The 1st World War1914-1918

The War was bound to come

Germany

- Best trained - Plan Schlieffen: quickly attack and defeat France to be able to turn its troops to Russia on timearmy

Russia- Badly equiped- Plan: Overwhelm Germany with a huge number of soldiers

France- Large and well-equiped army- Plan 17: quickly attack Germany through the frontier and force its surrender Great

Britain- British Expeditionary Force (BEF): well-equipped and trained soldiers that would fight alongside with the French

I World War Stages

1914: War of Movement

1914-16: The Attrition War

1917: USA in, Russia out

1918: The Allies Victory

War Fronts

1914: War of Movement

• 4 August, following the Schlieffen Plan, Germany invaded Belgium

• Belgium resistance bought time for British and French troops to mobilise

• British and French troops stopped German advance along the line of the River Marne. A cartoon from Punch

Western Front

1914: War of Movement

• Surprisingly, Russia quickly mobilised its troops and invaded East Prussia

• Germany was caught in two fronts

• Germany stopped the Russian advance in the Battle of Tannenberg

Eastern Front

War Fronts

1915-16: The War of Attrition

• By the end of 1914, the fighting has reached an stalemate.

• Troops were dug into a line of trenches that stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Alps.

• The War of Attrition had begun.

Western Front

War of Attrition

• Both military forces are in static defensive position in trenches not being able to maneuvre.

• The objective of this warfare is to crush the enemy by repeated attack and defeat him by exceeding its number of soldiers and materials.

• The side who can not stand the losses would be defeated.

Fighting TechnologyArtillery• Scientific advances made artillery more powerful.• Its accuracy converted it on a key weapon.• It pounded trenches with hundreds of shells.

Trenches• Static war forced to transform simple shelters into complex defensive

systems.• Most of the time soldiers spent time digging new trenches, on sentry

duties and watching time go by until the next charge.

Infrantry charge• If enough soldiers charged, no matter how many would be killed or

wounded on the way by machine guns, there would still be enough men alive to capture the enemy trenches.

Fighting Technology

Poison Gas• Used for the first time in 1915 by the Germans. • At first it was used only to disable enemy troops but later

lethal gases such as mustard gas were developed. • Mustard gas burned, blinded or slowly killed the victim in

less of 5 weeks.• Gas masks were also invented while soldiers lived in

constant fear.

Tanks• British invention to advance ahead of infantry, crushing

barbed-wire defenses and shooting the enemy.

1915-16: The War of AttritionWestern Front

• Battle of Somme: 4 months and a half; 1, 25 million casualties = little advance

• Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies. New front between Italy and Austria-Hungary.

• Battle of Verdun: 6 months, 700000 casualties= little advance

1915-16: The Triple Alliance Advances

• Germany occupied Poland and Lithuania.

• Austria-Hungary occupied Serbia

• Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers

• Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies but is occupied by the Central Powers.

• The French disembark in Greece

Eastern Front

War Fronts

Great Britain• Blockaded German ports to

strangle its industry and economy

Germany• U-boat campaing: submarine

warfare against all ships suspected to be carrying goods to Great Britain

Blockade: trying to prevent the enemy from getting essential supplies

1917: The Turning Point

USA was neutral but

supplied Allies

German U-boat Campaign + alliance with

Mexico against USA

USA enters the war

Communist Revolution in

Russia

Lenin takes over

power

Russia leaves the war (Brest-Litovsk Treaty

1918)

USA’s entrance in the war provided:

• Fresh troops (10,000 soldiers a day in 1917)

• Battleships and submarines

• Artillery and supplies• Loans of millions of

dollars

Russia leaving the war meant:• The Treaty of Brest-

Litovsk ceded the Baltic Provinces, Finland, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers.

• Germany was able to transfer hundreds of thousands of troops back to the Western Front.

Eastern Front

1918: The end of the war

• The Allies blockade had starved German economy and population.

• Germany was able to transfer troops from the Eastern to the Western front.

• Germany launches the “Ludendorff Offensive”: bombardment, gas attack, storm troops to break the line of trenches.

• On August the Allies, with fresh troops and best supplies, counterattacked and made Germany retreat.

• 11 November 1918 the Armistice was signed. The War was over.

The “World War”: Colonial Fronts

The War is Over!

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? (Blaise Pascal)

When people don’t understand that the government doesn’t have their interests in mind, they’re more susceptible to go to war. (Howard Zinn)

You can’t say civilization don’t advance—for in every war, they kill you in a new way. (Will Rogers)

Historically, the most terrible things– war, genocide, and slavery– have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience. (Howard Zinn)