WORLD WAR I SEMINAR LG5

The Causes of WW1

•Militarism•Alliances•Imperialism•Nationalism

Militarism 1.

• Germany was competing with the UK to build battleships.

• The British feared an attack on their Empire

2. Militarism & Arms Race

1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1914

94 130 154 268 289 398

Total Defense Expenditures for the Great Total Defense Expenditures for the Great Powers [Ger., A-H, It., Fr., Br., Rus.] Powers [Ger., A-H, It., Fr., Br., Rus.]

in millions of £s.in millions of £s.

1910-1914 Increase in Defense Expenditures

France 10%

Britain 13%

Russia 39%

Germany 73%

Militarism 2.

• Germany was competing with Russia and France to expand their armies

1880 1914• Germany 1.3m 5.0m• France 0.73m 4.0m• Russia 0.40m 1.2m

1. The Alliance SystemTriple EntenteTriple Entente:: Triple AllianceTriple Alliance::

Britain

France

Russia

Germany

Austria-Hungary

Italy

Alliances• By 1914 all the major

powers were linked by a system of alliances.

• The alliances made it more likely that a war would start.

• Once started, the alliances made it more likely to spread.

Two Armed Camps!Allied PowersAllied Powers:: Central PowersCentral Powers::

Turkey

Imperialism

• All the great powers were competing for colonies / territory.

• The British feared Germany in Africa.• The Austrians feared Serbia / Russia

in the Balkans

3. Economic & Imperial Rivalries

Nationalism• This was an age when

all nations wanted to assert their power and independence.

• In Europe, Slavs, aided by Serbia and Russia, wanted to be free of Austrian rule.

Serbia’s national flag

4. Aggressive Nationalism

Crisis • 28 June 1914• Heir to Austrian throne

Franz Ferdinand visits Sarajevo.

• Capital of Bosnia, recently grabbed by Austria.

• Hotbed of Slav nationalism Seal of the

Black Hand group

Archduke Franz Ferdinand & His Family

The Crisis• “Black Hand” terrorists

attack the Arch Duke• Bomb attempt fails in

morning• Gavrilo Princip shoots

Archduke and wife in the afternoon.

• Austrians blame Serbia for supporting terrorists.

The Assassination: Sarajevo

The SPARK• Austrians, supported by

Germany, send Serbia a tough ultimatum.

• Serbia agrees to all but two terms of the ultimatum.

• Russia mobilises her troops to support Serbia

• Germany demands that Russia stands her armies down.

• Germany declares war on Russia

“Demands must be put to Serbia that would be wholly impossible for them to accept …”

RUSSIA DEFENDS SERBIA

Who’s To Blame?

The Schlieffen Plan• Germany’s military plan

to defeat France and Russia.

• “Knock out blow” aimed at France first.

• Avoid French defences by invasion of Belgium.

• Germans thought Britain would not intervene.

Why did Britain get involved?• Britain had Ententes

with France and Russia.

• Only “friendly agreements” but French and Russians given impression Britain would fight.

• The Schlieffen Plan

Sir Edward GreyBritish Foreign Secretary … “There’s some devilry going on in Berlin”

Britain’s Reaction• 1838- UK had signed a

Treaty to protect Belgium.• Britain also scared of

Germany controlling Channel ports.

• Did not want Germany to defeat France and dominate Europe. Britain next?

• UK issued ultimatum to Germany to withdraw troops from Belgium. War declared August 4 1914

German Atrocities in Belgium

Why Canada?Why Canada? Canada was part of the British Empire and Canada was part of the British Empire and

therefore obligated to go to war with Britain.therefore obligated to go to war with Britain. Also most Canadians were loyal and eager to Also most Canadians were loyal and eager to

fight for the homeland.fight for the homeland.

Mobilization

It's a long way to Tipperary,It's a long way to Tipperary, It's a long way to go;It's a long way to go; It's a long way to Tipperary,It's a long way to Tipperary, To the sweetest girl I know!To the sweetest girl I know! Goodbye, Piccadilly,Goodbye, Piccadilly, Farewell, Leicester Square,Farewell, Leicester Square, It's a long, long way to Tipperary,It's a long, long way to Tipperary, But my heart's right there!But my heart's right there!

• Home by Christmas!Home by Christmas!• No major war No major war

in 50 years!in 50 years!• Nationalism!Nationalism!

• "In those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."

• BGen A.E. Ross

Sir Robert Borden

• Sir Robert Borden (1854-1937) served as Canada's wartime Prime Minister from 1911-20.

http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/ap/a/a028128.jpg

The Canadian government wanted to encourage men to enlist for war.

They said the war would be safe, hardly any fighting, a good lark and over by Christmas.

They used advertising posters to encourage this idea!

The reality of was very different!

How the uniform and equipment changed after just three weeks in the trenches…

The Western Front:

A “War of Attrition”

A Multi-Front War

The Western Front

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare

““No Man’s No Man’s Land”Land”

War Is HELL !!

No smiling and relaxed faces…

No clean uniforms…

Their equipment is scattered everywhere…

Boredom and sleep are obvious…

The soldiers had very little decent food, and what food they had was often attacked by rats.

These rats were the size of small rabbits and badgers because they had fed on the decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.

This is a photograph of the first Canadian troops to see action in World War I. To many Canadians, war was seen as a glorious and celebratory event.

Ypres 1915

In their first major appearance on a European battlefield, the Canadians established a reputation as a formidable fighting force. Congratulatory messages were cabled to the Canadian Prime Minister. But the cost was high. In these 48 hours, 6,035 Canadians, one man in every three, became casualties of whom more than 2,000 died.

Canadian at War:The Battles of 1916-17

• Somme Offensive: July 1916• General Haig.• 57,000 British casualties: 20,000 killed on the first day• By November the offensive ended with 410,000 casualties for 7 miles of front.

• Vimy Ridge: April 9-12th 1917 For the first time Canadians fought together as a single unit

• The Canadians, led by General Arthur Currie, employed the creeping barrage to take the ridge

• Historians believe Canada’s sense of nationhood was “forged in the fire” of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

• Passchendaele offensive:• October 1917 General Currie was reluctant to enter his troops into the, predicting

16,000 casualties.• Hauntingly close to Currie’s prediction, 15,654 Canadians were killed or

wounded.

The Somme – July, 1916

60,000 British soldiers killed. 24,000 Canadians casualties Over 1,000,000 killed in 5 months.

The Capture of Vimy Ridge

• The Canadian achievement in capturing Vimy Ridge owed its success to sound and meticulous planning and thorough preparation, all of which was aimed at minimizing casualties. But it was the splendid fighting qualities and devotion to duty of Canadian officers and soldiers on the battlefield that were decisive.

• On Nov. 6, 1917 Canadian troops captured Belgium’s Passchendaele ridge, ending a gruelling offensive that had begun on July 31, 1917.

PasschendaeleLieutenant-General Currie inspected the muddy battlefield and protested that the operation was impossible without heavy cost

On October 26, 1917 with two British divisions, the Canadians began the assault on Passchendaele

Weapons of WarAnd all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization andour hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, livingluxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffersome infinitesimal rebuff to his country's pride.-Bertrand Russell

• Horses were still being used in great numbers during World War I.

• High ranked army officers commonly rode horses during World War I.

• Horses and mules were also used to carry heavy equipment to and from the front during the war.

BayonetsWe set to work to bury people. We pushed them into the sides of the trenches but bits of them kept getting uncovered and sticking out, like people in a badly made bed. Hands were the worst; they would escape from the sand, pointing, begging - even waving! There was one which we all shook when we passed, saying, "Good morning," in a posh voice. Everybody did it. The bottom of the trench was springy like a mattress because of all the bodies underneath...Leonard Thompson - quoted in Ronald Blythe, Akenfield

Soldiers Kit

• This picture shows an example of a typical equipment kit that was carried by each Canadian soldier while overseas during World War I.

Steel HelmetsWe are soldiers. It is a great brotherhood, which adds something ofthe good-fellowship of the folk-song, of the feeling of solidarity of convicts,and of the desperate loyalty to one another of men condemned to death, to acondition of life arising out of the midst of danger, out of the tension andforlorness of death.Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front

Armoured Cars

Artillery

Artillery was the great leveller. Nobody could stand more than three hours of sustained shelling before they start falling sleepy and numb. You're hammered after three hours and you're there for the picking when he comes over.Martin Middlebrook - The Kaiser's Battle

Krupp’s “Big Bertha” Gun

Grenades

Machine Guns

Pistols

Gas! GAS!

Quick, Boys!

Poison Gas

German army released 5,700 cylinders of Chlorine Gas. A greenish yellow cloud of gas

Ypres, Belgium April 22, 1915

Phosgene as a weapon was more potent than chlorine

Mustard gas, an almost odourless chemical, was distinguished by the serious blisters it caused both internally and externally

Casualties From Gas

Country Total Casualties DeathAustria-Hungary 100,000 3,000British Empire 188,706 8,109France 190,000 8,000Germany 200,000 9,000Italy 60,000 4,627Russia 419,340 56,000USA 72,807 1,462Others 10,000 1,000

Ross RifleCanadian Ross rifle was used and subsequently abandoned by Canadian forces during the First World War. A favourite of Industrialist Sam Hughes. Jammed when it over heated

TanksThis first tank was given the nickname 'Little Willie' (soon followed by 'Big Willie') and, as with its predecessors, possessed a Daimler engine.

This is a picture of a German tank that was used during World War I. The tank was integral part of the modern style of warfare that evolved during World War I.

TANK PRODUCTION• Tank Production 1916-18• Year UK France Germany Italy USA• 1916 150 - - - -• 1917 1,277 800 - - -• 1918 1,391 4,000 20 6 84

Trench Mortars

A mortar is essentially a short, stumpy tube designed to fire a projectile at a steep angle (by definition higher than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down on the enemy.

Misc. Weapons

Periscope Rifles

Crossbow Grenade

Flame-Throwers

Searchlight

This searchlight, which was used in the defense of Paris, was just one of many new electrical technologies introduced into warfare during World War I.

The Airplane

“Squadron Over the Brenta”Max Edler von Poosch, 1917

Looking for the “Red Baron?”

AVIATION"Those magnificent men in

their flying machines"

Canada’s WWI ACESRobert Collishaw

Billy Bishop

William Barker

Roy Brown

• Top 20 Fighter Pilots• Manfred von Richthofen 80• Rene Fonck 75• William Bishop 72• Ernst Udet 62• Edward Mannock 61• Raymond Collishaw 60• James McCudden 57• Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor 54• Georges Guynemer 54• Erich Lowenhardt 54• Donald MacLaren 54• William Barker 52• Josef Jacobs 48• Werner Voss 48• George McElroy 47• Robert Little 47• Charles Nungesser 45• Fritz Rumey 45• Rudolf Berthold 44• Albert Ball 44-47

It's a long way off from today's fighter jets, but technologically unsophisticated planes like this German one from World War I

marked the beginning of airplane warfare. Courtesy: Dr. F.X. O'Connor Fonds, Queen's University.

The Zeppelin

WAR AT SEA

The first photo is a picture of the H.M.S. "Olympic", a boat that was used to transport Canadian troops and equipment overseas during World War I.

British Fleet

SUBMARINESSubmarines also became potent weapons. Although they had been around for years, it was during WWI that they began fulfilling their potential as a major threat.

U-Boats

Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats

MINES

PowerPoint PresentationThe Causes of WW1Militarism 1.Slide 4Militarism 2.Slide 6AlliancesSlide 8ImperialismSlide 10NationalismSlide 12Crisis Slide 14The CrisisSlide 16The SPARKSlide 18The Schlieffen PlanWhy did Britain get involved?Britain’s ReactionSlide 22Why Canada?Slide 24Slide 25Sir Robert BordenSlide 27Slide 28Slide 29The Western Front: A “War of Attrition”Slide 31Slide 32Slide 33Slide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40Slide 41Slide 42Slide 43Slide 44Ypres 1915Canadian at War:The Battles of 1916-17Slide 47The Capture of Vimy RidgeSlide 49Weapons of WarSlide 51BayonetsSoldiers KitSteel Helmets Armoured Cars ArtillerySlide 57GrenadesMachine GunsPistolsSlide 61Poison GasCasualties From GasRoss RifleTanksTANK PRODUCTIONTrench MortarsMisc. WeaponsSearchlightSlide 70Slide 71AVIATION "Those magnificent men in their flying machines"Slide 73Slide 74It's a long way off from today's fighter jets, but technologically unsophisticated planes like this German one from World War I marked the beginning of airplane warfare. Courtesy: Dr. F.X. O'Connor Fonds, Queen's University.Slide 76WAR AT SEABritish FleetSUBMARINESSlide 80Slide 81MINES