A NEW KIND OF CONFLICT

1
A NEW KIND OF CONFLICT

• BELL WORK 3

2
THE GREAT WAR

• The great war, as the newspapers soon called it,
  was the largest war in history up to that time.
  The French mobilized almost 8.5 million men, the
  British 9 million, the Russians 12 million, and
  the Germans 11 million.
• The Western Front- As the war began, German
  forces swept through Belgium toward Paris. The
  Russians mobilized a lot quicker than expected,
  and the battle lines in France and Belgium would
  remain almost unchanged for four years.

3
Trench Warfare

• On the Western Front, the warring armies burrowed
  into a vast system of trenches, stretching from
  the Swiss frontier to the English Channel.
• An underground network linked bunkers,
  communications trenches, and gun emplacements.
  There millions of soldiers roasted under the
  broiling summer sun or froze through the long
  winters. They shared their food with rats and
  their beds with lice. Through coils of barbed
  wire, soldiers peered over the edge of their
  trenches, watching for the next attack. They
  themselves would have to charge into this
  man-made desert when officers gave the order. The
  struggle continued back and forth, over a few
  hundred yards of territory.

4
A WAR OF MACHINESTECHNOLOGY THAT CHANGED WARFARE

• Automatic machine gun
• Tank
• Submarine/U boat
• Airplane
• Poison gas/Gas Mask

5
A WAR OF MACHINES

• In 1914, German artillery could shell enemy lines
  from a distance of 15 miles away. By 1918, they
  were shelling Paris form battle lines 70 miles
  away.
• World War I was truly the first mechanized war.

6
DISASTERS FOR RUSSIA

• In August 1914, Russian armies pushed into
  eastern Germany. Then, at the battle of
  Tannenberg, they suffered one of the worst
  defeats of the war.
• Troops sometimes lacked even rifles. Still,
  Russian commanders continued to fling masses of
  peasant soldiers into combat.

7
War in The South

• Southeastern Europe was another battleground. In
  1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and
  helped crush its old rival Serbia. Italy, mean
  while, joined the allies to gain Austrian-ruled
  lands inhabited by Italians. Caporetto, the major
  battle on the Italian front, was as disastrous
  for Italy as Tannenberg had been for Russia.

8
The War Beyond Europe

• Though most of the fighting took place in Europe,
  World War I was a global conflict. At sea,
  Britain blockaded Germany, while German U-boats
  sank ships crossing the Atlantic toward Allied
  ports. Such unrestricted submarine warfare
  outraged neutral countries, especially the United
  States.
• The Ottoman Empire would soon join the Central
  Powers in 1914.