Download The War

The War
Test 1 Questions
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Define the following terms: propaganda, trench warfare, war
of attrition, planned economies.
Explain why World War 1 required total warfare.
Create a one page propaganda news article for either side.
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate
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Many thought war in Europe would never happen.
Most believed diplomats could control the situation and prevent war.
In August 1914, both illusions were destroyed.
Government propaganda had stirred up national hatreds before 1914.
In August 1914, propaganda now called for defense against the aggressor.
Both sides believed their cause was just and rational.
Both sides believed the war would be short in duration.
Both believed the war would be over by Christmas.
The Western Front
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Germany used their Schlieffen Plan for a quick victory.
This plan called for a great circling military movement through Belgium into
northern France.
This would surround the French army.
The German advance was halted outside Paris, France at the First Battle of the
Marne (Sept. 6-10, 1914).
French Generals loaded 20000 troops in taxicabs and sent them to the front.
The battle lines became static when neither side could dislodge the other. (trench
warfare)
Two lines of trenches stretched from Switzerland to the English Channel, and
remain about the same for 4 years.
The Eastern Front
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The Eastern Front remained mobile while the Western Front bogged down into trench warfare.
At first, the Russian armies moved into Eastern Germany, but was defeated in two great battles.
But German’s ally Austria-Hungary was defeated by the Russians and thrown out of Serbia.
And Italy betrayed the Triple Alliance and became their enemy (May 1915). (now called the Allied
Powers).
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German came to the aid of the Austrians and defeated the Russians.
They pushed the Russians deep into Russia. (Russians lost 2.5 million)
Bulgaria joins Germany (Sept. 1915) and pushes Russia almost out of the war.
This frees German troops to move from the east to the west to fight.
1916-1917: The Great Slaughter
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The trenches dug in 1914 had by 1916 developed into great systems of defense.
Both sides had barbed wire 5’ high and 30 yards wide, concrete machine-gun
nests, and great fields of artillery canons.
The strip of land between the sides became known as “no man’s land”.
Static warfare created new attempts to break the stalemate.
Generals threw great masses of troops against enemy lines after days of artillery
bombardment.
In 10 months at Verdun, France, 700,000 were killed trying to create a
breakthrough.
The war had become a “war of attrition”.
Breaking the spirit of the enemy became the strategy to win the war.
Airplanes began to appear over the battlefields in 1915.
First used to spot enemy positions, airplanes began to attack ground targets,
especially enemy communications.
Soon, airplanes began to fight each other for control of the airspace above the
battlefield.
Machine guns were mounted on airplanes.
The Germans also used their giant airships (the Zeppelins) to bomb London and
eastern England.
They used hydrogen gas for lift, which is very flammable.
Widening the War
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Because of the stalemate on the western front, the Allies sought to gain new
support by taking Turkey (the Ottoman Empire).
The Ottoman Empire had sided with German and was thought to be weak.
The Allies landed an amphibian attack at Gallipoli near Constantinople in 1915.
It was a major disaster and defeat for the Allies.
In the Middle East, a British officer known as Lawrence of Arabia aided some
tribes to rebel against the Ottoman Empire.
By 1917, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and Britain gained control of the entire
Middle East.
The Home Front: The Impact of Total War
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As the war progressed, it became a “total war”.
This involved a complete mobilization of resources and people of the entire nation.
Industry was taken over by governments, factories producing nothing but war related products.
All able-bodied men were in uniform. (5.5 million in Germany)
Governments expanded their powers, including the power to force men into the military. (the
Draft)
Governments controlled all prices, wages and rents, imports and exports, transportation systems,
and rationed food to their citizens.
European nations set up “planned economies” – systems directed by government agencies.
Everybody and everything was judged by the value of victory in war.
Manipulation of Public Opinion
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As conditions became worse, home front opposition to the war surfaced.
Germany and her allies relied upon force to suppress opposition.
But democracies also used the force of law to suppress opposition.
Britain enacted the D.O.R.A. (the Defense of the Realm Act) allowing the police to arrest
protestors as traitors.
Newspapers were censored on both sides.
Media propaganda became just as important to the war effort as men and weapons.
Exaggeration and lies became weapons to convince citizens to support the war.
The enemy became more brutal, and friendly troops became saints or saviors in the public’s mind.
The End