Unit Standard: SSWH 16 Understand the long-term causes of World War I
and its global impact.
Objectives: Describe the reaction to Austria’s declaration of war.
Summarize military events on the Western Front.
Explain the development of the war on the Eastern Front.
EQ: How did industrialization cause so many casualties?
Vocabulary: Central Powers, Allies, Western Front, Schlieffen Plan, trench warfare,
Eastern Front, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Triple Entente
A European War
The major powers of Europe pushed each other to the brink of war, believing the
other side would back down.
On July 31, 1914 Germany delivered an ultimatum to France to declare their
allegiance.
With the German invasion of Belgium, Great Britain is pulled into the war.
Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, Russia
Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary
The Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan was the name given to the German war plan. The plan was
to attack France and then move their attention to Russia.
Due to heavy resistance, British aid, and a quicker mobilization of the Russian
Army the plan was ineffective.
As a result, the western front of the war began to slow.
Trench Warfare
The war quickly turned into a stalemate as neither the Germans nor the French
could dislodge each other from the trenches they had begun to dig for shelter.
This created a war of attrition for four years.
In Verdun 700,000 men lost their lives in ten months over just a few miles of
land.
Label the diagram of trenches below:
The Eastern Front
• The battle in the eastern front was less entrenched but was marked by enormous
casualties on both sides.
• Due to their lack of modern resources the Russians were forced to give up
territory greater than the whole of France.
• By 1916, Russia had some success against Austria-Hungary and this caused the
Germans to shift resources away from the west to the east.
• Because Russia had not industrialized so its army was constantly short on food,
guns, ammunition, clothes, shoes, and blankets.
• It was difficult for the allies to send supplies to Russia because of the German
control of the Baltic Sea and German submarine attacks in the North Sea.