World War One

World History: Nilsen

They called it the Great War

How could this happen?

We can understand why this happened.

We need to understand the story.

The war had several causes.

National rivalries played a large role.

Social Darwinism led to tensions.

Military arms races

led to conflict.

Colonial competition led to hostility.

Interlocking alliances removed flexibility.

Balance of Power requires flexibility.

The Central Powers allied together.

The Triple Entente allied together.

An assassination sparked the war.

A Serbian patriot assassinated

Franz Ferdinand.

Serbia was allied with Russia.

Timetables forced a war.

The fighting began.

The war had two fronts.

Germany acted on the Schlieffen Plan.

The Eastern Front was eventually a stalemate.

The Western Front was a stalemate.

The stalemate was extremely costly.

Trench warfare led to many casualties.

Military technology became far deadlier.

Millions died; more were injured.

America’s entry changed everything.

The Zimmermann

Telegram made America

enter.

American forces

turned the tide.

The Triple Entente was victorious.

The war’s resolution was complicated.

Woodrow Wilson created the Fourteen Points.

The Fourteen Points were very idealistic.

Many had objections

to them.

They were central to peace negotiations.

The treaty resolved territory and punishments.

Traditionally, the winners punished

the losers.

The victors gave

Germany immense fines.

They also created many new nations.

The League of Nations was created.

The most important principle was disarmament.

“Collective Security” was a vital concern.

The League of Nations failed miserably.

They called it the Great War

How could this happen?

We can understand why this happened.

We need to understand the story.