WARMUP #2

1.Analyze the political cartoon.

2. Who are the players involved?

3. Who is dead?

4. What is the significance of the large hand on the left?

The Great War (World War I)

Trench Warfare• trenches: elaborate ditches dug by troops to stay out

of enemy sight– separated by “no-man’s-land” with barbed wire,

dead bodies, & the holes from bombs & grenades– soldiers suffered from trench foot & bad conditions– “shell shock” → PTSD

• “over the top” orders: getting out of the trenches, running across “no-man’s-land” to attack the enemy trenches, while being fired upon by machine guns & having grenades launched at them!

Trench Warfare

No Man’s Land

Trench Foot

War of Attrition• Italy (at first) on the side of the Central Powers, but

switched to side with the Allied Powers (1915) • war of attrition: wear the other side down with

constant attacks & heavy losses until they cannot recover & thus have to surrender

• Battle of Verdun (France): best example of the war of attrition – 10 months (February to December 1916)– a few miles’ movement– 800,000 men died fighting

• to pull Germany away from Verdun, Great Britain launched an attack at the Somme River, but the exact same results as at the Battle of Verdun

• for three years (1914-1917), battle lines did not really move on the Western Front!

Battle of Verdun

Continued Fighting• Ottoman Empire entered the war for Central Powers

(1914)– Ottoman Empire controlled an area called the

Dardanelles (the water route to Russia)• to gain control & get supplies to Russia, Australian &

New Zealand troops fought the Ottomans at Gallipoli (1915)– the bloody attack went on for months, but failed to

take the Dardanelles• in the Middle East (controlled by Ottoman Empire),

Great Britain encouraged nations to revolt…sent T.E. Lawrence “Lawrence of Arabia” to help with revolts

Gallipoli & “Lawrence of Arabia”

Armenian Massacre

• tensions between Muslim Turks & Christian Armenians for decades within the Ottoman Empire

• 1915 the Russians successfully attacked the Ottoman Empire

• the Ottoman Empire blamed the Armenians for helping with the Russian attack

• thus, the Ottoman Empire began the Armenian Massacre (1915-1916)– 600,000 Armenians died from violence, starvation, forced

marches, disease, etc.

Armenian Massacre

Technology in the War• poison gas (mustard gas) used, but backfired if the

wind changed…outlawed at the Geneva Convention• gas masks developed to counter gas attacks• machine guns developed before the War, but military

tactics had to change & adapt to accommodate them• tanks & armored cars developed, but unsteady &

dangerous…used more effectively in WWII• submarines (U-Boats) used mostly by Germany to

attack supply ships in the Atlantic Ocean headed to Great Britain or France– sinking of Lusitania (1915) outraged United States

Mustard GasU-Boats (Submarines)

Air War

• airplanes developed…but used to see & drop bombs on enemy

• machine guns were added to airplanes & they fought each other in the air (dogfights)– flying aces: pilots who shot down at least 5

planes in combat (the Red Baron: Germany)• Germany also used Zeppelins to bomb cities, but

they were filled with hydrogen gas & thus, highly explosive

Air War

Home Front• total war: all parts of society involved in the war effort• propaganda: information designed to influence the

opinions of the general public– with the overflow of men at War, women stepped

into the workforce at factories:– made weapons, etc.– served as nurses on the battlefields– increased push for women’s suffrage

• 19th Amendment in USA (1920, not long after war’s end)

Propaganda