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Global History since 1910, 1.01 (V) The Shock of 1914

1.01 (V) The Shock of 1914

When World War I began, in the first days of August 1914, the world didn't see it coming. It was a shock. For some people it was a glorious shock. For some people it was horrifying. It was a shock. Now historians look back on it. You open up any kind of world history textbook. And you'll see though that looking back on it, we see all sorts of explanations for World War I. There's a whole list of them. Usually we'll start with international rivalry. Every book will say something about the fact that Europe was divided into these two different alliances. Let's take a look at the map of Europe. You see the basic structure of this. The two key alliances were the Central Powers, the core members of the Central Powers these two countries: Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire; on the other side, the Entente. And the key Entente powers were also two countries: France allied with Russia. France and Russia had been allied against Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1894. Now this map, if you look at it, shows Great Britain also as part of that alliance. This is actually not quite right. Great Britain was not a formal member of the Entente at the beginning of the war, though it was clearly on a friendly basis with France. If France was attacked, there was a good chance that Britain would come in, but it wasn't locked into it by formal treaty of alliance. After the war began, Great Britain became part of the Triple Entente. So the basic rivalry is France and Russia versus the aptly-named Central Powers. Other countries would later line up on the side of one or the other. But okay, back to the different causes of World War I. I've thrown a list of the causes here on this slide. International rivalry. These two competing alliances in Europe facing each other, amassing huge armies, buying weapons and so on. Second, you'll see a lot of references to a general atmosphere of militarism, the arms race, as each country is building up its armies and its navies looking for competitive advantages. You'll read about the hair trigger military plans that each of the sides built up. You'll read a lot about that. You'll read about imperial rivalries. We talked about the imperial races, especially in the late 1800s. And clearly some of those rivalries for colonies and colonial markets and resources. That's still going on. Economic rivalry, yep sure. Especially as most of these countries are building up trade barriers. You'll see also in all the books nowadays, a significant emphasis on how insecure some of the dynastic empires were: like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the German Empire. And you know what? All of these explanations have a fair degree of truth in them. But gosh, with so many explanations, so many true explanations, why was this a shock? In retrospect, it just seems obvious that there's going to be a huge general war. There's so many causes for it. Yeah, so then why were people surprised when it happened? They were really surprised. A good way of measuring the surprise that historian Niall Ferguson has used is he looks at the bond markets. See here's where businessmen are actually literally placing bets with their money on the stability of countries. Because the price at which their going to basically loan people money. If they think your country's about to go to war, they might charge a higher price, so to speak, in order to lend you money. Ask for a little more interest rates. So if you look the bond markets, you can get some indication of whether businessmen think instability is coming. But if you look at the bond markets in the summer of 1914, you don't see any sign that war is coming. The richest men in the world, the businessmen who are supposedly pulling the strings of all these governments, they're not expecting a war. They're not betting on a war. So, it's a shock. If the causes are so abundant, why the shock? They expected peace. So let's flip this question. Why would most well informed people expect peace in the summer of 1914, when you can look back and see so many causes for the war? Well, they expected peace, first off, because Europe had been pretty darn peaceful. It had been peaceful for a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20, 30, 40 years. There had been some wars in the Balkans, true. Back in 1870-1871, there had been a big war between France and Prussia, and so on. But general war in Europe? There had been a war between some of the powers waged in the Crimea, back in the 1850s, but a general war encompassing Europe, touching on commerce on the seas.. you had to go back to the Napoleonic Wars nearly 100 years earlier, so peace seemed like the norm. But another reason people expected peace is because peace was profitable. This was actually a period of general economic growth and a lot of economic activity. Very influential books were published saying that it was increasing inconceivable that there could even be a general war, because the condition of peace was so much in the interest of business. Did people understand that there were chronic tensions, imperial rivalries, military buildups? Sure. They all understood that. They'd had that for years, and those sorts of things were managed, that kind of tension, that rivalry, managed in a variety of different ways. For instance, when you turn on your automobile, inside your engine, there are hundreds, thousands of controlled little explosions. How come all these explosions, people setting fire to gasoline under the hood of your car, doesn't it just blow up all these automobiles all the time? Well, because we perfected over time ways of managing all of that combustion. Channeling all that combustion. And people thought: well we've learned how to manage chronic tensions in Europe. So if you look at 1914, you want to look at how they're managing chronic tensions and ask yourself: What changed? What was it about the way they always managed these tensions that suddenly is no longer working? Another kind of question you might ask yourself also comes from the old world of automotive engines. Many kinds of engines have on them a sort of governor. The purpose of the governor is to keep the engine from running too fast, for example. Sometimes in electric circuits there's a such a thing called a circuit breaker. So if the circuit gets too hot, the electricity will just cut out. In other words, people thought that something would intervene. That there would be some sort of governor that would keep war from happening. So, looking at 1914, what was the governor, so to speak, that had been there in the past, that suddenly failed? So what I'm doing is turning the question around. Instead of saying, Why was there a war?, and then you list the causes and it seems like, well then the war was bound to happen, I'm asking: Since most people expected peace, why did they turn out to be wrong in 1914? Another interesting way of looking at that question is to ask: Who was it that was not surprised when war happened in 1914? There were a few people who did kind of see it coming. They had, so to speak, inside information. But the next step in unpacking this little detective story is to examine very closely one of the principle players: the German empire. In the next presentation, we'll take a hard look at Imperial Germany. See you then.


1.01 (V) The Shock of 1914 1.01 (V) Šok v roce 1914 1.01 (V) Der Schock von 1914 1.01 (V) The Shock of 1914 1.01 (V) El choque de 1914 1.01 (V) 1914年の衝撃 1.01 (V) Szok roku 1914 1.01 (V) O choque de 1914 1.01 (V) Потрясения 1914 года 1.01 (V) 1914 Şoku 1.01 (V) Шок 1914 року 1.01 (V) 1914年的冲击 1.01 (V) 1914 年的衝擊

When World War I began, in the first days of August 1914, the world didn't see it coming. Když v prvních srpnových dnech roku 1914 začala první světová válka, svět to nečekal. Cuando comenzó la Primera Guerra Mundial, en los primeros días de agosto de 1914, el mundo no lo vio venir. Lorsque la Première Guerre mondiale a commencé, dans les premiers jours d'août 1914, le monde ne l'a pas vue venir. Когда началась Первая мировая война, в первые дни августа 1914 года, мир не ожидал этого. It was a shock. Ce fut un choc. For some people it was a glorious shock. Para algunas personas fue un shock glorioso. Pour certains, ce fut un choc glorieux. For some people it was horrifying. Pour certains, c'était une véritable horreur. It was a shock. Ce fut un choc. Now historians look back on it. Ahora los historiadores miran hacia atrás. Aujourd'hui, les historiens y repensent. You open up any kind of world history textbook. Abres cualquier tipo de libro de texto de historia mundial. Vous ouvrez n'importe quel manuel d'histoire mondiale. Otwierasz każdy rodzaj podręcznika historii świata. And you'll see though that looking back on it, we see all sorts of explanations for World War I. There's a whole list of them. Et vous verrez qu'avec le recul, nous trouvons toutes sortes d'explications à la Première Guerre mondiale. Zobaczycie jednak, że patrząc wstecz, widzimy wszelkiego rodzaju wyjaśnienia dotyczące I wojny światowej. Jest ich cała lista. Usually we'll start with international rivalry. Zazwyczaj zaczynamy od rywalizacji międzynarodowej. Every book will say something about the fact that Europe was divided into these two different alliances. Każda książka powie coś o tym, że Europa została podzielona na te dwa różne sojusze. Let's take a look at the map of Europe. You see the basic structure of this. Widzisz podstawową strukturę tego. The two key alliances were the Central Powers, the core members of the Central Powers these two countries: Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire; on the other side, the Entente. Dwoma kluczowymi sojuszami były państwa centralne, rdzenni członkowie państw centralnych, te dwa kraje: Niemcy i Cesarstwo Austro-Węgier; z drugiej strony Ententa. And the key Entente powers were also two countries: France allied with Russia. France and Russia had been allied against Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1894. Now this map, if you look at it, shows Great Britain also as part of that alliance. Teraz ta mapa, jeśli na nią spojrzysz, pokazuje także Wielką Brytanię jako część tego sojuszu. This is actually not quite right. Great Britain was not a formal member of the Entente at the beginning of the war, though it was clearly on a friendly basis with France. If France was attacked, there was a good chance that Britain would come in, but it wasn't locked into it by formal treaty of alliance. Gdyby Francja została zaatakowana, istniała duża szansa, że Wielka Brytania wkroczyła, ale nie była w niej zamknięta formalnym traktatem sojuszniczym. After the war began, Great Britain became part of the Triple Entente. Po wybuchu wojny Wielka Brytania stała się częścią Ententy. So the basic rivalry is France and Russia versus the aptly-named Central Powers. Tak więc podstawowa rywalizacja to Francja i Rosja przeciwko słusznie nazwanym państwom centralnym. Other countries would later line up on the side of one or the other. But okay, back to the different causes of World War I. I've thrown a list of the causes here on this slide. Ale ok, wróćmy do różnych przyczyn I wojny światowej. Wrzuciłem listę przyczyn na tym slajdzie. International rivalry. These two competing alliances in Europe facing each other, amassing huge armies, buying weapons and so on. Te dwa konkurujące ze sobą sojusze w Europie stawiają sobie czoła, gromadząc ogromne armie, kupując broń i tak dalej. Second, you'll see a lot of references to a general atmosphere of militarism, the arms race, as each country is building up its armies and its navies looking for competitive advantages. Po drugie, zobaczysz wiele odniesień do ogólnej atmosfery militaryzmu, wyścigu zbrojeń, ponieważ każdy kraj buduje swoje armie i floty szukające przewagi konkurencyjnej. You'll read about the hair trigger military plans that each of the sides built up. Przeczytasz o włosach wyzwalających plany militarne, które zbudowała każda ze stron. You'll read a lot about that. You'll read about imperial rivalries. Przeczytasz o imperialnych rywalizacjach. We talked about the imperial races, especially in the late 1800s. Rozmawialiśmy o rasach imperialnych, zwłaszcza pod koniec XIX wieku. And clearly some of those rivalries for colonies and colonial markets and resources. That's still going on. To wciąż się dzieje. Economic rivalry, yep sure. Especially as most of these countries are building up trade barriers. You'll see also in all the books nowadays, a significant emphasis on how insecure some of the dynastic empires were: like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire, and the German Empire. We wszystkich dzisiejszych książkach zobaczysz również znaczny nacisk na to, jak niepewne były niektóre imperia dynastyczne: jak Cesarstwo Austro-Węgierskie, Cesarstwo Rosyjskie i Cesarstwo Niemieckie. And you know what? I wiesz co? All of these explanations have a fair degree of truth in them. Wszystkie te wyjaśnienia mają w sobie sporo prawdy. But gosh, with so many explanations, so many true explanations, why was this a shock? In retrospect, it just seems obvious that there's going to be a huge general war. Z perspektywy czasu wydaje się oczywiste, że będzie wielka wojna powszechna. There's so many causes for it. Yeah, so then why were people surprised when it happened? They were really surprised. A good way of measuring the surprise that historian Niall Ferguson has used is he looks at the bond markets. Dobrym sposobem na zmierzenie niespodzianki, której użył historyk Niall Ferguson, jest przyjrzenie się rynkom obligacji. See here's where businessmen are actually literally placing bets with their money on the stability of countries. Zobacz, gdzie biznesmeni dosłownie stawiają swoje pieniądze na stabilność krajów. Because the price at which their going to basically loan people money. Bo cena, za jaką zamierzają w zasadzie pożyczać ludziom pieniądze. If they think your country's about to go to war, they might charge a higher price, so to speak, in order to lend you money. Jeśli sądzą, że twój kraj niedługo rozpocznie wojnę, mogą zażądać wyższej ceny, że tak powiem, za pożyczenie ci pieniędzy. Ask for a little more interest rates. Poproś o trochę więcej stóp procentowych. So if you look the bond markets, you can get some indication of whether businessmen think instability is coming. But if you look at the bond markets in the summer of 1914, you don't see any sign that war is coming. The richest men in the world, the businessmen who are supposedly pulling the strings of all these governments, they're not expecting a war. Najbogatsi ludzie na świecie, biznesmeni, którzy rzekomo pociągają za sznurki wszystkich tych rządów, nie spodziewają się wojny. They're not betting on a war. Nie obstawiają wojny. So, it's a shock. If the causes are so abundant, why the shock? Jeśli przyczyny są tak liczne, dlaczego szok? They expected peace. So let's flip this question. Why would most well informed people expect peace in the summer of 1914, when you can look back and see so many causes for the war? Well, they expected peace, first off, because Europe had been pretty darn peaceful. Cóż, po pierwsze oczekiwali pokoju, ponieważ Europa była cholernie spokojna. It had been peaceful for a year, 5 years, 10 years, 20, 30, 40 years. There had been some wars in the Balkans, true. Back in 1870-1871, there had been a big war between France and Prussia, and so on. But general war in Europe? There had been a war between some of the powers waged in the Crimea, back in the 1850s, but a general war encompassing Europe, touching on commerce on the seas.. you had to go back to the Napoleonic Wars nearly 100 years earlier, so peace seemed like the norm. Toczyła się wojna między niektórymi mocarstwami toczonymi na Krymie w latach 50. XIX wieku, ale wojna ogólna obejmująca Europę, dotykająca handlu na morzu… trzeba było cofnąć się do wojen napoleońskich prawie 100 lat wcześniej, więc pokój wydawał się normą. But another reason people expected peace is because peace was profitable. This was actually a period of general economic growth and a lot of economic activity. Very influential books were published saying that it was increasing inconceivable that there could even be a general war, because the condition of peace was so much in the interest of business. Ukazywały się bardzo wpływowe książki, w których mówiono, że coraz bardziej nie do pomyślenia jest, aby mogła wybuchnąć nawet powszechna wojna, ponieważ warunki pokoju tak bardzo leżały w interesie biznesu. Did people understand that there were chronic tensions, imperial rivalries, military buildups? Sure. They all understood that. They'd had that for years, and those sorts of things were managed, that kind of tension, that rivalry, managed in a variety of different ways. Mieli to od lat i tego rodzaju rzeczy były zarządzane, tego rodzaju napięcie, ta rywalizacja, zarządzana na wiele różnych sposobów. For instance, when you turn on your automobile, inside your engine, there are hundreds, thousands of controlled little explosions. Na przykład, kiedy włączasz samochód, wewnątrz silnika dochodzi do setek, tysięcy kontrolowanych małych eksplozji. How come all these explosions, people setting fire to gasoline under the hood of your car, doesn't it just blow up all these automobiles all the time? Jak to możliwe, że te wszystkie eksplozje, ludzie podpalający benzynę pod maską twojego samochodu, nie wysadzają tych wszystkich samochodów przez cały czas? Well, because we perfected over time ways of managing all of that combustion. Cóż, ponieważ z biegiem czasu udoskonaliliśmy sposoby zarządzania całym tym spalaniem. Channeling all that combustion. Ukierunkowanie całego tego spalania. And people thought: well we've learned how to manage chronic tensions in Europe. So if you look at 1914, you want to look at how they're managing chronic tensions and ask yourself: What changed? Więc jeśli spojrzysz na rok 1914, chcesz przyjrzeć się, jak radzą sobie z chronicznymi napięciami i zadać sobie pytanie: co się zmieniło? What was it about the way they always managed these tensions that suddenly is no longer working? Co było w sposobie, w jaki zawsze radzili sobie z tymi napięciami, które nagle przestały działać? Another kind of question you might ask yourself also comes from the old world of automotive engines. Inne pytanie, które możesz sobie zadać, również pochodzi ze starego świata silników samochodowych. Many kinds of engines have on them a sort of governor. Wiele rodzajów silników ma na sobie coś w rodzaju gubernatora. Багато видів двигунів мають на собі свого роду регулятор. The purpose of the governor is to keep the engine from running too fast, for example. Celem gubernatora jest na przykład zapobieganie zbyt szybkiemu działaniu silnika. Sometimes in electric circuits there's a such a thing called a circuit breaker. Czasami w obwodach elektrycznych jest coś takiego, jak wyłącznik. So if the circuit gets too hot, the electricity will just cut out. Więc jeśli obwód stanie się zbyt gorący, prąd po prostu się wyłączy. Поэтому, если цепь станет слишком горячей, электричество просто отключится. In other words, people thought that something would intervene. Innymi słowy, ludzie myśleli, że coś zainterweniuje. That there would be some sort of governor that would keep war from happening. Że będzie jakiś gubernator, który powstrzyma wojnę. So, looking at 1914, what was the governor, so to speak, that had been there in the past, that suddenly failed? Więc patrząc na rok 1914, kim był gubernator, który był tam w przeszłości i nagle zawiódł? So what I'm doing is turning the question around. Więc to, co robię, to odwracam pytanie. Instead of saying, Why was there a war?, and then you list the causes and it seems like, well then the war was bound to happen, I'm asking: Since most people expected peace, why did they turn out to be wrong in 1914? Zamiast mówić „Dlaczego była wojna?”, a potem wymieniasz przyczyny i wydaje się, że no cóż, wojna musiała się wydarzyć, pytam: Skoro większość ludzi oczekiwała pokoju, to dlaczego okazali się nie mieć racji w 1914 roku? Another interesting way of looking at that question is to ask: Who was it that was not surprised when war happened in 1914? Innym ciekawym sposobem spojrzenia na to pytanie jest pytanie: kto nie był zaskoczony, gdy wybuchła wojna w 1914 roku? There were a few people who did kind of see it coming. Było kilka osób, które to przewidziały. They had, so to speak, inside information. Mieli, że tak powiem, informacje wewnętrzne. But the next step in unpacking this little detective story is to examine very closely one of the principle players: the German empire. Ale następnym krokiem w rozpakowaniu tej małej kryminalnej historii jest bardzo dokładne przyjrzenie się jednemu z głównych graczy: niemieckiemu imperium. In the next presentation, we'll take a hard look at Imperial Germany. W kolejnej prezentacji przyjrzymy się uważnie Cesarskim Niemcom. See you then.