World War 1 Task:

1. Re-read the article.

2. Create a doc in Google Drive.

3. Look up the info you don´t know.

4. Find sources to illustrate what you know.

5. Write your own article to publish in your blog.

3. This article is about the first World War.

Las buenas intenciones del mandatario norteamericano, consagradas en

1919 en el Tratado de Versalles, fueron puestas a prueba, y no siempre con

lucimiento, en décadas posteriores. Así lo certificarían, no sólo la guerra

mundial de 1939-1945, que no pudo impedirse frente a Hitler. Sino

problemas más recientes, como la de los Balcanes, en 1908.

Treaty of Versailles

The League of Nations

South Tyrol

4.

Image of Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand was the emperor and the archduke of Austria Hungary

who was murdered by a Serb, and after this murder, war finally started.

Also he was involved in the conflict in the Balkans. Austria’s

opportunity came with the murder of him. So they blamed Serbia for his

assassination.

The image of the Balkans

The Balkans were an unstable area

● different nationalities were mixed together .

● The area had been ruled by turkey for many centuries, but Turkish

power was now in decline.

● Russia and Austria wanted to control the area because it gave them

access to the mediterranean.

The first Balkan crisis came in 1908. Austria took over the provinces of

Bosnia. Russia and serbia protested, but they backed down when

Germany made it clear that it supported Austria.

Austria felt confident with Germany by her side so, she was looking for a

good excuse to crash serbia.

Austria’s opportunity came with the murder of the archduke Franz

Ferdinand. Austria blamed Serbia.

Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum that would effectively had made serbia

part of the Austrian Empire. The serbs couldn’t accept it, so Austria

declared war on 28 July 1914.

The Alliances

1oo years after the ww1

World War 1 was a disaster. Even historians couldn´t agree in the causes that provoked the war.

The war lasted approximately 4 years. During most of the war, countries were divided into two great powerful Alliances, on the one side were Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary called The Central Powers that was formed in 1882. On the other side were France, Russia and Britain called The Triple Entente that was formed in 1907.  

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Map_Europe_alliances_1914­en.svg   Each country have diferent concerns for example the encirclement, which was the

friendship between France and Russia to surround and threatened Germany. In 1900 The Kaiser of Germany announced that they were going to start building a lot of warships. Britain thought that the Germans wanted to attack them but the real reason, was for “it’s growing trade”, so Britain felt thretened by that. Close by in 1905, France wanted Morocco and they wanted to conquer it. In 1906 Germany also wanted too. In 1911 France conquered Morocco and Germany was given land as compensation, because France didn´t want Germany to attack them again ( was to calm the situation). Later In 1908, it came the first Balkan crisis. Austria took over the provinces of Bosnia. Russia and serbia protested, but they backed down when Germany made it clear that it supported Austria. Austria felt confident with Germany by her side so by 1914, she was looking for a good excuse to crash serbia. Austria’s opportunity came with the murder of the archduke Franz Ferdinand, so Austria blamed Serbia.

Austria gave Serbia a ten point ultimatum that would effectively had made serbia part of the Austrian Empire. The serbs couldn’t accept it, so Austria declared war on 28 July 1914.  

This was Franz Ferdinand http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Franz_ferdinand

.jpg

This were the Balkans

http://www.aprilsmith.org/uploads/6/8/3/4/6834889/5157377_orig.jp

g

 In 1914 right through to 1918. However hard, neither side could make a breakthrough. The reasons were that the techniques and the weapons were better suited to defence than to attack. It was much easier to defend a position than to attack one. because of the barbed wire, trenches and mud made cavalry charges inefective. ● Machine guns could mow down charging infantry. ● The colossal new guns of the artillery could kill

the enemy in their trenches, could wear down the troops and sap their morale and could disrupt enemy supplies, but they couldn’t make a breakthrough.

A year later in 1915, all the countries tried and failed to break the deadlock. French lost many thousands in an unseccessful offensive in Champagne. The

British gained some ground but at a heavy cost, they suffered a setback at Loos in September. One year later in Februray 1916, the Germans began a determined battle to capture strategic French forts surrounding Verdum. The French were leading the allied. The German commander, Falkenhayn came up with a strategy to ‘bleed France white’. The tactic failed, in that both sides suffered. By July 1916 some 700,000 men had fallen. The huge losses had weakened both sides. The French army was near breaking point. The British led by field Marshal Douglas Haig launched their long planned offensive at the Somme. For British history, the Somme is one of the most important stories of the war. Then in 1917, the new French general, Nivelle, put foward a plan to break the deadlock. Even the Germans knews of his plans Nivelle refused to change it. The crisis was resolved by Pétain, pushing the leaders of the mutiny yet improving conditions for ordinary soldiers, he regained the confidence of the French troops. Meanwhile, the British and Canadians had some successes. The Canadians in particular enjoy a spectacular victory, capturing the fortified Vimy Ridge in April 1917.

From the start of the war both sides tried to prevent the other from getting essential supplies to its soldiers. The British had been blockading German ports since 1914. The blockade was supposed to strangle German industry so that it could not supply the German army. By 1917 civilians in Germany were experiencing severe shortages. The Germans tried something similar. They sank British ships supplying Britain. In 1917 they

introduced a policy unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships that they suspected were carrying goods to Britain. This cause shortages in Britain but it also had another unintended effect. It helped to bring the USA into the war. After that the USA was officially neutral but was supplying loans and equipment to the allies. The Germans attacked and destroyed many American ships which they suspected of carrying supplies to the allies. When the USA discovered that Germany hoped to ally Mexico against them it was the final straw and the USA declared war on Germany on 1 april 1917. The allies thought that the entry of the USA would turn the tide in their favour, but by late 1917 a revolution in Russia had brought in a communist government and it had made peace with Germany. The Germans could now transfer hundreds of troops back to the western Front. After war The treaty of Versailles was created by the representatives of Britain (Lloyd George), France (Clemenceau) and USA (Wilson). They had all different objectives, some wanted to punish Germany harshly and other only wanted to establish peace. They established all their aims in the Treaty of Versailles. The terms were:

1) War guilt: Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war. 2) Reparations: Germany had to pay reparations for the damage caused by the war. 3) German territories and colonies: Germany´s overseas empire was taken away. This colonies became Mandates controlled by the League of Nations. 4) Germany's armed forces: The army was limited to 100.000 soldiers, they had to be volunteers, they were not allowed to have submarines and aircrafts, they could only build 6 battleships and the Rhineland had to be a demilitarized zone. 5) League of Nations: Set up the League of Nations.

Extra detail: Today they still working in undergrounds bombs in danger of life, and the repairs were finished paying few years ago.