The Great War (WWI: World War One)

Mrs. Brahe

World History II

Objectives

Identify the 4 long-term causes of the “Great War”

Explain the circumstances that led to the war

Describe the slaughter of the first two years

Summarize the main events of the war

Discuss trench warfare, new weapons, total war

(home front, propaganda and women’s roles)

Describe the impact of the Russian Revolution

Explain the significance of American involvement

Detail the end of the War

Basics about “The Great War”

1914 – 1918

Sides: (as of 1915)

Allies = Great Britain, France, Russia…

Central Powers = Germany, Austria-Hungary,

Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria

“War to End All Wars” – or so they thought…

Now known as “World War One”

Four Long-Term Causes

Nationalism Imperialism Militarism Alliances

How did these factors fuel the situation & lead to conflict?

WAR

Nationalism

Definition: belief that national interests and national unity should be placed ahead of global cooperation (foreign affairs should be guided by national self-interest)

France and Germany fought to lead France was upset over lost territory (Alsace and

Lorraine) from Franco-Prussian War 1871

Germany was unified as a result of that war

Russia and Austria-Hungary disputed over control of Serbia and other Slavic nations Russian desire to control the Dardanelles

Access to Mediterranean from Black Sea

Imperialism

Nationalism made imperial competition worse

Industrialization & Imperialism were linked

Needed raw materials to supply factories and markets

for finished products

Colonies also added to prestige

Examples:

Russo-Japanese War fought over control of Korea

France and Britain almost battled over Africa

Militarism

Definition: policy of development of armed forces and their use as a tool of diplomacy

Empires were expensive to build & defend

Growth of nationalism and imperialism caused military spending to increase

Current situation, early 1900s Germany = strongest, army reserve system (drafted men,

trained, returned to civilian life until needed)

Russian army largest at 1.3 million (France & Germany 900,000)

British Navy strongest in the world (until 1898… Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany began to invest in destroyers and battleships)

Arms Race spread to France, Italy, Japan and the US

Alliance System

Alliances created The build up of mutual hostilities, jealousies, fears,

and desires caused the European nations to sign treaties of assistance

Committed to support one another if attacked

By 1914, two mutual defense alliances emerged Triple Entente: France, Great Britain and Russia

(Russia also had a separate treaty with Serbia) Allies

Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy (1915 Italy joined Allies in exchange for territory)

Ottoman Empire (Middle East, Turks) later joined the Triple Alliance, aka Central Powers

Assassination Leads to War

Balkan Peninsula “Powder Keg of Europe” Many European nations vied for power/control

The stage was set…

June 28th, 1914 Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia (controlled by A-H, 6 yrs)

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph and heir to the Austrian throne

Teenage assassin, Gavrilo Princip, member of secret society the “Black Hand” wanted to unite all Serbs under one government Jumped out of crowd

Killed him and his wife, Sophie

Austria-Hungary decided to “make an example” out of Serbia, declared warAvoid nationalist uprising within its empire

“bright, brisk little war”

Serbia called in their ally – Russia July 29th – Russia orders full mobilization of its armies

August 1st – Germany, obligated to support A-H, declares war on Russia

August 3rd – Germany declares war on Russia’s ally France

August 4th – Great Britain, linked by treaty to France & protecting Belgium, declares war on Germany and A-H

The Great War is underway…

Assassination Leads to War

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/

The Fighting Starts

Schlieffen Plan Developed in 1905 (precaution!)

Goal: avoid war with France and Russia at the same time… only one front!

How? Attack and defeat France before Russia can fully mobilize its troops! Send 90% through lowlands (Belgium, Netherlands,

Luxembourg) to avoid heavily fortified French border

Keep only 10% to watch Russian border

August 4th, 1914 Germany invaded Belgium

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_outbreak.html

Summary of the War

The Western Front Trenches stretched 440 miles from Swiss border to North Sea.

The series of dug-outs and barbed-wire fences moved very little in the four years of war, despite attempts to break through.

Create a timeline of events

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/western_front/index.shtml

1914 Race to the Sea

1914 First Battle of Ypres

1915

April/ May

1916 February

1916 July

1917 March

1917 June

1917 November

1918 Russia…

1918 Nov 11th at 11

am

Timeline of Events

1914 Race to the Sea

1914 First Battle of Ypres (Eh pruh)

1915 April/May 2nd Battle of Ypres Germans use chlorine gas for the first time

1916 February Battle of Verdun (heavy German bombardment – almost broke through)

1916 July Battle of Somme (Sawm)

1917 March Hindenburg Line (strong German line)

1917 June 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) lowest point of the war

1917 Nov Cambrai (Kahn breh) first mass tank attack

1918 Russia made peace with Germany one front now… phew! And Americans!

1918 Nov 11th at 11am Armistice

Mechanized Warfare

New Weapons

German cannon – fire 1,800 lb shell 75 miles (“Big Bertha”)

Zeppelin, gas-filled airship Germans used to bomb British

coastal cities (easy to shoot down)

Machine gun – 600 rounds of ammunition per minute

Poison Gas – Chlorine, first used April 1915 by Germans at 2nd

Battle of Ypres

Tank – built of steel, cut through barbed wire (first big use at

Battle of the Somme by British)

Airplanes – just scouting (duels!) then mounted machine guns

Life in the Trenches Allies used four "types" of trenches

front-line trench, less than 1 mile from the German‘s

Several hundred yards behind was the support trench (men and supplies to assist those on the front line)

The reserve trench was several hundred yards further back (men and supplies in case the first trenches were overrun)

Connecting these were communication trenches (for moving messages, supplies, and men)

established a three-week rotation schedule (front, support, reserve)

To improve morale & keep soldiers on the front fresh

In reserve: sports, concerts, games…

Digging these

trenches was an

immense task…

I've a Little Wet Home in a Trench

I've a little wet home in a trenchWhere the rainstorms continually drench,There's a dead cow close byWith her feet in towards the skyAnd she gives off a terrible stench.

Underneath, in the place of a floor,There's a mass of wet mud and some straw,But with shells dropping there,There's no place to compare,With my little wet home in the trench.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Poem by Wilfred Owen

English teacher and private tutor in France

Enlisted October 1915

Worked the front lines for months, shell-

shocked, concussion… hospital

September 1918 sent back to the front

Owen was killed by machine gun fire five

days before the armistice was announced

Dulce et Decorum Est1) Is this poem pro-war or anti-war? What emotions does it evoke?

2) Why are the soldiers knock-kneed and coughing like hags?

3) Note the verb in line two, which states the soldiers "cursed through sludge."

What are the connotations of this verb, as opposed to "marched" or "walked?"

4) Why does the poet capitalize the word "GAS" when he repeats it?

5) What does the poet see each night in his dreams?

6) In the last stanza, the poet uses particularly bitter imagery in a string of

similes. Give one example of visual imagery, tactile imagery, and audial

imagery.

7) Why would children be "ardent for some desperate glory"?

8) How would the Latin phrase change in its meaning if we

read it without the context of the rest of the poem?

9) Does the meaning of the poem change since we know that

Owen died a few months after writing it?

Home Front – Impact of Total War

Total War: complete mobilization of people and

resources (not just soldiers affected!)

Planned Economies – Economic controls, food

and material rationing, imports/exports

gov’t increased powers to get manpower and supplies

Drafted millions of men

Authoritarian gov’t style – morale waned, new laws,

restrict dissent, control of press, propaganda techniques

Women temporarily took jobs… independence helped

women to receive vote after war (GB, Germany, Austria,

US in 1920)

Russian Revolution

Unprepared militarily and technologically

Czar Nicholas II, lack of ability and training

Trained soldiers using broomsticks, sent to front to pick up a rifle

from a dead comrade

1914-1916: 2 million soldiers killed, 4-6 million wounded or captured

Poor Leadership

Alexandra, wife, under influence of Rasputin (“holy”: could help

son who had hemophilia)

Aristocrats assassinated Rasputin (shot three times, tied up, threw in a river but still managed to

untie the knots underwater before he drowned)

Timeline Scavenger Hunt

What happened on each of the following dates?(use Ch 23, Section 3 pg 734-737)

1. March 8, 1917

2. March 10, 1917

3. March 12, 1917

4. March 15, 1917

5. April 1917

6. November 6th, 1917

7. March 3rd, 1918

8. July 16th, 1918

Timeline of the Russian Revolution

1. March 8, 1917 – Women’s Bread March

2. March 10, 1917 – General Strike

3. March 12, 1917 – Duma (legislative body) established provisional gov’t of middle class Duma reps, urged czar to step down

4. March 15, 1917 – Czar Nicholas II abdicated ended 300-year-old Romanov dynasty

Provisional gov’t headed by Alexander Kerensky

Continued fighting war to preserve Russia’s honor

Soviets (councils composed of representative workers and

soldiers) begin challenging authority…

Army units, factory towns, rural areas

Mostly socialists, representing radical interests of lower classes

Most prominent = Bolsheviks

Timeline of the Russian Revolution

Bolsheviks (aka – Communists)

Small faction of a Marxist party – Russian Social Democrats

Vladimir Lenin took control… became dedicated to violent revolution

Only way to destroy the capitalist system - soldiers, workers and peasants

“ready made instruments of power” should overthrow provisional gov’t

Promised: end to war, redistribution of land, transfer of factories from

capitalist to committees of workers, gov’t power to the socialists

Slogans: “Peace, Land, Bread” “Worker Control of Production” “All Power

to the Soviets”

5. April 1917 – Lenin transported to Russia by Germany

6. November 6th, 1917 – Bolsheviks seized the Winter

Palace, seat of provisional gov’t (bloodless revolution)

7. March 3rd, 1918 – Lenin signed peace with Germany (lost eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Baltic provinces)

Anastasia Mystery…

July 16th, 1918 – royal family captive in mining town of

Ural mtns… murdered and bodies burned in a mine shaft

Rumors circulated that some family members survived, in

particular the daughter Anastasia 1921 – young woman in Dalldorf, Germany claimed to be the Grand

Duchess Anastasia, youngest daughter of Nicholas II

Some surviving members of the Romanov family became convinced

Came to US as Anna Anderson then returned to Germany in 1932 to

pursue claims for the Romanov estate

1968 returned to US, died in 1984

In 1994 DNA testing revealed…

she was not the Grand Duchess Anastasia

Reality: Franziska Schanzkowska, Polish farmer’s daughter…

disappeared from a Polish munitions factory in 1920

Events or reasons that promoted and slowed the

entrance of the United States into WWI

The U.S. Entrance into World War One

Promoted Slowed

Sympathy for allies (cultural links to GB,

invasion of Belgium) Propaganda

Did not threaten American lives or

property; pacifism

Economic ties (trade, war supplies,

repayment of loans)

Public opinion divided (who to

support)

Protect US shipping (unrestricted

submarine warfare, U-boats) Lusitania

Ethnic ties (Germans, Irish)

Zimmermann Note (Germany/Mexico) Wilson’s slogan 1916 election

Democracies against monarchs (after

Russia’s Revolution)

German famine from British

blockade (little known)

American Power Tips the Balance

American Expeditionary Force (AEF) “Doughboys” nickname

Led by General John J. Pershing (under Allied Commander

French marshal Ferdinand Foch)

Trained 9 months, some US, some Europe

Often drilling with fake equipment

Shipping focus – counteract U-Boats

Initially used as replacements in other forces

Pershing argued to keep troops together

Known for freshness and enthusiasm

Collapse of Germany

November 3rd, 1918

German sailors and Marines refused to man

the ships “No use in fighting any longer”

Mutiny spread

November 9th, 1918

People of Berlin rose in rebellion

Socialist leaders declared a German Republic

Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated the throne & took refuge in the Netherlands

German war machine and war economy were too exhausted

to continue

November 11th, 1918 at 11am

Germany agreed to a cease-fire – armistice

Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire surrendered several days earlier

Final toll of the war

Four years, 30 nations involved

Bloodiest war so far

26 million people died

½ were civilians

(died from disease, starvation or exposure)

20 million people wounded

10 million became refugees

Cost $350 billion

United States Causalities 48,000 men died in battle

62,000 men died of disease

200,000 Americans were wounded

Treaty of Versailles

Five separate treaties (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey)

June 28th, 1919 = Treaty of Versailles with Germany

Wilson’s Fourteen Points

Open treaties, no secret agreements

Reduce armaments

Right of self-determination

League of Nations (international cooperation)

France and Great Britain

Punish Germany (war guilt clause)

Reparations: $ (cost of war), territory (Rhineland = buffer zone)

Military limited (100,000 men, cut back navy, no air force)

New Map of Europe Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungry lost land

Eastern Europe largely redrawn

New nations: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania,

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungary

Balkans: Romania expanded, Serbia became center of new state

Yugoslavia (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians and Albanians )

Self-determination?

Mixture of people makes impossible to draw neat lines

Compromises to satisfy national interest of victors

Germans in Poland; Hungarians, Poles and Germans in Czechoslovakia;

Hungarians in Romania, and the combination (above) in Yugoslavia

Ottoman Empire – Arab independence? No… France: Lebanon and

Syria, GB: Iraq and Palestine

Insecurity: old empires gone, new states unstable, problems arise…

http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome03/index.php

Map Analysis – using your maps…

1. List the countries and empires that were part of

Europe in 1914 and no longer existed after the war.

2. List all of the new countries displayed on the post-

war map that were not present during 1914.

3. For each of the new countries you listed, write down

the empire that country was once a part of.

4. How might these changes lead to conflicts in

Europe later on? Give at least two possible ideas.

5. Look at a map of Europe today (found on page 70-

71 in atlas). List which new countries have been

created and which countries have been “lost”.

Europe Today

Look at the map of

Europe today (also

page 70-71 in atlas).

5. List which new

countries have been

created and which

countries have been

“lost”.