WWI

• Both sides felt the war would be over quickly

Germany’s Plan

• Called the Schlieffen Plan– Attack Paris first, then concentrate on Russia– Go through neutral Belgium to get to France– Belgium refused– Germany went anyway– This brought Britain into the war on the side of the

Allies

Stalemate

• The loss of large numbers of troops without major gains on either side

• Resulted in trench warfare

New weapons and equipment for WWI

• British developed the tank

• Germans developed poison gas

• Germans used zeppelins.

Airplanes

• German’s had the submarine.• Also called a U-boat

Total War

• War in which all the resources of a country are devoted to destroying the enemy

• Germany helped Vladimir Lenin to power in exchange for a peace treaty with Russia

• Germany now had one less enemy to fight

• US declared war on April 6, 1917

Paris Peace Conference

• Wrote the Treaty of Versailles which ended the war– Germany was blamed for the war– Had to pay reparations (payment for damages) to

France and Britain– Germany had it’s military drastically cut

Cost of War

• 10,000,000 men died in battle• 26,000,000 were wounded or missing in

action• 10,000,000 civilian deaths• About 15,000 people died for each day of the

war• $350,000,000,000 in damages