1. The War

2. Fighting The War Germany wanted to avoid a two-front war
Germany marched through neutral Belgium, but were stopped before reaching Paris

3. US President Woodrow Wilson asked Americans not to take sides and remain neutral

4. New Technology New and improved weapons
Machine gun, poison gas, submarines, and airplanes

5. 1914
1918

6. The Machine Gun

7. New type of warfare, Trench Warfare
Both sides dug ditches to create fortified positions
Trenches separated by fields of barbed wire and mines known as “no man’s land”

11. Soldiers spent years in the trenches, facing shelling from artillery fire for hours each day
Since neither side could advance, fighting lines became stationary

13. Artillery

14. The Paris Gun

15. 250 pound shells

16. Poison gas caused high casualty rates
Tanks were introduced, but they were still to primitive to be effective

20. Airplanes were used to see what was going on across enemy lines
German submarines called U-boats were used to attack large ships

21. Zepplins

22. Britain placed a blockade around Germany in an attempt to starve them into submission
Each side tried to mobilize all its resources, turning the war into a “total war”

24. The United States Helps Win The War
Great Britain, Russia, France, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Greece and Portugal became known as the Allied Powers
Though America remained neutral, they were sympatric to Britain and France

25. American ships sent supplies to the Allies, they were attacked by German submarines
The US finally entered the war in 1917

26. Russia dropped out of the war in 1917
President Wilson announced his war aims in the Fourteen Points

27. He wanted to redraw the map of Europe so each nationality had its own state
He demanded freedom of the seas, an end to secret diplomacy and the creation of a League of Nations

28. The War is Over
America’s entry into the war broke the deadlock in Europe
In November 1918, Germans laid down their weapons and surrendered