Download File

WORLD WAR I
Much of the tension in Europe prior to the
outbreak of World War I came from a rise in
nationalism, a feeling of intense loyalty to a country
or group. Nationalism encouraged newly united
nations such as Italy and Germany to show their
power.
Their actions threatened older nations,
Great Britain and France.
European tensions also grew as powerful countries
built great empires in the late 1800s and early
1900s. European countries competed for colonies
in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world. These
colonies not only provided new markets and raw
materials, they also boosted a nation’s status. Each
Ottoman
Empire
nation’s attempt to expand its overseas empire
brought it into conflict with another.
Since the tensions were so high it didn’t take much
to push all of Europe into war.
1
It was June 28, 1914, and the people of
Sarajevo, Bosnia, crowded the city streets.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, next in line to the
throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was in
town for a visit. As he and his wife rolled along
in their open car, a gunman attacked. Both the
archduke and his wife were killed.
Gavrilo Princip was a member of a Serbian
nationalist group.
Princip and his group
plotted the murder of Franz Ferdinand. They
hoped to bring down the Austro-Hungarian
Empire and unite the Slavs (people from
Ottoman
Empire
Archduke is killed
Central and Eastern Europe). It was Princip
who fired the shots that killed the archduke
and his wife.
2
Austria-Hungary
assassination.
blamed
Serbia
for
the
With Germany’s support, it gave
Serbia a list of demands, which Serbia refused.
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28,
1914.
This declaration of war created a domino
affect in Europe.
July 30, 1914 - Russia (Serbia’s ally) begins to
mobilize armed forces.
August 1, 1914 - Germany (Austro-Hungarian
Empire’s ally) declares war on Russia.
August 3, 1914 - Germany declares war on France
(Russia’s ally), begins invasion of Belgium.
August 4, 1914 - Britain (had pledged to protect
Belgium) declares war on Germany.
Archduke is killed
Ottoman
August 6, 1914 - Austro-Hungarian Empire declares
Empire
war on Russia.
August 12, 1914 - France and Britain declare war on
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
3
Allied
Powers
Allied
Powers
Central
Powers
Central Powers
Allied
Powers
Allied
Powers
Central
Powers
Ottoman
Empire
4
The most prominent way of fighting
during World War I was trench warfare.
Trench warfare is warfare in which
opposing
armed
counterattack,
relatively
forces
and
permanent
attack,
defend
from
systems
of
trenches dug into the ground. The
opposing systems of trenches are
usually close to one another. Trench
warfare is resorted to when the
superior firepower of the defense
compels the opposing forces to “dig in”
so extensively as to sacrifice their
mobility in order to gain protection.
5
On January 9, 1917 German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg announced Germany’s
intention to use unrestricted submarine warfare. His one major concern and fear was
that it would provoke an American response.
By 1917, the war was not going well for Germany on the Western Front. Unrestricted
submarine warfare was a result of desperation and the belief that the ferocity of
such a tactic might just keep America out of the war if the results were spectacular
and shocking enough.
German U-Boat
6
7
On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania, which primarily ferried
people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the
United States and Great Britain, had left port in New York
for Liverpool to make her 202nd trip across the Atlantic. On
board were 1,959 people, 159 of whom were Americans.
Approximately 14 miles off the coast of Southern Ireland a
German U-boat launched a torpedo. The torpedo hit the
starboard (right) side of the Lusitania.
The Lusitania sunk within 18 minutes. Though there had
been enough lifeboats for all passengers, the severe listing
of the ship while it sunk prevented most from being
launched properly. Of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198
died. The toll of civilians killed in this disaster shocked the
world.
Americans were outraged to learn 128 U.S. civilians were
killed in a war in which they were officially neutral.
Destroying ships not known to be carrying war materials
went against normal protocols. The sinking of the Lusitania
heightened tensions between the U.S. and Germany but
did not end in America joining the war.
8
In February 1917 the British discovered the
Zimmerman Telegram and passed it on to the
United States. It was written by Arthur
Zimmerman, the German foreign minister, to the
German ambassador to Mexico, Count von
Bernstorff.
The Germans were asking the
Mexicans to join the war and be their ally. If
they agreed, Germany would give Mexico land
they lost in the Mexican-American War.
The Zimmerman Telegram and the sinking of the
Lusitania caused Americans to realize that
Germany was a threat. Therefore, The United
States declared war on Germany on April 6,
1917. They fought on the side of the Allies.
Arthur Zimmerman
9
American
soldiers
were
nicknamed
“doughboys” because the buttons on their
uniforms
resembled
boiled
dough
dumplings, a popular food. They saw their
first serious fighting in June 1918, when the
American Expeditionary Force helped turn
back German forces at Chateau-Thierry on
the Marne River east of Paris. The American
troops then advanced to Belleau Wood. For
the next three weeks, doughboys battled
around the clock through the forest against
a solid wall of German machine-gun fire.
The American and French forces fought back
German attacks along the Marne and the
Somme Rivers.
American Doughboy
By mid July they had
stopped the great German offensive that
had come close to ending the war.
10
The Allies now began an attack of their own. In mid-September, a half million American soldiers defeated
the Germans at Saint-Mihiel. Later that month, more than 1 million American troops joined the Allies in
the Battle of the Argonne Forest. It became the biggest attack in American history.
The Battle of the Argonne Forest raged for nearly seven weeks. Soldiers struggled over the rugged,
heavily-forested ground. Rain, mud, barbed wire, and German machine-gun fire hindered the Allies’
advance. Many soldiers died. Yet by early November, the Allies had won the battle. They had pushed
back the Germans and broke through their lines. The Germans now faced an invasion of their own
country.
11
The Allied victory featured
some brilliant individual acts of
heroism. For example, Eddie
Rickenbacker was a captain in
the 94th Aero Squadron.
He
fought 134 air battles and shot
down 26 enemy air craft. He
was considered the “Ace of
Aces” by the American press.
To be considered an “Ace” pilot
you had to shoot down 5
enemy planes.
12
The first chemical weapons were used by the Germans during
World War I.
The First Tanks of World War I – British Tank
British plane used during World War I.
While Germany struggled on the Western
Front, its allies faced defeat elsewhere. In
late 1918, the Ottoman Empire was on
the brink of collapse.
Austria-Hungary
broke apart, as protest in major cities
helped bring down that centuries-old
empire.
By
early
November,
the
governments of Austria-Hungary and the
Ottoman Empire had surrendered to the
Allied Powers. On November 9, Germany
asked for an end to the fighting. This
became official on November 11, 1918.
13
President Wilson wanted the war to end with no
winners or losers so he created the “Fourteen
Points” and presented them at the peace treaty
conference in Versailles, France. These points
included:
•Smaller military forces.
•An end to secret treaties.
•Freedom of the seas.
•A league of nations.
President Wilson wanted “peace without victory”
which means there are no winners and no losers.
President Wilson feared that if there is no “peace
without victory” Germany will be so angry that
President Woodrow Wilson
they will start a war in the future that will be the
worst war the world has ever seen.
14
The leaders of France and Britain did not
share Wilson’s view.
They wanted
Germany to pay heavily for its part in the
war. The only thing they would agree to
was Wilson’s call for a League of Nations.
According to the final Treaty of Versailles,
Germany had to:
• Pay $33 billion in reparations.
• Limit their military to 100,000 and no
air force.
• Lose the rights to all of their colonies.
• Limit their making of military supplies
such as guns, tanks,
airplanes.
etc. and no
British prime minister David Lloyd George (left) at
Versailles with the French prime minister Georges
Clemenceau and U.S. president Woodrow Wilson.
15