WWI+Ends

media type="custom" key="5933379" The Great War was the largest conflict in history up to that time. The French mobilized 8.5 million men, the British 9 million men, the Russian 12 million, the Germans 11 million. "One out of every four men that went to WWI did not return, and out of those ones that returned, many were maimed, blind, and mad."
 * Intro**


 * Stalemate on the Western Front**

As the war began German forces fought their way through Belgium toward Paris. The Germans Schlieffen Plan failed for several reasons. The Schlieffen Plan failed due to the quick mobilization of Russia. After a few small Russian victories, German generals hastily shifted some troops to the east. Weakening their forces to the west. The Western Front was at a stalemate. Sept 1914, British and French troops pushed back the German drive along the Marne River. The first battle of the Marne ended Germany's hopes for a quick victory on the Western Front. Both sides then began to dig deep trenches to protect their armies from fierce enemy fire. Battle lines in France would remain almost unchanged for four years.


 * Technology of Modern Warfare**
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New technology made for a lot more casualties such as poison gas, tanks, fighter planes, submarines, and new artilery.

In August 1914, Russian armies pushed into eastern Germany. Then the Russians suffered a disastrous defeat at Tannenberg causing them to retreat back to Russia. As the least industrialized of the Great Powers, Russia was poorly equipped to fight a modern war. Some troops even lacked rifles. Still Russian commanders continued to send masses of soldiers into combat. In 1915, Bulgarian joined the central powers ad helped defeat it's old Balkan rival Serbia. In 1916, Romania joined the Allies looking to gain some land in Hungary, only to be crushed by the Central Powers. Also in 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary and later on Germany. Over the next two years the Italians and Austrians fought eleven battles along the Isonzo river with few major breakthroughs. In October 1917, the Austrians and German launched a full scale attack against the Italian position at Caporetto. The Italians retreated in shock.
 * Battles on Other European Fronts**

Japan allied with Britain and used the war as an excuse to seize german outposts in China and the pacific. The Ottoman empire was a desirable ally because of it’s strategic location. If the Ottoman Turks had joined the Allies, the essential powers would have been almost completely encircled. The Turks had joined the central powers in late Oct, 1914. The Turks then cut off crucial allied supplies to Russia through the Dardanelles. The Allies sent a massive force of British, Indian, Australian, New Zealander, troops to attempt to open up the straight. At the battle of Gallipoli, Turkish troops trapped the Allies on the beaches Gallipoli peninsula. In Jan, 1916, after 10 months and more than 200,000 casualties, the Allies finally withdrew from the Dardanelles.
 * War Around The world**

=War Ends= **Intro**

Casualties on the fronts and shortages at home snapped morale. The stalemate dragged on seemingly without end. However the departure of one country from the war and the entry of another would tip the balance and end the stalemate.

**Waging Total War**

All of the warring nations except Britain immediately imposed universal military conscription or a draft. Britain too instituted conscription in 1916. Germany set up a system of forced civilian labor as well.

Governments raised taxes and borrowed huge amounts of money to pay the costs of war.

Britain formed a blockade in the North sea to keep ships carrying supplies tin and out of Germany. Then Germany used U-Boats to to create its own blockade. In 1915 Germany declared that it would sink all ships carrying goods to Britain. In May 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the British liner Lusitania of the coast of Ireland. It was carrying 128 Americans.

Democratic countries had special boards that censored the press. Their aim was to keep complete casualty figures and other discouraging news from reaching the public.

Propaganda is the spreading of ideas to promote a cause or to damage an opposing cause. Later in the war Allied propaganda played up the brutality of Germany’s invasion of Belgium.

**Morale Collapses**

By 1917 the morale of troops and civilians had plunged. Germany was sending fifteen year-old recruits to the front.

The overthrow of Tsar Nicholas the Second led to Vladimir Lenin coming into power and pulling the Russian troops out of WWI. Russia’s with drawl had an immediate impact on the war.

**The United States Declares War**

Many Americans supported the Allies because of the cultural ties. The US shared a cultural history and language with Britain and sympathized with France as another democracy. Some German Americans favored the Central Powers. So did many Irish Americans who resented British rule of Ireland.

Germany had ceased submarine attacks in 1915 after pressure from President Wilson. Germany ws desperate to break the stalemate on the western front. On February 1st, 1917, the German government announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare even though President Wilson asked them not too in 1915.

In early 1917 the British intercepted a message from the German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to his ambassador in Mexico, also known as the Zimmermann telegram. In the note Zimmermann authorized his ambassador to propose that Germany would help Mexico “to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona” in return for Mexican support against the US. When the not was shown to the public anti-German feeling intensified in the US.

In April 1917, Wilson asked congress to declare war on Germany. Although relatively few American troops engaged in combat their arrival gave Allied troops a much needed morale boost. Just as important was the American financial aid because the Allies were well in debt.

Wilson’s Fourteen Points was what he was going to bring to the peace talks after the war was over. His last and fourteenth point was a “general association of nations” to not let this ever happen again.

**Victory at Last** In 1918, a final showdown on the Western Front began. Germany wanted to get a victory before American troops got there so the launched a huge offensive that pushed back Allied troops forty miles. This attack left Germany exhausted and by then the American troops were arriving by the thousands. The Allies then launched a counterattack slowly driving German forces back across France and Belgium.

=Making the Peace=

Links to other pages** Era 7 Europe Before WWI WWI Making The Peace Inter War Years WWII