World War I
THE EASTERN FRONT AND
GLOBAL INVOLVEMENT
LOCATION
Longer than the Western Front
 No stalemate like the Western Front, but just as
deadly
 Trenches never
really developed,
more fluid troop
movement
 1000 miles long,
so troop density
was lower

BATTLE OF TANNENBERG 1914
Germany vs. Russia—almost destroyed the
Russian army
 Happened at the same time as the Germans
were losing the Battle of the Marne in France
 Kept Russia at bay the rest of the war
 Russian retreat resulted in permanent loss of
land (15% of its territory)

THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN
1915-1916 in the Ottoman Empire
 Purpose: to capture the capitol city of Istanbul and
secure access for Russia to the Dardanelles strait
(warm water port!)
 An attempt by Britain and
France to lure Greece and
Bulgaria into the war on
their side
 Also a new front was needed
since the Western Front was
deadlocked.

THE GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN
Half a million died in the campaign
 The Allies gave up the fight after a year
 Heavy involvement from Australia and New
Zealand, still a deeply felt loss—prior to this
loss, they had great confidence in their British
military roots

BATTLES IN AFRICA AND ASIA
Germany’s colonial possessions came under
assault
 Japan attacked their holdings in China and in
the Pacific islands
 English and French troops attacked African
possessions—not well defended (Germany only
recently established presence there)
 Results in Africa: Germany lost all colonies

COLONIAL LOSSES
 Almost
9,000,000 colonial soldiers were
conscripted (the draft)
 A million and a half came from India—all ethnicities:
Sikhs, Pakistani Muslims
 Others came from Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Jamaica
 They were given indigenous uniforms and led by an
ethnic “national”
ON YOUR PAPER…

Use the map on page 418 to answer the
questions on your paper.
AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR
1917 Germany intensified submarine use in the
Atlantic Ocean—using U-boats
 Announced they would sink any ship,
unannounced, that was near Britain
 This was called unrestricted submarine warfare
 This policy had been used before—1915, Germany
sank the British passenger ship Lusitania—
included 128 US citizens.
 Germany had stopped this kind of warfare for
awhile, but needed an edge on the Allies so they
resumed it in 1917

U-BOATS
“undersea boat”
 Used for enforcing a blockade—for example,
American supplies being transported to Great
Britain as support in the war
 Able to sink large ships with a single hit
(Lusitania was a one-hit sink)

AMERICA ENTERS THE WAR
The Germans took a gamble—they’d force the
British to surrender before the US was
provoked to full war
 They lost the gamble.
 Woodrow Wilson, the US President, warned
Germany several times to stop unrestricted sub
warfare, but 3 US ships were sunk
 The US had previously kept a strict (?) nonintervention policy

ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM
German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman
sent a telegram to Mexico saying they’d help
them “reconquer” the land lost to the United
States if they’d join with Germany in WWI.
 Britain intercepted the note, decoded it, and
passed it on to the US.
 Zimmerman initially denied the note’s
existence, but in a speech later tried to explain
the tone was misunderstood…

ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM--ORIGINAL
ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM--DECODED
ON YOUR PAPER…

Read the Zimmerman Note and Arthur
Zimmerman’s speech about it. Then answer the
questions.
RUSSIA BOWS OUT
Russia was suffering from harsh winters, low food
supply, low fuel supply
 Civil unrest forced the Czar to abdicate his throne
 The new government tried to stay in the war, but it
was still too hard to maintain
 A revolution produced another new government
under Vladimir Lenin—ended Russia’s involvement
in the war.
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war between
Germany and Russia

END OF THE WAR






With Russia gone, Germany could focus its efforts on
the Western front
Almost to Paris, it seemed like Germany could win the
whole thing, but their army was so weakened, a newly
revived Allied army was able to beat them—with
140,000 new US troops
350 tanks, then 2 million more US troops arrived
One by one, Central Powers surrendered
Kaiser Wilhelm stepped down on November 9, 1918.
The new government met with the French to discuss a
treaty.
Armistice—agreement—signed November 11 at 11 am.