WW1 first file

• Long term causes of World War 1

  • Assassination
  • Nationalism
  • Imperialism
  • Militarism
  • Entangled Alliances
• 1871: Franco-Prussian War
• France had to pay money to Germany
• France lost its valuable Alsace-Lorraine provinces
• France lost their place as a major European power, now replaced by Germany, and wanted revenge
• Alliances


  • Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy)
  • Triple Entente (Russia, France, Britain)
• The Moroccan Crisis 1 (1905-1906)


  1. Dispute between Germany and France about the ownership over Morocco

  2. Germany supports Morocco's independence and declares a war on France

  3. Britain comes to defend France

  4. The Algeciras Conference (Spain) takes place from Jan 1906- April 1906

  5. Germany feels humiliated and the tensions between Triple Entente and Alliances worsen

  6. France decides to keep military influence outside Morocco
• The Moroccan Crisis 2 (1911)


  1. France deploys an army to Morocco as a rebellion occurring in Morocco against them

  2. Germany sends its warboat- The Panther (the port of Agadir) to protect their trade interests in Morocco

  3. Britain warned France from sending their troops to Morocco, but they did anyways

  4. Germany's financial position was not clear and this happened by signing a Treaty of Berlin, 1911 (The Agadir conference)
• Tensions grew in Europe leading to WW1
• Problems in the Balkans

  • Romania
  • Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Greece
  • Croatia
  • Montenegro
  • Turkey
• Turkey ruled over the Balkans and came to be known as "the sick man of Europe"
• Russia and Germany started showing interest in the Balkans
• Austria-Hungary took advantage of Turkey, signed a cordial with Serbia
• The Bosnian Crisis, 1908


  1. Austria-Hungary wanted to expand in the Balkans

  2. Took over Bosnia-Herzegovina to its empire

  3. Most of the inhabitants were the Serbs and they disliked Austria-Hungary people

  4. Russia interfered and joined the Serbs

  5. Russia called for The Bosnian Conference, but Austria-Hungary refused to attend

  6. Germany, backed Austria-Hungary and asked the Russians to give up on Serbia

  7. In order to prevent the war, Russia backed out
• The Balkan Wars, 1912 and 1913


  1. The First Balkan War (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Bulgaria defeated Turkey and took over the Balkan)

  2. Serbia wanted to take over Albania as that would give them outlet to the Adriatic Sea

  3. The Second Balkan War (Serbia, Turkey, Romania defeated Bulgaria)

  4. Serbia grew more powerful and Austria-Hungary wanted to retaliate
• The July Crisis- The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 1914

  1. While travelling through the territories of the Balkan State- Bosnia (Serajevo), he was assassinated

  2. The Archduke was assassinated by Gavrilo Princep, a member of a radical Slavic nationalistic group that opposed Austria and the Austria-Hungarian Empire

  3. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for assassination of the Archduke and made harsh demands on Serbia

  4. Serbia refused to comply with any of the demands

  5. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914

  6. Russia, a Slavic nation and friend of Serbia, mobilizes and prepares to defend Serbia against Austria-Hungary

  7. Germany, an ally of Austria-Hungary, declared war on Russia

  8. Germany declared war on France

  9. Germany invaded Belgium on August 3, 1914, so that German forces could enter France more easily

  10. Britain declared war on Germany
• The Schlieffen Plan


  1. The Key problem for Germany was how to fight a war on two fronts- against France (West) and Russia (East) at the same time

  2. Count von Schlieffen came up with a plan attacking France quickly and then moving all forces to Russia in time to meet the mobilized Russian army on its eastern front

  3. This plan made several assumptions: that Russia would take 6 weeks to mobilize its troops, Germany would need to fight a war with 2 countries rather than France and Russia, and invading France through neutral Belgium (would not provoke the British who were a guarantor of Belgian neutrality)
• France's Plan 17


  Involved a high-speed mobilization of its forces and a speedy attack to capture Alsace and Lorraine before crossing over the Rhine into Germany
• Austria-Hungary's Plan B and Plan R

  1. Plan B- intended for warfare with the Balkan states. Austro-Hungarian to divide up into attacking Serbia and defend against the Russian Troops

  2. Plan R- it was a revised version of Plan B that had greater emphasis on defense against Russia in case of warfare with Serbia (and Russia coming to Serbian Aid)
• Russia had a complex plan to attack Austria-Hungary and Germany which ultimately relied on overwhelming the German and Austrian army by sheer weight of numbers
• The Ottoman Empire-Turks


  1. Late in 1914, the Ottoman Empire was brought into the fray as well, after Germany tricked Russia into thinking that Turkey had attacked it

  2. Much of 1915 was dominated by Allied actions against the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. First, Britain and France launched a failed attack on the Dardanelles. This campaign was followed by the British invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Britain also launched a separate campaign against the Turks in Mesopotamia

  3. Although the British had some successes in Mesopotamia, the Gallipoli campaign and the attacks on the Dardanelles resulted in British defeats
• Trench Warfare


  1. The middle part of the war, 1916 and 1917, was dominated by continued trench warfare in the east

  2. Both sides had built a series of trenches that went from the North Sea and through Belgium and France

  3. Soldiers fought from dug-in positions, striking at each other with machine guns, heavy artillery, and chemical weapons

  4. The land between the two enemy trench lines was called "No Man's Land" and was sometimes covered with barbed wire and land mines

  5. The enemy trenches were generally around 50 to 250 yards apart

  6. Though soldiers died by the millions in brutal conditions, neither side had any substantive success or gained any advantage

  
• World War One


  1914 – 1919
• Pre-War Alliances


  • Triple Alliance: Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy
  • Triple Entente: Britain, France, Russia
• Main Causes of World War One

  • Nationalism
  • Alliances
  • Imperialism
  • Militarism
• Nationalism


  The feeling that a specific nation, language or culture is superior to all others
• Alliances


  Agreements to support each other in times of war
• Imperialism


  Getting involved politically and economically in other countries in order to gain wealth and power
• Militarism


  Competing to build bigger and better armies and navies than rivals
• Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
• Russia agreed to defend Serbia and mobilized for war
• Germany declared war on Russia and France
• Britain declared war on Germany
• Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia
• Central Powers


  • Austria-Hungary
  • Germany
• Allied Powers


  • Britain
  • France
  • Russia
  • Italy (switched sides in 1915)
• The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by a Serbian nationalist was the spark that started the war
• New military technologies used in World War One


  • Machine Guns
  • Poisonous Gases
  • Airplanes
  • U-Boats (submarines)
• Trench warfare


  Defending a position by fighting from the protection of deep ditches, with the area between opposing trenches called no-man's-land
• Reasons for US Neutrality

  • Many thought the War dealt with European matters, not American ones
  • Many Americans had immigrated from the nations of the Central Powers
  • American businesses were making lots of money off of the war, especially selling supplies to the Allies