World War I Essential Questions:
- What were the motivations of the various powers which were fighting World War I?
- Why did the United States become involved in World War I?
- How did the Treaty of Versailles indicate that the Great Powers of Europe did not 'learn their lesson' in World War I?
The Causes of World War I
Arms Race
By the late-19th century, the rising tensions between the two major power blocs resulted in an ‘arms race.’ This refers to the desire of each side to produce more and more technologically advanced weapons. Each side hoped that they would be able to build destructive enough weapons in large enough quantities that they would be able to completely overwhelm their enemies on the battlefield.
Technology evolved so quickly that historians delineate two Industrial Revolutions: the first from 1750 to 1850, and the second after 1850. The first transformation, an almost exclusively British affair, was closely aligned with Europe’s hawkish culture. In addition to its American and Caribbean colonies in the 1700s, Britain added Canada, Florida, South Africa, and India. The markets won through war and colonization drove British exports up over fivefold. The economic pressure to keep up with increasing foreign and domestic demand drove manufacturers to find better means of production. The result was a cluster of remarkable new technologies: coke-fired iron manufacture, reciprocating steam engines, and sulfuric acid mass-produced in lead vats or chambers.
The obvious connection between industrial and military prowess during the First Industrial Revolution caused nervousness in European capitals as the Second Industrial Revolution swept through Europe before the turn of the 20thcentury. Steel replaced iron for many uses; greatly improved machine tools created even more precise metal parts; powerful steam turbines supplanted increasingly inefficient reciprocating engines; more highly concentrated sulfuric acid became available; and oil began to supplement coal as an energy source. Engineers and scientists also created electrical power and equipment, wireless telegraphs, telephones, and nitrogen-based high explosives.
These breakthroughs had the potential to revolutionize the art of warfare by spawning killing machines: repeating rifles shooting twenty to thirty bullets per minute; improved machine guns spewing 600 bullets per minute; semi-recoilless rapid-firing field artillery firing hundreds of shells per hour; and artillery shells packed with extremely powerful nitrogen explosives. Steam power, steel, electricity, advanced optics, and the new explosives also ushered in early prototypes of the modern battleship. As the Second Industrial Revolution gathered momentum after 1900, it brought automobiles, airships, airplanes, steam turbine-powered ships, and submarines. These new technologies, like earlier advances, challenged army and navy establishments either to adopt the weaponry and determine the best tactical adjustments, or to reject the new devices altogether.
Alliances
Such were the mechanics that brought the world's major nations into the war at one time or another. It's clear from the summary above that the alliance system was as much at fault as anything in bringing about the scale of the conflict.
What was intended as a strictly limited war - a brief war - between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, rapidly escalated into something that was beyond the expectations of even the most warlike ministers in Berlin (and certainly Vienna, which quickly became alarmed at spiraling events in late July and sought German reassurances).
Assignments
Assignment: Causes of WWI: Treaties
Assignment: Causes of WWI: Arms Race
Assignment: Causes of WWI: MAIN
Arms Race
By the late-19th century, the rising tensions between the two major power blocs resulted in an ‘arms race.’ This refers to the desire of each side to produce more and more technologically advanced weapons. Each side hoped that they would be able to build destructive enough weapons in large enough quantities that they would be able to completely overwhelm their enemies on the battlefield.
Technology evolved so quickly that historians delineate two Industrial Revolutions: the first from 1750 to 1850, and the second after 1850. The first transformation, an almost exclusively British affair, was closely aligned with Europe’s hawkish culture. In addition to its American and Caribbean colonies in the 1700s, Britain added Canada, Florida, South Africa, and India. The markets won through war and colonization drove British exports up over fivefold. The economic pressure to keep up with increasing foreign and domestic demand drove manufacturers to find better means of production. The result was a cluster of remarkable new technologies: coke-fired iron manufacture, reciprocating steam engines, and sulfuric acid mass-produced in lead vats or chambers.
The obvious connection between industrial and military prowess during the First Industrial Revolution caused nervousness in European capitals as the Second Industrial Revolution swept through Europe before the turn of the 20thcentury. Steel replaced iron for many uses; greatly improved machine tools created even more precise metal parts; powerful steam turbines supplanted increasingly inefficient reciprocating engines; more highly concentrated sulfuric acid became available; and oil began to supplement coal as an energy source. Engineers and scientists also created electrical power and equipment, wireless telegraphs, telephones, and nitrogen-based high explosives.
These breakthroughs had the potential to revolutionize the art of warfare by spawning killing machines: repeating rifles shooting twenty to thirty bullets per minute; improved machine guns spewing 600 bullets per minute; semi-recoilless rapid-firing field artillery firing hundreds of shells per hour; and artillery shells packed with extremely powerful nitrogen explosives. Steam power, steel, electricity, advanced optics, and the new explosives also ushered in early prototypes of the modern battleship. As the Second Industrial Revolution gathered momentum after 1900, it brought automobiles, airships, airplanes, steam turbine-powered ships, and submarines. These new technologies, like earlier advances, challenged army and navy establishments either to adopt the weaponry and determine the best tactical adjustments, or to reject the new devices altogether.
Alliances
Such were the mechanics that brought the world's major nations into the war at one time or another. It's clear from the summary above that the alliance system was as much at fault as anything in bringing about the scale of the conflict.
What was intended as a strictly limited war - a brief war - between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, rapidly escalated into something that was beyond the expectations of even the most warlike ministers in Berlin (and certainly Vienna, which quickly became alarmed at spiraling events in late July and sought German reassurances).
Assignments
Assignment: Causes of WWI: Treaties
Assignment: Causes of WWI: Arms Race
Assignment: Causes of WWI: MAIN
The Guns of August and Trench Warfare
Once war was declared, the attitude was enthusiastic as crowds of young men in all of the nations involved in the war enlisted to fight. Huge crowds swarmed enlistment offices as young men signed up to go off to the front. Both sides believed that the war would be over within six months and that if they didn’t hurry, these young men would miss the opportunity to join in the “great adventure.” The general attitude was that the war was like an enormous sporting event and everyone wanted to prove their bravery.
Soon, that excitement would turn to butchery. German, French, and British armies would collide in North France, driving both sides to dig long lines of trenches to escape the murderous weaponry of the time. Those trenches would not substantively move over the course of four years.
Assignments
Assignment: The Guns of August
Assignment: Life in the Trenches
Film: Britain's Boy Soldiers
Assignment: Aircraft and World War I
Once war was declared, the attitude was enthusiastic as crowds of young men in all of the nations involved in the war enlisted to fight. Huge crowds swarmed enlistment offices as young men signed up to go off to the front. Both sides believed that the war would be over within six months and that if they didn’t hurry, these young men would miss the opportunity to join in the “great adventure.” The general attitude was that the war was like an enormous sporting event and everyone wanted to prove their bravery.
Soon, that excitement would turn to butchery. German, French, and British armies would collide in North France, driving both sides to dig long lines of trenches to escape the murderous weaponry of the time. Those trenches would not substantively move over the course of four years.
Assignments
Assignment: The Guns of August
Assignment: Life in the Trenches
Film: Britain's Boy Soldiers
Assignment: Aircraft and World War I
American Entrance into World War I
In his April 2, 1917, war address, Wilson cast the war’s purpose in broad, idealistic terms. America, he declared, had "no quarrel with the German people." Instead, the United States was fighting against the "little groups of ambitious men" who used the German people as pawns to aggrandize their power. Wilson succinctly framed the war’s purpose in one phrase that has resonated in American foreign policy ever since: the world, he declared, "must be made safe for democracy." The United States officially declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917.
Assignments
Assignment: American Entry into World War I
Assignment: American Entry into World War I Vocabulary
In his April 2, 1917, war address, Wilson cast the war’s purpose in broad, idealistic terms. America, he declared, had "no quarrel with the German people." Instead, the United States was fighting against the "little groups of ambitious men" who used the German people as pawns to aggrandize their power. Wilson succinctly framed the war’s purpose in one phrase that has resonated in American foreign policy ever since: the world, he declared, "must be made safe for democracy." The United States officially declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917.
Assignments
Assignment: American Entry into World War I
Assignment: American Entry into World War I Vocabulary
Treaty of Versailles and the Consequences of the Peace
In 1918, Germany’s last major offensive had failed. British and French soldiers, bolstered by last-minute American reinforcements, had managed to hold back the German attack. Once the Germans had exhausted themselves, the British-French-American counteroffensive had driven the Germans out of their trenches. German High Command, seeing that defeat was imminent, called for an armistice (an end to the fighting) to discuss the possibility of a true peace treaty.
British, French, America, German, Italian, and other ambassadors gathered in Versailles, France to create a peace treaty. The Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty which ended World War I, proved to be a disaster for humanity.
Assignments
Assignment: Versailles and the Consequences of the Peace Overview
Assignment: Treaty of Versailles Notes
In 1918, Germany’s last major offensive had failed. British and French soldiers, bolstered by last-minute American reinforcements, had managed to hold back the German attack. Once the Germans had exhausted themselves, the British-French-American counteroffensive had driven the Germans out of their trenches. German High Command, seeing that defeat was imminent, called for an armistice (an end to the fighting) to discuss the possibility of a true peace treaty.
British, French, America, German, Italian, and other ambassadors gathered in Versailles, France to create a peace treaty. The Treaty of Versailles, the peace treaty which ended World War I, proved to be a disaster for humanity.
Assignments
Assignment: Versailles and the Consequences of the Peace Overview
Assignment: Treaty of Versailles Notes