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)