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Alliances were a common relation found between countries before WWI. It gave bigger countries the authority to make demands and have them met because of the threat of their alliances. It also gave smaller countries confidence that those bigger countries would have their back if they got into trouble. These eventually helped lead to WWI when two big alliances clashed. -
These two alliances were the Allies and the Central Powers. The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their colonies. The Allies consisted of England, France, Russia, and their colonies. The US later joined the Allies halfway through the war. -
The Schlieffen Plan was created by Count Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905 and was supposed to help Germany win a war against France and Russia at the same time. When war broke out in 1914 German military leaders used a modified version of the plan to invade France and Belgium. -
The plan was supposed to use a rotation of the army to avoid fighting on both sides of Germany at once but failed due to Germany assuming that France’s army was weak and Russia’s army would be slow to mobilize which was not true. On top of that, the plans were inflexible but had to be modified in WWI to reduce the number of troops on the right attack which resulted in the strategy becoming a war of attrition. -
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary which controlled Serbia. While the Archduke was visiting Serbia Gavrilo Princip and The Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group, assassinated him. The assassination outraged Austria-Hungary who blamed Serbia and gave the Serbian Government an ultimatum that they had to agree to or else Austria-Hungary with the support of Germany would declare war on Serbia. This was extremely encouraged by Kaiser Wilhelm II. -
When Serbia rejected the demands Austria-Hungary and Germany declared war which then caused Russia who had an alliance with Serbia to declare war. Within the next week, France and Great Britain became involved in the war and more countries like the US would become drawn in later on. This one assassination would lead to the first world war that killed almost 9 million soldiers. -
Germany having an alliance with Austria-Hungary launched an attack on Russia and France at the same time. Their plan involved attacking France through Belgium. This dragged England into the war since they had an alliance with Belgium. -
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1915. This was caused by Serbia’s refusal to include them in the investigation into the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Ferdinand was very important to the future of Austria-Hungary as he was the heir to the throne. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia rushed to support Serbia responding with their declaration of war. -
The Lusitania was a British commercial passenger ship that was sunk by German U-boats as a part of unrestricted submarine warfare. This meant that they would shoot any “enemy” boats that they saw. The sinking of the Lusitania was so controversial because it was full of regular people and had over 100 American passengers. -
The Lusitania was on traveling from New York to Liverpool, England when it was shot and 1,100 passengers out of the 1,900 passengers died. This was important because it turned public opinion away from Germany in neutral countries all across the world. This had a similar effect to war propaganda that was found in many allied countries to rally the war effort. -
The battle of Verdun was the longest war in all of World War One. It started in February of 1916 in France and finally ended in December of that year. The battle started with Germany quickly taking the two forts in the small town of Verdun. These forts were called Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux. The two sides continued fighting until mid-July when the German forces were called off of the offensive and the commanding general was relieved on his position. -
This allowed the French to recapture the fort and push back the German lines. By the time that the fighting stopped, it was halfway through December and both sides had over 600,000 casualties. -
Mustard Gas- At the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, the German Army fired yellow canisters of mustard gas at Allied forces using artillery. Mustard gas was the most widespread chemical agent used during WWI and was fired using artillery cannons and would settle to the ground as an oily liquid for weeks to months at a time. -
Mustard gas wasn’t effective at killing troops, although it could in high doses, instead mustard gas was used to disable the enemy by creating blisters all over their bodies and throats when the gas came into contact with them. -
Maxim Machine Gun- The Maxim gun was first created in 1884 and was the first automatic firearm in production. At the beginning of WWI, most countries had copied and improved the design and used it as the standard machine gun for their army. -
Tanks- In 1915, The British army finished the prototype tank, The Little Willie, as a counter to trench warfare. The first tank was far from a success as it got stuck in trenches and broke down frequently, however, armies saw the potential of the tank and created their own improved versions of tanks. -
The First cause of the revolution was Czar Nicholas II’s incompetence who had drained Russia’s resources and put his wife Alexandra in charge during WWI which angered the Russian people. Second, Russian Citizens didn’t own land and had a lack of fuel and food during the war. Third, The Great War left millions of Russian soldiers dead and many Russians were unhappy with the Russian military’s incompetence. -
In March 1917, the Russians had gone through enough and went on strike and protested in the streets which caused Czar Nicholas II to resign from power. At the same time, Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia with the help of Germany and led a group of people called the Bolsheviks who revolted in order to replace the government with communism. -
It was intended for the German Ambassador to Mexico and was a set of instructions for the Mexican Government to attack the United States and enter the war on the side of the Germans in trade for the American states that had previously belonged to them. Woodrow Wilson decided that this gave them no choice but to enter the war. On April 2, 1917, he appeared in front of Congress and they declared war on April 6. Over 2 million soldiers were shipped overseas to be commanded by General John Pershing. -
Even though the war had been happening for 3 years, the United States remained neutral the entire time. Woodrow Wilson, the current president at the time, was determined on keeping the country out of the war. There was one event that changed the minds of the leaders of the United States. On January 6, 1917, a telegram was intercepted by British codebreakers from the German Foreign Secretary. -
On November 11th, 1918 the Armistice was signed which ended the fighting between the Central and Allied Powers. The Armistice declared that The Allied Powers had won the war and The Central Powers had lost. Although the fighting had stopped, a peace treaty wasn’t signed until 6 months later with The Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles ended official declarations of war and made Germany reduce its military and pay reparations for war which would lead to WWII.