World War I Essential Questions:

Origins of the War Why did the European

powers go to war in 1914?
How did technology affect
the way that WWI was
fought?
Unit 9 Lesson 1 Standards
 ilitarism

lliance System

mperialism & economic rivalries

ationalism
 Origins of the War: MAIN
• Militarism:
– glorification of the military, military planning, arms
races
– Germany & Britain were competing to become
largest, most powerful navy
– Large armies and armaments made military
leaders tense. Once a crisis started, each side’s
generals were afraid to back down. They even
thought that whoever attacked first would most
likely end up winning the war.
 Origins of the War: MAIN
• Alliance system:
– Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side
– Russia, France, Great Britain on the other
– Although these alliances originally sought to
preserve the existing balance of power, every
dispute involving any two of these countries
threatened to involve all the others.
 Origins of the War: MAIN
• Imperialism and Economic Rivalries:
– nationalistic rivalries and competing economic
interests between great powers.
– German industrialization threatened British
supremacy
– Russians looking to expand in the Balkans
threatened Ottoman Turkey and Austria-Hungary
– Competing colonial claims also created an
atmosphere of tension.
 Origins of the War: MAIN

• Nationalism: pride in one’s nation & belief in

its superiority led to rivalries
– Also led ethnic groups to demand their own
nation-states (Austria-Hungary)
 Assassination = WAR
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife
– heir to Austro-Hungarian throne
– visit Sarajevo, Bosnia
– assassinated by Slavic nationalist (Serbia)
– Austria sent an ultimatum (making demands) to
Serbia that Serbia could not meet
Austria-Hungary Serbia
Allies with Germany Allies with Russia
Joined by Ottoman Turkey France is allies with Russia
Britain involved when
Germans march through
Belgium
 Austria-Hungary invades Serbia=WAR—
Austria was mad that their heir to the
throne was assassinated

Russia backed Serbia (alliances) and

Germany supported Austria

France is allies with Russia so they are

pulled into the war

Britain got involved when Germany marched

through neutral Belgium
 A minor regional crisis turned into a
major European war between the
Central Powers and the Allied Powers
 Fighting in Europe
Thought war would be over quick… they were wrong.
New weapons: machine guns, poison gas, submarines,
airplanes, and tanks prevented either side from
winning quickly.
• Trench warfare
– the Germans at first advanced through Belgium and northern France.
– However, their advance was stopped by the use of machine gun fire,
which made it difficult to advance any further.
– Both sides dug trenches that soon extended for hundreds of miles.
Soldiers in the trenches suffered from loud shelling, rats and lice,
dampness, trench foot, and disease.
– The trenches were separated by an area of barbed wire and land
mines known as “No man’s land”
• Tanks were still new and unable to break through. Each side
bombarded the other with heavy artillery and even tried to use
poison gas—a form of chemical warfare—but neither side
could defeat the other.
 Fighting in Europe
Thought war would be over quick… they were wrong.
New weapons: machine guns, poison gas, submarines,
airplanes, and tanks prevented either side from
winning quickly.
• Naval blockade
– Great Britain: wants to starve Germany
– The British established a naval blockade of the North Sea, preventing foreign arms
or foodstuffs from reaching Germany.
– The Germans did not have enough battleships to defeat the British navy.
– They responded by using their submarines to prevent ships from bringing
supplies to Great Britain. The submarines used their torpedoes to sink enemy ships.
• Airplanes
– New invention, dominated the sky
– Airplanes were often used for reconnaissance—to see what was happening on the
battlefield below.
– Airmen and allied pilots sometimes engaged in “dogfights”--duels in the sky in
which each pilot tried to shoot down the other.
– However, airplanes were still new and did not play as important a role as they would
in later years.
World War I Essential Questions:
Origins of the War Why did the European
powers go to war in 1914?
How did technology affect
the way that WWI was
fought?