Lasted from 1914-1918

The war to end all wars

Allies: United States (joined in 1917),
Britain, France, and Russia
Axis Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary,
and Turkey
Total Number Killed: 8.5 10 million

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Causes of World War

One
Although

it was the
assassination of the Austrian
archduke, Franz Ferdinand
that led to the outbreak of
World War I in August 1914,
the actual causes of the war
were more complicated and
not confined to a single
cause.

Imperialism
Imperialism

is when a country takes

over new lands or countries and
makes them subject to their rule.
By 1900 the British Empire
extended over five continents and
France had control of large areas of
Africa.
The amount of lands 'owned' by
Britain and France increased the
rivalry with Germany who had
entered the scramble to acquire
colonies late and only had small
areas of Africa.

Alliances
An

alliance is an agreement
made between two or more
countries to give each other
help if it is needed.
When an alliance is signed,
those countries become known
as allies.
These connections were
important at the time because
they meant that some countries
had no choice but to declare
war if one of their allies
declared war first.

Militarism
Militarism

means that the army

and military forces are given a
high profile by the government.
The growing European divide
had led to an arms race between
the main countries.
The armies of both France and
Germany had more than
doubled between 1870 and 1914
and there was fierce competition
between Britain and Germany
for mastery of the seas.

Nationalism
Nationalism

means being a
strong supporter of the rights
and interests of one's country.
Large areas of both AustriaHungary and Serbia were home
to differing nationalist groups,
all of whom wanted freedom
from the states in which they
lived.
This caused radical tension
that would lead to violence.

Born in 1898
Served in World War
One
Fought on the side of
the Germans
Sustained injuries and
spent time in the
hospital
His German citizenship
was revoked in 1938 as
a result of his anti-war
novel.
Died in 1970

The novel is fictional, but it is based upon

Remarques personal experiences during
the war.
It was first published in 1929. More than
one million copies were sold, and it was
translated into twenty-three languages.
The Nazis banned and burned All Quiet
on the Western Front in 1933 because it
was considered an anti-war novel.

The Western Front ran approximately 300

miles across the face of Western Europe,
from Belgium to Switzerland.
The front consisted of opposing trenches,
sometimes only yards apart. The trench
warfare of World War I lasted for three years
and took several million lives.
The Battle of the Somme, an attack by the
Allies trying to break through the German
lines, took more than four months. The
allies gained only six miles. British and
French casualties were 95,675 Britons killed
and 60,729 Frenchmen killed. The defense
cost the Germans 164,055 soldiers killed.

The trenches were muddy and often flooded with

water. The bodies of dead and wounded men and
animals fouled them.

Corpses lay in the no man's land between the

trenches. Enemy snipers, rats, lice, and stench
from the decaying bodies contributed to the misery
of the trenches.

Toward the end of the war the German soldiers

had little food.

Passchendaele,
Belgium, 1917
Before and After

An attack was preceded by bombardments,

some lasting for days.

In order to mount an attack, soldiers carrying

rifles and packs had to go "over the top of the
trenches.

Once in the no man's land, they faced barbed

wire entanglements, machine guns,
bombardment, grenades, poison gas, and fire
from the opposing trenches.

For many historical scholars, WWI is interesting to

study because its a moment in military technology
when fire power doesnt match with mobility.
At the beginning of the twentieth century,
automatic weapons and new modes of transportation
were combining with traditional military routine.
This, on top of the rural locations where many
soldiers fought, lead to a dangerous and difficult life
on the front.

The

Western Front was in

stalemate until the United
States entered the war.
Fresh

troops, along with

abundant hardware and
supplies, tipped the scales
decisively in favor of the
Allies.
An

armistice was signed

on November 11, 1918 and
the Treaty of Versailles was
imposed on Germany in June
1919.
The

conflict was one of

the bloodiest in history; ten
million soldiers were killed
along with an estimated ten
million civilians.

Works Cited
Top 5 reasons for World War I
Kelly Martin
About Education 2015
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/tp/c
auses-of-world-war-1.htm
SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on World War I
(19141919). SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC.
2005. Web. 10 Jun. 2015.
"World War I". Encyclopdia Britannica.
Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 11 Jun.
2015
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/6486
46/World-War-I>.