THE GREAT WAR
1914-1917
Causes of WWI
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Four Long Term Causes
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Imperialism
Militarism
Nationalism
Alliance System
Immediate Cause- The Spark
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Assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist
Gavrilo Princip
Alliances line up and war is
declared
Alliances
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Central Powers- Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Ottoman
Allies- France, Great Britain,
Russia, Japan Italy
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WWI Footage
New Technology
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The First World War was a violent crash of old and new. Stationary lines faced
each other in the tradition of old style warfare, but now they were trying to do so
with new weaponry.
Big Bertha- a German canon which could hurl an 1,800 pound shell a distance of
75 miles.
Machine Gun- sprayed 600 rounds of ammunition per minute.
Barbed Wire- tore the skin and had to be cut through which slowed soldiers down
and made them vulnerable to attack.
Poison Gas- tubes spewed poison gas. Germans discharged a fog of chlorine which
suffocated two entire French divisions. Gas masks became standard equipment.
Tank- ran on caterpillar treads and were built of steel so that bullets bounced off.
The British learned how to gather large numbers of tanks and drive them through
barbed wire defenses against the enemy, clearing a path for the infantry.
Airplanes- early airplanes were flimsy. Dogfights resembled duels. Pilots sat in open
cockpits and shot at each other with pistols. Eventually, planes were mounted with
machine guns. The planes became faster and able to carry heavy bomb loads.
New Technology
The Fronts
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Western Front- Region of northern France where
forces of the Allies and Central Powers battled each
other
 “Terrain
of Death”- 500 miles from the North Sea to the
Swiss border
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Eastern Front- Stretch of battlefield along the
German and Russian border. Russians and Serbs
battled Germans and Austro-Hungarians.
Fighting Starts
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Home by Christmas
Battle of the Marne
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September 2, 1914German armies had
pushed to within 26 miles
of Paris. The French halted
the German advance,
aided by the taxicab
drivers of Paris who
shuttled hundreds of men
to the battlefront.
Battle of Verdun
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1916- longest battle of the
war fought between the
Germans and the French
Christmas Truce
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Silent Night Holy Night
Trench Warfare
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Spring 1915- Combination of machine guns and heavy artillery made life
above ground too dangerous
Opposing armies dug a series of trenches from which to defend themselves
and to launch attacks. Two lines of deep, rat infested trenches zigzagged
across northern and eastern France
Enemies fought and died for yards.
Stalemate- Trench warfare continued for three years
Life in the trenches- bleak and uncomfortable.
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Wide enough for two people to pass and provided little shelter from the
elements
Boring- activity occurred at night, when soldiers could repair their dugouts under
cover of darkness.
Attacks usually came before dawn, when most soldiers going “over the top”
were mowed down by enemy fire.
Life in the trenches seemed hopeless.
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
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“Nothing to see but bare mud walls, nowhere to sit
but on a wet muddy ledge; no shelter of any kind
against the weather except the clothes you are
wearing; no exercise you can take in order to warm
yourself.”
As one soldier said, “There doesn’t seem the
slightest chance of leaving except in an ambulance.”
No Man’s Land
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No Man’s Land- the space
between the German trenches
and the Allied trenches, a
barren expanse of
pockmarked mud with shell
craters and filled with barbed
wire entanglements. Every
once in a while, the soldiers
would climb out of their
trenches and try to overrun
the enemies lines, while
machine guns blazed and
poison gas filled the air.
Battle of the Somme
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A Bloody Turning Point- July 1,
1916- November 1916.
Eight miles of German-held territory
gained.
British lost 60,000 men the first day.
Final Casualties- 1.2 million650,000 Germans, 420,000 British,
and nearly 200,000 French.
After the battle, the German high
command realized they had lost most
of their best officers and their army
was demoralized. They could not
advance so all they could do was try
to keep hold of what they had
gained.
Aviation
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The Airplane
 Nations
recognized its
potential as a weapon
 Countries built faster
and stronger aircraft
 Used to drop bombs
and shoot one another
in the sky
 10,000 planes by the
end of the war
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The Red Baron
 Manfred
Albrecht
Freiherr von Richthofen
 Most famous air ace of
WWI
 Scored 80 confirmed
kills before he was shot
down
Medical Care
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Fighting men faced many threats, not
just form the battles, but also from
lice, rats, filth, and polluted water.
They smelled the stench of poison
gas and the reek of decaying
bodies. They suffered from lack of
sleep.
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Shell Shock- complete emotional
collapse brought about by the
tension, lack of sleep, and the
extreme conditions.
Trench Foot- caused by standing in
wet trenches for long periods of time
without changing into dry socks or
boots. Soldier’s toes would turn red
or blue, begin to rot, and then fall
off. The only solution was amputation.
Trench Mouth- painful infection of the
gums and throat.
Going off to War
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Pals’ Battalions
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At the beginning of the war, men
were encouraged to enlist with
the promise they could serve with
the men of their village creating
Pals’ Battalions
Men rushed to recruitment centers
to enlist as whole groups.
3 million men enlisted and 50
town’s boasted Pals’ Battalions
Men who enlisted together died
together
Battle of the Somme- 11th
Battalion suffered 585 casualties
on July 1 from the 700 who
started the day
Villages could loose all their men
in a single battle
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White Feathers
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Great Britain- young women
handed out white feathers to men
out of uniform during wartime
White feathers symbolized
cowardice for not going out to
fight.
Russian Revolution
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Russian troops kept
German forces occupied
on the Eastern Front
1916- Russia’s war
effort was near collapse
 Army was short on food,
guns, ammunition, boots,
and blankets
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1917- Civil unrest
forced Czar Nicolas to
step down
5.5 million Russian
solders had been
wounded, killed, or
taken prisoner
 Army refused to fight
 November- Communist
leader Vladimir Lenin
seized power and ended
Russia’s involvement in
WWI
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American Involvement
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Causes of American involvement in
World War I
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Unrestrained Submarine Warfarethe German U-boats sank passenger
liners carrying Americans and
promised to sink any ship in British
waters
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Sinking of the Lusitania
Zimmerman Note- Germany urged
Mexico to revolt against the United
States and promised to support the
conflict
Russian Revolution- the Russians
overthrew their czarist regime for
what seemed to be a representative
government so the fight became a
coalition of democratic nations versus
brutal monarchies.
Declaration of War
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April 2, 1917- President Wilson delivered his war
resolution and on April 6, the congress had passed
the resolution. America had entered the First World
The Draft and Training
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America responded to the lack of manpower
with a draft.
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The draft required men to register with the
government so that some of them could be
selected for compulsory service.
The Selective Service Act was passed in May
1917. By the end of 1918, 24 million men had
registered.
2 million men reached Europe and three-fourths
of them saw combat. The overseas army consisted
mainly of men between 21 and 23. Most had not
attended high school and about one in five was
foreign born.
The training lasted nine months, partly in the
United States and partly in Europe.
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During this time, the men put in 17 hour days on
target practice, bayonet drill, kitchen duty, and
cleaning up the grounds.
Real weapons were in short supply, so the men
drilled with imaginary ones- rocks and wooden
poles.
To keep up morale, volunteer organizations
provided the recruits with movies, books, and
vaudeville shows.
After nine months, they moved onto wherever the
fighting was hottest.
Doughboys
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American soldiers were
called doughboys. This
nickname may have been
based on the white belts
they wore which were
cleaned with pipe clay or
“dough.” Another source
of the nickname may have
been their fondness for
French bread. The energy
and enthusiasm of the
Americans were just what
the Allies needed to break
the stalemate of the war.
Americans in Europe
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American Troops went to the Western Front with
freshness and enthusiasm. They had not
endured three years of warfare.
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The American Expeditionary Force (AEF), led by
General John J. Pershing, pursued aggressive
combative tactics.
Large numbers of Americans began fighting just
in time to help stop the German advances.
All told, the United States lost 48,000 men in
battle, with an additional 62,000 dying of
disease. More than 200,000 Americans were
wounded.
The Soldier’s Experience
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For many members of the AEF, going abroad was
an eye-opening experience.
Most doughboys had never ventured outside the
farms or small towns where they lived.
The AEF also included men from widely separated
parts of the country. Living and fighting together,
they developed a better sense of what it meant to
be an American.
Nevertheless, the war experience was devastating
in many ways
African Americans in WWI
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The proportion of African
Americans in service was double
their proportion in the general
population.
Black soldiers served in
segregated units and were
excluded from the navy and
marines.
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They had separate living
quarters and separate
recreational facilities.
The army did start to train some
black officers and placed them in
command of black troops.
The all black 369th Infantry
Regiment saw more continuous
duty than any other American
regiment.
Women in WWI
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Women were not drafted.
They army refused to let
them enlist, but the navy
accepted them in
noncombat positions.
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13,000 women served in
the navy and marines as
nurses, secretaries, and
telephone operators with
full military rank.
Women were accepted
into the Army Corps of
Nurses, but without rank,
pay or benefits.
Sergeant York
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One of America’s greatest war
heroes. A redheaded mountaineer
and blacksmith from Tennessee, York
originally sought exemption as a
conscientious objector, a person who
opposes warfare on moral grounds,
but his appeal was denied and he
was sent to a training camp in
Georgia.
York decided that it was morally
acceptable to fight if the cause was
just. On October 8, 1918, armed
with a rifle and a revolver, York
killed 25 Germans and with six other
soldiers, captured 132 prisoners.
For his heroic acts, York became a
celebrity when he returned to the
United States. He also received the
Medal of Honor.
Eddie Rickenbacker
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One of the most
celebrated American
heroes of World War I.
He grew up to be a race
car driver and set a world
speed record before the
war- 134 miles per hour
Pilot for the 94thengaged in 130 air
battles and downed 26
enemy planes’
Earned the title “American
ace of aces”
The War Ends
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Collapse of Germany
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Final Toll
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Mutiny started in the Germany navy as sailors and marines refused to board their ships.
Groups of soldiers and workers organized and rose in rebellion. The Kaiser abdicated the
throne. The German war machine and war economy were too exhausted to continue
fighting. At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918,
Germany agreed to a cease fire that ended the war.
8.5 million soldiers died
21 million wounded
Civilians died because of starvation, disease, and slaughter
Europe lost an entire generation
Cost- $338 billion
Society- left a sense of disillusionment, insecurity, and despair
It was a new kind of war. It involved the use of new technologies. It ushered in the
notion of war on a grand and global scale. It left behind a landscape of death and
destruction such as was never before seen.