Chapter 12 Section 2
A New Kind of War
I. The WWI Battlefield
 Poison gas and other new weapons developed during WWI
 By 1914 2 systems of trenches stretched for hundreds of miles
over western Europe
A. Trench Warfare
1. Miserable
2. Rainstorms proceeded deep puddles and thick mud, and
sanitation was a constant problem
3. Lice, rats, were always present
4. Soldiers were sometimes ordered to go over the top and sprint
and attack their enemy in no mans land
B. New Weapons
1. Poisonous gas: blinded, choked, or burned victims
2. Gas Masks developed
3. Rapid Fire Machine guns
C. Tanks and Aircraft
1. Tanks- armored vehicles that could cross over rough battlefield
terrain, pioneered by the British
2. Machine guns were attached to airplanes, pilots dropped bombs,
and airplanes were faster
II. War on the Home Front
A. Government Actions
1. Factories began to produce military equipment
2. Civilians conserved food and other goods for military use
3. Government censored (the control of speech and other
forms of human expression) newspaper reports about
the fighting
4. Governments also created propaganda (information
designed to influence people’s opinion, in order to
encourage support of the war efforts
5. Posters, pamphlets, and articles urged people to
volunteer or told stories of the enemies brutal actions
B. Women and War
1. With millions of men at battle much of the work done at
home was done by women
2. They worked in factories, made weapons, sent
important shipments of food and weapons, and were
nurses
3. This helped transform public view of women and win
their right to vote
III. Battles on the Western Front
A. The Italian Front
1.May 1915 Italy entered WWI
2. Sent forces against Austria – Hungry
3. Made little progress
B. The Battle of Verdun
1. Germans were making an assault on the French fortress
of Verdun
2. German leaders believed that the French would defend
this at all costs
3. Meant to kill or injure as many French as possible “bleed
France white”
4. Feb 1916-Dec France had 400,00 casualties
5. Left both sides weak
C. Battle of Somme
1. British launched own attack partly to pull Germany out of
France
2. British attack took place in Somme River area of France
3.Main allied assault in 1916
4. 1st day of fighting British lost 60,000 men
Dither 3rd Battle of Ypres
1. 1917 went badly for allies
2. July British began an offensive year near Ypres,
Belgium, where 2 earlier German attacks had taken
place
3. The 3rd battle was a disaster for the British, who ended
the attack in November
IV.
War around the World
A. The Gallipoli Campaign
1. Ottoman empire joined the central powers
2. Controlled an important sea passage called the
Dardanelles part of the water route between the Black
Sea and Mediterranean
3. Allies used the Dardanelles to ship supplies to Russia
4. To destroy the guns and forts that lines the
Dardanelles, the Allies landed a force on the Gallipoli
Peninsula in the spring of 1915
5. The campaign became a failure after months of fighting
with 200,00 causalities
6. Ottoman empire suffered major losses
7. Revolt occurred in Arabian Peninsula
8. British officer T.E. Lawrence took advantage of revolt
to support Arabs
9. Arabs overthrew Ottoman rule
B. The Armenian Massacre
1.Conflict arose in Ottoman Empire
2. Late 1914, Russia launched an attack in the Caucasus a
mountain region that lies between the Black and Caspian
seas and borders northern Turkey
3. Home to ethnic Armenians
4. Spring of 1915 Ottoman leaders forcibly removed
Armenians from Caucasus because most were Christians
not Muslims
5. 600,00 Armenians died from the violence and starvation
6. Ottoman leaders were accused of genocide (the
deliberate destruction of a racial, political, or cultural
groups)
C. Other Fighting
1. Battles were also fought in Asia and Africa
2. Japan declared war on Germany in 1914 as a part of
military agreement with Great Britain
3. British and French troops attacked German colonies in
Africa