Transcript Ch_7World War I post - Hialeah Senior High School
General Information…
• • •
Called the “Great War” or “The War to end all Wars” Started on July 28, 1914 Ended on November 11, 1918
•
Almost 8,000,000 dead.
•
*** Russia the most = 1.7 million Almost 22,000,000 wounded…..
•
Map of Europe greatly changed
.
Reasons for start of war… “main causes of World war I”
Militarism
• Building up armed forces to prepare for war. • Building up armies, navies, and other armed forces. It also meant using them as a tool for negotiation with other countries.
• Empires were expensive to build and defend. The growth of nationalism and imperialism led to increase military spending. • Germany built a strong navy to rival Britain’s • Germany enlarged, bought latest weapons.
• Britain, France, and Russia began to prepare, too.
Alliance System
• Some countries in Europe had made treaties promising to defend each other.
• Two Main Groups Allies-France, Great Britain, and Russia (later joined by the U.S.) and Italy, Serbia Central Powers Germany, Austria Hungary, and Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria • PROBLEM? One event
could drag all countries involved into a conflict.
Reasons for start of war… “main causes of World war I”
Imperialism
• The policy in which stronger nations take over weaker ones.
Nationalism
• A devotion to the interests and culture of one’s nation • Countries tried to increase the power and influence around the world. This led to conflicts among them.
• Late 1800s: Britain and France already had large empires.
• German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, wanted colonies for Germany.
• This led to competition and rivalries among nations. • Various ethnic groups resented domination by others and longed for their nations to become independent. • Many ethnic groups looked to larger nations for protection.
• • • • •
The spark that lit the fuse….
The one event that started the Great War happened in the Balkans.
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand who had been the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated while visiting Serbia.
Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the Archduke and his wife Sophie. He was a member of the Black Hand.
Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. Germany obligated by treaty to support Austria-Hungary, declared war on Russia and France.
After Germany invaded Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Great War had begun.
The Black Hand..
• A military secret society. The main objective of the Black Hand was the creation, by means of violence, of a Greater Serbia.
• Its stated aim was: "To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organization prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret."
German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II
“
You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees!!”
The Fighting Starts Where did the fighting begin?
• Germany began invading Belgium. It planned to overrun France and then to attack Russia.
• The British and French could not save Belgium but did manage to stop Germany’s advance.
• By spring 1915, two lines of deep trenches had developed in France. The Germans occupied one line the Allies occupied the other line. • Between the two lines lay “no man’s land”a barren expanse of mud pockmarked with shell craters and filled with barbed wire.
• The soldiers would climb out of their trenches and try to overrun enemy lines. They did this while facing machinegun fire and poison gas.
Schlieffen Plan-Go through Belgium in order to get to Paris
How did Americans feel?
• Public opinion about the war was strong but divided.
• Socialists saw the war as a imperialist struggle.
• Pacifists believed that all wars were bad and urged U.S. to set an example for peace.
• Many naturalized U.S. citizens still had ties to the countries they came from and would sympathized with them.
The United States Stays Neutral
• Americans thought of World War I as a European conflict with little effect on their country.
• Just after the war broke out, President Wilson declared that the U.S. would stay neutral.
• Wilson’s decision reflected the U.S.’s longstanding policy of
isolationism
, or not being involved in foreign affairs.
• Privately, Wilson favored the Allied cause because Germany's tactics and invasion of Belgium was worrisome.
– The U.S. also had greater political, cultural, and commercial ties to Great Britain and France than to Germany.
• Financially, the U.S. did more business with the Allies.
– The British fleet blockaded German ports and transportation routes, and few American businesses could sell goods to German forces. – Doing business with the Allies was easier, and by 1917 Britain purchased nearly $75 million worth of war goods each week.
The War Hits Home How did the war affect Americans?
The British Blockade • The War affected American shipping • Great Britain set up a blockage along the German coast to keep goods from getting through. American ships would not challenge.
• The German plan for unrestricted submarine warfare angered Americans, and Wilson believed it violated the laws of neutrality.
• Wilson held Germany accountable for American losses.
German U-Boat Response • Germany suffered because of the British blockade, so it developed small submarines called U-boats to strike back at the British.
• U-boats are named after the German for “undersea boat.” • In February 1915 the German government declared the waters around Great Britain a war zone, threatening to destroy all enemy ships.
• Germany warned the U.S. that neutral ships might be attacked.
America’s Involvement
• In 1915, Germany sank a luxury passenger ship to Great Britain called the
Lusitania
, killing many, including 128 Americans • Americans were outraged, and Wilson demanded an end to unrestricted submarine warfare.
• The Germans agreed to attack only supply ships but later sank the French passenger ship
Sussex
, killing 80 people including Americans.
The U.S. Declares War
•
Why did the U.S. join the war?
Wilson promised not to go to war, and after his re-election in 1916 he began to work for a settlement of “peace without victory.
1.
German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to a German official in Mexico proposing an alliance between Germany and Mexico against the U.S. The Zimmermann Note asked for Mexico’s help in exchange for its lost Southwest territory (Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona).
• • • The Mexicans declined, but the British decoded the note, and Americans called for war.
Germany announced it would sink “all” ships in British waters.
Germans ignored Wilson’s calls for peace.
2. The submarine warfare, the sinking of ships and the killing of Americans, and Wilson’s cabinet convinced him to declare war, which Congress approved.
On April 6, 1917, the United States joined the Allies. Now they needed to raise an army, train them, and ship supplies and troops.