Chapter 21

World War I

Chapter 21Section 1

World War I Breaks OutPages 626-632

Objectives

• 1. Identify the major causes of unrest in Europe.

• 2. Discuss the results of the strategy that was used during the early fighting in the war.

• 3. Explain why the war settled into a stalemate.

The Causes of the War

• Nationalism: is loyalty to a nation, even one not in existence.

• Balkan Region: nationalism strong in central European. Region is unstable and known as the powder keg of Europe.

• 1400s to 1800s: Ottoman Empire [Turkey]had control over the area. The ethnic groups of the area were struggling for independence. [Greeks, Romanians, Albanians, and Slavs]

• 1820s-Greece revolted and were successful in gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire.

• 1859-Romania followed in gaining independence.

• 1878-War occurred between the Russians and the Ottoman Empire. Which allowed the emergence of independent nations of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.

• 1908-Austria-Hungary occupied the Balkan region of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• Serbia thought Bosnia was part of their territory. Serbia was going in strength and Austria-Hungary felt threatened.

• Chief of Staff of Austro-Hungarian government Baron Conrad von Hotzendorf predicted major conflict in the future.

Militarism and alliances

• Larger European countries were in a race for strength and control of territories. Many felt that conflicts would be settled on the battlefield. Many countries raised major armies and better weapons.

• Militarism: the glorification of military strength. • Alliances were negotiated to avoid conflict:• Germany, Austria, and Italy formed an alliance.

Russia, France, and Great Britain formed their alliance.

The Great War Begins

• June 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, arrived in Sarajevo [Bosnia] to appear in a parade with his wife Sophie. During the parade Serbian nationalist Princip fired two shots at the Archduke and his wife, killing both.

• Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Germany offered support. Russia with a large Slav population felt compelled to honor the alliance they had formed with Serbia.

• This alliance system led to a global war. • Allied Powers: Britain, France, and Russia• Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary,

the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. • Italy remained neutral until 1915 when they

joined the Allies. Thirty nations ended up participating in the Great War.

• Germany’s strategy was to strike France and keeping British forces on the other side of the English Channel. Then Germany focused its attention on Russia to the east.

• The Schlieffen Plan: German military officials formulated the Schlieffen Plan between 1891 and 1906 in response to an earlier alliance between France and Russia. The plan relied on the presumed weakness of the Belgian army and the presumed cooperation of Leopold, the Belgian king. Leopold died in 1909, however, after the plan had been formulated but well before the war had begun.

• [German forces were to avoid the heavily defended French-German border by invading France through neutral Belgium]

• First Battle of the Marne: September, 1914- The German invasion forced the Allies back to the Marne River in northeastern France. The Allies pushed the German lines back some 40 miles. By the end of 1914 military leaders knew the War was going to last longer. [During this battle, French officers experienced a shortage of automobiles and train cars. They ordered Paris taxi drivers to transport soldiers to the front. The taxis, along with various other kinds of vehicles, carried thousands of soldiers to the battle. ]

The War Reaches a Stalemate

• The Germans were confident that the war would be over before the autumn leaves had fallen. Instead, both were entangled in a brutal and bloodied stalemate.

• Trench Warfare: 1915-armies occupied trenches that ran for hundreds of miles from North Sea to the border of Switzerland. Separating both sides was an area known as no man’s-land filled with barbed wire and land mines.

• Summer of 1916 the German’s launched a battle plan that would weaken the French. The chose the French city of Verdun. Confident that the French would defend the city. It was a long and exhausting battle which went back and forth.

• Battle of Somme: July of 1916 the Allies launched their own offensive against the Germans to wear them down.

• The battles were long in length and over millions died. Many who stayed in the trenches contracted diseases and unsanitary conditions.

New Weapons

• Machine Guns that could fire hundreds of rounds in minutes.

• Allies introduced tanks at the Battle of Somme. • Poison Gas was deadly and masks were a must or the

soldier would die by suffocation.• Submarines sunk commercial and military ships without

warning.• Airplanes were more about celebrity:• German Baron Manfred von Richthofen [Red Baron]• American Edward Rickenbacker