Rely on Austria-Hungary to hold off Russia temporarily.
Austria-Hungary:
Ineffective ally due to outdated military and internal disunity.
Diverse languages and cultures; only 25% speak German.
Ethnic groups in Austria-Hungary were rising up in rebellion against the empire.
Struggles to form a cohesive fighting force.
Performs poorly in the war.
Russia's Initial Successes:
Early victories against the weaker Austria-Hungarian forces.
Russian military was 10 times the size of the Austro-Hungarian one.
Germany's Involvement:
Germany splits forces after failing to quickly defeat France.
Russia faces significant losses when Germany redirects forces to the Eastern Front.
Western Front
Primary Theater: Area between France and Germany.
German Plan: Invade France via Belgium to capture Paris and force surrender.
Start of War:
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand leads to Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Serbia.
Serbia rejects ultimatum, leading to widespread war declarations.
Initial German Progress:
Rapid advancement through Belgium into France using massed forces.
Hit a "brick wall" of machine guns and artillery fire near Paris.
Germans suffer approximately 300,000 casualties in first advance.
Trench Warfare:
Emerges from instinct to dig for protection under heavy fire.
Soldiers dug into the ground to escape gunfire and artillery explosions.
Trench Warfare Details
Extent: Over 27,000 miles of trenches dug on a front of only a couple hundred miles.
Layout: Trenches dug in zigzag patterns with three to five layers.
Type: Stalemate warfare.
No Man's Land:
Area between opposing trenches, filled with barbed wire and artillery craters.
Extremely dangerous; soldiers often caught in barbed wire and killed by machine gun fire.
Zigzag Patterns:
Designed to limit the field of fire for opposing forces; straight trenches allowed full view.
Life in the Trenches
Constant shelling and gunfire.
Unsanitary Conditions:
Trenches often flooded, leading to trench foot. Trench foot is a condition in which the feet are submerged for extended time into unsanitary conditions causing bacterial and fungal growth the only treatment for which is amputation.
Infections common due to shrapnel wounds and lack of medical care.
Shell Shock:
Mental toll due to constant bombardment; now known as PTSD.
Caused by prolonged exposure to traumatic conditions that wreak havoc on the nervous system.
Post-War Effects:
Increased insomnia, alcoholism, domestic violence, depression and suicide among veterans.
War's devastating impact was unexpected, changing people permanently.
Veterans could not relate to pre-war experiences.
Battles of World War I
Repetitive Nature:
Battles involved devastating artillery barrages followed by massed infantry attacks.
Both sides would alternate attacks and retake lost ground.
Attacks would start with artillery barrages of over 2 straight months of shelling until giving the the opposite side a false sense of victory before a barrage of soldiers would try to rush in and overtake the other side's trenches.
Little progress was gained despite massive casualties (400,000 to 600,000 per battle).
Trench lines remained largely static.
War of Attrition:
Focus on outlasting the enemy, not necessarily winning decisive victories.
The goal was not defeating your opponent but outlasting your opponent.
The most used weapon was artillery.
Germany used 222,000,000 artillery shells, averaging 152,054 shells per day.
US Enters the War
Morale Boost: U.S. entry in 1917 significantly boosted Allied morale.
Reasons for US entry:
Sinking of the Lusitania. The sinking fo the Lusitania a civilian vessel lead to approximately 2,000 passengers on board dead, and the US claims to have been prompted to join the war as a result of about 128 American deaths in the sinking.
Zimmerman Telegram. The supposed coded telegram was sent to Mexico that was intercepted that prompted the americans to join the war after an outcry over the prospect of a Mexican betrayal.
Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare also was a major aspect that prompted the US to join the war.
The US provided financial and military support to the Allied Powers as a result of their potential failure from the Russian Revolution.
US entry helped the Allies rise up and win the war of attrition.
World War 1 was referred to as the Great War prior to the Second World War.
How It Was A World War
Global Empires: France and England drew troops and resources from colonies in East Asia, Africa, and India.
Total War:
Nations mobilized all resources and populations for the war effort.
Everyone was expected to contribute to the war effort.
End of the War
Armistice Day: November 11, 1918 (11/11/1918).
A cease-fire, not a surrender.
Germany sought peace talks due to resource scarcity. Germany had trouble producing the amount of food necessary to fight in the war.
In the last months of the war many German soldiers were surrendering to the allied powers who were struggling to find the food necessary to fight in the war.
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk:
Russia had to cede a third of its country to Germany. The treaty of Brezhlatovsk gave one third of Russia to Germany as the cost for dropping out of the fighting.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was extremely vindictive, requiring Russia to give up significant territory (Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine).
This treaty demonstrated to the Allied powers the risks of surrendering, motivating them to fight to the end which also ensured that when Germany surrendered they would face the exact same treatment that Russia was given in the treaty.
As a result the attitude turned from trying to outlast the fighting of an opponent to ensuring they suffer after it.
The plan for the end of the war was for no victors and peace.
The Fourteen Points:
Woodrow Wilson's plan for peace without victors focused on no salt in wounds of vindictiveness.
Addressed causes of WWI: imperialism, militarism, alliance systems.
League of Nations: Precursor to the United Nations, aimed to prevent future conflicts through diplomacy. It was meant as a deterrent to warfare in the future.
Treaty of Versailles
The League of Nations was one of the precursors to ensure no more warfare and conflict.
The US did not join the League of Nations do to a stroke.
The US not joining the effort was necessary for Wilson's attitude that has it was the only country arguing for there to be an end to all the conflict.
The League of Nations was therefore lead by England and France.
The treaty that ended World War 1 was the Treaty of Versailles.
Treaty of Versailles details
Central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottomans) were not part of the negotiations.
All blame and financial responsibility was placed on Germany.
Germany was destined to fail because mathmatically it was not possible for them to provide every countries debt.
Germany's empire was divided out into multiple different sections.
New states and countries were created out of portions of the German empire.
The Treaty of Versailles reduced the imperial power of what Germany had but expanded imperial power from the allies such as France and England.
As a result of WW1 broken people broke humanity moving into a new rise in cynicism.
The world war made people realized the promise of politicians to help bring you piece and prosperity was not possible.
This also took the wind from the sales of democracy because democracy did not help do what it said it would.
The treaty pretty much ensured that there would be another world war even just 20 years later.