2. Nationalism
The Slavs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Arms Race
Expansion and Strengthening of Armies and Navies
Growing spirit of militarism
Alliance System
Chancellor Bismarck
League of Three Emperors
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Russia
5. Suspicious climate
and national rivalries
led to a series of
crises that brought
Europe closer to war
Austrian annexation
of Bosnia, 1908
Balkan Wars, 1912-
1913
Collapse of the
Ottoman Empire
9. July 28, 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war
on Serbia
Schlieffen Plan: Germany’s plan of attack
meant to bring the war to a swift end
Plan XVII: The French plan of attack
August 1: Germany declares war on Russia
August 3: Germany declares war on France
August 4: Great Britain declares war on
Germany
11. Schlieffen Plan
(Alfred von Schlieffen)
• German troops will be able to
move swiftly through Belgium (6
weeks to Paris)
• Russia will need 6 weeks to
mobilize troops (takes 3!)
• Great Britain will stay out of war
• QUICK VICTORY!
Plan XVII
(Joseph Joffre)
Germany will not swing out too
far West through Belgium
“Napoleonic model” of combat
(offensive strategy) will secure
victory
Élan vital (fighting spirit) will
secure victory in spite of being
outnumbered
QUICK VICTORY!
12. Allies
Great
Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, Beligu
m, Japan (late August 1914), Italy
(1915), United States (1917)
Central Powers
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman
Empire (late 1914), Bulgaria (1915)
Before the war was over it involved over
thirty nations with a combined fighting
force of over 65 million.
13. Stalemate on the Western Front
The First Battle of the Marne
Beginning of Trench Warfare
Battle lines established in 1914 changed little in 3 ½
years
The Eastern Front
More fluid, with frequently shifting battle lines
resulting in territory won and lost
Russian victories and defeats
16. A “War of
Attrition”
No Man’s
Land- the
area between
enemy
trenches
The problem
of Rats
Trench Foot
18. Shell Shock
“My nervous state, which I thought ought to
last not more than a fortnight, still persists
more than three, or almost four, months
after being evacuated, though the
trembling is a little less.”
Case #225 (1919)
21. Total War
Maintaining
National
Unity
Regulation of
Economic
Life
Censorship
and
Propaganda
23. Volunteer Groups
Nurses and Nurses
Aids
Blurring of Class
Lines
Ammunition
Factories
A Growing
Independence
25. Abdication of Tsar
Nicholas II (1868-
1918)
The Bolsheviks
Vladimir Lenin
(1870-1924)
Treaty of Brest-
Litovsk, March 1918
27. 60 units on Eastern Front freed by Russian withdrawal from war
Germany transfers troops from Eastern Front to West (France)
May 1918=Germans are 50 miles outside Paris
U.S. troops tip the balance toward the Allies
10,000 fresh soldiers sent to France every day
2nd Battle of Marne
German populace hungry and tired of war
Germany forced to face punishing armistice effective November 11, 1918,
“11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour”
28. November 11, 1918
Two Minute Silence, Armistice Day
(London, 1918)