Download - World War I Chapter 23. Chapter 23 Section 1 pp. 666-670

World War I

Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Section 1

pp. 666-670

Did You Know?

• Founder and first chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, predicted that the start of a great war would occur because of some “ foolish thing in the Balkans.” Bismarck’s prediction came true when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, starting World War I.

Troubles in Europe

Tensions in Europe grew as European nations pursued dreams of empires, built up their armies, and formed alliances.

Troubles in Europe

Nationalism, or a feeling of intense loyalty to one’s country or group, was a cause of much tension.

•It encouraged new nations to unify and establish their place in the world.

•It also encouraged certain ethnic groups to break away and form independent nations of their own.

Troubles in Europe

Imperial expansion added to the tension. Nations looked to expand their empires, settling colonies that brought raw materials, new markets, and prestige.

Troubles in Europe

•Great Britain and France already had large overseas empires in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world.

•Germany, Italy, and Russia looked to increase their colonies. Few areas were left to colonize, however, so conflict often occurred.

Troubles in Europe

Militarism, or building up a nation’s army and navy, also created tension. As one nation built up its military powers, rival nations felt threatened and also built up their military powers.

Troubles in Europe

•Germany, France and Russia had huge armies in the early 1900s.

•A bitter rivalry that threatened peace in Europe grew between Germany and Great Britain. Britain had the world’s largest and strongest navy and Germany challenged it.

Troubles in Europe

The alliance system also contributed to the tension in Europe. Two defense alliances, or agreements among nations to defend each other during a war, aimed to keep peace by creating a balance of power among the European nations. However, this system actually created a great danger because an attack on one nation could trigger a war with many nations.

Troubles in Europe

•Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy created the Triple Alliance.

•Great Britain, France, and Russia created the Triple Entente.

Discussion Question

Explain how nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and alliances resulted in World War I.

Crisis in the Balkans

Attempts to unify the Slavic people in the Balkans by the Slavic nationalists created nationalist and ethnic rivalries. Serbia, a nation bordering Austria-Hungary, supported the Slavs and opposed the Austro-Hungarian Empire.


In June 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, destroyed the balance of power in Europe. Within weeks, World War I began in Europe.


•Gavrilo Princip and other Serbian nationalist plotted the assassination to secure freedom from Austria-Hungary and unify the Slavic peoples.

•The rulers of Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the killing and moved to crush the Serbian nationalist movement.


As opposing nations declared war on one another, the alliance system cause the war to spread throughout Europe.

•Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in July 1914, when Serbia refused to honor conditions of an ultimatum.


•Russia prepared for war because it had agreed to protect Serbia.

•Germany, as Austria-Hungary’s ally, declared war on Russia in August.

•Germany then declared war on France, Russia’s ally.

•When Germany invaded neutral Belgium in August, Great Britain declared war on Germany to honor its pledge to protect Belgium.

A World War Begins

The two sides in the war were the Allies and the Central Powers.

•The Allies were Great Britain, France, Russia, and later Japan and Italy.

•The Central Powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

A World War Begins

Germany wanted to sweep across Belgium, France and then move east to Russia. Britain and France were able to mobilize their troops while the Belgians held out against the Germans.

A World War Begins

Although the Germans defeated the Belgians, the British and the French stopped them at the Battle of the Marne, fought in September 1914. They saved Paris, boosted French morale, and showed that neither side would have a quick or easy victory.

A World War Begins

The fighting for the next three years was mostly trench warfare. Frontline trenches protected soldiers, and support trenches behind the lines were headquarters, first-aid stations, and storage areas.

A World War Begins

Then the Germans and the French launched offensives in 1916.

•The Battle of Verdun, a German offensive in northern France from February to December, was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. More than 750,000 French and German soldiers were killed.

A World War Begins

•The Battle of the Somme was a British and French offensive in northern France in July. It, too, saw many causalities.

A World War Begins

New weapons such as improved cannons, better rifles, poison gas, and the armored tank caused the high rate of causalities. The airplane enabled both sides to watch from the skies for troop movement and then bomb enemy targets.

The Red Baron

A World War Begins

Both sides began fighting on the seas because land armies were deadlocked. Great Britain blockaded all ports under German control, causing shortages of food and supplies. Germany used U-boats, or submarines, to prevent supplies from reaching Great Britain. U-boat attacks eventually changed the course of the war.

Discussion Question

How did advances in technology influence warfare?


pp. 671-676

Did You Know?• Although submarines played a new role in

World War I, they were not a new idea. In 1623, Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel, hired by King James I of England, built what might have been the first working submarine. It was decked over a row boat powered by 12 oarsmen. Drebbel’s submarine made a submerged journey down the Thames River at a depth of about 15 feet.

American Neutrality

At the beginning of the war, President Woodrow Wilson declared that the United States would be neutral. However, people soon chose sides, most siding with the Allies. Many Americans were foreign-born or children of immigrants, and they sided with their countries of origin. Ties of language, customs and traditions linked the United States and Britain.

American Neutrality

President Wilson sympathized with the Allies. Both sides used propaganda to influence American opinion. Allied propaganda was more effective than propaganda for the Central Powers.

Propaganda

American Neutrality

America’s early involvement included trade with both Germany and Britain. Because of Britain’s blockade, the United States was barred with trading with Germany but continued to trade with Britain. Involvement also included lending Britain and France billions of dollars to help pay for their war efforts. The United States experienced an economic boom as a result. Germany was angry because the United States, a neutral nation, was helping the Allies.

American Neutrality

Germany used it U-boats to stop American aid to Britain, ignoring President’s Wilson’s warning that it would hold Germany responsible for any American lives lost.

•In May 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania. The ship sank and more than 1,000 people died, including 125 American citizens.

American Neutrality

Another attack occurred sever months later when a German U-boat torpedoed an unarmed French passenger ship, Sussex. The resulting Sussex Pledge was a German offering to compensate injured Americans. The Pledge was also a promise to warn neutral ships and passenger vessels before attacking. It temporally resolved the issue and kept America out of the war.

Discussion Question

What position did the United States take at the beginning of World War I?

How could the actions of the U.S. contradict American position?

The End of Neutrality

• In 1916, before the United States entered the war, it strengthen its military. Legislation doubled the size of the army and provided money to build new warships, even though President Wilson hoped to stay out of the war and antiwar sentiment was strong.


• American neutrality ended when Germany reversed its submarine-warfare policy. It said it would sink all merchant vessels, armed or unarmed, sailing to allied ports. President Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany.


• A new wave of anti-German feeling grew when a secret telegram, the Zimmerman note, was published. In February 1917, German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to Mexico with an offer of financial support and reclaimed territory of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona if Mexico invaded the U.S.


• Other events occurred that convinced President Wilson that the United States could no longer stay neutral. The United States would join the war on the side of the Allies.

• In 1917 a revolution in Russia toppled the monarchy and replaced it with a temporary government that promised free elections. America believed that this new democratic government would help the Allies to defeat Germany.


• In March 1917, Germans attacked and sank four American ships.

• In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Congress did not agree immediately. After much debate, Congress came to the conclusion that if the United States was going to remain a great world power and defend its rights war was necessary.


• On April 6, 1917, President Wilson signed the declaration of war.


• In order to raise an army, Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, establishing a military draft. Men ages 21 to 30 registered. The draft age was later extended to include men up to age 45. By the end of the war about 24 million men had registered and about 3 million had been called to service. About 2 million men joined voluntarily.


• Women also enlisted in the armed forces. They served as non-combat workers operating radios, and as clerks and nurses.

• Many African Americans were accepted into the army and navy but not the marines. They faced discrimination and racism. Many held low-level jobs. Of the 140,000 sent to Europe, only 40,000 fought. Some received medals for bravery from the French government, and one African American soldier received the French Cross of War, the highest medal bestowed from that country.

Discussion Question

• What events brought the United States into World War I?

Americans Join the Allies


pp. 677-682

Did You Know?• The term home front came into use during

World War I, when the role of civilian production in the United States became as important to victory as the battles of the war front in Europe.

Supplying the Allies

The American forces were greatly needed by the Allies. The existing Allied army was tired of fighting, and the British had started to un out of war supplies and food. German submarines were sinking one of every four ships that left British ports.


The United States navy took two steps to be sure supplies reached Britain.

•It helped the British find and destroy German submarines.

•Navy destroyers escorted groups of merchant ships, or convoys, across the Atlantic. The convoy system reduced Allied shipping losses and protected ships bound for Europe so that no American soldier was lost to submarine attack.


A second revolution in Russia caused Russia to withdraw from the war in March 1918.

•In November 1917, the Bolsheviks, a group of Communists led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the democratic government.

•Lenin wanted to focus on setting up a new communist state, so he took Russia out of the war.


•The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany surrendered Poland, the Ukraine, and other territory to the Germans. In return Germany promised to end the war with Russia.


Germany now had a new offensive. It transferred hundreds of thousands of troops from Russia and the Eastern Front to the Western Front in France. Now Germany had a more powerful army to fight the Allies. Germany moved closer to Paris. It looked as if Germany might win the war.


The American troops needed months before they were ready to fight. General John J. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force ( AEF), or American troops, in Europe.


•The first serious fighting in June 1918 helped turn back a German offensive at Chateau-Thierry on the Marne River east of Paris. By the middle of July, the Allies stopped the Germans.

•In September, the Allies defeated the Germans at Saint Mihiel, east of Verdun, in an Allied offensive.


•Later in the month, more than one million American troops joined the Allies in the Battle of the Argonne Forest, west of Verdun. They fought for almost seven weeks. The Allies were victorious, pushing the Germans back and breaking through enemy lines.

The End of the War

The Germans saw their defeat coming. American boosted the number of Allied troops, while Germans suffered from shortages of food and supplies. The Germans requested an armistice, or an agreement to end the fighting, in October 1918. President Wilson consented under certain circumstances.

The End of the War

•Germany had to accept Wilson’s peace plan and promise not to renew hostilities.

•All German troops must leave Belgium and France.

•Negotiations were to be with civilian, not military, leaders.

The End of the War

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was forced to give up his throne. Germany became a republic and its new leaders agreed to the armistice.

The End of the War

In November 1918, the armistice began and the Great War ended.

Discussion Question

What events brought about the end of World War I?


pp. 683-686

Americans readied for the war by mobilizing their resources.

•The government created the National War Labor Board in April 1918 to ensure production of vital war materials.

•The nation’s industries had to expand to provide supplies and weapons.

Mobilizing the Nation

•Women and minorities joined the workforce to fill the labor shortage created by millions of men who left jobs to serve in the armed forces.

•Hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved to the northern cities from the rural South and thousands of Mexicans migrated to the United States in search of jobs.


World War I cost the country about 32 billion dollars. Two-thirds of that money was raised by selling war bonds, or liberty bonds. The government also raised money by increasing the income and business taxes.


Liberty Bonds

The Food Administration, a new agency headed by Herbert Hoover, encouraged American farmers to expand food production and the American people to consume less food. It imposed price controls on certain agricultural products to encourage voluntary rationing, or limited use.


Rationed goods

The War Industries Board, another government agency, supervised the nation’s industrial production by overseeing that factories were converted to produce war-related goods and be setting prices for key products.


The Committee on Public Information was created to build support for the war. Antiwar sentiment still remained strong. The committee distributed millions of pro-war pamphlets, posters, articles, and books. It also provided newspapers with government accounts of the war and advertisements.


The war had harmful effects on American society even though it also boosted the economy. For example, some American became suspicious of anyone who was against the war. German Americans also came under suspicion, so some Germans concealed their heritage.

Americans and the War

During the Great Migration, or tremendous northward migration of African Americans from 1914 to 1920, many African Americans found jobs. However, they also found life difficult. Racial prejudice, crowded living conditions, and segregated neighborhoods made the settlement in northern cities uneasy for many African Americans.


Several northern cities saw terrible race riots. While Socialist opposed the war because they felt it only profited the wealthy and hurt working Americans. Pacifists opposed the war because they disapproved of violence. Some German Americans and Irish Americans sympathized with the Central Powers and were against American involvement with the Allies.


Laws were passed to prevent dissent, traitors, and disloyal Americans.

•The Espionage Act of 1917 gave the government a way to combat dissent. The Act called for stiff penalties for espionage, or spying; for helping the enemy; and for interfering with army recruiting.


An even harsher measure passed in 1918 was the Sedition Act. It was a crime to say, print, or write almost anything that was perceived as negative about the federal government. Thousand of people were convicted, especially immigrants, socialists, pacifists, and labor activists.

Some Americans spoke out against the laws, but many believed that in wartime, no measure was too drastic.


How did the war effect Americans?

Discussion Question

Download - World War I Chapter 23. Chapter 23 Section 1 pp. 666-670

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