Group+1+-+WWI+DBQ

In the years between 1914 and 1916, the war slowly grounded down to a stalemate. Fortunately, the stalemate did not last because of several events; the abdication of Russia, the British blockade on Germany, and the entrance of the U.S into the war all led to the cessation of fighting. Both the stalemate and the end of fighting in World War I were ultimately caused by total war. While almost every country fought a war of attrition and lost many resources, Germany, due to the British blockade, had even less resources. Russia, on the other hand, had never industrialized and thusly also experienced an even more severe deficiency of resources. The severe deficiencies of resources led to angry civilians and uprisings. The uprisings caused by the German people forced the German government to restart its submarine aggression, causing the U.S to enter the war. In the end, the total war led to the end of fighting because it exhausted the supplies of each nation and brought a new superpower, the U.S., into the war for the Allies, causing a monumental shift in power.  Despite the fact that the Allied Powers were the overall victors of WWI, Russia, a key member of the Allies, was actually defeated by Germany on the Eastern front. This defeat was due to many reasons, but the most important is that Russia had failed to industrialize significantly prior to WWI. In 1913, Russia's per capita levels of industrialization were 20. Germany, on the other hand, had achieved an industrialization level of 85 at that time. Clearly, Germany was much further ahead in terms of industrialization at the start of WWI. Another contributing factor to Russia's defeat was total war. Because they had not industrialized completely, Russia did not have as many resources as even Germany, which was lacking resources itself. Because of this, Russia was pushed to its limits fighting Germany and the strain on the Russian population was extremely great. Ultimately, the Russian government "became the first casualty of the war of attrition" (115). The effects of total war led the Russians to revolt, and Tsar Nicholas lost power in March 1917. Because of the chaos involving Russian government, the Russians were unable to sustain a war and Germany took advantage of this fact. On March 3, 1918, the battle on the Eastern front ended and the stalemate was broken.  One factor which played into the termination of the stalemate in WWI was the weakening of Germany due to the effectiveness of the British blockade at keeping supplies, food, and other resources from reaching Germany. The loss of their supply lines meant that Germany had to put almost all of its own resources into supporting the war effort. This caused mass starvation on the home front and there was still barely enough to keep the army running. There were a number of food riots in major German cities as represented in the map in Document 1. The German people felt betrayed by their government and public dissent was not uncommon (Doc 4). The loss of resources also meant that the German Government could not effectively supply their troops in order to combat the influx of U.S. troops into the western front or to feed the new troops moving in from the Eastern front. The British blockade cut the Germans off from any resources causing social dissent on the home front and weakening of the army.  With the British blockade having significantly reduced the resources of Germany, the Germans became completely overpowered by the Total War after the U.S. entered on the side of the Allied forces. There were not enough resources to support both the German army and the working civilians at the German home front. The lack of resources led to the dissatisfaction of the German people, thus causing a pressure on the German government to restart their submarine aggression towards other enemy and neutral ships. Unable to reason with the people, the government eventually released a statement to Robert Lansing of the United States explaining that Germany has been forced to use "the full deployment of all the weapons which are at its disposal," a message informing the U.S that the submarine attacks will begin once again (Doc 3). In response to Germany's message, the U.S. declared war on Germany in belief of not only protecting the rights of U.S citizens, but also preventing the militaristic view of Germany. The U.S. declaration of war on Germany shifted the balance of power towards the Allies, supplying Britain and France with fresh resources and helping Britain destroy Germany's submarines. The boost in supplies and dominance in the sea trade routes led to the fall of Germany and the cessation of fighting. The German Army was overpowered and the U.S offered a peace treaty which stopped Germany's imperialistic advancement.  Total War was the cause of many events which helped to lead towards the end of the stalemate between the Allied and Central powers. The Germans and Russians were affected the most severely on the front of resources due to the War of Attrition. Uprisings within Germany caused the recommencement of German submarine warfare, and in turn, the inclusion of the United States into the war. The stalemate between the two major powers was ultimately broken because Total War exhausted the resources of all nations involved and led to the involvement of the United States.