World War I

World War I World War I and its and its

AftermathAftermath1914-1919

The Great War

Preface Otto von Bismarck wanted to be 1 of 3 of 5 This meant that he wanted to be 1 country

of a 3 country alliance out of the 5 powerful countries in the world

These countries were Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and Russia

He needed an alliance with two other countries to take over Europe

Alliance System For Bismarck, the most dangerous situation

would be fighting a two-front war For Germany, a natural alliance was Austria-

Hungary They shared culture, this was a natural alliance His better side was to look to Russia because

France hated him Russia was a divine right monarchy and so

was Germany

Alliance System Russia would not commit because of the

Balkans The alliance was Germany, Austria-

Hungary and Italy Germany had what was called a

reassurance policy with Russia If there was war, Germany should come

out in pretty good shape

Alliance System As we know, in 1890

Bismarck was dropped

Wilhelm II took over, he was not trained to rule

He use to have Admirals come to his yacht, put on tutu’s and dance for him

Alliance SystemHe did this

because he had power

He surrounded himself with people that would say yes to him

Germany One of these people

was Count Leo von Caprivi, he was a general in the German Army

Wilhelm thought that Germany needed a new treaty with Great Britain

Germany The problem was that Great Britain was

practicing “Splendid Isolation” They considered themselves above

European foreign policy They were an island that was surrounded

by their navy and no one would dare invade

Germany Germany thought that they could have

an alliance with Great Britain if they got rid of their treaty with Russia

Great Britain did not like Russia because they threatened India

Wilhelm had just opened up Germany to a two front war

In the meantime On July in 1891 Russia and France make a

military commitment to each other They will support each other as long as the

triple alliance is together If one of them gets attacked, the other will

come to their aid In August of 1899, France and Russia sign an

extension, it stated that they would mobilize if one of the alliance started moving against them

In the meantime Wilhelm II had successively joined

France and Russia Germany now wanted to know if there

was anything that they could do to make Great Britain drop its splendid isolation

Something important to remember is that Germany didn’t have a strong Navy

Germany ScramblesWilhelm wanted to exercise what he

called Weltpolitik (World Politics)Wilhelm directs his new pilots to

become a naval powerhouseGermany would build a fleet strong

enough so that Great Britain would not risk a war

Germany and Great Britain

At the same time Britain was functioning under what they considered a two power standard

They believed that their fleet would be stronger than the two strongest navy’s in the world

Germany adds sixty new war ships that would at least be able to match one third of the British fleet


Wilhelm believed that by threatening Great Britain, that Great Britain would have no choice but to join Germany

Great Britain didn’t see it that way In 1906, Great Britain introduced a new

type of ship called the Dreadnought This made all types of previous

battleships obsolete


There is one problem, If you have new technology, all of your competitors build what you have

By 1913 Great Britain had 20 Dreadnoughts and Germany had 13

Can Great Britain keep up its Splendid Isolation?

Great Britain needs Allies

No, they have to try to make an alliance with their enemies

Great Britain had been fighting with France for 500 years, since the time of Joan of Arc

Great Britain and France France had control over most of West

Africa and Great Britain had expanded its territory to the west going down

The upper Nile Valley is still up for grabs. France and Great Britain meet at Fashoda

The French General is John Baptiste Marchand, the British General is Herbert Kitchiener

Great Britain and France

Kitchiener demanded the retreat of Marchand

They wired home for ordersThe both peeled offBoth countries were having

problems elsewhere and couldn’t worry with this piece of land

Great Britain and France In 1904 Great Britain and France had signed

the Entente Cordiale (Friendly Understanding)

Great Britain and France had decided that they were going to end their differences

It is not a defensive alliance, but they were not going to fight each other

Wilhelm wants to prove that they could not survive together

Wilhelm’s Intervention He tells the Moroccans

that Germany will protect them from French aggression

He is directly insulting French National Honor

He can risk this because he thinks that Britain won’t stand up and that Russia is fighting wars with Japan

Wilhelm’s Intervention He is trying to drive them

apart and instead pushes them together

This is taken up at the Algeciras Conference in Spain

Morocco would be independent; Spanish police would patrol Morocco and France would control the bank

Wilhelm is humiliated

Slap in the Face Great Britain also forms an alliance with

Russia, They now become the Triple Entente or The Allies

The greater threat in the Middle East is no longer Russia, but is Germany

In 1904 we have Great Britain and France and the later Russia, this is the “Triple Entente”

German Problems Great Britain had abandoned its “Splendid

Isolation” There is a new balance of power in Europe The difference between this and

Bismarck’s views, is that now Germany would fight a two front war

Germany had committed themselves to Austria-Hungary and would not pull back

Alsace and Lorraine Nationalism was strong in both

Germany and France Germans were proud of their new

empire’s military power and industrial leadership

France longed to regain its position as Europe’s leading power

Alsace and LorraineThe French were still bitter about

their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

They especially resented German occupation of the border provinces Alsace and Lorraine

Pan-Slavism In Eastern Europe, Russia sponsored a

powerful form of nationalism called Pan-Slavism, all Slavic peoples shared a common nationality

As the largest Slavic country, Russia felt it had a duty to lead and defend all Slavs

By 1914, it stood ready to support Serbia, an ambitious, young Slavic nation, against any threat

Crisis in the Balkans Austria-Hungary was worried about a

rebellion among the many minority populations within its empire

Ottoman Turkey felt threatened by new nations on its borders, such as Serbia and Greece

Serbia was especially aggressive It dreamed of creating and ruling a South

Slav state

Crisis in the Balkans In 1912, several Balkan states

attacked TurkeyThe next year, they fought among

themselves over the spoils of warThese brief but bloody Balkan wars

raised tensions to a fever pitch

Crisis in the BalkansBy 1914 the Balkans were the

“Powder Keg of Europe”A tiny spark might lead to an

explosionAnd as we all know, the spark

struck in Europe with one event

Murder with Millions of Victims

On a spring night in 1914, a small group of revolutionaries sat at a café table in Belgrade, Serbia

They read an article that Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary would visit Sarajevo, the capital of neighboring Bosnia, on June 28

This caused outrage among the Serbians


June 28 was the date that Serbia had been conquered by The Ottoman Empire in 1389

On the same date in 1912, Serbia had finally freed itself from Turkish rule

They were still ruled by Austria-Hungary however

The Serbs felt that this was an insult to Serbian nationality


“Our decision was taken almost immediately”

“Death to the Tyrant” Among the Group was a nineteen year old

Gavrilo Princip His family were Serb farmers, having

grown up under Austrian rule, he felt he must take action against his oppressors

The Black Hand Princip joined

Unity or Death, a terrorist group commonly known as the Black Hand

This group was organized by Bosnian Serbs

The Black Hand They wanted a

single nation for all South Slavs

On June 28, Princip would be waiting on the streets of Sarajevo

The Victims June 28 was and

important date for Franz Ferdinand as well

Exactly 14 years earlier, he had married Countess Sophie Chotek

The Hapsburg royal family snubbed her

The Victims Archduke

Ferdinand took her with him to Sarajevo

He ignored all warnings of anti-Austrian unrest in Sarajevo

The Victims On the morning of June 28, Franz Ferdinand and

his wife drove down the streets of Sarajevo

The Victims There were seven

members of the Black Hand stationed along the route

Several carried crude bombs and pistols

The first two lost their nerve when the car passed

The Victims The third hurled his

bomb, missed the Archduke’s car and injured an officer in another car

After stopping to see what happened the royal couple went on with their day

The Victims Meanwhile, Princip

held to his plan He stayed near the

route that the motorcade would follow later that day

Leaving the Town Hall, Ferdinand wanted to go visit the injured officer

The Victims No one had told the

chauffeur to go to the hospital

When the driver stopped and reversed to go to the hospital, they stopped right in front of Princip

He seized his opportunity

The Victims Princip jumped

onto the car and fired two shots into the back seat

Guards pounced on him but it was too late

The Victims Ferdinand’s last

words were “Sophie, Sophie, please stay alive for our children”

a few minutes later they were both dead

The Punishment At his trial, Princip

stood by his deed His only regret, he

said, was killing a woman

Because he was under 20 he was not executed

The Punishment He died in prison of

tuberculosis in 1918 For Europe the

punishment was more severe

The archduke and his wife were the first victims of a war that killed millions

Peace Peace UnravelsUnravels

The beginning of World War I

Peace UnravelsNews of his nephew’s

assassination shocked the aging Austrian emperor, Francis Joseph

He blamed SerbiaAustria decided its only course

was to punish Serbia

A Harsh Ultimatum Austria sent Serbia an ultimatum They said that Serbia must end all anti-

Austrian agitation and punish any Serbian official involved in the murder plot

Serbia agreed to part of the deal As a result, Austria declared war on

Serbia on July 28, 1914

A Harsh Ultimatum People were looking at this to be the

makings of another “Summer War” Austria might not have pushed Serbia to

war if it had not been for the backing of Germany

Kaiser Wilhelm II was horrified at the assassination of a royal heir

A Harsh UltimatumHe advised Francis Joseph to take a

firm stand towards Serbia and assured him of German support

Serbia meanwhile sought help from Russia

Russia was, the champion of the Slavic nations

A Harsh Ultimatum Nicholas II,

telegraphed Wilhelm II The Czar asked the

Kaiser to urge Austria to soften its demands

The plea failed and Russia began to mobilize

A Harsh Ultimatum Germany responded

by declaring war on Russia

Russia, in turn appealed to its ally, France

France saw the chance to avenge the Franco-Prussian War

A Harsh Ultimatum Germany demanded

that France remain neutral

France Refused Germany declared

war on France The battle lines

started to harden

The Schlieffen Plan Italy and Britain remained uncommitted Italy decided to remain neutral for the

time being Britain had to decided quickly whether

or not to support France Germany’s war plan made the decision

for Britain

The Schlieffen Plan Germany’s worst fear was a war on two

fronts France would attack from the west and

Russia from the east Years earlier, General Alfred Schlieffen

had developed a strategy to avoid a two front war

The Schlieffen Plan Russia’s military would be slow to

mobilize Under the Schlieffen Plan, Germany had to

defeat France quickly Then it would fight Russia Germany was going to march through

Belgium, then swing south behind French Lines

On the MoveGermany invaded BelgiumEngland and other European powers

had signed a treaty that guaranteed Belgian neutrality

Outraged by this invasion, Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany

Force NumbersFranceBritainRussiaGermany

8.5 Million9 Million12 Million11 Million

The Western Front German forces swept

throughout Belgium towards Paris

Russia mobilized more quickly than expected

After Russian forces won a few victories in E. Prussia, Germany shifted troops

The Western Front British troops

reached France and the German offensive stalled

Both sides dug in for the winter

the battle lines remained unchanged for four years

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare On the Western Front trenches stretched

from the Swiss frontier to the English Channel

An underground network linked bunkers, communications, trenches and gun emplacements

Millions of soldiers roasted in the summer and froze in the winter

No Man’s Land Empty track of land between opposing

trenches Every house and tree had been destroyed by

shells Men looked through the barbed wire to wait

for the next attack in this area They would have to attack when their

officer gave the order

Costly Battles In 1916, both the Allies and Central Powers

launched massive offenses to break the stalemate

German forces tried to overwhelm the French at Verdun

The French set up the battle cry “They shall not pass”

The struggle cost more than a half-million casualties on both sides

Costly BattlesAn allied offensive at the Somme

River resulted in 60,000 British soldiers dead or wounded

In the five month battle, over 1,000,000 soldiers were killed without either side winning an advantage

Disasters for Russia In 1914, Russian armies pushed into eastern

Germany At the Battle of Tannenberg, they suffered

one of the worst defeats of the war After Tannenberg, the armies in the east

fought on Russian soil Russia lacked the equipment to fight a

modern war

Battle of Tanneberg

War in the South Southeastern Europe was another

battleground In 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central

Powers and helped crush its old rival Serbia

Italy, meanwhile, joined the Allies to gain Austrian-ruled lands inhabited by Italians

War in the SouthCaporetto, the major battle

on the Italian front, was as disastrous for Italy as Tannenberg had been for Russia

Non-European Powers The Ottoman empire joined the Central

Powers in 1914 The Turks then closed off the Allied ships

from the Dardanelles This was a strategic link to the Black Sea

and Russia The Allies sent British, Indian, Australian

and New Zealand troops to open the strait

Non-European PowersAt the Battle of Gallipoli, Turkish

troops tied down the trapped Allies on the beaches

In January of 1916, after 10 months and more than 200,000 casualties, the Allies finally withdrew from the Dardanelles

Non-European Powers Japan, allied to Britain, used the war as an

excuse to seize German outposts in China and islands in the Pacific

It also tried to impose a protectorate on China

The world’s other great industrial power, the United States, tried to remain neutral

Women at War

Women at War Women played a major part in the Great

War When men left to fight, the women took

over their jobs in the factories and fields The most dangerous job for a woman was as

a nurse on the front lines The worked around the clock, especially

after a big push

Women at WarVera Brittain, a nurse describes sweating

thorough 90-degree days in France “Stopping hemorrhages, replacing

intestines, and draining and reinserting innumerable rubber tubes with gruesome human remains heaped on the floor at my feet”

Women at War War gave women a different attitude and

freedom

“The woman that kissed her man goodbye at the start of the Great War was not the one that welcomed him home” -SKM

Revolution in Russia Three years of war

hit Russia especially hard

Stories of incompetent generals and corruption destroyed public confidence

Revolution in Russia In March, 1917, bread

riots in St. Petersburg mushroomed into a revolution that brought down the Russian monarchy

V.I. Lenin came to power and promised to get out of the war

Revolution in Russia Early in 1918, Lenin

signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany

The treaty ended Russian participation in World War I

Ace of Ace’s Manfred von

Richthofen The Red Baron Called Red Baron

because of the color of his plane

Leader of the “Flying Circus”

Red BaronIs credited

for 80 confirmed kills in World War I

United States Declares War

The United States declared war on Germany in 1917

The major reason for this was the use of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare


The submarine’s were hunting down and sinking merchant and passenger ships

These ships. however had American citizens on them


Many of these ships were carrying supplies to the allies


President Woodrow Wilson insisted that Americans, as citizens of a neutral country, had a right to safe travel on the seas

May 1915

May 1915

May 1915 A German submarine torpedoed the British Liner Lusitania

Almost 1,200 passengers were killed, including 128 Americans

Germany justified the attack by saying that the ship was carrying weapons

Wilson threatened to cut off relations to Germany As a result, Germany agreed to restricted

Submarine Warfare

Submarine WarfareBefore attacking any ship, U-boats

would surface and give warning, allowing neutral passengers to escape to its lifeboats

In January of 1917, however, Germany angered Wilson by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare

Zimmermann Note In early 1917, the British intercepted a

message from the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to his ambassador in Mexico

Zimmermann promised that, in return for Mexican support, Germany would help Mexico “to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.”

April 1917 Wilson asked congress to declare war on

Germany “We have no selfish ends to serve” “We need to make the world safe for

democracy” It took months for the Americans to get

into the war

J.J. “Blackjack” Pershing American

commander during “Great War”

became famous chasing Pancho Villa

Was called “Blackjack” because of his Buffalo Soldier command

J.J. “Blackjack” Pershing

Pershing insisted that American troops be commanded by Americans

The Fourteen Points Though Wilson had

failed at maintaining peace, he still hoped to be a peacemaker

In January of 1918, he issued his Fourteen Points, a list of terms for resolving this and future wars

Campaign to Victory The final showdown

got underway in early 1918

The German commanders advised Kaiser Wilhelm II to resign

He did and fled to the Netherlands

Campaign to VictoryAustria-Hungary was on the brink of

destruction as wellOn November 11, 1918 at 11:00AM,

the great war came to an endThis is called Armistice DayThis was the time that a course of

action had to be decided

The Big ThreeWoodrow Wilson (USA)David Lloyd George (UK)Georges Clemenceau (FR)Wilson urged “peace without

victory” he wanted the Fourteen Points to be the basis of peace

Campaign to Victory David Lloyd George, knew that his people

were going to demand harsh treatment of the Germans

Clemenceau, bore the nickname “the Tiger” because of his fierce war policy

His chief goal was to weaken Germany so that it could never threaten France again

Campaign to Victory Crowds of people began to gather

around the “Big Three” with their own demands and interests

The difficult ones were the secret agreements made by the allies during the war

Italy had signed one such treaty

Campaign to Victory Italy’s Prime Minister, Vittorio Orlando, insisted

on gaining for Italy lands that were once ruled by Austria-Hungary

Such agreements violated Wilson’s principle of self determination

Wilson had to compromise on his “Fourteen Points”

One dream that he stood by, however, was the League of Nations

Treaty of Versailles In June of 1919, the peacemakers

summoned representatives of the New German Republic to the palace of Versailles

The forced Germany to assume full blame for causeing the war

The economic result of the treaty would kill Germany ($30 Billion)

Treaty of Versailles The treaty limited the size of the German

military The Germans had to return Alsace and

Lorraine to France They removed hundreds of square miles of

territory from western and eastern Germany and stripped Germany of its colonies

Documents

World War I