World War I, The Great
War
1914-1918
Causes of the War
 Nationalism- pride in and loyalty to one’s
ethnic group
 Imperialism- race for colonies around the
globe
 Militarism - arms race in Europe
 Alliance System
Alliances
 1882 Bismarck joins Germany with AustriaHungary (A-H)
 Treaty with Russia
 1890 Kaiser Wilhelm II gets rid of Bismarck and
cancels treaty with Russia
 Russia joins with France
 Triple Entente: Russia, France, Great Britain
 Triple Alliance: Germany, A-H, Italy
War Breaks Out
 July 1914 Assassination of the A-H Archduke
Franz Ferdinand and wife Sophia in Sarajevo
 A-H declares war on Serbia
 Russia mobilizes to defend its ally Serbia
 Germany declares war on Russia, then France
 Germany invades Belgium and Great Britain and
Italy enter the war on the Allied Powers’ side
Life at War
 Trench warfare
 Poison gas
 Automatic weapons
Trench Warfare on the Western
Front
Poison Gas
War on the Western Front
 Failure of the Schlieffen plan
 Stalemate in France
 1916- about 2 million die
War on the Eastern Front
 Fighting in Western Russia and the
Balkans
 Russia and Italy plunge into social turmoil
Homefronts in Europe
 Total war
 Food shortages, rationing
 Propaganda
 Women in the labor force
 Rise of labor leaders
War Outside Europe
 Manpower and supplies from colonies
 British white dominions send troops to
Africa and Middle East
 Japan joined allied cause and attacked
German colonies in Asia
 U.S. entered the war on the allied side in
1917
End of War and the Treaty of
Versailles
 Germany agrees to armistice after U.S. military
overwhelms them
 Treaty of Versailles left signers unsatisfied
– Wilson’s 14 points of peace
– League of Nations established
– Germany punished
– Russia not allowed to participate
– A-H and the Ottoman Empire collapsed as political
entities
Legacy of the War
 Huge loss of human life and lost
generation
 Great Depression
 Rise of revolutions
 Rise of totalitarianism
 New independent nations