Overview of WW1 for high school students at the Katherine Thomas School in Rockville, MD

1. 1
The
Great
War
KTHS
ModernWorldHistory,2014-15
Mr.Peal

2. 2
1. What were the causes of the
Great War
2. Where was it fought?
3. How was it fought?
4. What were the results?

3. 3
• The countries of Europe
fought the _________
War between 1914__and
1918_.
• It was the largest war in
history up to that time. It
was renamed WW1__ in
the 1930s, when it was
clear there would be
another world___war.

4. 1. WHAT CAUSED THE GREAT WAR?
N + I + M + A
a. Nationalism__: The nations of Europe were proud of their
achievements – industry, wealth, and empires. National
communities were sometimes too proud to compromise with
each other.
b. Imperialism_: As nations acquired empires, the empires
competed for wealth and power.
c. Militarism__: Competition for empire led to the desire to
build larger and better equipped armies___and navies.
Industry made it possible to create deadlier weapons and to
move soldiers quickly over long distances.
d. Alliance system__: Close relationships between nations
meant they would defend each other in case of war. As a
result, small conflicts between nations could become big
conflicts between empires__.
4

5. Europe’s two alliances
• Europe was divided into 2 alliances.
• ALLIES. Great _______________
was the world’s strongest country
because of its enormous ________
empire. Britain’s allies were
______________ and Russia.
• CENTRAL POWERS.
_____________had a growing land
empire. Germany had only one real
ally: ____________________.
Germany was also allied with the
Ottoman Empire, a large but declining
______________ Islamic.
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6. 6
Germany’s problem Germany
_________France in a
war in 1870-1871.
France and __________
became allies in 1892.
Germany felt surrounded
by enemies.
Circle France and
Russia.
Germany’s plan, if there
was a war with France
and Russia, was to
defeat _________quickly
and then collect its
armies to fight Russia, a
much bigger country.

7. Serbia was an independent nation. Many Serb people also
lived inside Austria; they were a ________________within
Austria. Serb ____________________ wanted ALL Serbs to
live in their own country. In late June 1914, the son of
Austria’s ruler, Franz Ferdinand, visited the city of
________________ in Austria, a place where many Serbs
lived.
7

8. 8
1
• Franz Ferdinand and his wife were
shot and killed by a 19-year-old
________nationalist on June 28.
2
• Austria wanted to fight Serbia. Its ally, _____________,
encouraged Austria. In late July, Austria forced Serbia to
_______________ or go to war.
3
• Serbia refused to apologize. Austria declared
_______________ on Serbia on July 28, 1914
Six steps to war

9. 9
4.
• ____________ supported its ally Serbia and
called up its solders to defend Serbia. It issued a
general mobilization (called up its entire army).
5.
• Feeling threatened by Russian mobilization, Germany
_____________________ its army too. Germany
threatened France not to support Russia. When France
refused, Germany declared war on Russia and France on
August 1.
6.
• When Germany marched through
Belgium to fight France on August 3,
________________ decided to help
Belgium, a neutral country. The war
was on. All countries are involved
Six steps to war (cont.)

10. “If you hit that little feller, I’ll…”
10
Serbia Austria Russia Germany France & England

11. WHERE WAS THE WAR FOUGHT?
• In the Great War, there
were three major fronts:
1. __________ Front in
Northern France.
2. Eastern Front along
Russia’s border with
Germany and Austria. It
was almost 1,000 miles
long!
3. The Home Front refers
to the people back
home who
_______________the
soldiers.
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A ________ is
the term for
“where the
fighting takes
place during a
war.”

12. Western Front
• By the end of 1914, Germany
and France reached a
___________.
• Neither side could win. Both
dug into ________________,
deep ditches that stretched for
400 miles across Northern
France.
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13. HOW was trench
warfare fought?
100 years of industrial growth led
to the creation of new, deadly
weapons.
• Airplanes – to __________on
enemy positions
• Poison ________– to attack
enemies you couldn’t see (because
they were in trenches); the gas
settled in enemy trenches
• Tanks – to move safely over
__________trenches
• Planes - to ________on enemy
trenches
13

14. What was
artillery?
• Used on battleships and on
land
• Howitzers lobbed
__________ high in the air,
so they would land on
targets (e.g., fortifications)
• The biggest howitzers could
fire shells that weighed more
than a ton kg more than 50
miles (Big Bertha)
• France’s strong fortifications
(forts) were quickly
destroyed
Some people estimate that more than
60% of casualties in World War 1 were
caused by artillery.
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15. Three great battles on the Western Front
15
Marne Verdun Somme
September 1914 Feb. – Dec. 1916 July to Nov. 1916
• French stopped
German attack
against its capital
city, Paris, at the
start of the war.
• ________ warfare
began.
• It continued for
__________ years.
• Germany started a
gigantic offensive against
the French and British.
• Together, Germans and
French lost 250,000 men
without gaining land
• 40 __________artillery
cannon shells were fired.
• British and French started
this battle to take the
pressure off Verdun.
• The first day was the
bloodiest day of any battle in
___________.
• The ____________ was
used in war for the first time.
These great battles accomplished very
little. Neither side was winning until
1917, when the United States entered
the war on the side of France and
Britain.

16. Eastern Front
• Russia divided its army to
fight Germany and
____________________.
• Germans were successful
against the Russian troops
from the beginning.
• Russia had a huge army,
but it suffered from poor
transportation and lack of
_______________.
• Russia could not easily
fight both Germany and
_______________.
• By 1917, Germany and
Austria took over large
parts of Russia.
16
Austria
Germany
Germany and Austria were winning on the
Eastern Front. In 1916 they controlled the
black areas on the map. Russia was
__________________.

17. The Two Russian Revolutions
of 1917: Background
 Russians were ________________ badly. In the cities,
people were starving.
 In February 1917, workers in Russian factories went
on ____________. They wanted the emperor to stop
the war.
 February Revolution: The emperor
______________________ (quit). A more democratic
government took over. It continued fighting the
Germans and continued _______________.
 October Revolution: The _________________ took
over, promising FOOD and PEACE. Russia left the
war. _______________ was the new, Communist
ruler. Germany could now focus all its soldiers on the
Western Front.
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18. Home Front
 ALL governments wanted people at
home (women, children, and the
elderly) to help the war by…
 Working in ________________to
make weapons
 Growing __________ for soldiers
 Not ____________________food and
metal objects that could be melted
down
 Lending ______________________to
the government for the war
 Governments communicated with
people on the home front through
________________ posters
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Propaganda – government messages
(posters, movies, flyers) that try to change
people’s attitudes and behavior.

19. Home Front _______________: Men were asked to
fight for the nation (positive message).
19

20. Nationalist propaganda also taught
people to hate their enemy
(_______________message).
How were the Germans depicted?
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21. WHO WON THE WAR?
• In 1917, the _________ entered war
because its ships were being sunk by
German ____________.
• American soldiers made it possible to
push the Germans back on the
Western Front in 1918.
• The Germans realized they could not
win and asked for a
_____________________fire.
• War ended with an
_________________ (agreement to
stop fighting) on November 11,1918.
• The Germans lost but never really
surrendered. They were TREATED as
if they had started the war.
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22. Europe in 1914 and 1924. Notice the borders of
Germany, Austria, and Russia before and after the war
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23. How empires changed after the war
1. The __________ Empire disappeared. Germany became a republic
(democracy). Germans started looking for people to blame for losing
the war.
2. The ________________ Empire disappeared. Nationalities like
Serbia became new countries. Circle them.
3. The ___________________ Empire disappeared. It was replaced by
a ____________________government that took over all factories and
claimed to speak for workers.
4. The _______________________ Empire was divided up. It was
replaced by countries that are having troubles today: Syria,
_______________, _________________, and _________________.
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24. 24
Europe in 1920

25. Some facts about the war
 65 million (mostly) men were called up to fight
 Almost 10 _____________ were killed in battle. More than 20 million were wounded.
 7 million ______________________ (non-soldiers) were killed.
 Every day of the war, for four years, 900 Frenchmen were killed and 1300 Germans were
killed
 On July 1, 20,000 British soldiers killed in one day, the first day of the battle of the
_________________
 First war in history where most deaths were from war, not ____________________
 Half of all ______________ born in 1890 in France were killed or wounded.
 20 million or more died from the global Spanish ________ pandemic in 1919. Disease spread
quickly because communities everywhere were weakened by poor nutrition during the war.
 Millions more starved in Europe.
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26. At the end of the war…
Nationalism, militarism, and imperialism were
still problems.
The new countries in Europe were even more
___________________ than before the war.
Germany and Italy were _________________
with the results of the war.
After the Revolution, millions died in a Russian
_____________ War.
World War II breaks out less than 20 years
later.
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27. Some facts
• 17% of French soldiers were killed
• 15% of German soldiers
• One in five British officers was killed
• More than a third of Serb soldiers were killed
• Every day, 900 Frenchmen killed; 1300 Germans killed
every day
• July 1, 20,000 British soldiers killed in one day, Somme
• First war in history where most deaths were from war, not
disease
• Some – five months; Gallipoli – eight months
• FOUR million fought at Somme
• Attitude toward others changed
• Germans killed 5,000 civilians in Belgians
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