World War I

War Breaks out in Europe

Vocabulary

• Militarism: the belief that a nation needs a large military

• Central Powers: an alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria during World War I

• Allies: an alliance of Serbia, Russia, France, Great Britain, Italy, and seven other countries during World War I

• Trench warfare: a kind of warfare during World War I in which troops huddled at the bottom of trenches and fired artillery and machine guns at each other

Vocabulary

• U-boat: German submarine; unterseeboot• Woodrow Wilson: President of the U.S. during

World War I; he “kept us out of the war” until Germany sunk the Lusitania and sent the Zimmerman telegram to Mexico

• Neutrality: refusing to take sides in a war• Zimmerman Telegram: a message sent in 1917

by the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance and promising to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if the United States entered the war

Causes of World War I

• Imperialism: larger countries competed with each other to gain control of smaller, weaker nations Asia and Africa and make them colonies

• Nationalism: citizens had strong feelings of pride, loyalty and protectiveness towards their own country; they would do anything for their country

• Militarism: European powers began increasing their military strength

• Alliances: Many European nations were involved with alliances with each other; If one went to war their allies were dragged in as well; Two main alliances were the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance

Pre – War Alliances

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – June 28

1914• Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are visiting

Sarajevo.• On their way to the town hall a member of the Serbian

group The Black Hand tried to assassinate them by throwing a grenade. It bounced off and blew up under the car following them injuring two.

• After the town hall reception, they wanted to visit the injured at the hospital. On the way there the driver went the wrong way and was backing up slowly when Gavrilo Princip saw them from a corner café.

• He fired two shots into the car killing both the Archduke and his wife.

• When he tried to kill himself police and others arrested him.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Gavrilo Princip

• Serbian nationalist that was part group, The Black Hand

• Killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophie

• Captured and found guilty• Was only 19 at the time so

he was spared the death penalty and was given twenty years.

• He died of tuberculosis 4 years later.

Who’s on Whose Side

AlliesSerbiaRussiaFranceGreat BritainUnited States (1917)BelgiumItalyRomaniaGreece

Central Powers

Austria-HungaryGermanyOttoman EmpireBulgaria

Kaiser Wihelm II

GermanyFranz Josef

Emperor of Austria

King of Hungary

Central Power Leaders

Sultan Mehmed V

Ottoman Empire

Allied Leaders

Czar Nicholas II

Russia

King George V

Great Britain

Woodrow Wilson

United States

Europe - 1914

Trench Warfare

Life in the Trenches

Trench Foot

Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by sold, wet and unsanitary conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench foot was a particular problem in the early stages of the war. For example, during the winter of 1914-15 over 20,000 men in the British Army were treated for trench foot.

The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers in the trenches had to have three pairs of socks with them and were under orders to change their socks at least twice a day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers were told to cover their feet with a grease made from whale-oil. It has been estimated that a battalion at the front would use ten gallons of whale-oil every day.

New Technology

Machine guns

Poison Gas

New Technology

New Technology

Airplanes

New Technology

Tanks

New Technology

U – Boats and ships“Unterseeboot”

Sinking of the Lusitania

Zimmerman Telegram

Coded Decoded

Russian Revolution - 1917

Czar Nicholas II Vladimir Lenin

1. What were the long term causes of World War I?

The long term causes of World War I were: imperialism, nationalism, militarism and alliances.

2. Why were Americans divided over the issue of remaining neutral?

Americans did not want to go to war, but they were angry about German attacks on merchant ships and the Zimmerman telegram’s threat.

3. Why was Russia’s withdrawal from the war in 1917 a blow to the Allies?

Russia’s withdrawal from the war was a blow to the Allies because it allowed Germany to sent more of their soldiers to the Western Front.

Section 1 Review