World War I- A Review

By Mr. G

Timeline

• U.S. events– 8/15/14-US-built Panama Canal opens.– 5/7/15-Many Americans die as German U-boat

sinks the Lusitania.– 11/7/16-Woodrow Wilson reelected President.– 4/2/17-Wilson asks Congress to declare war on

Germany.– 1/8/18-Wilson proposes the League of Nations.

Timeline (con’t.)

• World events– 6/28/14-Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Ferdinand is

assassinated, starting World War I.– Feb.-Dec. 1915-Allies and Central Powers fight at Gallipoli

in the Ottoman Empire.– July-November 1916-French, British, and Germans suffer

huge losses at the Battle of the Somme.– 3/3/18-Russia withdraws from the war due to Russian

Revolution.– 11/11/18-Allies defeat Central Powers, ending WWI.– 6/28/19-Allies and Germans sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Causes of WWI

• Imperialism-Britain, France, Germany and Italy fought over land and resources in Africa and Asia.

• Nationalism-The above-written nations believed they were the best, and they were willing to fight to prove superiority.

• Militarism-Each nation built large armies/navies to prove they were the strongest.

• Alliances-Countries formed partnerships to help each other compete against warring nations.

Stalemate in the Trenches

• As Germany moved further west, battles were largely fought over big sections of land.

• Trench warfare-Troops fought, and lived, in rat-infested trenches, with the enemy sometimes only yards away.

• Snipers became a useful battlefield weapon.• Casualties reached into the millions (Battle of the

Somme) as new weapons and strategies were used.• Chlorine and mustard gas was a new weapon that

caused permanent, if not fatal, damage to soldiers.

A War of New Technology

• New weapons caused a rapid rise in the battlefield death toll.– Tanks, a British invention, caused many deaths as

they plowed through battlefields.– New machine guns, firing 600 bullets a minute, also

were used.– Poison gas blinded and burned soldiers.– Airplanes, a new invention, were used to drop bombs

on enemy positions. (The Red Baron-a German pilot/ace, shot down more than 80 enemy planes).

A War of New Technology (con’t.)

– Germans used a new invention-U-boats, or submarines, to control the oceans.

America’s Path to War

• Pres. Wilson, in 1914 when the war began, announced the US would be neutral-refusing to take sides on the war.

• Although Americans didn’t want to get involved, the German sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania changed many minds to going to war.

• Although Germany promised not to continue naval attacks, they continued, knowing the US would get into the war.

• World War I (in color)• World War I- part 2 (in color)• World War I- part 3 (in color)• World War I- part 4 (in color)

America’s Path to War (con’t.)

• The Zimmerman Telegram, a letter from Germany to Mexico, asking Mexico to attack the US in exchange for German support, finally got the US to declare war on Germany.

Revolution in Russia

• As Russian soldiers fought against the Germans, in Russia, a revolution was starting.

• Czar Nicholas Romanov, the leader of Russia, was kidnapped by a group of “Red Bolsheviks”-Communist revolutionaries.

• He and his family were executed and the Bolsheviks took control of the Russian Government-led by Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov-known as “Lenin”.

• Russian soldiers left the battlefield to return home to take part in the revolution.

• Russia signed a pact with Germany-Treaty of Brest-Litovsk-now Germany turned it’s full military to the West-against the Allied Forces.

America Enters the War

• After the Russian army went home to take part in their revolution, Germany planned to end the war by sending their army against France/Britain.

• May, 1918, one million fresh American troops arrived to turn back the German advance.

• On Nov. 11, 1918, Germany signed an armistice-an end to fighting.

The Treaty of Versailles

• Allied countries (US, Britain, France) wanted Germany to pay heavily for the war.

• Germany had to take full blame for the war.• Germany was stripped of most of its colonies and its

armed forces.• Germany had to pay over $33 billion in reparations-

money that a defeated nation pays for the destruction caused by the war.

• Germany was thrown into an economic depression that did not end until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.