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Title: Summary of World War 1 (1914-18)
Description: In depth history notes on World War 1: ranges from the assassination of Arcchduke Franz Ferdinand to the Schlieffen Plan to the Battle of Verdun - and more. Implemented by an International Baccalaureate student and is complemented with concise details of key events and peoples involved from 1914-1918.
Description: In depth history notes on World War 1: ranges from the assassination of Arcchduke Franz Ferdinand to the Schlieffen Plan to the Battle of Verdun - and more. Implemented by an International Baccalaureate student and is complemented with concise details of key events and peoples involved from 1914-1918.
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Unit Two: World War I, Review
Jonathan Lin
People
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Wilhelm became emperor in 1888 and displaced Otto von Bismarck in 1890 (
Realpoltik to Weltpolitik
) this
caused a change in foreign policy (militarism and imperialism)
He was the King of
Prussia
; he was the cousin of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and George V of England
(grandchildren of Queen Victoria)
He abdicated in late 1918 and was exiled to Holland (western Netherlands); he died at the age of 82
An admirer of Britain’s naval strength and empire, Wilhelm II tried to improve German militaristically by
supporting
naval expansion
(i
...
building dreadnoughts) which led to a naval arms race with Britain
...
This caused the Central Powers (including Germany and AustriaHungary) and Serbia's allies to
declare war on each other, starting World War I
He was seen as a threat because of his reforms to persuade Serbs in AustriaHungary to remain loyal to the regime
this caused Serbian nationalists to hate him because he wanted Serbs to be happy in Serbia, and not in
AustriaHungary (Serbian nationalists wanted to create a Greater Serbia)
...
It took place around Cer Mountain and several surrounding villages, as
well as the town of Šabac
...
Hughes championed the purchase of the Canadianmade
Ross rifle
, which was heavy, long and jammed in the mud
(the Canadian troops preferred the
LeeEnfield
guns of the British)
...
The
population and cultural diversity of Canada increased (Multiculturalism Theme)
Although the Canadian Pacific Railway was already established, Prime Minister Laurier began the construction of
the
Canadian National
(C
...
)
Canadian National helped trade across Canada (East/West), fostered the economy, and thus increased independence
from Britain (Nationalism theme)
Laurier introduced the
Reciprocity Agreement
with the United States (lowering of
tariffs
), which Laurier believed
would lead to greater grain trade with the United States
Laurier’s
compromise
for the Boer War (Dutch Settlers): men could volunteer to go to the Boer War, he would pay
for the trip but once in South Africa the British would have to pay for the troops
...
The French Canadians thought Laurier was doing too much
...
(French/English theme)
Laurier made the decision for Canada, which shows growing independence from England (Nationalism theme)
In 1911, Canada had successfully negotiated 8 treaties and agreements (Nationalism Theme and Canada/US
Theme)
Laurier introduced a
Naval Service Bill
to not contribute to Britain’s Navy monetarily but instead build a small
navy that consisted of 5 cruisers and 6 destroyers
...
French Canadian Nationalists were angered
that Canada would help at all and believed that conscription would follow (French/English Theme)
...
He served both in the campaigns in Sudan and in the Boer War in South Africa between 1899 and 1902
In August 1914, when the war started, Haig was the general commanding the First Army Corps
...
In December 1915, Haig succeeded Sir John French as commanderinchief of the British Army in the Western
Front
...
Haig’s plan was to launch an
attack on the Germans that would require them to remove some of their troops from the Somme battlefield, thus
relieving the French in Verdun
...
A
...
Alderson and Sir Julian Byng)
...
e
...
In September, the Canadian Corps arrived at the
Battle of the Somme
; like the rest of the Corps, Currie’s 1st
Canadian Division suffered heavy losses for little gain
...
When Byng was appointed to command one of the British armies, he recommended Currie as his replacement;
Currie was
knighted
and became commander of the Canadian Corps on June 9 1917, the first Canadian to hold that
post
...
He is officially credited with 80 air combat victories
...
Richthofen was shot down and killed near Amiens on April 21, 1918
...
The Russian public blamed Nicholas II for his poor military decisions, and Empress Alexandra for her illadvised
role in government
...
By February of 1917, riots broke out in St
...
Nicholas was still headquartered at Mogilev at the time
...
After the Duma elected their own provisional committee built of progressive bloc members, and the soldiers sent to
pacify the St
...
On March 15, 1917 he abdicated the throne
...
In the fall of 1917 Russia’s provisional government was overthrown by the Bolsheviks
...
On July 17, 1918, Nicholas II and his family were murdered by Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin, in
Yekaterinburg, Russia, thus ending more than three centuries of the Romanov dynasty’s rule
...
He is part of the Number 37 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (RFC)
When Bishop returned to England, he became the commanding officer designate of the Canadian Wing of the
Royal Air Force
The French Government awarded him the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre
President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson (18561924) was the 28th U
...
president, who served in office from 1913 to 1921 and led
America through World War I (19141918)
...
On May 7, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the British ocean liner
Lusitania
,
killing 128 Americans
...
S
...
”
Wilson called on Congress to declare war on Germany in 1917 after the interception of the Zimmerman Telegram
After the war, he helped negotiate a peace treaty that included a plan for the
League of Nations
...
S
...
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin was the founder of the
Russian Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) and was the leader of the
Bolshevik Revolution
(1917)
...
In 1917, Lenin took over and wanted peace with the Germans
...
Russia’s withdrawal on the Eastern Front enabled Germany the opportunity to achieve a quick victory over the
United States and focus its energy and manpower on the Western Front
In the Treaty of
BrestLitovsk
, Russia had to cede Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States plus a third of its
agricultural land and threequarters of its industries to Germany, bolstering Germany’s economy and providing
Germany with more resources and land claims
...
His name lived on in the 'Schlieffen Plan', then called the
Aufmarsch I
, a deployment plan and operational guide
for a decisive initial offensive campaign in a onefront war against the French Third Republic
...
LieutenantGeneral Sir Julian Byng commanded the Canadian Corps on the Western Front from May 1916 to June
1917
...
Terms
Triple Alliance
Known as the “Central Powers”
In 1882 ermany ustriaHungary
G
,
A
and Italy formed the Triple Alliance
...
France felt threatened by this alliance
...
The objective of the alliance was to encourage cooperation against the perceived threat of
Germany
...
In contrast to the Triple Alliance, the terms of the Entente did not require each country to go to war on
behalf of the others, but stated that they had a "moral obligation" to support each other
...
It therefore made
promises to help Serbia if it was attacked by members of the Triple Alliance
...
The Schlieffen Plan
was the operational plan for a designated attack on France once Russia, in response to international tension, had
started to mobilise her forces near the German border
...
In 1905, Schlieffen was chief of the German General Staff
...
Schlieffen believed that the most decisive area for any future war in Europe would be in the estern
W
sector
...
Russia was not as advanced as France in many
areas and Schlieffen believed that
Russia would take six weeks to mobilise
her forces and that any possible
fighting on the RussianGerman border could be coped with by the Germans for a few weeks while the bulk of her
forces concentrated on defeating France
...
This would allow Germany time (the six weeks that Schlieffen had
built into his plan) to transfer soldiers who had been fighting in the successful French campaign to Russia to take on
the Russians
...
Belgium had had her
neutrality guaranteed by Britain in 1839 – so his strategy for success depended on
Britain not supporting Belgium
...
The society was formed (1911) and led by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević
; its members were primarily army
officers with some government officials
...
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a final demand or statement of terms, in which the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a
breakdown in relations
Baron Giesl von Gieslingen, ambassador of the AustroHungarian Empire delivers an ultimatum to the Serbian
foreign ministry that they have to reply to within 48 hours
...
the Valcartier Camp was located outside uebec City
Q
there were roadways, mess halls, latrines, drill fields, and the biggest rifle range in the world
there was also a power plant, a chlorinated water supply, and a rail link to Quebec City
by early September 1914, there were more than 30,000 soldiers and 8,000 horses in Valcartier Camp
soldiers’ equipment was often poorly designed and made eg
...
All 4 Canadian Divisions and units fought together at the April 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge, capturing German
positions which the French and British had failed to do
Canada was given a seat during the Versailles Peace Conference and within a dozen years, the Act of Westminster
was passed which handed over the control of Canadian policy to Canada
Militarism
Militarism is the policy of building up military forces and weaponry and of threatening armed aggression
It is used in order to challenge other nations for new territories or to protect existing empires
...
Imperialism
Imperialism is the policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force
...
Artillery also describes the section or branch that
employs these munitions
...
The German Navy Law of 1898 increased the German battleships from nine cruisers to twelve
...
Britain produced her first Dreadnought
...
Between 1909 and 1911 Germany built nine Dreadnoughts while Britain completed 18 Dreadnoughts
...
Shrapnel
Small lead balls placed in a cylinder
Although shrapnel was used to cut down enemy barbed wire it was generally regarded as unsatisfactory for the task
...
Shells
Shells are explosive artillery projectiles or bombs
Three types: high explosive shell, shrapnel, chemical
Artillery
Artillery are largecaliber guns used in warfare on land
The artillery of World War I was used to counter the trench warfare
Artillery barrages would also be used before an infantry battle (i
...
creeping barrage), to create a distraction away
from the place of attack, so that the enemy's numbers would be fewer, or they would fire at the paths going from the
area that would be attacked so that the enemy reinforcements would not be able to reach the area without getting hit
...
A ortar
m
round has a very steep arc while the
artillery
round has a flatter trajectory
...
Cavalry
Soldiers who fought on horseback
A British cavalry charge at the Battle of Mons was enough to hold off the advancing Germans
...
Barbed wire, mud and machine guns were a deadly
combination for any cavalry soldier
...
When they had pasted
$4
...
00 after the
war
...
overseas
Canadian Red Cross Society
was a wartime humanitarian aid organization
1914 one government factory made only 75 shells a day
1915 30,000 women enter the workforce: jobs in munitions factories, machine shops, metal foundries, aircraft
factories, shipyards (also: buses, police, civil service, banks, insurance, companies, farms)
Labour unions were against women and received only half the salary no childcare or women’s washrooms
Minister of Militia Sir Sam Hughes established the
Shell Committee
which made contracts with Britain for
munitions
...
The
committee could only deliver $5
...
Prime Minister of Britain, David Lloyd George told Canada’s Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden that Canada would
not receive another contract until the munitions industry was overhauled
...
Inferior products which had fake inspection
stamps were rejected
...
Its width
along the estern Front
W
could vary a great deal
...
However, at Guillemont it was only 50 yards (46 metres) whereas at Cambrai it was over 500 yards (460
metres)
...
No Man's Land contained a considerable amount of barbed wire
...
In some places the wire was more than a 100 feet (30
metres) deep
...
Given the achine gun
m
's dominance of the battlefield during the war the prospect of going over the top was
invariably regarded as doomladen by infantrymen
...
Most notorious were the 60,000 casualties suffered by the British chiefly in the face
of enemy machine gun fire on the first day of the July 1st 1916
Battle of the Somme
(General Haig)
...
Rats were everywhere, grown to massive size from feasting on corpses; clothes were infested with vermin
...
They spread disease and caused soldiers to shoot
them even though it was a waste of ammunition
...
However, many soldiers
reported how rats sensed an oncoming attack from the enemy
...
They were very difficult
to get rid of because the men could not wash properly in the trenches
...
This turned into trench fever when it became
more serious
...
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Germany declared the water around Britain a war zone
Allied ships would be torpedoed and Germany could not guarantee the safety of neutral vessels
On May 7th, 1915, the Lusitania, a British ocean liner sinks
On February 1917, Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare (in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean),
which is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink vessels such as freighters and tankers without warning
In January 1917, the representatives from the German Navy convinced the military leadership and aiser Wilhelm
K
II
that a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare could help defeat Great Britain within five months
...
Hoped to cut off supplies, and force Britain into a quick surrender before the United States is able to mobilize and
send troops
By the end of 1917, 6 billion tonnes of cargo bound for Britain had been destroyed by German Uboats
...
e
...
On June 6th, 1915, Wilhelm II ordered that all large passenger liners, whether neutral or not, must not be attacked
...
Two Americans
died
...
In September 1915, Wilhelm changed his naval chief of staff
...
On September 18th, Holtzendorff ordered that all Uboats had to adopt the
‘cruiser’ system of warfare – coming to the surface before attacking a ship
...
On January 19, 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign
Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the German Ambassador in Mexico City
...
In return for this assistance, Germany asked for Mexican support in the war
...
By the beginning of the 20th century, the
Quakers, Mennonites, Hutterites
, and Doukhobors
had been
guaranteed the right to live according to their pacifist beliefs
...
Sectarian pacifists have
provided the largest and most consistent pacifist witness, particularly as conscientious objectors during both world
wars
...
e
...
The act
awarded the vote to women serving in the armed forces as well as nurses in the war
...
By the autumn the Allied forces developed a system where the barrage moved forward at
50 metres per minute
...
Failure to do this would result in the artillery killing their own soldiers
...
Germain
With Austria
Austria chopped into other small countries: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia
This left Austria with a population of less than 7 million people
Western Front
Trenches 725 km from Belgium to the Swiss Alps a front without without flanks
...
The war became a stalemate
...
The machine guns and rapidfire artillery
mowed down infantry (foot soldiers), who were called the Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI)
...
The theater of war was roughly delimited by the Baltic
Sea in the west and Minsk in the east, and Saint Petersburg in the north and the Black Sea in the south, a distance of
more than 1,600 kilometres (990 mi)
...
While World War I on the Western Front developed into trench warfare, the battle lines on the Eastern Front were
much more fluid and trenches never truly developed
...
Once broken, the sparse communication
networks made it difficult for the defender to rush reinforcements to the rupture in the line, mounting rapid
counteroffensives to seal off any breakthrough
...
It was a catastrophic defeat for Russia, which suffered
over 120,000 casualties
...
The campaign began with a failed naval attack by British and French ships on the Dardanelles Straits in
FebruaryMarch 1915 and continued with a major land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, involving
British and French troops as well as divisions of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
Lack of sufficient intelligence and knowledge of the terrain (Allied ships landing in the wrong sites), along with
Turkish resistance, hampered the success of the invasion
...
Evacuation began in December 1915, and was completed
early the following January
...
It was championed by British commanders such as Winston Churchill, who perceived the Ottomans as militarily
weak
Events
Assassination at Sarajevo
June 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie (Duchess of Hohenberg) of Austria are
assassinated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand Terrorist
group
...
July 23rd, Austrian government gives Serbia 48 hour
ultimatum
...
July 28th, AustriaHungary declares war on Serbia
...
July 29th, Czar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to help Serbia and mobilizes the army (access to ports)
...
Russia refuses
...
France mobilizes army
...
August 3rd, Germany declares war on France
...
August 4th, no reply from Germany
...
Canada is automatically at war as part of
the British Empire
...
Ypres
The Second Battle of Ypres occurred on April 1915
During 1914, the British held the town of Ypres, Belgium, and the surrounding countryside
...
Julien (Canadians
were holding a bulge/salient)
Germans waited from January until April for wind to change; on April 11th, Germans were ready
German
prisoners of war
(POW) confess that Germans have cylinders of gas
...
5 days before the attack, the Germans were issued
gas masks
On April 22nd, 1915 at 5 pm, the Germans released
chlorine gas
(160 tons
...
Algerians
were asphyxiated first, while the French nationalists had time to react
...
They fled toward Ypres, leaving a 4 mile hole in the front
...
Germans moved forward to sweep behind the trenches
...
Germans lacked
reserves because they had only planned a limited offensive (went two miles then dug in)
...
Since Germans had not planned reserves for the Germans advance 3 miles into the Allied lines, they were halted by
British General
SmithDorrien’s Second Army
counter offensive
...
On April 24, Germans attacked the salient
...
Deaths: 59,000 (6,035 were Canadian, 1 in 3 dead)
...
Canadian Colonel Arthur Currie showed outstanding leadership
and personal courage during battle
...
German dead: 280,000, French dead: 315,000
...
By June, General Haig was ready for the
Big Push
...
Bombarded Germans for 2 weeks; thought this would destroy the German trenches and troops, and would destroy
the barbed wire in no man’s land
...
3 hours later in broad daylight the British went over the top with 30 kg
of equipment
...
The British were slaughtered 60,000 casualties on that day alone (heaviest loss ever suffered by British army)
...
Took front line in front of the village of
Courcelette
...
Canadians had 1 tank which moved 1 mile per hour
...
Successful attack, but enemy brought in
reinforcements
...
Over the next 3 weeks, Canadians continued to attack, but could not take the
Regina Trench
...
November 11th took trench but not much left of it
...
Battlefield was a wasteland of mud and constant rain the weather was the coldest October since 1888
...
By early November the British had gained approximately
6 km but 623,000 of their men were dead, of that 24,029 Canadians
...
No other advances
that year
...
The Scorched Earth Policy
Don’t give the enemy 25 miles of good earth
Mined roads/wilderness
Blew up/burned down villages
Polluted wells
Scorched and salted farmland
All livestock taken
Vimy Ridge
April 912, 1917
Turning point for Canada during WWI all
4 divisions
fought as a single unit
Germans had retreated to the indenburg Line
H
with new strong defences
Vimy Ridge was 450 feet above sea level, 4 mile line
Germans had fortified Vimy with elaborate trenches, dugouts, electric lights, telephone, light railway to move
ammunition
Canadians arrived at Vimy wearing
Somme Patches
, which they had earned after fighting in the Battle of the
Somme
eneral Byng
G
and Arthur Currie
planned the attack
Aerial photographs taken of German lines and defences, attack would be supported by heavy artillery
Detailed models built of the ridge, trenches, and dugouts
Dug tunnels into the Ridge, roads and light railways built by civil engineers for signal and supplies (behind enemy
lines)
Preliminary bombardment
on March 20th, called the “week of suffering” by Germany
...
Julien Byng
felt that the key to success would be artillery
...
Byng insisted on 2 weeks of sustained bombardment; bombardment intensified in
the second week
...
Within hours, the Germans began to retreat
...
By afternoon, Canadians took the entire Ridge except for ill 415 and the
H
Pimple
...
Canadians
won the
Victoria Cross
, which was the highest honour for bravery
...
Canadians losses: 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded
Passchendaele
Third Battle of Ypres, JulyNovember 1917 (Passchendaele)
After the Battle of the Somme, eneral Haig
G
decided an offensive in
Flanders
could win the war for the British
(French offensive was a huge disaster 200,000 dead; led to mutinies)
Plan: Attack from
Ypres
, punch hole in German line, force Germans up to the coast (30 kilometers away) and
capture German submarine bases in Belgium
Reality
: from JulyOctober 1917, the British pushed Germans back 6 kilometers but other objectives were not met
Problem
: Flanders was swampy; dikes and drainage system had all been destroyed by shelling heavy rain and
mud
in autumn they used a
bite and hold
tactic, in which the British infantry would advance and then the guns
would move forward
...
(Currie was against the attack but was overruled)
Currie insisted that the Canadians needed more than one month to prepare for battle
...
Two roads were built through the salient to the front
...
Canadians took
over Australian artillery, built drainage trenches, and new gun platforms
...
German
fortified houses
were circular concrete pillboxes with walls 5 feet thick there were machine guns and
soldiers inside
Problem
: mud was too deep to stabilize guns and needed a
creeping barrage
for protection
...
On October 26, the men attacked by inching their way from crater to crater under heavy fire
...
Sinking of the Lusitania
On May 7th, 1915, the Lusitania, a British ocean liner sinks
Torpedoed by German Uboats
1198 victims, 128 Americans
Public opinion of United States now
antiGerman
U
...
It was sunk by the German Uboat called the U20, which was captained
by Kapitänleutnant Schwieger
...
Verdun
The German siege of Verdun and its ring of forts, which comprised the longest battle of the First World War, has its
roots in a letter sent by the German Chief of Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, to the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, on Christmas
Day 1915
...
On 21 February 1916, the Battle of Verdun began
...
Verdun,
which held a symbolic tradition among the French, was deemed not so important by the upper echelon of France’s
military
...
Galvanised into action, Joffre despatched his top general, HenriPhilippe Pétain (pictured), to organise a stern
defence of the city
...
Every day, while under continuous fire, 2,000 lorries made a return trip along the 45mile Voie Sacrée (‘Sacred
Way’) bringing in vital supplies and reinforcements to be fed into the furnace that had become Verdun
...
But the French were suffering grievous losses
...
Haig,
concerned that the new recruits to the British Army were not yet battleready, offered 15 August 1916 as a start date
...
Haig brought forward the offer to 1
July
...
On the Eastern Front, the Russians attacked the
Austrians, who, in turn, appealed to the Germans for help
...
The Battle of Verdun wound down, then fizzled out entirely, officially ending on 18 December 1916
...
After ten months of
fighting, the city had been flattened, and the Germans and French, between them, had lost 260,000 men – one death
for every 90 seconds of the battle
...
Conscription Crisis
War did not end in a few months, it dragged on for years
People began to criticize government because it gave certain companies contracts to make munitions and the
companies were making lots of money
Huge demand for Canadian soldiers, French Canadians did not support conscription because they had no
attachment to Britain and France, and were split up and placed in English speaking units (language barrier)
On February 1917, Borden goes to England and participates in an
Imperial War Conference
and agrees to
conscription
Borden did not know how to win the
Federal Election of 1917
and pass the conscription legislation
Borden returned to Canada and invited Laurier and the Liberals to form a
Coalition Government
in which both
parties are in power with no opposition
Laurier says no unless Canadians can vote to decide if they want conscription
Borden does not agree because he has promised conscription and a
referendum
would not be practical because
Canada is at war
Battle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle fought by the British Royal Navy's rand Fleet
G
under Admiral Sir John
Jellicoe
, against the Imperial German Navy's
High Seas Fleet
under ViceAdmiral Reinhard
Scheer
during the First
World War
...
Submarines
were stationed in advance across the likely routes of the British ships
...
The battle was fought from May 31 to June 1 1916 in the North Sea, near the coast of Denmark's Jutland Peninsula
...
Despite large losses at the Battle of Jutland, the British fleet was still large enough to maintain its defence of the
British Isles against the Germans
The German navy returned to port and never sailed out again
From that point forth, Germany concentrated on fielding even larger numbers of Uboats
Germans confined their navy to the Baltic Sea for the remainder of the war except for three abortive operations of
the High Seas Fleet: raiding the North Sea three times
...
Militarily, Russia was no match for industrialized Germany, and Russian casualties were greater than those
sustained by any nation in any previous war
In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of
imperial rule
and setting in motion political
and social changes that would lead to the formation of the Soviet Union
In March, growing civil unrest, coupled with chronic food shortages, erupted into open revolt, forcing the
abdication of Nicholas II (18681918), the last Russian czar
Just months later, the newly installed
provisional government
was overthrown by the more radical
Bolsheviks
, led
by
Vladimir Lenin
(18701924)
February Revolution: 1917
The
February Revolution
began on March 8, 1917 (or February 23 on the Julian calendar), when demonstrators
protesting for bread took to the streets in the Russian capital of
Petrograd
(now called St
...
On March 11, the troops of the Petrograd army garrison were called out to calm the uprising
...
That day, Nicholas again dissolved the
Duma
...
The soldiers subsequently formed committees
that elected deputies to the Petrograd Soviet
...
On March 14, the Petrograd Soviet issued Order No
...
The next day, March 15, Czar Nicholas II
abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Michael (18781918), whose refusal of the crown brought an end to the
czarist autocracy
...
On November 6 and 7, 1917 (or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar, which is why this event is also referred
to as the October Revolution), leftist revolutionaries led by
Bolshevik Party
leader
Vladimir Lenin
launched a
nearly bloodless
coup d’état
against the provisional government
...
Lenin became the
virtual dictator
of the first arxist state
M
in the world
...
In 1920, the antiBolsheviks were
defeated, and in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established
...
rowth of Militarism
G
arms race between Germany and Britain
Imperial Conflict
Britain and France versus Germany over who held Morocco (sphere of influence), fighting
over control of the Balkans (Austria has it, Russia and Turkey want it)
German believed that the war could be won quickly through the
Schlieffen Plan
assumed Russia would mobilize
slowly and that France therefore must be defeated quickly
take Paris in 6 weeks via Belgium, turn east toward Russia
Secret Treaties
e
...
British army gave French military secrets and by 1914 they had extensive plans for the
deployment of troops
...
Growth of nationalism in the Balkan area, e
...
Serbia, Bosnia, Albania calling
for independence
...
War at Sea
German “unrestricted submarine warfare”
Germans used torpedoes
Germans developed warships to compete in naval arms race with Britain
During September and October 1914, German Uboats sank four British armored cruisers and warships, killing
more than 2,000 sailors
...
The Battle of Coronel, the Battle of the Falkland Islands, and other early sea battles quickly made it clear how naval
warfare could be used to project power over long distances
...
War in the Air
Reconnaissance planes spied on enemy troops movements
Aerial reconnaissance was important for British and French forces during the Battle of Mons and the Battle of the
Marne
A Dutch aircraft designer named Anton Fokker developed the “interrupter gear,” a timing mechanism that
synchronized the machine gun with the moving propeller blades
...
This development gave the Germans a strong advantage for several
months until French and British designers succeeded in adapting the device for their own use about one year later
...
Russia was the first to develop an airplane specifically for this purpose: the Murometz, a large
fourengine airplane that Igor Sikorsky had developed in 1913 as a passenger plane, was adapted for use as a bomber
in 1914 and was used successfully throughout the war
...
The slowmoving zeppelins, which had a long range and could carry a
relatively large cargo of explosives, reached the peak of their success early in the war, during 1915
...
Racism in WWI
The visible minorities such as sian
Black, , and Aboriginal Canadians were unable to enlist in the military due to
A
racist attitudes
...
As loyal citizens we wanted to serve our country
...
Aboriginal people were rejected immediately from military enlistment despite the official declaration that there was
no “
color line
”
...
Sam Hughes
refused to accept Aboriginal recruits, claiming: “while British troops would be proud to be associated
with their fellow subjects, Germans might refuse to extend to them the privileges of civilized warfare”
...
There was a paranoia and fear that giving nonWhites the experience of killing Whites might lead to
problems at home after the war
...
” Canadian officials were not prepared to encourage the participation of black people in combat
battalions
...
The vast majority of the 95,000 immigrants from AustriaHungary who were labelled enemy aliens were
Ukrainian
...
In April 1915, the federal government ordered 9,000 people to be rounded up and taken to 24 remote
internment
camps
...
By the end 107 internees had died and 6 had been shot while trying to escape
...
Canadian farmers
resisted participation on the basis that they were needed on the farm to plant and harvest badly
needed crops
...
The
Doukhobors ennonites utterites
,
M
, and H
were pacifist religious groups
...
Some even believed that Canadians who opposed the war were as
dangerous as the enemy across the Atlantic
...
Some
religious sects saw their freedom of education by an Act prohibiting teaching in the German language
...
The ntario Mennonites
O
formed the
NonResistant Relief Organization
to raise funds “which shall be donated
as a memorial of appreciation for the privileges of religious liberty and freedom from military service”
...
The only stipulation was
that the money would not be used for military purposes
...
Britain, United States, France
had lots of power, Italy had less
France wanted to dismember Germany
England wanted a balance between France and Germany
United States wanted to contained Germany and bring it into a new world order of democratic independent nations
Germany had no place at the peace table; peace was “diktat”, a peace dictated by the allies
David Lloyd George assumed Borden would be pleased to represent Canada, Australia, and other British dominions
as one of Britain’s five delegates
Borden refused on ground of Canadian independence and equal nationhood (Nationalism Theme)
Notes:
Four empires destroyed: Hohenzollern Germany, Habsburg AustriaHungary, Romanov Russia, and Ottoman
Turkey
...
Guilt Clause:
Germany takes all the blame for war
Must pay $33 billion in reparations
Industrial area of
Alsace and Lorraine
went to France
Germany still has:
60 million population larger than neighbours
Its factories and mines could create new industrial strength
Spring 1918:
General Ludendorff began to attack France again and came 35 miles outside of Paris, but could not break through
(2nd Battle of the Marne) due to 140,000 new United States soldiers
By August 1918:
United States had added 2 million men to the war effort and tipped the scales in favour of the Allied army
By September 1918:
The Allies were advancing
October 1918:
Kaiser Wilhelm II formed a new, more liberal government to sue for peace
Negotiations dragged Germans were frustrated
November 3rd, 1918
Sailors in Kiel, Germany mutinied, in Northern Germany soldiers and workers began to establish revolutionary
councils (based on the Russian Soviet model)
AustriaHungary surrendered
Revolutions broke out in Germany, masses of workers demonstrated for peace in Berlin
German army discipline was collapsing
Kaiser is forced to abdicate and fled to Holland
November 9, 1918
Socialist leaders proclaim Germany a republic and agreed to the Allied terms of surrender
November 11, 1918
Armistice went into effect and the war was over
Title: Summary of World War 1 (1914-18)
Description: In depth history notes on World War 1: ranges from the assassination of Arcchduke Franz Ferdinand to the Schlieffen Plan to the Battle of Verdun - and more. Implemented by an International Baccalaureate student and is complemented with concise details of key events and peoples involved from 1914-1918.
Description: In depth history notes on World War 1: ranges from the assassination of Arcchduke Franz Ferdinand to the Schlieffen Plan to the Battle of Verdun - and more. Implemented by an International Baccalaureate student and is complemented with concise details of key events and peoples involved from 1914-1918.