“It’s better to be a dog in peacetime than a human being in

war.”Chinese saying

WAR

1915 1916 1917 1918 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944

Battle of VerdunFeb - Dec 1916

Women and colonialworkforce recruitedto work in weapons

factories

Paris BombardedMarch 1918

ArmyMutinees

April -May 1917

Jewish Massacresby the

EinzatsgruppenJuly-Aug 1941

WannseeConference on the

Final SolutionJan 20, 1942

Massacre ofOradoursurGlane

(France)June 1944

1st gassings atAuschwitzSept 1941

Insurrection andDestruction of theWarsaw GhettoApril - May 1943

WORLD WAR I 1914 - 1918 WORLD WAR II 1939 - 1945

May 1915Beginning of

ArmenianGenocide

Aerial Bombing ofLondon

Aug - Oct 1940

First gassings atChelmnoDec 1941

Aerial Bombing ofDresdenFeb 1945

Atomic Bombsdropped onHiroshima &

NagasakiAug 1945

WWI AND WWII TIMELINES

World War I – The Great War

Key Questions• How is the fighting experience

during the Great War new and different from before?

• How were soldiers able to cope with the front?

• How did the war bring on social changes in the postwar era?

• What was the major turning point of the war?

• How did the aftermath of the war lead to WWII?

On the Way toWar

War ofMovement

War of Position

War ofMovement Post-War

period

Battle of theMarne

Sept 1914

Assasination inSarajevo

June 28, 1914

U.S.A. enters thewar

April 6, 1917

Germany signsArmistice

Nov 11, 1918

Defeat of the Frenchat the Battle of

Soissons-RheimsApril 1917

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk(Peace between Russia

and Germany)March 3, 1918

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

Declarations ofWar

July 28-Aug 3 1914

Submarine Warfare

Frenchattacks in

Champagneand Artois

March - Sept1915

Battle ofVerdun

Feb - Dec1916

Battle of theSomme

July - Nov 1916

Allycounter-offensiveJuly - Nov 1918

GermanOffensive

March - July1918

Timeline World War I

1. Name some of the important battles of the war2. Identify the different “phases” of the war

Causes of the War• Militarism

– Countries built up their military• Alliances

– Secret alliances would drag countries into conflict

• Imperialism– Countries competed for overseas

colonies• Nationalism

– Desire to demonstrate the strength of each country

• Assasination of Franz Ferdinand– Heir to the Austrian thrown

The Two Sides

• Allied Powers– France– Great Britain– Russia

• Joined later– US– Italy– Japan

• Central Powers– Germany– Austria-Hungary– Ottoman Empire

Map of European Alliances

WWI

Interactive WWI map in Europe

Stages of the War•Stage 1: War of Movement (Aug-Nov 1914)

Western FrontGermany violates Belgian’s neutral statusGermany invades FranceFrance fights back: Battle of the Marne

Eastern FrontGen Ludendorff & Hindenburg win Battle of

Tannenberg against the Russians Aug 1914• In Balkans – Serbs push back Austro-Hungarian

troops and free Belgrade• Ottoman Empire enters war and joins Central

PowersAfrican Front

Allied Powers overtake German possessions (Togo, Cameroon)

Stage 2: War of Position (1915-1917)

The Western Front• Trench Warfare: carnage (hundreds of thousands of

deaths to gain 4 km)

Battle of Verdun• Germans hope to drain the French of their last

strength• Result: 300,000 deaths & 400,000 wounded from

Feb to Dec 1916• French hold their position thanks to Gen. Petain• But one of the deadliest battles of the war

Stage 2: War of Position (1915-1917)

Battle of the Somme• 1 million victims (400,000 casualties)• Begun in July 1916 by Brits and French to relieve

Verdun

Battle of Soissons Rheims failed French offensive April 1917 • Results in deserters – quickly reprimanded

Stage 2: War of Position (1915-1917)

Other Fronts• East: Germans advance 150 km 1916, Russians regain territory

• Italy joins war – Allied Powerspromised territory belonging to Austria-

Hungary (population Italian speaking)

• Bulgaria enters war – Central Powers

• Allied Powers attack Ottoman Empire, German & Austrian ally, fails to force through the Dardanelles Straits in 1915

Stage 2: War of Position (1915-1917)

Blockades and Submarine Warfare• Allied powers attempt to squash the Central Powers’

economies (Germany, Austria-Hungary)Blockade of German portspopulations suffer from severe rationing

• Germany responds with unrestricted submarine warfare

May 1915, Germany sinks the English ship Lusitania, many Americans on board• Germany suspends submarine warfare in May 1916

(Sussex Pledge) but starts up again in February 1917• US enters the war – Allied Powers

Stage 3: Victories of the Allies (late 1917-1918)

• Return of the War of Movement– US joins the war on April 2, 1917– Russians sign the Brest-Litovsk Treaty

after Bolshevik Revolution– Germany can concentrate on Western

Front, hopes to win the war before US army can intervene• Spring 1918 – Great German offensives

return in Picardy, Flanders, Champagne

US Neutrality and Challenges• US sought to remain neutral

– Wilson’s Democratic slogan for 1916 election:“he kept us out of war”

• Lusitania (May 7, 1915)– Passenger ship sunk by Germans, killing

nearly 1, 200 individuals including over 100 Americans

– Germany claimed the ship had munitions (later determined to be correct)

• Sussex Pledge– Germany damaged a French ship, the

Sussex– Germany promised not to sink merchant

ships without providing a warning

US entry into the Great War• Unrestricted submarine warfare

– Biggest cause for US entrance in the war

– Germany would sink all ships, including American

• Zimmerman Telegram (March 1917)– German proposal for an alliance with

Mexico– If Mexico attacked the US, Germany

would help Mexico get land back in SW of US

Wilson’s 14 Points

• Sought to make the world safe for democracy

• Wilson outlined 14 ideas for post WWI world– No secret alliances, freedom of the

seas, etc– Establishment of a League of Nations

Domestic issues during the War• Creel Committee

– Journalist George Creel helped support the war effort

– “4 minute men” gave speeches throughout the US

• Espionage Act of 1917– Sought to prevent military operations

(including the draft)– Upheld by Schenk vs. US in 1919

• Sedition Act of 1918– Made it illegal to criticize the government– Used to convict Eugene Debbs

Reading Material World War IFor February 18, 2014

• The Unfinished Nation by Alan Brinkley Chapter 23: America and the Great War pp. 602-624

•Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe

Part 1 War and International RelationsThe world in 1914: outbreak of the First World War, pp. 3-16

Questions, p. 16