Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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The
Page 1 of 3
Great War,
1914 1918
CLASSZONE.COM
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Europe, 1914
60N
0
0
15W
250
250
500 Miles
500 Kilometers
Robinson Projection
NORWAY
Petrograd
(St. Petersburg)
Central Powers
SWEDEN
Allied Powers
Neutral Nations
Futhest Central Power
Advancement
U N ITED
KIN G D O M
N
ti
Ba
NETHERLANDS
Great
Britain
Elb
e
Amsterdam
15W
DENMARK
Ireland
R U SSIA
Sea
North
Sea
l
Battle of
Masurian
Lakes, 1914
Battle of
Tannenburg,
1914
R.
Berlin
London
Brussels
BELGIUM
R.
M e u se
R.
Marne,
1914
45N
FRANCE
LUXEMBOURG
l
Vi s t u
Verdun
Rhin
e R
.
R.
Mar
Paris
Versailles Battle of
ne
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
me
R.
om
Warsaw
G ER M A NY
Limanowa
Da
e
nub
R.
Vienna
SWITZ.
A U S TR IA - H U NG A RY
Ad
ri
Se
Madrid
Rome
Lisbon
MONTENEGRO
ALBANIA
SPAI N
Bucharest
SERBIA
ic
ITALY
45N
ROMANIA
Black
Sea
at
PORTUGAL
BOSNIA
AND
HERZEGOVINA
Sarajevo
BULGARIA
Constantinople
Gallipoli
GREECE
M e d i t e
r r a
n e
a n
Athens
Dardanelles
Straight
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
S e
a
15E
1916 (Feb.)
French and Germans
begin battle at Verdun.
1917 (April)
United States
enters war.
30E
1918 (Nov.)
Allies defeat Central
Powers; war ends.
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Would you
support your
ally?
The leader of an allied
nation is murdered. His
country declares war and
asks for your support.
EXAMINING
the
ISSUES
742 Chapter 29
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Page 1 of 4
The Stage
Is Set for War
MAIN IDEA
militarism
Triple Alliance
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Triple Entente
SETTING THE STAGE At the turn of the 20th century, the nations of Europe had
been at peace with one another for nearly 30 years. An entire generation had grown
up ignorant of the horrors of war. Some Europeans believed that progress had made
war a thing of the past. Yet in little more than a decade, a massive war would engulf
Europe and spread across the globe.
deep devotion to ones nation. Nationalism can serve as a unifying force within a
country. However, it also can cause intense competition between nations, with
each seeking to overpower the other. By the turn of the 20th century, a fierce
rivalry indeed had developed among Europes Great Powers. Those nations were
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, and France.
This increasing rivalry among European nations stemmed from several
sources. Competition for materials and markets was one. Great Britain,
home of the Industrial Revolution, had long been Europes leader in
industry, finance, and shipping. After 1850, however, other nations
began to challenge Britains power. One such nation was Germany.
Germanys many new industries made its economy the fastestgrowing one on the continent. As a result, Germany competed with
Great Britain for industrial dominance.
Nationalistic rivalries also grew out of territorial disputes.
France, for example, had never gotten over the loss of AlsaceLorraine to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War (1870). Austria-Hungary and Russia
both tried to dominate in the Balkans, a region in southeast Europe. Within the
Balkans, the intense nationalism of Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, and other ethnic
groups led to demands for independence.
Imperialism Another force that helped set the stage for war in Europe was imperial-
ism. As Chapter 27 explained, the nations of Europe competed fiercely for colonies in
Africa and Asia. The quest for colonies sometimes pushed European nations to the
brink of war. In 1905 and again in 1911, Germany and France nearly fought over who
would control Morocco, in northern Africa. With most of Europe supporting France,
Germany eventually backed down. As European countries continued to compete for
overseas empires, their sense of rivalry and mistrust of one another deepened.
German chancellor
Otto von Bismarck
led his nation to
victory over France
in the FrancoPrussian War in
1870. The war,
which earned
Germany some
French territory,
increased tensions
between the two
nations.
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Tangled Alliances
HISTORY
MAKERS
The growing international rivalries had led to the creation of several
Background
The Nobel Peace Prize
is named after Alfred
Nobel, a Swedish
inventor and industrialist. He established a
fund to award prizes
annually for strides
made in several categories, including the
advancement of peace.
Ironically, Nobels most
noteworthy invention
was dynamite.
military alliances among the Great Powers as early as the 1870s. This
alliance system had been designed to keep peace in Europe. But it
would instead help push the continent into war.
Kaiser Wilhelm II
18591941
Wilhelm II was related to the leaders
of two nations he eventually would
engage in war. Wilhelm, George V of
Great Britain, and Nicholas II of
Russia were all cousins.
The Kaiser thought a great deal
of himself and his place in history.
Once, when a doctor told him he had
a small cold, Wilhelm reportedly
responded, No, it is a big cold.
Everything about me must be big.
The Kaiser also could be sly and
deceitful. After he forced the
popular Bismarck to resign, Wilhelm
pretended to be upset. I feel as
sorrowful as though I had lost my
grandfather all over again, he
announced publicly. Most people,
however, including Bismarck, were
not fooled. In his retirement, the
former chancellor grumbled that
Wilhelm thinks he knows better
than anyone. He recognizes no
authority but himself.
744 Chapter 29
Vocabulary
chancellor: the chief
minister of state in
many European
countries.
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Vocabulary
impulsive: inclined to
act on a sudden feeling
rather than thought.
32E
24E
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Od
R h i ne
er
R.
R.
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CONNECT to TODAY
The War in Bosnia
Intense nationalism in the Balkans
led to bloodshed once again in the
1990s. Beginning in 1991, the
different ethnic groups living in the
country of Yugoslavia declared their
independence. As the Yugoslavian
republics of Slovenia, Croatia, and
Bosnia and Herzegovina all broke
away, the country dissolved into
civil war. SerbiaYugoslavias
largest and most influential
republicfought the independence
efforts of other groups.
Eventually, the war took a terrible
turnparticularly in Bosnia. With
the support of the Serbian republic,
Serbs living in Bosnia began a
murderous campaign of ethnic
cleansing to rid Bosnia of its nonSerb peoples. Although a United
Nations-enforced agreement ended
the fighting in 1996, anger and ethnic
hatreds still simmer.
Page 4 of 4
These were two Balkan areas with large Slavic populations. Serbian
leaders, who had sought to rule these provinces, were outraged. The
possibility of war arose. Russia offered Serbia full support, but the offer
meant little. Russia was totally unprepared for war. When Germany
stood firmly behind Austria, Russia and Serbia had to back down.
By 1914, tensions in the Balkan region were once again on the
rise. Serbia had emerged victorious from several local conflicts. As a
result, the nation had gained additional territory and a new confidence. It was more eager than ever to take Bosnia and Herzegovina
away from Austria. In response, Austria-Hungary vowed to crush any
Serbian effort to undermine its authority in the Balkans.
Section 1 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES
Identify
militarism
Triple Alliance
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Triple Entente
2. TAKING NOTES
3. ANALYZING ISSUES
event
three
event
two
THINK ABOUT
event
four
746 Chapter 29
4. ANALYZING THEMES
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War Consumes
Europe
MAIN IDEA
Schlieffen Plan
Central Powers
Allies
Western Front
trench warfare
Eastern Front
SETTING THE STAGE The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28,
1914, was the spark that ignited a giant blaze. This single terrorist act set off a chain
reaction within the alliance system that would result in the largest war Europeand
the worldhad ever seen.
began moving its army toward the Russian-Austrian border. Expecting Germany to
join Austria, Russia also mobilized along the German border. Czar Nicholas II of
Russia told the Kaiser that the maneuvers were just a precaution. Yet to Germany,
Russias mobilization amounted to a declaration of war. On August 1, the German
government declared war on Russia.
Russia looked to its ally France for help. Germany, however, did
not even wait for France to react. Two days after declaring war on
Russia, Germany also declared war on France. Much of Europe
was now locked in battle.
The Schlieffen Plan Germany quickly put its military plan into
effect. The plan was named after its designer, General Alfred Graf
von Schlieffen (SHLEE fuhn). In the event of a two-front war,
Schlieffen had called for attacking France and then Russia. The
general had reasoned that Russiawith its lack of railroads
would have difficulty mobilizing its troops. Under the Schlieffen
Plan, a large part of the German army would race west, to
defeat France, and then return to fight Russia in the east.
Speed was vital to the German plan. The French had troops
all along their border with Germany. Thus, the Germans knew
that breaking through would be slow work. There was another
route, however: Frances northern border with Belgium
was unprotected.
Germany demanded that its troops be allowed to pass
through Belgium on their way to France. Belgium, a neutral
country, refused. Germany then invaded Belgium. This
brought Great Britain into the conflict. The British had close
A. Possible Answer
Because the plan
called for Germany to
defeat France and
then return its troops
to the east before
Russia fully mobilized.
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8E
0
8 W
BELGIUM
e R.
Loir
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
16E
Limanowa,
Dec. 1914
LUX.
Paris
SWITZ.
Vienna
1916
FRANCE
42
Caporetto,
Oct. 1917
Milan
Po R.
Madrid
19
191
Czernowitz,
June 1916
1918
ROMANIA
SERBIA
MONTENEGRO
Danu
Black Sea
.
be R
BULGARIA
16
19
ALBANIA
1916
400 Miles
800 Kilometers
Allied victory
Armistice Line, Nov. 1918
Kerensky Offensive,
July 1917
1918
Rome
SPAIN
Kovel,
June 1916
AUSTRIAHUNGARY
1917
ITALY
Ma
rc
h,
Galicia,
May 1915
Verdun,
Feb. 1916
PORTUGAL
sk
Lodz,
Nov. 1914
GERMANY
1914
RUSSIA
Berlin
R.
Rhine
Allied countries
Central Powers
Neutral countries
18
NETH.
32E
N
London
tov
Masurian Lakes,
Sep. 1914
EAST PRUSSIA
Tannenberg,
Aug. 1914
Dec., 1917
50
Baltic
Sea
GREAT BRITAIN
SWEDEN
DENMARK
Treaty of Brest- L
North
Sea
24E
16
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19
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GREECE
Gallipoli,
Feb. 1915
Jan. 1916
OTTOMAN EMPIRE
G E O G R A P H Y S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Maps
1. Location In which country was almost all of the war in the West fought?
2. Location What geographic disadvantage did Germany and Austria-Hungary face in fighting
the war? How might this have affected their war strategy?
ties with Belgium, one of their nearest neighbors on the continent. Outraged over the
violation of Belgian neutrality, Britain declared war on Germany on August 4.
European Nations Take Sides By mid-August 1914, the battle lines were clearly
drawn. On one side were Germany and Austria-Hungary. They were known as the
Central Powers, because of their location in the heart of Europe. Bulgaria and
the Ottoman Empire would later join the Central Powers in the hopes of regaining
lost territories.
On the other side were Great Britain, France, and Russia. Together, they were
known as the Allied Powers or the Allies. Japan joined the Allies within weeks. Italy,
which at first was neutral, joined the Allies nine months into the war. Italy claimed
that its membership in the Triple Alliance had been a defensive strategy. The Italians
felt that the Germans had made an unprovoked attack on Belgium. Therefore, the
Italians argued, they were not obligated to stand by their old ally.
In the late summer of 1914, millions of soldiers marched happily off to battle,
convinced that the war would be short. Only a few people foresaw the horror ahead.
One of them was Britains foreign minister, Sir Edward Grey. Staring out over London
at nightfall, Grey said sadly to a friend, The lamps are going out all over Europe. We
shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.
748 Chapter 29
Background
Before the war, the
Central Powers were
part of the Triple
Alliance, and the
Allies were known as
the Triple Entente.
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The Conflict Grinds to a Halt Early on, Germanys Schlieffen Plan worked
Vocabulary
intelligence: secret
information, especially
such information
about an enemy.
brilliantly. By the end of August, the Germans had overrun Belgium and swept into
France. By September 3, German units were on the edge of Paris. A major German
victory appeared just days away. The French military then came into possession of
intelligence that told them the exact direction the German army was about to take.
On September 5, the Allies attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley
of the Marne River. Every available soldier was hurled into the struggle. When reinforcements were needed, more than 600 taxicabs rushed soldiers from Paris to the
front. After four days of fighting, the German generals gave the order to retreat. It
was an inspiring thought, a British officer later wrote, that the time had now come
to chase the German. By September 13, the Germans had been driven back nearly
60 miles.
Although it was only the first major clash on the Western Front, the First Battle of
the Marne was perhaps the single most important event of the war. The defeat of the
Germans left the Schlieffen Plan in ruins. A quick victory in the west no longer seemed
possible. In the east, Russian forces had already invaded Germany. Germany was
going to have to fight a long war on two fronts. Realizing this, the German high command sent thousands of troops from France to aid its forces in the east. Meanwhile,
the war on the Western Front settled into a stalemate.
War in the Trenches By early 1915, opposing armies on the Western Front had dug
miles of parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. This set the stage for
what became known as trench warfare. In this type of warfare, soldiers fought each
other from trenches. And armies traded huge losses for pitifully small land gains.
Life in the trenches was pure misery. The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate
mud, and dreamed mud, wrote one soldier. The trenches swarmed with rats. Fresh
food was nonexistent. Sleep was nearly impossible.
The space between the opposing trenches won the grim name no mans land.
When the officers ordered an attack, their men went over the top of their trenches
into this bombed-out landscape. There, they usually met murderous rounds of
machine-gun fire. Staying put in the trench, however, did not ensure ones safety.
Artillery fire brought death right into the trenches. Shells of all calibers kept raining
on our sector, wrote one French soldier. The trenches disappeared, filled with earth
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Machine Gun
The machine gun, which fires
ammunition automatically, was much
improved by the time of World War I.
As a result, it saw wide use in combat.
Because the gun could wipe out waves
of attackers and make it difficult for forces to
advance, it helped create a stalemate.
Tank
The tank was an armored combat vehicle
that moved on chain tracks. It was
introduced by the British in 1916 at the
Battle of the Somme. The early tanks
were slow and clumsy. They eventually
improved, and thus aided the Allies in
their war effort.
. . . the air was unbreathable. Our blinded, wounded, crawling, and shouting soldiers
kept falling on top of us and died splashing us with blood. It was living hell.
The Western Front had become a terrain of death. It stretched nearly 500 miles
from the North Sea to the Swiss border. A British officer described it in a letter:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
Imagine a broad belt, ten miles or so in width, stretching from the Channel to
the German frontier near Basle, which is positively littered with the bodies of men and
scarified with their rude graves; in which farms, villages and cottages are shapeless
heaps of blackened masonry; in which fields, roads and trees are pitted and torn and
twisted by shells and disfigured by dead horses, cattle, sheep and goats, scattered in
every attitude of repulsive distortion and dismemberment.
VALENTINE FLEMING, quoted in The First World War
Military strategists were at a loss. New tools of warmachine guns, poison gas,
armored tanks, larger artilleryhad not delivered the fast-moving war they had
expected. All this new technology did was kill huge numbers of people more effectively.
The slaughter reached a peak in 1916. In February, the Germans launched a massive
attack against the French near Verdun. Each side lost more than 300,000 men.
In July of 1916, the British army tried to relieve the pressure on the French.
British forces attacked the Germans northwest of Verdun, in the valley of the Somme
River. In the first day of battle alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed. By
the time the Battle of the Somme ended in November, each side had suffered over
half a million casualties.
What did the warring sides gain? Near Verdun, the Germans advanced about four
miles. In the Somme valley, the British gained about five miles.
forces had launched an attack into both Austria and Germany. At the end of August
1914, Germany counterattacked near the town of Tannenberg. During the four-day
battle that followed, the Germans crushed the invading Russian army and drove it
into full retreat. Germany regained East Prussia and seized numerous guns and
horses from the enemy. More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed.
750 Chapter 29
Background
In war, a casualty is
anyone killed, injured,
captured, or considered missing in action.
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Airplane
World War I signaled the first time
in history that planes were used in
a combat role. At first, nations used
planes for taking photographs of
enemy lines. Soon, both sides used
them to drop bombs. Guns soon
were attached to the planes,
and pilots fought each other
in the air.
Submarine
In 1914, the Germans introduced
the submarine as an effective
warship. German submarines,
known as U-boats, eventually
waged unrestricted warfare
on Allied ships. The submarines
primary weapon was the
torpedo, a self-propelled
underwater missile.
Russia fared somewhat better against the Austrians. Russian forces defeated the
Austrians twice in September 1914, driving them deep into Austria. Not until December
of that year did the Austrian armywith German assistancemanage to turn the tide.
In a 17-day battle near Limanowa, Austria defeated the Russians and drove them eastward. Two weeks later, the Austrian army pushed the Russians out of Austria-Hungary.
Russias War Effort Weakens By 1916, Russias war effort was near collapse.
Unlike the nations of western Europe, Russia had yet to become industrialized. As a
result, the Russian army was continually short on food, guns, ammunition, clothes,
boots, and blankets. Moreover, the Allies were unable to ship supplies to Russias
ports. In the north, a German naval fleet blocked the Baltic Sea. In the south, the
Ottomans still controlled the straits leading from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.
The Russian army had only one assetits numbers. Throughout the war the
Russian army suffered enormous battlefield losses. More than 2 million Russian soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured in 1915 alone. And yet the army continually
rebuilt its ranks from the countrys enormous population. For more than three years,
the battered Russian army managed to tie up hundreds of thousands of German
troops in the east. Thus, Germany could not hurl its full fighting force at the west.
Germany and her allies, however, were concerned with more than just the Eastern
or Western Fronts. As the war raged on, fighting spread beyond Europe to Africa, as
well as to Southwest and Southeast Asia. In the years after it began, the massive
European conflict indeed became a world war.
Section 2 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES
Identify
Schlieffen Plan
Central Powers
Allies
Western Front
trench warfare
Eastern Front
2. TAKING NOTES
Reason for
Declaration
3. COMPARING AND
CONTRASTING
THINK ABOUT
trench warfare
which nations fought on each
front
war casualties
4. THEME ACTIVITY
Britain on Germany
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SCIENCE
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&TECHNOLOGY
Aviation
World War I introduced plane warfare. And with it came daring dogfights
and legendary pilots. Two such pilots were Americas Eddie Rickenbacker
and Germanys Baron Manfred von Richthofen, better known as the Red
Baron. In a larger sense, however, the war ushered in an era of great
progress in the field of aviation. In the warring nations quest to dominate
the skies, they produced thousands of planes and continually worked to
improve engine designs. After the war, these nations converted their war
planes to commercial use. They also began designing larger, stronger
planes for civilian transport. The age of air travel had begun.
By 1926, passenger airlines were operating in Europe, Africa, Australia,
and North and South America. Built in 1928, the Ford Tri-motor model,
shown below, was one of the better-known American passenger planes of
the time.
Annual Ridership
Connect
1.25 billion*
1.5
0.9
0.3
SEE SKILLBUILDER
HANDBOOK, PAGE R3
Connect
100 million*
0.6
1.2
0.0
1930
*estimated
1960
1990s
752 Chapter 29
to History
to Today
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Page 1 of 7
War Affects
the World
MAIN IDEA
unrestricted
submarine
warfare
total war
rationing
propaganda
armistice
SETTING THE STAGE By early 1915, it was apparent to all the warring nations that
swift victory had eluded them. As war on both European fronts promised to be a
grim, drawn-out affair, all the Great Powers looked for new allies to tip the balance.
They also sought new war fronts on which to achieve victory.
GRE
searched for a way to end the stalemate. A promising strategy seemed to be to attack a
region in the Ottoman Empire known as the Dardanelles. This narrow sea strait was
the gateway to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople. By securing the Dardanelles, the
Allies believed that they could take Constantinople, defeat the
Turks, and establish a supply line to Russia. They might even be
able to mount an offensive into the Austrian heartland by way of
Black Sea
the Danube River.
Bosporus
The effort to take the Dardanelles strait began in February 1915.
Constantinople
It
was
known as the Gallipoli campaign. British, Australian, New
Gallipoli
Sea of
Peninsula
Marmara
Zealand, and French troops made repeated assaults on the Gallipoli
T
O
M
Peninsula on the western side of the strait. Turkish troops, some
A
N
Dardanelles
EM
commanded by German officers, vigorously defended the region. By
PIR
E
May, Gallipoli had turned into another bloody stalemate. Both sides
A egean
0
100 Miles
Sea
dug trenches, from which they battled for the rest of the year. In
0
200 Kilometers
December, the Allies gave up the campaign and began to evacuate.
They had suffered about 250,000 casualties.
Despite the Allies failure at Gallipoli, they remained determined to topple the
Ottoman Empire. In Southwest Asia, the British helped Arab nationalists rise up against their Turkish rulers. Particularly devoted to the
Background
Although the Ottoman
Arab cause was a British soldier named T. E. Lawrence. Better
Empire had greatly
known as Lawrence of Arabia, he helped lead
declined by World
daring guerrilla raids against the Turks. With
War I, it still ruled
Arab lands in
the help of the Arabs, Allied armies took control
Southwest Asia.
of Baghdad, Jerusalem, and Damascus.
In various parts of Asia and Africa, Germanys
colonial possessions came under assault. The Japanese
quickly overran German outposts in China. They
also captured Germanys Pacific island colonies.
T
EC
Arab fighters
patrol the desert on
camels. The rider in
front is believed to
be T. E. Lawrence.
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English and French troops attacked Germanys four African possessions. They seized
control of three.
Elsewhere in Asia and Africa, the British and French recruited subjects in their
colonies for the struggle. Fighting troops as well as laborers came from India, South
Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, and Indochina. Many fought and died on the battlefield. Others worked to keep the frontlines supplied. Some colonial subjects wanted
nothing to do with their European rulers conflicts. Others volunteered in the hope
that service would lead to their independence. This was the view of Indian political
leader Mohandas Gandhi, who supported Indian participation in the war.
If we would improve our status through the help and cooperation of the British,
he wrote, it was our duty to win their help by standing by them in their hour of need.
The United States Enters the War In 1917, the focus of the war shifted to the high
seas. That year, the Germans intensified the submarine warfare that had raged in the
Atlantic Ocean since shortly after the war began. By 1917, failed crops, as well as a British
naval blockade, caused severe food shortages in Germany. Desperate to strike back,
Germany decided to establish its own naval blockade around Britain. In January 1917,
the Germans announced that their submarines would sink without warning any ship in the
waters around Britain. This policy was called unrestricted submarine warfare.
The Germans had tried this policy before. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine, or
U-boat, had sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania. The attack left 1,198 people dead,
including 128 U.S. citizens. Germany claimed that the ship had been carrying ammunitionwhich turned out to be true. Nevertheless, the American public was outraged.
President Woodrow Wilson sent a strong protest to Germany. After two further attacks,
the Germans finally agreed to stop attacking neutral and passenger ships.
However, the Germans returned to unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. They
knew it might lead to war with the United States. They gambled that their naval
8,000 Kilometers
Main fighting of
the war occurs on
Western and
Eastern Fronts.
NORTH
AMERICA
Vocabulary
blockade: the forced
closing off of a city or
other area to traffic
and communication
through the use of
ships or land forces.
80E
40E
4,000 Miles
War rages in
Southwest Asia as
Arab nationalists
battle their Turkish
rulers.
80W
120W
160W
40W
A. Possible Answer
Some fought as
soldiers, while others
worked as laborers
keeping the frontlines
supplied.
Arctic Circle
ASIA
EUROPE
40N
JAPAN
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
SOUTHWEST ASIA
INDIA
PACIFIC
OCEAN
AFRICA
INDIAN
India provides about
OCEAN
SOUTH
AMERICA
The European colonies
throughout Africa become
a battlefield as the warring
parties strike at one anothers
colonial possessions.
G E O G R A P H Y S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Maps
1. Region Which countries were aligned with the European Allies?
2. Location Outside of Europe, where was World War I fought?
754 Chapter 29
Tropic of Cancer
AUSTRALIA
Tropic of Capricorn
NEW
ZEALAND
40S
Antarctic Circle
10/11/02
Background
Land Mexico
considered lost to
the United States
included New
Mexico, Texas,
and Arizona.
Vocabulary
atrocity: an act
of extreme cruelty or
violence.
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blockade would starve Britain into defeat before the United States
GlobalImpact
could mobilize. Ignoring warnings by President Wilson, German Uboats sank three American ships.
Influenza Epidemic
In February 1917, another German action pushed the United
In the spring of 1918, a powerful
States closer to war. The British intercepted a telegram from
new enemy emerged, threatening
Germanys foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German
nations on each side of World War I.
This enemy was a deadly strain
ambassador in Mexico. The message said that Germany would help
of influenza. The Spanish flu, as it
Mexico reconquer the land it had lost to the United States if Mexico
was popularly known, hit England
would ally itself with Germany. The British decoded the message and
and India in May. By the fall, it had
gave it to the U.S. government.
spread through Europe, Russia,
Asia, and to the United States.
When the Zimmermann note was made public, Americans called
The influenza epidemic killed
for war against Germany. Even before news of the note, many
soldiers and civilians alike. In India,
Americans had sided with the Allies. A large part of the American
at least 12 million people died of
population felt a bond with England. The two nations shared a cominfluenza. In Berlin, on a single day
in October, 1,500 people died. In the
mon ancestry and language, as well as similar democratic institutions
end, this global epidemic was more
and legal systems. In addition, reportssome true and others not
destructive than the war itself,
of German war atrocities stirred anti-German sentiment in the
killing 20 million people worldwide.
United States. More important, Americas economic ties with the
Allies were far stronger than those with the Central Powers. America
traded with Great Britain and France more than twice as much as with Germany.
The Zimmermann note simply proved to be the last straw. On April 2, 1917,
President Wilson asked Congress to declare war. The United States entered the war
on the side of the Allies.
war. This meant that countries devoted all their resources to the war
effort. In Britain, Germany, Austria, Russia, and France, the entire
force of government was dedicated to winning the conflict.
In each country, the wartime government took control of the
economy. Governments told factories what to produce and how
much. Numerous facilities were converted to munitions factories.
Nearly every able-bodied civilian was put to work. Unemployment
in many European countries nearly disappeared. European governments even enlisted the help of foreign workers. For example,
thousands of civilians were deported from German-occupied
Belgium and France to work in Germany as farm and factory laborers. Britain and France recruited Chinese, West Indian, Algerian,
and Egyptian laborers to work behind their lines at the front.
So many goods were in short supply that governments turned to
rationing. Under this system, people could buy only small amounts
of those items that were also needed for the war effort. Eventually,
rationing covered a wide range of goods, from butter to shoe leather.
Governments also suppressed antiwar activitysometimes forcibly.
In addition, they censored news about the war. Many leaders feared
Unemployment in
Germany and Britain
Percentage of work force unemployed
753-757-0729s3
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
Germany
Great Britain
Source: European Historical Statistics 17501975
SKILLBUILDER:
Interpreting Graphs
1. During which year did each
country see its lowest
unemployment rate?
2. Why might unemployment
have been lowest during the
war years?
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send nearly all its forces to the Western Front. In March 1918, the Germans mounted
one final, massive attack on the Allies in France. More than 6,000 German cannons
opened the offensive with the largest artillery attack of the entire war.
As in the opening weeks of the war, the German forces crushed everything in their
path. By late May 1918, the Germans had again reached the Marne River. Paris was
less than 40 miles away. Victory seemed within reach.
By this time, however, the German military had weakened. The effort to reach the
Marne had exhausted men and supplies alike. Sensing this weakness, the Allieswith
the aid of nearly 140,000 fresh American troopslaunched a counterattack. Marshal
Ferdinand Foch, the French commander of the Allied forces, used Americans to fill the
gaps in his ranks. The U.S. soldiers were inexperienced but courageous and eager to
756 Chapter 29
Vocabulary
abdicate: to formally
give up a high office
or responsibility.
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July 1918
Allies defeat Germany
at Second Battle of
the Marne.
1914
June 1914
Archduke
Ferdinand and
his wife are
assassinated.
July 1914
AustriaHungary
declares war
on Serbia.
JulyAugust 1914
Russia, France, and
Britain go to war
against Germany
and Austria-Hungary.
1917
1916
Combatants
suffer devastating losses
at battles of
Verdun and
the Somme.
November 1918
Warring nations
sign armistice
ending the war.
1918
1917
March 1918
United
Russia withdraws
States enters from the war.
the war.
fight. A British nurse, Vera Brittain, later recalled her joy in seeing the
American reinforcements:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
They were swinging rapidly toward Camiers, and though the sight of
soldiers marching was now too familiar to arouse curiosity, an unusual
quality of bold vigor in their swift stride caused me to stare at them with
puzzled interest. They looked larger than ordinary men; their tall, straight figures were
in vivid contrast to the undersized armies of pale recruits to which we had grown accustomed. . . . Then I heard an excited exclamation from a group of Sisters behind me.
Look! Look! Here are the Americans!
British and
German soldiers
help one another
during a break in
the fighting.
In July 1918, the Allies and Germans clashed at the Second Battle of the Marne.
Leading the Allied attack were some 350 tanks that rumbled slowly forward, smashing
through the German lines. With the arrival of 2 million more American troops, the
Allied forces began to advance steadily toward Germany.
Soon, the Central Powers began to crumble. First the Bulgarians and then the
Ottoman Turks surrendered. In October, a revolution in Austria-Hungary brought that
empire to an end. In Germany, soldiers mutinied, and the public turned on the Kaiser.
On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to step down. Germany
declared itself a republic. A representative of the new German government met with
Marshal Foch. In a railway car in a forest near Paris, the two signed an armistice, or
an agreement to stop fighting. On November 11, World War I came to an end.
After four years of slaughter and destruction, the time had come to forge a peace
settlement. Leaders of the victorious nations gathered outside Paris to work out the
terms of peace. While these leaders had come with high hopes, the peace settlement
they crafted left many feeling bitter and betrayed.
Section 3 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES
Identify
unrestricted
submarine warfare
total war
rationing
propaganda
armistice
2. TAKING NOTES
3. ANALYZING ISSUES
THINK ABOUT
where the war was fought
who participated in the war
effort
4. ANALYZING THEMES
Page 6 of 7
France
United States
Italy
China
closer
look
WORLD WAR I
MONUMENTS
758 Chapter 29
Page 7 of 7
The Wall
A man pays tribute at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington, D.C. The monument, known as the Wall, is a memorial to the
men and women who fought and died in the
Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. The
monument consists of two adjoining black
granite walls inscribed with the names of all
Americans who either died in the war or were
listed as missing in action.
Trajans Column
The Romans relied
greatly on their
powerful military
to oversee a
huge empire.
Consequently,
they gloried war
and soldiers with numerous
statues and monuments.
Shown here is a detail from
Trajans Column, in Rome.
The 100-foot-high column
was dedicated in a.d. 113 to
the emperor Trajan after he
conquered Dacia. The column
is a continuous spiral carving
of soldiers and battle scenes.
Connect
to History
Connect
to Today
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A Flawed Peace
MAIN IDEA
Woodrow Wilson
Georges
Clemenceau
David Lloyd
George
Fourteen Points
self-determination
Treaty of
Versailles
League of Nations
SETTING THE STAGE World War I was over. The killing had stopped. The terms of
peace, however, still had to be worked out. On January 18, 1919, a conference to
establish those terms began at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris. For one year this
conference would be the scene of vigorous, often bitter debate. The Allied powers
struggled to solve their conflicting aims in various peace treaties.
760 Chapter 29
A. Possible Answer
An end to secret
treaties, freedom of
the seas, free trade,
reduced national
armies and navies, and
the adjustment of colonial claims with fairness toward colonial
people.
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The Allies Dictate a Harsh Peace As the Paris Peace Conference opened, Britain
Vocabulary
reparations: money
paid by a defeated
nation to compensate
for damage or injury
during a war.
and France showed little sign of agreeing to Wilsons vision of peace. Both nations
were concerned with national security. They also wanted to strip Germany of its
war-making power. The French, in particular, were determined to punish Germany.
France was where much of the fighting had occurred. The nation had lost more than
a million soldiers and had seen large amounts of its land destroyed. Clemenceau
wanted Germany to pay for the suffering the war had caused.
The differences between French, British, and U.S. aims led to heated arguments
among the nations leaders. Finally a compromise was reached. The Treaty of
Versailles between Germany and the Allied powers was signed on June 28, 1919
five years to the day after Franz Ferdinands assassination in Sarajevo.
Adopting Wilsons fourteenth point, the treaty created a League of Nations.
The league was to be an international association whose goal would be to keep peace
among nations. The five Allied powersthe United States, Great Britain, France,
Italy, and Japanwere to be permanent members of the leagues Executive Council.
Its General Assembly would consist of representatives of 32 Allied and neutral
nations. Germany was deliberately excluded. Also left out was Russia. Russias early
withdrawal from the war and its revolutionary leadership had made it an outcast in
the eyes of the other Allies.
The treaty also punished Germany. The defeated nation lost substantial territory
and had severe restrictions placed on its military operations. As punishing as these
provisions were, the harshest was Article 231. It was also known as the war guilt
clause. It placed sole responsibility for the war on Germanys shoulders. As a result,
Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies.
All of Germanys territories in Africa and the Pacific were declared mandates, or
territories to be administered by the League of Nations. Under the peace agreement,
the Allies would govern the mandates until they were judged ready for independence.
Germany returns
Alsace-Lorraine to
France; French
border extended to
the west bank of
the Rhine River
Germany surrenders
all of its overseas
colonies in Africa
and the Pacific
S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Charts
1. In what ways did the treaty punish Germany?
2. What two provinces were returned to France as a result of the treaty?
B. Answer It led to
the creation of new
nations and the
League of Nations.
The Creation of New Nations The Versailles treaty with Germany was just one of
five treaties negotiated by the Allies. The Western powers signed separate peace
treaties in 1919 and 1920 with each of the other defeated nations: Austria, Hungary,
Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.
These treaties, too, led to huge land losses for the Central Powers. Several new
countries were created out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia were all recognized as independent nations.
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66N
66N
16E
8W
16E
8E
8W
40E
NORWAY
SWEDEN
Oslo
Stockholm
St. Petersburg
32E
58
NORWAY
Oslo
Stockholm
24E
40E
32E
58
24E
8E
760-763-0729s4
FINLAND
Helsinki
Tallinn
ESTONIA
SWEDEN
Riga
GREAT BRITAIN
50
N o r t h DENMARK
S e a Copenhagen
R U S S I A
NETH.
London
IRELAND
Baltic
Se a
50
Amsterdam
Berlin
GERMANY
Brussels
Dublin
BELGIUM
LUX.
Paris
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Vienna
AUSTRIAHUNGARY
Bern
FRANCE
SWITZ.
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
ROMANIA
42N
Madrid
SERBIA
MONTENEGRO
SPAIN
Bucharest
Belgrade
ITALY
ANDORRA
Rome
Sofia
BULGARIA
Tirane
ALBANIA
M
0
0
400 Miles
800 Kilometers
GREECE
ed
ite
nean
42N
Madrid
SPAIN
London
Baltic LATVIA
Sea LITHUANIA
Kaunas
DANZIG E. PRUSSIA
(Germany)
NETH.
Amsterdam
Moscow
S O V I E T
U N I O N
Berlin
Warsaw
Brussels
GERMANY
BELGIUM
P
O
LAND
Prague
LUX.
Paris
C ZE
CHOSL
OVAKIA
SAAR
Vienna
Bern
Budapest
AUSTRIA
SWITZ.
FRANCE
HUNGARY
Y
ROM A NIA
U
G
O
Bucharest
SL
A V Belgrade
ITALY
ANDORRA
BULGARIA B l a c k
IA
Sea
Sofia
Rome
Tirane
Constantinople
OTTOMAN
EMPIRE
Athens
rra
Black
Sea
GREAT
BRITAIN
N o r t h DENMARK
S e a Copenhagen
Ankara
ALBANIA
0
0
Sea
400 Miles
GREECE
ed
800 Kilometers
ite
TUR K EY
Athens
rra
nean
Sea
G E O G R A P H Y S K I L L B U I L D E R : Interpreting Maps
1. Region Which Central Powers nation appears to have lost the most territory?
2. Location On which nations former lands were most of the new countries created?
The Ottoman Turks were forced to give up almost all of their former empire.
They retained only the territory that is today the country of Turkey. The Allies carved
up the lands that the Ottomans lost in Southwest Asia into mandates rather than
independent nations. Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan came under British control;
Syria and Lebanon went to France.
Russia, alienated by the Allies, suffered land losses as well. Romania and Poland
both gained Russian territory. Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, formerly part
of Russia, became independent nations.
A Peace Built on Quicksand In the end, the Treaty of Versailles did little to
build a lasting peace. For one thing, the United Statesconsidered after the war to
be the dominant nation in the worldultimately rejected the treaty. Many Americans
objected to the settlement and especially to President Wilsons League of Nations.
Americans believed that the United States best hope for peace was to stay out of
European affairs. The United States worked out a separate treaty with Germany and
its allies several years later.
In addition, the treaty with Germanyin particular the war-guilt clauseleft a
legacy of bitterness and hatred in the hearts of the German people. Other countries
felt cheated and betrayed as well by the peace settlements. Throughout Africa and
Asia, people in the mandated territories were angry at the way the Allies disregarded
their desire for independence. The European powers, it seemed to them, merely
talked about the principle of national self-determination. European colonialism,
disguised as the mandate system, continued in Asia and Africa.
Some Allied powers, too, were embittered by the outcome. Both Japan and Italy,
which had entered the war to gain territory, had gained less than they wanted.
Lacking the support of the United States, and later other world powers, the League
of Nations was in no position to take action on these complaints. The settlements at
762 Chapter 29
C. Possible Answer
Germany was embittered by the war-guilt
clause, the peoples of
Africa and Asia saw
the mandate system
as a continuation of
European colonialism,
Japan and Italy had
gained less land than
they wanted
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Great War left a deep mark on Western society as well. A sense of disillusionment
settled over the survivors. The insecurity and despair that many people experienced
are reflected in the art and literature of the time. In a poem written in 1919, the
Russian poet Anna Akhmatova captured these feelings:
A V O I C E F R O M T H E PA S T
Why is our century worse than any other?
Is it that in the stupor of fear and grief
It has plunged its fingers in the blackest ulcer,
Yet cannot bring relief?
Westward the sun is dropping,
And the roofs of towns are shining in its light.
Already death is chalking doors with crosses
And calling the ravens and the ravens are in flight.
ANNA AKHMATOVA, from You Will Hear Thunder, translated by D. M. Thomas
The Great War shook European society to its foundations. While the war would
continue to haunt future generations, its more immediate impact was to help ignite
one of the most significant events of the 20th century. In Chapter 30, you will learn
about that event: the Russian Revolution.
Section 4 Assessment
1. TERMS & NAMES
Identify
Woodrow Wilson
Georges Clemenceau
David Lloyd George
Fourteen Points
self-determination
Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
2. TAKING NOTES
Effects of WWI
3. FORMING OPINIONS
THINK ABOUT
Germanys punishment
the creation of new nations
the mandate system
4. THEME ACTIVITY
Page 1 of 2
Visual Summary
Chapter 29 Assessment
TERMS & NAMES
Briey explain the importance of each of the following regarding
World War I.
Long-Term Causes
Nationalism spurs competition among
European nations.
Imperialism deepens national rivalries.
Militarism leads to large standing armies.
The alliance system divides Europe into
two rival camps.
1. Triple Alliance
6. total war
2. Triple Entente
7. armistice
3. Central Powers
8. Fourteen Points
4. Allies
5. trench warfare
9. Treaty of Versailles
10. League of Nations
REVIEW QUESTIONS
SECTION 1 (pages 743746)
Immediate Causes
The assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in June 1914 prompts Austria
to declare war on Serbia.
The alliance system requires nations to
support their allies. European countries
11. How did nationalism, imperialism, and militarism help set the stage for
World War I?
12. Why were the Balkans known as the powder keg of Europe?
SECTION 2 (pages 747751)
WORLD WAR I
17. What factors prompted the United States to enter the war?
18. In what ways was World War I a total war?
SECTION 4 (pages 760763)
A Flawed Peace
Immediate Effects
A generation of Europeans are killed or
wounded.
Long-Term Effects
Many nations feel bitter and betrayed
by the peace settlements.
Problems that helped cause the war
nationalism, competitionremain.
764 Chapter 29
Interact
with History
Page 2 of 2
CRITICAL THINKING
CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
1. ALLIED LEADERS
1887
1882
Work with a small team to present the military and defense budgets of
several of the worlds nations.
1892,1894
1890
THEME SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Your unit portfolio project focuses on how
science and technology have inuenced history. (See page 739.) For Chapter
29, you might use one of the following ideas.
1907
3. A HOLLOW VICTORY
Winston Churchill, Great Britains prime minister in
the 1940s and 1950s, was undersecretary of the
British navy during World War I. He said that the
Allied victory in World War I had been bought so
dear [high in price] as to be indistinguishable from
defeat. What did he mean by this statement? Use
examples from the text to support your answer.
TEST PRACTICE
FOCUS ON GRAPHS
This graph provides the total number of troops mobilized, as well as the
number of military deaths each major nation suffered in World War I.
Which nation
suffered the
most deaths?
Which one
suffered the
fewest?
Which nations
lost more
than a million
soldiers?
Connect to
History
Based on the
number of
troops each side
mobilized, what
may be one
reason the
Allies won?
Germany
1.8 million
Russia
1.7 million
Ottoman Empire
325,000
Italy
650,000
*British Empire
908,000
Austria-Hungary
1.2 million
France
1.3 million
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