World War I
Mr. Owen
AP – Euro
Spring 2010
Causes of the Great War
 Nationalism
– Pride in one’s country
 Imperialism
– Stronger nation takes over weaker nation
 Militarism
– Military power and keeping an army
prepared for war
 Alliances
Toward Mass Armies and
Industrial War
 Industrializations effect on War
 Weapons
 Transportation
 Naval Power
 Arms-Race
 KEYPOINT  The outcome of a protracted war between
industrial powers depended less on rifle strength in the first battles than
on industrial might and financial stamina.
Assassination in Sarajevo
 Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke
Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914
Austria-Hungarian Response
 Austria-Hungary issues a 10-Point
Ultimatum to Serbia
– Serbia accepts all but 1 of the demands
 July 28th Austria-Hungary declares war
on Serbia
– Starts World War I
Franco-Prussian War
Lost Land
The Great War
 Expectation
 Unexpected War
 Introduction to Total War
The Alliance System
Triple Entente:
Triple Alliance:
Two Armed Camps!
Allied Powers:
Central Powers:
The Major Players: 1914-17
Allied Powers:
Central Powers:
Nicholas II
[Rus]
Wilhelm II [Ger]
George V [Br]
Victor Emmanuel
II [It]
Enver Pasha
[Turkey]
Pres. Poincare [Fr]
Franz Josef [A-H]
Militarism & Arms Race
Total Defense Expenditures for the Great
Powers [Ger., A-H, It., Fr., Br., Rus.]
in millions of £s.
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1914
94
130
154
268
289
398
1910-1914 Increase in
Defense Expenditures
France
10%
Britain
13%
Russia
39%
Germany
73%
The Battle Front
Schlieffen Plan
 Why
 Plan
 Goal
Schlieffen Plan
Indecisive Offensives: 1914–
1915
 The Break
down of the
Schlieffen Plan
– Overly
Calculated
– Belgian
Resistance
– British
Support
Indecisive Offensives: 1914–
1915
 Initial
Strategic Set
Back
– Westward
swing fails
– British and
French
Attack
– Result
The Race to the Sea
 Allies and
Central
Powers try
to out flank
each other
A Multi-Front War
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
“No Man’s
Land”
Trench
Warfare
Artillery
Artillery
Conditions in the Trenches
Lice Hunting
Conditions in the Trenches
The Industrial and Geographic
Factors
 Strategic Mobility
– Use of RR
 Immobility
– Lack of Transport
– Supplies run out
– Defenders always faster
– Communication
The Industrial and Geographic
Factors
 Industrial Might
 Geographic Factors
– Central Powers 
Advantage
– Central Powers 
Disadvantage
War of Attrition 1915-1916
Western Front
 Western Front
– German failed offensive
– Allied goal
– 1915 Death toll:
• French  1,500,000
• Britain  300,000
• Germany  875,000
Western Front
 Battle of Verdun
– February 21, 1916
– German Offensive
– Characteristics of Fighting
– Death toll
Western Front
 Battle of Somme
– July 1916
– British were ineffective
• 60,000 die in one day!
• Over 1,000,000 in 5 months
– Death Toll
Advancements In War
Machine Guns
Defensive Weapons
Vickers
Trench Warfare
Suppressing fire
Offensive Weapons
Lewis Gun



600 rounds per minute
47 round clips
Effective up to 600m
Lewis
French Renault Tank
The Tank
Airplanes and Aircraft
Airplanes and Aircraft
The Zeppelin
U-Boats
Chemical Weapons
The Home Front
Curtis-Martin
U. S. Aircraft Plant
Financing the War
Financing the War
American Poster
For Recruitment
Eastern Front
 Russian “Steamroller” stopped
– Victory at Tannenberg
The Gallipoli Disaster, 1915
The United States Enters the
War
 January 1917
 Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
 Sinking of the Lusitania
 Zimmerman Note
The Sinking
of the Lusitania
The Zimmerman Telegram
The Yanks
Are Coming!