1. AP
WWI
WWI proved to be unlike
previous wars in many ways. New
technology made WWI a more
impersonal war, as well as a far
more deadlier one.

2. Trench Warfare

3. • On the Western Front, troops dug a network of
trenches that stretched from the English Channel
to the Swiss border. The space between the
opposing trenches was known as no man’s land.
To break through enemy lines, both sides began
with massive artillery barrages. Then bayonet
wielding solders would run out of their trenches,
and race across no man’s land and throw
grenades into the other trench. The results were
devastating. Hundreds of thousands of men were
killed.

7. • Symbol for the futility of war
Trench warfare has become a powerful symbol of
the futility of war. Its image is of young men going
"over the top" (over the parapet of the trench, to
attack the enemy trench line) into a maelstrom of
fire leading to certain death, typified by the first day
of the Somme (on which the British suffered 57,000
casualties) or the grinding slaughter in the mud of
Passchendaele. To the French, the equivalent is the
attrition of the Battle of Verdun in which they
suffered 380,000 casualties.[10]

8. New Technology
• Machine Gun– Good for defense—600 bullets
a minute—could stop an advance but heavy
machine guns required teams of up to eight
men to move them, maintain them, and keep
them supplied with ammunition. This made
them impractical for offensive maneuvers,
contributing to the stalemate on the Western
Front.

9. Chemical Warfare
Chlorine -A large enough dose could kill, but the
gas was easy to detect by scent and sight.
Phosgene- first used in December 1915, was the
ultimate killing gas of World War I—it was 18
times more powerful than chlorine and much
more difficult to detect.
Mustard gas -- hard to detect and lingered on the
surface of the battlefield and so could inflict
casualties over a long period. The burns it
produced were so horrific that a casualty
resulting from mustard gas exposure was unlikely
to be fit to fight again.

11. Tanks
• First were very slow and cumbersome,
mechanically unreliable and fairly easy to
destroy. But they could roll over barbed wire
and trenches. The British improved them and
improved tanks and tactics allowed them to
break through enemy lines to become a
significant element of warfare.

12. The Flame Thrower
• New and improved- smaller,
lightweight- a single person could
carry and spray burning fuel on
the victims. Effective in attacks
on nearby trenches but could not
be fires long distance.

13. Airplanes
• Brought war into the sky. First used to scout
out enemy lines, then improved for fighting
and bombing. In time, a device that times the
firing of a machine gun with the rotation of a
planes propeller. The Germans created a high
flying, gas filled airship called Zeppelins. Not
very precise and slow moving

14. Great films over WWI
• The Lost Battalion
• http://youtu.be/RTED0RSS8T8
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• http://youtu.be/DX1PW2n8POg
• Sergeant York
• http://youtu.be/JyF9KKUeds8
• Merry Christmas
• http://youtu.be/2Mso-MkU1oI

15. Russia Leaves the War
• In 1917 riots broke out in Russia over the
government’s handling of the war and the
scarcity of food and fuel. Czar Nicholas II
abdicated his throne. The Bolsheviks, a group
of communists, soon came to power. First
thing the leader, Vladimir Lenin did was pull
Russia out of the war. With the Eastern Front
settled, Germany was now free to concentrate
its forces in the west.

18. End of the War
• In March of 1918, the Germans launched
a massive attack along the Western
Front. By June they were less than 40
miles from Paris. American troops played
an important role in containing the
German offensive. The French and
American forces held them back.

19. • With the German drive stalled, the Allied
forces ordered massive counter attacks all
along the front. American troops drove back
German forces at the battle of Saint-Michael.
Then in the Argonne Forest, the Allied forces
under the command of General Black Jack
Pershing assembled over 600,000 American
troops, some 40,000 tones of supplies and
roughly 4,000 artillery pieces for the most
massive attack in American history. Slowly one
German position after another began to fall.

20. • Heavy casualites on both sides. But by early
November of 1918, German defenses had
been shattered.
• At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th
month, Germany signed an armistice or cease
fire, that ended the war.

21. Treaty of Versailles
• In January 1919, a peace conference began in
Paris to try to resolve the complicated issues
arising from WWI.
• All leaders of the countries involved were
present except Germany.
• The Big Four-US, Britain, France and Italy

22. Fourteen Points
• President Wilson wanted a fair peace policy.
His plan became know as the Fourteen
Points—Wilson’s plan for lasting peace
• --end to secret agreements (alliances)
• --freedom of the seas
• --reduction of armaments
• --self determination for ethnic groups

23. League of Nations
• The most important part of his plan was a
peacekeeping organization called A League of
Nations.
• Everyone else at the peace talks thought that
Wilson’s plan was too easy on Germany—they
wanted Germany to paid reparations—war
damages—because they said it had started the
war. The Treaty of Versailles was written without
many of Wilson’s hopes. In the end the US did not
ratify the treaty. Congress did not like the League
of Nations idea

24. WWI Results
• Dissolution of 4 empires—Russian Empire,
Ottoman Empire, German Empire and Austria-
Hungary.
• 9 new countries were formed out of these—
Yugoslavia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia

25. Before and After