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World War I
Causes of World War I
 World War I (1914-1918) was caused by
competition among industrial nations in
Europe and a failure of diplomacy. The war
transformed European and American life,
wrecked the economies of Europe, and
planted the seeds for a second world war.
 Alliances that divided Europe into competing
camps
 Nationalistic feelings
 Diplomatic failures (failure to create
agreements between nations)
 Imperialism
 Competition over colonies
 Militarism
Causes of World War I
 M.A.N.I.A.C.S
 Militarism
 Alliances divided Europe
 Nationalism (desire for war)
 Imperialism
 Alliances caused diplomatic Failures
 Competition for colonies in Africa/Asia
 Serbian assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Expanded Information
 In the years before WWI two powerful alliances, the Triple Alliance
(Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Great
Britain, France and Russia) Formed.
 Nationalist feelings in Serbia provided the “Spark” that started the
war. Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist
named Gavrilo Princip who hoped the assassination would help to
build a “Greater Serbia” that united all the Slavic people in the
region.
 As imperialist European countries tried to gain access to new markets
and raw materials they encourage the growth of militarism.
 Militarism is the glorifying of war and relying on military strength to
solve problems. Before WWI, many European countries began
stockpiling weapons and building up their militaries.
Major Events/Leadership WWI
 Assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand.
June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by a Serbian
nationalist. Ferdinand’s death activated a
chain of alliances and led to world war.
 United States enters the war. The U.S.
remained neutral for three years but finally
entered the war on the Allies side in 1917 as a
direct result of the German use of submarine
warfare.
 Woodrow Wilson- President of the U.S.
during WWI
 Russia leaves the war. Vladimir Lenin
arranged, in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
Germany, for Russia to end her involvement in
WWI.
 Kaiser Wilhelm II- The leader of Germany
U.S. Enters War
 When the war first started in 1914 the
U.S. declared neutrality.
 The U.S. entered the war for the
following reasons:
 Zimmerman telegram
 Sinking of the Lusitania
 Sinking of 4 U.S. merchant ships in April 1917
Lusitania
 On May 1, 1915, the ship departed
New York City bound for Liverpool.
Unknown to her passengers but
probably no secret to the Germans,
almost all her hidden cargo consisted
of munitions and contraband
destined for the British war effort.
 May 7, a torpedo fired by the German
submarine slammed into her side. A
mysterious second explosion ripped
the liner apart. Chaos reigned. Within
18 minutes the giant ship slipped
beneath the sea. One thousand one
hundred nineteen of the 1,924 aboard
died. The dead included 114
Americans.
Zimmerman Telegram
 January of 1917, British cryptographers
deciphered a telegram from German Foreign
Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German
Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United
States territory to Mexico in return for joining the
German cause. This message helped draw the
United States into the war and thus changed the
course of history.
 The American press published news of the
telegram on March 1. On April 6, 1917, the United
States Congress formally declared war on
Germany and its allies.
Treaty of Versailles
 The Treaty of Versailles ended
WWI with Germany forced to:
 Accept guilt for the war
 Give up territory (such as the
territories of Alsace and Lorraine
to France and land in eastern
Germany to Poland)
 Limited the German military
 League of Nations
Outcomes and Global Effect
 Colonies’ participation in the
war, which increased demands
for independence.
 End of the Russian Imperial,
Ottoman, German, and AustroHungarian empires.
 Enormous cost of the war in
lives, property, and social
disruption.
Russian Revolutions
 Tsarist Russia entered World War I as an
absolute monarchy with sharp class divisions
between the nobility and peasants. The
grievances of workers and peasants were not
resolved by the Tsar. Inadequate
administration in World War I led to revolution
and an unsuccessful provisional government. A
second revolution by the Bolsheviks created
the communist state that ultimately became
the U.S.S.R.
 Defeat in war with Japan in 1905
 Landless peasantry
 Incompetence of Tsar Nicholas II
 Military defeats and high casualties in World
War I
Rise of Communism
 Bolshevik Revolution and civil war. In October
1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the
provisional government established after Tsar
Nicholas II Stepped down in March 1917. Civil war
broke out between the Communists known as the
Bolsheviks. The communists won creating the
U.S.S.R.
 Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Plan that allowed
for some free enterprise but left heave industry,
banking and mining in the hands of the
government. The NEP replaced the policy known
as War Communism that Lenin adopted during
the Civil War.
 Joseph Stalin- After Lenin died in 1924 a power
struggle began over who would be his successor.
Ultimately, Stalin emerged as the clear leader of
the U.S.S.R.