WWI Museum

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Causes of World War 1

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Alliances

The central powers consisted of Germany, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire.

The Allies consisted of Great Britain, Russia. (and the U.S. in 1917)

Nationalism• The Pan-German

movement: Is the hope to unite all German speaking people.

• The Pan-Slavic movement: Is the hope to unite all Slavic (Russian) speaking people.

• Bosnia: 95% of people in Bosnia speak Slavic language. Yet it is controlled by German speaking Austria.

Imperialism

• European nations were competing for land

• The believed that “Bigger is better”

Why the U.S. entered WWI

Why we Entered the War• The first reason why we

entered the war was because of the Lusitania was hit with a torpedo and was sunk.

• -The Lusitania was a passenger ship that was secretly carrying ammunition.

• -Nearly 2,000 passengers on board died. (128 of them were Americans)

• - President Wilson demanded that the Germans must apologize and pay for the damages

Why we Entered the War• The second reason

why the U.S. entered the war is because of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.

• -Germany promised not to sink merchant ships without first warning them and rescuing passengers first.

• -They were sinking all ships that were heading towards allied nations

Militarism

Militarism• The military

was built for two main reasons

• 1: To protect colonies

• 2: Peer pressure for neighboring countries

Russia, Germany, and Britain

• During WWI Russia had the biggest army out of every country that was fighting.

• Also Germany had the best trained army of them all. So they had the best strategies out of all the countries.

• But Britain had the biggest navy which caused some problems for countries that didn’t have a navy.

Trench Warfare

Why trenches were made

• To protect their positions & to cut down on losses both sides dug trenches

• At night supplies were brought in & scouts were set out

No man’s land

• At dawn/ dusk attacks came. Hit them with artillery & then go over the top

• Had to go through Barbwire, machine gun fire, craters, etc.

Problems in the trenches

• The problems in the trenches included: mud, rats, smell, dead bodies, rot, cold, staying dry, maggots, lice and disease

U.S. in WWI

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U.S in the war

• By October, 1918 German lines are crumbling

• In November the Allies have captured the high ground & Germany surrenders

• The 11th hour, the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the war ends

U.S in the war• General Pershing led the U.S.

troops in WWI• By 1917 Germany controlled:

Belgium, Italy, & N. France• By 1918 Russia has a

revolution & they drop out of the war.

• -Now Germany can concentrate on the western front

• By July, 1918 the U.S. have 1 million troops in the war

• We cut off the German rail lines which supply their troops

• -We attack through the Argonne Forest. It takes us 47 days & 1.2 million soldiers but we cut off their supply

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