World War I Essay Example Essay Example

World War I Essay Example Paper World War I Essay Introduction Class tension did not primarily manifest itself in an increase in spontaneous outbreaks of unrest, of collective protests or of violence. Instead it showed itself in union-organized strike movements and in the increasing confrontation, at the level of political decision making process, between emancipatory forces and those defending the status quo.When collective action intensifies, the practicality of things matter more than some rhetorical political and ideological questions of class struggle. The conditions of the German working class can be summed up by two words; ‘deprivation’ and ‘exploitation’. Issues of immediate concern addressed and fought for by the German unions were about ‘bread and butter’ such as wages, hours, working conditions and not that of dissemination of socialist ideas.15 Strikes became synonymous to industrial action, an outlet for the workers to improve and defend their living standards especially concerning wages. The a bove was the scenario with the working class in Germany and how they were mobilized into collective action. With the Great War approaching, mass mobilization took a different turn. As an extension of the mobilization of the German workers was the politicization of the mass at political level. To reiterate, it is argued that in Germany mass mobilization in form of politicization towards the Great War was the result of her domestic and social tension.16 The industrialized and urbanized Germany had led to the establishment of popular elected parliament whereby the monarchy, the army, and the Prussian nobility were wielded political power. Resented by this concentration of power, German working class established socialist movement and held powerful wave of strikes in 1914. World War I Essay Body Paragraphs Germany inherited a great legacy from their political realist leader Otto Von Bismarck who led Germany successfully in his foreign affairs thus silencing the political unrest incited by the liberals at home and this strategy was adopted by the German ruling class. It is further argued, fearing the opposition from the socialist movement to intensify and at the same time wanting to maintain their status quo, ‘German ruling class was willing to gamble on diplomatic victory and even war as the means to rallying the masses to its side and preserving its privileged position’.17 This they hope can silence the working class. It is argued that the seeds of tension between the working class (the radicalized German right-wing that included the petty bourgeois group) and the industrial workers represented by the Social Democratic Party on the Left were already sown in the 1890s.18 This division and disunity within Germany have to be overcome and imperial expansion deemed to be a leg itimate way to unite the nation. Another aspect of politicization of the masses by the Right was in what a modern but strong phrase would describe, â€Å"wag the dog† i.e diverting the Germans’ attention from domestic crisis, with the exception that the war was not fake and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was a good excuse to wage a war and thus precipitated it. Politicization of the mass for total war was also helped by popular press as a brainwashing agent fueling nationalism among European nations that ‘were grouped into alliances that faced each other with ever mounting hostility’.19 At political level among the ruling class, the plan was; A campaign to commit the Government to a so-called Siegfriden in which Germany would use her expected victory to demand a large-scale territorial annexations in both East and West and in the form of overseas colonies. This was regarded as vital not simply in order to reestablish Germany as a world power , but also as a means of diverting pressure for democratic reform at home.The liberals would argue war is justified and as â€Å"the art to conquering at home†.21 This maneuvering of mobilization by the mean of politicization by the German ruling class was successful and marked the triumph of nationalism before and during the interwar period which is a pre-condition for a war to break out. While bureaucratization and technology have vastly extended the state’s capacity for surveillance and repression, mass involvement in the political process has made legitimacy, the consent of the ruled, an increasingly vital condition of the state’s effective operation. Political mobilization as a process has acted to legitimize (or contest) the authority of regimes as well as to articulate interests within them.Fritz Fischer however is of the opinion that Social Darwinism and militarist doctrines had affected Germany to become the leading economic and political power in Europ e and to play a greater role in world politics; to achieve this goal she was willing to go to war.24 Fischer’s critics however argue that Social Darwinism and militarism was not uniquely a German phenomenon, but plague other European nations as well.25 This is agreeable as military race among European powers such France, Britain, Italy and Russia was already at its rapid pace waiting to explode. Perhaps the synthesis of the two arguments; nationalism and Social Darwinism can be used to explain what generated the mass to mobilize in Germany that led to the Great War to break out.Believing that Germany must either grow or die, nationalists pressed the government to build a powerful navy, acquire colonies, gain a much greater share of the world’s markets and expand German interests and influence in Europe. Sometimes these goals were expressed in the language of Social Darwinism: nations are engaged in an eternal struggle for survival and domination.26 Furthermore the mili tant nationalists preached,the special destiny of the German race and advocated German expansion in Europe and overseas. Decisive victories against Austria (1866) and France (1871), the formation of the German Reich, rapid industrialization, and the impressive achievements of German science and scholarship had molded a powerful and dynamic nation. Imbued with great expectations for the future, Germans became increasingly impatient to see the fatherland gain its â€Å"rightful† place in world affairs – an attitude that alarmed non-Germans.27 War had mobilized European working class and turned their allegiance to their fatherland respectively. ‘Even the socialists, who had pledge their loyalty to an international worker’s movement, devoted themselves to their respective nations’.28 Perhaps it can be argued that at this point the celebration or welcoming of war by the German working class they naively saw as an opportunity for a change for they are tir ed of the striking gap between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. On the eve of the War, ‘the workers formed a quite clearly identifiable, excluded and underprivileged group’.29 War was even celebrated, ‘war and its violence seemed to offer an escape from the dull routine of classroom, job and home and from the emptiness, drabness, mediocrity, and pettiness of bourgeois society’. Patriotic and nationalistic sentiments swept across Europe and cemented people into a collectivity ready to commit to the nation. The youth had been indoctrinated with strong nationalist sentiment, beliefs and myths that were designed in state-directed education curriculum to create social cohesion.Amidst the World War I, propaganda machines garnered complete mobilization of the mass and at this time, not only the general German nation is united but also other European nations outside Germany as part of her Central Power allies vis-à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½-vis the Entente Powers are plunged into a psychological warfare.32 Germany and her allies, as the undisputed aggressor was effectively depicted as the bad guy on war posters. In psychological warfare, ‘truth’, ‘ethics’, ‘authority, ‘morality’ have no place in the dictionary of mass propaganda.33 Another mechanism for mass mobilization was the indiscriminate and impersonal general mass conscription that consequently made the line between combatant and civilian blurred, hence the very large scale of casualties in the Great War.34 H.G Wells once argues, mass mobilization legitimizes civilians as targets. Wartime mobilization and Revolution in GermanyIn Germany in 1916, in the midst of the Great War, German males between seventeen and sixty were required to work only for war effort.35 Labor was ranked among soldiers and sailors in their importance as vital resource in World War I and was fully exploited by the state and factory employers in the relentless effort to keep the ar my in the field supplied with bullets, shells, and uniforms. This massive exploitation of workers had plunged Germany and other European countries into another series of workers’ strikes. The scenarios especially were rampant in German industrial cities. Like the situation before the war, issues of great concern were about â€Å"bread and butter† and added by other critical problems between the military and industry (workers) as question such as ‘why they should make sacrifices to save a state which was in no way representative of their interests on account of its undemocratic structure’. In this sense, workers were also concerned about political reforms that could affect them. War was fought and ended with bitter result, German economy was drained, grudges were still held among the general German working class and to a large extent the middle class sectors who were directly or indirectly affected by the war economically. The most significant repercussion of the war had on the workers was the radicalization of certain sections of European labor movements and created factions between labor movements and class tensions.37 This radicalization ultimately changes the course of German mass mobilization. Problems such as, food shortage, inflation, longer working hours, increased governmental regulation of mobility and overtaxing were all factors that served to fuel working class ranging from those in industries, farmers, miners and to bitterly resent the state. Workers demanded that the State intervened more, unable to address to all their demands, German state faced massive unrest and complete anarchy when laws were not obeyed hence the fast disappearing of confidence in the government and in September 1918, a workers assembly at Stuttgart concluded the helplessness of the government.39 With the participations of Proletarian councilmen, returning veterans, fiery socialist orators, collective action was carried out in November 1918 marking a German revolution and the decline of Weimar Republic’s power for a formation of a more egalitarian â€Å"people’s state† or Volkstaat.40 From 1918 until 1920 marked the period of people’s pressure when the Wilhelmine government had to surrender to the populist demand for more effective representation and more say in the government policy and decision making.41 We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on World War I Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer