Current Events:
The British Army is being accused of failing its troops who develop deep psychological trauma after serving in combat. As one former soldier faces double murder trial in Iraq, his distraught mother says it would never have happened if her son was properly treated for severe post-traumatic stress.
Nationalism and the System of Alliances
Reading Check
Identifying
Did the growth of nationalism in the first half of the nineteenth century lead to increased competition or increased cooperation among European nations?
Internal Dissent
Reading Check
Explaining
According to some historians, how might internal disorder have been one of the causes of World War I?
Militarism
Reading Check
Examining
What was the effect of conscription on events leading up to World War I?
The Outbreak of War: Summer 1914
The Serbian Problem
A crisis began when Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary announced that he would visit Sarajevo (sa ruh yay voh), the capital of Bosnia. Francis Ferdinand was the nephew and heir of the aging Austrian emperor, Francis Joseph. At the time of his visit, Bosnia was under the rule of Austria-Hungary. But it was also the home of many Serbs and other Slavs. News of the royal visit angered many Serbian nationalists. They viewed the Austrians as foreign oppressors. Some members of Unity or Death, a Serbian terrorist group commonly known as the Black Hand, vowed to take action.
Assassination in Sarajevo
The assassin, Gavrilo Princip. Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie
The spark for World War I was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip (gav ree loh preen tseep), a member of a Serbian terrorist group, killed Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.
The archduke ignored warnings of anti-Austrian unrest in Sarajevo. On June 28, 1914, he and his wife, Sophie, rode through Sarajevo in an open car. As the car passed by, a conspirator named Gavrilo Princip (gav ree loh preen tseep) seized his chance and fired twice into the car. Moments later, the archduke and his wife were dead.
“The first [bullet] struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sofia, in the abdomen. . . . She died instantly.
The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart. He uttered only one word, ’Sofia’—a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly.”
—Borijove Jevtic, co-conspirator
The assassinations triggered World War I, called “The Great War” by people at the time.
Austria-Hungary Responds
The news of the assassination shocked Francis Joseph. Still, he was reluctant to go to war. The government in Vienna, however, saw the incident as an excuse to crush Serbia. In Berlin, Kaiser William II was horrified at the assassination of his ally’s heir. He wrote to Francis Joseph, advising him to take a firm stand toward Serbia. Instead of urging restraint, Germany gave Austria a “blank check,” or a promise of unconditional support no matter what the cost.
Austria sent Serbia a sweeping ultimatum, or final set of demands. To avoid war, said the ultimatum, Serbia must end all anti-Austrian agitation and punish any Serbian official involved in the murder plot. It must even let Austria join in the investigation. Serbia agreed to most, but not all, of the terms of Austria’s ultimatum. This partial refusal gave Austria the opportunity it was seeking. On July 28, 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia.
Russia Mobilizes
After Austria’s declaration of war, Serbia turned to its ally, Russia, the champion of Slavic nations. From St. Petersburg, Nicholas II telegraphed William II. The tsar asked the kaiser to urge Austria to soften its demands. When this plea failed, Russia began to mobilize, or prepare its military forces for war. On August 1, Germany responded by declaring war on Russia.
Russia, in turn, appealed to its ally France. In Paris, nationalists saw a chance to avenge France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Though French leaders had some doubts, they gave Russia the same kind of backing Germany offered to Austria. When Germany demanded that France keep out of the conflict, France refused. Germany then declared war on France.
The Conflict Broadens
Summary of the Conflict Broadening
The Germans’ Schlieffen (shlee fun) Plan failed for several reasons. First, Russia mobilized more quickly than expected. After a few small Russian victories, German generals hastily shifted some troops to the east, weakening their forces in the west. Then, in September 1914, British and French troops pushed back the German drive along the Marne River. The first battle of the Marne ended Germany’s hopes for a quick victory on the Western Front.
Reasons for the failure of the Schlieffen Plan: Belgium, Britain, and the Eastern Front. The video ends at the Battle of the Marne, 3:49.
Reading Check
Evaluating
What was the Schlieffen Plan and how did it complicate the events leading to World War I?
Section 2 The War
Most people in 1914 believed that the war would end quickly. The picture changed, though, as trench warfare between France and Germany turned into a stalemate and casualties mounted throughout Europe. Italy switched sides, and the Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Triple Alliance. The war broadened further when German colonies came under attack and the British encouraged Ottoman provinces in the Middle East to revolt. The United States entered the war in 1917 in response to the German use of submarines against passenger ships. As the war dragged on, governments took control of national economies, censored the news media, and used propaganda to bolster public opinion. Women entered the workforce in large numbers. After the war, many lost their jobs to men but gained expanded rights and status. By 1921 women had the vote in Austria, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.
Key Terms
propaganda
trench warfare
war of attrition
total war
planned economies
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate
Propaganda of World War I, 2:35
These are some recruitment and propaganda posters from England and France during World War I. The song: "Boys in Khaki, Boys in Blue," means British and French soldiers.
WW1 PROPAGANDA POSTERS(UK), 5:32
Each of the nations which participated in World War One from 1914-18 used propaganda posters not only as a means of justifying involvement to their own populace, but also as a means of procuring men, money and resources to sustain the military campaign.
In countries such as Britain the use of propaganda posters was readily understandable: in 1914 she only possessed a professional army and did not have in place a policy of national service, as was standard in other major nations such as France and Germany.
The Western Front
The Western Front and the Eastern Front, 1914–1918, Marne
For: Interactive map
Visit: PHSchool.com
Web Code: nap-2621
Map Skills
World War I was fought on several fronts in Europe. Despite huge loss of life and property, the two sides came to a stalemate on the Western and Eastern fronts in 1915 and 1916.
1. Locate
(a) Paris (b) Battle of the Marne (c) Verdun (d) Tannenberg
2. Movement
Using the scale, describe how the battle lines moved on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918.
3. Draw Inferences
Based on this map, why do you think many Russians were demoralized by the progress of the war?
The Human Cost To break the stalemate on the Western Front, both the Allies and the Central Powers launched massive offensives in 1916. German forces tried to overwhelm the French at Verdun (vur dun). The French defenders held firm, sending up the battle cry “They shall not pass.” The 11-month struggle cost more than a half a million casualties, or soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, on both sides.
Cf. http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=nap&wcsuffix=2621
American Battle Monuments Cemetery in Aisne Marne, France, 2:00
This video presents a brief narrated tour of Aisne-Marne American Cemetery's landscaped grounds, architecture, and works of art.
The 42.5-acre Aisne-Marne Cemetery and Memorial in France, its headstones lying in a sweeping curve, sits at the foot of the hill where stands Belleau Wood. The cemetery contains the graves of 2,289 war dead, most of whom fought in the vicinity and in the Marne valley in the summer of 1918. The memorial chapel sits on a hillside, decorated with sculptured and stained-glass details of wartime personnel, equipment and insignia. Inscribed on its interior wall are 1,060 names of the missing. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified. During World War II, the chapel was damaged slightly by an enemy shell.
Belleau Wood adjoins the cemetery and contains many vestiges of World War I. A monument at the flagpole commemorates the valor of the U.S. Marines who captured much of this ground in 1918.
trench warfare
The Eastern Front
On Europe’s Eastern Front, battle lines shifted back and forth, sometimes over large areas. Even though the armies were not mired in trench warfare, casualties rose even higher than on the Western Front. The results were just as indecisive.
In August 1914, Russian armies pushed into eastern Germany. Then, the Russians suffered a disastrous defeat at Tannenberg, causing them to retreat back into Russia. As the least industrialized of the great powers, Russia was poorly equipped to fight a modern war. Some troops even lacked rifles. Still, Russian commanders continued to send masses of soldiers into combat.
Battle of Tannenberg, 4:26
Battle of Masurian Lakes
Reading Check
Contrasting
How did the war on the Eastern Front differ from the war on the Western Front?
1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter
A film version of the novel "All Quiet on the Western Front illustrates the horror of trench warfare.
In the first scene, Paul Baumer (Richard Thomas) is chastised by his teacher (Donald Pleasence) for lack of attention in class, (specifically for furtively making a sketch of a small bird). He is ridiculed as an 'idealist' and a 'dreamer.'
In the final trench scene, Paul sympathetically chivvies his exhausted soldiers into staying alert for their own safety. Yet moments later he himself becomes (fatally) distracted by a small bird, the same symbol of beauty that had so irritated his mentor three years previously. Other ironic subtleties reveal themselves here. Paul now seeks solace in smoking, a habit he had until now totally despised. (Recall how he had haughtily rejected his teacher's proffering of a cigarette!). Even this actor's distinctive facial mole acquires significance. Devoid of any disguising make-up, it disturbs as an appalling disfigurement on an otherwise handsome face, a subtle symbol perhaps of the Great War's brutal despoiling of a whole generation of Europe's 'Golden Youth'. Most tellingly, the movie links the image of Paul's drawings as the metaphor for the idealism of the new generation, a hope that died with Paul in the mud of those hellish trenches.
If you enjoyed this excerpt, you may enjoy the entire film.
The horror of war during the great slaughter of World War I is illustrated by one of the most famous novels from the Great War; this is a film version of "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1979), 6:01.
Tactics of Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare, 7:57
First part of a short film describing various aspects of trench warfare. Presented by Oxford University's First World War Poetry Digital Archive project.
Verdun
war of attrition, the Battle of Verdun, 3:58
This is a brief demo Eagle Films created for a War museum concerning the brutal and bloody WW-I battle of Verdun. It was one of about twenty multimedia projects that were to be produced under the supervision of Philip Cook of Eagle Films.
War in the Air
During World War I, advances in technology, such as the gasoline-powered engine, led the opposing forces to use tanks, airplanes, and submarines against each other. In 1916, Britain introduced the first armored tank. Mounted with machine guns, the tanks were designed to move across no man’s land. Still, the first tanks broke down often. They failed to break the stalemate.
Both sides also used aircraft. At first, planes were utilized simply to observe enemy troop movements. In 1915, Germany used zeppelins (zep uh linz), large gas-filled balloons, to bomb the English coast. Later, both sides equipped airplanes with machine guns. Pilots known as “flying aces” confronted each other in the skies. These “dogfights” were spectacular, but had little effect on the course of the war on the ground.
World War 1 Aircraft - Sopwith Camel F.1, 1:16
The Sopwith Camel is probably one of the most famous British fighters of the war, in addition to the SE5a simply because it was one of their first superior fighters of the war. The Camel was dreaded by most Entente pilots, however. It was fast and maneuverable, but the upper wing had numerous problems and tendencies to shear off entirely and plunge the airframe into the ground (and this caused the death of many pilots), and torque was so great to the left side of the plane that it was sometimes rendered unable to fly altogether. It was dangerous for both novice and seasoned pilots to fly, any many died trying to tame the beast.
Reading Check
Explaining
Why were military leaders baffled by trench warfare?
Widening of the War
Though most of the fighting took place in Europe, World War I was a global conflict. Japan, allied with Britain, used the war as an excuse to seize German outposts in China and islands in the Pacific.
Gallipoli
Because of its strategic location, the Ottoman empire was a desirable ally. If the Ottoman Turks had joined the Allies, the Central Powers would have been almost completely encircled. However, the Turks joined the Central Powers in late October 1914. The Turks then cut off crucial Allied supply lines to Russia through the Dardanelles, a vital strait connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
In 1915, the Allies sent a massive force of British, Indian, Australian, and New Zealander troops to attempt to open up the strait. At the battle of Gallipoli (guh lip uh lee), Turkish troops trapped the Allies on the beaches of the Gallipoli peninsula. In January 1916, after 10 months and more than 200,000 casualties, the Allies finally withdrew from the Dardanelles.
Gallipoli trailer (Mel Gibson), 1:44
Lawrence of Arabia
Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert discuss the 1962 Oscar-winning First World War film Lawrence of Arabia, 4:45.
The Turks were harmed severely in the Middle East. The Ottoman empire included vast areas of Arab land. In 1916, Arab nationalists led by Husayn ibn Ali (hoo sayn ib un ah lee) declared a revolt against Ottoman rule. The British government sent Colonel T. E. Lawrence—later known as Lawrence of Arabia—to support the Arab revolt. Lawrence led guerrilla raids against the Turks, dynamiting bridges and supply trains. Eventually, the Ottoman empire lost a great deal of territory to the Arabs, including the key city of Baghdad.
Reading Check
Describing
Entry of the United States
Reading Check
Evaluating
Why did the Germans resort to unrestricted submarine use?
The Home Front: The Impact of Total War
total war
Increased Government Powers
planned economies
Manipulation of Public Opinion
Total War and Women
Reading Check
Summarizing
What was the effect of total war on ordinary citizens?
People in History
Edith Cavell
Cassell Military Classics: Iron Fist: Classic Armoured Warfare by Bryan Perrett
Day of the Assassins: A Jack Christie Novel by Johnny O'Brien
War in the Air 1914-45 (Smithsonian History of Warfare) by Williamson Murray
War Made New: Weapons, Warriors, and the Making of the Modern World by Max Boot
A documentary about the battle of the Somme 1916 part 1, 9:58
World War I in Popular Culture
Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, 2:08
Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy vs. The Red Baron, 2:40
Email to gmsmith@shanahan.org
1. Study for the Ch. 16 Sec. 1 Quiz on Tuesday; be sure to review the Ch. 16 Sec. 1 Quiz Prep Page.
2. Friday: p. 500, Geography Skills, #1-2; p. 500,
Reading Check
Identifying
Did the growth of nationalism in the first half of the nineteenth century lead to increased competition or increased cooperation among European nations?
Reading Check
Explaining
According to some historians, how might internal disorder have been one of the causes of World War I?
