Ww1 overview why did ww1 begin
- 1. Depth Study: Australians at War: World War I Overview Why did World War I begin?
- 2. ANZAC: Australia & New Zealand Army Corps The combined forces of Australia and New Zealand volunteer soldiers who fought together in Gallipoli and the Western Front in WWI.
- 3. armaments military weapons and equipment
- 4. conscript A soldier forced into Military Service.
- 5. blockade Isolating a country area by military force to stop entry and exit of traffic and trade.
- 6. neutral Not helping or supporting either of the opposing sides.
- 7. militia A military force made up of ordinary citizens rather than highly trained soldiers.
- 8. armistice The ending of hostilities by mutual agreement.
- 9. World War I - Overview Inquiry Question: Why did World War 1 begin?
- 10. Main focus World War I was one of the most important events of the twentieth century. It created enormous change in the nations that took part in it, including Australia. Why it’s relevant today Australians continue to draw on experiences in this war to locate their defining national characteristics. It is important, therefore, to study it closely. Inquiry questions • Why did World War I happen? • What was Australia’s role? • What was the war’s impact on Australian homefront?
- 11. Germany’s lack of colonies • Germany only formed as a country in 1870s • Missed out on getting colonies in the ‘New World’ Above: German colonies prior to WW1 and Right : French colonies prior to WW1 • Victory over France would give Germany control of French colonies.
- 12. 2. Military Build-Up • Industrialisation and imperialism led to massive increases in military spending • Britain felt threatened by the expanding German Navy
- 13. 3. Alliances & Military Agreements The Triple Entente v. The Triple Alliance: France Germany Britain Austria Russia Turkey
- 14. How did a chicken sandwich start WW1? A 19 year old Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, shot Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Serbia in June 1914. • Princip’s action started a chain of events that would lead to the loss of 8 500 000 lives. 1. Austria invaded Serbia due to the assassination 2. which led to Russia mobilising to support Serbia. 3. Germany then declared war on Russia and France. 4. Trying to quickly defeat France, Germany invaded neighbouring Belgium 5. Britain joined the war due to the invasion of Belgium All within 2 months What about the chicken sandwich?
- 16. Why did Australia join this European War “half a world away”? Australia’s interests were seen as identical with Britain’s because: • We had only stopped being British colonies in 1901 (14 years before) • Our head of state was the British monarch, • We possessed no diplomats of our own and • Our foreign policy was in the hands of the British Government.
Editor's Notes
- #3: New Zealand Soldiers fought as part of the Australian Army.
- #4: World War 1 saw the introduction of mechanised warfare with the introduction of the machine gun making cavalry charges obsolete. Heavy artillery pounded the trenches with some of the biggest non-nuclear bombs ever made.Poison gas was so devastating that it was outlawed by all sides after WW1Tanks were introduced later in the war, but struggled for reliability.
- #5: The Government wanted to introduce conscription twice during WW1, but the Australian public voted against it in two different referenda in 1916 and 1917
- #9: Armistice Day (11/11) is acknowledged each year as it was the day WW 1 ended.
- #11: World War I changed the entire course of world history. In Australia’s case, it transformed the society. It unfolded as an enormous tragedy in which hundreds of thousands of Australian lives were directly affected and tens of thousands were killed. Within Australia, the war experience led to serious division and conflict on the homefront. After the war, much social mending was needed. The ANZAC legend was born and new definitions of Australian nationhood were proposed.
- #12: Germany was a new nation that was growing economically, but it had few colonies so it needed more raw materials (resources).
- #13: The rise of Industrialisation and the massive profits made by the European Empires led to huge increases in military spending to both conquer and defend their Colonies. Britain’s navy famously ‘ruled the waves’ and felt increasingly threatened by German naval build-up, using diplomacy to attempt to limit the size of Germany’s navy.
- #14: The countries of Europe were involved in a number of diplomatic alliances and agreements that committed them to war if any one of them were attacked.So these three factors were meant that Europe in 1914 was a “donkey on the edge” (Sorry Shrek) where any small thing could lead to all out war…guess what happened?
- #15: Both Franz Ferdinand and Gavrilo Princip would probably by consigned to the dustbin of history if Princip had not shot Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophia in Sarajevo, Serbia on June 28, 1914.Answer:When the earlier attempt at assasination of Franz Ferdinand had failed, Gavrilo Princip ducked into Schiller's Delicatessen for a quick bite to eat. Quite by accident, when he left the shop, the Archduke's 1911 Graf and Stift touring car was backing up beside him after making a wrong turn. Princip whipped out his pistol and fired two shots. (No cheese sanwich meant no accidental meeting, no assasination and no WWI.)
- #17: Australia, as a self-governing Country within the British Empire, saw itself as automatically at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary as well.