Causes of The Great War 6 Causes of WWI 1. Imperialism intense
rivalries for colonies 2. Need for new markets 3. Nationalism pride
in ones country 4. Competition for colonies in Africa and India 5.
European rivalries 6. Militarism growth of mass armies As rivalries
among European nations grew, armies also grew In the 1890s Germany
began to enlarge its navy in order to rival Great Britain Russia =
1.3 mill; France, Germany 900,000; Britain, Italy, Austro-Hungary
250-500, 000 troops
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Before The Great War Armies continued to mass After the war
broke out, numbers increased further because of conscriptions
(military draft) Slavic minorities in the Balkans, Irish in the UK,
and Poles in Russian empire wanted their own country Europe was
divided into two loose alliances: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Italy created the Triple Alliance Great Britain, France, and Russia
formed the Triple Entente The alliances would set the stage for the
war to come
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The Spark of War In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir
to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was touring Bosnia in an open top
car when he was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip
in the streets of Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia) Austria offered
to forgive the incident if Serbia went along with a few demands
they knew no one would accept and Serbia didn't Austria-Hungary
quickly declared war on Serbia. Germany quickly offered support to
Austria, and Russia honored its alliance with Serbia
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Alliances were formed Because of the alliances already set up,
war quickly broke out Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Turkey became the Central Powers Meanwhile, Great Britain, France,
Russia and others became the Allied Powers At first, Germany was
the successful aggressor taking over much territory in France
Eventually, they became locked into trench warfare on the western
front and the war stalled at the First Battle of the Marne
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Trench warfare See video (3 MINS)video For soldiers who avoided
death, the trenches were a nightmare Rats and lice were prevalent
Rain flooded the trenches Disease and unsanitary conditions bred
disease and sickness that claimed almost as many lives as the
fighting did Many soldiers faked illness or shot themselves to
avoid staying in the trenches
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Trench Warfare
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Meanwhile in the U.S. At first U.S. is neutral to war Many
sympathize with U.K. and the Allies U.S. even sold weapons to the
U.K. Germany got mad and sank a bunch of ships (including a
passenger liner called the Lusitania) with their U-boats
(submarines) British propaganda had a great influence on Americans.
Stories about German atrocities-brutal acts against defenseless
civilians - angered Americans. (They did not realize that many of
the stories were exaggerated or not true.)
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German U Boat
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The Lusitania
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The Zimmermann Note In January 1917, Arthur Zimmermann sent a
secret telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico proposing an
alliance between Germany and Mexico In the Zimmerman note, Germany
offered to help Mexico regain Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas if
Mexico would help fight on Germanys side The British intercepted
the telegram and decoded it and it was then published in American
newspapers. Americans were enraged. When revolutionaries in Russia
overthrew the czarist government, president Wilson went to Congress
and said the world must be made safe for democracy On April 6,
1917, Congress voted to declare war on Germany
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Meanwhile in Russia World War I showed Russias economic
weaknesses Along with that The Russian government was corrupt, and
could not deal with the problems of the modern warfare By the
spring of 1917 the Russian people had lost faith in their
government and Czar The royal family was imprisoned and the rule of
the Russian aristocracy had come to an end With the overthrow of
the czar, a temporary government was set up to rule Russia until a
constitutional assembly could be elected
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Russian Revolution Two factions fought for control of the
soviets, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks The leader of the
Bolsheviks was Vladimir Lenin a revolutionary socialist and Marxist
On November 17, 1917 Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional
government and controlled Russia in 1918 renamed themselves the
Communist party Communists renamed the land they ruled the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union This set the stage
for the future: The Cold War
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Lenin and the Bolsheviks
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The Defeat of the Central Powers At the end of May the Germans
reached the Marne River just 37 miles from Paris At the same time
there were thousands of American troops landing in France every day
and Britain had set up blockades in the Atlantic Ocean to prevent
Germany from gaining supplies The Germans were stopped short and
the allies began to counter attack Allied forces were pushing the
Germans back and in September Bulgaria surrendered They were
quickly followed by the Turks By October the Austria-Hungary Empire
had stopped fighting; they broke up and formed separate
governments
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Defeat Continued Wilson told German leaders that he would only
deal with leaders that represented the German people The Kaiser
gave up the throne in November and a German republic was announced
In 1918 the German Republic signed an armistice that on the 11 th
hour of the 11 th day of the 11 th month 1918 all fighting would
stop Germany had to turn over all of their munitions, submarines
and war prisoners And the allies would occupy the territory west of
the Rhine the war was over
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The Costs of World War I The costs of WW I were very high It
left an estimated 8.5-10 million soldiers dead and another
21million wounded Germany suffered the most casualties with 1.8
million dead or wounded with Russia close behind France lost over
1.4 million soldiers Civilian casualties were also very high due to
things like Naval blockades, Military encounters, famine and
disease had all taken their toll The Financial loss has been
estimated at more than 300 billion dollars
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Peace talks Woodrow Wilson (U.S.), David Lloyd George (U.K.)
Georges Clemenceau (France) and Vittrio Orlando (Italy) became
known as the Big Four They were the leaders of the Allied Powers
Held a conference in Paris Wilson created the Fourteen Points (a
plan to bring peace and stability to the region) After 6 months of
negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles was signed Signed on June 28
th, 1919 The Treaty carved large chunks of land from Germany,
placed restrictions on the Government and made them pay
reparations
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The Big Four
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Treaty of Versailles The Germans strongly objected to paying
reparations denying that they were alone in starting the war The
Alsace Lorraine region was returned to France, Poland was restored
as an independent nation, and Belgium gained some territory Germany
had to stop its military draft and the Navy could only have a few
warships and no submarines Their Military was not allowed to
manufacture heavy artillery, tanks or Military airplanes The allies
did not have the ability to enforce this WWII would result