World War One

INTRODUCTION

WWI started in 1914 and was a turning point in history. It ended the Russian Empire and led to the rise of communism. After the war was over, and Germany was left with the blame and debt, it led to another world war, and this time more lives will be lost, because of a treaty "built on quicksand."

OBJECTIVE

I hope to gain more in-depth knowledge about WWI and learn a little more about the social aspects of it.



Essential Question
Why was the Treaty of Versailles built on "quicksand"?

  - The Treaty was built on quicksand because it didn't create a lasting peace between the Allied and Central Powers. Unlike what Woodrow Wilson said this war was not the "war to end all wars", because it led to WWII because of Germany's unhappiness with the treaty. Germany was unhappy because they lost land, had to cut their armies down to 100,000, and had to get rid of their navy, all on top of taking the blame for the war and having to pay $33 billion for it. Lastly, Germany was also upset that they were not at the Congress of Versailles to be present when all this negotiation was taking place, which created further tension.

IMPORTANT PEOPLE

Archduke Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand was the Archduke of Austria, and heir to the Hapsburg throne. He was assassinated on June 28, 1914 by a young man name Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of the Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group. This assassination was considered to be the first shot of World War One.

Arthur Zimmermann - Arthur was the German foreign minister at the time of World War One. His role in the war helped provoke the United States to join the fight against the Central Powers. Zimmermann sent a telegram to Mexico in 1917 to try and coerce them into attacking the U.S. in exchange for an alliance and financial benefits. Mexico respectfully declined this offer. This attempt angered the United States, even though it was unsuccessful.

Woodrow Wilson - Wilson was the President of the United States during the first world war. He was apart of the Big Four at the Congress of Versailles, and was most famous for his Fourteen Points, which most of them were not even used, and for suggesting to start the League of Nations, which the U.S. never joined. He held a very neutral postition until the German's started using U-Boats and when the Zimmermann Telegram was published.

ARTWORK

Gassed and Wounded by Eric Kennington (1917)

This painting is depicting how horrible this war was. It show's the soldiers in unbearable pain and horrible conditions, which was what the real soldier endured on a day to day basis. It breaks your heart to think that people actually had to go through things like this.

La Mitrailleuse by Christopher Nevinson (1915)

This picture is showing the soldiers as almost mechanic-like themselves, just as the machine gun which first appeared in this war. This is what the soldiers turned into, machines, because it was their everyday life and they lost their individuality because their artist showed each man looking almost the same. 

Over the Top by John Nash (1918)

This is showing the harsh conditions of Trench Warfare, at it's worst. Being stuck in a whole for weeks at a time in the freezing cold, in the middle of a war, surrounded by your dead soldier brothers, is about as worse as it can get. This is what these men went through day in and day out, it was gruesome and deadly. This was World War One.

SPOTLIGHT ON: FASHION

Women's fashion changed drastically during this time period. Their clothing changed with their roles in modern society, wearing shorter dresses and skirts, and having shorter hair. The style became more relaxed and simpler due to the war, and the colors were not as bright. Dress length even reached to mid-calf which was pretty risque for these times, it was the first time this length had ever been touched.

Men's fashion was charaterized as extremely high waisted jackets, often worn with belts their lapels on suit jackets were not very wide because they tended to be buttoned up high.

U.S. EVENTS

On January 25, 1915, Alexander Graham Bell began transcontinental phone service with a call to Dr. Watson in San Francisco. This phone call changed and connected the world in a whole new way. This made the travel of news ACROSS THE WORLD, a whole lot faster. So, instead of waiting for a telegraph to arrive which was the base of communication, this would take over, for now.

 January 1, 1916, in Pasadena, California the first Rose Bowl football game took place. The teams were the Brown Bruins (0) and the Washingon State Cougars (14). In this game Fritz Pollard was recognized as the first African-American to play in the Rose Bowl game, and he did not do badly. Washington State ended up shutting out Brown 14-0, even with the field conditions being muddy and slippery due to excessive rain the few previous days. The MVP of this game was Carl Dietz from Washington State.

CONNECTION ACROSS TIME

As we learned in class, Germany took responsibility for the cause of the war, and took on the $33 billion dollar debt, which was to be paid off in installments, according to the Congress of Versailles. This debt was not paid off until October 3rd, 2010. That's almost 100 years later that this debt was paid off. Of course it might have been paid a little bit sooner if Hitler would not have taken over in WWII and refused to pay the debt. But it's really mind-blowing that it took that long to pay off and that is was really recent that this happened, it's amazing.