Record what you have learned about World War I and World War II under the titles below. Consider creating subtitles for causes of the war, alliances, weapons used, and important moments. This set of videos from the BBC do a great job introducing World War I. There are videos on trench warfare, poison gas attacks, recruiting new troops and getting treatment in medical hospitals.
The main cause of World War I was that a Serbian man assassinated Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand who was soon going to be the king of Austria-Hungary. Also, tension between The European countries contributed to the anger between many of the countries. At first America planned to not take part in the war, however when a German submarine sunk a ship called the Lusitania and killed about 114 American civilians and America got very upset . The ocean liner was sunk in May of 1915, but used as an American call to arms when the United States declared war in the Spring of 1917. This is when America entered World War I when our President Woodrow Wilson got a hold of the Zimmerman Telegram. The Zimmerman Telegram was sent to Mexico from Germany staing that Germany would help Mexico regain Texas and California from the U.S. if they helped them in the war.
An alliance is an agrement between two or more groups. In WWI (World War I) there were two main alliances. They were known as the Central Powers, and the Allied Forces. Serbia, France, Russia, and Great Britain were known as Allied Forces. Germany, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria were the Central Powers, partly because those countries were in the center of Europe. Germany tried to create an alliance with Mexico and said if they joined them they would help you take back Texas and California from the US. This act was called The Zimmerman Telegram. In this alliance with Russia, Serbia was sure to win this war, but Russia was having their own Civil War.
(Europe looked different before the start of WWI.)
World War I was the dawn of new weapons. Numerous deadly weapons were created and modified for the destruction of enemy troops. Things such as, automatic machine guns, tanks, aircraft, and heavy artillery were newly invented and used. These weapons would soon take the lives of 8.5 million soldiers. Poison gas was also a highly efficient and dangerous new weapon designed for this war. This highly dangerous gas could posion anyone wherever it landed.
Machine guns, another form of dangerous weapons could hold back and most of the time elimate enemy forces. Tanks could storm the places where enemy troops were based. Aircrafts could drop specially designed bombs to destroy helpless enemy forces below. Heavy artillery fired rounds of large shells onto the enemy lines, immoblizing any attempt to knock out trench forces. These weapons have been modified to create what we now know as modern weapons of war.
In World War I, the soldiers fought in a way called trench warfare. This is when enemies dig trenches in the earth and hide in them.They try to shoot at the other side. The space in the middle was called noman's land because no man wanted to get caught there with all the mines, barbed wire, and machine guns at you. These weapons were a destruction and fault to millions of deaths. These disgusting trenches were where the sodiers lived. Men literally ate, slept, used the bathroom, and threw things away in these trenches and life was not "high spirited." It is where they waited and watched for people to come up and fight. If communication trenches were under fire, the soldiers on the front line rarely got a hot meal to eat. Usually the soldiers would get meals that consisted of hard biscuts, cold beef and cold pork.
Life in a trench was very hard because of the disease and parasite around through the rats and garbage. When it rained, water would collect in the bottom and disease and parasites became a large problem for the soldiers who lived there. This is how the Allied forces would get trench foot. Trench foot is when your feet are constantly wet, so they get very soft, wrinkle, and start to peel.Kind of like if you stay in the bathtub for too long. Some soldiers were ready to leave the trenches and go home. So they cut themselves in the legs and arms. The main fighting in World War I was along Northern France and Southern Belgium.
When the U.S. discovered the Zimmerman Telegram, it was a very important thing. The Zimmerman telegram was a telegram sent by Germany to Mexico. The Zimmerman Telegram was a bargain. If Mexico helped Germany in World War I to win, then Germany would help Mexico take back the states of California and Texas. On June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was assasinated in Serbia. That event forced Austria to declare war on Serbia that very same day.
The Warsaw Pact was a very important moment in World War I. It was also called the Warsaw Treaty Organization, but was officilally named The Treaty of Friendship. It was an organization of Central European and Eastern European states that were communist. he Warsaw Pact was established on the date of May 1, 1995 in the town of Warsaw, Poland. I t was promted by integregation of the re-militarized West Germany into NATO. The Warsaw Pact was a very imporant moment in history.
Important People
Woodrow Wilson was the U.S. president during World War I. This man was one of the presidents, or leaders in charge of making the Treaty of Versailles. The English and Russian presidents wanted to destroy Germany and crush every piece of dignity they still had left. They wanted Germany to pay 33 billion pounds in reparations, make them take full blame for the war even though Austria-Hungary and Serbia were the ones duking it out, and they wanted to weaken the German army so they could not fight a large war again. Woodrow Wilson on the other hand was against this and was afarid this may spark a problem. He became sick with the Spanish flu which was spreading through America at the time, and gave up to stop this treaty.
At the end of World War I, the Germans were forced to follow the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty forced the Germans to pay 33 billion pounds in reparations to many different countries. They were also blamed for starting the war. That made Germany extremely poor and angry. Then Adolf Hitler said that he would stop this state of poverty if they elected him for Prime Minister. The Germans elected him. He then he started to take over smaller countries. This made everybody very angry.
These pictures are of Hitler at a speech in front of his supporters.
Alliances
One group of alliances in World War II was called the Axis Forces which included the countries Germany, Italy, and Japan.They were also called the Berlin-Rome Axis. The other group of alliances in World War II was called the Allied Forces. They included the Soviet Union, China, and Britian. Those were the alliances in World War II. (the US comes in after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor).
Some new weapons that were introduced in the time of WWII (World War II) including machine guns, tanks, heavy artilery, and bombs. Also, Karabiner 98k, Sturmgewehr 44, Thompson M1, MP38/40, M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, Colt M1911, Parabellum Luger P-08, Bazooka, MG34, MG42, Sten, and Lee-Enfield are some other weapons that were introduced. One other weapon was the atomic bomb that was invented by Robert Oppenheimer. They used two atomic bombs. One was named fat Man and the other, Little Boy. They used the atomic bombs to blow-up Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are islands in Japan.These bombs were so dangerous that the bodies were burned to ash. When the first bomb dropped, 70,000 people were instantly vaporized. Buildings were crushed, killing everyone inside. If you survived the bomb, you usually died of severe burns all over the body or of radiation. Over a long time, the radiation from the bomb would cause you to get a blood cancer called leukemia. They did not have a cure for this disease at this period in time, so thousands of people died a slow and painful death. Little Boy litteraly left Hiroshima a deserted wasteland. Later in time Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki, doing even more damage than Little Boy.
During the Battle of Normandy, otherwise known as D-day, U.S. soldiers attacked the beaches of France which was at the time ruled by Germany. They went through the beaches with many people dying. Because of that, the water was why. However, in the end the Allied Forces controlled the beaches of Normandy and slowly took back France. As the Allied Forces pused forward along with the Soviets, the Axis Forces were becoming smaller. In 1945, the Allied Forces captured Berlin (Germanys Capital) therefore ending the war in Europe and restoring peace in all parts of Europe.
The war was not over yet. The U.S was still fighting the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. The U.S Marshall declared that the U.S would use a technique which was know as island-hopping. This meant the U.S would take over every small and large island that Japan owned until they reached mainland Japan. These battles where very grusum. The United States had a project called the "Manhattan project" which was to devolop a nuclear device designed to end the war. This weapon was so powerful that it could do severe damage to a city, and vaporize thousands of people. President Harry S. Truman authorized a bombing on Japan. The first bomb was called Fat Man. It was carried by the ENOLA GAY, and it killed and vaporized the whole city and killed millions. Even with this level of destruction the Japanese government refused to surrender. The U.S again bombed Japan with another bomb called Little Boy, forcing them to surrender in the summer of 1945. This day will always be known as VJ-DAY ( Victory over Japan Day ).
Important People and Events
Adolf Hitler was probably one of the most influential person of WWII (World War II) because of his main dedication to fighting and winning this war made all the Germans feel good about being German. He said things like, "Are you tired of being poor? Give me all the power and I shall restore the German name. We can all fight back to the Americans that stole all of your money. Only if you give me power, I can fix all of this. Aren't you tired of having your children starve." He was what is called a populist leader making the people love and support him based on him saying what they want to hear. The definition of populist leader is: a leader that says things that the people want to hear often when cases are bad, like in this one. As this person is becoming more and more popular, the people are giving him more and more power. Once the leader becomes so popular and rich with power he becomes greater than the government making him overflowing with power. After all this happens, he and others are know as a dictator which means that one person or a small group is absolute with power. If Adolf had not become so popular, and the Treaty of Versailles wasn't made, than WWII (World War II) may never have happened. Adolf Hitler was also the person who started the Holocaust, which was a horrible injustice to the Jews.
D-Day was the name given to the Allied Forces invasion of Normandy. After the Allies took Normandy, they planned to use it as a staging point for the re-capturing of France. So on June 6, 1944, the Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. The name given to the five beaches attacked were Omaha, Sword, Juno, Gold, and Utah. Since the Germans placed giant obstacles in the beach, it forced the Allies to land during low tide. Tens of thousands of troops died on that day. On just one beach, Omaha, over ten thousand American, British, and Canadian forces died. However, eventually through the use of overwhelming force, the Allies managed to take Normandy. An easy way to defend the beach was having pillboxes. It was considered to be the largest invasion ever. In just one day, over one million troops landed on the coast of France. For many , this was the turning point of the whole war.
The rest of the invasion was child's play compared to the first strike. The Allied Forces marched all throughout France, taking city after city. However, if the Germans had had more information they could have probably stopped the invasion. As luck had it however, the Allies were the ones with the information. They managed to intercept and decipher Japenese and German information. With all of this valuable knowledge, the Allies were easily able to take France. This was one fo the last great defeats Germany suffered. From there on out it was all down hill for the Axis Forces.
Near the end of WWII (World War II) Japan was still at war with Amarica. So the president wrote a note to Japan warning them that we found a powerful weapon and we were going to use it against them if they did not end the war. Japan refused this offer. Then we fired from above a atomic bomb which killed many people in Japan. It destroyed everyone and everything.
The atomic bomb was a powerful bomb that could take up more than a mile. It was very dangerous and America had a choice whether to use it or to do it the old fasion way (Trench Warfair). We decided to use it so we would not kill many Americans.
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