1. World War I and Its Aftermath
Causes of the War
Great War Begins
U.S. Enters the War

2. SSUSH15: The student will analyze the origins & impact of U. S
SSUSH15: The student will analyze the origins & impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.

3. M.A.I.N. Causes of World War I
1. Militarism: Germany, Great Britain, Russia, France and Austria-Hungary all were building up their armies and preparing for war which made war more likely to occur.
2. Alliances: European countries created complicated system of alliances designed to help each other out. It bound countries together should war break out.
3. Imperialism: Scramble to gain colonies by all the major European powers. Sharpened rivalries among the nations.
4. Nationalism: Pride in one’s country and desire to see it be the greatest power bolstered support for war.
Ethnic diversity in Austria-Hungary. Ethnic groups wanted to be their own nations.

4. Alliances: these were made before WWI began
Triple Entente
Triple Alliance
Austria-Hungary
Germany
Italy
France
Russia
Great Britain

6. Spark of the War…
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian nationalist—Gavrilo Princip
Member of the Black Hand Party
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
Germany: ally of Austria-Hungary; declared war on Russia
In one week Britain & France had declared war on Germany

7. Alliance System Central Powers Allied Powers
1. Germany 2. Austria-Hungary 3. Ottoman Empire 4. Bulgaria
1. France 2. Russia 3. Italy: turned on their TA partners & joined the Allies in Great Britain 5. Serbia 6. United States

8. Germany’s Military Strategy
Goal: massive attack against France to defeat the country quickly, this would leave GB alone on an island
Schlieffen Plan
German forces would avoid the French-German border by invading France through Belgium
First Battle of the Marne
Germans invaded France, Allies pushed back to the Marne River; Allies pushed the Germans back & both sides started digging in by building trenches

9. War Becomes a Stalemate
1915: both sides occupied trenches running for hundreds of miles from the North Sea to Switzerland
Land separating the 2 sides: No Man’s Land; filled with barbed wire & land mines
New type of fighting: trench warfare
Massive artillery barrages, soldiers would go over the top & charge across No Man’s Land
War becomes a stalemate; no side was gaining any ground

10. Battle of Verdun Took place in Verdun, France On the Western Front
Longest battle of the war
Lasted 9 months
Over 1 million casualties on each side; half of those were deaths
Both sides tried to wear the other side; war turned into a war of attrition

11. The American Response
President Wilson proclaimed American neutrality at the beginning of the war
Tension increased between the US & Germany over unrestricted submarine warfare by German U-Boats (Submarines)- attacking ships thought to carry weapons for the Allied Powers
Germany attacked the Lusitania (British Passenger ship); 128 Americans killed; Americans were outraged
Germans warned they would sink anything in the Atlantic Ocean
U.S. was told the Germans would stop using submarine warfare but it did not

12. Then America Declares War
Zimmerman Note– sent by Arthur Zimmerman of Germany to the Mexican government; urged Mexico to attack the U.S. (Mexico could then gain back lands taken by the U.S.); Arizona, New Mexico, & Texas
Finally on April 6, 1917 the U.S. declares war on Germany
Woodrow Wilson:
“It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace.”

13. Zimmerman Note

14. America Prepares
Congress initially sent $3 billion in loans to the Allies, naval support, arms, supplies and 14,500 troops. American soldiers called “doughboys”- inexperienced, but fresh troops
May 1917—Congress passes the Selective Service Act (the draft) authorizing young men to enlist in military service. By November 1917, 24 million men had enlisted and the U.S. had picked 3 million draftees to serve in the war.
Convoy System—By April 1917, German U-Boats had sunk 430 Allied ships. Starting in May, all ships carrying soldiers traveled in a convoy which was a group of unarmed ships surrounded by a ring of destroyers, torpedo boats and other armed naval vessels.
No other soldiers were killed while crossing the Atlantic