World War I

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World War I

• -Key Concepts-

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I. Hopes for a World Order of Progress and Peace

• Benefits of modern science as solutions for
  social problems
• Material wealth filtering down to the poor
• Era of permanent, international peace seemed to
  have dawned
• Growth of international cooperation
• Creation of a wide variety of international
  organizations

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II. Origins of World War I

• Competitive Nationalism
• Entangling Alliances
• --Triple Alliance Germany, Austria-Hungary,
  Italy
• --Triple Entente England, France, Russia
• A Growing Arms Race
• --1st German Navy Bill (1897) Von Tirpitz
• -- Risk Theory

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II. Origins of World War I (cont)

• General Mobilization Theory
• Problems
• --Rigid Planning
• --Geared for Large-Scale War
• --Never Practiced
• --No Margin for Error
• --Little consultation with civilian leaders
• The German Schlieffen Plan
• International Crises between 1905-1914

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III. Pan-Slavic Nationalism The Catalyst for War

• Russias Support for Pan-Slavism
• Austrias Problem with Serbian nationalism
• Assassination in Sarajevo
• -- Black Hand
• --Archduke Franz Ferdinand
• --June 28, 1914

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III. Pan-Slavic Nationalism (cont)

• The Austrian Response
• The Russian Reaction
• --General Mobilization on July 30th
• Mobilization out of control
• --German Declaration of War on August 1st
  (Russia) and August 3rd (France)
• --British Declaration of War on August 4th
• Popular War Enthusiasm

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IV. A Fundamentally Different War
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A. A Massive Meat Grinder The Western Front

• Early Battles of the War
• --The Battle of the Marne (September 6, 1914)
• Immovable front for two and a half years
• Trench warfare
• --25,000 miles of trenches
• Cavalry gives way to infantry

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A. The Western Front (cont)

• The Race with Death
• -- Going over the top
• -- No Mans Land
• Gap between officers and enlisted men
• Daily routine of the World War I soldier

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B. Industrial Death

• Impact of Heavy Artillery
• The importance of the hand grenade and the
  machine gun
• Tanks and airplanes
• Increasingly not seeing the enemythe
  dehumanization of warfare
• All Quiet on the Western Front

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B. Industrial Death (cont)

• The role of poison gas
• --Chlorine
• --Phosgene
• --Mustard Gas
• The emotional toll of gas warfare
• The use of pets

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V. Case Studies in Industrial Warfare

• Battles of Attrition
• The Battle of Verdun (February-June, 1916)
• --German attack opened by most massive military
  bombardment in history
• --longest single battle of the war
• --The sacred road
• --600,000 men died

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V. Case Studies of Industrial Warfare (cont)

• The Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916)
• --Seven Days and Seven Nights of British
  bombardment
• --60,000 British dead in 12 minutes
• --1 million dead for just 7 miles of land
• The Changing atmosphere of War
• --complete breakdown of human existence

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Going Over the Top at the Battle of the Somme
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VI. The Home Front

• The concept of total
• Government management of the war effort
• Food and energy shortages
• Increasingly demoralized and disillusioned
• No realistic war aims

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VI. The Home Front

• Brings changes in hair length and fashions
• World War I innovations
• --Chanel 5
• --Spam
• --Deodorant
• Impact on language and culture
• -- Dud
• -- Lousy
• -- Rats!
• -- Gas Attack

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VII. The End of the War

• American Entry into the War April of 1917
• The illusion of German strength
• The realization of German military disaster
• Formation of the Weimar Republic (November, 1918)
• The Collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

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VIII. The Costs of the War

• A Generation of Men Lost
• International Flu Epidemic
• A Leadership Vacuum was created in Western Europe
• European Economies were destroyed
• Individual Emotional Damage
• The Great Interruption

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IX. The Paris Peace Conference

• The Emotional Atmosphere
• The Popularity and Idealism of Woodrow Wilson
• --The Fourteen Points
• Wilsons Political Handicaps
• Attempt at Self-Determination
• Provisions of the Treaty of Versailles
• German Reaction to the Diktat