World War I: 1914-1918 The Great War

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World War I 1914-1918The Great War
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I. Europe Before the War
Russian Empire
German Empire
Great Britain
Austro-Hungarian Empire
France
Balkans
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II. Optimism Before the War

• Scientific and technological advances
• Economic prosperity
• belief that the world had become too civilized
  for war

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II. Why The Great War Began

• Imperialism competition for colonial empires
  fueled rivalry
• Example Moroccan crisis between Germany and
  France
• Nationalism Ethnic groups wanted nations of
  their own (especially in Austria-Hungary).
• Example Slavic people in the Balkan powder
  keg
• Serbia was an independent Slavic nation and
  wanted other Slavs to join them in a new
  nation-state. The area had several wars in the
  early 1900s, trying to achieve this aim.

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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

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III. The Spark
Wow.

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
  assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia (in the Balkans)
  by a Serbian nationalist
• 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.

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IV. Schlieffen Plan

• Germanys War Plan
• Massive attack to quickly defeat France
• Then focus on Russia in the East
• The Reality
• Attacks bog down (Battle of the Marne)
• Both sides build trenches and realize the war
  will not be short
• Trench Warfare begins

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Roots of War
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War of Attrition/Total War

• New method of warfare based on new weapons
• ALL human/natural resources poured into war
• Whoever ran out of these things first would lose
• Colonies taken advantage of, for extraction of
  human/natural resources
• Colonial peoples used in labor roles at the
  Western Front

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Trench Life