WWI Brief Overview 1914 1918 Highest amount of

WWI

Brief Overview • 1914 -1918 • Highest amount of casualties • Chemical weapons • Trench warfare • Four M. A. I. N. causes

Four Causes • Militarism • Alliances • Imperialism • Nationalism

Militarism • Military funding and growth are priorities of the state. • France and Germany both doubled their armies between 1870 and 1914 • Battleships! British Dreadnought - 21. 5 knots (17 or 18)

What effect does this have? • Arms race • Governments want to show off the power of their new ‘toys’ • Armies get antsy

Alliances • An agreement between two or more parties to give each other help, if needed • Why is this important? • What were the alliances? – Triple Alliance (aka. Central Powers): Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire – Triple Entente (aka. The Allies): Britain, France, and Russia

Imperialism • The policy of establishing economic, political, and military dominance over weaker nations • Scramble for Africa • “Paint the World British Red”

Britain France Germany Belgium Spain Portugal

What effect does this have? • Rise in Industrialism: – New resources – New markets • Rivalry between countries who did not acquire as many new lands (Germany)

Nationalism • Countries should be formed based off of cultural identity • Where does this identity come from? – Ethnicity – Beliefs – Language – Political – Customs

The Effects of Nationalism • Austro- Hungarian Empire • Problem?

French unhappiness at the loss of Alsace and Lorraine in 1871 Two Alliance Systems in existence Arms race between Germany and France German attempts to gain colonies annoy France, Britain and Russia ? Austria and Russia competing for influence in SE Europe Naval rivalry between Britain and Germany

The Black Hand Society • 1911 - Serbian men create a secret society • Bosnia annexed by A-H in 1908 • Want freedom from A-H Empire (Bosnia and Serbia as one united country) • Objective: "To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organization prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret. "

Francis Ferdinand • Heir to A-H throne • Men were sent to Sarajevo by Black Hand Society to assassinate him • In June 1914, Gavrilo Princip succeeds

A Conflict • Serbian Prime minister refused to hand the men over so A-H could persecute them • Three days later A-H declared war on Serbia • A-H allied with Germany and Serbia allied with Russia, Russia allies with France, France with Britain

The alliances Serbia Austro-Hungarian Empire Russia Germany France Britain Ottoman Empire