Chapter 12 Section 1: Things to Know

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Chapter 12 Section 1 Things to Know

• What did Social Darwinism believe that the best
  nation would do in the constant competition among
  countries?
• What countries made up the Triple Alliance?
• What was the Western Front?
• Why did Woodrow Wilson want the US to remain
  neutral during WWI?
• The German-Americans and the Irish Americans
  were most likely to support which power?
• What did internationalists think that the US
  should use to try to end the war?
• What was the buildup of the US military in 1916
  an example of?
• Why did the US create the National Defense Act
  and the Naval Construction Act?
• What was the immediate cause of the USs entry
  into WWI?
• What were the immediate factors leading up to the
  involvement of the US in World War I?

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Chapter 12 World War I and Beyond
1914-1920Section 1 From Neutrality to War
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Why It Matters

• In 1914, nationalism, militarism, imperialism,
  and entangling alliances combined with other
  factors to lead the nations of Europe into a
  brutal war. The war quickly stretched around the
  globe. The United States remained neutral at
  first but ended up abandoning its long tradition
  of staying out of European conflicts.

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What Caused World War I?

• Until 1914, there had not been a large-scale
  European conflict for nearly one hundred years.
  Things were rapidly changing.
• What were some of the tensions that brought about
  World War I?
• Nationalism
• Regional tensions
• Economic rivalries
• Imperial ambitions
• Militarism

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What Caused World War I?

• Nationalism and competition heighten regional
  tensions.
• Nationalism, or the devotion to ones nation,
  kick-started international and domestic tensions.
  
• Europeans began to reject the idea of a nation as
  a collection of different ethnic groups.
• Instead, they believed that a nation should
  express the nationalism of a single ethnic group.
• This created an intense form of nationalism which
  sparked the belief that your nation is better
  than any other. It also heightened international
  rivalries.
• The problem lies in the thought that a country
  existed as the expression of its people, or the
  majority ethnic group. But now, where did the
  minorities fit in?

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What Caused World War I?

• The idea of Social Darwinism did not help
  tensions throughout Europe.
• The idea of only the strong survive, or
  survival of the fittest made each nation want
  to strive to be the best, or strongest nation,
  again heightening rivalries.
• What did Social Darwinism believe that the best
  nation would do in the constant competition among
  countries?
• That the best nation would come out ahead in the
  constant competition among countries.

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What Caused World War I?

• The newfound nationalist sentiments of the period
  sometimes spilled over into the economic goals of
  the nation.
• They measured their wealth and greatness by their
  industrial output, trade and possessions of
  overseas empires.
• The main measure of greatness was by gaining
  overseas empires, such as nations claiming
  empires in the Pacific, Africa, and China.

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What Caused World War I?

• Militarism produces an arms race, which again led
  to increased tensions.
• Most European leaders did not wonder if a great
  war would start but wondered when it would.
• In order to prepare, they created large
  stockpiles of weapons.
• Which nation readied itself the most for war?
• Germany. By 1914, it had a huge standing army
  and the largest, deadliest collection of guns in
  the world.
• Germany also built up its navy enough to rival
  England, which was the strongest in the world.
• Britain responded by increasing its navy.
• A spirit of militarism, or glorification of the
  military, grew in the competing countries and
  fueled this arms race even more.

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What Caused World War I?

• The contest between Germany and Britain at sea
  and between Germany, France, and Russia on land
  guaranteed one thing The next major war would
  involve more troops and more technologically
  advanced weapons than ever before.
• Machine guns, mobile artillery, tanks,
  submarines, and airplanes would change the nature
  of warfare.

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What Caused World War I?

• Alliances between countries did nothing but throw
  fuel on the nationalist fires. European leaders
  used alliances to prepare for war.
• Before 1914, what two major alliances emerged?
• The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente
• What countries made up the Triple Alliance?
• The Triple Alliance Made up of Germany,
  Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
• What countries made up the Triple Entente?
• The Triple Entente Made up of France, Russia,
  and Great Britain.
• Alliances actually allowed leaders to become
  reckless. They knew that if they did declare
  war, their allies would be obliged to fight along
  with them.
• Some leaders actually saw some benefits of war.
  They thought that war could smooth over domestic
  problems.

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What Caused World War I?

• What major event sparked World War I?
• The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
  heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his
  wife Sophie.
• On June 28, 1914, they left for a routine visit
  of Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian
  province of Bosnia.
• Ethnic Serbs that believed that Bosnia rightfully
  belonged to Serbia, also saw Ferdinand as a
  tyrant.
• When the Archdukes driver made a wrong turn,
  Gavrilo Princip, one of the Serbian conspirators,
  noticed the Archduke and his wife in the car. He
  pulled out a pistol, fired twice, killing both
  the Archduke and his wife.
• People around the world were shocked by the
  senseless murder but didnt believe it would lead
  to a great war, but it did!

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The Fighting Begins

• Everything was in place for a large conflict
  nationalist ambitions, large armies, stockpiles
  of weapons, alliances, and military plans.
• The nations of Europe were racing towards a great
  collision.
• Archduke Ferdinands murder was the spark that
  lit the wars fire and now a great war had begun.

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The Fighting Begins

• Soon after the Archdukes assassination Germanys
  emperor, Kaiser William II, assured
  Austria-Hungary that Germany would stand by its
  ally if war came.
• Austria-Hungary then sent a harsh ultimatum to
  Serbia demanding Serbias total cooperation in an
  investigation into the assassination. Serbia did
  not agree and Austria-Hungary declared war on
  Serbia on July 28, 1914.

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The Fighting Begins

• Because of the alliance system, this quarrel
  would have been more localized. But instead,
  Germany, a part of the Triple Alliance, brought
  its allies into the fighting.
• In early August, Russia mobilized to help its
  ally, Serbia against Austria.
• This caused Germany to declare war on Russia.
• France, Russias ally, was forced to declare war
  on Germany.
• Germany then declared war on neutral Belgium, so
  that it could launch an invasion of France
  through Belgium.
• Great Britain, an ally of France and Belgium,
  then declared war on Germany.
• In less than a week, the Central Powers of
  Germany and Austria-Hungary were at war against
  the Allied Powers of Britain, France, Russia, and
  Serbia.
• With the German advance only 30 miles from Paris,
  the French and British counterattacked and
  stopped the German forces near the Marne River.

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The Fighting Begins

• After the Battle of the Marne, the Germans
  settled onto high ground, dug trenches, and
  fortified their position. When the French and
  British attacked, the German troops used machine
  guns and artillery to kill thousands of them.
• The French and British then dug their own
  trenches and used the same tactics to kill
  thousands of counteracting Germans.
• Soon, 450 mile of trenches stretched like a huge
  scar from the coast of Belgium to the border of
  Switzerland.
• What was the Western Front?
• It was a section of French border that was
  critical to winning the war.
• Although fighting went on in Eastern Europe, the
  Middle East, and in other parts of the world,
  this Western Front in France became the critical
  battle front. If you controlled the Western
  Front, you would win the war.
• Look at the map on page 364.

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The Fighting Begins

• The war dragged on for years, and it was hideous
  and deadly. It was much worse than anyone had
  thought
• It was so bad, mainly because of the fact that
  the defensive weapons were more advanced and
  better than the offensive weapons.
• Generals threw their soldiers against the enemy
  without fully considering the new technology.
• Artillery and heavy machine guns were the
  defensive weapons that accounted for large
  portion of the fatalities of the war.
• As an offensive measure, soldiers used poison gas
  to try to break away the enemy lines, but made
  little difference besides its horrifying effects.

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The Fighting Begins

• The stalemate led to gruesome conditions for the
  men in the trenches of the Western Front.
• As they settled in for this newfound trench
  warfare, the soldiers began to suffer the
  conditions of the life of trench warfare.
• Soldiers began to get trench foot from standing
  for long hours in wet, muddy trenches. They
  contracted lice from the millions of rats that
  infested the trenches.
• The soldiers lived in constant fear while in the
  trenches. They were afraid to pop their heads
  out of the trenches for fear of getting shot.

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The Fighting Begins

• Between the opposing trenches was an area known
  as no mans land.
• This no mans land had been barraged by
  artillery so badly that and trees, fields, or
  homes that had once existed there were charred
  beyond all recognition.
• Soldiers went over the top of their trenches
  into this muddy, nearly impassable wasteland when
  they attempted to attack the entrenches enemy.

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The Fighting Begins

• Casualties mounted first in the thousands, then
  hundreds of thousands, and finally in millions.
• Almost one million French soldiers were killed or
  wounded in just the first three months of the
  war.
• The Germans lost only slightly fewer.
• In two battles in 1916 Verdun and Somme
  British, French, and Germans sustained more than
  2 million casualties.
• The British suffered 60,000 casualties on the
  first day alone at Somme and achieved virtually
  nothing.
• The war promised to be a long and deadly.

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END FOR TODAY!

• We will finish Section 1 tomorrow.