World War I, The Great War

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World War I, The Great War

• 1914-1918

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Causes of the War

• Nationalism- pride in and loyalty to ones ethnic
  group
• Imperialism- race for colonies around the globe
• Militarism - arms race in Europe
• Alliance System

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Alliances

• 1882 Bismarck joins Germany with Austria-Hungary
  (A-H)
• Treaty with Russia
• 1890 Kaiser Wilhelm II gets rid of Bismarck and
  cancels treaty with Russia
• Russia joins with France
• Triple Entente Russia, France, Great Britain
• Triple Alliance Germany, A-H, Italy

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War Breaks Out

• July 1914 Assassination of the A-H Archduke
  Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophia in Sarajevo
• Germany gave blank check of military support to
  Austria-Hungary
• Austria-Hungarys severe ultimatum to Serbia,
  which Serbia refuses in full
• A-H declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914
• Russia mobilizes to defend its ally Serbia
• Germany declares war on Russia, then France
• Germany invades Belgium and Great Britain and
  Italy enter the war on the Allied Powers side

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Life at War

• Trench warfare
• Poison gas
• Automatic weapons

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Trench Warfare on the Western Front
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Poison Gas
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War on the Western Front

• Failure of the Schlieffen plan
• Stalemate in France
• 1916- about 2 million die

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War on the Eastern Front

• Fighting in Western Russia and the Balkans
• Russia and Italy plunge into social turmoil

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Homefronts in Europe

• Total war
• Food shortages, rationing
• Propaganda
• Women in the labor force
• Rise of labor leaders

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Propaganda Posters
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War Outside Europe

• Manpower and supplies from colonies
• British white dominions send troops to Africa and
  Middle East
• Japan joined allied cause and attacked German
  colonies in Asia

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US in World War I

• Officially US was a neutral country
• US public isolationist and against US involvement
  in foreign wars
• US claimed right to trade with either side
• However, Britain and Germany set up blockades
  around the British and German coasts.

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German submarines, called U-boats, torpedoed
enemy ships and neutral ships trading with the
enemy.
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Sinking of the Lusitania
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Zimmerman Telegram- 1917

• secret message from Germany to Mexico urging
  Mexico to attack the U.S. if the U.S. declared
  war on Germany
• Germany promised to help Mexico regain land it
  lost to the U.S. in the Mexican War
• The U.S. declared war on the Central Powers in
  1917.

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1917 Turning Point of War

• Russia suffered extreme casualties during the war
  but tsar refused to pull out
• By 1917 there was civil unrest and revolution in
  Russia
• Lenin comes to power in Russia and fulfills
  promise to pull Russia out of the war

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Russia Withdrawals in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Russia backs out of the war in the Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk between Germany and Russia (March
  1918)
• Treaty gives Germany a lot of Russian territory

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1918

• With Russia out of the conflict Germany can focus
  on France again (Western Front)
• This led to increased German troops in Western
  Front
• By late May of 1918 German troops were weakened
  from push to claim Paris
• Allies sensed weakness, US helped with arrival of
  2 million troops
• Final assault on France at second battle of Marne
  in July 1918 failed because of weak German army
  and strong U.S. forces
• Central Powers began to crumble- German soldiers
  turned on Kaiser Wilhelm II
• November 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II resigned
• November 11, 1918 World War I finished with the
  signing of an armistice (agreement to stop
  fighting)

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Treaty of Versailles

• Participants The Big Four
• Woodrow Wilson (U.S.)
• Georges Clemenceau (France)
• David Lloyd George (Great Britain)
• Vittorio Orlando (Italy)
• Wilsons 14 points of peace - Plan for achieving
  lasting peace
• Self-determination- allowing people to decide
  their own type of government for themselves
• 14th point- establishment of the League of
  Nations (an international organization designed
  to keep peace)
• Russia not allowed to participate
• A-H and the Ottoman Empire collapsed as political
  entities

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How did the Treaty Punish Germany?

• Territorial losses
• Military Restrictions
• War guilt (took the blame)
• Pay reparations to the Allies

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The Treaty Changes the Borders in Europe

• Central powers lost territory as nations got
  independence (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
  Yugoslavia)
• Ottomans lost Balkan territory and is reduced to
  Turkey
• British control Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan
  France controls Syria and Lebanon
• Russia also lost territory to Romania, Poland,
  Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

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New Map of Europe
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Sykes-Picot Agreement- 1916Plans for dividing
the Ottoman Empire
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The Mandate System
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Legacy of the War

• Huge loss of human life (up to 10 million people
  dead and 20 wounded) and lost generation
• Rise of revolutions
• Resentment by countries who didnt get any reward
  for participation
• Rise of totalitarianism
• New independent nations