The First World War:

•War involving nearly all the nations of the world

•1914-1918

• What?

• When?

Reasons for start of war…

• Extreme nationalism – pride in country• Imperialism • Militarism – building up military• Alliance system

– European powers formed rival alliances to protect themselves

– PROBLEM? One event could drag all countries involved into a conflict.

Alliances and Strategies

The goals of each of the alliance members• Britain – maintain continental balance and

UK sea superiority• France – confine Germany• Russia – expand if possible • Germany – solidify German-speaking

peoples and never fight on two fronts (West first and then East)

• Austria – hold everything together• Italy – try to solidify your own territory• Ottoman Turks – survive

The Black Hand..• The main objective of the

Black Hand was the creation, by means of violence, of a Greater Serbia.

• Its stated aim was: "To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organization prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret."

The spark that lit the fuse….

• The one event that started the Great War happened in the Balkans.

• The Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Austria) was assassinated while visiting Serbia.

• The Black Hand was responsible….

Outbreak of War

• Balkan trigger– Serbs revolt/backed by Russians– Austria suppressed Serbs– Serbian killed Austrian heir

• War (domino effect)– Austria declared war on Serbia– Russia declared war on Austria– Germany joined with Austria– France and Britain declared war on

Austria and GermanyArchduke Ferdinand

on day of assassination

The First World War:• Who?

GermanyAustria-HungaryOttoman EmpireBulgaria

RussiaFranceGreat BritainItalyJapanUnited States (1917)

Central Powers: Allies:

Germany’s plan

• Germany wanted to quickly defeat France, move east to fight Russia• Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany doomed its plan• The Great War became bloody stalemate

Russia enters fighting

• Russia attacked German territory from the east• Russians defeated in Battle of Tannenberg• Germany distracted from France, Allies turned on German invaders

Early battles

• Battle of the Frontiers pitted German troops against both French and British• Both sides suffered heavy losses • Germany victorious

Fighting in 1914

New science of war

• Trench warfare

• Toxic gas- chemical warfare

• Tanks

• Airplanes

• U-Boats

trenches

• Western front

• From Switzerland to the English Channel

• Daily life –your house, eating place, latrine, and battle headquarters

Study this cross-section for 2 mins.

What can you remember?

French soldiers waiting for their meal.

Trench with French soldiers

German trenches

Child Soldiers

How were portrayals of life in the trenches back home and the reality of fighting

different?

Exposure to the elements

Mud & water

Trench foot

Poison Gas

• Both sides develop poison gas

• Chlorine, Mustard Gas

• Germans first to use the gas

• Rips apart lungs and suffocates the soldier

• Gas mask invented and made part of uniform

American soldier wearing his gas mask

Tanks

• 1st war with tanks

• Slow

• Unreliable

• Often break down or catch fire killing all inside.

Airplanes

• Drop small bombs

• Use mounted machine guns

The Great Aces

• Red Baron Manfred Von Richthofen

• German Ace

Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker

U-Boats

• German Submarines are mighty and are the devils of the seas

• Used extensively

Battles

German remains at Verdun

Dead French soldiers in the Argonne

German dead in frontline trench on the Somme, 1916

Russian soldier dead on the wire

Battle of Verdun• the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements

of World War I. February 1916 – December 1916

• Two million men were engaged.

• The intention of the Germans had been a battle of attrition in which they hoped to bleed the French army white.

• In the end, they sustained almost as many casualties as the French; an estimated 328,000 to the French 348,000.

* The Allied defense of Paris was the turning point of the war.

Battle of Belleau Wood – June, 1918

· This was the first battle involving U.S. troops.

· The Germans were defeated after three weeks of battle.

"American Marines in Belleau Wood” (1918) Georges Scott (1873-1943)

Russian Revolution

• Unhappiness with the war among the Russian people– Germany/Austria beating

Russians• Changes in government

– Lenin transported – Mensheviks (moderates)

victorious• Bolshevik counter revolution• Russia withdraws from war

– Germany ready to have a single front war

Russian Revolutions

February 1917 – Riots protesting the shortage of food forced Russia’s Czar Nicholas II from power

First Russian Revolution

(“February Revolution”)

October 1917 – The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in Russia and began the communist revolution.

Communist / Bolshevik Revolution(“October Revolution”)

· Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and dropped out of the war.

· Germany then sent their troops on the Eastern Front to the Western Front.

Communism – a theory that supports the elimination of private property and the equal distribution of goods

Facts:

· Supports the violent revolution of the working class against the “bourgeois” ruling class.

This 1920 Soviet poster depicts a bourgeois hanging onto a globe by his fingertips as a dogged Red Army soldier tries to stab him with a bayonet.

Communism – a theory that supports the elimination of private property and the equal distribution of goods

Facts:

· Led by a single, authoritarian political party.

Communist symbol located on the flag of the former U.S.S. R.

A mourning poster conveys the message that Lenin’s death has united workers and peasants.

Communism: Development and Duration

· The battle was fought in an attempt to push Germany further out of France.

Battle of the Argonne Forest – Sept.-Oct., 1918

End of the War• Battle of Argonne broke

German morale• Versailles Peace Treaty

– 70 nationalities– Woodrow Wilson (League of

Nations)– Britain and France desires

• Fence Germany in• Reparations• Mandates over other territories

– Division of German colonies– German reaction

• Too harsh• Felt justified in the war

– Seeds of WWII planted

With the failure of the Ludendorf Offensive, and with the exhausted state of Germany, the German generals recognised that it was time to sue for peace with the Allies. The Kaiser was forced to abdicate on the 8th November and a new democratic republic was established.

On 8th November 1918, Imperial Germany came to an end when a democratic republic was established. Though it was intended to have Wilhelm tried as a ‘war criminal’ he was eventually allowed to spend the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands. He died in 1941.

David Lloyd-George [Great Britain]

Orlando [Italy]

Georges Clemenceau [France]

Woodrow Wilson [USA]

THE TERMS OF THE TREATY OF

VERSAILLES1919

WAR GUILT CLAUSE

GERMAN NATIONAL TERRITORY

GERMANY’S MILITARY FORCES REDUCED

GERMAN OVERSEAS TERRITORRIES

NO UNION WITH AUSTRIA

REPARATIONS

Germany had to accept blame for starting WW1

- Army restricted to 100,000 men.

- No modern weapons such as tanks, military air force.

- Navy could not have battle ships over 10,000 tons and no U-Boats.

- Germany lost national territory which was given to Belgium and Denmark, most went to Poland.

Germany lost Chinese ports [Amoy and Tsingtao], Pacific Islands, and African colonies [Tanganika and German SW Africa].

RHINELAND TO BE DE-MILITARISED

Germany forced to pay massive fine for war damages - 1,000,000,000 Marks (6.6bn pounds).

The Treaty was designed to cripple Germany militarily, territorially and economically

1914--------------------1919

‘Punch’ was Britain’s main political magazine of the period.

What does the ‘Angel’ represent?

1. Describe the scene shown, what is the storyline?

2. Then, assess the individual features in the cartoon.

3. Then, identify the political message intended by the cartoonist.

Why the candle ‘snuffer’? What political message does it represent?

What does the candle represent?

What is the general political message of the cartoon?

Describe the condition of the room in which this family is living?

How is the child shown? Why?

Look at the caption, what is its political message?

How reliable is this source?

HOW USEFUL IS THIS SOURCE AS HISTORICAL EVIDENCE:

i. What do we learn from it about the period being studied?

ii. How reliable is this source?

Poison Gas