Transcript World War One

World War One
“The war to end all wars”
- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
The Sides
Allied Powers
Central Powers
Britain
Germany
France
Austria-Hungary
Russia (1917 exit)
Ottoman Empire
United States (1917 entry)
Bulgaria
Italy
Japan, Belgium, Serbia, Greece,
Montenegro, Czechoslovak legions
The Fronts
• WWI is fought on two main fronts (contested area where the two
sides are fighting) – the Eastern Front and the Western Front.
Trench Warfare
• The soldiers live in holes in the ground, separated by “no-man’s-land.”
• The trenches include barbed wire, machinegun nests, gun batteries and heavy
artillery.
War of Attrition
• Very few armies were able to break through and the
war becomes a war of attrition (each side tries to wear
the other down).
• Since the war in Europe was a stalemate, both sides
tried to widen the war by getting more countries
involved.
• Allies declare war on the Ottoman Empire and British
forces defeat them in the Middle East.
• Japan seizes German colonies in the Pacific Ocean.
United States
• U.S. had remained neutral but were pulled in because of the naval war in the
Atlantic.
• Both sides had blockaded the other and the Germans were sending submarines
to attack all ships crossing the Atlantic (unrestricted submarine warfare)
The End of the War
• With 2 million American troops, the Allies were able
to push Germany back.
• 11:11 AM, 11/11/1918 – armistice ends the fighting
WWI
• 65 million soldiers involved in the war
• 37 million casualties (dead or wounded)
ALLIED POWERS
CENTRAL POWERS
Country
Killed
Total
Casualties
Country
Killed
Total
Casualties
Russia
1,700,000
9,150,000
Germany
1,773,700
7,142,558
Britain
908,371
3,190,235
1,200,000
7,020,000
France
1,357,800
6,160,800
AustriaHungary
Italy
650,000
2,197,000
Turkey
325,000
975,000
United States
116,516
323,018
TOTAL
3,386,200
15,404,477
TOTAL
5,142,631
22,062,427
Important Outcomes
of WWI
• The Allies were not willing to negotiate with the
German Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhem II and so the
people, tired of war, overthrew him and created a
democratic republic.
• Poverty and loss of life in Russia is one of the causes
of the Russian Revolution.
Important Outcomes
of WWI
• Treaty of Versailles (dealt just with the Germans)
• Forced to accept responsibility for causing the war (along with
Austria and Hungary)
• Had to disarm and give up territory
• Forced to pay an enormous amount in reparations ($442 billion
in 2013)
• WWI is going to put Germany in a precarious position – it
has not had time to acclimate as a democracy and an
extreme depression will allow a militant regime to take over
in the 1930s…
appeasement
• Appeasement – Britain and France wanted to avoid
war so they continually give in to Hitler’s demands
• Britain – realized the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
towards Germany and was sympathetic
• France – would not do anything without Britain
• U.S. – dealing with the Great Depression and trying to
return to its isolationist stance
• Consequence: Hitler becomes confident that the Allies
were weak and would not fight – no matter what he
does
Germany invades
poland
• September 1, 1939 – official beginning of the war
Key Players
Allied Powers
Britain (Chamberlin/Churchill)
Axis Powers
Germany (Hitler)
France (Charles de Gaulle)
Italy (Mussolini)
U.S. (FDR)
Japan (Tojo)
Soviet Union (Stalin)
China
15+ other countries…
European theater
Pearl harbor
• December 7, 1941 – U.S. entry into WWII
Pacific theater
End of the war in
europe
• June 1944 – D-Day – storming the beach at Normandy
(to take back France from the Germans)
• December 1944 – Germany loses the Battle of the
Bulge
• April 30, 1945 – Adolf Hitler commits suicide
• May 1945 – Germany surrenders
End of the war in
the pacific
• August 1945 – US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki (Japan)
• September 1945 – Japan surrenders
Wwii deaths
Country
Military
Civilian
Total
China
3-4 million
7-16 million
10-20 million
France
217,600
350,000
567,600
Germany
5.5 million
1.1-3.1 million
6.6-8.6 million
Italy
301,400
153,200
454,600
Japan
2.1 million
0.5-1 million
2.6-3.1 million
Soviet Union
8.8-10.7 million
12.7-14.6
million
23.4 million
United Kingdom 383,800
67,100
450,900
United States
416,800
1,700
418,500
TOTAL
22.4-25.5
million
37-54 million
62-78 million
The holocaust
• Hitler believed in a “Master Race” of blond-haired,
blue-eyed Germans and saw the Jews as a race of
people that was inferior and a threat to this idea.
• “The Final Solution”: To solve the “Jewish problem”,
Hitler and the Nazi Party created a system of
concentration camps where Jews and other
“undesirable people” were taken and held hostage or
murdered.
• These camps were liberated near the end of WWII by
the Allied Powers.
The holocaust
• 1933: 9 million Jews in Europe
• 1945: 3 million Jews in Europe
• The Nazis are responsible for the murder of 12
million civilians: 6 million Jews + 6 million other
“undesirable people”
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•
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Political enemies of the Nazis
Communists
Slavic people (eastern European)
Homosexuals
Etc.
Major consequences
of the war
• Deadliest conflict in human history
• Cost of war caused the decline of European power –
decolonization in Asia and Africa
• United Nations (UN) created to replace the League
and prevent a future conflict
• U.S. and Soviet Union emerge as the two superpowers
– leading to the Cold War