WORLD WAR 1

• WW1 was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918
• WW1 led to the mobilization of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history
• Nationalism


  Extreme pride or devotion that a people feel for their country or culture
• Great Britain had the world empire with terrorists all over the world
• The United States acquired the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam during the Spanish american war
• France had territories in Africa, Asia, and south America
• Germany had territories in Africa and in the Baltics
• Austria-Hungary began acquiring territory from the collapsing Ottoman Empire
• Militarism


  The policy of military preparedness and building up of weapons
• In 1900, Germany began building a navy that could compete with Great Britain's
• Germany also began building up their army and supplied it's military with the latest weaponry
• Germany developed a plan to fight a two front war if one was to break out, known as the Schlieffen Plan
• Alliance


  An agreement between two or more countries
• Alliances


  • Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria- Hungary, Italy
  • Triple Entente - France, Great Britain, Russia
• Austria-Hungary began to acquire the states of Bosnia and Herzegovina upon the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and many Serbians were opposed to the new regime
• The Black Hand - Serbian super nationalist group that planned to assassinate the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, believing this would lead to an independent Bosnia
• Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand, fired the shot that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife


  June 28, 1914
• Sides in WWI

  • Allied Powers- Great Britain, France, and Russia
  • Central Powers- Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire
• The French army was not prepared to fight against the German army, which was equipped with the newest technology in warfare: The Machine Gun
• A German machine gun had 50 to 100 times the firepower of one French rifle, resulting in nearly 15,000 French deaths a day
• The First Battle of Marne began

  September 7, 1914
• The First Battle of Marne involved more than 2 million soldiers along a 125 mile battlefront, with the French pushing back the Germans 40 miles, but resulting in over 250,000 lives lost
• Trench Warfare


  • Soldiers built massive networks of trenches to protect themselves from artillery shells, machine gun fire, and grenades
  • Over 400 miles of trenches were dug on the Western Front
  • Soldiers lived in very harsh conditions, sleeping, eating, and being treated for wounds or left for dead in the trenches
  • Soldiers had to constantly be aware of the enemy and stay below the trenches walls
• "No Man's Land" is where many soldiers would lost their lives
• Birth of Modern Warfare Technology

  • The tank invented in 1915, was used to level areas in "no man's land" and to enter enemy trenches
  • Poison gas - invented in Germany and first used in WWI, with chlorine gas destroying the lungs of soldiers
  • The first time airplanes were used in warfare, with planes getting in air battles known as "dogfights" and harassing the trenches
  • Airplanes were later mounted with machine guns
• The United States had a strong tradition of isolationism before WWI
• Germany began using their U-boats as a weapon against the Allied powers
• The Lusitania, a British luxury liner carrying over 1900 passengers was torpedoed by a German U-Boat, killing 1200 people, including 128 Americans


  May 1, 1915
• The Sussex was torpedoed once again by German U-boats

  March 24, 1916
• Germany issued the Sussex Pledge, telling the US they would not torpedo any merchant ship without warning
• Germany reassumed unrestricted submarine warfare forcing the US to cut off diplomatic relations

  February 1917
• The Zimmerman note was a proposal by Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico to declare war on the US, with Mexico to reacquire its old provinces of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona
• Wilson asked for a Declaration of War, and the United States joined the Allied Forces on April 6 1917


  April 2, 1917
• In order to raise an army for the war in Europe, Congress passed the Selective Service Act in May of 1917
• The Americans that fought in Europe were known as the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) led by General John J. Pershing
• To transport troops to Europe safely, the US used the convoy system, in which troop transports were surrounded by destroyers or cruisers for protection
• In November of 1917, the Bolsheviks took control of the Russian government and withdrew the Russian army from the Eastern Front, allowing the Germans to focus all its forces on the Western Front
• US troops did not see action for nearly a year, but were a major factor in WWI, helping defeat the Germans at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood, which prevented the Germans from taking Paris
• American women played a vital role in WWI, working as switchboard operators, nurses, typists, bookkeepers, radio operators, electricians, and telegraphers
• In 1918, the Germans began to suffer crippling defeats in France, as the war had crippled the German economy and people began to suffer from starvation, leading to armies beginning to surrender