his dismay, General Pétain was promoted and ordered to abandon Verdun. He was relieved of command and given the role of supervising General Nivelle. In contrast to Verdun, which was criticized for being too defensive, Nivelle was a bold offensive operation that didn’t care about casualties. Pétain will live on in the hearts and minds of the victors of Verdun.
The Battle of Jutland, May 31, 1916
Ships of the German High Seas Fleet, June 1916.
It was off the coast of Denmark that 37 British and 21 German ships engaged in a naval battle known as the Battle of Jutland. Since the British fleet was larger, they attempted to surround the German fleet. The latter, however, avoided it through strategic retreat and ultimately forced the enemy to call off the battle after suffering heavy casualties. The loss of life was staggering, with 3,000 German sailors joining the 6,800 British sailors who perished. The Royal Navy was embarrassed, but the German fleet failed in its attempt to dominate the North Sea because it could not break the British blockade.
The Germans were at Verdun’s gates on June 23, 1916
Very close to Verdun, the Germans launched an attack that von Falkenhayn hoped would prove decisive after they had been hit with phosgene, a toxic gas. Unfortunately, the gas eventually dissipated, and their opponents had managed to reorganize in the meantime. Mangin immediately responded the following day with counterattacks. These attempts also failed, however.
The first day of the Battle of the Somme was July 1, 1916
The British troops began their assault on the enemy after a week of bombarding the German lines. Nearly 20,000 British soldiers were killed that day, and the Allies advanced no more than ten kilometers in ten days, but the battle was only just beginning; it would last until November 18. In just five months, over a million people will have died on the battlefield for nothing.
On July 11, 1916, the German army launched its final offensive at Verdun
A final assault was launched by General von Falkenhayn to take Verdun. The British attack on the Somme was quickly defeating the German forces, and time was running out for him. He was in a good spot, but he needed to make it count. When he met opposition at the fort of Souville, he had to retreat. After losing so many men in the Battle of the Somme, he had to adopt a defensive strategy going forward.
The first tanks showed up on September 15, 1916
It was at Flers in World War I that the British army first deployed tanks (in the Somme). In Villers-Bretonneux, France, on April 26, 1918, tanks fought each other for the first time in a major conflict. In 1918, tanks were pivotal in breaking the front lines.
French victory at Verdun, October 24, 1916
After gaining the upper hand in August, the French launched a massive offensive to retake Vaux and Douaumont. The front was 7 kilometers long and very effective. The Germans were forced to retreat, and the French easily captured Douaumont after losing Thiaumont. However, the French did not reach Vaux until November 3. It was clear that the Germans were outnumbered and would have to withdraw from the conflict, which would eventually lose some of its intensity by the end of the year.
February 1, 1917: Germany strengthens the submarine war
Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to use the isolation of the United Kingdom as a means to weaken it. To cut off the island’s supplies, he declared total submarine warfare. The United States voiced strong objections, severed diplomatic ties, and urged other nations to follow suit. Wilson, realizing he needed the public’s backing to join the war against the Central Empires in April, did just that.
America goes to war with Germany on April 6, 1917
In 1914, the United States declared its neutrality.With their population on the verge of starvation, the Germans resumed full-scale submarine warfare against the British Navy in January 1917. This military action shocked the American public and ultimately led to the United States declaring war on Germany. About two million troops were dispatched to Europe.
April 9, 1917: Founding Canadian Victory at Vimy
3,500 Canadian soldiers stormed Vimy Ridge after two weeks of heavy bombardment of enemy lines. German trenches, barbed wire, and machine guns protected the area. Even though the majority of the day’s objectives were accomplished by nightfall, fighting would continue for another few days. Over and above anything else, this victory became a potent symbol for the burgeoning nation of Canada. The lowering of the flag to half-staff on April 9 became a national day of remembrance as the Peace Tower, a memorial to the fallen of World War I and a symbol of international harmony, was constructed on that date.
April 16, 1917: Defeat of the Chemin des Dames
Nivelle’s primary goal, part of a much larger Allied offensive plan, was to retake the Chemin des Dames. This attack did not go as planned and ultimately ended in deadly failure. Most significantly, it marked the beginning of widespread mutinies in France and heralded Pétain’s ascension to power.
May 1917—Mutinies in the French camp
Many French soldiers refused to attack after the disastrous Chemin des Dames battle and subsequent attacks, leading to the growth of mutinies. After more than two years of war with little to show for it, both sides began to experience a phenomenon characterized primarily by a reluctance to attack rather than a heightened focus on defense. Minor agitations, typically in the rear, are to be expected over the next two months due to the challenging context and the fatigue of the horrors of war. For the sake of example and to restore order, 42 poilus will be shot, based on somewhat arbitrary selections. After the war, they were able to start over and become productive citizens again.
Arabic triumph at Aqaba, July 6, 1917
Because of their desire to create a new front against the Ottoman Empire (which was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary), the British allied with Arab countries that were working to establish an independent state in the region formerly controlled by the Ottomans. The Ottomans were defeated by the Arabs at the Battle of Aqaba. They were led by Lawrence of Arabia.
Guynemer passed away on September 11th, 1917
The French fighter pilot was killed while piloting his Spad over the Belgian city of Ypres. After being “shot down” seven times, the body of the “ace of aces,” who had 53 victories to his name, was never located.
November 17, 1917: Clemenceau is recalled to the government
It became clear to President Raymond Poincaré of the Third Republic that only Georges Clemenceau could rally the French parliament around the Sacred Union and guide France to victory, so he reinstated Clemenceau as head of government. Clemenceau, also known as the “Tiger,” ended the political unrest by becoming President of the Council and Minister of War.
December 15, 1917—The Armistice of Brest-Litovsk
The revolutions of February (called March by the Gregorian calendar) and October 1917 rocked the Tsarist Russian Empire. As one of their first acts in power, the Bolsheviks ratified the “peace decree” on December 15, 1917, at Brest-Litovsk, which led to an armistice with the Germans and the Austrians (now in Belarus). The Russians ceded several territories during this agreement, and other provinces, including Finland and Ukraine, took advantage of this agreement to declare independence from Russia. Upon Germany’s defeat in 1918, Russia planned to reclaim some of the territory it had given up in 1917.
January 8, 1918: Wilson unveils his plan
In his “Fourteen Points,” President Wilson of the United States lays out his plan for restoring peace and rebuilding Europe. On January 18, 1918, he presented his principles to the United States Congress. These included free economic trade, democracy, disarmament, the right to self-determination of peoples, reshaping borders, etc.
It was on March 3, 1918, that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed
The fighting on the Eastern Front ended on March 3, 1918, when the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed by the Central Empires (a coalition of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria) and the newly formed Bolshevik Republic of Russia. Russia had no choice but to agree that Poland, Ukraine, and Finland were independent countries.
March 21, 1918: Start of the last German offensive
In France, the Germans began an offensive that would signal a massive series of attacks lasting until July and result in the Allies’ second defeat on the Chemin des Dames that same month. The Empire’s plans, however, were foiled by the arrival of American troops, equipment, and tanks. All of these offensives yielded gains that were sometimes substantial but never game-changing. Instead, they drained the military’s resources and occasionally put them in jeopardy.
March 26, 1918: Foch commands the allied forces
Panic among the Allies was caused by the German offensive on the Somme, which aimed to split the front in two. At the meeting in Doullens, civilian leaders from the Allies put Foch in charge of the Western Front, where he oversaw Douglas Haig for the British and Philippe Pétain for the French.
On April 21st, 1918, the Red Baron was killed in combat
Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the “Red Baron,” was a legendary fighter pilot in the German Air Force. He was a World War I ace who participated in and won 80 air battles before his red plane was shot down over the Somme region on April 21, 1918.
June 26, 1918: Big Bertha bombs Paris
A German army cannon, nicknamed “Big Bertha” after the daughter of industrialist Krupp, wreaked havoc in Paris. The device can launch shells over 100 kilometers away and to an altitude of 30 kilometers.
Decision by the Allies to counterattack, August 8th, 1918
The Battle of Amiens began on August 8, 1918, when French and British forces attacked near Montdidier in the Somme department. On September 8, 1918, the German forces had to retreat behind the defenses they had built between 1916 and 1917 because they were so tired.
November 9, 1918: The Kaiser leaves his empire
The German navy mutinied, and Berlin erupted in rebellion as Germany was about to lose the war. Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates and takes his family to the Netherlands. Scheidemann, the socialist, declares a republic. On the second day, he planned to approach the allies with a request for a ceasefire.
World War I officially ended on November 11, 1918
At the start of November 1918, Germany requested an armistice with the Allies. Years of war and blockade have weakened the country, and now the “German revolution” will bring about a change in political regime. On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed in a wagon in Rethondes, in the Compiègne forest.
The German fleet was sunk in Scapa Flow on June 21, 1919
The German navy, gathered in the Scottish port of Scapa Flow, refused to surrender its ships to the victors and instead scuttled. The entire German fleet, with the exception of the submarines, was docked here.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919
Germany was forced to accept harsh terms when it signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. To begin, everyone agreed that the war was entirely Germany’s fault. It was forced to pay astronomical war reparations. Alsace-Lorraine and the “Danzig corridor,” which provided Poland with a sea route, were among the territories it lost. It lost its colonies and was coerced into dominating the Western Hemisphere. At last, Germany was partially demilitarized, and its weapons were removed.
World War I at a Glance
What was World War I?
World War I was a global conflict fought between 1914 and 1918. It involved many countries, primarily in Europe, and was one of the deadliest wars in history. It was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914.
Who were the Central Powers and the Allied Powers in World War I?
The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. The Allied Powers included France, Britain, Russia (until 1917), and later, the United States and other countries that joined in opposition to the Central Powers.
When did World War I end?
World War I ended on November 11, 1918, with the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany. This armistice effectively marked the end of the fighting and led to the subsequent peace negotiations.
What were the Western Front and the Eastern Front in World War I?
The Western Front was the name given to the battle lines in Western Europe, primarily in France and Belgium, where trench warfare was waged between the Allied and Central Powers. The Eastern Front refers to the war fought between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria against Russia and its allies in Eastern Europe.
What were the consequences of World War I?
World War I had far-reaching consequences, including the redrawing of national borders, the collapse of empires, the loss of millions of lives, significant political and social changes, and the seeds for future conflicts. It also accelerated technological advancements, particularly in warfare.
Bibliography:
Karp, Walter (1979). The Politics of War (1st ed.). ISBN 978-0-06-012265-2. OCLC 4593327.
Keegan, John (1998). The First World War. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-180178-6.
Bass, Gary Jonathan (2002). Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 424. ISBN 978-0-691-09278-2. OCLC 248021790.
Beckett, Ian (2007). The Great War. Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-1252-8.
Kernek, Sterling (December 1970). “The British Government’s Reactions to President Wilson’s ‘Peace’ Note of December 1916”. The Historical Journal. 13 (4): 721–766. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00009481. JSTOR 2637713. S2CID159979098.
Kitchen, Martin (2000) [1980]. Europe Between the Wars. New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-41869-1. OCLC 247285240.
“It was the most significant upheaval that had ever shaken the Greek people, some of the Barbarians, and almost the whole human race.” Thucydides, an Athenian historian, provides a keen analysis of the origins and developments of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), a conflict that pitted Athens and Sparta against each other for a total of 27 years with support from their respective allies. For his failure to defend Amphipolis in Thrace from the Spartans in 424 BC, he was exiled from Athens as a strategist (military general). Thucydides used the time he spent in exile to compile his work, in which he blamed Athenian imperialism, which had become increasingly powerful since the Greco-Persian Wars of the early 5th century BC.
Athens’ intolerable interference
Pericles leading Athens into its political, economic, and cultural golden age. Pericles advocated for a stronger navy and did much throughout his life to build Athens’ power.
It was true that during the Pentecontaetia period (478-433 BC), the Athenians organized a vast territory in the Aegean that served their economic interests and was maintained by force. Established in 478 BC to continue the fight against the Persians, the Delian League was initially an egalitarian alliance between some 200 Greek cities, which chose Athens as leader with least initial submission at the outset. However, the league and its powerful fleet quickly became instruments in the service of the Athenians’ ambitions, financed by a tribute initially kept on the island of Delos.
The “Athenian empire” established by Cimon and later Pericles included five districts around the Aegean Sea that all used the same drachma coin depicting an owl of Athens (Athena). Even the mildest attempt at secession was violently put down by the Athenians. Samos paid the price in 440 BC when it was forced to hand over its fleet, destroy its walls, and watch as its generals were tortured in the name of the ruthless Pericles who had left his mark on the history.
Sparta delayed its response to Athens until the Peloponnesian League gathered in 432 BC, after a number of local skirmishes had already occurred. Corinth’s game of alliances and pressure, combined with Athens’s meddling and Sparta’s wait-and-see attitude, pushed the Greek world into a violence war that still shock contemporary historians.
Sparta and Athens fought for a decade without either side ever coming out on top. When the “Peace of Nicias” was signed in 421, the pacifists had won.
A third of Athens’ population was wiped out at the start of the war when a typhus epidemic spread from the port of Piraeus. According to historical records, Pericles passed away in 429 BC. All Athenians, urban and rural alike, were gathered behind the city’s fortifications, the “Long Walls,” to create an impregnable island, supplied by sea, which did not help the health situation at the outset of the conflict. The allies of Athens, especially the rebels, suffered from the war’s consequences as well. Mytilene, a city on an island, attempted to secede from the Delian League in a rebellion in 428 BC.
The Athenians responded quickly by placing a siege on the city of Mytilene in an effort to send a message to any potential future defectors. Fortunately, a trial arrived just in time to prevent the execution of all the men and the enslavement of the women and children; overcame with guilt, the Athenian assembly declared that it had changed its mind and commuted the sentence. Mytilene must dismantle its defenses and hand over its navy and some of its land. For those who were against democracy, this about-face demonstrated the system’s vulnerability.
Finally, the fighting continued at various locations until 421 BC, with neither side able to claim victory. Cleon the Athenian and Brasidas the Spartan, the two main war-mongering generals, both died in 422 BC during the clashes in Thrace, contributing to the growing fatigue of the conflict. In 421 BC, the two sides signed the Peace of Nicias for a theoretical period of 50 years.
But the program of peace advocated by Nicias, an old and wise man, was challenged by the ambitions of a young aristocrat in full bloom. The assembly of Athens decided to send a fleet to Sicily in the spring of 415 BC after hearing Alcibiades’ fiery imperialist harangues. The expedition was doomed to fail. The Athenians fought against Selinunte because they wanted to find a breadbasket and expand their influence to the west, both of which could be achieved by conquering Segesta.
Religious scandals rocking Athens
Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates (1776) by François-André Vincent (Musée Fabre).
Again, the Peloponnesian War got off to a bad start for Athens, a city the gods appeared to have abandoned (and rightly so): two major sacrileges rocked the city in the midst of military preparations. The Athenians discovered to their horror one morning in May or June of 415 BC that their city’s hermes had been mutilated.
These hermes were marble pillars that could be found all over Athens, guarding the city’s crossroads and the entrances to people’s homes. During the course of Athenian justice’s questioning of dozens of witnesses, a second religious scandal was revealed through depositions: slaves claimed that in their masters’ house, young aristocrats were having fun parodying the Eleusis mysteries, a secret initiation rite dedicated to the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, while slightly inebriated.
Alcibiades, who was embroiled in the scandal, defected to the Spartan side rather than return to Athens to explain himself. The staunch defender of war betrayed his country and became its enemy.
Alcibiades was now one of the names mentioned. Although Alcibiades had already left for Sicily with fellow strategists (or strategos) Nicias and Lamachus, he was now required to return to Athens to give an account of his actions and face judgment. But he tricked his escort on the way back and hid out in, Sparta! Alcibiades even betrayed his country by advising the Lacedaemonians to fight for Sicily (the Sicilian Expedition, BC 415-413).
The Sicilian Expedition developed rapidly into the Athenians’ worst nightmare. Several thousand lives were lost, and much of Athens’ fleet was annihilated, due to the events in Sicily, which had weakened the city. Eventually, some of its allies switched sides and joined the Spartans. This was the political climate in which the Athenian democracy was overthrown.
The council of Boule, the model of democracy at the time, was disbanded by the new government of the Four Hundred in 411 BC, making way for an oligarchy limited to a few thousand citizens. This policy of the oligarchs, led by men like Antiphon the Sophist and Theramenes, did not last long in the face of a resurgence of the democratic forces garrisoned near the island of Samos.
A few months later, with the help of General Thrasybulus and Alcibiades, the oligarchic regime fell. Since the latter was already a father through his relationship with Agis II’s queen, he was in a rush to leave Sparta and sought out the Persian monarch at first. The incumbent oligarchs failed to recall Alcibiades to Athens, so he sought out the democratic opposition, who gladly accepted him, seeing in him a useful strategist.
This is where Thucydides’ account ends and the historian Xenophon picks up the rest in his book Hellenica.
Death knell for the Athenian Empire
The Alliances of the Peloponnesian War
The situation in Athens hadn’t improved much despite the return of democracy. In the end, the Spartans realized that they could only defeat Athens for good by taking the battle to the sea. Athens, the great thalassocracy, had to face the Spartan fleet that was formed after Lysander, the Spartan fleet’s general, negotiated with Cyrus the Younger, the Persian army’s commander in Asia Minor. Thus, the fate of Athens was decided at sea: the naval Battle of Aegospotami, which occurred at the end of the Peloponnesian War in 405 BC, sounded the death knell for the empire.
Athens was already feeling the effects of its fleet’s defeat because Lysander, who owned the road to the corn supply, had organized a food blockade. When pressed for food, the Athenians negotiated with the Spartans, who presided over a congress of the Peloponnesian League in 404 BC, where the city of Athena’s fate was hotly debated.
While the Corinthian and Theban peoples would have liked to see Athens wiped off the map entirely, Sparta was firmly against the idea because it threatened its own power and the potential rise of Thebes, which was located further north.
The Athenians, fearful of receiving the same treatment they had meted out to other cities, signed a treaty that spared them at the cost of relinquishing the symbols of their power: the Long Walls, the fleet, and the empire. Once again, the situation worked in favor of the Athenian oligarchy: in 404 BC, the government of the Thirty, backed by Lysander and the Spartans stationed in the city, imposed unprecedented terror. Almost 2,000 people lost their lives during this tragic time in Athens.
However, the Spartan victory did not mean the end of hostilities. The government of the Thirty, a tyrannical and bloodthirsty group, also toppled the Athenian democracy as a result.
Critias, Plato’s cousin, and Theramenes, were the worst of the worst among this group of bloodthirsty oligarchs, and they were pushed to their deaths by their extremist compatriots who viewed them as too moderate. It wasn’t until 403 BC that democratic forces successfully resisted and reinstated the system.
The war cost Athens dearly, with the collapse of its empire and two oligarchic revolutions, but the city entered the 4th century BC with a revived and strengthened regime, which would not experience any further shocks until the arrival of the Macedonians. Surprisingly, it appears that Sparta, the victorious city, was the most traumatized by the fighting.
Lysander takes power in Sparta
During the Battle of Sphacteria in 425 BC, the Athenians attacked from the sea. By Peter Dennis.
The war only made the already fragile Spartan system much more unstable. Sparta was already suffering from a severe population decline after the earthquake of 464 BC, and the loss of its soldiers only added to their distress. The Lacedaemonians’ tradition had always been to die heroically in battle rather than face the social disgrace of defeat, so the Greeks were shocked when 120 surrounded Spartans surrendered to Cleon on the island of Sphacteria in 425 BC (Battle of Sphacteria). The myth was destroyed.
The Spartans’ helot slaves filled in for the missing hoplites as a result of their oliganthropia (“lack of men”). General Brasidas therefore set out in 424 BC with 700 helots to conquer the Thrace city of Amphipolis. For their loyalty, these garrisons stationed at Sparta’s borders were granted limited freedom in exchange for full citizenship.
At the same time, however, Sparta vanished 2,000 helots away out of fear of a rebellion by slaves it had armed, acting as a counterweight that ultimately seals the doom of the freed “Brasidians.” Therefore, Sparta was confronted by both internal social and demographic upheavals and external challenges.
The appearance of Lysander, a Spartan mothax (one who was too poor to be a full citizen), did serve as a symbolic marker of the Peloponnesian War’s conclusion. But he rose to the position of navarch (chief of the fleet), and the initial sympathy of the cities “freed” from the Athenian yoke was attributed to the aura of his victory over Athens.
In a short amount of time, however, Lysander tainted the glory of Lacedaemonia with the blood of his excesses: after installing authoritarian and violent governments in several cities, he was recalled to Sparta out of concern for his behavior.
Throughout Greece, people celebrated his life with festivals called Lysandreia established in Samos; no other living man had ever been given so much recognition. This was too much for the traditionalists in Sparta, who looked down on the general’s autonomy and dislike his foreign policy.
Plutarch claimed that the Spartans were fundamentally corrupted during the Peloponnesian War. He claimed that the influx of Persian gold brought about by the negotiations between Lysander and Cyrus the Younger shook another pillar of the myth: austerity and the refusal of the currency.
Sparta, with fewer than 2,000 citizens and suffering from Lysander’s reputation as a tyrant, enjoyed a bittersweet victory. After its victory over Athens, the city was the site of a failed conspiracy in which a certain Cinadon rallied many people who felt excluded from Sparta’s political and social life. So the city’s reign as a power was brief; in 371 BC, Thebes usurped the throne.
TIMELINE OF PELOPONNESIAN WAR
431 BC – After the Spartans invaded Attica, its citizens fled to Athens for safety. Expedition from Athens to the coast of the Peloponnese.
430 BC – The Athenians were trapped inside the city walls when a plague epidemic broke out. There was a mass death that claimed one-third of the population, including Pericles.
425 BC – In 424 BC, the Athenians won at Pylos and Sphacteria; then the Spartans and Thebans won at Amphipolis and Delion.
421 BC – Exhausted from the war, both sides agreed to a 50-year ceasefire, known as the Peace of Nicias.
415-413 BC – An Athens expedition to Sicily ended in disaster as a result of poor planning. The Athenians had been doomed ever since this defeat.
412 BC – Lysander, a Spartan general, and Cyrus, a Persian prince, formed an alliance that ultimately decided the war.
404 BC – The beleaguered and impoverished city of Athens surrendered after the defeat of the Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC).
War crimes in the Peloponnesian War
Soldiers were also hit hard by the escalation of violence. For instance, the Athenians severed the right hands of their prisoners before the Battle of Aegospotami in 405 BC, and Admiral Philocles had the crew of the two enemy ships thrown overboard. The victorious Spartans exacted their vengeance on Athens at Aegospotami, where they massacred three thousand prisoners, including Philocles.
In 413 BC, after the Athenians were defeated in Sicily, their ally and victorious enemy Sparta imprisoned 7,000 of them in the quarries of Syracuse. There, they subsisted on 500 grams of food and a quarter liter of water each day. Many people perish as a result of exhaustion, illness, and lack of shelter. The combined odor of their decomposing bodies and the feces was intolerable. Those still alive after 70 days were sold into slavery.
Refugee tragedy during Peloponnesian War
Large numbers of people were forced to seek refuge after civil uprisings and sieges. Defeated groups’ members, if they had families, had to leave the city. Also, men who fled for political or criminal reasons were sentenced to death in absentia and had their possessions seized.
The oligarchs fled to the cities of the Peloponnesian League, while the democracies sought refuge in the cities of the Delian League. Afraid for their lives, they went to places of worship, holy forests, or sanctuaries and assumed the posture of the beseeching worshipper. However, their enemies did not always acknowledge the divine shield. While some were able to afford rent, the vast majority ended up living in makeshift camps due to financial constraints.
Human casualties
The Peloponnesian War had caused an unprecedented number of casualties. Milos and Scione were two cities that suffered total male fatalities. When the conflict began, Athens was hit by a plague epidemic that killed nearly a third of the city’s population, causing it to suffer the greatest casualties of any city. More than half of the Athenian male population had been killed by the Peloponnesian War’s end.
Bibliography:
Heftner, Herbert. Der oligarchische Umsturz des Jahres 411 v. Chr. und die Herrschaft der Vierhundert in Athen: Quellenkritische und historische Untersuchungen. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001 (ISBN 3-631-37970-6).
Hutchinson, Godfrey. Attrition: Aspects of Command in the Peloponnesian War. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Tempus Publishing, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 1-86227-323-5).
The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, edited by Robert B. Strassler. New York: The Free Press, 1996 (hardcover, ISBN 0-684-82815-4); 1998 (paperback, ISBN 0-684-82790-5).
Roberts, Jennifer T. The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 (hardcover, ISBN 978-0-19-999664-3
Apartheid was implemented in a South Africa that already had a long history of racial discrimination, beginning with the country’s colonization by the Dutch in the 17th century and its subsequent status as a British dominion in 1910. Since its inception in 1948, this policy’s overarching goal had been the maintenance of white supremacy, even as it ostensibly promoted national progress and the preservation of diverse cultural traditions. Apartheid drew international condemnation because it intensified existing forms of racial segregation at a time when decolonization was widespread. Ultimately, the regime fell victim to the country’s political and social upheavals as well as the development of new ideas. In 1991, it finally ended because of protests led by people like Nelson Mandela.
Why were the nationalists rising to power?
The “Color Bar” (a discriminatory color barrier for blacks) was established in response to the escalation of racial tensions that followed the Anglo-Boer Wars and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
Whites, who made up a tiny minority of the territory’s population, formed the government and then aggressively fought to keep all of their privileges and privileges alone, despite the fact that the majority of the people living there were people of color (primarily black Bantus, half-castes, and Asians).
The African National Congress (ANC) was established in 1912 amid growing awareness of the majority population’s plight. The government of Louis Botha, however, was determined to round up the black population and place them in reserves, and this Bantu organization couldn’t stop it.
General Smuts succeeded Botha as Prime Minister and South African Party leader after Botha’s death in 1919. James Hertzog, who was born into a Boer family and was committed to maintaining racial segregation, became prime minister in 1924 after a coalition of Nationalists and Labour won power. However, South Africa’s government was once again altered by the difficulties of the 1929 crisis. Eventually, in 1934, Hertzog’s National Party merged with Smuts’ to form the United Party.
How did apartheid start?
This merger was roundly rejected by a number of Afrikaners (also known as Boers) from the old National Party, who instead chose to form their own nationalist party under the leadership of Minister Malan.
At the outbreak of World War II, Hertzog also handed over the reins as prime minister to Smuts. Shortly after, the South African Union declared war on Germany, and the first Nazi influences took root in the nationalist movements.
Malan, whose National Party had grown in strength by the late 1940s, proposed an electoral platform based on the development of the territory through racial separation.
He coined the term “apartheid,” from the Afrikaans word for “separation,” to describe this policy. He had already spent decades implementing racist policies before he was elected in May 1948. He promptly began carrying out his schemes.
How was the protection of white supremacy born?
From 1949 on, a set of laws were enacted to ensure that South Africa’s various racial and cultural minorities would be kept completely apart. First, there was a prohibition on interracial marriage.
Whites, blacks, and people of other colors were officially separated out as separate categories beginning in 1950. Then the “Group Areas Act” would be in effect, creating distinct territories for each community to call home.
The policies may have prioritized the cultural advancement of non-white ethnic groups, but apartheid’s end goal was to preserve white supremacy. This was evidenced by all the laws that have been passed since then, including those that require black people to carry passports, those that require segregation in public spaces and businesses, those that reform education, and those that enact less favorable labor laws for black workers.
After Malan left in 1954, racial segregation only grew worse. The black Bantu people were given their own designated territories beginning in 1959. These “Bantustans,” as they were known, were supposed to develop into sovereign nations. However, these regions, which would have made up only 13% of the country, were far too economically impoverished to function independently.
It was precisely because land was given to blacks in order to establish so-called independent states that they were denied membership in the South African Union. As an added bonus, it stoked ethnic tensions among the Bantu, which ultimately helped to suppress black nationalism.
How did revolts and oppositions unfold during apartheid?
Protests were predictable under such a regime, and the Sharpeville demonstration in March 1960, which was violently suppressed, was evidence of this (Sharpeville massacre). As a result of this tragedy, the government outlawed the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan-African Congress (PAC), two black movements that opposed apartheid.
As a result, the ANC was compelled to operate clandestinely and, inspired by Nelson Mandela, made the decision to resort to violence. But in 1962 he was apprehended, and in 1964 he was given a life sentence.
Protests against apartheid were not confined within South Africa or limited to the country’s black population. Many white people, especially the British and the Catholics, were strongly opposed to it, and there was international effort to exert pressure.
In response to the complaints of other Commonwealth nations, Prime Minister Verwoerd had the South African Union declare independence, eventually becoming the Republic of South Africa. In 1962, the UN voted to impose new sanctions, which had no noticeable impact.
However, in the 1970s, black nationalism flourished and the government was weakened as a result of Mozambique and Angola’s independence. High school students in Soweto staged a demonstration in June 1976, and the government’s violent response shocked the world.
Prime Minister Vorster, who was roundly criticized, resigned in the wake of this incident. The new leader, Pieter Willem Botha, made some minor adjustments to apartheid after he took office.
How was apartheid abolished?
So, while continuing a policy of excluding blacks, Pieter Botha repealed some segregationist laws on the use of public places, the internal passport, and access to employment. In 1984, he made room in Parliament for Métis and Asians without making any concessions to the Black community.
The rationale for this shift was crystal clear: to show that the government meant business in the face of a Black majority. If anything, this reform only served to infuriate the opposition more. As the black population increased its number of revolts and strikes, the government’s support for apartheid was weakened.
The Republic of South Africa was in such political and social disarray that a state of emergency had to be declared. After international investors and partners began increasing economic sanctions against the country beginning in 1985, the Republic of South Africa saw no other option but to end apartheid.
Frederik de Klerk succeeded Pieter Botha and promised to end all forms of apartheid once he took office. Nelson Mandela was freed, and the ANC was back in the lawful fold.
Apartheid had been finally eliminated after more than 40 years. Everyone in South Africa carried the weight of the country’s history of racial segregation with them. As a result, for the first time ever, a member of the black majority led the country as president, ushering in a period of national and international reconciliation.
Thus, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to shed light on the wrongs committed by all sides. However, social inequalities needed to be combated after racial inequalities were addressed.
TIMELINE OF APARTHEID
June 5, 1918-Foundation of the Afrikaner Broederbond
Johannesburg, South Africa was the site of the establishment of the Afrikaner Broederbond on June 5th, 1918. As it turned out, the Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) was a covert organization with the goal of strengthening and unifying the Afrikaner community.
White South Africans of European (primarily Dutch, French, German, and Scandinavian) ancestry were known as Afrikaners. The apartheid movement, which sought to enforce racial and ethnic segregation, found some of its inspiration in this organization.
Nelson Mandela was born on July 18, 1918
The Union of South Africa was still a young country when Nelson Mandela was born there on July 18, 1918. When he was younger, he was both a sports fan and a law student with aspirations of a legal career. He joined the African National Congress in 1943 because of his interest in politics.
Nelson Mandela rose to power in South Africa as president in 1994 after leading the charge against apartheid and racial segregation. Nelson Mandela was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize a year prior for his efforts.
May 26, 1948: Daniel Malan’s Nationalist Party wins
The rise of apartheid was inextricably linked to the success of the Nationalist Party led by Daniel Malan, a pastor at the Dutch Reformed Church at the time. South Africa’s then-Prime Minister, Daniel Malan, used his parliamentary majority to implement his policy of racial segregation. Racial segregation laws and policies began to be implemented.
1949-Ban on mixed marriages in South Africa
A law outlawing interracial marriage was passed as part of the apartheid framework. The goal of this new policy was to classify the various ethnic groups living there. A formal prohibition on intersex acts was added to the law at a later date.
1950-The different South African groups defined by apartheid
To better categorize the people who call the South African Union home, a new law called the “Population Registration Act” had been passed. There were thus four distinct groups: blacks (comprised of nine distinct ethnic groups), mestizos, Indians, and whites (of European descent).
March 21, 1960-Sharpeville Massacre
There were frequent demonstrations in Sharpeville over the “Pass Law Act,” which mandated that everyone must carry a passport at all times. The police cracked down hard on protesters despite backing from the African National Congress and the Pan-African Congress.
More than 60 demonstrators lost their lives, and nearly 180 others were injured. The incident increased the level of violence in other protests and drawn the ire of people around the world.
November 6, 1962-UN sanctions South Africa
Since the violence during the protests and throughout the country had only increased, the United Nations had issued a formal condemnation of the apartheid policy. After that, the European group urged other nations to cut off all diplomatic and commercial ties with South Africa. This punishment, however, had little effect. In South Africa, apartheid was still being actively enforced by the government.
June 12, 1964-Mandela is sentenced to life
Including Nelson Mandela, seven other ANC members given life sentences for treason. Nelson Mandela turned down an offer of freedom in exchange for giving up violence against apartheid. He checked in at Robben Island Prison with inmate number 46664 and began serving his time there. Living conditions for Nelson Mandela were just as harsh as they were for everyone else.
September 1989-de Klerk, President of the Republic of South Africa
South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Frederik de Klerk took office in September 1989. This marked the start of a period in which the apartheid regime was abandoned, spurred on by factors including the growing demands of the black population and South Africa’s economic isolation on the international stage. However, apartheid was not officially ended until June 1991, nearly two years later.
February 11, 1990-Nelson Mandela released
Nelson Mandela was released from Paarl Prison after serving 27 years of his sentence while Frederik de Klerk was president. He had fought against the apartheid regime and been convicted of treason in 1964, spending the rest of his life in prison.
Since his imprisonment, he had come to represent the struggle for black liberation in South Africa. Following his and de Klerk’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1993, he was elected president of the Republic of South Africa in April 1994.
Apartheid ended in June 1991
Frederik de Klerk, in his capacity as President of the Republic of South Africa, finally put an end to apartheid. The various political parties in South Africa began negotiations to form a new government.
The African National Congress (ANC), spearheaded by Nelson Mandela, took part in these talks and ultimately succeeded in having a multiracial and democratic government imposed on the country.
October 15, 1993-Nobel Peace Prize for Mandela and de Klerk
For their efforts in ending apartheid and racial segregation, Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year, 1993. Nelson Mandela had been celebrated for his dedication to democracy and longstanding status as the world’s most renowned political prisoner.
Mandela was sworn in as president on April 27th, 1994
Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa just four years after he was released from prison and thirty years after his conviction. Frederik De Klerk, a strong supporter of Nelson Mandela’s release, was appointed Vice President, a position he held until 1996. Nelson Mandela fulfilled his promise to limit his presidency to a single term. Thabo Mbeki took over after him in 1999.
References
Muller, C. F. J. (1975). Five hundred years: a history of South Africa. Academica. p. 430.
Mountain, Alan (2003). The first people of the Cape: a look at their history and the impact of colonialism on the Cape’s indigenous people. New Africa Books. p. 72.
Berridge, G.R. (1992). South Africa, the Colonial Powers and African Defence: The Rise and Fall of the White Entente, 1948–60. Basingstoke: Palgrave Books. pp. 1–16, 163–164. ISBN 978-0333563519.
Lulat, Y.G.M. (1992). United States Relations with South Africa: A Critical Overview from the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Incorporated. pp. 143–146. ISBN 978-0820479071.
Campbell, Kurt (1986). Soviet Policy Towards South Africa. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 129–131. ISBN 978-1349081677.
Joyce, Peter (2007). The making of a nation: South Africa’s road to freedom. Zebra. p. 118.
Suzman, Helen (1993). In no uncertain terms: a South African memoir. Knopf. p. 35
Keppel-Jones, Arthur (1975). South Africa: a short history. Hutchinson. p. 132.
One of the most well-known conflicts from antiquity was the Battle of Marathon. Conflict escalated between the Greeks and Persians during the First Persian War (Greco-Persian Wars). The Persian king Darius I sent an army to Greece in 490 BC with the goal of conquering Athens. The Persians, fresh off their conquest of the Aegean islands, landed not far from the city. The Athenians, with help from the Plataeans, managed to thwart the invaders without calling in the Spartan reserves. Athens’ hegemonic position in Greece was bolstered by this victory.
What were the causes of the Battle of Marathon?
Darius I of Persia
The Achaemenid Empire (Persian Empire), founded by King Darius I and thriving by the end of the sixth century BCE, was also known as the Persian Empire. The Persian Empire dominated the entire Middle Eastern region and even pushed further westward.
A number of Greek cities in Ionia, which was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey, as well as the kingdoms of Thrace and Macedon, fell under Persian rule. The Greeks viewed the Persians as haughty savages who were obsessed with wealth and luxury and worshiped their king as if he were divine. The political and cultural distance between the two was too great for the Greeks to accept Persian rule.
First Persian War broke out when Ionia rebelled against its occupiers in 499 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians captured Miletus and ultimately defeated the rebels, who had military support from Athens and Eretria. Greek islands like Lesbos and Tenedos were also taken. Darius I of Persia had issued an ultimatum to Athens and Sparta.
He dispatched envoys to them, some of whom met violent ends. Darius sent a punishing expedition to mainland Greece in 490 BC because he was fed up with the Greeks’ stubbornness and wanted to punish Athens for aiding the Ionian rebels. As they advanced westward across the Aegean Sea, the Persians sacked the city of Eretria and deported many of its citizens to the region of Lower Mesopotamia.
When and where did the Battle of Marathon take place?
Hippias, a former Athenian tyrant, aids Darius in his campaign. Exiled twenty years prior, Hippias yearned for vengeance and the chance to reclaim power in Athens. He suggests that Darius set down near Marathon, about 38 kilometers from Athens. The plan was to distract the Athenians long enough so that their city would be defenseless.
The Persians arrived in Marathon around September 12th, 490 BC. The Athenians marched out to meet the enemy under the direction of their strategist Miltiades, but they refrained from attacking right away. From a distance of 1,500 meters, both armies stared at each other across the battlefield.
There are between 9,000 and 10,000 hoplites in the Greek army, plus another 1,000 Plataean soldiers and an untold number of freed slaves. To the contrary, the Persian expeditionary force was vastly outnumbered. Greek historians estimate that the Persian army strength was between 200,000 and 600,000. Historians of the modern era place their total male population somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000. Artaphernes, Darius’s nephew, led the Persian army, while Datis helmed the navy.
Who won the Battle of Marathon?
The Persian cavalry disembarked on September 17th, 490 B.C., and a portion of the fleet sailed toward Athens’ port of Phalerus. The remaining troops made their way on foot into the city. Therefore, the Greeks must first stop the invaders from getting closer to the city before returning there to defend it from the Persian fleet. They anticipate reinforcements from Sparta, where Pheidippides had gone to sound the alarm.
The Greek army, despite being outnumbered, launches the initial assault. It’s likely that the defenders took advantage of the retreating Persian cavalry. The gear of Greek hoplites was top-notch. They have a sword, a long spear, and a very strong shield, and they wear a cuirass, a helmet, and leggings for protection. The Greeks deploy the phalanx formation, where they form a wall with their shields and charge their enemies from behind.
The enemy was defenseless against this level of heavy infantry. When pitted against Greek weapons, Persians have no chance in a fistfight. The Athenians charge forward without ducking for cover from incoming arrows. Persians are taken by surprise and are unable to hold off the Greek charge, so they run for the water in an attempt to reach their ships. The elite Persian forces in the center of the line fought valiantly for some time before being caught in a pincer movement and rendered useless.
The Greeks only lost around 200 men, while the Persians lost 6,400. Seven ships from the Persian fleet were taken. The Athenians returned to defend their city from the remaining Persian fleet after this victory. They marched for eight hours straight and eventually made it to their destination. Seeing that their plan had failed, the Persians abandoned any hope of landing. Just a few days later, reinforcements from Sparta arrive, but it’s too late to save Athens.
Who was the first marathon runner?
As soon as the Athenians learned of the Persian landing, they dispatched a messenger to Sparta to ask for help. A remarkable feat was accomplished by the messenger Pheidippides, who travels the 250 kilometers from Athens to Sparta in just 36 hours. However, the Spartans at the time were in the midst of the Karneia, celebrations in honor of Apollo, and so they were unable to send troops for ten days. An alternate account had the Greek general Miltiades sending a man named Eucles to Athens to announce the Greek victory at Marathon. Fatigue took its toll on the messenger shortly after he delivered the news.
An academic named Michel Bréal was moved by these feats to include a marathon competition in the Olympic Games when they were held in Athens in 1896. This roughly 40-kilometer footrace begins at the historic Marathon site and concludes at Athens’s Panathenaic Stadium. In 1896, Spyrdon Lois of Greece won a 38-kilometer race in Athens by a margin of over two hours and fifty seconds. Ever since then, there have been dozens of marathons in cities all over the globe. Additionally, since 1983, the Spartathlon had been held in memory of Pheidippides as a 246-kilometer long-distance race between Marathon and Sparta.
The results of the Battle of Marathon
After defeating the Persian army without assistance from the Spartans, Athens gained a lot of respect. In 478 BC, to combat the persistent Persian threat, it established the Delian League. The victory at Marathon was cited often by the arrogant city to prove why it was superior to all the other cities.
The significance of this victory for Athens cannot be overstated when discussing its political significance. The city had been saved thanks to the sacrifice of the hoplites, citizen-soldiers who are willing to give their lives for their city. But Athenian imperialism would eventually run into resistance from Sparta 40 years later, sparking the Peloponnesian War. Because of this triumph, the First Persian War was also over.
The Persians do not see the Battle of Marathon as a major loss. While Athens might have been unbeatable, the Persians were successful in seizing control of the islands in the Aegean Sea. After putting down a revolt in Egypt, Darius I planned another expedition. The king passed away in 486 BC, never getting to lead his army into battle against Greece. During the Second Persian War (486 BC), his son Xerxes I was in charge of it. The war culminates in the peace of Callias, but not before the heroic sacrifice of Leonidas and the Spartans at Battle of Thermopylae and the devastating naval battle at Salamis.
Bibliograpy:
Krentz, Peter. The Battle of Marathon. Yale University Press, 2010
Lanning, Michael L. (April 2005). “28”. The Battle 100: The Stories Behind History’s Most Influential Battles. Sourcebooks. pp. 95–97. ISBN 978-1402202636.
Davis, Paul K. (June 2001). “Marathon”. 100 Decisive Battles: From Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195143669.
