World War I Virtual Museum

2. Why the U.S. entered WWI

3. Imperialism
• European nations competing for colonies
• “Bigger is better”
• Areas of conflict- Africa, Bosnia, Alsace,
Lorraine

4. Causes of WWI

6. Nationalism
• Pan-German- wanted to reunite all German
speaking people.
• Pan-Slavic- wanted to unite all Slavic speaking
people.
• Conflict Example: Bosnia

7. Militarism
• Militarism-Building up of the military
– Built up for two reasons
• Protect their colonies
• Peer pressure
• Used mandatory draft to get men
• Russia has the largest army, Germany is
the most trained, and great Britain has
the largest navy

8. Trench Warfare
• To protect their positions to cut down on losses,
both sides dug trenches
• At night supplies were brought in and scouts
were sent out
• At dawn/dusk attacks came: hit them with
artillery and then go over the top
– Had to go through barbed wire, machine guns, craters
• Problems in the trenches were mud, rats, smell,
body rot, cold, staying dry, maggots, lice, disease

9. Zimmerman’s Note
• Zimmerman was a German official
• He sends a message to Mexico saying to attack
the united States.
• In exchange he promised that Germany would
aid them in retrieving some of the land that
we took from them
• The us intercepted the letter and we got really
mad

10. Sinking of the Lusitania
• It was a passenger ship that was secretly
carrying ammunition.
• A Germans U-boat sunk the ship
• 1198 passengers died(128 were Americans)
• President Wilson demanded that the Germans
apologize and pay of the damages.

11. Unrestricted submarine warfare
• Sussex pledge- Germans promised not to sink
merchant ships without firs warning them and
rescuing passenger
• By 1917 Germany is defeating Russia on the
eastern front, they want a quick victory on the
western front.

13. U.S in WWI
• General Pershing led the U.S. troops
• By 1917 Germany controlled: Belgium, Italy
and northern France
• 1918 the U.S have 1 million troops in the war
• We cut off the German rail lines which supply
their troops
– We attack through the Argonne forest. It takes us
47 days and 1.2 million soldier but we cut off their
supply.

14. Continued
• By October, 1918 German lines are crumbling
• In November the allies have captured the high
ground and Germany surrenders.

15. Treaty of Versailles
1. New nations created
1. Russia= Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and
Poland
2. Austria-Hungry= Austria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia
3. Ottoman Empire= Divided up to be controlled by
the allies.

16. Germany’s Punishment
• Germany must accept full responsibility for
the war
• Took away their colonies, coal field and the
areas of Alsace and Lorraine
• Greatly reduced Germany's armed forces
• Forced them to pay 33 billion dollars to the
allies
– On able to pay 4.5 billion

17. The league of nations
• An organization of nations established at the
end of WWI to maintain world stability
• The U.S. Did not join the league of nations.
• This lead to WWII.