World War I

MAIN Causes of WWI (M.A.I.N.)

M - Militarism

  • New military technologies and arms race between countries

  • Glorification of war

A - Alliances

  • Agreements to aid each other if attacked

  • Many secret alliances formed

  • Two sides: Allies and Central Powers

I - Imperialism

  • Competition for colonies

  • Many smaller wars over territory

N - Nationalism

  • French-German border conflicts

  • Ethnic nationalism in the Balkans

Immediate Cause of WWI

  • Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary’s throne

  • Austria declares war on Serbia

  • Allies all join in

Battles on the Western Front

  • The Marne (Sept 1914) – Costly Allied victory

  • Verdun (1916) – Long, deadly battle

  • The Somme (July–Nov 1916) – Over 1 million casualties

Battles on the Eastern Front

  • Battle of Tannenberg – Major defeat for Russia

  • Russia suffers very high casualties

  • Revolution of 1917 forces Russia to leave the war

Russia’s Revolution

  • Vladimir Lenin leads the communist Bolsheviks

  • Overthrow the Czar

  • Signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany (1918)

America Joins the War

  • U.S. was mostly isolationist

  • President Wilson campaigned to keep U.S. out of war

Sinking of the Lusitania (1915)

  • Germany uses unrestricted submarine warfare

  • Lusitania sunk by German U-boat

  • Killed 1,000+ people, including 130 Americans

Zimmerman Telegram

  • Germany proposes an alliance with Mexico against the U.S.

  • Mexico would get back lost territory after victory

  • Caused public outrage in the U.S.

America Enters the War

  • 2.8 million “doughboys” drafted

  • U.S. troops help lead final Allied offensives in Summer 1918

The Fourteen Points

  1. Woodrow Wilson’s plan for long-lasting peace

  2. Conflicts with Europeans who wanted to punish Germany

The Treaty of Versailles

  1. Germany must accept full responsibility for the war

  2. Loses all its territories

  3. Must pay reparations to the Allies

  4. Can only have a very limited military

The Mandate System

  • Great Britain and France divide up the Middle East

  • British take Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine

  • France takes Syria and Lebanon