Section 7.2

Watching Europe’s War

Today Agenda

• 7.2 Slide Show

• Presentations

• Homework

• Finish Reading 7.2

Today’s ObjectivesAt the end of this lesson, you should

be able to:

• Define Triple Entente/ Central Powers and list its member

• Define neutrality and describe its complexity &/or hypocrisy in American policy

• Identify the Zimmerman Note • Identify Lusitania as the catalyst of America’s

formal entry into WWI• Identify major economic reasons for America’s

entry into WWI

Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?Only the monstrous anger of the guns.Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyesShall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Introduction to WWI

What justifies Going to War?

Ideology

Why do nations go to war?

Other Reasons?

Economic needs

Alliance Obligations

Revenge

Preemptive Strike

National Prestige

An Attack or Threat

Describe Europe on the Eve of War, June 1914

Russia, Aus-Hun, Ottoman Emp. vie for control of Balkans

Russian, Germany,

GB, France

compete for empire

Germany competes with

GB’s naval supremacy

Germany’s militarism threatens France and

Russia

Serbian Nationalists

agitate to unite Southern Slavs

Balkan Peninsula

In 1914 The Austro-Hungarian Empire

controlled Bosnia, a territory with

thousands of ethnic Serbs.

What events led to the outbreak of the Great War?

June July August

Archduke of Austria

Assassinated in Sarajevo on

6/14/14

1914

Central Powers at war with Triple

Entente in 8/4/14Austria-Hungary

declare war on Serbia

7/28/14

Wilson declares American neutrality 8/4/14

Ferdinand Assassinated

What was the Alliance system?

Security guarantees between major European powers

Central Powers

• Germany

• Austria-Hungary

• Ottoman Empire

Triple Entente (Allies)

• France

• Great Britain

• Russia

Alliance System

Enthusiasm for War

• Germany gained territory at first

• halted to a stalemate along the Western and Eastern Fronts

Describe the nature of the fighting.

The Fronts

War was most destructive the world had seen up to that point

• Battle of Verdun (Feb-July 1916)– French lost 315

thousand– Germany lost 280

thousand

• Battle of the Somme– GB lost 60 thousand

in one day

Describe the nature of the fighting.

Battle of the Somme

Why were the casualties so high?• Traditional Strategy +

Advanced weaponry• Infantry ‘charges’

– “Over the top!”

• Advanced weaponry– Machine gun– Artillery– Mustard gas– Barbed wire– Tanks

• Trench warfare• Submarine warfare

– U-Boats

• Dogfights

Agenda for Today

• Finish 7.2

• Homework

• Finish reading 7.2

• Begin reading 7.3 (by Thursday)

1915-1916

What was America’s official policy toward the war?

• Neutral

• “We must be impartial in thought as well as in action.”

• Despite diverse population of immigrants, most Americans supported this view.

American Neutrality

Was America really neutral?• Strong economic

ties to Allies

–See Thomas Lamont quote on 216

• British controlled flow of information

• Cut Transatlantic cable in 1914

Propaganda and Economic Impact

What happened to the Lusitania?• British passenger

ship

• Secretly carried American arms to the allies

• May 7, 1915 the Lusitania was sunk by German U-Boats

Lusitania

Describe the election of 1916.• Wilson wins on anti-war

platform

– “He kept us out of war!”

• In reality America has sided with the Allies

– $2.25 billion in loans

– Attracted to post war investment

– Wanted an American voice at peace settlement

What was the Zimmerman Note?• Zimmerman Note

–German cable to Mexico promised pre-1848 territory if Mexico side with Germany

Why did German U-boats begin to attack American shipping?

• British blockade of North Sea prevented food from entering Germany– Germany was

starving & had nothing to lose

• Unrestricted Submarine Warfare resumed 1/31/1917– Many US ship sent to

bottom of Atlantic

Why does Wilson ask Congress to declare war?

• ‘To make the world safe for democracy’

• Believed the “American System” would save the world

• "When properly directed, there is no people in the world not fitted for self-government." – Hoped to spread American

Style democracy, capitalism, and Christian morality