The Causes of the First World War

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The Causes of the First World War
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A slow march to war

• The First World War is sometimes referred to
  as The Great War or The War to End All
  Wars. It began in the summer of 1914 and ended
  in the fall of 1918.
• Tensions had built up, over many years,
  between the powerful nations of Europe. There
  were four long-term causes for all the tension
• Militarism
• Alliances
• Imperialism
• Nationalism

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The M.A.I.N. Causes
Alliances
Militarism
Imperialism
Nationalism
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Imperialism

• The practice of establishing and controlling
  colonies
• Competition is fierce and Britain and France are
  in the lead

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Nationalism

• The patriotic feelings for ones country or
  ethnic group
• Many colonies are seeking independence
• Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire are made
  up of many different ethnic groups

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Militarism

• The glorification of the military.- A
  willingness to use the military.

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Artillery/Scale of War

• Artillery pieces had become much more powerful.
  Battlefields got bigger as the range of artillery
  pieces got bigger. Larger battlefields, made it
  impossible for commanders to alter plans once
  they had been set in motion.

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War was highly attractive to the generation of
Europeans before 1914.

• Europeans had not fought a major war since 1815,
  so they had forgotten how horrible wars could be.
• The small wars they had fought were short and did
  not have heavy casualties.
• Winning a war was seen as a quick and easy way to
  accomplish something for the nation.

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Big Ass Cannon
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Mobilization Plans

• The side who got the most men in the field, the
  earliest, gave their side the advantage.
• Each nation opted for drafting masses of men, and
  for rapid mobilization plans to utilize them.

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Barbed Wire

• Barbed wire made it difficult for attackers to
  get to the men they wished to attack. This gave
  the machine gun and artillery crews more time to
  shoot the soldiers attacking them.

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Alliances
A network of agreements that commit countries to
support each other, specifically in times of war.
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Setting the Stage

• Several factors made a European war likely.
• Constant military build up/success of
  mobilization.
• Rivalry due to colonization
• Nationalism and the strive for prestige
• Above all, Europeans made alliances which ended
  the possibility of traditional two country
  warfare.
• Alliances grew out of a fear of France.

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The Schlieffen Plan

• Germany, like the rest of Europe, felt a war was
  coming, and made a battle plan early.
• Germany had a big problem, if war broke out, they
  would most likely be attacked from 2 directions.
• Their plan was that as soon as fighting began,
  they must immediately invade and conquer France
  by surprise, then focus on the other side of
  Europe.
• Thought it would take Russia, and other larger
  countries longer to mobilize, buying them time to
  take over France.
• Would most likely attack through Belgium, less
  defended.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vlJXAcl8D51Y

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• Archduke Franz
  Ferdinand, heir to the
  throne of the Austro-
  
  Hungarian Empire
  married a woman,
  Countess Sophie Cotek,
  who was
  unacceptable
  to Emperor Franz Joseph and the
  rest of the Austrian nobility. As a result,
  Franz Ferdinand liked to get his wife out of the
  capital, Vienna, whenever possible so that she
  could receive the royal treatment he felt she
  deserved.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife pay an
unfortunate visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia. Add
Sarajevo and Serbia to map.
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The Serbian terrorists group, The Black Hand,
wanted to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand and his
wife. One of the members of The Black Hand threw
a bomb into the car Ferdinand was riding in. The
bomb was thrown out of the car before it could
explode.
The numbers indicate the location where assassins
were stationed along the parade route.
The place where the bomb exploded
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Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie arrive safely
at Sarajevos city hall.
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife got back
into their car to drive to the hospital to
check on the people hurt when the assassins bomb
exploded. The driver of their car took a wrong
turn. As the driver stopped the car to turn
around, one of the members of The Black Hand
rushed up to the car and shot Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife.
The place where the assassin shot Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife.
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A Tragic Wrong Turn
The assassin was caught just seconds after he
shot the Archduke and his wife.
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vK_tNXFbx0VYfeature
related
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVC_26YXMZd4
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The Situation Continued

• Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian
  throne, is assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914. In
  retaliation, the Austro-Hungarian Empire invades
  Serbia.
• Looks to Russia For help
• Austria is upset and must get backing from what
  country?
• Germany b/c knows Serbia is backed by Russia
• Germany gives blank check to Austria
• Austria offers Serbia an ultimatum and Serbia
  accepts
• Austria rejects ultimatum and invades Serbia
• http//wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Austro-Hungar
  ian_Ultimatum_to_Serbia_28English_translation29

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The Situation Continued

• Russian troops align along Austria/German border
• Germany declares war on Russia b/c fearful Russia
  will declare war on them
• Who is Russia allied with?
• France
• Von Schlieffen Plan says attack on Western front,
  then Eastern front.
• French troops aligned along border, so how
  invade?
• Through Belgium and down to Paris
• Belgium neutral, so Great Britain and Italy
  declare war
• German troops blockade Britain, sink Lusitania
  (and other causes), get America involved in WWI

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Reading

• Franz Ferdinands
• Car of Death

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• Path to War
• Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
• Russia mobilizes to help Serbia
• Germany declares war on Russia and then its ally
  France-invades through Belgium.

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• Britain declares war on Germany for violating the
  neutrality of Belgium
• Britain calls for soldiers from former and
  current colonies, including Canada, Australia,
  New Zealand, India
• Italy backs out of Triple Alliance due to German
  attack, saying it was only for defensive purposes
• First is neutral and then joins the Allies
• Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria join Germany and
  Austria-Hungary to form the Central Powers

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The Dominoes Fall
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• II. A European conflict becomes a true world war
• European powers fight for control of African
  colonies as battles spread to Africa
• Allies fight Ottoman Empire to gain access to the
  Black Sea and assist Arab nationalists fighting
  the Ottoman Empire for control of territory in
  the Middle East
• Japan declares war on Germany and seizes Asian
  colonies

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• Western Front
• French troops able to force retreat of invading
  German forces at the Marne in September 1914
• Germany realizes it must fight a two-front war
• Trench Warfare
• Each side developed a series of mazelike trenches
• Attacks took place in No Mans Land, the area
  between the trenches
• Conditions were bad mud, trench foot, rats,
  disease
• Little land is exchanged with high rates of
  casualties

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Reading

• Trench Warfare
• Going Over the Top
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRRv56gsqkzsfeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1

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Trench systems
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Trench Warfare Weapons
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Troops in Action
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Places for soldiers to hide. Bunkers, dug deep
underground, provided protection during artillery
bombardments.
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Trench Rats

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• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRRv56gsqkzsfeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1

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Miserable living conditions rats, lice,
mud.Dead people became the floor. Trenchfoot.
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Activity

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vgo0LprJwxaw
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0KzqzIR8x4Ufeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vzJZttzblHFQfeature
  related Weapons DETAILS
• Poison Gas DETAILS

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• IV. New Technology Changes Warfare
• Technology at the outset of war
• Europeans still planned on a fairly quick war
• Mounted cavalry was making its final appearance

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• New weapons change warfare
• Machine Guns placed in positions to guard
  trenches
• Crossing No Mans Land nearly impossible
• Helps cause stalemate on Western front

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• Poison Gas most feared weapon of war
• Introduced by Germans at Bolimow in East and
  Ypres, Belgium on Western Front
• Most casualties were not fatal, but crippling
• Mustard Gas damage to skin and lungs
• Chlorine/Phosgene damages lungs by internal
  blistering, causing lung flooding and suffocation
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVY-3BNnbV_ofeature
  related

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Weapon Poison gas
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Use Terrorize enemy troops.Inflicts crippling
and fatal injuries.
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Increased the barbarism of the war.Caused
blindness, choking, vomiting, blisters.
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• Airplanes move from spying to outright warfare
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vmF4wIQt6vhwfeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1
  Initially used for photographing enemy positions
• Adapted to drop bombs, then mounted with guns
• Submarines brought naval warfare to new level
• Introduced by the Germans and called U-Boats
• Destroyed ships carrying supplies with torpedoes
• German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare
  helps cause US entry into World War I

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The German U - boats in Kiel in May 1914.
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This is a view of the control room of a German
U-boat used in World War 1.
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World War I

• III. U.S. Involvement in the War
• President Wilson claims neutrality at the
  beginning of the war
• Wilson wins reelection in 1916, campaigning that
  He kept us out of the war
• Wilson wants to avoid US entanglement in Europe
  and issues caused by revolution in Mexico and
  crisis with Pancho Villa
• US attempts to continue trade as a neutral party

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• Citizens begin taking sides
• Many in US favored Allies, due to connection to
  Britain by culture and France as a past ally
• Many in Midwest strongly favor Germany due to
  heritage
• Recent immigrants often torn, as many came from
  Eastern and Southern Europe
• Propaganda from Europe that reached US often
  pro-British or anti-German

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• Economic factors for the War
• US traded much more with Allies
• American banks loaned nearly 2 billion to Allies
  that would only be paid back if Allies are
  victorious
• German submarine warfare harmed US trade
• Political and military causes
• Submarine Warfare unannounced sinking of trade
  vessels against law and caused loss of American
  life
• Lusitania British passenger ship destroyed in
  1915, killing 128 Americans
• Wilson gets Germany to temporarily end strategy
  after second incident (Sussex)

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New York Times Headline
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New York Tribune Headline
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Reading

• Calls the Situation Critical
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vuRygTO3pyUYfeature
  relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1
• Baltimore, Md. on the sinking of the Lusitania

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• Zimmerman Telegram from Germany advising Mexico
  to attack the US if it declares war on Germany
  (Jan. 1917)
• US/Mexican relations strained due to attack on
  New Mexico by Pancho Villa
• Germany offers to help Mexico recapture territory
  lost in Mexican-American War
• Germany wants to keep US occupied to provide time
  to defeat Britain and France
• Telegram is intercepted by British and given to
  US
• Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare in
  Feb. 1917, sinking six US ships

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Zimmerman TelegramReading The Zimmerman Note
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America Joins the Ranks
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World War I

• IV. United States in World War I
• Declaration of War
• Wilson asks Congress to declare war on April 2,
  1917
• Congress votes to declare war on Germany (82-6
  Senate and 373-50 House)

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Readings

• Declaration of War
• If We Dont Lick the Huns Now

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World War I

• US mobilization for war
• To protect troops, US uses convoy system of
  merchant, troop transport, and warships to get
  troops across Atlantic
• US soldiers doughboys arrive in France in late
  1917 and boost both Allied morale and numbers
• Nearly 2 million US soldiers will fight in World
  War I

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• US military action in World War I
• US enters the war near beginning of German
  offensive
• Russia withdraws from war after Bolshevik
  revolution, essentially ending the war on the
  Eastern Front
• 3.3 million killed, 4.9 million military wounded
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vHd51pue58U0safety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1
• Germany concentrates nearly all troops in the
  West
• Germany advances to almost 40 miles of Paris but
  turned back at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood
• US involved in massive counterattack in the
  Argonne Forest, eventually driving a hole in the
  German lines

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• V. The American Home Front
• Mobilization for war
• Conscription (draft) Selective Service created
  using a lottery and draft boards to select
  soldiers
• Control of supplies
• Rationing used to reduce civilian consumption
• Herbert Hoover leads increased food production
  and decreased consumption
• Energy concerns caused introduction of daylight
  savings time and factory restrictions

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16th Amendment

• The Congress shall have power to lay and collect
  taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived,
  without apportionment among the several States
  and without regard to any census or enumeration.
• The origins of the 16th Amendment (1913) date
  back to 1895, when the Supreme Court declared a
  federal income tax unconstitutional. To overturn
  this decision, this amendment authorizes an
  income tax that is levied on a direct basis.

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• Paying for the war (32 billion or 44 million a
  day)
• US raised income taxes, allowed by 16th Amendment
• War bonds sold to Americans paid for 20 billion
• Changing populations
• African Americans and Hispanics
• Great Migration African Americans moved to the
  North to take jobs that were vacated by white
  workers going to war
• Political turmoil in Mexico and job opportunities
  spike large immigration by Hispanics
• African Americans and Hispanics joined the
  military in segregated units

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• Women
• Over 1 million join workforce, although most
  leave after the war
• Women enlisted or hired by military for mainly
  clerical and support positions
• Army Nursing Corps only women sent overseas
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXonhwLrAUVssafety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1

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Women in the Work Force

• Turn to women to work in factories and build
  products for war

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• Social and political issues
• Restricting anti-war actions and speech
• Climate of suspicion surrounded country,
  especially immigrants or those of German descent
• Espionage Act of 1917 penalized those spying or
  interfering with the war effort
• Schenck v. United States Charles Schenck
  unsuccessfully argued that free speech protected
  distribution of anti-draft materials
• Free speech can not constitute a clear and
  present danger and wartime allowed more
  restrictive circumstances
• Sedition Act of 1918 made it illegal to publicly
  express opposition to the war

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Readings

• The U.S. Sedition Act
• Make America Safe for Democracy First
• Robert La Follette Demands His Rights (1917)

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• Economic and worker issues
• Increased production for World War I causes
  inflation
• Conflicts increase between unions and owners
• Large strikes occur throughout US, including the
  general strike (all workers) in Seattle
• Increased labor concerns raise fear of the spread
  of socialism and help lead to the Red Scare in
  1920s

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Ending of WWI

• Germany and its allies are exhausted
• All fighting has taken place Outside of Germany
  to this point.
• Seeing very little damage done at home, Germany
  calls for an end to the war
• Returning German Soldiers treated as heroes
• Cease-Fire agreed on November 8th 1918
• Goes into effect 3 days later at 11am.
• France and Britain deal with Germany harshly, and
  threaten to restart war if Germany does no accept
  Treaty of Versailles
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOuw3OdcL5GIsafety_
  modetruepersist_safety_mode1

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The Ending of World War I and its Consequences

• I. Ending of World War I
• Popular misconception is that World War I ended
  with just the Treaty of Versailles
• Ended with a series of treaties between the
  Allies and separate members of the Central Powers
  
• War on Eastern Front ended earlier with Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk, where Russia gave vast territory
  to Central Powers

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• II. Treaty of Versailles (November 11, 1918)
• Ended war between Allies and Germany only
• Germany and Russia given no say in treaty
• Each of the major Allied Powers came in with
  different goals
• France punish Germany for the war
• Britain decrease German power and punish, but
  leave it enough to counterbalance France
• Italy Obtain territory promised at outset of war
• United States Achieve a lasting peace in Europe
  as planned through Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen
  Points

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Discussion

• President Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen Points

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• Fourteen Points
• A League of Nations would help resolve
  international disputes to avoid future wars
• Self-determination to allow ethnic groups
  formerly part of larger empires to determine
  status as new nations
• Restoration of territories seized by European
  powers previous to the war
• Wilson is forced to concede many goals about a
  less harsh settlement in order to obtain the
  League of Nations

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Peace, Diplomacy Reparation
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• Results of the Treaty of Versailles
• Germany must accept total blame for war and pay
  32 billion in war reparations
• Germans lose territory to creation of new
  European nations and enemies
• Germany must demilitarize
• Germany loses African and Chinese colonies
• Germany is both crippled economically and
  politically angry, helping lead to World War II
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyj_eiyBsSScfeature
  related

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• US fails to ratify Treaty of Versailles
• Many in US fearful of League of Nations as an
  entangling international alliance
• US Senate fails to approve Treaty of Versailles
• US does not join League of Nations, lessening the
  overall strength of the organization

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Wilsons Last Days
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• Recognition of Armenia as independent
• Armenians were subjected to genocidal actions
  during the war
• Armenians were a Christian minority viewed as
  siding with Russia in the war
• Forced marches to camps with high death rates,
  rape, robbery, murder were all used against the
  Armenians
• Nearly one million Armenians were killed
• Lack of prosecution viewed as partially
  influential on later Holocaust
• Today though viewed by many as a genocide,
  including 20 nations and 39 US states (including
  MO, but not US as a whole)

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Armenian Genocide Did it really happen? Was it
the worlds first genocide?
A telegram sent by Ambassador Henry Morgenthau
Sr. to the State Department on July 16, 1915
describes the massacres as a "campaign of race
extermination."
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Armenian Genocide Did it really happen? Was it
the worlds first genocide?
The bodies of dead Armenians lie in a grove of
trees in eastern Ottoman Empire, 1915.
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Armenian Genocide Did it really happen? Was it
the worlds first genocide?
Starving Armenian children
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Armenian Genocide Did it really happen? Was it
the worlds first genocide?
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vYomWds4VVzYfeature
relatedsafety_modetruepersist_safety_mode1
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vHbjCyOjmTS8
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Aftermath of the War

• Germany is left devastated by the treaty.
• German citizens angry at Allies
• German money left worthless due to inflation
• Inflation causes massive depression.
• Wilson breaks ties with England and France
  getting his League of Nations passed.
• US takes a policy of isolation
• Japans Power in the Pacific is unchecked by
  Russia because of the Bolshevik Revolution
• Desperate German citizens begin to look
  everywhere for help.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vmTuIzGe2Nz8

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