“The Great War”
How did the War start
 On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria,
heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife,
Sophie, were shot dead in Sarajevo (modern day Bosnia)
by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins .
 The reason why the assassination occurred is because
the Serbians wanted southern Austria-Hungary to
become its own free country
 Austria-Hungary and Serbia stared each other down and
Austria-Hungary readied an invasion of Serbia.
 Serbia brought their friends in to help them (Russia,
Great Britain, France, Italy) and Austria-Hungary did the
same (Germany, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria)
How did the U.S. get involved?
 Before entering the war, Woodrow Wilson and the US had
remained neutral, though the US had been an important
supplier to Britain and other Allied powers. (Remember
George Washington’s advice?)
 The US and it’s citizens increasingly saw the Germans as the
villain as they sunk a passenger ship called the Lusitania
because the Germans thought they were hiding weapons in it.
 Following this, the Germans threatened to sink any ship (even
American) going to England with their U-Boat submarines.
 This combined with the Zimmermann Telegram ,where the
Germans tried to make an alliance with Mexico against the US,
convinced the Americans to join WWI
End Result
 The world’s first global conflict, the “Great War” pitted
the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and
the Ottoman Empire against the Allied forces of Great
Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Italy and
Japan.
 War lasted from 1914 to late 1918
 The introduction of modern technology to warfare
resulted in unprecedented carnage and destruction,
with more than 9 million soldiers killed by the end of
the war in November 1918.