World War 1

Textbook page 272: You are THERE:

• It is 1916. One of the bloodiest battles in history has just ended at Verdun in France. A young American, Samuel Benson, is there to help wounded French soldiers. Benson is a volunteer in the American Ambulance Service. For months he has been transporting wounded soldiers to medical aid stations. Now he sits down to write himself a letter:

“My dear sir, self: . . . You may sometimes think you have it pretty hard staying out here in France away from home and loved ones . . . laboring without pay, and often getting little rest or sleep. But listen . . . you are at this hour in the midst of the biggest crisis of history. The world has never seen such a moment . . . and [you are] living for others.” That “moment” is World War I. It is being fought mainly in Europe, but also in Africa and Asia. Soon, the United States will enter the war.

TEXTBOOK page 273A Gathering StormWhat brought on this war, which would one day be called World War I ? Fierce rivalries had developed among European nations. Countries competed for military power and ownership of European lands. Strong feelings of nationalism existed. Nationalism is a love of one’s country and the desire to have that country free from the control of others. Tensions grew because many lands were under the control of other nations. European nations also competed for new land in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. New land meant new trading opportunities, greater wealth, and more power.

Fearing attack from their rivals, several European nations formed alliances. An alliance is an agreement among nations to defend one another. If one ally, or member of an alliance, is attacked, the other members promise to come to its aid. The two major alliances were the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. The Allied Powers included Great Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, and Belgium. The Central Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

In 1914 Austria-Hungary, a country in south central Europe, was in control of land that another country, Serbia, believed it owned. On June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne. Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia.

Why did it start? Comprehension Check

Page 273 – People in Europe loved their countries.

This is called__________? Do you have those same feelings about the U.S.? How would you like it if someone were ruling over us?

They became very _ _ _ _ _ because other countries were ruling over their country!

SERBIA WAS ANGRY AT AUSTRIA-HUNGRY BECAUSE THEY HAD LAND SERBIA THOUGHT SHOULD BE THEIRS. WHEN SERBIA KILLED AUSTRIA-HUNGARY’S PRINCE, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DELCARED WAR ON SERBIA. EACH HAD ‘ALLIES’ OR FRIENDS THAT JOINED THE FIGHT TO HELP THEM.

One country- Russia- worried the fighting so close would

affect it’s trade roads so they jumped in to help Serbia!

Another country-Germany was helping their friend-Austria Hungary. They got mad at

Russia for helping Serbia and declared war on them! Russia declared war right back! See a

trend here?You pick on my friend and I’ll beat you

up! No! I’ll beat you up! Ever been involved in something like that? LOL

Another country-France-was friends with Russia. So guess what Germany did to France?

Say it with me…they declared….

WAR on them!

For Germany to attack France, they had to go through Belgium. But the King of Belgium

said ‘No, you cannot march through my country you dirty Germans!’ (paraphrased)

Guess what Germany did to Belgium?

They attacked Belgium. And then Belgium’s pal-GREAT

BRITAIN jumped in to protect their pal and declared war on GERMANY. And don’t forget what country Great Britain gave birth to…(hint below)

Americans had sympathy for the mother country-Great Britain and the Allies, BUT

most Americans said it wasn’t our fight and we wanted to remain neutral. This policy

was called ***ISOLATIONISM***!

• What is the ‘root’ word of ISOLATIONISM? WHY do you think the U.S. did not want to get involved in this war to begin with?

STOP! END of Lesson – DAY 1

TEXTBOOK page 274• The fighting was fierce. Soldiers on each side dug a

system of trenches that faced each other and could extend hundreds of miles. Barbed-wire fences protected the front of each trench. A “no-man’s land”—the land between trenches that neither side controlled —spread out between the opposing armies. Soldiers ate and slept in the trenches, which were often flooded or filled with rats.

• Each side shot at the other’s trenches or sent poison gases into them. Occasionally, troops on one side would go “over the top.” They climbed out, crawled through the barbed wire, and raced across no-man’s land to attack the enemy. As casualties climbed month after month, it seemed that the killing would never end.

Soldiers in Europe dug great trenches like this one here to live and fight in

during World War 1

Soldiers ate and slept and did their business in trenches. Many times they were in them for months at a time. Phew wee! Stink-o!

Soldiers fought from down in the trenches. They raised up to fire their

guns and put themselves at risk.

These German soldiers wait in the snow to fire during WW1.

Going ‘over the top’ of a trench into no man’s land was

dangerous!

This soldier falls in no man’s land as he is exposed to poison gas without a mask. Notice the hot masks being worn to

protect the face from gas. 3 out of 10 men that died during World War one did so because of poison gas.

These soldiers wear gas masks to protect from a new ‘war weapon’ – poison gas- as

they hike through miles of dug out trenches.

Notice the trees in no man’s land here. Everything has been totally

destroyed!

Dead body in a trench

Trenches from World War I at a National Park in France

today

STOP LESSON 2 HERE!

There were many, many new technologies used in World War

1 for the first time!

Poison gas was usually tossed across no man’s land in

containers such as these.

British soldiers in WW1 used the new invention- the tank! It certainly helped

cross no man’s land safer!

The German military came up with a secret weapon of their own-the dangerous new submarine! It

would be this weapon that would help draw the U.S. into the first World War!

World War 1 would be the first war in the history of the world in which

airplanes were used!

Here is a war plane getting ready to bomb targets in WW1.