Post on 30-Jun-2015
WORLD WAR I1914-1918
Origins
Nationalism The Slavs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Arms Race Expansion and Strengthening of Armies and
Navies Growing spirit of militarism
Alliance System Chancellor Bismarck League of Three Emperors
Germany Austria-Hungary Russia
Alliance System
Triple Alliance Germany Austria-
Hungary Italy
Triple Entente Great
Britain France Russia
The Road to War, 1907-1914
Suspicious climate and national rivalries led to a series of crises that brought Europe closer to war
Austrian annexation of Bosnia, 1908
Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 Collapse of the
Ottoman Empire
Black Hand
“Unification or Death” Pan- Slavic Nationalism
Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Macedonians
Gavrilo Princep (1894-1918)
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, June 28, 1914
(Sarajevo, Bosnia)
July 28, 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
Schlieffen Plan: Germany’s plan of attack meant to bring the war to a swift end
Plan XVII: The French plan of attack August 1: Germany declares war on
Russia August 3: Germany declares war on
France August 4: Great Britain declares war on
Germany
Schlieffen Plan (Alfred von Schlieffen)
• German troops will be able to move swiftly through Belgium (6 weeks to Paris)
• Russia will need 6 weeks to mobilize troops (takes 3!)
• Great Britain will stay out of war
• QUICK VICTORY!
Plan XVII (Joseph Joffre)
Germany will not swing out too far West through Belgium
“Napoleonic model” of combat (offensive strategy) will secure victory
Élan vital (fighting spirit) will secure victory in spite of being outnumbered
QUICK VICTORY!
Allies Great Britain, France, Russia,
Serbia, Beligum, Japan (late August 1914), Italy (1915), United States (1917)
Central Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Ottoman Empire (late 1914), Bulgaria (1915)
Before the war was over it involved over thirty nations with a combined fighting force of over 65 million.
Stalemate on the Western Front The First Battle of the Marne Beginning of Trench Warfare Battle lines established in 1914 changed little
in 3 ½ years The Eastern Front
More fluid, with frequently shifting battle lines resulting in territory won and lost
Russian victories and defeats
New Technologies of War
Poison GasMachine Guns
Planes Tanks
Effects of Poison Gas
Life in the Trenches
A “War of Attrition”
No Man’s Land- the area between enemy trenches
The problem of Rats
Trench Foot
Shell Shock
“My nervous state, which I thought ought to last not more than a fortnight, still persists more than three, or almost four, months after being evacuated, though the trembling is a little less.”
Case #225 (1919)
Christmas TruceDecember, 1914
Sinking of the LusitaniaMay 7, 1915
The War at Home
Total War Maintaining
National Unity
Regulation of Economic Life
Censorship and Propaganda
Women and the War
Volunteer Groups Nurses and
Nurses Aids Blurring of Class
Lines Ammunition
Factories A Growing
Independence
Russian Revolution
Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918)
The Bolsheviks Vladimir Lenin
(1870-1924) Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk, March 1918
U.S. Enters the War
The War Vote: 375 to 50 (House)
82 to 6 (Congress)
The End of the War
60 units on Eastern Front freed by Russian withdrawal from war
Germany transfers troops from Eastern Front to West (France)
May 1918=Germans are 50 miles outside Paris
U.S. troops tip the balance toward the Allies 10,000 fresh soldiers sent to France every day 2nd Battle of Marne
German populace hungry and tired of war
Germany forced to face punishing armistice effective November 11, 1918, “11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour”
Armistice Day
November 11, 1918
Two Minute Silence, Armistice Day (London, 1918)