YEAR 10 HISTORY

WORLD WAR 1
3. THE COURSE OF
WORLD WAR ONE
After the murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
June 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
The countries of Europe found that the alliances they had
formed dragged them into war.
In August 1914, Germany invaded France through Belgium,
using its plan for war ‒ the Schlieffen Plan.
The German attack was forced back at the Battle of the
Marne in September 1914.
Both sides dug defensive trenches and the war ground to a
halt.
For the next four years, the war on the Western Front
consisted of a deadly stalemate.
The battles of Verdun and the Somme in 1916 and
Passchendaele in 1917 were key events where each side tried
to wear the other side down.
In 1917, the Americans entered the war.
Before they could arrive, the Germans made another attack in
March 1918.
It was successful at the start, but the Germans failed to break
through.
They were pushed back in August 1918.
Two months later the Germans signed the Armistice.
A number of different factors contributed to a situation
where the First World War could break out.
Germany had been made up of a number of separate states
but became a united 'empire' in 1871 by defeating and
humiliating France in the Franco-Prussian War.
This gave Germany greater strength to develop.
After 1900, Germany built up its navy - this frightened the
British.
In 1901, Kaiser Wilhelm II demanded an overseas empire for
Germany – this frightened Britain and France.
Germany wanted to build a railway through the Balkans to
Baghdad – this alarmed the Russians, who said they were the
protectors of the Balkans.
Germany's military defence plan – the Schlieffen Plan –
involved attacking and defeating France quickly and then
turning its armies on Russia.
The Turkish Empire in the Balkans collapsed:
Nationalist interests became clear when the new nation of
Serbia clashed with Austria-Hungary.
Austria-Hungary and Russia clashed because they both
wanted more power in the Balkans.
Two opposing groups had grown up by 1914, believing that a
'balance of power' would prevent war:
• The Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy
(1882).
• The Triple Entente of France, Russia and Great Britain
(1907).
The War had five phases.
The Germans invaded France, but were stopped at the Battle
of the Marne (September 1914).
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) helped to stop the
Germans at the Battle of Mons (23 August 1914).
The Russians invaded Germany but were destroyed at the
Battle of Tannenberg (August 1914).
German soldiers (wearing distinctive pickelhaube helmets with cloth covers) on the front at the First
Battle of the Marne during World War I, taken in September 1914. Possibly staged for the camera
due to the wearing of medals, which according to the source was not common practice in battle.
The Race to the Sea happened between September and
November 1914.
On the Western Front, both sides dug a 400-mile line of
trenches from Switzerland to the English Channel.
Soldiers had to put up with constantly being wet, being
pestered by rats, and illnesses.
There was a stalemate (neither side could defeat the other).
On the Western Front, attacks on the German trenches led to
huge casualties.
Britain's attempt to open up a 'Second Front' at Gallipoli in
Turkey was a failure.
The two sides simply tried to wear each other down:
Huge battles, eg Verdun and the Somme in 1916,
Passchendaele in 1917, lasted many months.
Thousands of men died or were wounded. New weapons, eg
poison gas, tanks and aeroplanes failed to make much effect.
There were terrible conditions in the trenches and many
casualties from machine gun and artillery fire.
Mud at the Battle of Passchendaele
The British blockaded German ports to try to starve the
Germans into surrender.
In October 1918 there was a revolution in Germany.
German U-boats tried to starve the British by sinking
merchant ships – but this angered the Americans.
German Zeppelins and Gotha planes bombed London.
The United States of America entered the war in 1917.
On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched Operation Michael –
a huge last-ditch attack.
On 8 August 1918, the German Army's 'Black Day', when their
attack was defeated.
The Allies, with the Americans, began to push back the
Germans.
The Allies and Germany signed a ceasefire, or 'armistice', at
11am on 11 November 1918.
In some ways, humankind has never recovered from the
horrors of the First World War.
Eight million soldiers died and many more were damaged
physically or mentally.
Nine million civilians died.
Twelve million tons of shipping was sunk.
On the Western Front, the war destroyed 300,000 houses,
6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway and 112 coal mines.
Remembrance Day began and poppies were used to
symbolise those who had lost their lives fighting.
Germany had not technically surrendered and was outraged
by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles – this helped to cause:
• The Second World War. Some historians suggest that there
were not two world wars, but only one, with a long
ceasefire in between.
• Hitler's rise to power.
• The War helped make Britain more democratic. There was
an attitude that Britain needed to be 'a home fit for heroes.'
A Labour government was elected in 1924. All men and
women over 21 were given the vote in 1928.
Did Germany really cause the war?
The Treaty of Versailles which ended the war blamed
Germany for the outbreak of war (Clause 231). During the
1920s, however, American historians such as Sydney
Bradshaw Fay blamed forces such as nationalism and
alliances. After the Second World War, historians such as the
British historian AJP Taylor (1954) and the German historian
Fritz Fischer (1961) blamed Germany – they said there was a
'will to war' in Germany.
However, the debate goes on – recent historians have blamed
Austria, Russia, and even Britain. What do you think caused
the First World War? Who – or what – do you blame? Was war
avoidable?
Were there any critics of the war?
In the 1930s, criticisms of the war became popular.
The anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon
became widely accepted as representing the typical feelings
of men in the trenches.
Poems such as Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen
portrayed the war as a pointless waste of young men's lives.
How have the traditional interpretations been revised?
However, in 1963, the historian John Terraine set about
correcting what he thought were the myths of the war.
He argued that Haig was not incompetent, but a good
commander who cared about his soldiers.
Haig was faced with the problem that there did not exist at
that time any weapon which could win the war without the
loss of many lives. This is the view that most serious
historians take of the war nowadays.
What is your interpretation of the conduct of the First World
War? Was Haig a butcher and bungler, or Britain's greatest
general?
When we think of the First World War, we often think of
flooded trenches, artillery bombardments, suicidal rushes
across No Man's Land, poison gas, mud and gangrene.
However, there were other theatres of war, eg eastern
Europe, Gallipoli, the Middle East, Africa and at sea.
The First World War was one of history's epic conflicts, and
you may wish to compare it to other major wars such as the
Second World War.