The First World War - A War to End all Wars

First created 2 Jan 2015 Version 1.0 - 21 Feb 2015. Jerry Tse. London.

The First World War

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The War to Ends All Wars

Territorial expansions in

Germany & Serbia

led to rising nationalism

Germany was united under Otto von Bismarck of Prussia, into the “Second Reich”, with territories stretching from the

border of Russia, through Poland, to the border with France, in the late 19C. By the early years of the 20C, Germany

became the industrial powerhouse of Europe and also the dominant power in central Europe, challenging the supremacy of

France and Britain.

Rising German

Industry

During the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 the Ottoman Empire was defeated. Serbian nationalism was on the rise, as its territory

expanded, while the Ottoman Empire crumbled. Above - Anti-aircraft field gun near Belgrade July-August 1915.

Rising Serbia and the Declining Ottoman Empire

The naval Arms Race between

Germany and Britain

The new British Dreadnought battleship

The German battle fleet challenge

Interlocking Alliances

A series of treaties and alliances between European powers, dragged the whole of Europe into a continental war. Of the

five main antagonists, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia were effectively ruled by monarchy. France and Britain were

ruled by democratic elected governments.

Autocratic monarchs

Czar Nicholas at the Front - Russian Czar Nicholas II at the Front along with the six-foot-six tall Russian Army Commander-in-Chief

Grand Duke Nicholas (standing in car) and Count Dobrinsky. Although the Czar had no military aptitude, he relieved the Grand Duke

in September 1915 and took personal command of the world's largest army, with 16 million men mobilized - an army sprawled across

the gigantic Eastern Front. The Czar's preoccupation with military matters and his extended absence from the home front led to a

worsening of Russia's internal political situation, weakening his power and helping to pave the way for revolution.

Autocratic monarchs

The Assassination

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne and his Wife leaving the Town Hall in Sarajevo, Bosnia,

June 28, 1914. A bomb was thrown at their car but missed. Undaunted, they continued their visit only to be shot and

killed a short time later by a lone assassin.

Serbia Nationalism vs Autocratic Austrian Monarchy

War Began

Austria-Hungarian soldiers executing Serbian women

Serbia invaded

Germany went to war

Mobilization &

Blind Enthusiasm

The British Lord Kitchener recruitment poster and Canadian Grenadier Guards recruitment poster of WWI.

1916-17 US Uncle Sam recruitment poster and Russian recruitment poster.

1916 French poster “Courage we shall get them”. Design by

Jules Abel Faivre (1867-1945).1919 German Recruiting Poster for the Reichswehr.

Adolf Hitler in crowd outside the Odeonplatz during the mobilization of the German army for WWI.Munich,

Germany, August 2, 1914

The first “People’s War”

Nations after nations their entire population were involved in the war efforts.

The First World War substantially increased the numbers of women in paid work and the range of jobs that they undertook. The

majority of women supported the war effort by working in industry.

Cheerful German reserve-division marches to the front at Verdun. Their aim was to 'bleed the French to death'. Deployed in this war

of attrition only a few of these soldiers returned alive. Picture made in the summer of 1915.

Turkey was InvadedGallipoli landing

Technological War

French soldiers camouflaging a 370 mm

railway gun - Picture made by an official

photographer of the French army on

September 5th, 1917, near the village of

Heenkerke in Flanders, Belgium. The deep

roar of these enormous guns was terrifying.

Conversation was impossible. To speak to a

man beside him a soldier had to shout.

Though the ears of the gunners were stuffed

with cotton they ached and throbbed.

British Introduced Tanks - The British secret weapon deceptively described by them as a motorized water tank - a name that stuck

in part. The first tanks in the war were seen at Delville Wood in the Somme and were met with incredulous looks from the Allied

soldiers they were meant to protect and from the Germans, some of whom called them "monsters."

Giant listening horns used to listen for approaching aircraft during WWI.

Poison Gas - Unexploded shells, containing deadly mustard gas, are piling up in the Belgian Houthulst Forest. Every day duds are

found on the former battlefields of the Western Front. These shells never exploded because when they hit the ground they just

disappeared into the muddy clay of Flanders. Getting rid of these rusting and often leaking shells is an enormous problem for

Belgium.

Chemical Warfare

Gas casualties of the British 55th (West Lancashire) Division, awaiting treatment at an Advanced Dressing Station near Bethune, in

France. This is one of the most famous pictures showing the effects of gas warfare. It was made by the official army photographer

Second Lieutenant T.L. Aitke on April 10, 1918, during the Battle of Estaires, which was a part of the German spring offensive.

This is a French medical picture, made on March 31, 1918. The dead man is a French soldier of the 99th Infantry Regt., who was

killed by German mustard gas. The gas not only burned his lungs and intoxicated him, but also tore his skin apart.

Armenian Massacre

Picture showing Armenians killed during the Armenian Genocide. Image taken from Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, written by

Henry Morgenthau, Sr. and published in 1918. "Those who fell by the wayside. Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian

provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms - massacre, starvation, exhaustion---destroyed the

larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation"

Turkish official teases starving Armenian children by showing them a piece of bread during the Armenian Genocide in 1915.

A global conflict

Trench warfare and stalemate

Horrors of War

French picture made in 1916 in a trench near Verdun, Northern France. The Battle of Verdun was the longest and one of the

bloodiest engagements of World War I. Two million men were engaged. The Germans began the battle on February 21, 1916. In

December of that year the French had regained most of the ground lost. The Germans intended a battle of attrition in which they

hoped to bleed the French army white. In the end they sustained almost as many casualties as the French: an estimated 328,000 to

the French 348,000. The real figures are unknown. Nowadays Verdun stands for everything that is cruel and savage in warfare.

Soldiers on both sides lost their sense of humanity.

Shot at dawn. Belgian soldier and war-volunteer Aloïs Walput (21) is tied to a pole and shot by his fellow-men. This execution took

place on 3rd June 1918 in the dunes near the Flemish village of Oostduinkerke. The picture was made a few seconds after the

soldier died: two soldiers cut the body loose, an officer (the medical doctor?) takes the exact time, the spurred commander of the

firing-squad looks on. After the war all armies made their files on their executions top-secret. In a few cases the truth leaked through.

On May 7, 1917 a French

army photographer took

this photo of a horrible

scene along a railway,

somewhere in Northern

France.

Humanity in War

British soldier gave water to a wounded German prisoner-of-war.

Although the picture is probably staged, friendly gestures like this

actually happened. In World War One most soldiers did not really

hate their enemies. They saw each other as victims of the same

incomprehensible world-politics. However, captured snipers and

flamethrower-operators did not get much compassion.

An American Cigar - American Army chaplain offered a cigar to a young German prisoner-of-war. As Germany in 1918 ran out of

cannon fodder, the Kaiser and his generals committed very young soldiers to battle.

British and German football game

On Christmas 1914 the war was stopped and an unofficial truce negotiated on the Western Front. British and German soldiers

crossed trenches to exchange greetings and food. A football game was also arranged to be played between the British and

the German team.

British and German soldiers exchanged

cigarettes, gifts, and addresses during

Christmas Truce, 1914.

British and German

football game

War ended

Armistice day celebrations, London, 11 November 1918

American entered the war in April 1917. Photo shows American soldiers returning home after the war.

The Treaty of Versailles and

its consequences

A full meeting of the Paris Peace Conference inside the ornate French Foreign Ministry building at the Quai d'Orsay. Representatives

from the twenty-seven Allied nations met along with others. The Germans were excluded but kept a close eye on press reports about

the proceedings. Allied indecision over what to do about the Russian Bolsheviks kept Russia from being invited.

The European boundaries were redrawn. We saw the return of the Baltic states and Poland. Yugoslavia was created.

Germany shifted westward and mostly at the expanse of the Austria-Hungary Empire.

European map redrawn

Russian Czar in Captivity

Nicholas Romanov, who once sat

upon the throne as absolute ruler

of Russia, now seated on a tree

stump following his abdication,

subsequent arrest and

imprisonment in the Urals by

Bolshevik Red Guards, three of

whom are seen in the background.

All the

ruling

monarchs

lost their

power

Reparations bankrupted Germany

Germany colonies were taken awayIn Africa, Germany colonies were shared among the victorious powers. German concessions in China were given to

the Japanese, which created a sense of injustice among the Chinese. This led the May Fourth intellectual movement

and also the introduction of Marxism in China.

Photo of released students, detained by the authority, after taking part on the May Fourth march in 1919

Other consequences

of the war

Bloody Picnic

Corpse of a French soldier blown into a tree

Human

costsTotal killed 15m to 18m including

civilians and military personnel. Total

wounded between 22m and 23m.

Maimed Young disabled

soldiers at the Fourth

London General

Hospital.

Total wounded between 22m and 23m.

Unimaginable Destruction

Daughters of Flanders' Slain. As Belgium was a major battleground in WW 1. Orphans were common. WWI left some 3 million

widows and as many as 10 million orphans. Photo shows an orphanage in Northern France, in the summer of 1917, by an unknown

American photographer. The picture was published in the National Geographic magazine..

Women emancipation

Group of women working on an automobile engine re shortage of men during World War I. United Kingdom 1916

Society became less rigid and

more open

Optimisms and HopesThe creation of the League of Nations

He cloned the phrase “The war to end all wars”. He was behind the creation of the

League of Nations

The irony is that the US never joined the League of Nations, a forerunner of the UN today

Members of the League of Nations

Rise of Communism

and Fascism

Hitler salutes to a crowd of soldiers at a Nazi rally in 1938. Fascist parties were formed in Italy and Spain.

Lenin giving a speech in Moscow in 1917. Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921 only a few years after the

Russian Revolution. There was also strong left wing movements in Germany after WW I.

The people in the photos had long

been dead. The wounds had been

healed. But has the lesson been

learned? Not by all.

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler departs Landsberg prison in December 1924 after serving just nine months for his role in the failed Beer Hall

Putsch. Sensational news coverage surrounding his trial helped little - known Hitler gain a national following in Germany. After his

release from prison, Hitler began to painstakingly rebuild his movement with the goal of getting Nazis elected to the national

legislature to destroy Germany's democracy from within and establish a dictatorship, leading up to the Second World War.

It is easy to forget the lesson

learned a century ago.

Nationalism is making a come

back in parts of the world.

An old soldier planted one of the 888,246 porcelain roses on the lawn of the Tower of London to commemorated the British

fallen soldiers in WW I, one hundred years later on the beginning of the First World War.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.” Ode of Remembrance by Laurence Binyon, published in 1914.

All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners.

Available free for non-commercial and personal use.

The End

Music – Sad Romance, composed by Thao

Nguyen Xanh and played by Ji Pyeong Keyon