1 Ch. 27 Sec. 2 World War I: A New Kind of War

2 The Belligerents Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, & the Ottoman Empire were the Central Powers; territory extended from the North Sea to the Middle East Their advantages included easy communication, rapid troop movement, & Germanys mighty army G.B., France, Russia, & their partners formed the Allied Powers, or Allies The allies had more soldiers, greater industrial capacity, & Britain’s powerful navy

3 Innovations In Warfare Germany was the 1 st nation to use submarines, or U-boats, effectively; they also introduced poison gas; new weapons included machine guns, & long-range artillery Soldiers dug trenches, & another new weapon, the airplane, was used to observe troop movements plus planes also engaged in air battles, called dogfights; Britain introduced the tank

4 Most soldiers were drafted civilians, not professionals It was a “total war”; many nations’ entire resources were dedicated to the war effort Men & women at home worked in arms factories; gov’t agencies created propaganda-deliberately spread true & untrue ideas, facts, & rumors to further their cause

5 Early Years of the War German troops marched toward Paris while French & British troops fought fiercely, holding the line at the Marne R. Both sides dug in; trenches lined the western front, from Switzerland to the N. Sea On the eastern front, Russia attacked E. Prussia; it suffered a humiliating defeat w. heavy losses

6 Germany invaded Russian Poland; Russia’s army was huge but lacked guns & ammunition, so to get supplies to Russia, the Allies tried to capture Constantinople Heavy resistance from the Turks at Gallipoli brought the bloody fighting to a stalemate; after heavy losses, the allies w/drew

7 Naval Warfare Britain blockaded the North Sea, keeping raw materials from reaching German factories In turn, German U-boats blockaded G.B. In 1915, a U-boat sank the British passenger liner Lusitania, which was carrying passengers & war materials to England (over 1,000 people were killed, including 128 Americans)

8 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sent Germany a strong warning  cut back U- boat attacks By late 1915 the war was a stalemate on land & sea; each side dug into trenches The conflict had become a war of attrition  a slow wearing-down process in which each side tried to outlast the other

9 The United States & World War I Most Americans wanted to remain neutral; they supplied food, raw materials, & ammunition to both sides However, contraband – war materials supplied by a neutral nation to a belligerent one – could by seized under international law As the British blockade of Germany tightened, Americans traded more w/ Allies

10 They read British propaganda exaggerating German atrocities – brutal acts against defenseless civilians In 1917 the British intercepted a secret telegram from German foreign service officer Arthur Zimmerman; it proposed that if Mexico would join Germany, Germany would help Mexico recover Arizona, New Mexico, & Texas; Americans were outraged

11 German U-boats resumed destroying ships carrying American passengers After the Russian Revolution, all the Allied countries were democratic & none of the Central powers were Pres. Wilson told Congress “the world must be made safe for democracy” The U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917