1. Issue I Scots on the Western Front

2. This issue is about why so many Scots joined the army, and what they experienced on the western front. SCOTS ON THE WESTERN FRONT

3. How Scots were persuaded to join the army when war broke out. What life in the trenches was like for Scottish soldiers. Why the battle of Loos and the Somme meant so much to Scotland. How important Scottish soldiers were to the overall war effort.

4. CAUSES..

5. Tensions in Europe had been building for some time. By 1914 European powers were divided into competing alliances, often described as two armed camps. Britain clung to the belief that it was safe, an island protected by its huge Dreadnought battleships. WHY DID BRITAIN GET INVOLVED IN A EUROPEAN WAR?

6. He was killed in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, this eventually led to war between Austria-Hungary and Russia. Through the alliance system most of Europe was at war within a few days. THE ASSASSINATION OF FRANZ FERDINAND

7. This attack by Germany on neutral Belgium hoped to knock out France quickly so that Russia could be attacked with the full might of their army-all within six weeks. The plan failed because Britain had signed the Treaty of London in 1839 promising to protect Belgium. The German Kaiser did not think Britain would fight a war over a ‘scrap of paper’. SCHLIEFFEN PLAN

8. In reality Britain had been looking for an excuse to ‘teach Germany a lesson’. BRITAIN WENT TO WAR ON THE 4 TH AUGUST 1914 IN SUPPORT OF BELGIUM