Guided NotesGuided Notes

The war became a stalemate in which the army had dug into trenches with a “no man’s land” in-between.

These vast German trenches near Bullecourt are part of the heavily fortified Hindenburg Line.

Aerial view of the Cambrai battlefield reveals the intricate system of trenches.

The Lancashire Fusiliers fix bayonets as they prepare to go "over the top" in the Battle of the Somme, July 1916.

This captured section of German trench at the

Somme helps explain why the initial British artillery

barrage did little to weaken the Germans. Much deeper

than the British trenches, the German trench system

offered amenities such as barber shops and officer

clubs.

Australians resting up in a dug-out are

sheltered from shelling 15 feet underground during the Battle of

the Somme, July 1916.

Diagram of a dug-out as being used by the Australians in the

photo above.

After the first thrust by the Germans in 1914, World War I slowed to a crawl. Both sides dug trenches, sometimes only a few yards from each other. For the next several years many men would die fighting over a very small piece of ground. Soldiers struggled not only against the enemy but also against disease. The trenches were a perfect breeding ground for disease and sickness that caused many deaths.

New Weapons included:• Machine gun• Poison gas• Zeppelins• Fighter planes• U-boats• Tanks

WWI was a WWI was a total-industrialized total-industrialized

warwar1. Drafted civilians replaced

Professional soldiers

2. Women’s roles changed

3. Government took more control of economy

4. Governments also took control of news

Propaganda• One-sided information aimed to convince

people of a certain point of view

What a red rag is to a bull - the Red Cross is to the Hun.To the already long list of outrages by the Huns on the Red Cross both on land and sea, there was added on January the 4th

this year, the sinking without warning in the Bristol Channel of the hospital ship

"Rewa". Fortunately owing to the splendid discipline and the unselfish heroic conduct of the officers, crew, and the medical staff, all the wounded of whom there were over 700 on board were saved. But three poor Lascar fireman went down with the ship.

Pure fabrication, but effective propaganda none the less.

Yes – this is propaganda

• The western front drew to a stalemate with increasing numbers of casualties

• Eastern front – Russians and Serbs versus Austrians, Turks and Germans.

• The Germans crushed invading Russians at Tannenburg

• Russia never recovered but was successful at tying up Germany for three years.

• Ottoman Front – the Allies attack at Ottoman Front – the Allies attack at Gallipoli. This assault on straits linking Gallipoli. This assault on straits linking the Black and Mediterranean Sea was the Black and Mediterranean Sea was unsuccessful, yet the Allies were unsuccessful, yet the Allies were successful at stirring up Arab successful at stirring up Arab Nationalist to fight the Ottoman EmpireNationalist to fight the Ottoman Empire.

Russia was in the midst

of a revolution

In 1917, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare sinking three American ships.

U-Boats

UC 44 Class U-boat: 1) Aft torpedo tubes 2) Electric motor 3) Main engine 4) Control room 5) Mine tubes

6) Forward torpedo tubes 7) Crew quarters

1914 1915 1916 1917 1918

To submarines 3 396 964 2,439 1,035

To surface craft 55 23 32 64 3

To mines 42 97 161 170 27

To aircraft - - - 3 1

View from the tower as a torpedohits home on a merchant ship.

U-boats lined up at the docks. Pens were not required since there was no chance of air attack. The fleet reached its peak in 1917

when 146 U-boats were on patrol. Not enough to fulfill the objective of unrestricted submarine

warfare.

Allied and Neutral ships lost during the war

Zimmerman telegram decoded:

• Germany would help Mexico get back NM, TX, and AZ if Mexico joined Germany.

United States declared war on Germany

Allies lost 800,000 tons of shipping in April alone.

Then they organized

-large specifically equipped fleets designed to guard merchant ships.

Lenin came to power in Russia. In March 1918, Germany and Russia signed the treaty of Brest Litovsk ending the war between them.

________?________ made the difference in the war on the Western front.

made the difference in the war on the Western front.

Battle of Argonne Forest• Final battle on the Western Front

• The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) under General Pershing opened a hole in German Lines

• Alvin York awarded the Medal of Honor

Alvin York (1887-1964)

Alvin York, born in 1887, was a Congressional Medal of Honor Winner who fought in World War I. He grew up learning to shoot and developed into an expert marksman. Although he was originally a pacifist, a friend convinced him that the Bible said it was okay to serve in the military. As a soldier in World War I, he gained notoriety by his performance in the Battle of Argonne Forest where he attacked the Germans. When members of his group were unable to proceed, he went after the Germans by himself. He killed 17 through sniper fire and then 7 by pistol. He was successful in taking 132 prisoners on his own. He died in 1964.

An armistice- an agreement to stop fighting

Was declared on November 11, 1918

Woodrow Wilson, President of the U.S.

proposed the

Points 1-5 provided a general context for lasting peace:

1. ending secret treaties

2. agreeing to freedom of seas

3. removing trade barriers

4. Reducing size of Armies, armaments, etc.

5. Adjusting colonial claims with fairness toward colonial people

Points 6-13 addressed particular situations in Europe:

6. return Russian territory and Self- determination for Russia

7. restoration of Belgium

8. evacuation of all French territory & the return of Alsace-Lorraine

9. readjustment of Italian boundaries

10. Independence of national groups of Austria-Hungary

11. restoration of the Balkan nations, free access to the sea for Serbia

12. Protection for minorities in Turkey and the free passage of all ships through the Dardanelles

13. Independence for Poland, including access to the sea

The Fourteenth point called for a

14. A general association of nations to protect “mutual guarantee of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”

The Big Four that negotiated peace were:

1. Wilson from U.S.

2. Georges Clemenceau from France

3. David Lloyd George from Great Britain

4. Vittorio Orlando from Italy

Results of the Treaty of Versailles

and the peace:1. Germany lost 13% of its land

2. France regained Alsace Lorraine and rights to the Saar Basin for 15 years

3. Poland was made an independent nation along with the Polish Corridor (strip of German land cutting off E. Prussia from rest of Germany)

4. German army restricted in size.

Germany could not manufacture war materials

German Submarines and airplanes were also banned

Germans were forbidden to place any troops in the Rhineland

5. German territories in Africa and Pacific were given as mandates to Britain, France and Japan.

Mandate – territory administered on behalf of League of Nations (until fit for independence)

6. “War-guilt” clause – Germany to pay Allies $31 billion over the next 30 years (sole blame)

7. Reparations - $ paid for suffering caused by war

Allied Powers Cost in Dollars in 1914-18

United States $22,625,253,000

Great Britain $35,334,012,000

France $24,265,583,000

Russia $22,293,950,000

Italy $12,413,998,000

Belgium $1,154,468,000

Romania $1,600,000,000

Japan $40,000,000

Serbia $399,400,000

Greece $270,000,000

Canada $1,665,576,000

Australia $1,423,208,000

New Zealand $378,750,000

India $601,279,000

South Africa $300,000,000

British Colonies $125,000,000

Others $500,000,000

Total of all Costs $125,690,477,000  

•  

Central Powers Cost in Dollars in 1914-18

Germany $37,775,000,000 Austria-Hungary $20,622,960,000 Turkey $1,430,000,000 Bulgaria $815,200,000 Total of all Costs $60,643,160,000

Cost plus reparations owed

due to the guilt clause means

that the war now cost

Germany $68,775,000,000.00

Map of Europe 1914

New countries created or Recognized at the end of

World War I

• Iraq• Lebanon• Palestine• Transjordan• Syria• Austria• Hungary

• Czechoslovakia• Yugoslavia• Estonia• Lithuania• Latvia• Finland• Poland

Did the US Congress pass the Treaty of Versailles?

• Why?– Wilson wanted delegates that he

could control at the peace conference

– Wilson refused to compromise– Connected to the world????

• The treaty committed the US to the League of Nations – Why was this an issue?

Germany finally pays off WWI debt Simon Sturdee

September 30, 2010 Germany not only celebrates 20 years since reunification this weekend, it will also pay off the last of

its World War I debts, 92 years after the 1914-18 conflict ended.

These "reparations" were intended partly by the Allies, particularly France, to keep Germany weak.

But historians say the ultimate effect was the opposite, playing a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power and World War II.

Interest on loans taken out to pay will finally be redeemed this Sunday.

In 1919, as the loser of the "War To End All Wars", in which more than nine million people were killed and countless more maimed and traumatized by the horrors of trench warfare, Germany was held to be responsible.

The victors forced the Germans to admit, in effect, in the 1919 Versailles treaty that the war was their fault, and to commit to pay crippling amounts for decades to come.

"The French wanted compensation for the terrible losses they had suffered, but also wanted to use reparations as a means of keeping the Germans weak for years to come," historian Martin Kitchen wrote in "Europe between the Wars."

After much bickering among the Allies -- who were also in debt to each other from the war -- the defeated country, on the brink of starvation and revolution, was presented with a bill of 269 billion gold marks.

It soon became clear that Germany could not pay.

First came hyperinflation, which saw at its height a billion-mark note, and France, frustrated by the lack of payment, occupied Germany's Ruhr industrial area in 1923, the same year as Hitler's abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.

The 1924 Dawes plan and the 1929 Young plan dramatically reduced the burden, and the 1932 Lausanne Conference suspended all repayments in the wake of the Great Depression.

Many historians say, in fact, that Germany could have paid, particularly after the reparations were sharply reduced and Germany was loaned huge amounts of money.

But it was their symbolism that counted and Hitler was able to play on resentment to the reparations -- and the famous "War Guilt Clause" in the Versailles Treaty -- to gain support in the chaotic inter-war years.

"The point is that it's not so much the financial burden but a political burden," Richard Bessel, professor of history at York University in Britain, told AFP.

"Financially it probably was doable."

After World War II, the new West Germany -- but not the communist East Germany -- agreed at the 1953 London conference to repay its inter war debts, albeit a much reduced amount, something it completed in 1980.

One loose end though was interest payments on loans taken out under the Dawes and Young plans that piled up between 1945 and this conference in the British capital.

It was agreed that this would be paid when and if East and West Germany ever reunified.

This was seen as so unlikely at the time that it was akin to forgiving the debt, and the original loan certificates became historical curiosities, for sale at flea markets.

But in 1990, the unthinkable happened, and Germany -- whilst celebrating unity after decades of painful division -- said it would repay, costing it around 200 million euros ($A281.35 million).

The debts have been resold so many times that nobody really knows whom exactly Germany now owes.

But on Sunday, at midnight, they will receive their final installment of some 70 million euros ($A98.47 million), and a chapter of Germany's traumatic 20th century will be quietly closed.

© 2011 AFP