WWI Interactive Lecture

What Caused the Great War?

•Militarism• Each country built up

its army• Fought small colonial

wars over territory• Developed new

weapons (machine guns; weaponized mustard gas)

What Caused the Great War?

•Alliances • Triple Entente (United Kingdom,

Russia, and France)• Central Powers (Germany,

Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire)

What Caused the Great War?

•Nationalism (extreme loyalty to their individual countries)

What Caused the Great War?

• Imperialism (fighting over land and colonies)• Assassination (Archduke Franz

Ferdinand of the Austrian Empire was killed. Austria declared war on Serbia, which was Russia’s ally, and the other countries split into their alliances and declared war)

• Blackadder War Begins

Why Did the U.S. Fight?• Unrestricted Submarine Warfare• Germany warned Americans not to

use ships carrying weapons to sell to Britain

• German submarine attacked Lusitania (1915) and American civilians died

• The ship was carrying weapons to sell to the Triple Entente but newspapers focused on women and children who were killed

Trench Warfare• Armies dug trenches

in the ground • Bases for the armies• Protection from gas

attacks

• Negatives• Rain water collected in

the trenches• Cramped conditions• Dirty

Trench Warfare• Attacked through No Man’s Land• Area between trenches• Men would “go over the top” and march

through No Man’s Land to the opposite trench to attack

• Led to a stalemate • War of Attrition (try to wear down the other

army by attacking until the losses were so much that someone surrendered)• Neither side could win large, decisive victories• Thousands died to gain small amounts of land

in some of the biggest offensives

Trench Warfare

• Supplies • Difficult to supply

armies with food

• Blackadder Baldrick and rats

Trench Warfare• New Weapons• Submarines, more

accurate guns, airplanes, and weaponized mustard gas• 65 million soldiers

fought; 37 million casualties (KIA, MIA, and wounded)

On the Home Front • Schenck v United States• Charles Schenck (socialist) argued that

the draft was “involuntary servitude” in pamphlets he gave out• Arrested and convicted under the

Espionage Act (speaking out against the government in times of war)• Supreme Court upheld conviction• Schenck was not protected under 1st

Amendment (free speech)• Acceptable during peace time but not

during war• Like yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater

Armistice• Battle of Argonne Forest (26

September-11 November 1918)• General John Pershing’s American

Expeditionary Force (AEF)• More than 1 million U.S. soldiers

in AEF fought through Argonne Forest• Trapped Germans between

Americans and French• Germans surrendered 11

November 1918

Wilson and the 14 PointsWilson’s 14 Points (1918)

• Addressed Causes of WWI• No more secret treaties• Reduce militaries and weapons

spending• Reorganize colonies• Freedom of the seas

• Avoid War in Future• No economic barriers• Rights for minorities• Organization for collective

security

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

• Germany had to return annexed territories in Europe• Germany’s military would be

limited• “War Guilt” Clause• Germany had to accept full

responsibility for the war• Had to pay to rebuild European

cities

• Created League of Nations• U.S. Congress never ratified treaty• Never became member of League

of Nations

Remembering the Great War• Success• U.S. and Triple

Entente won

Remembering the Great War• Failure• Treaty of Versailles

angered Germans• U.S. failed to ratify

Treaty of Versailles• Wilson’s 14 Points

were rejected

Remembering the Great War