Transcript WWI

Guided Notes
The war became a
stalemate in which the
army had dug into
trenches with a “no
man’s land” in-between.
These vast German
trenches near
Bullecourt are part of
the heavily fortified
Hindenburg Line.
Aerial view of the
Cambrai battlefield
reveals the intricate
system of trenches.
The Lancashire
Fusiliers fix
bayonets as
they prepare to
go "over the
top" in the
Battle of the
Somme, July
1916.
This captured section of
German trench at the
Somme helps explain why the
initial British artillery
barrage did little to weaken
the Germans. Much deeper
than the British trenches, the
German trench system
offered amenities such as
barber shops and officer
clubs.
Australians resting up
in a dug-out are
sheltered from shelling
15 feet underground
during the Battle of the
Somme, July 1916.
Diagram of a dug-out
as being used by the
Australians in the
photo above.
After the first thrust by the Germans in 1914, World War I slowed to a
crawl. Both sides dug trenches, sometimes only a few yards from
each other. For the next several years many men would die fighting
over a very small piece of ground. Soldiers struggled not only
against the enemy but also against disease. The trenches were a
perfect breeding ground for disease and sickness that caused many
deaths.
New Weapons included:
• Machine gun
• Poison gas
• Fighter planes
• U-boats
• Tanks
WWI was a
total-industrialized war
1. Drafted civilians replaced
Professional soldiers
2. Women’s roles changed
3. Government took more control of
economy
4. Government’s also took control of
news
Propaganda
• One-sided information aimed to convince
people of a certain point of view
What a red rag is to a bull the Red Cross is to the Hun.
To the already long list of outrages by the
Huns on the Red Cross both on land and
sea, there was added on January the 4th
this year, the sinking without warning in the
Bristol Channel of the hospital ship "Rewa".
Fortunately owing to the splendid discipline
and the unselfish heroic conduct of the
officers, crew, and the medical staff, all the
wounded of whom there were over 700 on
board were saved. But three poor Lascar
fireman went down with the ship.
Pure fabrication, but effective propaganda none the less.
Yes – this is propaganda
• The western front drew to a stalemate
with increasing numbers of casualties
• Eastern front – Russians and Serbs
versus Austrians, Turks and Germans.
• The Germans crushed invading
Russians at Tannenburg
• Russia never recovered but was
successful at tying up Germany for
three years.
• Ottoman Front – the Allies attack at
Gallipoli. This assault on straits linking
the Black and Mediterranean Sea was
unsuccessful, yet the Allies were
successful at stirring up Arab
Nationalist to fight the Ottoman Empire.
Russia was
in the midst
of a
revolution
In 1917, Germany resumed
unrestricted submarine warfare
sinking three American ships.
U-Boats
UC 44 Class U-boat: 1) Aft torpedo tubes 2) Electric motor
3) Main engine 4) Control room 5) Mine tubes
6) Forward torpedo tubes 7) Crew quarters
U-boats lined up at the docks. Pens were not
required since there was no chance of air
attack. The fleet reached its peak in 1917
when 146 U-boats were on patrol. Not enough
to fulfill the objective of unrestricted submarine
warfare.
View from the tower as a torpedo
hits home on a merchant ship.
Allied and Neutral ships lost during the war
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
To submarines
3
396
964
2,439
1,035
To surface craft
55
23
32
64
3
To mines
42
97
161
170
27
To aircraft
-
-
-
3
1
Zimmerman telegram decoded:
• Germany would help Mexico
get back NM, TX, and AZ if
Mexico joined Germany.
United States
declared war on
Germany
Allies lost 800,000 tons of
shipping in April alone.
Then they organized
-large specifically equipped fleets
designed to guard merchant ships.
Lenin came to power in
Russia. In March 1918,
Germany and Russia
signed the treaty of
Brest Litovsk ending
the war between them.
________?________
made the difference
in the war on the
Western front.
made the difference
in the war on the
Western front.
An armistice
- an agreement to stop fighting
Was declared on November 11, 1918
Woodrow Wilson,
President of the U.S.
proposed the
Points 1-5 provided a general
context for lasting peace:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
ending secret treaties
agreeing to freedom of seas
removing trade barriers
Reducing size of Armies, armaments, etc.
Adjusting colonial claims with fairness
toward colonial people
Points 6-13 addressed particular
situations in Europe:
6. return Russian territory and Selfdetermination for Russia
7. restoration of Belgium
8. evacuation of all French territory & the
return of Alsace-Lorraine
9. readjustment of Italian boundaries
10. Independence of national groups of
Austria-Hungary
11. restoration of the Balkan nations,
free access to the sea for Serbia
12. Protection for minorities in
Turkey and the free passage of all
ships through the Dardanelles
13. Independence for Poland,
including access to the sea
The Fourteenth point called for a
14. A general association of nations to
protect “mutual guarantee of political
independence and territorial integrity to
great and small states alike.”
The Big Four that
negotiated peace were:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Wilson from U.S.
Georges Clemenceau from France
David Lloyd George from Great Britain
Vittorio Orlando from Italy
Results of the
Treaty of Versailles
and the peace:
1. Germany lost 13% of its land
2. France regained Alsace Lorraine and rights to
the Saar Basin for 15 years
3. Poland was made an independent nation along
with the Polish Corridor (strip of German land
cutting off E. Prussia from rest of Germany)
4. German army restricted in size.
Germany could not manufacture war materials
German Submarines and airplanes were also
banned
Germans were forbidden to place any troops in
the Rhineland
5. German territories in Africa and Pacific were
given as mandates to Britain, France and
Japan.
Mandate – territory administered on behalf of
League of Nations (until fit for independence)
6. “War-guilt” clause – Germany
to pay Allies $31 billion over
the next 30 years (sole blame)
7. Reparations - $ paid for
suffering caused by war
Allied Powers Cost in Dollars in 1914-18
United States $22,625,253,000
Great Britain $35,334,012,000
France $24,265,583,000
Russia $22,293,950,000
Italy $12,413,998,000
Belgium $1,154,468,000
Romania $1,600,000,000
Japan $40,000,000
Serbia $399,400,000
Greece $270,000,000
Canada $1,665,576,000
Australia $1,423,208,000
New Zealand $378,750,000
India $601,279,000
South Africa $300,000,000
British Colonies $125,000,000
Others $500,000,000
Total of all Costs $125,690,477,000
Central Powers Cost in Dollars in 1914-18
Germany $37,775,000,000
Austria-Hungary $20,622,960,000
Turkey $1,430,000,000
Bulgaria $815,200,000
Total of all Costs $60,643,160,000
New countries created or
Recognized at the end of
World War I
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Iraq
Lebanon
Palestine
Transjordan
Syria
Austria
Hungary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia
Estonia
Lithuania
Latvia
Finland
Poland
Did the US Congress pass the
Treaty of Versailles?
• Why?
– Wilson wanted delegates that he
could control at the peace conference
– Wilson refused to compromise
– Connected to the world????
• The treaty committed the US to the
League of Nations – Why was this an
issue?
Germany finally pays off WWI debt
Simon Sturdee
September 30, 2010
Germany not only celebrates 20 years since reunification this weekend, it will also pay off the last of its
World War I debts, 92 years after the 1914-18 conflict ended.
These "reparations" were intended partly by the Allies, particularly France, to keep Germany weak.
But historians say the ultimate effect was the opposite, playing a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power
and World War II.
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Interest on loans taken out to pay will finally be redeemed this Sunday.
In 1919, as the loser of the "War To End All Wars", in which more than nine million people were killed
and countless more maimed and traumatized by the horrors of trench warfare, Germany was held
to be responsible.
The victors forced the Germans to admit, in effect, in the 1919 Versailles treaty that the war was their
fault, and to commit to pay crippling amounts for decades to come.
"The French wanted compensation for the terrible losses they had suffered, but also wanted to use
reparations as a means of keeping the Germans weak for years to come," historian Martin Kitchen
wrote in "Europe between the Wars."
After much bickering among the Allies -- who were also in debt to each other from the war -- the
defeated country, on the brink of starvation and revolution, was presented with a bill of 269 billion
gold marks.
It soon became clear that Germany could not pay.
First came hyperinflation, which saw at its height a billion-mark note, and France, frustrated by the lack
of payment, occupied Germany's Ruhr industrial area in 1923, the same year as Hitler's abortive
Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.
The 1924 Dawes plan and the 1929 Young plan dramatically reduced the burden, and the 1932
Lausanne Conference suspended all repayments in the wake of the Great Depression.
Many historians say, in fact, that Germany could have paid, particularly after the reparations
were sharply reduced and Germany was loaned huge amounts of money.
But it was their symbolism that counted and Hitler was able to play on resentment to the
reparations -- and the famous "War Guilt Clause" in the Versailles Treaty -- to gain support
in the chaotic inter-war years.
"The point is that it's not so much the financial burden but a political burden," Richard Bessel,
professor of history at York University in Britain, told AFP.
"Financially it probably was doable."
After World War II, the new West Germany -- but not the communist East Germany -- agreed at
the 1953 London conference to repay its inter war debts, albeit a much reduced amount,
something it completed in 1980.
One loose end though was interest payments on loans taken out under the Dawes and Young
plans that piled up between 1945 and this conference in the British capital.
It was agreed that this would be paid when and if East and West Germany ever reunified.
This was seen as so unlikely at the time that it was akin to forgiving the debt, and the original
loan certificates became historical curiosities, for sale at flea markets.
But in 1990, the unthinkable happened, and Germany -- whilst celebrating unity after decades
of painful division -- said it would repay, costing it around 200 million euros ($A281.35
million).
The debts have been resold so many times that nobody really knows whom exactly Germany
now owes.
But on Sunday, at midnight, they will receive their final installment of some 70 million euros
($A98.47 million), and a chapter of Germany's traumatic 20th century will be quietly closed.
© 2011 AFP