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World War
One
A Two Front War
• Germany’s Schlieffen
Plan failed, and
Germany quickly
found itself fighting a
two-front war:
against Britain and
France in the west
and against Russia in
the east
The Western Front
• Both sides dug
interlocking trenches
(deep expansive
ditches) for shelter
• Conditions were
unbearable – hot in
summer, cold in winter,
wet and muddy when it
rained - leading to the
rampant spread of
disease and trench foot
Trench Warfare
Trench Foot
No Man’s Land
• The area between the
Entente Powers’ trenches
and the German trenches
came to be called “no man’s
land” – everything there
had been destroyed and no
one could survive there for
long because there was no
shelter from enemy fire
• No man’s land was riddled
with corpses, land mines,
unexploded ordinance, and
barbed wire
Stalemate
• The war’s Western Front
quickly became a stalemate
• Germans attacked at Battle
of Verdun: over 500,000
combined casualties in 11
months, before the German
attack failed
• British attacked at Battle of
the Somme: over 1 million
casualties in 5 months,
including 60,000 British
soldiers killed or wounded
in just one day, before the
British attack failed.
The Eastern Front
• Russia invaded Germany in
August 1914, but were
pushed back; all remaining
fighting in the east during
the war took place in Russia
• Russia was not
industrialized and struggled
to keep its troops supplied,
but it had nearly limitless
numbers of poorly trained
peasants to send into
combat
The Ottomans
• The Ottomans closed the
entrance to the Black Sea (a
vital supply route for British
aid to Russia)
• In 1915 a mix of British and
colonial troops tried to
capture the entrance at the
Battle of Gallipoli, but were
forced to retreat after 10
months and 200,000 casualties
• The Ottomans, however, lost
much (including Iraq) when
Arabs under their rule took
advantage and rebelled (with
British aid).
Other Participants
• Italy left the Triple
Alliance and joined the
Entente Powers (Britain,
France, & Russia) in 1915
after promises of new
territory at war’s end
• Japan joined the Entente
Powers and seized
German outposts in China
and the Pacific after
promises of being given a
free hand in China
Colonial Fighting
• Fighting also took place
between the various
colonies in Africa, but
colonial recruiting efforts
received mixed results –
many refused to fight for
the powers which
oppressed them, while
others saw it as an
opportunity to achieve
citizenship or to “earn”
independence
The War Drags On
• By 1917, troops and
civilians on both sides
were demoralized
– Germany was drafting 15
year olds
– Britain was nearly
bankrupt
– French troops had begun
to mutiny and Italian
troops had started
deserting
Russia Exits the War
• Revolution in Russia
– March 1917: bread riots in St.
Petersburg grew into a full
scale revolution
– Thousands of Russian troops
left the front to return home to
take part in the revolution
– Early in 1918, new Russian
leader Vladimir Lenin signed
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
Germany, surrendering huge
amounts of territory, and
pulled Russia out of the war
– Russia’s withdrawal closed the
Eastern Front and allowed
Germany to mass all of its
troops on the Western Front
Submarine Warfare
• German U-boats conducted
unrestricted submarine
warfare, sinking any Entente
Powers ships without
warning
– U.S. insisted that Americans
had a right to safe sea travel,
even on British ships
– May 1915: Germans sank the
passenger ship Lusitania,
killing 1200 civilians, including
128 Americans – this led U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson to
openly denounce Germany
The Zimmermann Note
• Early 1917: British agents
intercepted a message from
German foreign minister
Arthur Zimmermann to the
Mexican government
– Germany offered to help
Mexico retake the American
Southwest if they would
begin a war that would keep
the U.S. from being able to
help the Entente Powers in
Europe
– Britain publicized the note;
many Americans reacted
angrily and called for
declaring war on Germany
The U.S. Enters the War
• April 1917: U.S.
President Woodrow
Wilson asked Congress
to declare war on
Germany
• The U.S. sent 2 million
troops, plus fresh
financial aid to Europe
in 1918
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• January 1918: Wilson
proposed “Fourteen Points”
or terms for ending the war:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
No more secret alliances
Freedom of the seas for all
nations
The removal of barriers to
international trade
Demilitarization by all
nations
An end to colonization
Allow Russia to stabilize
itself without interference
Germany must pull out of
Belgium
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
All captured French territory,
including that from the 1871 war,
must be returned
All captured Italian territory must
be returned
Austria must be freed of German
influence
All the Balkan states should
become free, independent
nations
The Ottoman Empire should be
reduced to just Turkey
An independent Poland should
be created between Germany
and Russia
A League of Nations should be
formed to resolve future disputes
between nations
The War Ends
• March 1918: Germany launched
an offensive which stalled out by
July and used up Germany’s last
remaining resources
• July 1918: Entente Powers
launched a counter-offensive; by
September, German military
leaders advised the Kaiser that
the war was lost
• November 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm
stepped down as leader of
Germany after rioting by German
civilians over food shortages
• 11 AM, November 11, 1918: All
fighting stopped after Germany
reached an agreement with the
Entente Powers to end the war
Costs of the War
• 8.5 million dead
• 17 million wounded
• Widespread famine due to loss
of farm production
• Influenza pandemic swept
around the world in 1918,
spread by returning soldiers,
killing another 20 million
• Much of Europe was in ruins
and all of the European
governments were deeply in
debt
• Government had collapsed in
Russia, Germany, Austria, and
the Ottoman Empire
The Peace Conference
• The terms of peace would be
determined by “The Big
Three” after Germany’s
unconditional surrender
– Woodrow Wilson (U.S.):
wanted a lasting peace based
on his Fourteen Points
– David Lloyd George (Britain):
wanted to punish Germany
and force them to make
financial reparations for costs
of war
– Georges Clemenceau
(France): wanted to leave
Germany so weak that they
could never again threaten
France
The Treaty of Versailles
•
•
June 1919: Allies presented
Germany with the terms:
– Germany was to accept all
public blame for the war
– Germany was to make
reparations ($30 billion in 1919
or about $350 billion in today’s
dollars)
– Limited size of German military
– Germany was to return
territory to France that was
taken in 1871
– Germany was stripped of its
colonies
Germany signed the treaty because
they had no choice, but they were
furious over the terms
Nationalism Wins Out
• Eastern Europe was broken
into many small states:
– Latvia, Lithuania, & Estonia
were broken off of Russia
– Poland was recreated from
Russian, German, & Austrian
territory
– Austrian Empire was broken
into independent nations of
Austria, Hungary, &
Czechoslovakia
– Balkan region was rearranged
into Yugoslavia, Romania, &
Bulgaria
Reorganized Colonies
• German colonies were
divided up and Ottoman
territories in the Middle
East were taken as new
colonies by Great Britain
and France
• Colonized peoples who
had sent troops to help
the Allies had hoped to
be given self-government
in return – they weren’t,
and felt betrayed as a
result
Some Still Unhappy
• Italy was angry because
they did not gain any of the
territory that the Entente
Powers had secretly
promised to give them
• Japan angered over Entente
Powers refusal to allow
them free reign in China
• Russia was angry over their
exclusion from the treaty
process and their loss of
territory
The League of Nations
• Wilson’s League of
Nations, with more than
40 member nations, was
created to settle
international disputes
• U.S. did NOT join (also
never ratified the Treaty
of Versailles), because
U.S. became isolationist
(wanted to stay out of
foreign problems) after
the war.