HIST 226 Lecture 5: 09_15
Document Summary
World war i and the revolutions of 1918. Can be described as a fuge many countries take up same theme. 1915--spring of german offensive, germans take basically all of poland. Divide into 2 spheres of occupation, germany and austria-hungary. But now further troops are diverted in occupation and can"t push russia further. More than 1 mil russians died, but russia stays in war. Now with smaller front, and tsar taking personal control of military. Now anything that goes wrong is his personal responsibility. 1915--italy joins war on side of entente. Secret treaty with brits, who promise italy the adriatic coast of austro-hungarian empire. Makes small advance, then stalemate with austria-hungary. Western allies ask russia to launch offensive (brusilov offensive) Success in southwest against austria-hungary, austria-hungary loses will to fight. 300,000 austria-hungary prisoners, many of whom for alienated minorities (ex: czechs) Germans intervene in south, crushing russia, lose another million men. This leads to russian revolution the following year.
