1. World War 1
Task:
1. Re-read the article.
2. Create a doc in Google Drive.
3. Look up the info you don´t know.
4. Find sources to illustrate what you know.
5. Write your own article to publish in your blog.
3. This article is about the first World War.
Las buenas intenciones del mandatario norteamericano, consagradas en
1919 en el Tratado de Versalles, fueron puestas a prueba, y no siempre con
lucimiento, en décadas posteriores. Así lo certificarían, no sólo la guerra
mundial de 1939-1945, que no pudo impedirse frente a Hitler. Sino
problemas más recientes, como la de los Balcanes, en 1908.
Treaty of Versailles
The League of Nations
South Tyrol

2. 4.
Image of Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand was the emperor and the archduke of Austria Hungary
who was murdered by a Serb, and after this murder, war finally started.
Also he was involved in the conflict in the Balkans. Austria’s
opportunity came with the murder of him. So they blamed Serbia for his
assassination.

3. The image of the Balkans
The Balkans were an unstable area
● different nationalities were mixed together .
● The area had been ruled by turkey for many centuries, but Turkish
power was now in decline.
● Russia and Austria wanted to control the area because it gave them
access to the mediterranean.
The first Balkan crisis came in 1908. Austria took over the provinces of
Bosnia. Russia and serbia protested, but they backed down when
Germany made it clear that it supported Austria.
Austria felt confident with Germany by her side so, she was looking for a
good excuse to crash serbia.
Austria’s opportunity came with the murder of the archduke Franz
Ferdinand. Austria blamed Serbia.
Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum that would effectively had made serbia
part of the Austrian Empire. The serbs couldn’t accept it, so Austria
declared war on 28 July 1914.
The Alliances

4. 1oo years after the ww1
World War 1 was a disaster. Even historians couldn´t
agree in the causes that provoked the war.

5. The war lasted approximately 4 years.
During most of the war, countries were divided into
two great powerful Alliances, on the one side were
Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary called The
Central Powers that was formed in 1882. On the
other side were France, Russia and Britain called The
Triple Entente that was formed in 1907.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Map
_Europe_alliances_1914­en.svg
Each country have diferent concerns for
example the encirclement, which was the

6. friendship between France and Russia to
surround and threatened Germany.
In 1900 The Kaiser of Germany announced
that they were going to start building a lot of
warships. Britain thought that the Germans
wanted to attack them but the real reason, was
for “it’s growing trade”, so Britain felt thretened
by that.
Close by in 1905, France wanted Morocco
and they wanted to conquer it. In 1906
Germany also wanted too. In 1911 France
conquered Morocco and Germany was given
land as compensation, because France didn´t
want Germany to attack them again ( was to
calm the situation).
Later In 1908, it came the first Balkan crisis.
Austria took over the provinces of Bosnia.
Russia and serbia protested, but they backed
down when Germany made it clear that it
supported Austria.
Austria felt confident with Germany by her side
so by 1914, she was looking for a good excuse
to crash serbia.
Austria’s opportunity came with the murder of
the archduke Franz Ferdinand, so Austria
blamed Serbia.

7. Austria gave Serbia a ten point ultimatum that
would effectively had made serbia part of the
Austrian Empire. The serbs couldn’t accept it,
so Austria declared war on 28 July 1914.
This was Franz Ferdinand
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Franz_ferdinand
.jpg

8. This were the Balkans
http://www.aprilsmith.org/uploads/6/8/3/4/6834889/5157377_orig.jp
g
In 1914 right through to 1918. However hard, neither
side could make a breakthrough. The reasons were
that the techniques and the weapons were better
suited to defence than to attack. It was much easier
to defend a position than to attack one.
because of the barbed wire, trenches and mud made
cavalry charges inefective.
● Machine guns could mow down charging infantry.
● The colossal new guns of the artillery could kill
the enemy in their trenches, could wear down the
troops and sap their morale and could disrupt
enemy supplies, but they couldn’t make a
breakthrough.
A year later in 1915, all the countries tried and failed
to break the deadlock. French lost many thousands
in an unseccessful offensive in Champagne. The

9. British gained some ground but at a heavy cost, they
suffered a setback at Loos in September.
One year later in Februray 1916, the Germans began
a determined battle to capture strategic French forts
surrounding Verdum. The French were leading the
allied.
The German commander, Falkenhayn came up with a
strategy to ‘bleed France white’. The tactic failed, in
that both sides suffered. By July 1916 some
700,000 men had fallen.
The huge losses had weakened both sides. The
French army was near breaking point.
The British led by field Marshal Douglas Haig
launched their long planned offensive at the Somme.
For British history, the Somme is one of the most
important stories of the war.
Then in 1917, the new French general, Nivelle, put
foward a plan to break the deadlock. Even the
Germans knews of his plans Nivelle refused to
change it.
The crisis was resolved by Pétain, pushing the leaders
of the mutiny yet improving conditions for ordinary
soldiers, he regained the confidence of the French
troops.
Meanwhile, the British and Canadians had some
successes. The Canadians in particular enjoy a
spectacular victory, capturing the fortified Vimy
Ridge in April 1917.

10. From the start of the war both sides tried to prevent
the other from getting essential supplies to its
soldiers. The British had been blockading German
ports since 1914. The blockade was supposed to
strangle German industry so that it could not supply
the German army.
By 1917 civilians in Germany were experiencing
severe shortages.
The Germans tried something similar. They sank
British ships supplying Britain. In 1917 they

11. introduced a policy unrestricted submarine warfare
against all ships that they suspected were carrying
goods to Britain. This cause shortages in Britain but it
also had another unintended effect. It helped to bring
the USA into the war.
After that the USA was officially neutral but was
supplying loans and equipment to the allies. The
Germans attacked and destroyed many American
ships which they suspected of carrying supplies to
the allies. When the USA discovered that Germany
hoped to ally Mexico against them it was the final
straw and the USA declared war on Germany on 1
april 1917.
The allies thought that the entry of the USA would
turn the tide in their favour, but by late 1917 a
revolution in Russia had brought in a communist
government and it had made peace with Germany.
The Germans could now transfer hundreds of
troops back to the western Front.
After war The treaty of Versailles was created by the
representatives of Britain (Lloyd George), France
(Clemenceau) and USA (Wilson).
They had all different objectives, some wanted to
punish Germany harshly and other only wanted to
establish peace.
They established all their aims in the Treaty of
Versailles.
The terms were:

12. 1) War guilt: Germany had to accept the blame for
starting the war.
2) Reparations: Germany had to pay reparations for
the damage caused by the war.
3) German territories and colonies: Germany´s
overseas empire was taken away. This colonies
became Mandates controlled by the League of
Nations.
4) Germany's armed forces: The army was limited to
100.000 soldiers, they had to be volunteers, they
were not allowed to have submarines and aircrafts,
they could only build 6 battleships and the Rhineland
had to be a demilitarized zone.
5) League of Nations: Set up the League of Nations.

13. Extra detail: Today they still working in
undergrounds bombs in danger of life, and the repairs
were finished paying few years ago.