The document provides background information on World War 1 (1914-1918). It begins by stating that at the outbreak of war in summer 1914, nobody expected it to be long, as soldiers went happily to fight in a presumed short war. However, reality was crueler - the war lasted over four years and soldiers and civilians endured terrible hardships. It then discusses the various long-term tensions and alliance systems between European powers that led to the outbreak of war, as well as new weapons and tactics used during the war.

1. FIRST WORLD WAR (1914-1918)

2.  Nobody
thought of a
long war
when it broke
out in summer
1914
 Drafted
soldiers went
apparently
happy to fight
(and, of
course, win) a
short war…

3.  Reality was
very much
crueler .
 •Soldiers and
civil
population
went through
a terrible and
long war over
more than
four years.

6. Georges Clemenceau
JorgeV, Rey del Reino Unido
El Zar Nicolás II
Vittorio Emanuele II, Rey de Italia El Emperador de Austria Francisco José IEl Kaiser alemán Guillermo II

7. El zar Nicolás II junto a JorgeV
en Berlín (1913).

9.  The new
international
expansionist
policy (Weltpolitik)
undertaken by the
German Emperor
Wilhelm II in 1890.
 It destabilized the
international
situation.

10.  Changes in the balance of economic and military
might between the powers.
 German economy caught up with UK’s and Berlin
started an ambitious naval rearmament program.

11.  Conflicts between powers in
Asia and Africa .
 Colonial crisis in Morocco
between Germany and France.

12.  Germany annexed
the French regions
of Alsace and
Lorraine after the
Franco-Prussian
war in 1870.
 France strongly
desired to recover
those regions.

13.  The rivalry between
Russia (Serbia) and
Austria-Hungary for
the hegemony in the
Balkans .
 TheTurkish Ottoman
Empire was not able
to control that region
anymore.

14.  Psychological rivalry between peoples, encouraged by
nationalist propaganda campaigns
 Hatred of the neighbour was more the norm than the
exception

15.  Two new non European
powers: United States
and Japan.
 Conflict took a global
dimension, further away
from Europe.

16. FORMATION OF ALLIANCES
 The Triple Alliance:
Germany, Austria-
Hungary and Italy.
 The German Reich and
the Austro-Hungarian
Empire constituted the
core of this alliance.

17.  The Triple Entente
made up of Britain,
France, and Russia.
 It was concluded by
1907.
 German expansionism
led to Britain and
France to end their
colonial differences.
 The rivalry between
Austria-Hungary and
Russia in the Balkans
pushed Russia into the
alliance.

19. INTERNATIONAL CRISIS WHICH LED TO THE WAR

21. INTERNATIONAL CRISIS WHICH LED TO THE WAR

22.  Greece defeatedTurkish Army in the First Balkan War

24. THE SPARK THAT LIT THE FIRE:
SARAJEVO MURDER
 Archduke Franz Ferdinand
(successor to the Austria-
Hungarian throne) was
assassinated in Sarajevo on
28 June 1914 by Gavrilo
Princip, a member of a Serb
terrorist nationalist
organization .
 Austria blamed Serbia and
issued an ultimatum to allow
Austrian forces to
investigate the murder in
Serbia.

26. SUMMER 1914: THE FINAL CRISIS
Austria-Hungary issues
an ultimatum to Serbia
(its forces will enter the
country to investigate
the murder)
Serbia refuses the
ultimatum
Austria-Hungary
declares war on Serbia.
28 July 1914
Russia mobilizes its
troops to defend Serbia
Germany (Austria-
Hungary ‘s ally) declares
war on Russia
France (Russia’s ally)
declares war on
Germany
Germany invades
Belgium to attack
France
Great Britain (France’s
ally) declares war on
Germany

27. Serbian soldiers

28. German soldiers

30. Agosto 1914: soldados franceses marchan hacia
el frente

31. ALLIES AND CENTRAL POWERS IN EUROPE

33. ITS EXTENT
 The high number of combatant countries, the vast
geographical extent justify the name "Great War" or
"WorldWar".
 Although it started in Europe, with the involvement
of Austro-Hungary and Serbia, the game of military
alliances dragged into the war to a growing number
of powers.
 Some countries at war (UK, France, etc.) were
holders of vast colonial empires put their respective
domains at war, which in practice the five continents
were involved in hostilities.

34. ALLIED AND CENTRAL POWERS IN THE WORLD

35. "THE GREAT EUROPEAN WAR. COMRADES IN ARMS."

36. ITS LENGTH
 Since Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia on July
28, 1914 until Germany signed the armistice on 11
November 1918.
 A war that surpassed in duration to those who had
taken place during the 18th and 19th centuries.

37. NEW ARMAMENT
 Among the innovations they highlighted:
 The tank
 Gas masks
 Barbed-wire fences (alambrada con espinas)
 Chemical weapons
 Machine guns (ametralladoras)
 Aircraft
 Blimps or zeppelins balloons
 Submarines.
 Improved:
 Riffles.
 Grenade launchers (lanzagranadas)
 Armored ships.

38. 1917. Soldado americano con
máscara antigas
1916. Construyendo piezas con alambre de púas
para la defensa. Batalla del Somme

39. 1916. Masked British soldiers with a gun machine. First
day of the Battle of the Somme.

41. 1916. Cráter por una bomba en París

42. 1917. Puerto de Kiel

43. 1916. Lanzando una granada

44. Tanks in the Great War

46.  The telephone and telegraph were used for
communication between the troops
1915. Soldado alemán con un teléfono de campo

47. GENERAL MOBILIZATION. TOTAL WAR
 Huge armies.
 General
mobilization.
 Female labor.
 The struggle
destroyed armies
and destroyed
industries and
infrastructures.

50. Women working as a conductor and driver on a
tram in Glasgow
Women Firefighters take part in a drill at a
London work house, April 1916.

52. Munitionettes: 950,000 female workers
were employed in British factories,
including this worker, pictured making
shell cases in aVickers factory in
January 1915

54. PROPAGANDA
 The outbreak of war was favored by an environment
of international rivalry.
 Use of propaganda by both sides.
 The duration, extent and harshness of the conflict
weakened the morale of both the combatants and
the rear, so campaigns in journals, radio and posters
were used.

61. REAR IMPORTANCE
 World War I took place also in the rear.
 Large amounts of military equipment, food and
medicine were required from the cities.
 Industries were adapted to war needs.
 Food shortages were particularly acute and forced
restrictions through ration cards.
 Women workers.
 States were forced into debt to pay for the war. US
lend money to the Allied armies. During the war also
lend money to Germany.

62. ALLIES AND CENTRAL POWERS IN EUROPE

65. THE WAR OF MOVEMENTS – 1914
SCHLIEFFEN PLAN
German plan which was
based on:
 Rapid attack on France
through neutral Belgium
 After defeating France,
German troops could turn
about and attack Russia,
backward country that
would need a long time to
mobilize their troops

66. Battle of Marne, 1914
 Allied troops managed to halt the German advance
 From that moment, armies dug trenches all along a front which
extended from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier
 Stalemate in the western front
 Germans did not achieve a decisive victory in the eastern front
French troops in the battle of Marne

67. Durante la Primera Batalla del Marne
dos regimientos franceses acudieron a la batalla enTAXI

68. TRENCH WARFARE: 1915-1916
 The stalemate in the
western front led to a
new sort of warfare:
the war of attrition
(GUERRA DE
DESGASTE). A military
strategy in which a
belligerent side
attempts to win a war
by wearing down its
enemy to the point of
collapse through
continuous losses in
personnel and
materiel.

69. Soldados alemanes en una
trinchera, festejando la
Navidad

70. 1916. Soldados leyendo un periódico en
una trinchera
1916. Soldado alemán en una trinchera

73. 1916. Soldados muertos en una trinchera

74. 1916. Dos imágenes: arriba, soldados alemanes;
abajo, tropas británicas

78.  Battle ofVerdun,
1915

79. Battle of Somme
1916

80. 1917: THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR
SINKING OFTHE US SHIP LUSITANIA, 1915

82. 1915. Funeral en Cobh (Cork) por las
víctimas del Lusitania, barco
hundido en la costa de Irlanda.
Murieron casi 1.200 personas

83.  Zimmerman telegram was
a 1917 diplomatic proposal
from the German Empire
to Mexico to make war
against the United States.
 The proposal was
intercepted and decoded
by British intelligence.
 Revelation of the contents
outraged American public
opinion and helped
generate support for the
United States declaration
of war on Germany in April
1917

85. February 1917 –TheTsar Nicholas II is dethroned

86. November 1917 –The Communists took over power

87. March 1918 –Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia left the war

88. Germany acquired
provisionally huge territories
in the East

89. 1918: THE END OF THE WAR
Germany could move troops from east to weast
Spring offensive

90. Massive arrival of American troops in Europe

91. Germans started retreating

92. Revolution in Germany – Kaiser abdicated

93. German representatives
signing the armistice
11 november 1918

95. 11 de noviembre de 1918. Celebración del
armisticio al final de la guerra

97. The victors: Lloyd George (GB), Orlando (It), Clemenceau (Fr)
and Wilson (USA)

98. No negotiations with the defeated: the diktat ofVersailles

99.  Different treaties
signed by the
winners with the
defeated:
 Treaty ofVersailles
with Germany
 Treaty of Saint-
Germain with
Austria
 Treaty ofTrianon
with Hungary
 Treaty of Neuilly
with Bulgaria
 Treaty of Sevres
withTurkey

101. THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
 Different attitudes of the
winners towards Germany:
 Clemenceau: the hardest
stance (“Germany will pay”)
 Lloyd George, although willing
to punish Germany, a more
conciliatory attitude.
 Wilson, its “14 points”.
 Italy was the weakest winner:
Orlando tried to obtain
territorial gains in Austria-
Hungary but failed and felt
dissapointed (“We have won
the war, but we have lost the
peace”) .

102.  War guilt:
 Germany had to accept the blame of starting the war .
 Germans considered this clause as extremely unfair .
 As a consequence….
 War reparations
 Germany has to pay for the damage caused to the
Allies .
 A huge amount of money was fixed without any
consultation to Germany (140.000 million gold marks).

103. Territorial loss

104.  Military Clauses:
 Drastic limitation of the German navy.
 Dramatic reduction of the Army (only 100,000
troops, prohibition of having tanks, aircraft and
heavy artillery).
 Demilitarization of the Rhineland region
(Renania).

105. THE TREATY OF SAINT-GERMAIN
 TheTreaty of Saint Germain,
signed with Austria.
 Disintegration of the Austro-
Hungarian Empire
 The result of his break up were
new states such as Austria,
Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
 On top of that, several
sections of the former empire
were annexed by new states
such as Poland andYugoslavia.

106. THE TREATY OF TRIANON
 The Treaty of Trianon,
signed with Hungary.
 Territorial loss: Part to
Yugoslavia and to Romania.
 Large Hungarian minorities
(3 million people,
equivalent to one third of
the Hungarian population
total) were left outside of
the Hungarian state, living
as minorities in
Czechoslovakia, Romania
(Transylvania) and
Yugoslavia.

107. THE TREATY OF SÈVRES AND LAUSSANNE
 The Treaty of Sèvres
(1920), signed with
Turkey, and then fixed in
the Treaty of Lausanne in
1923.
 The Treaty of Sevres was
extremely hard and led
the Turkish national
rebellion led by Kemal
Ataturk.
 Distribution of Turkish
possessions in the Middle
East between France (Syria,
Lebanon) and Britain
(Palestine, Iraq, Jordan).

108. THE TREATY OF NEUILLY
 TheTreaty of Neuilly, signed with Bulgaria.
 The small Balkan country suffered several territorial losses, in the
benefit of Romania, Greece and a brand-new country:Yugoslavia.
 All the defeated countries, like Germany, were forced to pay
reparations and to limit the strength of their armies.

109. TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK
 The outcome of the
Russian revolution: new
states in central and
eastern Europe.
 New states were born in
Central and Eastern
Europe:
 Poland, reborn from
Russian, German and
Austro-Hungarian
territories.
 Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania, which
were former regions of
the Russian Empire.

110. FAILED TREATIES
 These treaties rather than solve the problems
that had led to the GreatWar, increased tensions
in Europe.
 The most important was the German problem.
Many Germans began to bide their time to get
his revenge against the “diktat”, the
“humiliation” ofVersailles. (Treaty ofVersailles)

112.  WWI «changed» the world. Nothing was the same after
1918:
 Terrible loss of life: eight million dead, millions
wounded people, maimed, widows and orphans.
 The material destruction suffered especially by Europe.

118. The destruction ofYpres with the shell of the
Cloth Hall standing, 1917.

119.  WWI «changed» the world. Nothing was the same
after 1918:
 USA became the first world power. Europe started a long
decadence
 The mass mobilization of men led to the incorporation of
women into work.
 Soviet revolution and the spread of a prerevolutionary
climate in Europe.
 The exacerbated nationalism + fear of a communist
revolution  fascist movements

122.  The League of Nations (Sociedad de
Naciones) was President Wilsons’s
idea.
 Objective: to guarantee peace and promote cooperation
throughout the world.
 Headquarters in Geneva.
 Initially: 45 countries (even Spain!)
Thomas Woodrow Wilson

123. Sesión inaugural de la Sociedad de Naciones en
Ginebra

125.  USA didn’t want to join.
 USSR, Germany were excluded from the LN
 Two organisations:
 An Assembly (all members states).
 A Council (the victorious nations – England, France,
Italy and Japan).

127.  The League of Nations failed:
 Some of the most important countries didn’t join the
League of Nations:
USA, Germany (later, in 1926 Germany joined the LN, to
get out again when Hitler reached the power in 1933).
USSR wasn’t admitted.
Japan left in 1933 and Italy in 1936.
 The League of Nations had a lack of economic or
military means to impose its decisions.

128.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8sssbk (Life in
trenches)
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwon
e/soldiers_stories_gallery_03.shtml (Trench
life)