Download W.W. I - TeacherWeb

World War I
1914-1918
-------------
Part I
W.W. I lasted 4 years & Destroyed most of Europe
The war took more than 10 Million lives in combat, disease, and famine.
The causes of W.W.I :
Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism
…………was spreading across Europe.
The pan-German movement wanted to unite all German speaking
people. The movement was led by Germany and included
Austria.
The pan-Slavic movement, led by the Russians wanted to unite all
Slavic people.
These beliefs were bound to have the groups fighting over territory.
…………. Exerting control over another country.
Nations would take over, or annex a territory. This was a way of
increasing the amount of land that the nation had. So, German speaking
countries took control of the land/countries that German-speaking people
lived in.
All European countries were rivals in imperialism.
To protect the empires that the European powers had, they
would engage in enormous military buildups.
-Each nation produced a huge standing army.
-They expanded their navy to compete with Britain’s.
-All nations stockpiled new weapons and ammunition.
“The largest”
The ideas of Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism caused the European nations to form
alliances in order to maintain a balance of power.
Triple Alliance
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Italy
Triple Entente
France
Britain
Great Britain
“In the alliances, the countries agreed to aid their allies in a crisis.”
Secret Alliances played a huge part in the war.
Once war was declared, nations quickly started covering their buddies backs.
Bosnia, a small country, was a contested land. The majority of the people
were Slavs, but it had been annexed by German-speaking Austria.
Bosnia’s annexation was a form of imperialism by Austria for raw materials
and markets.
The Austrian Archduke : Franz Ferdinand: He was assassinated while riding in his car in
Bosnia by a Slavic Nationalist.
Many Slavs thought that Bosnia should belong to Serbia, a neighboring Slavic
country since the people in Bosnia were Slavs.
Austria blamed the government of Serbia for the Archdukes death.
So
With the baking of Germany, Austria declared war on Serbia.
Then
Russia was a powerful ally of Serbia, since both were Slavic nations, so Russia mobilized its
armies to protect its fellow Slavs.
To Germany, the Russian mobilization meant only one thing – War.
Germany declared war on Russia and then two days later on Russia’s ally, France.
Germany attacked France – 1st
Germany wanted to knock out France quickly, so as to be able to focus their
troops on the massive Russian army in the east.
-On the way to France, German troops invaded Belgium “a neutral country”
By doing this :
-This brought Great Britain into the War since Belgium and G.B. had an alliance
together.
In the War Central Powers
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Allies
VS.
France
Russia
Great Britain
-20 other little countries
Everyone thought the war would be brief.
The Germans swiftly pushed into Francebut the allied troops were able to push the Germans back into Belgium.
- Winter came and the armies had to dig in for the winter.
In Belgium both the Allied soldiers and the Germans dug trenches.
*The trenches were used to live and fight.
-Sometimes the trenches were so close that you could hear the enemy.
A new type of warfare emerged -
With the move to the trenches, the fighting became a stalemate and lasted 4 years.
All you could see was mud due to the Rain…
You
Sat in mud,
Slept on mud,
Fought in mud.
No shelter except for your clothes.
All of the action came at night.
Nothing really happened in the daytime.
Under cover of darkness, troops and supplies were moved into the trenches.
When the fighting broke out, it usually started with : heavy artillery fire.
Then the troops would run out of their trench and try to get to the enemies trench with :
“ffixed bayonets”.
But, very few reached the enemy trench, for so many were cut down by
Machine Gun fire.
New weapons were needed in this new type of war - Trench Warfare.
y
The Machine Gun had greater firepower than 50 men.
The Artillery “long range cannons” rained destruction on the enemy.
Poison Gas was used by the Germans. It burnt the throat, eyes, caused dizziness,
pains in your chest, and coughed up blood.
Tanks were used by G.B. This cleared the way for the soldier to advance to the
enemy.
Airplanes first used only for observation, later had machine guns and were used in
dogfights with enemy planes.
U-Boats used by Germany to stop the British blockade of the Central Powers. They
attacked and sunk ships that were going to G.B. Ships were sunk without
warning.
_______________________________________________________________________
American neutrality
America did not want to get into the war.
The U.S. sold arms, ammunition, and food to both sides.
But because G.B. had a blockade on Germany:
We sold more to the allies than the Central Powers.
When Germany started attacking and sinking neutral ships, Pres. Woodrow
Wilson warned that they would be held accountable if any American life was
Lost.