WWI

Causes of WWI

•Nationalism•Imperialism•Militarism•Alliances•Mobilization

Two Sides: The Belligerents

• Belligerents: Warring Nations• Central Powers: Germany Austria-

Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire– Territory extended from the North Sea

to the Middle East •Helped them with easy communication

and rapid troop movement•Germany had a well trained and well-

equipped Army

Belligerents Continued….

• Allied Powers: More soldiers and greater industrial capacity

• Advantage through British Navy (largest in the world) – Allows them to get food and raw

materials from around the world more easily

– Can blockade Central Powers – Made up of 32 countries by the end

Innovations in Warfare

• Weapons massed produced• U-Boats: German submarines

– Comes from the German word Unterseebooten: underwater boats

• Poison Gas also introduced by Germans

• Machine guns (several men needed to reload them)

• Long range artillery• Airplane• The Tank• The Zeppelin

Poison Gas

Poisonous Gas

• British 18-pounder being aimed by its crew.

German 42cm "Big Bertha“, named for Bertha Krupp.

German 17cm railway gun

French troops loading a 40cm shell into a railway gun

This howitzer was produced by the Skoda arms works in Austria

French 75mm. Rapid firing and accurate. It was a common artillery piece among the allies. Note the spent casing in the air

Innovations Continued…

• Trench Warfare• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/world

wars/wwone/launch_vt_wwone_trench.shtml

• New type of soldier: drafted not professional

• Propaganda: The use of selected bits of info; both true and false to get people to back their country’s war effort

Early years of the War

• Gallipoli: A fight for Constantinople; to remove Ottoman Empire from the war and give supplies to Russia. – Failed due to mismanagement and bad

timing

• Naval Warfare: Blockade North Sea; U-boats; Sinking of the Lusitanian

• Stalemate: By late 1915 on land and sea• War of Attrition: A slow wearing-down

process in which each side was trying to outlast each other

Stalematehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/western_front/index.shtml

Defeat of Central Powers

• Treaty of Brest Litovsk: With Russia out of the war; it allowed Germany to take troops from the East and fight in the West.

• Ferdinand Foch: Stopped the Germans at Chateau-Thierry

• Americans show up in Europe• Germans begin to get pushed back • Armistice: Agreement to stop fighting

– 11am on Nov 11, 1918 (Veterans Day)8.5-10 million dead21 million more wounded and crippled for lifeGermany losing the most followed by RussiaTotal Cost: $300 Billion

Fourteen Points• 1918 Woodrow Wilson Spoke to

Congress with his outline for the world after WWI.

• It became known as 14 Points• Six General Points:

– No secret Treaties– Freedom of the seas for all nations– Removal of all economic Barriers; Tariffs– Reduction of armaments; imperialist powers

and the colonial peoples– Adjustment of colonial claims; to guarantee

political independence and protection to small and large states alike.

Everyone was impressed with his proposals

Paris Peace Conference• January 1919 Meet in Versailles, France• Big Four: U.S. (Wilson) Britain (David

Lloyd George) France (Georges Clemenceau) Italy (Vittorio Orlando)

• Problems with process because of exclusion

• Wilson worked to make it fair for all• Wanted to get revenge on Germany• Reparations: Payment for war damages • Wanted Germany to bear the cost of war• League of Nations: Organization to

maintain peace, created by Wilson (not sure how practical)

What Kind of Peace?• Two conflicting viewpoints on the end of

the war: 1. Wilson: wants to be fair and not so harsh. 2. Allies felt hatred toward Germany and never wanted them to be powerful again.

• They tried to do this by taking away most it’s territory and making them pay for damages.

• France’s Clemenceau argued that the only way to ensure Germany would no longer attack was to break it apart and have allied forces occupy it’s various regions.

• These decisions would mark the future for Germany

Terms of Peace

• Armistice: An agreement to stop fighting

• Problems with Paris Peace Talks– Countries excluded; treaty not fair to all;

New political situation; territorial demands

• Reparations: Payment for war damages

• League of Nations: Organization to maintain peace created by Wilson

Creating a “New” Europe

• Treaty of Versailles: May 1919 Treaty that was signed in Versailles– Germany lost out

• Lost Alsace-Loraine • Lost Rhineland • Cannot have subs • Cannot manufacture heavy artillery, tanks or military airplanes• Only allowed 100,000 man army

• Former Territories: Austria and Hungary divided• Ethnic Populations: National Self-determination

– Genocide: systematic extermination (Armenians in Ottoman Empire)

• World Court: Through the League of Nations this court will determine cases involving international law– Economic Sanctions: Refusal to trade with an offending

nation• Mandates: Colony will be ruled by the government of

an “advanced” nation and that nation would prepare the people for independence.