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Chapter 26 Guided Notes: World War I

Part I: Causes of the War
4 M.A.I.N. Causes
M
A
I
N
The alliance system
Triple Alliance Triple Entente
Members: Members:
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Central Powers Allies

Members: Members:
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Later joined by

Militarism
▪ ______________________: a strong military spirit or policy
– the principle or policy of maintaining a __________ military establishment
▪ By 1914 most of the major European nations (except __________) had adopted military ____________
to grow the size of their standing armies and reserve forces
▪ Small ________________ armies were replaced by _________ armies numbering in the ____________
 Which side has more troops available at the beginning of the war? What does this mean?

The Schlieffen Plan

▪ Conceived by general Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905 in preparation for a war with the _______________
▪ Attack France through ______________ (neutral) and then knock out __________________.
What does this plan assume? Do you see any flaws in it?

Other War plans

▪ France: Plan 17
– Attack ____________ and take back Alsace-Lorraine
▪ Austria-Hungary: Plans B and R
– Invade the ________________ (Serbia) and defend against _________________
▪ Russia: Plans G, A and 19
– Defend against and/or attack ____________________
▪ Even though these countries wanted peace they were preparing for ____________.
Nationalism & Imperialism
Nationalism: ____________ in one’s nation/country.
You view your nation as being _______________ to all others
You want your nation to be ___________________ of any other nation’s rule
Imperialism: one nation dominating another part of the world
___________________, ___________________,
____________________ and/or ____________________.
▪ By 1914 many European countries were looking to expand
their empires in _________________.
▪ Germany was trying to compete with
_____________________ as the worlds greatest naval (sea)
power
▪ France wanted to regain territory they had lost to
_________________ during the Franco-Prussian War
(Alsace-Lorraine)
▪ _________________ wanted to unite all the southern Slavic peoples (_____________________)
▪ _____________________ opposed this
 ▪ Why?
▪ ________________ had promised to defend Serbia
▪ Why?
▪ _________________________: Serbian nationalist group (aka Unification or Death)
▪ _______________ ___________ assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-
Hungary, in Sarajevo, June 1914
▪ This led directly to the start of ______________
Part II: The War to End All Wars
Failure of the Schlieffen Plan
▪ The German offensive through Belgium was slowed down by strong ____________ and allied
resistance and poor ___________________.
▪ The German offensive was eventually stopped during the battle of the ____________, near Paris.
▪ Soon after German troops had to be sent East to fight the now fully _________________ Russian army.
▪ The war in the west turned into a _________________, with neither side having a clear advantage.
▪ Beginning of ______________ _________________.
Total War
Total War: a war in which every available _______________ is used and the nation's full financial
resources are devoted
▪ A war which is _________________ in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved,
or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the accepted rules of war are disregarded.
New Weapons
Some new technological developments before the war were:
▪ Heavily armored and armed __________________ (Britain had the most)
▪ Submarines – Built mainly by Germany (aka ______________), cheaper than dreadnoughts and could
submerge to avoid detection
▪ ___________________ – Used originally for scouting and then for combat
– Manfred von Richthofen – Top WWI ace pilot (AKA “_______ ________ ______________”)
▪ Zeppelins – Used by Germany to ____________ England
Trench Warfare
▪ ________________ guns and long-range repeating rifles made attacking very difficult
▪ Both sides dug defensive positions known as __________________
▪ Stretched from neutral Switzerland to the English Channel – known as the ______________ _________
▪ Armies would often live and fight in the same place for months or ___________.
 ▪ Ground gained was measured in _____________.
▪ Trench warfare favored the __________________.
▪ WWI became a war of ______________________.
Describe the conditions for soldiers fighting on the
Western Front.

Trench system diagram

New weapons were pioneered during the war to try to end the stalemate:
▪ Poison ________ – first used by the Germans in 1915
▪ Flamethrowers – used to clear out trenches and ______________
▪ ____________ – first used by the British in 1916
– Used to cross trenches and protect attacking infantry
Major Battles
1st Battle of the Marne (6–12 September 1914)
▪ British and French forces finally halt the initial German offensive at the __________ river (40 miles
from Paris)
▪ Last major battle on the Western Front that was fought in the open (no _______________)
▪ Allied ___________, led to the Race to the __________ and trench warfare along the Western Front
Battle of Tannenberg (26–30 August 1914)
▪ The Russian army ________________ sooner than expected and advanced into East Prussia.
▪ German army was able to use _____________ to bring their limited forces together before the battle
▪ Astounding German victory, Russian 2nd Army destroyed (_____________ killed, wounded or captured)
▪ Marked the beginning of the end for the Russian _______________
Gallipoli Campaign (17 February 1915 – 9 January 1916)
▪ The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in late 1914
▪ British Imperial forces (many from Australia and New Zealand AKA _____________) landed on the
Gallipoli peninsula in order to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople.
▪ Allied forces met strong Turkish resistance and the battle turned into trench warfare (like on the western
front)
▪ After almost a year long stalemate the allied forces _______________
▪ Turkish victory

Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916)

▪ Allied offensive meant to hasten the end of the war
▪ Largest battle on the Western Front, More than 3 million combatants and over 1 million casualties
▪ Bloodiest day in British military history, ____________ casualties in the first day. 420,000 total British
casualties.
▪ 1st time ____________ were used in combat
▪ Allies only gained 6 miles of ground
▪ Battle result: __________________
The War at Sea
▪ The German fleet was greatly outnumbered by the British and allied fleets
▪ German ports were ________________ by Britain in an attempt to hurt the
German economy and war industry
▪ Resulted in the deaths of 750,000 German civilians
▪ Germany used ________________ to get around the blockade and attack
allied shipping
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (USW)
▪ Germany eventually abandoned the use of “prize rules”
▪ USW zone established around UK
– U Boats would sink _________ ships in this zone without warning
Why? USW zone
▪ Allied use of the _____________ system to protect ships from U Boats
▪ British use of ______________, non military vessels with hidden deck guns
Battle of Jutland (May 31-June 1 1916)
▪ 1st and last major naval battle of the war
 ▪ German navy tried to draw the Royal navy into battle and destroy it
▪ This would tip the balance of the war in _______________ favor
▪ Battle ended in a ______________
▪ German surface fleet never left port again
▪ Resulted in increased German usage of ___________________
Part III: the end of the war
The Russian Revolution
▪ By 1917 the war was not going well for the Russian Empire
Convoy system diagram
▪ The Russian army had suffered several humiliating defeats and suffered
_________________ of casualties
▪ Tsar Nicholas II Took personal command of the Russian army
▪ Many blamed these defeats as well as unsolved social problems on the _____________
▪ March 1917 – Tsar Nicholas _________________
▪ Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia after being exiled and founded the ________________ party
▪ Practiced a form of Marxism, believed that an elite group should lead the revolution and create a
“dictatorship of the _________________”
– Proletariat – urban & industrial workers
▪ November 1917 – provisional government overthrown by the Bolsheviks and Russian Civil War begins
Russian Civil War 1917 – 1920
▪ Red Russians (Bolsheviks) VS. ____________ Russians (anti-Bolshevik)
▪ Allies tried to intervene and fight the “reds”
▪ March 1918 – Communist (Bolshevik) government signs the treaty of __________-_____________with
Germany, withdrawing from the war
▪ July 1918 – Tsar and family murdered by the Bolsheviks
The end of the war
US entry into the war
▪ Us originally wanted to stay out of what they saw as a _______________ conflict
▪ 2 major reasons for US joining the allies in 1917
1. German use of USW and the sinking of the ________________
– Torpedoed by a U boat on may 7 1915, 1,198 of the 1,959 passengers killed, including many
____________________
– Sparked outrage in the US, used in allied propaganda
– Germans claimed the Lusitania was carrying war contraband
 ▪ The ship was actually carrying millions of rounds of ___________ and other war supplies
2. The Zimmerman telegram
▪ Sent from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the Mexican government
▪ Stated that if Mexico joined the Central Powers against the US they would get back the lands they lost
during the _____________-________________ war
▪ Intercepted by the British and sent to the US
▪ Caused national outrage and pushed the US into the war on the side of the ___________ in April 1917
Spring 1918 Offensive
▪ Germany’s last-ditch effort to win the war
▪ With ____________________ troops freed up from the eastern front Germany planned to launch a final
decisive offensive and win the war before the US could send troops
▪ Germans penetrated almost _______________________ west but were eventually stopped by the allies
▪ Final German offensive of the war, now only on the defensive
Armistice
▪ ____________________ – when both sides agree to a temporary ceasefire
▪ By autumn 1918 the German army is steadily being pushed back eastward, into Germany
▪ Armistice signed on November 11th 1918 (11-11-1918 at 11:00 AM)
▪ WWI officially over
Part IV: Versailles
The treaty of Versailles
▪ All of the victorious allied nations met at ____________________ to decide the terms of the official
peace treaty – the Treaty of Versailles
▪ Main goals:
– _____________ for the victors
– Punishing the losers
– _________-_________________ for all nations
– Keeping the peace
Territory
▪ Gained territory from Germany & the ________________ Empire
– France: Alsace & Lorraine (G)+ parts of the Middle East (O)
– UK: colonies in Africa (G)+ parts of the Middle East (O)
▪ German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires _____________ up
 – New nations created
– Self ___________________ - the process by which a country determines its own statehood and
forms its own allegiances and government.
▪ However the Allies still kept their empires
▪ Germany had to pay $33 million in _________________ (war debts) to Britain and France
Keeping the Peace
▪ Germany _________________
▪ Army reduced to 100,000
▪ Could not own planes, tanks, battleships, submarines, poison gas or other heavy weapons
▪ Rhineland made a ____________________ zone
▪ League of Nations created to keep the peace (precursor to the UN)
Placing the Blame
▪ The treaty included a “war ________ clause” which placed the blame for the war on the Central Powers,
specifically Germany
– Named Germany as the primary _________________
▪ Seen as a national ________________ by the German people
Who was left out
▪ The Central Powers had _____ voice in the Versailles conference
– They had no choice but to accept the terms they were given
▪ Allied nations like ______________ also had very little input on the treaty
– Greatly angered because they were treated like a 2nd rate nation
▪ Left a lasting legacy of ________________ amongst these nations

Europe before and after the war