1. The Great War
Main Idea: A variety of powerful forces – including growing nationalism, a tangle of alliances, and decades of rivalry and competition – created conditions that transformed a single assassination into a worldwide war.

2. Europe on the Brink of War
In 1914, rising tensions in Europe had the continent on the brink of war as a result of four factors – militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism.
Militarism: European nations engaged in massive military buildup of weapons and increased the size of their standing armies.
This left all European nations on edge knowing that an attack could happen at any minute.
Alliances: European countries formed partnerships to protect themselves from potential attack by other nations.
Allied Powers: France, Great Britain, and Russia (eventually the United States).
Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy
Imperialism: Rival nations sought to keep and gain power over other European nations through gaining and maintaining colonies.
Nationalism: People felt loyalty and devotion to their country or culture.
Nationalism had led to the formation of new countries in Europe and disrupted the original balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna after the French Revolution.

3. War Breaks Out
Some of the strongest nationalist tensions in the Balkans region of eastern Europe were in Serbia, an independent nation.
Serbian leaders wanted to spread their influence to other areas in which Serbians resided but Austria-Hungary, their neighboring country, opposed Serbian expansion.
In the midst of the tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary the archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand decided to visit the Sarajevo in Bosnia, an area with a large Serbian presence.
He was shot and killed by a Serbian man.
Austria-Hungary blamed the death of Franz Ferdinand on Serbia and declared war against them on July 28, 1914.
Russia had an alliance with Serbia and prepared to defend them if Austria-Hungary attacked.
Germany had an alliance with Austria-Hungary and saw the Russian action as an attack and declared war on Russia.
The other countries in alliances with Germany and Russia soon followed with declarations of war.

4. Fighting in 1914
Germany faced a war on two fronts – the western front facing France and the eastern front facing Russia.
German military leaders had been developing the Schlieffen Plan, which called for troops to quickly defeat France in the west and then head east to defeat the Russians.
The first phase of the Schlieffen Plan led an invasion of France through Belgium, a neutral country.
Germany’s attack on a neutral country led Great Britain to declare war on Germany as well.
Germany’s plans for a swift defeat of France quickly failed as the war came to a quick stalemate, or where no side was able to win.
Forces on both sides began digging trenches, or deep ditches, to protect themselves from attack.
The Battle of the Marne succeeded in driving the Germans back and dug trenches of their own – this region of upper France became known as the Western Front.

5. The World War I Battlefield
Trench Warfare, or fighting from trenches, was not new, but the level of trench warfare was unprecedented.
Life in the trenches was miserable.
The trenches filled up with water causing thick mud and unsanitary conditions,
Removing dead bodies was near impossible.
Lice, rats, and other creatures were present.
Soldiers would be ordered “over the top” to attack the enemy across no- man’s land, the area between opposing trenches.

6. The World War I Battlefield
New Weapons
Tanks and Aircraft
As a result of trench warfare new weapons were developed to win the war.
Poisonous Gas was used to blind, choke, or burn victims, but it was of little value due to changes in wind and the invention of the gas mask.
Rapid-fire machine guns were extremely effective at shooting long distance.
Tanks and aircraft were both first used in WWI.
Tanks were used to cross the rough battlefield terrain in between the trenches.
Aircraft were used to observe enemy positions at the beginning of the war and then the competing powers began to strap machine guns to the airplanes to make them lethal.

7. War on the Homefront
The nation’s fighting in WWI soon realized that fighting a war of this scale would require the use of all of society’s resources a tactic that became known as total war.
New controls resulted in changes to the nation’s industries and economy.
Factories began to produce military equipment and civilians conserved food and goods for military use.
Governments also sought to control public opinion through the use of propaganda, or information designed to influence people’s opinions, in order to encourage the war effort.
With men off at war much of the work at home was done by women.
They worked in factories producing military equipment, nurses mending the wounded, and volunteers gathered food shipments to send to troops.

8. Battles on the Western Front
The Battle of Verdun
The Battle of the Somme
Germany was making plans for the French fortress of Verdun to kill or injure as many French soldiers as possible.
The battle killed nearly 400,000 French but nearly the same number of Germans.
The battle resulted in a stalemate.
The British launched their own attack to try to pull Germans away from Verdun at the Somme River in France.
Both sides lost an immense number of troops.
The battle resulted in a stalemate.

10. Wars Around the World Gallipoli Campaign Other Fighting
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in late because they controlled the strategic position the Dardanelles, a waterway that connected Europe with Russia.
To destroy the guns and forts that lined the Dardanelles the Allies landed a force on the Gallipoli Peninsula, but after nearly two months the Allies gave up the Gallipoli Campaign.
Battles were also fought elsewhere in Asia and in Africa.
Japanese forces, allied with Great Britain, began attacking German colonies in China and the Pacific.
British and French troops attacked German colonies in Africa.
The Allied and Central powers used their colonies to supply troops.