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Nouns, Verbs, and World War I
Directions: Underline nouns and circle verbs. Also, learn about World War I.
World War I was a war fought by a lot of countries, which is why it is called a "world" war. It
started in 1914 and it ended in 1918. 135 countries took part in World War I, and more than 15 million
deaths happened during this time.
World War I was fought through most of the continent of Europe. The actual fighting that
happened during the war was fought amongst many different fronts. The Western Front was where most
of the fighting between Germany and the Allies happened. The system of trenches marked the Western
Front as the Western Front. Most of the fighting that happened in this area was trench warfare. The
Eastern Front was fought in Central and Eastern Europe and was one of the main places where World
War I took place. The fighting done on the Eastern Front was not trench warfare like it was on the
Western Front, but instead depended on having front lines of soldiers ready to fight the enemy. The
other fronts that had a lot of fighting includes the Middle Eastern Front and the Italian Front.
The war was ended by the signing of many different treaties, the most important being the
Treaty of Versailles. World War I was the first war where tanks, Airplanes, and submarines were used
as common weapons.
Causes
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the throne in Austria-Hungary,
visited Sarajevo with his wife. Because of riots in the city, the archduke's procession decided to leave
the city quietly through back roads after making their public appearance.
A Serbian nationalist group called The Black Hand had sent five men to assassinate Ferdinand.
All five of the men failed to kill the archduke while he passed through the large crowd. The grenades
thrown at the car failed to kill him. After failing their mission, the five men decided to give up and go
home.
The archduke and his wife were leaving the city when the driver of their car took a wrong turn
onto a large street with many people. An assassin took four shots; two hit the archduke, one hit his wife,
and the other hit the car. Both Ferdinand and his wife died shortly after.
Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. This quickly led to a full-scale war.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Both countries’ allies became involved in the war, and most of
Europe became involved.
Germany v. France and Russia
The reason Germany told France and Russia that they were at war so quickly, was because they
thought they could win the war if they attacked first and quickly. They could mobilize very quickly.
They had a list of all the men who had to join the army, and where those men had to go, and the times of
every train that would carry those men to where they would have to fight. France was doing the same
thing, but could not do it as quickly.
The Russian army
Russia had a big army, but Germany thought that it would take ten weeks to mobilize and a long
time before they could attack the Central Powers. That was not true, because the Russian Army
mobilized in ten days. Also, the Russians drove deep into Austria.
Britain v. Germany
Although it was friends with France and Russia, Great Britain did not go into the war quickly,
but it decided to go to war against Germany when Germany attacked its important friend Belgium to get
through to France. Britain had the biggest empire (parts of the world it ruled) and was afraid that
Germany would take its and France's colonies and become the most powerful and biggest empire in the
world. Britain was also worried about Germany's growing military power because Britain had the most
ships (its navy) and a very big army for a long time. The Germans were quickly building ships and
putting men in its army and Germany was almost going to become as powerful as Britain.
Italy's Betrayal
In 1915, Italy could see that the Germans were losing. So, in order to receive some profit from
the German colonies, which would be divided at the end of the war, Italy left Germany and joined the
Allied side. But as it received nothing they were interested in another war.
Important events in the war
Most people thought it would be a short war. They thought the armies would move around
quickly to attack each other, and one would defeat the other without too many people getting killed.
They thought the war would be about brave soldiers - they did not know what the war would really be
like. Only a few people said that the war would take a long time.
Trench warfare
In the fighting, many men had been killed. The new guns the men had fired very quickly. Some
had machine guns, which fire so many bullets that the bullets fell like rain. So as not to get killed, the
men on both sides dug holes. The holes joined up into trenches, until the lines of trenches went all the
way from Switzerland to the North sea. In front of the trenches, there was barbed wire that cut anyone
who tried to climb over it, and mines that blew up anyone who tried to run across the "no man's land"
that was in between the trenches.
Christmas
On Christmas day in 1914, many soldiers did not want to fight. They sang Christmas songs to
each other. In many places on the Western front, they came out of the trenches and shook hands with
each other. Sometimes they played football with each other. In some places, the men didn't want to fight
again the next day. The generals were afraid and stopped this.
Machine gun warfare
The machine guns and the trenches and mines made it very difficult to attack. The generals didn't
remember this, and they still ordered attacks anyway. At the battle of the Somme in 1916 many British
men died in a single day. It was one of the bloodiest days in the history of the British army. Often many
men died fighting over very small pieces of land.
USA v. Germany
The German generals decided to use submarines. These submarines were named U-boats. The
U-boats attacked American ships that were carrying food and weapons to Great Britain. The Germans
thought that the Americans were helping only the British and not being neutral. "Neutral" means that a
country is not involved in the war. But then some Americans were killed by the submarines. Because of
this, the United States joined the war against Germany and became part of the Allies.
Consequences of America joining the war
In the spring of 1918, the German generals decided they had to attack before many American
soldiers came to Europe to attack them. The Germans attacked in a new way. They attacked where the
Allies were weak, and did not attack the places where the Allies were strong. They pushed the British
and French a long way in some places, but each time, the Germans were stopped. Then the Americans
began to come to Europe. The British, the French and the Americans together began to push back the
Germans. The Germans couldn't stop them. At last, the German generals told their government that the
war had to be stopped, because Germany couldn't fight any longer. Germany asked for peace from the
Allies, and the war ended on the 11th of November 1918.
After the War
After the war, the Germans had to agree to the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had to pay $33
billion in reparations (payback money). Part of the treaty said the countries of the world should come
together to make an organization to stop wars from happening. This organization was called the League
of Nations. The US Senate didn't agree with this, even though it was the idea of the US president,
Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson tried to tell the American people that they should agree, but the
U.S. never joined the League of Nations.