Download Ch. 24 World War I 1914

Ch. 19, Sec. 2
World War I, 1914 - 1920
Investigate the reasons why the US joined the fighting in World War I.
War Breaks Out In Europe!
• While the United States was busy forming its own
overseas empire, the countries of Europe were busy
expanding theirs.
• This competition, along with several other factors,
poisoned the relationships among these nations which
eventually led to a full-blown war.
• By mid-1914, all of Europe was a powder-keg waiting for
a spark.
• That spark came on June 28th, 1914, when the heir to
the Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand was assassinated by a young Serbian
nationalist in Sarajevo.
• Almost overnight, all of Europe was plunged into a
mammoth world war.
In the next video segment, write down the important
facts/percentages/figures that are given.
Major Causes of World War I
• A single action, the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, started World War I.
• 1. Imperialism – The policy by which stronger nations extend
their influence and control over smaller, weaker nations. All of
Europe was guilty.
• 2. Nationalism – Pride on one’s country. Nationalism can also
be destructive as people begin to see themselves as better and
more advanced than others.
• 3. Militarism – The belief that a nation needs a large military to
suit all of its needs. In the years before the war, all of Europe
was engaged in an arms race.
• 4. Alliances – Binding treaties between one or more countries.
By 1914, nearly every country in Europe had signed a secret
type of treaty with another.
The Allies and Central Powers
Choosing Sides
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•
•
•
•
•
•
The Allies
Serbia
Russia
France
Great Britain
Italy
United States
The US did not join
the Allies until
1917.
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The Central Powers
Austria-Hungary
Germany
Turkey
Stalemate in the Trenches!
The Germans almost won the war at the First Battle of the Marne.
Using the von Schlieffen Plan, the German armies had gone wide to
the right and almost captured the city of Paris, thus knocking the
French out of the war in the beginning stages.
Trench Warfare
• The First World War was largely characterized by “Trench
Warfare.”
• At the start of the war, both sides thought that the conflict
would be quick and decided by one or two large and glorious
battles.
• None of the combatants could have possibly imagined that the
fighting that took place on the Western Front would literally
turn the landscape into a “Hell on Earth.”
• Both the Central Powers and the Allies would stay stuck in the
mud, fighting one another over the same ground for more than
three years after the First Battle of the Marne in September,
1914.
• There was literally one continuous trench or underground
ditch/fortification from the North Sea to the Swiss border.
• This style of fighting was caused by the Machine Gun and
several other major improvements in warfare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3v8B16hmxU&featu
re=related
The soldiers unlucky
enough to fight in the
trenches found
themselves huddled at
the bottom of wet, ratinfested ditches.
Artillery fire and machine
guns were constantly
shooting back and forth,
day and night, 365 days a
year.
Once in a while, an attack
would be launched, with
thousands upon
thousands of Allied or
German soldiers crossing
through the barbed-wire
into “No Man’s Land,”
where they were then
murdered by the machine
gun and rifle fire.
http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/north_carolina_0
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t=animated_history&npos=4&spos=19&var=animate
d_history
A War of New Technology
• World War I was a
testing ground of new
technology that did
nothing more than
raise the numbers of
killed and wounded
soldiers on the
battlefield.
• Tanks
• Poison Gas
• Airplanes
• Barbed Wire
• U-Boats (Submarines)
The Machine Gun
The Tank
One of the major functions of the Tank was to
push through the miles and miles of barbed-wire
that was placed in front of the opposing trenches.
Poison Gas!
Used by both sides, Poison Gas was
perhaps the most feared and brutal
weapon of the war. The two most used
types were Mustard and Chlorine Gas,
both of which would burn any exposed
skin and melt the eyes, lungs, and nasal
passages.
Airplanes
U Boats - Submarines
The Germans mastered the art of Submarine Warfare. During the war,
German U-Boats, operating in what were called “Wolfpacks,” sunk
over 11 million tons of Allied shipping and supplies. Un-restriced
submarine warfare was one reason why the Americans joined the
Allies.
America’s Path to War
When the war began in Europe in 1914,
President Woodrow Wilson announced
that the United States would follow a
policy of neutrality, or refuse to take
sides in the war.
Over time, however, German submarine
attacks began to shift American support
in favor of the Allies. The most
horrendous of these was the sinking of
the Lusitania in 1915.
The Zimmerman Telegraph also caused
the Americans to support the Allies. In
February, 1917, British and American
intelligence agencies discovered this
message from Germany to Mexico. The
telegraph stated if Mexico would join
with the Germans, then they would help
them invade the Southern United States!
Revolution in Russia!
• Events in Russia, beginning in early 1917, made the
U.S. entry into the war more urgent for the Allies.
• The Russian leader, Czar Nicholas II was being badly
beaten by the Germans on the Eastern Front and
was forced to give up power by a revolution.
• This action within Russia came to be known as the,
“Russian Revolution.”
• The revolution was led by Vladimir Lenin, the leader
of the growing Russian Communist Party.
• Communism- A political system in which the
government owns key parts of the economy and
there is no private property.
Because the war had all but
devastated Russia, Lenin began
peace talks with Germany
immediately.
In March, 1918, Russia withdrew
from the war altogether by
signing the Treaty of BrestLitosvk.
Thousands of German soldiers
were now redeployed from
Russia to the Western Front in
France against the French and
British.
Vladimir Lenin
• Describe in-detail at least three underlying
causes of World War I.
• Examine how Trench Warfare differed from
earlier conflicts that had been fought in the
world.
• What three events led President Wilson to
ask for a declaration of war in April of 1917?
Bibliography
www.unitedstreaming.com
www.wikipedia.com
www.youtube.com
Anzacs Movie/Series
www.reenactor.net