1914 - 1918

 There have been two World Wars in history.

 During the First World War (WWI) the
countries of Britain, France, Italy and Russia
(called the Triple Entente or Allied Powers)
fought against Germany, Austria-Hungary and
Turkey (called the Triple Alliance or Central
Powers.)
 The colonies of the Allied Powers and Central
Powers also fought in the war. This made it not
just a European war, but a World War.
M – Militarism
A – Alliances
N – Nationalism
I – Imperialism
A - Assassination
 Germany was competing with the UK to
build battleships
 The British feared an attack on their Empire
 Germany was competing with Russia and
France to expand her armies
Country Army in 1880 Army in 1914
Germany 1.3m 5.0m
France 0.73m 4.0m
Russia 0.40m 1.2m
 Britain had one of the best-trained and equipped armies in
Europe
 - Great Britain had the largest navy in 1900 – to protect the
British Empire
 - However, Britain was beginning to realise that it did not
have enough resources to protect its vast Empire
 - In particular, Britain was worried about the growing size of
the Germany Navy
 - The British Government was determined that their navy
should remain the biggest
 - Soon an arms race to build new battleships began between
Britain and Germany
 - In 1906, Britain launched HMS Dreadnought, a new
battleship that was stronger and faster than any other ship
 built before
 - Soon Germany also began to build ‘Dreadnoughts’ as well
Triple Entente Triple Alliance

Great Britain Germany

France Austria-
Hungary
Russia Turkey

Changed sides
Italy
later
 Between 1900 and 1914 the
great powers of Europe
became suspicious of each
other
 Began to increase the size of
their armed services - this
turned into an arms race
 Both France and Britain
were afraid of the Kaiser’s
ambition to build a larger
German Empire
 The only way that Germany
could achieve this in 1914
was by attacking and taking
other European countries
colonies
 Eventually, each of the
great powers realised that if
there was going to be a war
they would need friends
and allies to help them
defeat their enemies.
 The idea of having pride in or devotion to one’s
country was developing in Germany.
 Pan-Germanism - movement to unify the people
of all German speaking countries.
 By the end of the 19th century, European
countries were in competition to be the
strongest, richest and most powerful.
Nationalism grew in all European countries.
 All the great
powers were
competing for
colonies / territory
 The British feared
Germany in Africa
 The Austrians
feared Serbia /
Russia in the
Balkans
 In 1900 a large Empire was important
not only for trade but also national
prestige
 The larger your empire, the more
important your country was
 In 1800 France and Britain both had
large empires, and these continued
to grow throughout the nineteenth
century
 In the 1870s Italy and Germany
became united countries for the first
time
 They too wanted an overseas empire
 The result was that in the years up to
1900 competition between European
powers grew more intense
 There was a scramble for territory,
especially in Africa with its rich
minerals and resources
 This competition for colonies
(countries controlled by European
power) caused several disputes
 None of these arguments lead to a
war but they did lead to resentment
and caused bad relations between
some European countries
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the
next in line to be emperor (ruler) of
Austria-Hungary. On 28 June 1914,
he visited Sarajevo, the capital of
Bosnia-Herzegovina, a territory
controlled by Austria-Hungary.
Many people living in Bosnia-
Herzegovina wanted to be
independent from Austria-Hungary
and to unite with a nearby area
called Serbia.
 A Serbian organisation called the Black
Hand planned to kill Franz Ferdinand
when he visited Sarajevo. They
thought this would help Bosnia-
Herzegovina become independent.

 Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie,

arrived in Sarajevo and were driving
around in a car with the top rolled
back as part of a procession to the City
Hall. Assassins from the Black Hand
stood amongst the crowd waiting for
an opportunity to kill Ferdinand.
 On the way, a member of the Black Hand aimed a grenade at the
Archduke’s car but it exploded under the next car. The occupants
of the car were seriously injured. The driver of the Archduke’s car
drove as quickly as he could to the City Hall.

 Gavrilo Princip had attended the procession with the aim of

assassinating Franz Ferdinand. When the Archduke and his wife
left the City Hall, Princip was waiting for them with a gun in his
pocket. When they drove past him, he shot them dead.
[Link]
Six weeks after Franz
Ferdinand was
assassinated, the
whole of Europe was
at war. This was
mainly due to the
alliances that were
formed before the
war.
 After the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia on 28 July 1914. Russia had made an alliance with
Serbia before the war so they sent their army to assist Serbia.
 Germany then declared war on Russia to help their friend
and ally Austria-Hungary.
 France prepared its army to help their ally, Russia.
 Germany then declared war on France. The Germans hoped
to defeat the French quickly before the Russian army was
ready to fight.
 Belgium had signed an agreement with Britain that if they
were attacked, Britain would help them.
 Germany did not believe that Britain would want to defend a
small country like Belgium, so Germany took the chance and
marched through Belgium on its way to attack France.
 Britain warned Germany to leave Belgium. When they did
not, Britain declared war on Germany. World War I (which
was also called The Great War) had begun.
 1. Who were the Black Hand and
what were their aims?
2. If Gavrilo Princip had not shot
the Archduke, do you think he
would have been safe for the
remainder of his time in
Sarajevo? Give a reason for
your answer.
3. Discuss how Source B could be
considered useful to a
historian researching the
assassination of the Archduke.
Give one limitation of the
source.
4. Refer to Source C. Identify
TWO alliances in the source.
5. Explain how the situation
discussed in Source B led to
the situation in Source C.
6. Why do you think WWI was
[Link] called ”The Great War”?
Propaganda

Countries fighting in the war used

propaganda to get men to sign up for the
war. Propaganda is making people
believe what you want them to believe
(brainwashing.)

In World War I British posters and

newspaper articles tried to persuade the
people that:
 The Germans were evil
 Men had a duty to fight for their
country
 Men had a duty to protect women
and children.
 When the war first began, thousands of young British men were
eager to join the armed forces and volunteered to fight against
Germany.

 As the war dragged on, more and more soldiers had died or been
seriously injured. Britain needed more soldiers to serve in the army
so in 1916 they introduced conscription (compulsory military
service.) This meant that all men between the ages of 18 and 41
years could be called on to serve in the military for a time.

 The British government tried to make the men believe that it was
their duty to their country to serve in their army. They needed to be
prepared to risk their lives to protect Britain.

 Many men were given war duties that didn’t involve physical
fighting, like working in factories producing ammunition and
weapons. In 1918, the British army had about 3.9 million men.
Almost half of this army was nineteen years old or younger.
[Link]
[Link]
An estimated 16 000 men refused to fight in World
War I. They were called conscientious objectors.
These are people who refuse to work in the armed
forces because they believe that war is morally
wrong.

There were many types of conscientious objectors:

 Pacifists who were against violence of any kind.
 Political objectors did not believe that the
government of Germany was their enemy.
 Religious objectors believed that war and fighting
was against their religion. Groups in this section
were the Quakers and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Men who did not join the
army were made to feel
really guilty. They were
made to feel like cowards
and traitors. Some of
them were punished for
not joining the army.
Others were humiliated.
The British government
even encouraged women
to hand out white feathers
to men who were not in
uniform. This was meant
to shame them. [Link]
ZCQ
On 3 August 1914 the
Germans invaded
Belgium. They had a
plan to get to Paris and
defeat the French army
in 6 weeks.

The French and British

armies were ordered
to meet the advancing
Germans. Together
these two armies
stopped the Germans
from reaching Paris.
The German commander
decided that his troops
must hold onto those
parts of France and
Belgium that Germany
had conquered. He
ordered his men to dig
trenches in the ground.
The soldiers could take
shelter in these trenches
and be protected from
the gun and cannon fire
of the French and British
troops.
Frontline trenches were too deep for soldiers to see over
the top. That’s why they built fire-steps, so that they
could see and fire at the enemy. They would have a thick
line of sandbags on top of the parapet (the front of the
trench) and the parados (the back of the trench) to absorb
any bullets that were fired by the enemy.

The frontline trenches were also protected with barbed-

wire entanglements and machine-gun posts. The trenches
often became filled with water. To try to solve this
problem, duckboards were put in the bottom of the
trenches. They were also there to protect men from getting
trenchfoot. Dugouts were built into the side of the trench
for some protection from the cold and rain, enemy fire
and to get some sleep.
 Many soldiers fighting suffered from
trench foot
 This was an infection of the feet
caused by cold, wet and insanitary
conditions
 In the trenches men stood for hours
on end in waterlogged trenches
without being able to remove wet
socks or boots
 The feet would gradually go numb
and the skin would turn red or blue
 If untreated, trench foot could turn
gangrenous and result in amputation
 Trench foot was a particular problem
in the early stages of the war
 During the winter of 1914-15 over
20,000 men in the British Army were
treated for trench foot
 Brigadier-General Frank Percy
Crozier argued that: " The fight
against the condition known as
trench-feet had been incessant and an
uphill game."
Soldiers on the Western Front
spent their time between
three different locations:
 the frontline trenches

 a few days in reserve

trenches behind the
frontline trenches; and
 some time away from the
trenches in the nearby
towns and villages.
Soldiers were only meant to spend a
few days in the dangerous frontline
trenches, but this could be much
longer if they were under enemy
attack. They were often short of
sleep because of the fighting, cold
weather, terrible conditions and
diseases.

During the day, if an attack was not

taking place, soldiers were often
bored. They had duties such as
filling sandbags, but they often
spent their time playing cards or
writing letters to people at home.
Once troops on both
sides decided to build
trenches to protect
themselves from snipers
and gunfire, all
movement stopped. It
was a STALEMATE.

This is a situation in which neither group involved

in a war can win or get an advantage and no
action can be taken.
[Link]
[Link]
To break the stalemate, both sides developed
new technologies in the hope of saving their
soldiers’ lives and winning the war.

We are going to look at four examples:

- Heavy Guns

- Gas

- Tanks

- Aircraft
 In the trenches, the weapon carried by
all British soldiers was the boltaction
rifle
 It was possible for the soldier to fire15
rounds per minute and could kill
someone up to 1,400 metres away
 Unlike today, machine guns were not
the main weapons of soldiers
 They needed 4-6 men to man them in
1914
 They could fire up to 400 rounds per
minute and had the fire power of 100
guns
 Artillery is the word used to describe
large-calibre mounted field guns
(calibre is the diameter of the barrel)
 As a result of the stalemate long-range
weapons were needed that could
deliver devastating blows to the
enemy
 They needed crews of up to 12 men to
work them – the shells weighed up to
408kg
 The German army was the first to use
chlorine in 1915 at Ypres
 French soldiers had not come across this
before and assumed that it was a smoke
screen
 Distinctive smell – (pepper and pineapple) –
they only realised they were being gassed
when they started to have chest pains and a
burning sensation in their throats
 Very painful death – suffocation
 Poison gases depended on suitable weather
conditions
 Allied forces discovered that urine-soaked
cotton pads neutralised the chlorine
 Mustard gas was the most deadly biological
weapon that was used in the trenches
 Odourless - 12 hours to take effect
 It was also very powerful, only small
amounts needed to be added to shells to be
effective and it remained active for several
weeks when it landed in the soil
 Makes the skin blister, burns the eyes and
causes vomiting
 Also causes internal and external bleeding
and would target the lungs
 Could take up to 5 weeks to die
 The tank was a British invention. It could crash through barbed wire and
spray the enemy with gun fire. A tank managed in twelve hours to advance
into the enemy territory a distance that soldiers on foot would have taken
three months to achieve. This helped to break the stalemate.

Fun Fact

When the British invented

the tanks, they wanted to
keep their invention a secret
from the Germans. They
codenamed it ‘tank’ so that
the Germans would think
they were developing a
water carrier!
 Zeppelins (blimps) were airships and
were used during the early part of the
war in bombing raids by the Germans
 These airships weighed 12 200kg and
contained over 400,000 cubic feet of
hydrogen
 They were propelled along by 2
Daimler engines, which enabled the
craft to travel at speeds of up to
136mph and heights of 4250 metres
 They usually carried machine guns
and around 2000 kgs of bombs
 They carried out many raids and were
eventually abandoned as they were
easy targets for enemy artillery
War time is an emotional time for both
soldiers and civilians. Men felt fear and
hope, hatred for the enemy and love – for
fellow soldiers, for women and children
left behind, for their country and for their
cause. Many of these feelings were
expressed in poetry and music.

War poetry: poems that are about war.

They are written during a war.

War songs: songs that were sung in the

trenches. The men sang about their
experiences. They also sang to remind
themselves of their lives back home.
'It's a long way to Tipperary'

It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go.

It's a long way to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I
know.
Good-bye, Piccadilly,
Farewell Leicester Square.
It's a long long way to Tipperary, but my heart's
right there.

[Link]
M86th4lOXhMQN8wDWYAt
The Survivors - Siegfried Sassoon

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain

Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again,'--
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

Another example:

[Link]
When World War I broke out, South Africa (which was
once a British colony) sided with Britain and went to
war against Germany. White and black men volunteered
for service in the armed forces, but black men were
forbidden to carry weapons. Black, coloured and Indian
men served as non-combatants (soldiers who
participated in the war, but did not carry weapons.)
 In 1916, Delville Wood in France (called Devil’s Wood’ by Allied troops) was
under German control.
 The South African Brigade was given the job of capturing the wood in July 1916.
 On 15 July 1916 at dawn the South African soldiers went in to Delville Wood and
were involved in a heavy battle. They cleared the southern edge of the Wood of
German forces. The rest of the wood was still in German hands.
 Hand to hand fighting took place until the South Africans were relieved by
another group of soldiers on 19 July. They had lost 766 men.
 Throughout rainy weather and enemy gunfire (400 shells a minute,) the
surrounding landscape was transformed into a mess of broken, stumpy tree
stumps and massive shell holes.
 Mud and rainwater covered bodies of South African and German soldiers. Many
of the bodies are still in the wood today.
 Delville Wood was the most costly action the South African Brigade fought during
WWI.
 After the War, South Africa bought the site in 1920. It is a memorial to the South
Africans that died there and elsewhere during the war. Today the wood and
nearby memorial is looked after by the South African Government. The Delville
Wood Cemetery contains 5,493 graves. Most of these are unknown.
The Mendi was a battleship that carried black South Africans to the battlefield on
the Western Front.

The soldiers on board the Mendi were from rural areas in the Eastern Cape. They
were expected to dig trenches, carry stretchers, repair roads and carry out other
hard labour.

The Mendi sailed from Cape Town for France on 16 January 1917, carrying troops
of the 5th Battalion, the South African Native Labour Corps. It stopped in England
before crossing the English Channel. But it did not make it to the Western Front.
Source H
Source I
The information of what happened on the
Mendi has been passed on verbally
through generations of black South
Africans (oral history.) 21 February is
often remembered in some African
communities as Mendi Day.

Many of the relatives of the warriors who

died never received official notification
from the British Government about what
happened to their loved ones. They never
received a word of thanks in recognition
of the sacrifice the men made or any
compensation, not even an apology.

There are now many memorials that have

been built to honour the men who died on
the Mendi.
1. Draw a spider diagram on the Battle of Delville Wood.
Make sure it includes: when it happened, where it
happened, who was involved, and what they did.
2. 2. What evidence is there that the South Africans
fought bravely in the Battle of Delville Wood?
3. Read Source H. Why do you think that the sinking of
the Mendi is such a little-known event in history?
4. Read Source H and Source I. How do these sources
differ regarding what caused the sinking of the
Mendi?
5. How have the people who died in the Mendi been
honoured?
Before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, a
woman's role in the workplace was quite limited.
Jobs for women were:

 Domestic labour
 Nursing
 Teaching
 Agricultural work (if their family owned a
small holding.)

Some women worked in factories but they did

basic and repetitive tasks and were paid less than
men.

WWI changed the role of women in the workplace

forever. Because more and more young men went
to join the armed forces to fight in the war, women
were used to replace the men in the factories,
mines and other roles.
The Women's Army

Women joined the Auxilliary Armies so that the men

could go and fight on the front line. Women were
used for :

 communication
 cooking and catering
 storekeeping
 administration
 motor vehicle maintenance
 truck and ambulance driving
Women’s Land Army

During the war, food supplies from overseas

decreased so Britain had to start growing more of its
own food. Women joined the ‘Women’s Land Army’
to provide a workforce to run the farms. Millions of
working class women ran farms across Europe
during the war.

Nursing on the Front Line

With so many men fighting in the trenches, there

were hundreds wounded every day. Nurses were
brought to the front line to help treat the wounded.
Being on the front line, these women faced dangers
like being hit by a stray bullet or even shelled during
an enemy attack. Many of these women were killed
while they were carrying out their duties.
Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Even with their new duties, women

still found the time to write to their
sons, boyfriends, husbands, brothers
and friends who were fighting on the
front line.
Some women even sent them
momentos from home such as:

 pressed flowers from the garden

 photographs
 embroidered handkerchiefs
Women got used to socializing without men. They went
out in groups without chaperones. They became more
confident socially. Some even smoked in public. Skirts
became shorter and manners more relaxed. Women had
proved that they were able to do the same jobs as men.
They had kept the country going and they had become
more independent. They enjoyed the variety of jobs they
had been involved in, and liked earning their own money.
Although when the men returned from fighting, the
women had to give their jobs back to them, women had
proved that they should be taken seriously. This was
clearly shown when women over the age of 30 were given
the vote in Britain in 1918.

[Link]
The move for women to have the vote started in 1897 when
Millicent Fawcett founded the National Union of Women's
Suffrage. "Suffrage" means the right to vote and that is
what women wanted.

Millicent Fawcett believed in peaceful protest. She felt that

any violence or trouble would make men believe that
women could not be trusted to have the right to vote.

 She argued that it didn’t make sense that women could

hold responsible posts in society such as sitting on
school boards but could not be trusted to vote.
 She argued that if parliament made laws and if women
had to obey those laws, then women should be part of
the process of making those laws.
 She argued that as women had to pay taxes as men,
they should have the same rights as men.
 She argued that wealthy mistresses of large manors
and estates employed gardeners, workmen and
labourers who could vote but the women could not
regardless of how wealthy they were.
However, Fawcett made very slow progress.
She convinced some of the members of
parliament but most of them believed that
women simply would not understand how
Parliament worked and therefore should not
take part in the electoral process.

Many women were angry about this and in

1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union
was founded by Emmeline (Emily) Pankhurst
and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia.

They wanted women to have the right to vote

and they were not prepared to wait. The Union
became better known as the Suffragettes.
Members of the Suffragettes were prepared to
use violence to get what they wanted.
In Emily Pankhurst’s autobiography she wrote:

"This was the beginning of a campaign the like

of which was never known in England, or for
that matter in any other country.....we
interrupted a great many meetings......and we
were violently thrown out and insulted. Often
we were painfully bruised and hurt."
The Suffragettes:

 burned down churches (as the Church of

England was against what they wanted.)
 vandalized Oxford Street, (breaking all
the windows in this famous street.)
 chained themselves to Buckingham
Palace as the Royal Family were seen to
be against women having the right to
vote.
 hired out boats, sailed up the Thames and
shouted abuse through loud hailers at
Parliament.
 refused to pay their taxes.
 attacked politicians as they went to work
and their homes were fire bombed.
 vandalised golf courses.
[Link]
 Suffragettes were quite happy to get
arrested. In prison they went on a
hunger strike. The government was
very concerned that they might die
in prison which would give them the
British people’s sympathy. Prison
governors were ordered to force feed
Suffragettes but this caused a public
outcry as forced feeding was
traditionally used to feed patients in
mental institutions.

 In August 1914, Emily Pankhurst

told the Suffragettes to stop their
campaign of violence and support
the government and its war effort.
In January, 1917, the British government
began discussing the possibility of granting
women the vote. Herbert Asquith, the Prime
Minister, had always been against women
having the vote but he had changed his
mind and now supported the women.

On 28th March, 1917, the British

government voted that women could vote if:

 they were over the age of 30

 were householders or the wives of
householders
 were occupiers of property with an
annual rent of £5
 graduates of British universities
 The first opportunity for women to vote was in the
General Election in 1918. A woman, Constance
Markiewicz, was even elected to take a seat in
Parliament. She turned it down, but it was a huge
step for women’s rights.
 Women in most western countries were given the
right to vote after WWI. In South Africa, white
women got the vote in 1930. When did black
women get the right to vote?
 Why is it important for women to have the right to
vote?

[Link]
The war ended in 1918. It was clear that Germany
was losing the war so the German government
(the new Weimar Republic) signed an armistice
(a peace agreement) and agreed to stop fighting.
The leaders of the countries who fought in the war
had a meeting to discuss what would happen to
Germany. This was called the Paris Peace
Conference. A peace treaty called the Treaty of
Versailles was drafted there and the Germans were
forced to sign it. The terms of the treaty were very
harsh. You will learn more about this in grade 9 –
stay tuned!