-
Critical Changes leading up to WW I
- - Organizational
- - - Mass armies
- - - Reserve system
- - - Mobilization Plans
- - Economic
- - - Industrial revolution
- - Technology
- - - Machinery
-
Reasons for WW I
- - Militarism
- - Alliances
- - Imperialism (Competition for colonies)
- - Nationalism
-
WW I Militarism
- - Germany building battleships
- - UK fears attack & competition
- - Continental powers build armies
-
WW I Alliances
- By 1914 all major powers (except U.S.) in alliances
-
WW I Imperialism
- - Competition for colonies
- - British feared Germany in Africa
- - Austrians feared Russians/Serbs
-
WW I Nationalism
- European Slavs want to be free
-
WW I 'Spark'
- - 28 Jun 1914
- - Gavrillo Principe (Serbian nationalist) kills Archduke Ferdinand & wife in Sarajevo
- - Austrians send ultimatum to Servia
- - Serbia rejects small parts
- - Russia mobilizes, Germans demand stand down
- - Russia refuses, Germans declare war
-
British involvement in WW I
- - Alliance with Russia & France
- - Pledge to protect Belgian neutrality (1838)
- - Britain feared German control of Channel ports
-
U.S. in 1914
- - Most powerful industrial nation
- - Leader in coal, steel, cotton
- - Woodrow Wilson: Strict neutrality
-
U.S. Enters WW I
- 1. Unrestricted submarine warfare
- 2. American propoganda stressed German barbarism
- 3. Make world safe for democracy (German dictatorship)
- 4. Business interests (Trade w/Allies)
- 5. Zimmerman Note (Germany asks Mexico to declare war on U.S.)
-
U.S. Army 1914
- - 94k Soldiers, 45k overseas
- - 27k National Guard
- - Selective Service authorizes 140k in 1917
- - 1m in France by 1918
-
Ypres
- - 22 APR - 25 MAY, 1915
- - Germans use chlorine gas
- - 6k Canadian killed
-
Somme
- - 1 JUL - 28 NOV 1916
- - 57k+ British & Canadians killed on the first day by machine guns
- - 1.2m killed from all nations
- - 11km of territory gained
- - First use of tanks by British
-
Verdun
- - 1916
- - Vital French strong point (forts)
- - Henri Petain given command of French
- - NOV: France recaptures
-
Vimy Ridge
- - 9-12 APR 1917
- - Canadian general uses maneuver warfare
-
Passchendaele
- - 31 JUL 1917
- - Low countries, reclaimed land, muddy
- - 250k die
- - Allies gain 7km, Germans later retake
-
WW I Ends
- - 1917 Russian Revolution frees Germans
- - America enters war
- - Worldwide Spanish Flu
- - 4 OCT 1918: Germans ask for cease-fire
- - Paris Peace Conf.
- - 11 NOV 1918
-
Versailles Treaty
- - German guilt
- - Reparations
- - U.S. refuses to sign due to League of Nations requirement
- - Geopolitical changes
-
WW I Technology Advancements
- - Chemical Weapons
- - Airplanes
- - Tanks
- - Advanced artillery
- - Machine guns
- - Bolt-action Rifle primary infantry weapon (U.S.: Springfield M1903)
- - Submarines/Torpedoes
- - Radio
-
Failure to Revise Tactics to Technology (WW I)
- - Charges against machine guns (cavalry charges)
- - Theory that more willpower gained victory
- - Emergence of trench warfare
- - Redefinition of courage & valor
-
WW I Artillery Developments
- - Krupp
- - 'Big Bertha'
- - Recoil mechanism & recoil spade
- - Breech loading
|
|
