The Great War Notes

World War I involved multiple continents, requiring extensive resources from participating governments.
The war elevated the United States to a position of international power, which it maintains today.

Unrestricted submarine warfare: A naval warfare strategy where submarines sink vessels without warning.
Total war: A conflict where countries dedicate all resources to the war effort.
Rationing: A system where people can only buy small amounts of items needed for the war effort.
Propaganda: Biased information used to influence public opinion and maintain morale.
Armistice: An agreement to cease fighting.

World War I was a global conflict, not just a European one.
Australia, Japan, and India joined the Allies.
The Ottoman Turks and Bulgaria allied with Germany and the Central Powers.
Great Powers sought allies globally to gain an advantage and looked for new war fronts.

Combatants looked beyond Europe to break the stalemate but new alliances and battlefronts did not end the conflict.

The Allies attempted to attack the Dardanelles, a sea strait in the Ottoman Empire, to capture Constantinople, defeat the Turks, and establish a supply line to Russia.
The Gallipoli campaign began in February 1915, with British, Australian, New Zealand, and French troops assaulting the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Turkish troops, commanded by German officers, defended the region.
By May, the campaign became a bloody stalemate with trench warfare.
The Allies evacuated in December after suffering approximately 250,000 casualties.

Germany's colonial possessions in Asia and Africa were attacked.
Japan seized German outposts in China and Pacific islands.
English and French troops attacked Germany's African possessions, seizing control of three.
Colonial subjects from India, South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, and Indochina were recruited for the war effort as fighting troops and laborers.
Some colonial subjects hoped that service would lead to independence, as seen in the view of Indian political leader Mohandas Gandhi.

In 1917, the focus shifted to the high seas as Germany intensified submarine warfare.
Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in January 1917, stating that submarines would sink any ship without warning around Britain.
In May 1915, a German U-boat sank the British passenger ship Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 U.S. citizens. Germany claimed the ship carried ammunition.
President Woodrow Wilson protested, and Germany agreed to stop attacking neutral and passenger ships after further attacks.
Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, gambling that their naval blockade would defeat Britain before the United States could mobilize.
German U-boats sank three American ships.
The Zimmermann note, intercepted by officials, revealed that Germany would help Mexico regain land lost to the United States if Mexico allied with Germany.
On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, and the United States joined the Allies.

By the time the United States joined the Allies, the war had been raging for nearly three years, resulting in significant losses and changes.
World War I became a total war, with countries dedicating all their resources to the war effort.
Governments controlled the economy, directing factories on what and how much to produce.

In the spring of 1918, a deadly strain of influenza, known as the Spanish flu, emerged, affecting nations on both sides of World War I.
The epidemic spread through Europe, Russia, Asia, and the United States, killing soldiers and civilians alike.
In India, at least 12 million people died of influenza; in Berlin, 1,500 people died in a single day in October.
The global epidemic was more destructive than the war itself, killing approximately 20 million people worldwide.
Facilities were converted to munitions factories, and nearly every able-bodied civilian was put to work, leading to near-disappearance of unemployment in many European countries.
Governments introduced rationing due to shortages, limiting the amounts of essential goods people could buy.
Antiwar activity was suppressed, and news was censored to maintain morale and support for the war.
Governments used propaganda to keep up morale and support for the war.

Total war led governments to seek help from women, who replaced men in factories, offices, and shops.
Women built tanks and munitions, plowed fields, paved streets, and ran hospitals.
They supplied troops with food, clothing, and weapons.
Although most women left the workforce after the war, their contributions changed perceptions of women's capabilities.
Women also worked as nurses near the front lines, witnessing the horrors of war firsthand.

The United States joining the war was expected to shift the balance in favor of the Allies.

In March 1917, civil unrest in Russia, caused by war-related shortages, forced Czar Nicholas to step down, and a provisional government was established.
The new government pledged to continue fighting the war.
By 1917, nearly 5.5 million Russian soldiers had been wounded, killed, or taken prisoner, leading to the war-weary Russian army refusing to fight.
In November 1917, Communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power and ended Russia’s involvement in the war.
In March 1918, Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending the war between them.

Russia’s withdrawal allowed Germany to send nearly all its forces to the Western Front.
In March 1918, the Germans launched a final attack on the Allies in France, reaching the Marne River, about 40 miles from Paris.
The German military weakened due to exhaustion of men and supplies.
The Allies, aided by nearly 140,000 fresh U.S. troops, launched a counterattack.
In July 1918, the Allies and Germans clashed at the Second Battle of the Marne, with the Allies using approximately 350 tanks to break through German lines.
With the arrival of 2 million more American troops, the Allied forces began to advance steadily toward Germany.
The Central Powers began to crumble: Bulgaria and the Ottoman Turks surrendered, revolution swept through Austria-Hungary, and soldiers in Germany mutinied.
On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II stepped down, and Germany declared itself a republic.
On November 11, World War I came to an end with the signing of an armistice.

World War I involved new technologies and was fought on a grand and global scale, leaving behind destruction never before seen.
About 8.5 million soldiers died, and 21 million were wounded.
Countless civilians died due to starvation, disease, and slaughter.
The war had a devastating economic impact on Europe, draining treasuries and destroying farmland, homes, villages, and towns.
The total cost of the war was approximately $338$ billion.
The enormous suffering led to disillusionment in Western society, reflected in art and literature.
The peace agreements prompted anger and resentment.

Before World War I, Europe had not experienced a major war for a century, leading to an unrealistic view of warfare.
Many expected the war to be short and romantic, and men enlisted due to patriotism or a desire to defend institutions.
The soldiers' experiences changed their views of war forever.