Germany's Schlieffen Plan to quickly defeat France by invading through Belgium backfired when Belgium resisted and Britain joined the war in support of the Allies. This led to stalemate as massive casualties mounted on both sides without major gains, resulting in trench warfare with both sides developing new weapons like tanks, poison gas, zeppelins and airplanes. The war became a total war effort by all countries as it dragged on for years until the US entry in 1917 and a German-supported Bolshevik revolution in Russia reduced enemies for Germany, leading to the Treaty of Versailles ending the war that blamed and punished Germany.

1. WWI

2. • Both sides felt the war would be over quickly

4. Germany’s Plan
• Called the Schlieffen Plan
– Attack Paris first, then concentrate on Russia
– Go through neutral Belgium to get to France
– Belgium refused
– Germany went anyway
– This brought Britain into the war on the side of
the Allies

6. Stalemate
• The loss of large numbers of troops without
major gains on either side
• Resulted in trench warfare

7. New weapons and equipment for WWI
• British developed the tank

9. • Germans developed poison gas

11. • Germans used zeppelins.

12. Airplanes

13. • German’s had the submarine.
• Also called a U-boat

14. Total War
• War in which all the resources of a country are
devoted to destroying the enemy

19. • Germany helped Vladimir Lenin to power in
exchange for a peace treaty with Russia
• Germany now had one less enemy to fight

20. • US declared war on April 6, 1917

21. Paris Peace Conference
• Wrote the Treaty of Versailles which ended
the war
– Germany was blamed for the war
– Had to pay reparations (payment for damages) to
France and Britain
– Germany had it’s military drastically cut

22. Cost of War
• 10,000,000 men died in battle
• 26,000,000 were wounded or missing in
action
• 10,000,000 civilian deaths
• About 15,000 people died for each day of the
war
• $350,000,000,000 in damages