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theWorld War I

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World War I… or as it was called at the time, The World War, The Great War, or The War to End All Wars.

• It lasted from 1914 to 1918.

• About 10 million soldiers were killed, another 20 million wounded, and another 8 million are missing. And that’s just the military casualties – it doesn’t include civilians.

THE WAR

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Some causes

Nationalism• The various European powers start

developing very nationalistic identities.

• This is especially so for Italy and Germany, which had traditionally segmented into smaller states but finally united into centralized countries late in the 1800’s.

• Germany was also rapidly industrializing under an autocratic, militaristic style of government.

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Imperialism

• The Euros had been out colonizing all over the place. Inevitably, colonial interests abroad would start to conflict. And if there’s agitation among the colonies, so there will be among the parent countries and vice-versa.

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Historical grievances

• These factored in some too. France and Germany had warred in 1870 (Franco-Prussian War) and this was only 100 years after the Napoleonic Wars decimated Europe.ABHISHEK

“Whose side are you on?” “Depends. What day is it?”

• There are also shifting alliances. There weren’t permanent friends in Europe. There were just countries aligning against whom they thought were common enemies.

• Triple Alliance

• Germany aligns with Italy and Austria-Hungary.

• Triple Entente

• To counter the T.A., and because Britain, which ruled the seas, didn’t like Germany’s sudden naval buildup and colonial ambitions, the British form this with France and Russia (which was still czarist at the time).

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The catalyst(begining)• What finally leads to war breaking out is

the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (and his wife) on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princep.

• Princep was part of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist group that didn’t like Austrian control.

• They wanted Serbian independence and so wanted the Archduke of the controlling country dead.

• There were seven assassins and their mission almost didn’t happen, but succeeded practically by accident.

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Franz’s wife, Sophie.

Franz and Sophie arriving in Sarajevo

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Sophie was shot in the

abdomen and Franz in the neck. They

both die within 15 minutes.

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Princep, second from right, being arrested moments later.ABHISHEK

Austria moves to punish Serbia, Russia comes to the aid of Serbia, and then all those alliances engage as everybody declares war on everyone else in a tragic domino effect.

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THE WAR STARTED

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Strategy• Germany started out the war using the

Schlieffen Plan.

• The idea was that German troops would hold the line along the French-German border while a mass of German troops would sweep up through neutral Holland and Belgium and down into France, thereby enveloping French forces and compelling them to surrender.

• This was supposed to last about six weeks, at which point the German army would immediately be sent east to fight the Russians (they figured it would take about six weeks for the Russians to mobilize their army).

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America finally enters the war on April 2, 1917.

• America was somewhat isolationist at this time and many Americans didn’t want to get involved in Europe’s war. But events unfold…

• The Germans had been utilizing submarines (their U-boats) very effectively and were trying to cut off supplies to Britain.

• They sink the British passenger ship Lusitania in May 7, 1915, killing 1,198, of which 128 were American citizens.

• President Woodrow Wilson said to cut out that nonsense, but the Germans went back to it in 1917.

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AFTER WAR

• Germany accepts sole responsibility for the war. All guilt and fault lie with it.

• Reparations: Germany had to pay the Allies $33 billion in reparations over 30 years. That’s about $500 billion in today’s money and it was thought it would actually take Germany until 1984 to pay it all off.• Some economists don’t think Germany

ever made any net reparations payments. They say that all the money Germany paid out was obtained by loans from America that were eventually defaulted on in the 1930’s.

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• Germany had severe restrictions on how big its army could be. It wasn’t allowed to make weapons or import them, couldn’t have an air force, and couldn’t have submarines.

• Germany had to give up all of its colonies.

• Germany was forced to give up European territory to the Allies.ABHISHEK

• It was a punishing peace and the Germans were absolutely humiliated by it. The implicit purpose of the Treaty was to cripple Germany so badly that it could never again be a threat.

• This resentment continues and helps feed into the rise of the Nazis.

• The reparations demands also hamper the German economy and helps lead into the depression.

TERRITORIES LOSSED BY GREMANYABHISHEK

EFFECTS OF THE WAR

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Results of WWI:

• It helped spread the flu.

• There was a massive flu pandemic in 1918. American soldiers carried it to Europe and from Europe, it went everywhere else. It killed 20 to 40 million worldwide.

• It spurred the Bolshevik Revolution, which we’ll talk about later.

• It broke apart the Austrian-Hungarian Empire into various countries.

• The Ottoman Empire collapsed. Most parts became mandates. Turks established the republic of Turkey.

• Its led to the Iron Harvest.

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POLLUTION OF AIR

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LOSS OF PROPERTY

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HEART BREAKING INJURIES

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• Life in the trenches was typically terrible.

• There were rats and lice, you could get dysentery, good water had to brought in, and waste extraction was an issue.

• Because they could find themselves standing around in flooded trenches, some soldiers developed a condition called trench foot or trench rot.

MISERABLE CONDITIONS IN THE TRENCHES FACED BY THE SOLDIERS.

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DISEASES OF SOLDIERS DUE TO DIRTY TRENCHES

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DEVASTING EFFECTS ON THE TREES AND VEGETATIONS.

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Note in these pictures how the vegetation has been destroyed and trees just stripped of foliage by artillery and gunfire.

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It was during WWI that the term “shell shock” was coined. Most modern war memoirs describe that the most unnerving and maddening thing in battle is artillery detonations.

AWFUL EFFECTS ON THE MANKIND

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We now call this condition Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and it’s not gotten from just exploding shells (though that can play a significant role).

PTSD has almost assuredly been around ever since war has, but it started getting more attention during WWI.

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MASS KILLING OF PEOPLE

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EUROPE1914

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THANK YOU!