Tactical Reasons for World War I

Tactical Reasons for World War I

*US History

Laying the Groundwork…Laying the Groundwork… There had not

been a major war in Europe since 1870.

Soon after that, war preparations for the first world war started.

How do people stand?How do people stand? Britain was already

an industrialized country, but still catching on in Germany.

France and Russia are technologically far behind.

Relationships…Relationships… Austria-Hungary had

annexed Bosnia in 1909, which was originally a Russian protectorate.

Russia was eager to prove it’s worth after a devastating loss to Japan in 1905 (Russo-Japanese War)

Austria-Hungary was hostile toward Serbia who was a Russian friend.

Germany had a long standing rivalry with France and they do not like each other.

France and GermanyFrance and Germany France and Germany

didn’t like each other because of the fact that Germany had seized the French province of Alsace-Lorraine during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.

Germany had been trying to isolate France from gaining new territory and modernizing.

The French constantly wanted revenge for the lost territory.

Germany and Others…Germany and Others… After the Franco-Prussian

War, Germany and Russia agreed not to fight, but in 1892, the Germans failed to renew their agreement with Russia and the Russians were not happy.

Russia then became a French ally.

Germany was trying to ally with the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

Germany also tried to ally with Austria-Hungary to secure a large homeland.

ConsequencesConsequences The Russians were

scared because Turkey would be able to cut off Russia’s access to the Mediterranean Sea through the Black Sea.

Germany will continue to try and build a huge navy to take care of their colonial possessions.

What about the British?What about the British? The British were busy

building an empire to think about becoming a part of all that was going on.

They were also upset with Germany because they didn’t want anyone to challenge their navy.

Thus, the race began of who could build the biggest and best navy.

The British allied with France and Russia.

The Allied NationsThe Allied Nations So Britain is allied

with France and Russia.

Russia wanted to expand its empire into the Black Sea, so they allied with Serbia.

Meanwhile… Meanwhile… Serbia was being pushed

around by Austria-Hungary. In 1914, Archduke Franz

Ferdinand was assassinated and a Serbian and Austrian war dragged in the rest of the countries that they were each allied with.

Britain also got involved because Germany had planned on going through Belgium to get to France and Britain felt the need to defend a neutral country, so they declared war on Germany.

4 Main Reasons for the Conflict4 Main Reasons for the Conflict 1) Nationalism: Many different ethnic groups wanted to

break away from being ruled by other nations and form their own.

2) Imperialism: European countries had been very busy in the previous century gathering up land throughout the world and now there was little land left for them to take over.

3) Militarism: An arms race was developed in Europe due to countries feeling the need to defend themselves against countries that would threaten what they own.

4) Alliance System: A series of complex alliances would pull every country into war, even if it did not directly involve them.

Specific IncidentSpecific Incident The one specific incident

that can account for the start of the war was when Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by a slavic Nationalist in 1914.

War then engulfed the major countries of Europe.

United States InvolvementUnited States Involvement The US was an ocean away

from the conflict and chose to stay out of it.

President Wilson felt the we had nothing to do with it.

But, both sides took advantage of the American neutrality (the allies would take more advantage).

British ships blockaded Germany, so the US quadrupled it’s exports to Britain.

German RetaliationGerman Retaliation The Germans would

retaliate with a new weapon called the U-boat.

U-boats began to sink unarmed ships (unrestricted submarine warfare).

LusitaniaLusitania The British passenger

liner, the Lusitania, was sunk in 1915 by German U-boats.

128 Americans died. In 1916, the Sussex was

suck and numerous Americans were injured and killed.

This led to the Sussex Pledge in which Germany agreed not to sink unarmed merchant ships without warning.