Chapter 12 World War I (1914-1918)

and the World War I era (1914-1920)

Section One: The Road to War 1. List the causes of World War I

• Causes: MANIAC !!!• militarism and alliances---competition building up

armies/weapons/arms race/building up alliances among countries.• nationalism—people who love their country and protest against

imperialism. (could also mean you loved your country so much that you thought it was okay to take over someone else’s)

• imperialism—competition over territory• Assassination of the Austrian archduke Ferdinand and his wife—

by a Serbian nationalist (in Sarajevo)—didn’t like imperialism/being owned by Austria. Main event that sparked the war.

• socialism/communism and labor union protests

.

Archduke Ferdinand, just before the assassination

The assassinationof Ferdinand by a Serbian Nationalist ignited the powder keg that was Europe in 1914.

2. Describe trench warfare. 3. Discuss the role that technology played in World War I.

• Trench warfare: term given to the battles fought on the Western Front (France) and on the Eastern Front (Germany).

• In France, for example, the soldiers were caught in a stalemate—means no side is winning. They dug ditches or trenches very deep to camp in. (some trenches were as close as 50 feet from the enemy).These trenches (on the German side also) became areas of misery and disease. (blown off body parts, rats, and development of trench foot—soldier’s foot became infected and rotted).

• Technology: for the first time, new military technology was tested out: machine guns, gas such as mustard gas, airplanes, and submarines. Many of these the Germans helped to pioneer first!

These new- technology “death machines” accounted for 90 of every 100 battle deaths.

Lewis Machine Gun

IHand grenades.

“Little Willie”…the first British tank.

German Tank

Interior of typical tank

“Big Bertha”

Railroad guns

The shells were larger than a man.

The

Air

War.

German Zeppelin L 13 in 1916

“Duck Boards” were intended to keep your feet out of the water.

The war continued underground.

Sometimes men drowned in the mud...shells would uncover the bodies...and the rats would eat the eyes and livers of the dead.

In the winter, the water froze...

The mud tried to suck you under...

Swallowed by the mud.

Trench Foot

Waiting for the next charge across no-man’s land...into the machine guns...

Waiting...

...maybe a prayer...

“Over the Top”

Through the wire...

Death awaits...

Death in the open...

Hung up on the wire...

Flares at night...beautiful and deadly.

Body louse. Almost as bad as the rats, infested the men in the trenches.

Apricot and peach pits, charcoaled and pulverized were used in gas mask filters.

Gas across no-man’s land

Soldiers without gas masks would soak a cloth with their own urine and clasp it over their nose and mouth...

Mustard gas is a blistering agent.

Death in the trenches...

4. Which countries allied with each other during World War I?

• Triple Alliance (known later as The Central Powers)

• Austria-Hungary,• Germany,• Italy (they later switch sides!)

• (other countries were involved such as the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria)

• more than 100 countries either affected or directly contributed soldiers to WWI

• Triple Entente (known later as the Allies)

• France,• Britain• Russia (later dropped out because of

internal socialist revolution, end of Romanov dynasty)

• (later Italy),• The U.S. (1917)• (other countries were involved in

Australia and countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America)

• more than 100 countries either affected or directly contributed soldiers to WWI

Section Two: The United States Declares War 1. Why did the U.S. enter World War I in 1917?

• Propaganda-publications to try to brainwash/control opinions about something. (British published articles that made Americans turn against the Germans).

• German submarine warfare (U-boats). Sinking of the Lusitania ship in 1915 by Germany, killed innocent civilians. Germany broke the Sussex Plan—a promise in which Germany was supposed to warn British ships before sinking them.

• The Zimmerman telegram/note-1916. Germany tried to convince Mexico to ally with them, and in return, Mexico would gain back land lost to America.

ACTIVITY!

• Design a propaganda poster persuading someone to join the military OR to support the war.

Section Three: Americans Training for War and Fighting in Europe

1. How did Americans prepare for war (get mobilized)?

• President Woodrow Wilson and Congress passed the Selective Service Act –the draft which forced 3 million men into the war. Others volunteered (American Expeditionary Force-AEF) nicknamed “doughboys”, thinking this would be “the war to end all wars.” African American fighters were segregated from white units and sometimes not allowed jobs in combat. (the “Harlem Hell Fighters” were African American fighters who were integrated into the French army and received the highest medal of bravery.)

2. List some series of events during the war

• --Russian pulls out of the war on our side and goes through a revolution in which their czar is assassinated and the Bolsheviks took over the government. They allied with Germany, giving Germany more land!

• American soldiers helped turn the war by helping France and Britain push Germans back out of France. Germany surrendered and signed an armistice in November, 11, 1918.

• An influenza epidemic (a deadly form of the flu) killed more American soldiers than the war! More Europeans casualties than American.

• Women helped by serving in military as nurses.• The Ottomans (a Muslim empire fighting with Central Powers)

committed genocide when killing millions of Armenians.

Amputees

The “Harlem Hellfighters” return home.

African-American

Doughboys will face

more discriminat

ion upon their return to America than they faced in France.

German envoys sign the armistice.

Section Four: Americans at Home(home front) 1. How did the government, businesses, and people contribute to the war effort? 2. How did the government take on a bigger

role during WWI?• Henry Ford’s workers helped build tanks and ships for war.• The government raised over 20 billion for the war by selling Liberty Bonds,• led factories to start producing war products, • began to ask Americans to not waste food and fuel, (conserve)• designed “daylight savings time” to give more light in evenings for work, • censored Americans’ freedom of speech against the war, (shut the Schenck

up!)• we became more anti-immigrant for fear that they were spies (especially

against Germans)• imprisoned socialist/communists which led to some being lynched (1st Red

Scare).• women filled vacant jobs, • African Americans moved from South to North to fill jobs in the “Great

Migration.”

Section Five: Global Peace?1. Discuss what President Wilson wanted in his “Fourteen

Points.”

WE WON!!!!!!Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” included goals such as: no more secret treaties, removal of international trade barriers, reduction of military, self-determination for Austria-Hungary’s ethnic groups to make own decisions.

2. Who were the “Big Four” that met in France to write the Treaty of Versailles?

3. How was President Wilson forced to compromise his “Fourteen Points?”—only small portion of his goals were

included in Treaty of Versailles 4. Wilson’s new League of Nations was rejected by his own Congress.(they feared it would

get us too involved and lead to another war)

4. What impact/effect would the Treaty of Versailles have on the world?

“The War To End All Wars...

Won’t end anything...!

ACTIVITY!

Design a picture story book in your own words and pictures. You must have 5 pages with titles and at least one picture on each page: The Cause of World War I (all 5 causes)(sec.1), Why the U.S. entered the war (all 3 reasons) (sec. 2), Preparing for the war and Fighting (sec 2 and 3)–draft, volunteers, hardships, trenches, deaths (at least 3 facts), The impact back at home in America—(sec. 4)war efforts, new government roles/fundraising.(at least 3 facts), The end of the War (sec. 5)(Fourteen Points, League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles)( at least 3 facts)