World War I - Review

I. Who were the MAIN “Super Powers” of the world in the early 1900’s?

• Austro-Hungarian Empire – Old empire that had a large wealthy empire in eastern Europe. Many parts of their empire wished to separate. Also had a long standing alliance with German leaders.

• Germany – A relatively new nation state. Formed by uniting German speaking lands of Western Europe. Has an alliance with Austrian King. Has a power hungry Kaiser who likes to flex his newfound muscle…a well trained and supplied army that he likes to parade in a show of strength to intimidate potential rivals. An aspiring imperial nation. Kaiser is cousin to Russian Czar and English King.

Unification of Germany 1886-71

• A map showing the stages of German unification, 1866-1871. The medieval Holy Roman Empire had nominally united the hundreds of independent Germanic states under the leadership of Austria. In 1806 Napoleon abolished that structure and by edict created the German Confederation, which in 1815 the Congress of Vienna recognized as comprising 38 sovereign states, excluding Prussia (purple on this map) and Austria (blue). After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the victorious Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck joined the territory taken from Austria (red) with those states north of the river Main (light green) which had separated from the German Confederation. That new North German Confederation agreed to a constitution which gave control to Prussia. Then, Bismarck?s quick and decisive victory in the Franco-Prussian War gave Prussia Alsace-Lorraine (tan ) and an incentive for the South German Federation (green) to unite with the north. In 1897 William I, King of Prussia, was proclaimed Emperor of Germany.

Germany’s Leaders

• Russia – Had the largest population in the world..also the largest, but most under trained and supplied army.

• England – Had long been a world power. Has had the strongest naval fleet in the world. Ally to France. Had been in recent wars with Russia over Russian attempts to expand it’s colonial power. Feels threatened by Germany’s attempt to grow its military.

English Navy Ruled the Seas

• France - Has long been a world power. Has an alliance with England and had recent conflict with Russia while aligned with England. Has had a long history, sometimes uneasy, with England.

Ottoman Empire

• A long declining empire that has struggled to not only keep control of it’s large empire, but also to compete with the above nations for colonial lands.

** All of these nations were in direct and sometimes fierce competition with each other for colonial territories in Africa & Southeast Asia among other places.

What were the 4 Main Causes of World War I

1. Militarism – Glorification of large, powerful armies. Nations who are militaristic often use these armies to intimidate and bully neighboring countries. Many militaristic leaders also believed that an unused army is a useless army.

– Germany was probably the best example as Kaiser William (Wilhelm) was a strong military guy. He wanted to use his army to bully neighbors into allowing German people and lands to be united…and to expand Germany’s growing industrial economy. They needed the resources of Africa and SE Asia to supply their industry.

– Germany held huge parades focusing around the armies. They would march them down main thoroughfares in Germany’s largest cities.

– Germany made it public that they aspired to build the largest and strongest navy in the world. This was a direct threat to England’s ruler of the world’s oceans.

2. Nationalism – Extreme loyalty to ones nation or nationality. Sometimes this loyalty led to groups attempting to secede from the control of larger nations.

– Some nations/ethnicities believed that their nationality or race was superior to others.

– Led to increased rivalries and tension.

– Inspired France to try to regain control of Alsace-Lorraine..a territory whose control was long disputed by both Germany and France.

– Led to the destabilization (weakening) of some older empires as some ethnicities began to revolt or attempt to break away and become independent.

– Industrial strength also became a source of national pride. Many of these new industrial powers were a threat to the existing power held by nations such as England and France.

3. Imperialism – The act of taking control of lands to be used as a source of goods or natural resources. Much of the time, it was by force.

– For a period of time there was a great race to seize control of many underdeveloped lands to exploit for their own benefit.

– Sometimes the intense competition for these lands led to uneasy tensions between nations.

– Nations began to build armies and navy’s to strengthen their control of their lands.

– Germany needed a navy to compete with England in SE Asia and England felt threatened by Kaiser Wilhelm’s boasts of their new navy.

• 4. Alliance System –Nations uniting together to make themselves less likely to be attacked.

– Germany’s former Chancellor, Otto von Bismark, had many, some secret, alliances created to preserve Germany’s positions.

– Germany and Austria-Hungary had a “secret” alliance.

– Russia had a long standing “big brother” type relationship with the people of Serbia due to their ethnicity.

– England and France were also pretty much aligned together to protect their mutual interests in remaining the world’s strongest imperial nations.

– Triple Alliance – Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy “officially” joined forces to protect their interests in 1914.

– Triple Entente – England, France, and Russia formed a similar alliance to counteract what the other nations were doing.

** All of these things combined to have Europe on the brink of war as tensions over increasing military growth, colonial territories, and secret alliances had the world’s leaders on edge.

Effects of WWI Video (4:30)

• http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?guidAssetId=BA4A34A5-5A7F-4F27-A3CB-41B1D6DE2EAB&blnFromSearch=1&productcode=US

II. The Spark that set the wheels of war in motion.

1. Franz Ferdininad – Heir to the Austrian throne.

– visiting Serajevo, Bosnia with his pregnant wife. An area full of nationalistic groups that wanted to break away from the Austrian empire.

2. Gavrilo Princip – Serbian nationalist who belonged to a nationalistic group called the “Black Hand” who desired to spark a break from the control of the Austrian empire.

– Gavrilo and his comrades ambushed Ferdinand and his wife, shooting both dead.

– The Black Hand hoped to inspire a revolt that would lead to Austria granting Serbia control over the lands they wanted to self-rule.

• The Archduke’s assassination became the spark that exploded into war.

• The King of Austria was furious and wanted the heads of those involved.

• Serbian officials were hesitant to comply…and Austria was worried over possible Russian interference.

• Germany began to push Austria to make a move that they would back if Russia stepped up.

• Austria gave Serbia a list of harsh demands to meet or…War.

• Austria – Hungary>>>>>>>declares war on Serbia

• Russia >>>>>>>>>>>> declares war on Austria-Hungary

• Germany >>>>>declares war on Russia• France >>>declares war on Germany>>>who

then invades Belgium to get to France.• England >>>>declares war on Germany &

Austria-Hungary

** Italy dropped out of Triple Alliance and eventually would join the Triple Entente.

III. Horrors of War

1. New Technologies made this “glorious little war” not so glorious.

** Machine Guns

Trench Warfare and Poison Gas

Airplanes

British Tank

BIG Bertha

Casualties of War

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWdeaths.htm

Cost of the War

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWcosts.htm

IV. Peace Process

1. Paris Peace Conference– Treaty of Versailles – Treaty that ended WWI.

– England and France wanted to severely punish Germany.

– The U.S. wanted to try to solve the issues that led to the war

– U.S. did not get it’s way…the Treaty of Versailles was based entirely on blaming Germany for the war

Allied Leaders of Paris Conference

• David Lloyd George – English Rep

• Georges Clemenceau – French Rep

• Orlando Vitorrio – Italian Rep

• Woodrow Wilson – U.S. Rep

– Created the 14 Points – A peace plan based on a fair and equal peace. Key component was the creation of the League of Nations.

League of Nations

• International peace keeping organization designed to prevent further conflicts from escalating into full blown wars.

• Was the only provision of the 14 points that the other allies accepted.

• The irony was that the U.S. Congress rejected the Treaty of Versailled in part of the way that the League of Nations was set up

What does this cartoon mean??

Unjust Treaty????# Germany forced to accept full responsibility for the war# Germany was forbidden from having an army..only limited defensive

forces.# All of Germany’s colonial possessions were taken..no $$ for industry.# Germany and Austria were banned from joining together. (Anschluss)# France reclaimed Alsace-Lorraine…no German forces near this

border# Germany ordered to pay $40 billion in war reparations…without

colonies to help raise money = can’t pay.

• The German people were completely crushed by the results of the war, the impending depression, and the Treaty of Versailles.

• None of the causes of WWI (militarism, nationalism, imperialism, alliances) were addressed or solved.

Nazi Propaganda condemning the Treaty

Hitler's anti-Versailles poster design -- a chained Germania beneath the slogan "Only National Socialism will free Germany from the lie of sole guilt!"