The Great War

Causes, Events, Aftermath

World War I

Essential Questions

• How had industrial growth altered the nature of warfare as the nations of Europe approached the fateful year 1914?

• Why did industrialism help generate new tensions and national rivalries that made all-out war more likely in the late 1800s and early 1900s?

• Why was the unification of Germany such an important factor in setting the stage for the tensions leading to a world war?

Essential Questions (continued)

• Why were the ethnic rivalries in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans able to lead nearly the entire continent of Europe into a general war in the summer of 1914?

• Why were military commanders and political leaders so unprepared for the long war they had to fight and for the vast destructive nature of warfare among modern industrial nations?

• Why was the peace settlement in 1919 unable to stabilize Europe and prevent the outbreak of future tensions and war there?

Map of Allied and Central Powers

Allied Powers

Major powers

• British Empire (1914–1918)

• France (1914–1918)

• Italy (1914–1918)

• Russia (1914–1917)

• United States (1917–1918)

Central Powers

Major powers

• Austria-Hungary (1914–1918)

• Germany (1914–1918)

• Ottoman Empire/Turkey (1914–1918)

United Kingdom

“The Rhodes Colossus”

• Constitutional monarchy

• 1914: Entered the war to defend Belgium’s neutrality

• Had the least to gain from a war in Europe

France

Napoleon III flanked by two of his ministers

• A republic• Many longed for glory

days of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire

• Colonial power• Sought revenge

against Germany

Russia

Russian nobles use serfs in a card game, 1854

• Tsar Nicholas II• Economy based

on serfdom• Struggle to industrialize

Germany

• Otto von Bismarck unified the German states (1871)

• Kaiser Wilhelm II• No colonies• Leading industrial

power by 1900

“Bismarck content as colonial powers scramble”

Ottoman Empire

• 1908: Western-style constitution

• Surrendered sovereignty for German help

• 1914: German influence in Ottoman foreign policy

Austria-Hungary

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph

• Hapsburg Dynasty—an old and dying kingdom

• Numerous ethnicities• Provided the “explosion”

that led to the Great War