Europe Plunges Into War
A Bloody Stalemate
In the fall of 1914, the war turned into a stalemate. The northern part of France where the war was being fought became known as the Western Front.
The Battle on the Eastern Front
Setting The Stage:
The Great War Begins
The Eastern Front was a stretch of battlefield along the German and Russian border.
Nations Take Sides
Russians and Serbs battled Germans and Austro-Hungarians there.
The Germans developed the Schlieffen Plan as a strategy to fight the war on two fronts.
In 1914, Europe was divided into two rival camps; one alliance being the Triple Entente which was composed of Great Britain, France, and Russia. While the other alliance called the Triple Alliance was composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. These pledges were never broke which caused such a destructive war by Austria-Hungary’s declaring war against Serbia.
The plan was to defeat France in the west first, and then go east and attack Russia. The Russian railroad system was not as advanced as other countries', so the Germans felt they could carry out their plan.
Early Fighting
The war started with Russian forces launching an attack into both Austria and Germany. Germany counterattacked near Tannenberg.
At first it looked like Germany would be able to accomplish this, but when they started to approach Paris, the Allies attacked them with everything they had and caused them to retreat. This showed that Germany would not be able to quickly defeat France and Ruined Schleffen Plan.
Why did Germany attack France first?
France was more advanced and had better railroads than Russia, so the Germans saw them as a bigger threat.
During the four-day battle, the Germans crushed the Russian army and drove it into full retreat. More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed.
The Russians defeated the Austrians twice in September of 1914. In December of that year, the Austrians defeated the Russians and pushed them out of Austria-Hungary.
By 1915, both armies on the Western Front had dug miles of trenches. This was the beginning of trench warfare. In trench warfare, armies traded heavy losses for very small land gains.
Russia Struggles
In 1916, Russia had yet to become industrialized. This resulted in them being short in food, guns, ammunition, clothes, boots, and blankets.
The Allied supply shipments to Russia were limited by German control of the Baltic Sea, combined with Germany's relentless submarine campaign in the North Sea and beyond.
Russia began to move in towards Austria-Hungary and Germany because of their Declaration of War against their ally Serbia. Because of this, Germany felt very threatened and wanted to declare war. They did exactly that on August 1st.
Now that Germany declared war on Russia, they reached out to France (their ally). Then, 2 days after Germany declared war on Russia, Germany also declared war on France. Soon afterward, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Now, most of Europe is under war.
It was now 1914, the war was very separated with Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side (Central Powers) with Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire joining later.
Life in the trenches was completely miserable. Leaving the trenches meant almost certain death, but soldiers could also be killed by artillery in the trench.
The other side of the war consisted of Great Britain, France, and Russia (Allies). In time, Japan would later join along with Italy switching sides to the Allies.
The Russian army suffered a number of losses on the battlefield, but it rebuilt itself from the country's large population.
For more than three years the Russian army managed to tie up hundreds of German troops
During the summer of 1914, soldiers would march to battle not knowing what they were getting themselves into. Little did they know this war would last must longer than they anticipated.
In 1916, Germany launched an attack against France. Each side lost over 300,000 men and neither side gained any more than five mile either way.
Fighting spread to Africa, as well as southern Asia. This made it a world war
Few knew what was in store with one of them being Britain’s foreign minister, Sir Edward Grey who said, “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
Weapons of War
Machine Gun
Tank
Poison Gas
Submarine
Poison gas was used by both sides. Some gases caused blindness or severe blistering, others choked soldiers to death.
Machine guns fire ammunition automatically, and could wipe out waves of attackers, making it difficult for forces to advance.
Tanks were armored combat vehicles that moved on chain tracks. They could cross many kinds of terrain.
Germany introduced the submarine in 1914. The submarine's primary use was to torpedo ships.
Why did Germany declare war on France?
They declared war on France because they are one of Russia's allies so they wanted to make the first move.
How did Russia's industrialization affect it's war effort?
What country had taken over territories that Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire wanted to regain?
Russia was short in all the supplies they needed to fight, therefore if they fought they had a good chance of losing even more supplies and people.
Why were land gains so small?
The Central Powers, including Austria-Hungary and Germany.
Any attempt to attack the enemy trenches would result in most of your forces being mowed down by machine gun fire.
Why might the war on the Eastern front have been more mobile than that on the Western Front?
The war on the Eastern Front was more mobile because there were more countries involved. It was a big war and it was in the middle of everything.
How did Sir Edward Grey know that this war was not going to be short and harmless?
Invasion - Germany on Russia and France
Leadership - Sir Edward Grey
Change
War
Conquest
Patterns
Conflict -There is conflict because the whole world is in a war.