THE GREAT WAR At its conclusion The Great War known as World War I or “the war to end all wars” would wipe out an entire generation! In the U.S. it would.

THE GREAT WAR

At its conclusion The Great War known as World War I or

“the war to end all wars” would wipe out an entire

generation!

In the U.S. it would also be called “ Mr. Wilson’s War”

Causes of WWI• Militarism

• Alliance System

• Nationalism

• Imperialism

• Assassination (Franz Ferdinand)

NationalismIntense pride in one’s country &

countrymen to the point of believing they are superior to everyone else.

Imperialism

Act of building an empire through the acquisition of colonies, brought many European countries into conflict with each other.

Militarism

Buildup of arms beyond defensive purposes, brought many countries to believe they could easily win a war over a rival nation.

The Alliance SystemThe most powerful countries of

Europe were locked into defensive alliance systems that made any conflict likely to involve many countries.

Prewar Alliances

E n g la nd F ra n ce R u ss ia

T rip le E n te n te

Prewar Alliance

G erm any Austria -H unga ry Ita ly

T rip le A lliance

Triggering Event: The Assassination• June 28, 1914 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand

of Austria-Hungary was assassinated while him & his wife Sophia were visiting Sarajevo in the Bosnian region of the empire.

Gavrilo Princip was the assassin.

Member of the Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand.

Black Hand wanted Serbs living in Bosnia to be joined with Serbia.

The Combatants

The Combatants (Triple Alliance)

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Germany Emperor Franz Josef I

Austria- Hungary

The Central Powers

Austria-Hungary 1914Germany 1914Ottoman Empire 1914Bulgaria 1915

The Allied Powers (Triple Entente)

David Lloyd George

Great Britain

Woodrow Wilson

United States

Czar Nicholas II

Russia

Georges Clemenceau

France

Serbia 1914 Russia 1914 France 1914 Belgium 1914 British Empire 1914 Italy 1915 U.S. 1917And 20 other countries

The Lusitania

May 7, 1915, British passenger was sunk by German U-boats (submarines), killing 128 U.S. passengers.

The Sussex Pledge

• Germans sank the French ship (Sussex) in March 1916, killing 2 Americans, Germany pledged not to sink passenger or merchant ships without warning & without saving human lives.

•February 1917, Germany went back on their promise (Sussex pledge) & resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.•This violated the “Freedom of the Seas” principle, ultimately bringing the U.S. into WWI.

Zimmerman Telegram

• Arthur Zimmerman, foreign minister of Germany, reportedly sent a message to the German ambassador in Mexico City.

The message said the Mexican gov’t should declare war on the U.S. in the hopes of regaining Texas, New Mexico, & Arizona.

The message was intercepted by the British, who decoded it & sent it to the U.S. in March of 1917

This is a copy of the infamous Zimmerman telegram sent by Western Union.

“The world must be made safe for democracy” ~ President Woodrow Wilson

President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917

U.S. soldiers were referred to as “doughboys”. U.S. didn’t enter the war until 1917.

American Expeditionary Force was commanded by Gen. John J. “Blackjack” Pershing.

Sgt. Alvin York

The most decorated U.S. soldier of WWI, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery.

Sgt. York debated joining the military, his religious convictions opposed him to the army.

The First Modern War

The Weapons

Big Artillery

- Heavy artillery (railroad cars)

- Long range guns (civilian & military targets up to 75 miles)

Chemical Weapons Yellow-green chlorine fog sickened, suffocated, burned, & blinded its victims.

Gas masks were hot, stuffy, & sometimes didn’t work effectively.

Nurses attending gas victims were also subject to effects from the gas.

The bandages over the eyes would indicate that it probably was mustard gas

Results of the poison gases used in WW I

The Machine Gun- Forever changed warfare!

- Up to 600 rounds per minute.

Soldiers affixing their bayonets to their rifles. (Getting ready to charge across no man’s land)

Submarines/ U-Boats (Unterseeboot) Germany’s undersea terror

Tanks were used to “mow down” barbed wire and soldiers

Airplanes were used originally for aerial surveillance.

Pilots began to engage in aerial combat referred to as dogfights.

Manfred von Richthoffen, (Germany) aka “Red Baron”, was one of WWI’s most successful & colorful flying aces.

Eddie Rickenbacker was America’s fighter ace with 26 aerial kills.

The Red Baron was credited with shooting down 80 Allied planes before he himself was shot down over enemy lines.

He was highly respected for his aerial exploits even among his enemies. His fighter combat tactics are still in the air force training manuals

Life in the Trenches

Trenches stretched through most of Western Europe.

Trench Warfare: Enemies fought each other from within the protection of opposing trenches.

This was the standard fare for WWI.

WWI Trench Design

Trench Foot:

An infection of the foot caused by continuous exposure to cold, wet, unsanitary conditions.

Trench foot was common in WWI.

The area in between the opposing sides’ trench works was called no-man’s-land.

Soldiers in underground dug outs

Soldiers relaxing a bit during a lull in the fighting. See the inserts dug on the sides of the trench walls? Soldiers lived, ate, slept, “relaxed,” fought,…

…and died in the trenches during WWI.

An Important Battle for the Americans

• Battle of Argonne Forest (Meuse-Argonne, Fall 1918) - The AEF were attacking the Germans into retreat when the armistice was announced.

The Bolshevik Revolution (1917)

• Russian Czar, Nicholas Romanov II The people rebelled & Nicholas abdicated the throne. He & his family were later assassinated.

• Vladimir Lenin & his followers, the Bolsheviks, took over control of the Russian gov’t. Established Communism & the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.).

Bolshevik Leader Vladimir Lenin

Romanov AdvisorGrigori Rasputin

Czar Nicholas Romanov II & Family

Meanwhile, back in the United States…

WWI Encouraged Change at Home• Fewer immigrants from Europe meant more

jobs for Americans• Wages in most industries rose, but so did

union membership.• U.S. increased Allied exports, but decreased

to Central Powers.• Increased agricultural production provided

more food for the Allies & increased farmers’ income.

• Americans began rationing, they had meatless Mondays & wheatless Wednesdays.

Wartime Changes• Selective Service Act (1917)

– Allowed the U.S. gov’t to create

the draft for entry into WWI

• Espionage Act (1917)– Made it a crime to criticize the war

• Schenck vs. United States– Upheld the Espionage Act of 1917

Armistice was declared on Nov. 11, 1918, officially ending the WWI.

Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points

• 14 Points - Wilson’s plan for ending the war & bringing peace.

• Allies didn’t like most of his ideas.

• They did use his favorite idea which was the League of Nations: an international peace-keeping organization (similar to the United Nations).

League of Nations

• Strong opposition to the League of Nations in the U.S.

• Senator Henry Cabot Lodge led the opposition.

• Congress voted not to join the League of Nations.

Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919.

Conclusion & Aftermath of WWI

• Over 30 countries involved from 6 continents

• Over 20,000,000 deaths

• Germany was humiliated, considered the Treaty of Versailles unfair

• Russia became the Soviet Union & was 1st country to become Communist (Bolshevik Revolution)

• Great Britain & France were no longer world powers.

• U.S. was determined not to get involved in future foreign conflicts (Isolationism)

•Maps of Europe & Middle East were redrawn

•Austrian-Hungarian &Ottoman Empires were disintegrated

•Maps of Europe & Middle East were redrawn

•Austrian-Hungarian &Ottoman Empires were disintegrated