Objectives:
Agenda: Pretest with clickers, WWI Into
notes, Trench life, Propaganda work
Do Now: Pre Test w/ clickers
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World War I: 1914-1918
The Great War
I. Europe Before the War
Russian Empire
Great Britain
German Empire
Austro-Hungarian
Empire
France
Ottoman Empire
(Balkans)
II. Why the Great War Began
• Militarism – “glorification of military
strength”
• Each nation tried to get a bigger army or
navy than the other (arms race)
• Alliance System – leaders of nations
promised to aid one another in case of
attack
• Central Powers/Triple Alliance – Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire
• Allied Powers/Triple Entente – Great
Britain, France, Russia
II. Why The Great War Began
• Imperialism – competition for colonial
empires fueled rivalry
• Nationalism – Ethnic groups wanted
nations of their own (especially in AustriaHungary).
• Example: Ethnic Slav people in the Balkan
“powder keg” – they were under the control of
either the Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian Empires
and wanted their own nation-states!
• Serbia was an independent Slavic nation and
wanted other Slavs to join them in a new nationstate. The area had several wars in the early
1900s, trying to achieve this aim.
III. The Spark
Wow.
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand
heir to Austria-Hungary’s
throne – assassinated in
Sarajevo, Bosnia (in the
Balkans) by a Serbian
nationalist who didn’t like
Austria’s ownership of
territory where Slavic people
lived
• Austria declares war on
Serbia. Russia had to honor
its alliance with Serbia.
• Alliance system kicks in, and
soon everyone is at war.
Nations enter with
excitement; believe the war
will be short.
IV. Schlieffen Plan
• Germany’s War Plan
– Massive attack to quickly defeat France
– Then focus on Russia in the East, which would
take longer to get their troops to the front
• The Reality:
– Attacks bog down (Battle of the Marne)
– Both sides build trenches and
realize the war will not be short
– Trench Warfare begins
V. New Methods of Warfare:
Total War & War of Attrition
• Total War- all possible resources and
people are geared toward war effort
– New method of warfare based on new
weapons & tactics
– Colonies taken advantage of, for
extraction of human/natural resources
• War of Attrition- war fought not to gain
capital but to exhaust resources of your
opponent(s).
New Technology of WWI
• Poisonous gas (first used by Germans 1915)
– Mustard gas was feared in the trenches (1.2
million casualties)
• Airplanes
– Used to survey regions, led to “dogfights”
• Tanks (introduced by British 1915)
• Machine guns
Trench Life
Looking at Propaganda
1. Study the following propaganda
posters from World War I
2. Complete the questions about each
propaganda piece on the worksheet
you picked up at the beginning of class.