World War I

The “Great War”

Dr. Robbins
World History
MAIN Causes of WWI

 Militarism
 Alliances
 Imperialism
 Nationalism
Cause: Militarism

 All
major nations wanted a
large army in response to
nationalism, imperialism and
the perceived threats from
other armies
Cause: Alliances

 Caused many countries to join

fighting once war had begun
 Before the war: Triple Alliance and
Triple Entente
 Later: Central Powers and Allied
Powers
Cause: Imperialism

 Desirefor increased territory

and wealth led to competition
over colonies
Cause: Nationalism

 Desire to prove national

greatness led to rivalries
between great powers
 Highly nationalistic ethnic
groups were calling for
independence (e.g., Serbians,
part of Slavic ethnic group)
What is a catalyst?
  Ottoman Empire had
The Catalyst: declined and some
Background Balkan countries
were now
independent
 Austria took over
(annexed) Bosnia
and Herzegovina,
part of Slavic ethnic
group
 Serbia, also Slavic,
resented Austrian
aggression; wanted
large Slavic-
controlled region
The Catalyst

 Assassinationof Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary
– Serbian nationalist group, Black
Hand, wanted Bosnia freed from
Austria
– 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip of the
Black Hand killed the Archduke on
June 28, 1914
The Catalyst Leads to War

– Austria wanted to punish Serbia

and set demands; most agreed
to, but not enough
– Austria declares war against
Serbia on July 28, 1914
War Spreads

 July28—Russia (also Slavic)

mobilized troops to the
Austrian border
 Aug 1—Austria’s ally Germany
saw this as a threat and
declared war on Russia
War Continues to Spread

 Aug 3—Germany declared war

on France, Russia’s ally
 Aug 4—after Germany
attacked neutral Belgium, to
get to France, Britain declared
war on Germany
The Schlieffen Plan

 First—attack France to the west

 Second—attack Russia to the east
 Worked well to start: in Paris by
Sept 3
 Intended to keep Germany from
having to fight on two fronts at the
same time
 The Schlieffen Plan

Count Von Schlieffen

Kaiser Wilhelm II
Alliances Before the War

 Triple Alliance:
– Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
 Triple Entente:
– France, Russia, Britain
Alliances Shift After War
Starts
 Central Powers
–Germany, Austria-Hungary
–later, Bulgaria and Ottoman
Empire (wanting to regain
lost territories)
 Allied
Powers (the Allies)
–Great Britain, France, Russia
–soon Japan, and later Italy
–also Serbia, Greece,
Romania, etc.
–much later, the U.S. (1917)
Europe in 1914
“Short” war goes long

 German plan worked well to start:

in Paris by Sept 3
 Battle of the Marne— began on
Sept 5, after 8 days of battle,
German offensive was stopped
 Russians soon attacking Germany
in the east
– the Schlieffen Plan has failed
 Stuck in the trenches
 Example of trench warfare

– Battle of Verdun in Feb 1916—each

side lost more than 300,000 men
Trenches on the
Western Front
New technology of war

 Machine guns
 Poison gas
 Grenades
 Armored tanks
 Larger artillery: canons
 Submarines
 Airplanes armed
with machine guns
Western Front

 Mostly in France, near German border

 500 miles of trenches dug in France
 Trench warfare
 No Man’s Land—the uninhabited land
between the rows of trenches
 STALEMATE—”stuck”, nobody makes
any real progress
Eastern Front

 Along Russia’s borders with

Germany and Austria-Hungary
 Fewer trenches, more mobile
and more brutal than western
front
 Russians always short of
supplies
Russia’s Role

 Russia’s huge population

provided plenty of soldiers to
send to the front
 Russia kept Germany from
winning the war by occupying
them in the east, dividing
forces
Gallipolli, 1915
“Global” war

 Every continent throughout the

GLOBE
 Fighting over colonies

 Also colonial subjects served

their European masters
Who’s Fighting?

 Middle East (Arab nationalists helped

Britain)
 Asia (Japan took German colonies;
India fought for Britain)
 Africa (English & French wanted
German land)
 Americas: Brazil, Canada and later, U.S.
 Australia (fighting for British)
“Total” War

 Every country involved

devoted its TOTAL resources
to the war effort
 Governments took over
factories, etc.
Life on the Home Front

 Rationing in Europe
– Limiting the amount of daily supplies that
people could buy (gasoline, sugar, etc.)
– On a volunteer basis in U.S.
 Propaganda
– Persuading the population to support the
war
Women worked in factories & on farms
replacing men who had gone to fight
U.S. Enters the War

 U.S. policy of isolationism had

kept it out of the war, though
they helped Allies
 Unrestricted submarine warfare
by Germans sank British and
U.S. ships, including passenger
ships (Lusitania)
U.S. Enters the War cont.

 Zimmerman Note—US learned of

German telegram offering Mexico
US territory if it joined Germany
 US entered war on April 2, 1917

 Took a year to get 2 million US

soldiers over
Russia’s Problems

 WWI had contributed to problems

in Russia and helped cause
revolution
 Russian Revolution of March, 1917
led to fall of Czar Nicholas II
 New provisionary government
does not leave war, this led to
resentment and…
Russia Leaves the War

 Bolshevik Revolution of Nov,

1917 led to Communist
takeover of Russia
 Bolshevik leader Lenin signed
peace treaty with Germany in
November, 1917
– Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Final Act

 With Russia out, Germany

could focus on Western Front
 BUT…arrival of US troops and
exhaustion of German army
and supplies led to defeat of
Germany
Fighting Ends

 CentralPowers signed the

Armistice (end to fighting)—
Nov 11, 1918
Treaty of Versailles

 Allied Powers met to create a

post-war treaty at the Palace of
Versailles
 Started on Jan 18, 1919 & signed
on June 28, 1919 (5 years after
assassination)
 Big 4: US, France, Britain, Italy
(Japan virtually shut out)
The Fourteen-Point Plan
Woodrow Wilson’s proposal for peace
– End to secret treaties
– Freedom of seas
– Reduce national armies and navies
– Self-determination for colonial
peoples
– “just” peace (no harsh punishment)
– League of Nations
In the End…

 Britain& France agreed to

League of Nations but not the
rest of Wilson’s plan
 Germanywas punished:
–“War guilt” clause, Germany to
pay $33 billion over 30 years to
Allies
($407 billion in 2008 money)
–Lost lots of territory
–Restrictions on German military
The Result

4 Empires Ended: Russian,

German, Ottoman, Austrian-
Hungarian
 Ex-colonies administered by
League; colonies angry at
treatment by Europe
More Results

 Japan and Italy angry—gained

little
 Germany left virtually
destroyed, broke, in debt,
embittered…ready for Hitler 20
years later
Total Costs

 8.5 million soldiers died

 21 million soldiers wounded

 1918 flu epidemic killed as many

as 50 million
– Made worse by wartime conditions
Total Costs cont.

 A generation “lost”
 Farmland, homes, & villages
destroyed
 Total cost in 1918 dollars: $338
billion (about $4 trillion in today’s
money)