Aim #2: What were battlefield conditions like during World War I? Homework: DBQ due Monday. WW-3 due Tuesday

Do Now Based on our discussion from yesterday, was World War I inevitable, or is there anything the European powers could have done to prevent it?

I. The Sides in World War I ( ) Central Powers (originally the Triple Alliance) – Germany – Austria-Hungary – Ottoman Empire – Italy ( , then they switch sides) Allied Powers (originally the Triple Entente) – Great Britain – France – Russia (drops out in 1917 because of the Russian Revolution) – Italy (join in 1915) – United States (join in 1917)

II. German Strategy A.Germany needs a plan to win a two-front war against France/Britain in the west, Russia in the east.  B.Germans come up with the Schlieffen Plan: Attack France in the west first, knock them out of the war quickly, then move all the troops back east to fight against Russia.

II. German Strategy C. Schlieffen Plan ALMOST works. By September of 1914, German soldiers were on the verge of conquering Paris. However, the French turn the Germans back at the First Battle of the Marne. Germany is now going to have to fight a long war on two fronts.

III. Fighting on the Western Front A.By 1915, the war on the western front becomes a stalemate. B.Trench warfare: Soldiers dig trenches in the battlefield and protect them with barbed wire. Then, they go into “no man’s land” to attack the trenches of the enemy.

III. Fighting on the Western Front C. Hundreds of thousands of men die to gain small amounts of territory (at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, both sides lost 300,000 men so the Germans could gain four miles). D. New technology: poison gas, machine gun, tank, airplane. Make war more destructive, but not faster.

Concluding Question What would you have found to be the greatest challenge if you were a solider on the Western Front in World War I? Why?