General Information

Started on July 28, 1914

Ended on November 11, 1918
Almost 8,000,000 dead.
*** Russia the most = 1.7 million
Almost 22,000,000 wounded

Map of Europe greatly changed.

Reasons for start of

war

Extreme nationalism pride in country

Imperialism
Militarism building up military
Alliance system - <KEY REASON>
European powers formed rival alliances to
protect themselves
PROBLEM? One event could drag all
countries involved into a conflict.

Alliances and Strategies

The goals of each of the alliance members
Britain maintain continental balance and
UK sea superiority
France confine Germany
Russia expand if possible
Germany solidify German-speaking
people and never fight on two fronts
(West first and then East)
Austria hold everything together
Italy try to solidify own territory
Ottoman Turks survive

The Black Hand..

The main objective of
the Black Hand was the
creation, by means of
violence, of a Greater
Serbia.
Its stated aim was: "To
realize the national
ideal, the unification of
all Serbs. This
organisation prefered
terrorist action to
cultural activities; it will
therefore remain
secret."

The spark that lit

the fuse.
The one event that started the Great War
happened in the Balkans.
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Austria) was
assassinated while visiting Serbia.
The Black Hand was responsible.

Kaiser Wilhelm II
You will be
home before
the leaves have
fallen from the
trees!!

Outbreak of War
Balkan trigger
Serbs revolt/backed by Russians
Austria suppressed Serbs
Serbian killed Austrian heir

War (domino effect)

Austria declared war on Serbia

Russia declared war on Austria
Germany joined with Austria
France and Britain declared war on
Austria and Germany

Archduke Ferdinand
on day of
assassination

Conduct of War
German attack in the
West
French counter-attack
but are pushed back
Russian speed of
mobilization surprised
Germans so Germany
was forced to move
some troops to the
Eastern front
Stagnation and trench
warfare in the West

Trench Warfare
Technology superior to tactics
Machine gun versus a human charge
through "No man's land"
New technology = poison gas, airplanes

Very high death rates

Battle of the Somme = 600,000 allied and
500,000 German dead for 125 miles of land
Battle of Verdun = 700,000 killed on both
sides with no gain in territory

Trench Warfare
From Erich Remarque's All Quiet on
the Western Front
"We see men living with their skulls blown
open; we see soldiers run with their two
feet cut off Still the little piece of
convulsed earth in which we lie is held.
We have yielded no more than a few
hundred yards of it as a prize to the
enemy. But on every yard there lies a
dead man."

Battle of Verdun
the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements
of World War I. February 1916 December 1916
Two million men were engaged.

The intention of the Germans had been a battle of

attrition in which they hoped to bleed the French
army white.
In the end, they sustained almost as many
casualties as the French; an estimated 328,000 to
the French 348,000.

Approximate comparative losses in World War I