Monday -
Causes of WWI
- Mutual Defense Alliances - (i.e. Germany and Austria-Hungary)
- Imperialism - (taking over places in Africa)
- Nationalism - Pride for your country, thinking your country is the best
- Militarism - (Arms race, essential for national strength)
- Immediate cause - Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (alliances caused more countries to intervene than just the original two (Serbia and Austria-Hungary))
Alliances
- Central Powers - Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman-Empire
- Allies - Russia, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Montenegro, Romania, Portugal, Cuba, and the United States
Strategies
- Schlieffen Plan - 90% of Germany's armed forces to attack France. The rest of the Germans were sent to stop any Russian advance
- Plan 17 - French Army to advance into Lorraine and Ardennes. Ultimate goal was to take over Germany.
- Plan 19 - Russian troops were to immediately invade Prussia to stop the advance of German Troops into France
Germany's Goal For The War
- Germany wanted to weaken France due to them being rivals for decades
- They also wanted to annex the land from Belgium so they could turn it into a vessel for the German Empire
- Germany as well as Austria-Hungary wanted to become a colonial power during the war
Tuesday -
Causes for Involvement
- Invasions of neutral Belgium - German had killed unarmed civilian and they had destroyed whole villages - those atrocity stories were mostly Propaganda from the British people though
- American Ties - America had much stronger ties with countries belonging to the Allies
- German attempt to get Mexico in an allegiance against the US - German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman sent telegram to Mexico proposing an allegiance so they would fight the US
- Nye Committee - this US Senate committee investigated if the bankers, the industry and money finally push Woodrow Wilson to join WWI; revealed that big businesses producing weapons and armor wanted to make profit by joining the war; could never find any evidence though that Wilson was involved in that and influenced by those financial reasons
Major Battles
- Battle of Somme Offensive - August 8th - November 11th 1918. Purpose - Take control of a 24km stretch of the river. Who - British and French against the Germans. 57,470 casualties. No clear winner to the battle.
Wednesday -
Civilian Effort
- Victory Garden
- Victory Speed Limits
- Conserving Food - especially meats
- Saving Materials
- Using less and giving more
Herbert Hoover
- Food Administrator
- Chairman of the commission for relief in Belgium
- Food policies
Food Administration
- Food rationing
- "Food Will Win The War"
- 18,500,000 tons of food to allies
Thursday -
Airplanes
- Recon - spy
- 2 types - Bomber and Fighter Planes
- Dogfights
Recon War Blimps
- Germany, France, and Italy used them
- Germany most effective
- Also used in Naval Battles
Fokker Eindecker
- German airplane
- Interrupter
- Big advantage
- French made same thing later on
Gotha Bomber
- First German Long Range Bomber
- 500 miles
- First big bomber of its time
Manfred Von Richtofen
- Red Baron
- Most famous German Ace
- Most in WWI 80 confirmed kills
- Died at the age of 25
Eddie RickenBacker
- American Ace
- Top US Ace with 26 confirmed kills
- Survived WWI
Georges Guynemer
- French Ace
- Died at the age of 22
- 53 confirmed kills
Mick Mannock
- British Ace
- 61 confirmed kills
- Died at the age of 31
Tanks
- 1st use of tanks as a combat system
- UK, France, Germany, Italy, America had them
Set Backs of Tanks
- Slow, hot, noisy, hard to breathe, bad communication
Friday -
Presented Wilson's 14 Points
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