Main Idea: WWI spread to several continents and required
the full resources of many governments
Why It Matters Now: The war propelled the US to a new
position of international power, which it holds today War Affects the World • Countries try to find ways to break the stalemate • Gallipoli Campaign – Allies try and take the Dardanelles, part of the Ottoman Empire. • This will beat the Turks and open a supply line to Russia – Repeated Allied assaults on Gallipoli Peninsula, turned into stalemate/trench war • Battles in Africa and Asia – Japan defeats German troops in China and Pacific Islands
– Many colonial countries sent supplies, troops
and other help to their mother countries • Hoped to gain independence for helping in the war (Mohandas Gandhi) America Joins the War • 1917- Germany started UNRESTRICTED SUBMARINE WARFARE – Subs would sink ships without warning in water around Britain – Sink 3 American ships (Already blew up British Lusitania on May 7, 1915 killing 128 Americans and 1,198 civilians) – Zimmermann Telegram intercepted by British and given to US. – April 2, 1917 • President Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany War on the Home Front • Governments wage TOTAL WAR – Countries devote all their resources to the war effort – Set up RATIONING where people could buy only small amounts of certain items, also needed for war
– Govt. used PROPAGANDA (one-sided info designed to
persuade) to keep up morale – Women work in factories, offices, shops, and hospitals (where men had once worked) Allies Win the War • US entrance tips the balance • Russia withdraws – Russian revolution in March 1917, no food or fuel, and refusal of army to fight means no war • Russia/German truce…Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed in March 1918 Central Powers Collapse • Russian withdraw allows Germany to move troops to the west for last ditch effort – Germany gets within 40 miles of Paris but at cost • Exhausted troops and supplies – Fresh US troops help push back – Bulgarians, Ottoman Turks, Austrian-Hungary (in order) surrender – November 9, 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm II steps down and Germany becomes a republic – Armistice signed on November 11, 1918 • 11/11/11/1918 Legacy of the War • New technologies • Global conflict • Death and destruction never seen before – 8.5 million soldiers dead (millions more civilian) – 21 million wounded – $338 billion cost of war ($5.5 trillion in today’s value) – Acres of land, animals and crops destroyed