HomeworkDue next class (Thursday, 21 January):

• 2-minute talks: Pamela, Danasia, Carolina, Carla

• No new reading.

Review pages 362-377.

Today’s 2-Minute Talks

• Candelaria• Pamela• Danasia – My Previous School• Carolina• Carla

Quiz 3(1) Why did the Schlieffen Plan call for Germany to pass through Belgium on its way to France?

(2) Which countries fought on the Western Front?

(3) What is trench warfare?

(4) Add your own question about World War I.

Lecture SlidesN.B. I have created a Google Drive for my classes, and you can view lecture slides by logging into Google at SRHS.history@gmail.com. The password is SanRafael2016.

The Western Front, 1914–1917

World War I

The Schlieffen Plan

The Planning

Long before Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, the leaders of Germany, France, and Belgium expected war. And all of them expected Belgium to be invaded. The question was: by whom?

Butchery in Belgium

The Belgian army of 117,000, with 200,000 more at fortifications, met the German invasion.

The German army responded to this unexpected resistance by murdering civilians: 5,521 were killed. Buildings were destroyed; priests and nuns were killed.

The First Encounters

The French army headed toward the border with Belgium to encounter the German troops, and 100,000 British troops joined them. The first ten days of fighting in August 1914 left 260,000 French casualties. French troops fell back.

What made the fighting so bloody?

This made it bloody.

The Battle of the Marne

The first major battle of the Western Front took place over a front 240 miles long. From 6 to 9 September 1914 the French and British armies refused to budge, and when a gap between the German forces opened, the Allies pressed ahead. The Germans, who had won all the previous battles, had to retreat. France was saved—for the time being.

Trench WarfareA trench is a long narrow hole in the ground, like a sunken path or an exposed tunnel.

By early 1915, the Western Front was defined by trenches. They were wet, muddy, and noisy.

Between the German and Allied trenches lay lots of barbed wire and craters. This was no-man’s-land.

A very fancy trench

A Map of Trenches

Battle of the Somme

July–November 1916Day 1 of the battle: 20,000 British soldiers killed.