Issue I

1
The Impact of the Great War, 1914-1928

• Issue I
• Scots on the Western Front

2
Scots on the Western Front

• This issue is about why so many Scots joined the
  army, and what they experienced on the western
  front.

3

• How Scots were persuaded to join the army when
  war broke out.
• What life in the trenches was like for Scottish
  soldiers.
• Why the battle of Loos and the Somme meant so
  much to Scotland.
• How important Scottish soldiers were to the
  overall war effort.

4
Causes..
5
Why did Britain get involved in a European war?

• Tensions in Europe had been building for some
  time.
• By 1914 European powers were divided into
  competing alliances, often described as two armed
  camps.
• Britain clung to the belief that it was safe, an
  island protected by its huge Dreadnought
  battleships.

6
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand

• He was killed in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, this
  eventually led to war between Austria-Hungary and
  Russia.
• Through the alliance system most of Europe was at
  war within a few days.

7
Schlieffen Plan

• This attack by Germany on neutral Belgium hoped
  to knock out France quickly so that Russia could
  be attacked with the full might of their army-all
  within six weeks.
• The plan failed because Britain had signed the
  Treaty of London in 1839 promising to protect
  Belgium.
• The German Kaiser did not think Britain would
  fight a war over a scrap of paper.

8
Britain went to war on the 4th August 1914 in
support of Belgium

• In reality Britain had been looking for an excuse
  to teach Germany a lesson.