Great Britain in World War I

By Franny Silverwood, Anne Jennings, and Elise Cunningham

Militarism / Arms Race• Great Britain was one of the first countries fighting,

to industrialize which gave them a huge advantage with weapons and preparation for fighting.

• King George’s main concern for his country was to protect it and its people. They joined the war but very reluctantly.

• Great Britain was the least involved and influenced by Militarism, but came out on top in the arms race.

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/egallery/images/people_large/KG5.jpg

Arms Race• When Germany decided to expand it’s

navy, Great Britain became threatened. • Great Britain felt that itself, as an island,

should have the largest naval fleet due to being entirely surrounded by water.

• They believed their navy should be as big as both of their surrounding rivals navy’s combined.

http://www.4hotels.co.uk/uk/images/great-britain.gif

Militarism / Arms Race• The most intense arms races of WWI developed

between Great Britain and Germany when Britain launched the HMS Dreadnought.

• It was a warship that outdid any powers and capabilities of warships at the time.

• Britain had the highest ranking of naval strength during World War I with 209,000 personnel and 29 large naval vessels, putting most of the other navy’s of their enemies to shame.

http://www.timegun.org/dreadnought.jpg

http://www.rchobby.co.uk/ProductPics/Dreadnt1.jpg

Alliance System• 1904 Entente Cordial: between Britain

and France, an agreement of “friendship” (NOT a formal alliance)

• 1907 Triple Entente: Between Britain, France, and Russia (due to the increasing threat of Germany)

• 1914 Triple Entente: agreement between Britain, France, and Russia to not sign for peace separately

Alliance System• Two main sides of World War 1:

• Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia)

• Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary)

Alliance system

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/images/article/alliance_entente.gif

Alliance system• In 1919, Great Britain met with three

other nations, France, England, and Russia (together they were called the Big Four) to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that ended World War I.

Imperialism / colonial competition

• 1900 – Great Britain contained over 410 million people

• With over ¼ of the world’s land, Great Britain was the largest empire on the planet

Imperialism / colonial competition

• The task of protecting their enormous territory was a large one, and therefore, any country that even slightly threatened Britain’s land became an instant enemy

• Britain didn’t have the desire to expand; their main concern was protecting the land they already owned

Imperialism / colonial Competition

• Because Britain and Germany both wanted to sell their products all over the world, Germany wanted to take England’s markets.

• Also, Great Britain and France had control of the world’s best land, which made Germany and Italy extremely unhappy.

Failure of Diplomacy in Great Britain

•Britain didn’t involve itself in European political and military affairs unless the balance of power was threatened. - Balance of Power: a system that aimed for peace in Europe by keeping the power each nation had in balance so one nation didn’t become stronger than the rest.

http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/images/balance.gif

•Britain also failed to show the people it’s alliance with France. So, the people wouldn’t help fight for France.

•Also, Germany didn’t take into consideration the alliance between Britain and France and assumed Britain was neutral.

http://www.ww1-propaganda-cards.com/home1.JPG

•Also Great Britain, instead of trading diplomatically with other countries for the raw materials it needed for the industrial revolution, it just started to take over other nations which only led to more problems.

http://www.search.com/reference/1900s

Nationalism in Great Britain

•Great Britain felt large and in charge of Europe and had high levels of nationalism running through its veins.

http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/images/E-walking-great-britain-flag-3.gif

•Britain thought it was the best and basically should rule the world.

•It had the strongest navy and most industrial boom out of all the other countries.

•Britain had pride in it’s nation. http://www.uniformology.com/CDCATALOG/British-Navy.jpg

•Too much pride and you’re head will explode- that’s kind of what happened to Britain.

•It tried to stay out of other countries affairs but when its pride was under the sword, the British fought hard to regain power.

http://www.prideinbritain.co.uk/images/flag1.jpg

Bibliography1. Farrar, Mounir. The Human Experience. Ohio: McGraw Hill, 1997.2. World War I Reading Packet. 2007.3. Blackboard PowerPoint, Zahora 2007.4. Blackboard Causes of WWI, 2007.5. “World War I: 1914-1918”. Infoplease. 2007. Pearson Education Inc.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001284.html6. “Allied Armed Forces”. Spartacus International. http://

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWW.htm7. “World War I”. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_1