World War 1 (jul 28, 1914 – nov 11, 1918)

Description:

Triple entente (later allies) v.s. Central powers

Causes:
○Nationalism (united and divided forces)
○Systems of alliances and military planning
○Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (1914)

Background:
Assassination of Franz in the Balkans triggered system of alliances, Germany+Austria Hungary+Italy form triple alliance. Triple Entente=Russia, GB and France.

The war:
Germany planned to go through neutral Belgium to get to France, but when they did Britain declared war, and in northern France Germany hit a wall. From then on, war=trench war (and this front comes to be known as the western front). Even at sea, war is inconclusive, with a naval blockade keeping German ships in place. In 1915, German subs try to sink every vessel it could in retaliation, but sink Lusitania with Americans on it, and in an effort to keep America neutral they cease. Trench warfare ensues for 4 years, but in 1916 Germans decide to sink ships carrying food supplies to GB. This again angers America, and they enter the war

The fall of Germany:
In 1918, Woodrow Wilson presents 14 point plan to congress, and the U.S. bring 250,000 troops to front every month. In august, the Germans begin to retreat. In late October, Ludendorff (German commander) resigns and sailors in the German fleet mutinied. Two weeks later, a new German govt. signed an armistice. The guns on the Western front cease.

Effects:
○New tech (heavier artillery, tanks, trenches, improved ironclad warships, primitive warplanes, gas warfare and flamethrowers, ambulances, concertina wire, barbed wire, field telephones and radios)
○Many dead and wounded
○The influenza epidemic
○Damage to the environment
○Large amount of immigration
○Migration of African Americans in U.S. to the north (need for industrial work)
○Almost no unemployment (and lots of new job opportunities for women)
○uprisings in African colonies
○Economic suffering (and economic prospering in the U.S. (remained neutral but supplied weapons to triple entente))
○Treaty of Versailles--> Germany not allowed to keep colonies or armies, and required to give up large amount of territory to Poland+pay for losses--> Germans unhappy, WW2. League of nations formed (but U.S. not a part of it)
○Ottoman empire defeated and split, although it managed to reform itself as Turkey

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