WWIIn a Nutshell

1.Who was involved and Why?● who? - EVERYONE!... almost ● why? - alliances, colonies, spheres of influence

o basically imperialism/nationalism made this looked like this

2. What was it like?Brutality aside, WWI was set by:● Total War - channeling all resources toward war effort

o Conscription - Draft Women - left the home to join the war effort

● upside - later helped fuel Women’s Suffrage movements

2. What was it like?● Trench warfare - “brutal futility”

o not always stalemates but mostly stalemateso “No Mans Land” - “over the top” sucked … but the

shellings were the worsto Biggest Killers - smallest to largest

😨 Tanks, Planes, Poison Gas😱 Machine gun, barbed wire 😷 disease!!!

● Death toll varies - about 37 mil casualties o 17 mil killed (7 mil. civil.) & 20 mil wounded

3. OUTCOMES Treaty of Versailles ends the war★ Germany - gets blamed (we’ll come back to this)

○ population, economy, political institutions destroyed○ sets the stage for a sequals

★ Russia - civil war, revolution, Lenin, communism ★ Ottoman Empire - dissolved → Turkey - nation state ★ Other European players★ Africa, Asia and the rest of the Non-Western World★ The US - $$$$$ power, debtor to creditor, gets their first

real seat at the grown up table ★ The League of Nations