WORLD WAR I

Background
 1900 most countries in Europe had industrialised and factories were wide spread
specially in America and Germany.
 Steel production had expanded greatly so most countries began to acquire colonies in
Asia and Africa for raw materials, market, labour and investment.
 Competition emerged against great powers and tension was brewing, one stepping on
each other’s feet inevitably.
 This coupled with number of reasons and led to the outbreak of the war. It is called
world war because it affected almost all countries in the world and almost every
country participated either actively or passively.
 It was fought over four continents; all previous wars had been limited to small areas
within a single continent like the Franco- Prussian war.
 Every able-bodied individual was involved in one way or another, before then
soldiers were the only ones that fought in wars, so almost everyone was involved.
 It was fought everywhere sea, land, in the air and under water then it was largely a
land affair.
 It introduced new deadly weapons which killed people on a large scale e.g. poisonous
gas, tanks, submarines etc. it involved children and women, first time women were
involved in armament factories.
 Entire industrial resources were used to produce death and destruction e.g. iron and
steel were required to build vehicles and weapons for war.
 It was also the first to kill millions of people and left thousands alive blind, crippled,
mad and hungry.

Why Britain abandoned splendid isolation

 Insecurity since other countries were forming alliances.
 The need to control Russian expansion to the east.
 Germany looked for colonies next to British ones.
 Germany gunboat diplomacy (Germany built a lot of warships).
 British naval superiority began being threatened by Japan and USA.
 British rivalry with France was not a good one due to rivalry in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Background of European countries

Britain
 She controlled the sea and had an extensive empire; as such her economy was strong
and vibrant.
 A well industrialised country and advanced in technology.
 She followed the policy of splendid isolation which she however abandoned toward
the end of the 19th century.
Germany
 After the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 Germany became powerful, leading
militarily and economically.
 She overtook Britain in production of iron and steel required mostly in Industries.
 She pursued the welt politic policy of dividing the world into colonies.
 She was Britain’s nearest rival and she was an aggressive young nation and was
becoming a great threat to its neighbours.
 She built an army to match Frances and a navy to challenge Britain’s.

France
 She had her own problems.
 She had a deep wound resulting from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.
 Prussia was the leading state in Germany so it was actually Franco-German war.

Italy
 A young nation starting to industrialise.
 Its leaders were concerned about making Italy a great power though its resources
were hardly adequate to justify such a status.
 It lacked the economic strength and a strong army to compete with other powers on
equal basis.

Russia
It was a backward nation but was still hoping to expand.

Austria-Hungary
 Had been divided in two i.e. Austria and Hungary.
 Hungary was dominated by Magyar people and Austria being dominated by Germans.
 These two enjoyed privileges and were hated by other groups.
  It had about 11 nationalities of different racial origins, backgrounds, customs and
language e.g. Germans, Magyars, Czechs, Croats, Slovaks, Romanians and Serbs.
 The main task was to keep this fragmented empire together. There was unrest of
nationalism.

Balkans
 It was a Peninsula of mixed states and races.
 Most of the Balkans was once part of the Turkish empire.
 Most of the Balkan people belonged to the Slav race.
 Some Balkan states were under Austria whilst others were under the Turkish rule.
 Their guiding principle was, “the Balkans for the Balkan nations”. States included
Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria etc.
 The national feeling was nationalism.

Causes of World War I

Franco-German hostility
 The hostility steamed from the Franco-Prussia war of 1870-71 in which France was
defeated and had to sign a treaty of Frankfurt by which it had to surrender the rich
province of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany and in addition to payment of a war
indemnity of £200 million over 3 years.
 During the 3 years, Germany troops had to occupy French soil until the indemnity
was paid in full.
 Between 1905-1911 the hostility continued due to the Moroccan crisis.
 The hostility played a crucial role in the outbreak of the war.

Alliance system

 It was introduced by Prince Otto Van Bismarck, Prime minister of Germany from
1862-92.
 Having defeated France so that she would be unable to wage war against Germany
and recover the rich coal fields of Alsace and Lorraine.
 He wanted to promote peace in Europe through diplomatic means. He wanted to
maintain existing territorial agreements in Europe.
  He also wanted to resist the spread of revolutionary movement like communism. He
wanted to avoid colonial conquests as well.
 To achieve all this Bismarck introduced the alliance system.

Dreikaiserbund (1873)
 Drei means 3, Kaiser means King and bund means meeting. It was also referred to as
3 Emperors league.
 This was created by Bismarck because he feared a war of revenge and thus avoiding
France to seek for allies.
 This was signed between Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary.
 They agreed to give each other common assistance whenever necessary.
 They were to suppress socialist revolution, attempt to settle the Eastern question
(problems in the Balkans) and consult one another if other powers threatened world
peace.
 It was to be renewed every 3 years.
The Congress of Berlin
 The Dreikaiserbund was renewed in 1874 and 1877 but friendship between Austria-
Hungary and Russia was almost impossible after 1877 because there were quarrels
between Austria-Hungary and Russia over the Balkans
 In order to resolve this issue, Bismarck called for a Congress in Berlin 1878.
 -Hungary was supported by Germany to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 Bismarck then decided to come up with a new treaty called the Dual alliance to bond
the two countries countries.

The Dual Alliance (1879)

 It was a military alliance.
 Different from the Dreikaiserbund.
 It was signed between Germany and Austria-Hungary eliminating Russia from the
friendship.
 Enmity between Austria-Hungary worsened between 1875 and 1878 so Russia was
not included and was a target for Austrian hostility.
 The two agreed that if Germany was attacked by two countries Austria-Hungary
would come on Germany’s side and if Austria-Hungary went to war with Russia,
Germany would support Austria.
Dreikaiserbund (1881)
 Developed into a military alliance system unlike the earlier agreement of 1873.
 It was a renewal of the 1873 one, it was agreed that Germany would be neutral if
Russia fought Britain.
 It was also agreed that Russia was to control Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary to control
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 They also agreed to consult each other on matters concerning the Balkan states.

The Triple alliance (1882)

 It was signed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
 The dual alliance was to include Italy who also wanted to be protected from France
who had ambitions in North Africa where interests were clashing in Tunisia.
 Germany and Austria-Hungary agreed to help Italy if she were attacked by France
and Italy agreed to help Germany if she were attacked by France.
 Germany and Austria-Hungary agreed to help each other against a Russian attack on
either one of them.
 It was therefore a military agreement which gave the three powers great strength
because together they possessed many of the raw materials and processes that would
be needed in times of war.
 Once again Bismarck managed to Isolate France.
The Reinsurance Treaty (1887)
 It was signed between Germany and Russia.
 The Russians had to turn to France for financial assistance because the Germans had
denied them a loan.
 This promoted Bismarck to sign this treaty with Russia.
 They pledged to remain neutral if the other were to be involved in a war with a third
power.
 When Bismarck fell from power in 1890, the new Germany Chancellor refused to
renew this alliance and pursued a more expansionist policy.
The Dual Entente (1894)
 It was signed between France and Russia after Germany had refused to give financial
assistance to Russia.
 They agreed to work together and assist each other when attacked by a third power.
 The alliance was to last as long as the triple alliance lasted.
 These two countries were afraid of a German inspired attack.
The Entente Cordiale (1904)
 After the signing of the Dual Entente ,Britain(which had not signed any treaty of
friendship or military partnership with any country as she was minding her own
business on the Island) realised that her policy of splendid isolation was dangerous.
 She had a large empire, a lot of raw materials and markets for finished goods, she also
had the strongest navy in the world and so she thought she could she could do it alone.
 She started looking for a friend in Europe, at first she thought friendship would be
possible with Germany as the royal families were related.
 However, in 1895 when the British were nearly coming to terms with the Germans;
Kaiser William II sent a congratulatory telegram to Paul Kruger of the Boars in South
Africa congratulating him for overthrowing the British.
 The Kaiser’s attitude did not please the British and friendship became impossible.
 It then happened that in 1904 France needed support from Britain to occupy Morocco
in North Africa and Britain was prepared to support her.
 When Britain offered France that support, an agreement was reached known as the
Entente cordiale.
 The two agreed to assist each other if attacked by a third power. This was a less
formal agreement than a full scale-alliance.
The Triple Entente (1907)
 It was signed between Russia, Britain and France.
 This basically transformed the Entente cordial into the Triple Entente when Russia
joined in 1907.
 It was an anti-German alliance.
NB: By 1907 Europe was divided into two camps i.e. Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-
Hungary and Italy.) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia).

The fact that Europe was divided into two hostile camps each with formidable and
devastating power made war more likely.
The Schlieffen plan 1905
 It was a war plan designed by General Alfred Von Schlieffen in 1894.
 It was further developed in 1905 and implemented in 1914.
 The main aspect was to avoid Germany a war with Russia and France at the same
time.
 It was designed in such a way that Germany would attack France and defeats her
within 6 weeks and then she would turn to Russia.
Aims of the Schlieffen plan:
To fight war against France and Russia one front at a time.
To capture France before returning to Russia within 39 days.
To allocate the bulk of Germany’s army on the western front.
To transfer the majority of her forces across Germany by rail in time to meet the Russian
advance after the defeat of France.
To march through Belgium within 12 days.
To occupy Brussels within 19 days.
To occupy channel ports to prevent landing of British reinforcements.
1. NB: The plan was however never implemented effectively and therefore it failed

Colonial rivalry
These were clashes over control of territories.
Russo-Japanese war (1904-05)
 Russia and Japan were fighting over the control of China.
 Japan was an ally of Britain due to Anglo-Japanese treaty of 1902; the agreement was
that if Japan/Britain found herself at war with any other they had to help each other.
 According to the Dual Entente, Russia was an ally of France so if they were to be
attacked by 2 or more powers they would assist each other.
 Japan and Russia were not the only ones interested in China so more powers were
going to intervene if ever Japan and Russia went to war.
1st Moroccan Crisis (1905-06)
  When France and Britain signed the Entente Cordiale in 1904, French claims on
Morocco where recognised by Britain while France accepted British control over
Egypt.
 Morocco had been regarded by Europe independent and under the supervision of all
powers since 1900.
 The Agreement between Britain and France meant that France would ignore the
independence of Morocco.
 In 1905 France proposed to proclaim Morocco as her protectorate, Germany had
economic and trading interests in Morocco.
 The big question was could she now accept takeover of Morocco by France.
 The German Kaiser then sailed into the Moroccan port of Tangier and made speeches
against France and assured the Sultan of Morocco that Germany would support
Morocco in their struggle against the French.
 He also helped that the country would remain open to peaceful competitions of all
nations without monopoly and annexation.
 He then demanded that Morocco’s affairs be submitted to an international conference
in Algeciras (Spain).

The Algeciras Conference (1906)

 To settle the first Moroccan crisis, the European powers met at Algeciras in Spain in
1906.
 At the conference they agreed on the following:
 The policing of Morocco should be done by France and Spain.
 The state bank of Morocco was to be jointly controlled by France, Britain, Spain and
Germany.
 Germany got trading rights in Morocco.
 The principle of open doors to all countries was recognised.
 France was left free to proceed with peaceful penetration.
 The independence of the Sultan was recognised.
 NB: The dominance of France is however to be noted.
 The Germans had gone to the conference thinking they would dictate the peace but to
their surprise and displeasure Spain, Italy, Russia, Britain and even America
supported French rights in Morocco.
  This led to growth of international tension between the Triple Entente and the Triple
Alliance.
 The German were dissatisfied and became convinced that international conferences
were useless as means of settling disputes. So in other words the crisis was not wholly
solved since there was discontent amongst countries involved although a war was
avoided at this time.
Bosnian Crisis(1908)
 Austria-Hungary took advantage of a revolution in Turkey to annex the Turkish
province of Bosnia.
 This was a blow to Serbia as she was also hoping to acquire Bosnia (Bosnia had 3
million Serbs).
 Therefore Serbia appealed for help from Russia as father of Slave people.
 Russia called for a conference expecting French and British support. Germany then
highlighted that she would assist Austria-Hungary if war broke out.
 The French withdrew as they did not want to be involved in the Balkans. Britain also
withdrew as she did not want a war with Germany.
 Russia could not risk as she had been involved in a war with Japan and could not join
the war with support of her allies.
 Due to such clashes no conference was held so Austria-Hungary kept Bosnia and
resulted in Serbia remaining bitter and hostile to Austria-Hungary.
 Russia began to embark on massive military build up to avoid further humiliation as
she intended to help if ever Serbia was to appeal for help.
2nd Moroccan crisis
 It was also known as the Agadir crisis.
 There was an uprising in Morocco against the new Sultan.
 The French then sent an army to occupy Fez to maintain law and order.
 This was the Sultan’s request but not in line with the Algeciras agreement.
 The presence of France in Morroco was interpreted by Germany as a sign that France
was about to colonise Morocco.
 Germany sent a gunboat known as the Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir to
protect Germany’s interests there.
 Germany also threatened the country with heavy guns; the Kaiser’s attitude was
extremely war like.
  The presence of Germany threatened Britain’s trade route so Britain supported
France.
 Preparation for war was made but Germany gave in and recognised French
protectorate over Morocco, Germany also withdrew the panther.
 The two crises in Morocco seriously affected the peace of Europe.
 Britain stood firm and showed that she was prepared to fight Germany .
 However Germany was not yet prepared for such a war.
 France and Britain were now convinced that Germany wanted to dominate the world.
 They then decided to work more closely by adding military connections to their
alliances.
NB.Overall it can be argued colonial rivalry was a cause of the war as it was
inconveniencing, although there were disputes over colonies, they were solved
without war although relations were stained.
1st Balkan war (1912)
 For centuries, the Balkan states were under Turkish / Ottoman rule.
 The 20th century saw much of Balkan states demanding independence from Turkey.
 The Balkan States then formed the Balkan league in attempt to join hands against
foreign rule and Christian prosecution.
 Members of the league were Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Albania. In
October 1912 the Balkan league declared war on Turkey, Turkey was already
decaying and was easily defeated in the war.
 They shared the territory still under the Turkish rule.
 Serbia got Albania (an outlet to the sea), Bulgaria got Macedonia and Greece got
Thrace and Salonika. Germany and Austria-Hungary viewed the victory of the
Balkans as a victory of Russia.
 Austria-Hungary also feared future attacks as she had a big slave population in her
empire.
 However Serbia was not satisfied with what she got.
2nd Balkan war
 Serbia and Greece won small portions of Macedonia in the 1 st Balkan war. Bulgaria
refused to share to share Macedonia with others.
 The second Balkan league comprised of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro was formed,
Romania and Turkey also joined.
 Turkey joined so that she would regain what she had lost in the 1st Balkan war.
 Fighting lasted from 29 June to 31 July 1913 and was ended by the treaty of
Bucharest; here Bulgaria lost most of what she had gained.
 Turkey got Adrianople, Serbia and Greece shared Macedonia and Romania got the
territory on the black sea.
Arms race/ Militarism
 After 1871, the war atmosphere caused secret alliances led to an armament race
among the powers.
 Many nations expanded their armies allegedly for the purpose of security.
 The race was particularly serious between 1900 and 1914 and international relations
worsened. Russia had 1 300 000 soldiers, France and Germany each had 900 000
soldiers and Britain, Austria-Hungary and Italy had between 250 000 and 500 000
soldiers.
Naval race
 It was a competition to control the sea.
 The period from 1900 saw the rapid expansion in navies by Britain and Germany.
Germany began a naval programme where she constructed warships.
 This programme was said to be against Britain and this was threatening British
existing naval power.
 Britain then designed a warship known as dreadnoughts in 1906 and Germany
copied. By 1914 Britain had 32 and Germany had 20.
 Types of ships involved were dreadnoughts, battles cruisers, cruisers, destroyers,
submarines and light cruisers.
Imperialism
 This was the highest stage of capitalism whereby countries in Europe had influence to
occupy African countries and capitalise in them and thereby making profits.
 These included Russo-Japanese conflict over China, Franco-German clash over
Morocco and Austria-Hungary imperialism in the Balkans and annexation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina from Turkey.
 There was also Russia’s imperialism in Turkey which brought problems in the
Balkans.
Nationalism
 It is the desire of people of the same nation to gain independence.
 Turkey was the sick man of Europe due to nationalism.
 1829 Greece broke away from Turkey.
 Bulgarian and Serbian land was recognised by great powers at the Berlin Congress in
1878.
 All this meant some big parts of the Ottoman Empire were being taken away from
Austria-Hungary.
 After the Austro-Prussian war the Magyars of Hungary fought for land from Austria.
Serbia also wanted to in cooperate all slav people in Austria-Hungary and form a
large slav kingdom called Yugoslavia.

Sarajevo incident
 Sarajevo was the capital of Bosnia which had been annexed by Austria-Hungary from
Ottoman Empire. In June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the Austria-
Hungary throne made a visit to Sarajevo.
 On 28 June he was murdered together with his wife Sophia by Bosnian nationalists,
Archduke was hated for his arrogance and hot temper.
 Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and due to the assurance of support from Germany
she sent an ultimatum to Serbia.
 The terms were too harsh that Serbia rejected those that made her to be under Austria-
Hungary’s control.
 On 28 July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia declared to help Serbia as
she did not want to disappoint her like in Bosnia.
  Germany responded by declaring an ultimatum to Russia on 31 July to withdraw her
forces within 12 hours and when 12 hours expired and Russia did not comply,
Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August.

Reasons for Participation

Russia
 She was hoping to preserve the free passage of straits on which its economic life
depended.
 There was also hope to maintain status as a major power.
 Russia was also eager to gain Constantinople.

France

 She wanted to regain Alsace and Lorraine.

 She was obliged to support the triple entente which she believed guaranteed her
survival as a great power.
 She also wanted to move out of segregation as Grrmany was keeping her isolated.
Austria-Hungary
 She wanted to maintain her major power status.
 She fought to end the challenge of South Slav nationalism engineered by Serbia.

Germany
 War was an escape of encirclement by jealousy and hostile neighbours.
 Germany’s aim was to achieve everlasting security in the east and west.
 She participated for conquest reasons and not defence as said by most German
historians.
Britain
 She fought for the independence of sovereign states.
 She wanted to prevent Germany from dominating the continent.
 She wanted to protect Belgium’s neutrality and destroy German navy and colonial
empire.
 Allied powers:
a. Russia (1914 left in 1917);
b. France (1914);
c. Serbia (1914);
d. Belgium (1914);
e. Britain (1914);
f. Italy (1915);
g. U.S.A. (1917).
Central powers:
a. Germany (1914);
b. Hungary (1914);
c. Austria (1914);
d. Bulgaria (1914);
e. Turkey (1914).

Course of war
 The western front refers to areas were the war was fought situated to the west of
Germany.
 This in France and Belgium.
.Reasons why the Schlieffen plan failed

Belgian resistance was much tougher than anticipated (resisted for 12 days).
The French mobilised quickly and put more stubborn resistance.
The British came to strengthen French defences earlier than anticipated.
Russia mobilised faster than expected forcing Germans to divert some of their troops to the
eastern front earlier than expected.
In the south, German Generals did not strictly adhere to the plan.
Von Schlieffen had insisted that the right flank be kept strong but Moltke reinforced the left
flank and as a result the Germans were not able to penetrate into Paris and therefor became
stuck in trenches.
Battle of Marne (1914)
 The Schlieffen plan was put into action by the new German chief of army general
Von Moltke.
 The advancing Germany met stiff resistance from Belgians who denied them free
entry into Paris.
 The Germans were pinned down for 3 weeks in Belgium and French quickly
dispatched their troops to the Belgian border.
 In September the weak German were attacked by the French under Joffrey.
 The German forces were repulsed and driven back to river Aisne. German’s advance
into Paris was blocked and instead, the Germans were forced to retreat.
 The French were assisted by the British expositional force under General Sir John
French.
 Both sides lost many soldiers during this battle.
 To avoid further retreat at river Aisne, the Germans dug trenches to live and fight in.
The Trench warfare
 One of the German armies was defeated at the Marne and forced to retreat beyond the
river Aisne.
 The Germans could have surrendered at Marne and the war could have ended in two
months.
 Instead of surrendering, the Germans retreated some 38km to the river Aisne where
they began to dig trenches.
 Trenches were first dug by the German to avoid further retreat and the French copied.
The trenches were from Belgian coast to border of Switzerland.
 The trenches were 3m deep and barbed wired.
 The barbed wire was rolled in moulds of the soil that protected the trenches.
 The trenches were parallel to each other.
 The land between the trenches was known as no man’s.
 People lived and fought in trenches.
 The trenches protected them from machine guns, fire and the explosion of artillery
shells.
 Soon, the trenches were extended into elaborated systems of defence and
communication.
 From December 1914 to November 1918, the western front was a scene of stalemate.
  Only a few hundred metres separated the soldiers of each side. Anyone who dared
appear on the no man’s land was sure to die a cruel death.
 It became a war of attrition with thousands dying trying to gain a few metres over the
no man’s land.
 Such a pattern remained for the next four years.

Problems experienced in trenches

 Lice.
 Shell holes.
 Mud.
 Cold.
 Diseases.
 Injured and dying men.
 Soldier lived with persistent presence of death.
 Stench of decomposing bodies.
 Swarms of rats.
 Flies which grew fat eating decomposing bodies.
 Artillery shells exploding.

Results of trench warfare

 10 million men were killed or wounded in the dividing wilderness of blood stained mud.
 In the past wars had been fought won or lost by advancing soldiers but this time the war was
fought with stationary soldiers.
 The war created a stalemate, armies were now locked together immovably like two frozen
masses pressing against each other.
 New weapons were introduced to meet this kind of warfare and these were:
 Tanks.
 Bombers.
 Aeroplanes (Zeppelins).
 Submarines (U-boats).
 Poisonous gas.
 Riffles.
 Machine guns.
 Artillery shells.
 Dreadnought (warships).
 Bombs.
 Torpedoes.

Battle of Verdun (1916)

 In February 1916, the Germans led by Falkenlayr began massive bombardment of French
fortress of Verdun hoping to destroy the French.
 However, the French under General Henry Philippine Petain defended the fortress.
 The Germans were forced to abandon the attack in June.
 The French lost 315 000 men and the Germans lost 280 000 men as well.
Battle of Somme (1916)
 On I July the British launched an offensive at Somme.
 The British forces led by Haig wanted to keep Germans fully occupied so as to relieve
pressure on the French and ensure they would not be able to send reinforcements to the
eastern front against Russia.
 Here, the British introduced tanks.
 The allies made limited advances as Haig was under severe criticism for persisting
with suicidal frontal attacks.
 A lot of people from both sides were killed and or wounded.
Battle of Jutland (1916)
 Before the Battle of Jutland, Britain and Germany had fought in the pacific in the
Falkland Islands in 1914 and off the dodger banks in 1915, because of the deadlock in
the western front, Germans had an attempt to break it in 1916 by means of their navy.
 Allied forced on the continent were depended on the supplies from Britain.
 They could then be easily defeated if their supplies were cut off.
 This could only be done by denying the use of the sea to Britain merchant ships.
 The most obvious way was denying the royal navy and seizing control of the seas.
 This was attempted in May 1916 so the German high seas fleet sailed out to try and
trap the British Grant fleet.
 They met at the battle of Jutland but there was no full scale fighting.
 The British in the end managed to force the Germans to retreat back to the port where
they remained bottled up until the end of the war.
 Even so, the German fleet inflicted considerable damage on the British at Jutland.
  The British lost 14 ships and 6 000 sailors. Germans also lost 11 ships and 2 500
sailors.
The war at sea
 The allied powers aimed at blocking the central power and this prevented goods from
entering and leaving countries.
 Neutral ships of countries carrying out regular trade were affected and people
starved.
 Britain had to make sure her routes remained open as she had to maintain trade
between her empire and the rest of the world.
 Britain therefore attacked Germany’s ships abroad such that by 1914 nearly all
German armed surface ships had been destroyed.
 Britain began to prevent Germany from using Neutral Dutch ports to get the blockade
by searching all neutral ships for weapons / goods.
 They responded by submarine (naval vessels that can operate underwater and as well
as on the surface) attacks and mines, this was the second alternative for Germany as
her surface vehicles were either destroyed or blocked.
 The u boat blockade was in effective as the U-boats were few and could be easily
identified.
 Identification of British ships was difficult as Britain fooled Germany by flying
neutral flags and using passenger liners to transport arms and ammunition.
 In 1915 the Lusitania (British liner) was sunk by Germany, a lot of people died
including Americans (of the 1000, 118 were Americans).
 America protested and responded by breaking off diplomatic relation with Germany.
 Therefore America joined the war but on the allied side.
 31 May saw the battle of Jutland in which GermaGermany tried to lure part of British
fleet from its base so that part section would be destroyed by Germany.
 However, there were a lot of ships than anticipated by Germany so Germans began to
fire torpedoes. Germany lost 11 ships and Britain lost 14 ships but Germany did not
defeat Britain she failed to destroy the naval sea power.
 Germany high seas fleet stayed away from war for the rest of the First World War
leaving Britain in control of the surface completely.
 In 1917 Britain was about to win as this method was proving to be successful because
430 ships were lost and Britain was left with corn to last her 6 weeks.
  Britain was saved by Lloyd George who suggested that Merchant ships were to sail
protected by escorting warships. This reduced losses and Germany had proved a
failure

Why America joined the war

 U-boat campaign.
 Germany persuading Mexico to attack USA and in return to get Texas, New Mexico and
Arizona.
 Overthrowing of Tsar (Russia) autocrat in the march Revolution made USA to join in support
if Russia and Britain
 Her trade was being greatly affected by World War I.

Why Central powers lost

 The Schlieffen plan failed, this stained Germany as she had to face war on two fronts.
 Allied sea powers which enforced deadly blockade which led to food shortages and at the
same time kept allied armies fully supplied.
 Germany submarine campaign failed and USA joined the war.
 USA brought some resources to the allied side.
 Germany had continuous heavy losses (lost best troops in) lost best troops in 1918, new
troops were young and inexperienced.
 Germany was continuously disappointed by her allies; instead she was helping Bulgaria,
Austria-Hungary.
 The Germans were slowed down by Belgium which gave France enough time to prepare
faster than anticipated by the Germans.