World War I

Road to World War I

Factors leading to WWI

• Nationalism (industrialization; Imperialism)

• Internal Dissent

• Militarism

• Balkan Crisis

Assassination of Austrian Archduke

Gavrilo Prencip

Declarations of War 1914

• Jul 5 - Germany promises “Blank Check”

• Jul 23 - Austria issues Serbia an ultimatum

• Jul 28 - Austria declares war on Serbia

• Aug 1 - Germany declares war on Russia

Schlieffen Plan

• German military strategy

• Generald Alfred von Schlieffen

• Two front war with France & Russia

Schlieffen Plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMRlSRRj0FI

Declarations of War

• Aug 2 - German ultimatum to Belgium

• Aug 3 - Germany declares war on France

• Aug 4 - Great Britain declares war on Germany

• April 1915 - Bulgaria allies w/Central Powers

Western Front

First Battle of the Marne

• September 6-10, 1914

• French & British under Gen. Joseph Joffre

• Stopped the Germans

Western Front

Trench Warfare

“Over the Top” into “No Man’s Land”

Lice, rats, little food, bombing, stray bullets

Poison Gas

America Enters the War

1917

• Germany uses unrestricted submarine warfare

• Germans sink the British ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915

• More than 100 Americans die

• Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917

• Americans join the war on August 6, 1917

• Psychological boost to the Allied Powers

• Italians are defeated in Oct. 1917

• Russia pulls out of the war in Nov. 1917

Battle of the Somme

• July-November 1918

• Largest Battle of WWI

The Home Front

Propaganda

• At beginning, reflected enthusiasm

• Later, used to keep up morale & nationalism

• Governments begin to control press

Letters from the Front

G.K. Chesterton

• 1874-1936

• Inflation • Rationing

The Home Front

Women at Work

• Approx. 2 million women replaced men in employment

• New Roles open to them

• Increasingly accepted in labor unions

Suffrage

Civilian BombingGermany bombing Warsaw Russia

Submarines

Deaths in World War I

• Britain :  750,000 soldiers killed; 1,500,000 wounded

• France : 1,400,000 soldiers killed; 2,500,000 wounded

• Belgium : 50,000 soldiers killed

• Italy : 600,000 soldiers killed

• Russia : 1,700,000 soldiers killed

• America : 116,000 soldiers killed

• Germany : 2,000,000 soldiers killed

• Austria-Hungary : 1,200,000 soldiers killed

• Turkey : 325,000 soldiers killed

• Bulgaria : 100,000 soldiers killed

Treaty of Versailles

• Signed on June 28, 1919

• Paris Peace Conference

The Big Three

Woodrow WilsonClemenceauLloyd George Orlando

David Lloyd George

• British Prime Minister

• Took a hard-lined policy toward Germany

• Wants revenge

Georges Clemenceau

• French Prime Minister

• Wants Germany crippled so it cannot start any more wars

Woodrow Wilson

• American President

• Idealistic

• Believes Germany should be punished, but wants reconciliation

Treaty of Versailles Policies

• Territorial loss

• Germany’s military reduced to 100,000 men

• Financial reparations

• “War Guilt Clause”

• League of Nations created

• Leaves Germany weak

• U.S. and England do not join the League of Nations

Technology post WWI

• Inventions had been used to kill a generation

• Mechanized killing