WWI

GREAT
WAR

Mrs. : Lozano
Class: Universal History
World War I 1914-1918

Causes of the war

Technology of the war
Military techniques / Battles
War at U.S. “Total War”
US / Russia and the end of
the war
Traditional European
Rules of War

1. A country must declare war before

attacking another country.

2. Each side must wear uniforms or

identify themselves to each other
before attacking. Soldiers wearing an
enemy uniform will be shot as a spy.
Traditional European
Rules of War

3. Commanding officers should not

be targeted

4. Civilians, Surrendering Soldiers

and Medical Personnel will not be
attacked.
Traditional European
Rules of War

5.Hand to Hand combat is

honorable, shooting from a distance
is cowardly

6.Soldiers must be given the

opportunity to surrender honorably.
Long Term Causes

Nationalism-

 Deep Devotion to One’s

Nation
Competition and Rivalry
developed between European
nations for territory and
markets
Long Term Causes

Militarism-

Glorifying Military Power

Keeping a large
standing army prepared
for war
Arms race for
military technology
Long Term Causes

Imperialism-
European competition
for colonies
Quest for colonies
often almost led to
war
Imperialismled to rivalry
and mistrust amongst
European nations
Long Term Causes

Alliance System-
Designed to keep peace
in Europe, instead pushed
continent towards war
Many Alliances made in
secret
By 1907 two major alliances:
 The Two
Sides Triple Entente
Triple England France
Alliance  Russia
Germany  Allied Powers

Austria-Hungary
 England, France,
Russia, United
Italy  States, Italy, Serbia,
Central Powers
Belgium, Switzerland
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Ottoman
Empire
 Leaders
Triple Triple Entente
Alliance David Lloyd
Kaiser Wilhelm II George (England)
(Germany) Raymond Poincare
Franz Joseph I (France)
(Austria-Hungary) Czar Nicholas II
Vittorio (Russia)
Orlando (Italy)
 Major
Colonies
 Triple Entente  Triple

 France-
Alliance
Vietnam, Parts Germany-
of Africa Africa, Parts of
 England- Asia
Africa, Australia,
Hong Kong, India,
Canada, S.
America
Short-Term Cause

 June 28th 1914

 Assassination of Franz
Ferdinand
 Summer of 1914
Triple Entente/Triple Alliance Actions

 July 23rd Austria Hungary Presents Serbia with an ultimatum

 July 28th Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
 July 29th Russia Mobilizes its troops
 August 1, 1914 Germany mobilizes troops.
 Summer of 1914
Triple Entente/Triple Alliance Actions
 August 2ndGermany declares war on Russia Germany invades Poland and
Luxemburg, invasion of France starts
 August 3: Germany declares war on France
 August 4: Germany declares war on Belgium and invades it,
 August 4:England declares war on Germany
 August 5: Austria declares war on Russia and Great Britain
Who Declared War on
Who?
 Austria-Hungary Declares War on Serbia
 Russia Declares War on Austria Hungary
 Germany Declares War on Russia
 Germany Declares War on France
 EnglandDeclares War on Germany
and Austria Hungary
By the end of 1914, not
only Europe was at war,
but also all of Europe’s
colonies in Asia, Africa
and South America.
New Technology
Guns

The Machine Gun

Itwas used by both sides,
hundreds of rounds a minute
could be shot by one
person.
The German plan against
France was to rush into the
country as fast as possible:
The Schlieffen Plan

The Machine Gun stopped

this plan
Trench Warfare

 Both sides dug long trenches that faced each other. The trenches ran for
miles.

 From time to time, one side would attempt to cross the “No-Man’s Land”
the area in between the trenches.

 Trench warfare made WWI extend from a few months of fighting to four
years of fighting
French Soldiers Attacking a
German Trench
Technology: Chemical
Weapons

WWI was the first major war to use

chemical weapons

Mustard Gas and Chlorine Gas were

the two most popular weapons: They
caused suffocation, blindness, and
death
Soldiers would protect themselves
using Gas Masks
Technology:
The U-boat (Submarine)

Germany’s secret weapon during the

war

Sank dozens of British ships,

controlled the oceans.
Why would the British think the U-
boat was breaking the rules of War ?
Tec hnology:
Airpower
 Both sides used aircraft for observation, limited bombing,
and air battles

 Airplanes were slow, clumsy, and unreliable,

 The most famous German pilot was Baron von Richthofen

(The Red Baron)
Red Baron
Tec hnolog
y: Tanks
Tec hnolog
y: Tanks
Technology:
Flame
Throwers
 The Great War
Western Front

 Germans, Austria-Hungarians vs. French, British and

later Americans

 Germany develops the Schlieffen

Plan

 Battle of the Marne (1914- German

Defeat)

 Trench Warfare on the Western

Front
 Western Front: Battles
 Battle of Verdun
 Ten months long
 Frenchand
German armies.
 Estimated
540,000 French
and 430,000
German casualties
 No strategic
advantages were
gained for either
side.
 Eastern Front
 Russians and Serbs vs. Germans and Austria-
Hungarians
 War more mobile but still a
stalemate
 Russia’s disadvantages
 Not Industrialized
 Short on Supplies

Russia’s advantage
 People
Eastern Front: Battles

 Battle of Tannenberg:
 August 1914- First major eastern battle.
 Russia was badly defeated and pushed back.
 Russialost millions of men against Germany, undersupplied,
under gunned
 Other Fronts
 Japan, Australia, India join
Allies

 Ottoman Turks, Bulgaria join Central

Powers

 Gallipoli Campaign in the Ottoman

Empire

 Battles occur in Africa and Asia for Colonial

Possessions
Russia Exits the War


 In March 1917, Nicholas II abdicates

 his throne, the Russian Duma continues to
fight.

In October 1917: Lenin and the Bolsheviks take command: The
Soviet Union is created.
March 1918: Soviets and Germans sign the Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk, ending the war in the East.
US claims Neutrality

I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier

I brought him up to be my pride and joy
Who dares to place a musket on his
shoulder, To shoot some other mother’s
darling boy?
US Road to War

 British Blockade

did not allow products to leave

or enter Germany

 German U-Boat Response

counter to blockade, destroy

all boats headed for British
shores
US Road to War
May 7th 1915
Sinking of the
Lusitania
1916 Presidential Election And
the Winner is…

Woodrow
Wilson

Because
“he kept us
out of the
war”
US Road to
War The Last
Straw
Zimmerman
Note
US Declares War

 Senate Declares War April 4th 1917

 House of Representatives Declares War April 6th
 1917 Wilson’s reasoning for War
make the world “Safe for Democracy”
 War on the Homefront
 World War I as a Total War
 All Resources devoted to homefront

 Gov’t took over factories to make Military

goods
 All had to work (Women took place of men
factories)
in
 Rationing- limit consumption of resources/goods
necessary for the war
effort
 Propaganda- one-sided information to keep
support for the
Propaganda
US
Propaganda
Great
Britain
Propaganda
Germany
Ending the War 1917-1918

 US Enters the War in April of 1917

 March 1918 Russia and Germany sign the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 Germans now use all resources on Western
 Front
March of 1918 Germany begins a massive
attack on France
 Ending the War (1918) The
Tide Turns
 German troops fatigued
 US had 140,000 “fresh” troops
 2nd Battle of the Marne (June
 1918) Central Powers Crumble
 Revolutions in Austria Hungary
 Ottoman Empire surrenders
 German soldiers mutiny, public
turns against Kaiser Wilhelm II
Ending the War (1918)

 Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates on November 9th

 1918
11thhour of the 11thday of the 11thmonth in
 1918 Germany agrees to a cease-fire

 8.5 million soldiers dead

 21 million soldiers
wounded Cost of 338
billion dollars
 Ending the War
The Paris Peace
 Conference


Meeting of the “Big Four” at the Paris Peace Conference

Wilson Proposes his “14 points”
“Big Four” create Treaty of Versailles
 Break up of German, Austrian, Russian and Ottoman
Empire
 War Guilt Clause
 Reparations
 Legacy of bitterness and betrayal
 Effects of World War I
 Before World War I feeling of optimism and progress of Human
 Kind After the War feelings of pessimism
 New forms of Art, Literature, Philosophy and Science
 (ex. Surrealism, “Lost” Generation, Psychoanalysis, Existentialism)