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American Anthem - The First World War - Chapter 8
A World in Crisis - A wrong turn into history
CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was the impetus, but there were a
number of elements that were the underlying cause of the War.
1. Nationalism- extreme pride or devotion that people feel for their country or culture.
As the Ottoman empire lost power in the Balkan region of Europe, the Austro-Hungarian Empire
seized the opportunity to expand it’s power.
The Slavic people of the region resented the rule of outsiders.
Russia defended the Slavic people against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
2. Imperialism- the practice of extending a nation’s power by gaining territories for a colonial
empire
Austro-Hungary was trying to expand.
Great Britain, and France already had colonies in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
Colonies provided markets and natural resources.
The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II knew he would need a strong military to gain
territories.
3. Militarism- the policy of military preparedness and building up weapons.
Germany built a navy to take on Great Britain’s Royal Navy.
Germany also enlarged it’s army and acquired the latest weapons. (Machine guns)
Germany drew up war strategies, including a two front war against France and Russia at the
same time.
The Schlieffen Plan called for a surprise attack against France through Belgium, with a
subsequent attack on Russia.
Great Britain, France and Russia built their military in response to Germany buildup.
4. Alliances- Partnerships
Alliances were created to maintain peace, but led to War.
Germany formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy - the Triple Alliance.
Russia and France formed a secret alliance, Great Britain allied with France.
Russia, France and Great Britain formed the Triple Entente.
Entente is French for “understanding”
The Alliances were meant to balance power and prevent war.
Instead, when the Archduke was assassinated, the countries responded with their alliances,
and all out war broke out.
WAR BREAKS OUT
Serbia was blamed for supplying the Archduke’s assassin with weapons.
Austria-Hungary declared war. Russia promised to protect Serbian Slavs.
Germany viewed Russia’s mobilization as an act of aggression and declared war on Russia.
Germany declared war on France, Russia’s ally.
All out war!
The Germans take Belgium
Following the Schlieffen Plan, Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, 1914.
The First World War
Belgium was neutral, but Great Britain had promised to defend Belgium and declared war on
Germany.
The attack on Belgium was brutal The Belgium army fought bravely, but the Germans burned
entire villages to the ground. They executed civilians.
Most of the major European powers were engaged in the war, either on the side of the Central
Powers- Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.
The Allied Powers included Great Britain, France, and Russia.
The war, known as the Great War, engaged another 30 nations before it was over.
A new kind of warfare
Word of the invasion spread. France sent troops to meet advancing Germans.
French soldiers wore bright red uniforms and brass helmets, and utilized antiquated war
strategies.
French marched row by row with bayonets fixed on to the battlefield.
The Germans grey uniforms worked as camouflage, and the troops met the French bayonets
with machine gun fire.
Massive German firepower killed 15,000 French per day in early battles.
European leaders thought that modern technology would ensure a short war.
The First Battle of the Marne
The German army advanced through France, and was only 25 miles from Paris after one month
of fighting.
The French launched a daring counter attack along the Marne River on Sept. 7, 1914.
Two million men fought along a battlefront that stretched 125 miles.
250,000 lives were lost in five days of fighting, but the French succeeded in pushing the
Germans back 40 miles.
The French sacrifice gave the Russians time to mobilize, and now Germany had to pull troops
to fight Russia along the Eastern Front, from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea.
THE WAR REACHES A STALEMATE
The First Battle of the Marne was a standoff.
French and Germans dug trenches for protection and defense.
By late fall of 1914, two massive systems of trenches stretched for 400 miles across western
Europe, extending from Switzerland to the North Sea.
Fighting in the Trenches
Trench Warfare- fighting from the trenches had been used before, but nothing like this.
Solders lived in the trenches surrounded by machine gun fire, grenades, and exploding artillery
shells. Any attempt to go over the top met machine gun fire.
No man’s land was littered with bodies.
No one could advance, and created a stalemate.
Both sides began to look for new strategies, weapons and technology.
New Weapons
Scientists were experimenting with new weapons.
Germans experimented with poison gas. It was risky. April 1915, Germany fired chorine gas
canisters into Allied trenches.
American Anthem - The First World War - Chapter 8
The gas destroyed lungs. Many thought it barbaric.
Soldiers began to carry gas masks.
British developed a motorized armored tank to maneuver through no man’s land. The tanks
were fearsome, but got stuck in the mud and were not imperious to artillery fire.
Airplanes were used to map positions and attack from above.
These weapons had little impact on trench warfare.
For more info- go to:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/origins/index.htm
Section 2 The United States In World War I
United States had managed to stay neutral for the first three years of the Great War.
On May 7, 1915, German U-Boats sank the British luxury ship, the Lusitania.
About 1,200 people died. Americans were outraged that the death toll included 128 Americans
.
UNITED STATES STAYS NEUTRAL
Woodrow Wilson had continued the American tradition of isolationism- a policy of not being
involved in the affairs of other nations.
Leaning Towards the Allies
Wilson favored the Allied cause. German war tactics were a concern.
United States had political, cultural, and commercial ties to Great Britain and France.
United States was supplying goods to the Allies
German Submarine Warfare
Great Britain successfully blockaded German ports, so Germany developed a plan to wage its
naval war with U-boats.
U-boats were small submarines named after the German word unterseeboot,.
Germany announced it would destroy all enemy boats, including neutral ships. (Feb, 1915,
before the sinking of the Lusitania.) This was called unrestricted submarine warfare.
It angered President Wilson, and he issued a warning to Germany and demanded an end to
unrestricted submarine warfare.
HEADING TOWARD WAR
In March of 1916, Germany attacked the French passenger ship, Sussex, killing 80 people.
U.S. threatened to end diplomatic relations, Germany promised not sink merchant vessels
without warning and without saving human lives. This promise was called the Sussex pledge.
Wilson’s Re-election
Wilson promised he would not send American boys to die in Europe and was reelected in 1916
on that campaign promise.
Wilson worked for a peace settlement, and urged the Allied and Central Powers to accept
“peace without victory.” This angered the Allies.
Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.
The Zimmerman Note
The German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmerman, sent a telegram proposing an alliance
between Germany and Mexico. The Zimmerman Note urged Mexico to re-conquer its lost
territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Mexico was not interested.
The Zimmerman Note was intercepted and printed in American newspapers.
Still Wilson resisted engaging in war.
The First World War
The United States declares war.
Dramatic events in Russia raised questions about how long a new Russian government would
continue to fight on the Eastern Front.
March 1917, German U-boats sand three American merchant ships.
Wilson’s cabinet members argued for war, and Wilson asked Congress to declare war on
Germany. United States joined the war on the side of the Allies on April 6, 1917.
AMERICANS IN EUROPE
The U.S. military began to prepare for battle. Army needed to be raised, recruits trained, troops
and supplies shipped to Europe.
Raising an Army
On May 18, 1917, Congress passed the Selective Service Act.
This act required men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register to be drafted into the armed
forces. Conscientious objectors, who oppose war on moral or religious grounds, faced prison if
they did not accept combat positions.
New recruits reported for training, but nothing was ready. There were no barracks, no
weapons, and no horses. Troops practiced with wooden sticks and barrels.
African Americans were segregated into their own divisions.
Latinos also experienced discrimination.
Arriving in Europe
General John F. Pershing led the American soldiers who went overseas. They were called the
American Expeditionary Forces, or AEF. The first troops arrived in June of 1917.
A convoy system surrounded troop transport ships with destroyers and cruisers to protect them
from attack.
The Allies were in a grim position when the American troops first arrived in France. They
wanted the Americans to join the fighting immediately, but Pershing wanted the troops to have
more training and sent them to eastern France.
Allied Setbacks
The Russian Government was overthrown by the Communist Bolsheviks in Nov. 1917.
The new leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, withdrew the Russian army from the Eastern Front and
signed a peace agreement with the Central Powers.
All the German effort went into fighting in the west, and they launched a series of offensives,
pushing the Allies back to the Marne River, 70 miles NE of Paris.
U.S. troops in action
One year after arriving in France, the American troops finally saw combat. They adopted the
Allied war strategy and dung trenches. They had to dig at night, and set up barbed wire
barricades.
Life in the trenches was a painful ordeal. The troops faced rats and other vermin, mud and
moisture, constant barrage of shelling and gas, close quarters, and poor hygiene.
The U.S. troops were able to help stop the German advance in northern France and saved
Paris.
American military women.
A few women signed up to serve overseas. The U.S. Army Signal Corps recruited French
speaking American women to serve as switchboard operators.
20,000 nurses served in the U.S. Army. Women also served in the navy and marines, usually
as typists and bookkeepers, but some were radio operators, electricians, or telegraphers.
THE WAR ENDS
American Anthem - The First World War - Chapter 8
On July 15, 1918, Germans launched the second battle of the Marne. Americans destroyed
every bridge the Germans had built. The German army retreated with 150,000 causalities.
The Allies began a counter attack. They pushed through to the Argonne forest, suffering
120,000 casualties, but they continued to advance.
The Armistice
The German economy was crippled. German civilians lacked food and supplies. Riots in
Germany and a revolution in Austria- Hungary made it difficult to encourage soldiers to keep
fighting. The Central Powers began to surrender.
The Allies demanded that Germany leave all territories it had occupied.
Germany surrendered its aircraft, heavy artillery, tanks, and U-boats.
Allied troops occupied some German territory.
The Armistice went into effect November, 11, 1918.
Eight and a half million people had died. The world was wary of death.
W.E.B. DuBois referred to the “wounded world.”