 The Great War
 Largest in history up to that point
French mobilized
8.5 million
Russians mobilized
12 million
British mobilized 9
million
Germans
mobilized 11
million


Germans fought through
Belgium toward Paris
Schlieffen plan failed



Belgium resisted
Russia mobilized more quickly
than expected
September 1914, British &
French troops pushed back the
Germans along the Marne
river
 September 5-12,
1914
 Culmination of
German advance
into France
 Allied victory
 Sets stage for trench
warfare

Fighting in E. Europe & the
Middle East, BUT Western
Front in France became
critical battle front



Winner here would win
war
Both sides began to dig
deep trenches to protect
their armies
They didn’t realize this
would turn into a deadly
stalemate
Western front battle lines would remain pretty
much unchanged for 4 years
For most of World War I, Allied forces were stalled in trenches on the Western Front
Trench warfare
 By 1915, both sides had built trenches from the English
Channel to Switzerland
 Stalemate
 Deadlock, neither side is able to defeat the other
 Millions died, little land was won
 Details
 6,250 miles of trenches total
 Western Front- 415 miles
 Trenches




Zig-Zag Pattern
6-8 feet deep
Front lines, supply/support lines, reserve lines, and communication
lines
No Man’s Land

No Man's Land

Land between two enemy
trenches
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-ihistory/videos/life-in-a-trench
Deadly & effective
defensive weapons
Ineffective
offensive
weapons
Longrange
artillery
Rapidfire
machine
gun
 Poisoned gas (Mustard Gas)
 First used in 1915 by the Germans
 Blinded or choked the victims
 Armored Tank
 1st introduced by
Britain
 Used to move
across No Man’s
Land
 Broke down a lot
 Zeppelin
 Both sides equipped
airplanes with
machine guns
 Pilots, “flying aces,”
fought “dog fights”
in the sky


Submarines proved much more important than
planes
German U-boats did great damage to the Allies
Unterseeboot, which means "undersea boat"

Used to prevent submarine attacks on ships

Convoys crossed with merchant ships

Trench foot
Wet, muddy trenches


Lice
Constant fear
 Battle lines shifted back & forth over
larger areas
 No trench warfare but higher
casualties
 The Frozen Front
 Lack of food and
clothing; 100s froze to
death daily
 Russia was least
industrialized of the great
powers

Always short on food,
clothing, weapons, and ammo
 Russia’s asset was its
numbers
 Germany blockaded the
Baltic Sea and the
Ottoman Empire
controlled the Black Sea
 Bulgaria joined Central
Powers
 Helped defeat Balkan rival,
Serbia
 Romania joined Allies
 Hoped to gain some land
in Hungary
 Crushed by Central Powers
 Italy declared war on
Austria-Hungary & later
Germany
 Secret promise with Allies to receive
some Austrian controlled land
 Though most
fighting took place
in Europe, WWI
was a global
conflict
 Japan, allied with
Britain, used war as
excuse to seize
German outposts in
China & the Pacific
 Ottomans were a desirable ally
 Turks joined Central Powers
 Turkey fought Russia in the Caucus mountains, Turkey’s
northern border
 Region was home to ethnic Armenians
 Some lived under Ottoman rule, others Russian
 Armenians were Christian
 Some Armenians joined the Russians & the Ottomans
used this as an excuse to deport the entire Armenian
population to Syria
 600,000-1.5 million died
 Planned massacres & starvation
 Very few
Armenians were
left in their
homeland
 European colonies were also dragged into the war
 Colonists expected the favor to be returned when all was
said & done
 1917
 Europeans cracking under strain of war
 Morale was low
 Stalemate seemed unending
One country
will leave
One country
will enter
 Nations entire resources going into the
war effort.
 Governments took stronger role in
directing economic and cultural lives
of people
 Conscription
 “The draft”
 All warring nations
 Germany
 Forced civilian labor
 Governments raised
taxes
 Rationed food, boots,
gasoline, etc.
 Forbade strikes
 International law allows wartime
blockades to stop contraband.
 However, British navy formed blockade in the
North Sea and blocked everything
Contraband: military supplies
& raw materials needed to
make them
 Germans retaliate
 Unrestricted submarine
Warfare
 May 1915, German
submarine torpedoed
British liner
 About 1200 killed
 128 Americans
 Germans stopped
unrestricted
submarine warfare
for the moment
 Total war included
controlling public opinion
 Censored press
 Hid discouraging news
Propaganda was used to
spread ideas to promote a
cause or to damage an
opposing cause
 Women played critical role
 At home, kept national
economies going
 Nurses near front lines
 Despite efforts, by 1917, morale of troops & civilians
plunged
 Germany was sending 15 year olds to fight
 Britain near bankruptcy
“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth & laughter go”
- Siegfried Sassoon, “Suicide in the Trenches”
 3 years of war hit Russia hard
 Incompetent generals
 Corruption
 Food/supply shortages
 March 1917, Russians overthrow Tsar
 Allies welcome the revolution
 New democratic nation would be a stronger ally
However…
 Vladimir Lenin
 Promised to pull troops out of
war
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
 Early 1918
 Signed with Germany
 Pulled Russia out of WW1
 US Support
•Shared cultural
•German Americans
history with Britain
favored Central Powers
•Same language as
•Irish Americans
Britain
resented British
•Same democracy as
France
•Russian Jewish
immigrants didn’t want
to ally with the Tsar
 Unrestricted submarine warfare stopped after
Lusitania, 1915
 Pressure from President Wilson
 1917 Germans desperate
 Started again
 Wilson angrily denounces Germany
 1917, British intercept telegram between German
foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to Mexico
 April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare
war
 1918, about 2 million American soldiers join the
Allied troops
Wilson to Congress,
“We have no selfish ends
to serve-”
“to make the world safe for
democracy”
“War to end
all Wars”
Brought much
needed morale
boost & financial
aid
 January 1918, Wilson issued
14 Points
 List of terms for resolving
this and future wars
Self –
determination
for Eastern
Europe
 Final showdown on Western Front, early 1918
 Germans wanted major victory before US showed
up
 Launch huge offensive, push Allies back 40 miles
 Efforts exhausted Central Powers
 Americans arrived
September, German
generals told kaiser the
war could not be won
William II stepped down &
went into exile in the
Netherlands
 Austria-Hungary near collapse
 Bulgaria & Ottoman Empire ask for
peace
 11 a.m. November 11, 1918
 New German government
sought an armistice
The Great
War came to
an end!