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Chapter 21
World War I
Chapter 21
Section 1
World War I Breaks Out
Pages 626-632
Objectives
• 1. Identify the major causes of unrest in
Europe.
• 2. Discuss the results of the strategy that was
used during the early fighting in the war.
• 3. Explain why the war settled into a
stalemate.
The Causes of the War
• Nationalism: is loyalty to a nation, even one
not in existence.
• Balkan Region: nationalism strong in central
European. Region is unstable and known as
the powder keg of Europe.
• 1400s to 1800s: Ottoman Empire [Turkey]had
control over the area. The ethnic groups of the
area were struggling for independence.
[Greeks, Romanians, Albanians, and Slavs]
• 1820s-Greece revolted and were successful in
gaining independence from the Ottoman
Empire.
• 1859-Romania followed in gaining
independence.
• 1878-War occurred between the Russians and
the Ottoman Empire. Which allowed the
emergence of independent nations of Serbia,
Bulgaria, and Montenegro.
• 1908-Austria-Hungary occupied the Balkan
region of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Serbia thought Bosnia was part of their
territory. Serbia was going in strength and
Austria-Hungary felt threatened.
• Chief of Staff of Austro-Hungarian government
Baron Conrad von Hotzendorf predicted major
conflict in the future.
Militarism and alliances
• Larger European countries were in a race for
strength and control of territories. Many felt that
conflicts would be settled on the battlefield.
Many countries raised major armies and better
weapons.
• Militarism: the glorification of military strength.
• Alliances were negotiated to avoid conflict:
• Germany, Austria, and Italy formed an alliance.
Russia, France, and Great Britain formed their
alliance.
The Great War Begins
• June 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, arrived in Sarajevo
[Bosnia] to appear in a parade with his wife
Sophie. During the parade Serbian nationalist
Princip fired two shots at the Archduke and his
wife, killing both.
• Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
Germany offered support. Russia with a large Slav
population felt compelled to honor the alliance
they had formed with Serbia.
• This alliance system led to a global war.
• Allied Powers: Britain, France, and Russia
• Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary,
the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
• Italy remained neutral until 1915 when they
joined the Allies. Thirty nations ended up
participating in the Great War.
• Germany’s strategy was to strike France and keeping British
forces on the other side of the English Channel. Then
Germany focused its attention on Russia to the east.
• The Schlieffen Plan: German military officials formulated
the Schlieffen Plan between 1891 and 1906 in response to
an earlier alliance between France and Russia. The plan
relied on the presumed weakness of the Belgian army and
the presumed cooperation of Leopold, the Belgian king.
Leopold died in 1909, however, after the plan had been
formulated but well before the war had begun.
• [German forces were to avoid the heavily defended FrenchGerman border by invading France through neutral
Belgium]
• First Battle of the Marne: September, 1914- The
German invasion forced the Allies back to the
Marne River in northeastern France. The Allies
pushed the German lines back some 40 miles. By
the end of 1914 military leaders knew the War
was going to last longer. [During this battle,
French officers experienced a shortage of
automobiles and train cars. They ordered Paris
taxi drivers to transport soldiers to the front. The
taxis, along with various other kinds of vehicles,
carried thousands of soldiers to the battle. ]
The War Reaches a Stalemate
• The Germans were confident that the war would
be over before the autumn leaves had fallen.
Instead, both were entangled in a brutal and
bloodied stalemate.
• Trench Warfare: 1915-armies occupied trenches
that ran for hundreds of miles from North Sea to
the border of Switzerland. Separating both sides
was an area known as no man’s-land filled with
barbed wire and land mines.
• Summer of 1916 the German’s launched a
battle plan that would weaken the French.
The chose the French city of Verdun.
Confident that the French would defend the
city. It was a long and exhausting battle which
went back and forth.
• Battle of Somme: July of 1916 the Allies
launched their own offensive against the
Germans to wear them down.
• The battles were long in length and over
millions died. Many who stayed in the
trenches contracted diseases and unsanitary
conditions.
New Weapons
• Machine Guns that could fire hundreds of rounds in
minutes.
• Allies introduced tanks at the Battle of Somme.
• Poison Gas was deadly and masks were a must or the
soldier would die by suffocation.
• Submarines sunk commercial and military ships
without warning.
• Airplanes were more about celebrity:
• German Baron Manfred von Richthofen [Red Baron]
• American Edward Rickenbacker