Unit 4: WORLD WAR

I"You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees.“

- Kaiser Wilhelm II (August 1914)

The Spark of WWI• Gavrilo Pincip

o Member of the Black Hand terrorist organization

• June 28, 1914o Pincip fatally shoots Archduke

Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife

• Europe plunged into war within 5 weeks of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination

Conditions in Europe: Nationalism• Extreme pride people feel for their country

• The Balkanso Struggle for powero Ottoman Empire that ruled the region was falling aparto Austria-Hungary began to annex provinces

• Slavs wanted to revolt, Russia promises protection

Conditions in Europe: Imperialism• Nations are trying to expand

• Late 1800s: Britain & France already had large empires

• German Emperor: Kaiser Wilhelm IIo Wanted to expand Germanyo Created stronger military to start colonizing

Conditions in Europe: Militarism• Policy of military preparedness

• Germany o Builds strong navy to rival Britain’so Enlarged, bought latest weaponso Officers drew up war plans that called for attacks on several

countries

• Britain, France, Russia also start preparing for war

AlliancesTriple EntenteTriple Alliance

Triple Alliance• Germany / Austria-

Hungary / Italy

• A military alliance that aligned together when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated

Triple Entente• Fearful of Germany’s

growing power, France and Russia formed a secret alliance with each other

• Great Britain, also worried, joined France and Russia

Outbreak of War• Austria-Hungary officials learned that Serbia

government had supplied assassins with bomb & weapons

• Blamed Serbia for the assassinationo Since Russia promised to protect Serbia, they began to mobilize

• Germany declares war on Russia & Franceo Followed Schlieffen Plan crossed into neutral Belgium, which brought

Belgium’s ally, Great Britain, into WWI

• Belgians only had 6 divisions of troops to Germany’s 750,000

New Kind of Warfare• France’s Strategy:

o Marched in a row, with bayonets mounted to their rifles, preparing for close combat

o Wore bright red coats and heavy brass helmets

• Germany’s Strategy:o Had machine guns, and the well-trained gunners could set up

equipment in 4 secondso One machine gun could match 50-100 French rifleso Dressed in gray uniforms that worked as camouflage on the

battlefield

The First Battle of the Marne The Battle The Aftermath

• French launched counterattack along Marne River east of Paris

• 2 million men fought on a battlefield that stretched 125 miles

• After 5 days and 250,000 deaths, the French had rallied and pushed the Germans back some 40 miles

• French paid a heavy price losing countless troops in the battle

• Despite the loss of life, the French gave the Russians more time to mobilize

• Once Russia mobilized, Germany had to fight a two-front war on the Eastern Front against Russia, and the Western Front against the French & British

War Reaches a Stalemate• The First Battle of the Marne ended in a stalemate

o Soldiers from both sides dug trenches to protect their territory and to have cover from enemy fire

• By late 1914, two massive trench systems stretched over 400 miles of Western Europeo The Western Front stretched from Switzerland to the North Sea

• Trench warfare, or fighting from the trenches, had been used in Africa, Asia, and Americao Soldiers lived in trenches, surrounded by machine-gun fire, flying grenades,

and exploding artillery shellso Opposing forces had machine-guns pointed at enemy trenches at all timeso Thousands of men ran into area between trenches known as “no-man’s-

land,’ were chopped down by enemy fire

New Weapons of War

Poisonous Gas• Gas is battle was risky; Soldiers didn’t know how

much to use, and wind changes could backfire the gas

• The Germans threw canisters of gas into the Allies’ trenches

• Many regretted using gas, but British and French forces began using it too, to keep things even

Tanks• Were developed by the British to move into “no-

man’s-land”

• These tanks had limited success because they would get stuck in the mud

• German’s eventually found ways to destroy the tanks with artillery fire

Airplanes• Both sides used planes to map and to attack

trenches from above

• Planes first dropped bricks and heavy objects on enemy troops - - then mounted guns and bombs on planes

• Skilled pilots sought air battles called “dogfights”

• The German Red Baron downed 80 Allied planes before he was he was shot down