Jonathan McCabe

Lesson Plan 2

Theme: World War I

Grade: 10th grade Global History
Goal: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the
broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the
geography of the interdependent world in which we live- local, national, and global-including
the distribution of people, places, and environments over Earth's surface.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify the four reasons behind the distrust of European
countries before World War I
2. Explain why Germany attacked through Belgium to get to France
3. Students will understand that Germany had been planning on attacking France since the
first thought of war
4. Students will compare notes and work together in small groups to further understand
their knowledge of the presented content
5. Students will develop their listening, note-taking, and writing skills
6. Students will be able to locate the Eastern and Western Front, as well where Belgium,
France, and Germany are located in Europe
Materials Needed: computer, PowerPoint, projector, whiteboard and markers, guided notes

Lesson:
Warm up- review the alliance system

discuss the alliances in Europe

Why they were important

Why they led to war

Reasons Behind the distrust of European Countries

Nationalism

What is it?- a strong pride in one's country that led to unification of states in some areas

When did it start?

Nationalism arose in the 19th century and continued into the early 20th century. Strong
leaders from certain regions, like Otto von Bismark of Germany, brought together
different nation states with a common language and history. Germany in specific wanted
to join together to create a strong military presence, and Bismark did that through his
Blood and Iron mentality. It was to become strong through military strength. It was
just one of the reasons that other European countries didn't trust Germany.

Imperialism

What is it?- When strong industrialized countries, mainly from Europe, were looking for
raw materials in the world. They eventually looked to Africa and Asia

Why?- the colonies in the Americas had all gained freedom, so Europe needed to look
elsewhere for materials to extract. Eventually found diamonds and gold and other
commodities in Africa

European countries began to develop countries in Africa that would benefit their
industries at home and Great Britain developed India as a country. They also began
relationships with China and Japan, whose borders had been closed to the west for
hundreds of years.

It sparked a sense of nationalism in countries: wanted to show off their colonies and
develop them to resemble the mother country. Also showed the might of the military

Berlin Conference was important: European countries met to decide the rules and areas
that each country would get

Militarism

What is it?- The buildup of military forces in one country

Happens all throughout Europe leading up to World War I

Britain had the strongest navy in the world, but Germany was building theirs to compete
with Great Britain

Russia had a large army

Most countries wanted to show off their military power against one another.

The buildup of forces was a source of tension all throughout Europe

Great Britain and France didn't want Germany to have a strong navy though. They
feared a strong power from Central Europe

Alliances

Created the two main Power Alliances in Europe leading up to World War I

Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, later it would be the Ottoman
Empire once Italy left (Austria-Hungary allied with the Ottoman Empire to protect

Balkan claims)

Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, and Russia

Other small alliances were also pivotal in the fighting

Start of War
Brief Overview

Serbian Nationalists assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungary

throne

Austria-Hungary angry, gives Serbia an Ultimatum: Arrest those responsible for

assassination or risk war

Serbia refuses, Austria-Hungary declares, Russia came to the Serbs aid, Germany
threatens war with Russia and eventually declares war against them, Germany attacks
Belgium to prepare for French invasion, the attack then forces Great Britain in the war to
protect Belgian sovereignty

Pits Central Powers against Allied Powers

Battles
Germany Invades Belgium

Belgium was a neutral country

France is neighbors with Belgium-Belgium defense helped France

France and Russia signed peace treaty- France declared war on Germany

Germany attacks Belgium to get to France

Wanted to avoid much stronger French Maginot Line

Meets Stiff Resistance in Belgium: Army and Guerrilla fighters

Defeats Belgium, moves on to France

Invasion of France

Germans ready an attack on France while in Belgium

Push through the defenses towards the Marne River, but Germans slow the attack to
ensure that the supplies don't get cut off during their charge to the ocean

France and Germany end up in a stalemate and fighting in the trenches

For most of the four years, the war is fought from trench to to trench, without either side
gaining more than a few miles

There are miles of trenches in Europe, snakes across France for miles, and the land in
between the trenches is no man's land

Western front battles have high casualties in many different battles: battles such as Ypres
and Somme

Wrap Up

For a wrap up, the teacher will use the four main ideas that caused World War INationalism, Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism- and have a class-ending discussion

Teacher will give the students a fact about one of those terms and the students will
answer with the correct term that matches

It helps students learn the most important facts about terms and keep the ideas fresh in
their minds

Class Activity

For the last half of the class will gather into groups and discuss the notes that were just
presented

Students will be asked to build a concept map based off of the notes, with each student
filling one out

Students will get a partially filled in outline with either the Main topic and subtopic fields
filled in, or the key pieces of information filled out

Students will work together to finish the concept map by filling in the blank spaces

The teacher will guide them first on how to do the first section to ensure that the students
know how the activity is supposed to work

After students have a good understanding of the activity, they will be continue to work on
the concept map until the wrap up activity

The concept map will be provided to the students

Lecture for Lesson Plan Two

Nationalism

Before World War I, many European countries were beginning to organize themselves

Countries were also beginning to recognize themselves as whole countries before the
War: when the people of the same nationality formed together to become one country

They usually shared a common language and history but were never unified at any point
in history

Germany was one of the countries that was going through this nationalization period

Otto von Bismark was the man behind Germany Nationalism. He wanted a united
Germany to become stronger and have better industry and economy

Bismark mainly wanted to become a stronger military presence above all else. He
wanted to be a force to be reckoned with in central Europe and didn't want anyone to
mess with Germany. This showed in the Franco-Prussian War, when a new Germany
defeated France

Because of this military presence of Germany, it caused a lot of distrust in other

European countries because they feared Germany's aggression, but they were willing to
work to make sure Germany didn't become as aggressive they wanted

Imperialism

Nationalism also helped lead to imperialism, because many countries wanted to show
their strength

The countries wanted to get a new source of raw materials and goods that they could
import to help support their country

During the late 19th century, European countries were splitting up Africa after gold,
diamonds and other precious metals had been found there. Countries would control
different regions throughout the continent

Countries that were picking up colonies in Africa included Great Britain, France,
Belgium, and later Germany and Italy

Countries wanted to have certain land in Africa, so if that meant a country was going to
fight another for it, then that is what would happen

Since Nationalism was so prevalent at this time, the countries wanted to show their
bravado

The Berlin Conference changed that in 1885 that set guidelines and rules for imperialism.
Countries wanted to be fair when taking colonies, but it truly wasn't fair because African
countries and people were not present

Britain was the only European country to take a colony in Asia, claiming India and its
surrounding area including present day Pakistan and other countries

Militarism

Militarism was also a major factor of the lead up to World War I

Countries were beginning to build up their militaries to show the strength that had to
protect their countries and colonies away from home

Britain by far had the strongest and most powerful navy at that time, since it had so many

colonies around the world and it was an island nation.

They needed to have a strong navy to protect themselves from an attack and to ensure
that their colonies wouldn't be taken over by other countries. This led to the strong navy,
as well as a strong army as well, but their army consisted not only British men, but also
the people native in their colonies

Germany at the time was trying to compete with Great Britain to have a powerful navy.
They developed U-boats, or submarines, that proved to be deadly in World War I

Germany wanted to go toe-to-toe with Britain's navy and did just that in the War

The buildup of armies brought tension all throughout Europe. France and Britain feared
a strong power coming from Central Europe because there would be no way to control
their actions and nothing would prevent them from attacking the west

Germany also feared Russia having a large Army. The two countries historically didn't
like each other, and often fought each other

If Russia had a large Army, that meant they could easily overrun Germany and take their
colonies and destroy their way of life, and Germany people could not have that
happening

The buildup of armies and navies led to countries signing alliances with each other in
case the other one was attacked

Alliances

Alliances are a pact between two or more countries that promises protection to each other
should one get attacked by an aggressor country

The signing of alliances led to countries being pulled into the war who did not have to be
in the War at all

There were two big alliance pacts signed before the War, the Triple Alliance and the
Triple Entente

The triple alliance was between the central powers of Europe: Germany, the AustrianHungarian Empire, and Italy, later the Ottoman Empire would join in place of Italy

Those countries all signed together to protect different priorities for each country.
Germany and Austria signed together because historically, Austrian people are German
people. They share the same language and history, but live in separate countries, so they
each wanted to protect themselves should an attack come from Russia or France

The Ottoman Empire would later join the Triple Alliance once Italy remained neutral at
the start of World War I, and then join on the allies side in 1915

Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire wanted to protect Balkan interests

The Triple Entente was between Great Britain, France, and Russia

They were allied to protect Europe, and to help Russia should an attack come from
Germany

When Germany declared war on Russia, it forced France to mobilize for war, and drew in
Great Britain to the War effort to protect Europe because Germany violated sovereign
countries

All of these key ideas helped lead to the start of World War I

Overview of Start of War

World War I was started when Serbian Nationalists assassinated Archduke Franz
Ferdinand

When the Archduke was in Sarajevo with his wife, the Black Hand assassinated them

when their car was driving around the city after a botched first attempt

Gavrilo Princip was the man who shot them

This angered Austria-Hungary. Forced Serbia to hand over those responsible or face a
possible invasion of their country

Serbia refuses and Austria-Hungary sends forces in. This leads to Russia declaring war
on Austria-Hungary because Russia had an alliance with Serbia

Because Russia was now fighting Austria-Hungary, Germany had to declare war on
Russia to prevent them from joining in the Austria-Hungary/Serbia conflict

This forces France to mobilize for war, which causes Germany to attack France before
France attacks Germany

The attack goes through Belgium, violating Belgian sovereignty which draws Great
Britain into the war

Battles

Before World War I began, France had built up fortresses along their border with
Germany, called the Maginot Line

Germany wanted to avoid those defenses, so they exploited a Frances trust of Belgium.
France didn't have a line of defenses against Belgium because Belgium was a neutral
country prior to World War I

Germany attacked Belgium first to clear them out of the way and to avoid the Maginot
Line

Germany thought that they would cut through Belgium quickly, except they met stiff
resistance from regular troops and Belgian guerrilla fighters. This allowed France to
move their army north to better defend against a Germany Attack

Germans did finally defeat Belgium and focused their sights on France, but France was
better defended in the north so their defense would be better suited against the Germans
than originally anticipated

The initial Germany attack cut through French lines, but they didn't follow their original
plans. They originally had planned to attack to the ocean, but slowed their attack
towards the Marne River; Germans feared that supplies would be cut off if they drove too
deep into French territory. The French were able to stop the Germany advance any
further after they slowed down

This would cause each side to dig in where they were and create hundreds of miles of
trenches throughout the French countryside. The War from here on out would be a
stalemate

The war is fought from trench to trench, each side has to attack through no-man's land:
the area between the trenches, creates a lot of deaths

Neither side gains more than a few miles during the four years of battles, but each side
will try mightily to defeat the other through attrition

The Western Front becomes characterized by this type of fighting

Wrap Up
Nationalism Facts

peoples that share a common language and history

become unified in the late 19th century

Germany is a main country that feels this affect

Countries wanted to be stronger for military purposes

Imperialism Facts

Countries wanted new colonies to support the mother country

European countries expanded into Africa to find raw materials

Was often used to show Nationalism and Militarism

Highlighted by the Berlin Conference, which helped set rules for colonization

Militarism Facts

Wanted to show off their strength of military

The buildup was caused by each country wanting to outdo the the other

Germany's and Great Britain's Navy competed for strongest in the world because of it

There was a fear of a Central European power with strong military

Alliances Facts

Countries signed pacts together to protect each other from attacks

Consisted of the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente

A war with two countries could bring about a possible larger war

Often brought in countries to war who had no connection to the conflict at hand