World War One“The war to end all wars”

- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson

The Sides

Allied Powers Central Powers

Britain Germany

France Austria-Hungary

Russia (1917 exit) Ottoman Empire

United States (1917 entry) Bulgaria

Italy

Japan, Belgium, Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Czechoslovak legions

The Fronts• WWI is fought on two main fronts (contested area

where the two sides are fighting) – the Eastern Front and the Western Front.

Trench Warfare• The soldiers live in holes in the ground, separated by “no-man’s-

land.”

• The trenches include barbed wire, machinegun nests, gun batteries and heavy artillery.

War of Attrition

• Very few armies were able to break through and the war becomes a war of attrition (each side tries to wear the other down).

• Since the war in Europe was a stalemate, both sides tried to widen the war by getting more countries involved.• Allies declare war on the Ottoman Empire and

British forces defeat them in the Middle East.• Japan seizes German colonies in the Pacific

Ocean.

United States• U.S. had remained neutral but were pulled in because of the naval

war in the Atlantic.

• Both sides had blockaded the other and the Germans were sending submarines to attack all ships crossing the Atlantic (unrestricted submarine warfare)

The End of the War

• With 2 million American troops, the Allies were able to push Germany back.

• 11:11 AM, 11/11/1918 – armistice ends the fighting

WWI• 65 million soldiers involved in the war

• 37 million casualties (dead or wounded)

ALLIED POWERS

Country Killed Total Casualties

Russia 1,700,000 9,150,000

Britain 908,371 3,190,235

France 1,357,800 6,160,800

Italy 650,000 2,197,000

United States

116,516 323,018

TOTAL 5,142,631 22,062,427

CENTRAL POWERS

Country Killed Total Casualties

Germany 1,773,700 7,142,558

Austria-Hungary

1,200,000 7,020,000

Turkey 325,000 975,000

TOTAL 3,386,200 15,404,477

Important Outcomes of WWI

• The Allies were not willing to negotiate with the German Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhem II and so the people, tired of war, overthrew him and created a democratic republic.

• Poverty and loss of life in Russia is one of the causes of the Russian Revolution.

Important Outcomes of WWI

• Treaty of Versailles (dealt just with the Germans)• Forced to accept responsibility for causing the war

(along with Austria and Hungary)• Had to disarm and give up territory• Forced to pay an enormous amount in reparations

($442 billion in 2013)

• WWI is going to put Germany in a precarious position – it has not had time to acclimate as a democracy and an extreme depression will allow a militant regime to take over in the 1930s…

appeasement

• Appeasement – Britain and France wanted to avoid war so they continually give in to Hitler’s demands• Britain – realized the Treaty of Versailles was too

harsh towards Germany and was sympathetic• France – would not do anything without Britain• U.S. – dealing with the Great Depression and

trying to return to its isolationist stance

• Consequence: Hitler becomes confident that the Allies were weak and would not fight – no matter what he does

Germany invades poland

• September 1, 1939 – official beginning of the war

Key Players

Allied Powers Axis Powers

Britain (Chamberlin/Churchill) Germany (Hitler)

France (Charles de Gaulle) Italy (Mussolini)

U.S. (FDR) Japan (Tojo)

Soviet Union (Stalin)

China

15+ other countries…

European theater

Pearl harbor• December 7, 1941 – U.S. entry into WWII

Pacific theater

End of the war in europe

• June 1944 – D-Day – storming the beach at Normandy (to take back France from the Germans)

• December 1944 – Germany loses the Battle of the Bulge

• April 30, 1945 – Adolf Hitler commits suicide

• May 1945 – Germany surrenders

End of the war in the pacific

• August 1945 – US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan)

• September 1945 – Japan surrenders

Wwii deaths

Country Military Civilian Total

China 3-4 million 7-16 million 10-20 million

France 217,600 350,000 567,600

Germany 5.5 million 1.1-3.1 million 6.6-8.6 million

Italy 301,400 153,200 454,600

Japan 2.1 million 0.5-1 million 2.6-3.1 million

Soviet Union 8.8-10.7 million

12.7-14.6 million

23.4 million

United Kingdom

383,800 67,100 450,900

United States 416,800 1,700 418,500

TOTAL 22.4-25.5 million

37-54 million

62-78 million

The holocaust

• Hitler believed in a “Master Race” of blond-haired, blue-eyed Germans and saw the Jews as a race of people that was inferior and a threat to this idea.

• “The Final Solution”: To solve the “Jewish problem”, Hitler and the Nazi Party created a system of concentration camps where Jews and other “undesirable people” were taken and held hostage or murdered.

• These camps were liberated near the end of WWII by the Allied Powers.

The holocaust

• 1933: 9 million Jews in Europe

• 1945: 3 million Jews in Europe

• The Nazis are responsible for the murder of 12 million civilians: 6 million Jews + 6 million other “undesirable people”• Political enemies of the Nazis• Communists• Slavic people (eastern European)• Homosexuals• Etc.

Major consequences of the war

• Deadliest conflict in human history

• Cost of war caused the decline of European power – decolonization in Asia and Africa

• United Nations (UN) created to replace the League and prevent a future conflict

• U.S. and Soviet Union emerge as the two superpowers – leading to the Cold War