WORLD WAR I

WORLD WAR I

VIDEOS

NOTES

ACTIVITIES

BATTLES

PEACE

CAUSES

10 FACTS

WORLD WAR I

1.1 ALLIANCES

Before 1914, there were a few strong and powerful countries within Europe. They had divided into two groups, who agreed they would help defend one another if one of them did go to war with a country from the other group. None of the countries planned to be the one to declare war.The Triple Alliance – this was an alliance formed in 1882 between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy The Triple Entente – this was an alliance formed in 1907 between Britain, Russia and FranceItaly also made a secret agreement with France that it would remain a neutral country if Germany attacked France. When the war started, Italy remained neutral rather than supporting the Central Powers.

1 CAUSES OF THE WAR

1.2 IMPERIALISM

Imperialism means that a country aims become more powerful, often by increasing the area they rule. Often, this can mean that the country uses military force to rule other lands or countriesCountries such as Britain and France were successful and building empires and were powerful and rich. European powers such as Germany and Russia were jealous of these empires, and hoped to reduce them. Germany had already won the Franco-Prussian War against France in the late 1800s to reduce France’s empire. When Austria-Hungary took control of Bosnia Herzrgovina, Serbia felt it must belong to them and they had support from Russia, while Germany supported Austria-Hungary

1 CAUSES OF THE WAR

1.3 ASSASSINATION OF ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND

Austria-Hungary included land in which Slavs close to the Serbian border lived. A nationalistic secret society in Serbia called "The Black Hand" wanted to “free” those Slavs.Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot during a visit to Bosnia on 28 June 1914. Austria-Hungary was angry that Serbia did not think it was a Serbian responsibility to investigate the shooting.The Austro-Hungarian government declared war on Serbia. This set off a domino effect, where the great powers of Europe activated their war plans. Soon, more and more countries had joined the war based on their alliances, agreements and reactions to the war.

1 CAUSES OF THE WAR

WESTERN FRONT

Battlefields west of Germany were called the Western Front. The Germans had hoped for an easy victory on the Western Front. But in September 1914 the Allies forced back the Germans at the First Battle of the Marne, near the Marne River in France.The armies on the Western Front then began four years of trench warfare. Each side dug long trenches into the ground. The trenches stretched from the coast of Belgium to the border of Switzerland. The soldiers stayed in these trenches for protection. A “no-man’s land” covered with barbed wire lay between the trenches. Both sides used rapid-firing machine guns against anyone who tried to get across the no-man’s land.

2 BATTLES

WESTERN FRONT (2)

Soldiers fought two of the war’s worst battles on the Western Front in 1916. The First Battle of the Somme took place near the Somme River in France from July to November. More than 600,000 soldiers on each side were killed, wounded, or captured. They gained only about 5 miles (8 kilometers) of ground. The French and the Germans fought another long battle near the French town of Verdun in 1916.

2 BATTLES

THE WAR AT SEA

The British had more and better warships than the Germans. The British Navy was able to stop some ships from reaching German ports.However, the British were not able to stop German submarines, which were called U-boats. In 1915 the Germans announced that they would try to sink all enemy ships in British waters. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger ship Lusitania. Nearly 1,200 people died, including many U.S. citizens.

2 BATTLES

THE WAR AT AIR

The airplane had been invented only 11 years before the war began. At first Germany used floating aircraft called zeppelins, rather than airplanes, to bomb the United Kingdom. Then the British built antiaircraft guns to shoot down the zeppelins.During the war both sides built several kinds of warplanes. Fighter airplanes had machine guns to shoot at other airplanes. In 1917 the Germans started dropping bombs from airplanes. Large German planes bombed London and other cities. In the United Kingdom these bombings killed about 1,300 people and injured about 3,000.

2 BATTLES

TREATY OF VERSAILLES

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty between the six nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Japan and the United States after World War I. The treaty was made in 1919, but the German government did not participate in it. In fact, Germany had the choice between signing it or facing the occupation of Germany by Allied troopsThis Treaty can be seen as a one-sided peace diktat for Germany, a treaty which later was used as a reason for Germany's nationalists and Adolf Hitler to try to get the support of the Germans to get rid of the "chains of Versailles," which finally led to World War II.

3 PEACE

Activities

1. Who was Gavrilo Princip?

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2. Make a map of the war. Set the two sides and the main battles

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Read about him and explain it on an Infograph on Canva.

Make it on an A3 sheet