Download World War I

Unit 14: World War 1 (Ch. 27) SSWH16 The student will demonstrate an understanding of longterm causes of World War I and its global impact.

a. Identify the causes of the war; include Balkan nationalism, entangling alliances, and militarism. b. Describe conditions on the war front for soldiers; include the Battle of Verdun. c. Explain the major decisions made in the Versailles Treaty; include German reparations and the mandate system that replaced Ottoman control. d. Analyze the destabilization of Europe in the collapse of the great empires; include the Romanov and Hapsburg dynasties.

The Causes: 1) Nationalism (devotion and loyalty to one's own country; patriotism)

Much of the origin of the war was based on the desire of the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to no longer be part of Austria Hungary but instead be part of Serbia.

2) Imperialism (the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies)

3) Militarism

(the glorification of armed strength) 4) System of Alliances

Over time, countries throughout Europe made mutual defense agreements that would pull them into battle. Thus, if one country was attacked, allied countries were bound to defend them.

Dreadnought

Militarism & Arms Race Total Defense Expenditures for the Great Powers [Ger., A-H, It., Fr., Br., Rus.] in millions of £s.

1870

1880

1890

1900

1910

1914

94

130

154

268

289

398

1910-1914 Increase in Defense Expenditures France

10%

Britain

13%

Russia

39%

Germany

73%

1815 to 1839: After the Congress of Vienna The Ottoman Empire, having emerged from the Middle Ages predominant in the Balkans, controlled Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina at its northern fringes.

Background

1914: Eve of the First World War The Turks were driven from most of the Balkans in the 19th century and were replaced by rivalrous European powers. With Russian patronage, an independent Serbia was born alongside an Austriancontrolled Bosnia, where a Serbian nationalist ignited World War I by assassinating the Austrian crown prince.

The Spark: The immediate cause of World War I that made all the aforementioned items come into play (alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism) was the assassination of

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, of Austria-Hungary.

June 1914

June 28, 1914—the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne in Bosnia, capital of Sarajevo

The Black Hand He pulled the pistol from his pocket, took a step towards the car and fired twice

Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914

Great War Begins

The Allied Powers: Triple Entente

• Britain • France • Italy • Russia • United States

The Central Powers • Germany • Austria-Hungary • Ottoman Empire (Turkey) • Bulgaria.

War in the West become one of position instead of movement—both sides dug in behind a wall of trenches

Battle of Verdun (in France near German border) (1916)

• • • •

It was the longest single battle of WWI. Lasted over 300 days Flame throwers were used for 1st time It is said that the French lost over 360,000 and the Germans nearly 340,000.

"You eat beside the dead; you drink beside the dead, you relieve yourself beside the dead and you sleep beside the dead.“ unknown French soldier

The Trenches

The soldiers had very little decent food, and what food they had was often attacked by rats.

These rats were the size of small rabbits and badgers because they had fed on the decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.

Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. Corpses and food litter attracted rats. One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them. • One soldier wrote: "The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself." These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.

Rats killed in one trench

Modern Warfare • Neither soldiers nor officers were prepared for the new, highly efficient killing machines used in World War I. • New weapons killed thousands of soldiers who left their trenches to attack the enemy. • The machine gun / hand grenade / artillery / bayonet / poison gas / flame thrower / submarine / airplane /barbed wire /

Weapons of WWI New Technology + old tactics = horrible losses

Trench knife

Trench Shovel-Germans

Gas Masks

German stick grenade

WWII grenade

Poison Gas

Chlorine Gas – 1915 Germans first used it

rags soaked in water or urine

Gas Mask

Mustard Gas-sulfuric acid gas - yellow

Mustard Gas The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it was almost odorless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks. The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane.

British-first tanks

Tanks

Early tank-Little Willie 1915

French Tank

German Tank – lagged behind Allies in tank development

Both sides used bolt action rifles for the infantry

U-boats Submarines

U-Boats

In the beginning they surfaced to warn the other ship

1918 depth charges improved

Fokker

Dog Fight

Airplanes

Zeppelins Flamethrowers

The Russian Revolution 1917

•until March 1917, Russia was a monarchy, last headed by Czar Nicholas II

•big revolution in March 1917 •from March-November 1917, a temporary government was put into place

•smaller/"nearly bloodless" revolution in November 1917, called the Bolshevik Revolution (remember, Lenin was the head of the Bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks were communists) •by the end of 1917, civil war broke out, Bolshevik "Red Army" vs. "White Army" (opponents, such as army leaders, political opponents, and wealthy Russians) •late 1920, Bolsheviks triumph in civil war •by 1922, the country was communist and called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) or Soviet Union (and it stayed this way until 1991)

The official end of the Habsburg empire came on 11 November 1918, when Emperor Charles I (Karl Franz Joseph), King of Hungary, King of Bohemia and Croatia, made his famous proclamation: "Filled now as ever with unchangeable love for my people I will no longer set my person as a barrier to their free development ... The people has now taken over the government through its representatives."

The Habsburg

Emperor Charles I Austria -Hungary

Austria After WWI: Austria would be forced to cede large parts of empire, including Hungary and Balkan territories (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia), minimizing it to a fraction of its size going back centuries, trimmed down to primarily cover areas dominated by AustrianGerman populations.

Hungary After WWI: Upon the loss of Austria-Hungary in WWI, it was forced to divide into natural states according to ethnic groups. Therefore, Hungary became independent at conclusion of war, but lost possession of significant Hungarian population inside Transylvania, which was awarded to Romania by the Allies

End of WW1 The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations

End of War • Nov. 9, 1918 – Rebellion in Berlin led to the establishment of German Republic (Kaiser out) • No decisive battle to end war, but German war machine was exhausted

• November 11, 1918 at 11:00 Germany stopped the fighting

Treaty of Versailles • The main points of the Treaty [BRAT] •

The first 26 Articles of the Treaty set out the Covenant of the League of Nations the rest of the 440 Articles detailed Germany's punishment:

•

• 1. Germany had to accept the Blame for starting the war (Clause 231). This was vital because it provided the justification for... •

2. Germany had to pay £6,600 million (called Reparations) for the damage done during the war. 3. Germany was forbidden to have submarines or an air force. She could have a navy of only six battleships, and an Army of just 100,000 men. In addition, Germany was not allowed to place any troops in the Rhineland, the strip of land, 50 miles wide, next to France. 4. Germany lost Territory (land) in Europe (see map, below). Germany’s colonies were given to Britain and France. (Also, Germany was forbidden to join the League of Nations, or unite with Austria.)

Effects of WW1 • 1. Political Chaos A) Collapse of Monarchies – Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire – Instability will ultimately lead to rise of Dictators B) Creation of New Countries --Czechoslovakia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Yugoslavia, Syria, Iraq --Leads to Ethnic Conflicts

2. Crushed Economies •

Parts of Europe completely demolished by the fighting farm lands, industry

• German reparations were so high, unable to keep up • Economic stagnation – unemployment, sagging currencies • Leads to DEPRESSION, especially in Germany

Social Chaos • displaced refugees • Social damage from: 10 million men dead millions wounded and/or disabled 5 million widows 9 million orphans • Psychological damage due to shell shock, loss of limbs, death of friends/families • Lead to: alcoholism, morphine addiction • Many disabled soldiers struggling to find a new role in society

England, Russia, France and Austria decide how to slice the Turkish Empire; a 1918 cartoon in Puck magazine after Turkey lost WW1

MandateArea, usually a former colony, to be administered by the government of another nation.