Lauren,+Annie,+Kimberly,+Drew,+Pedro

= __World War I Project__ =


 * Links Diary of John Williams [|Timeline] [|Comic]  **

Information

**Zimmerman Telegram**-
Written by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann is a coded message sent to Mexico, proposing a military alliance against the United Statesoffered Mexico a territory in the US if they helped join the cause

While armies battled in Europe, the United States remained neutral. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson was elected President for a second term, largely because of the slogan "He kept us out of war."

In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to MexicoBritish waited to present the telegram to President Wilson. the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany in February.

The United States published the telegram, making the public aware of it on March 1. The public opinion quickly became a definite pro-war. Congress declared war against Germany and its allies on April 6, 1917.

The first Selective Service Act of World War I was passed in May 1917 The act provided for the registration of all men aged 21 through 30; registrants were examined for physical and mental fitness and, if found to be ineligible for exemption on any of the specific grounds provided by law, were taken into the armed forces 9,925,000 men were registered in June 1917, and of these about 687,000 were called up for service at once. By the end of the war, more than 2,800,000 men had been inducted.
 * Selective Service Act-**

In addition, the system provided manpower for industrial and agricultural war production The system was administered by 155 district and 4648 local boards under the provost marshal general of the U.S. Army. Men were chosen to serve by a lottery established in Washington, D.C., but the local boards could exempt or defer men on the ground of hardship. Soon after the conclusion of hostilities the conscription system was abolished, and the vast majority of the conscripts were discharged from the armed services. No conscription system existed in the U.S. between the end of the First World War and 1940.


 * Trench warfare-**

Life In The Trenches
likely to catch a disease in the trenches Diseases included -flu/cold -trench Foot- due to wet environment, mold grew on feet, amputation was needed -trench fever- spread by lice

-lack of food, malnutrition -rats that ate dead bodies spread diseases

--Problem with this technique- once soldiers entered "no mans land" they were an easy target, most casualties were suffered by using trench warfare
Even though there were many lives lost, the British never changed this primary method of fighting However, this wasn't the only method used in fighting during WW1

http://www.socyberty.com/History/World-War-One-and-Trench-Warfare.48227

-__ Rifle __- 15 rounds could be fi red in a minute. A person 1,400 meters away could be killed.   -__Machine Gun __- Needed 4-6 men to work on them and had to be on a flat surface. Had the fire-power of 100 guns.   - __Gas __- //Chlorine gas // causes a burning sensation in the throat and chest pains, you suffocate. Death is very painful. The problem was the weather had to be just right, if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops.  //__Mustard gas __//<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells. Its colorless and takes 12 hours to take effect. The effects are blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding. Death took up to 5 weeks. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gas masks were issued to everyone in the country, but they weren’t so useful and many people died. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> - __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Zeppelin __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- The zeppelin, known as blimp, was a airship used during the beginning of the war. They carried machine guns and bombs. They were abandoned because they were easy to shoot at in the sky. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> - __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tank __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- Tanks were used for the first time at the battle of Somme. They were developed to cope with the conditions on the Western Front. The fir <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">st tank was "Little Willie" and it needed a crew of 3, its maximum speed was 3-mph. By the end of the war there was a more modern tank that could carry 10 men and reached 4-mph. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> - __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Planes __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- At first they were used to deliver bombs and for spying work. The became fighter aircraft armed with machine guns, bombs and some time cannons. Fights between two planes in the sky became known as "dogfights" <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Torpedoes __<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- Used by submarines. They were used to blow up ships.
 * New Types of Weapons**

Started on March 11, 1918. A Soldier stationed in Kansas went to the infirmary with symptoms of influenza. Before the day was over more than 100 of his fellow soldiers joined him. One of the worst epidemics in modern history had begun. Influenza is an infectious disease that attacks the upper respiratory passages. The virus is highly contagious, it travels on the air. The symptoms of the disease are chills, fever, and weakness, which often disappear in a week, but the virus leaves the person susceptible to other infections. The virus spread quickly across the U.S and then to Europe through American soldiers. No region of the world was left untouched. Spain suffered the most from the disease which gave it the name, the Spanish Flu. Cities across the U.S were closing down public places in an effort to stop the spread of the flu. Because many doctors and nurses were overseas serving in World War I there were not enough people to tend to the sick in the U.S. The U.S. Public Health Service was forced to enlist help from retired health care workers. By the middle of 1919, the pandemic had finally run its course. The worldwide death toll was estimated to be between 21 and 22 million. More than 500,000 Americans died from the disease.
 * The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919**

Also known as the CPI and the Creel Committee. It was an independent agency of the government of the United States. Its intention was to influence the U.S. public opinion regarding American intervention in War World I. It was established by President Woodrow Wilson. George Creel was the Chairman. The committee was established in April 1919. The committee wanted a prolonged propaganda campaign. Some say that the CPI laid out the groundwork for the public relations industry. At first the CPI used material that was based on fact, they spun it to present a upbeat picture of the American war effort. Quickly the CPI began churning out raw propaganda picturing Germans as evil monsters. The raw propaganda included things such as images and stories of German soldiers killing babies and hoisting them on bayonets. They warned citizens that they were German spies. The committee used newsprint, posters, radio, telegraph, cable and movies to broadcast its message. The CPI was abolished by executive order 3154 on August 21, 1919.
 * Committee on Public Information**


 * Lend Lease Act-**

The Lend -Lease Act, the United States government would provide weapons to any country considered important to American security. Lend Lease was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with a lot of war material between 1941 and 1945 in return for, in the case of Britain, military bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and the British West Indies. Reverse Lend Lease comprised services (like rent on air bases) that went to the U.S. It totaled $7.8 billion, of which $6.8 billion came from the British and the Commonwealth. This program is seen as a decisive step away from American non-interventionism since the end of World War I and towards international involvement. In sharp contrast to the American loans to the Allies in World War I, there were no provisions for postwar repayments. Some historians consider it an attempt to bolster Britain and the other allies as a buffer to forestall American involvement in the war against Nazi Germany. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs H.R. 1946, the lend-lease bill to give aid to Britain and China. Large quantities of goods were in Britain or in transit when Washington suddenly and unexpectedly terminated Lend-Lease on 2 September 1945. Lend-lease items retained were sold to Britain at the knockdown price of about 10 cents on the dollar giving an initial value of £1,075 million. Payment was to be stretched out over 50 years at 2% interest. Britain made payments until 1934 and then stopped after the US agreed to a 1 year halt, but they never resumed making payments after that. It must be noted that Britain was owed far more by other countries taking part in WWI than she herself owed, a net loss for the British Empire, the richest empire in the world. Warsaw 1945: Willys jeep used by Polish First Army as part of US Lend-Lease program. Delivery was via the Arctic Convoys, the Persian Corridor, and the Pacific Route. The Pacific Route was used for about half of Lend-Lease aid: by convoy from the US west coast to the Soviet Far East, via Vladivostok and the Trans-Siberian railway.[10] After America’s entry in the war, only Soviet (or Soviet-flagged) ships were used, and there was some interference by Japan with them. The Alaska-Siberia Air Route, known as Alsib,[11] was used for air deliveries and passengers from 7 October 1942. Reverse Lend-lease or Reciprocal Aid was the supply of equipment and services to the United States, eg the British Austin K2 military ambulance. From Canada the Fairmile launches for anti-submarine use and Mosquito photo-reconnaissance aircraft. New Zealand supplied food to United States forces in the South Pacific, and constructed airports in Nandi, Fiji. In 1945-46 the value of Reciprocal Aid from New Zealand exceeded that of Lend-lease, though in 1942-43 the value of Lend-lease to New Zealand was much more that of Reciprocal aid. The UK also supplied extensive material assistance to US forces stationed in Europe, for example the USAAF was supplied with hundreds of Spitfire MkV and MKVIII fighter aircraft. The total amount that Canada agreed to pay under the new arrangement came to about $76,800,000, which was some $13,870,000 less than the United States had spent on the facilities.

Doughboys- 'Doughboys' was the nickname given to the American Expeditionary Force that took part in the later years of World War One. Before this decisive US involvement the colloquialism had applied only to infantryman, but at some point between April 1917 and November 1918 the word expanded to include the whole American armed forces. The term was not used in a derogatory sense, and is present in the diaries and letters of US serviceman, as well as newspapers. The actual origin of the term 'Doughboy' is still debated within both US historical and military circles, but it dates back to at least the American-Mexican War of 1846-7; an excellent summary of the theories can be found here. However, when US serviceman returned to Europe en masse during the Second World War, the term doughboy had vanished: these soldiers were now GI's. ** The Button Theory:  ** At this writing, it has been impossible to confirm one assertion of one branch of **//doughboy//** theorists and it is the proposition on which their entire case sits. It is that U.S. infantrymen wore coats with unique, globular brass buttons. In one variation of this theory the buttons are said to reminiscent of the **//doughboy//** dumplings eaten by the soldiers and sailors of earlier days and which possibly had become part of American cuisine. In another variation, drawing additionally on the Baked Goods Theory, it is said that the product of the infantrymen's cooking efforts came to resemble the buttons on their uniforms. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Treaty of Versailles In January 1919, diplomats gathered at the château of Versailles near Paris to negotiate a peace treaty to end the Great War. By the time work began, it was clear that the pre-war world map required drastic revision. The high cost of the war, in terms of both human life and money, made negotiations difficult, and it is not surprising that the resulting treaties have long since been the subject of contentious analysis, opinion and debate. Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) initially affirmed American neutrality in the conflict, the Unites States did eventually enter the war in 1917. Once that happened, Wilson saw the need for a new type of peace treaty. In his war address to Congress in April 1917, he spoke of the need for the self-determination of peoples and nations, of a peace treaty without territorial acquisitions, of a future that guaranteed the rights of man and that ensured a world safe for democracy. Eventually, Wilson settled on the instrument of a League of Nations as the tool to accomplish these goals, and he elaborated his proposal in the Fourteen Points which he presented to Congress on 8 January 1918. When Germany agreed to an armistice in October 1918, it did so on the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points. This, however, caused confusion because France and Great Britain, as America's allies, had made no commitment to negotiate on the basis of Wilson's points. This confusion did not immediately become important in the armistice negotiations, because Germany was in no shape to continue the war. The disagreement over terms and the peace process, however, became manifest in the negotiations for a final peace treaty in Paris. The Paris Peace Conference began as a triumphal gathering of allied diplomats--Representatives of the defeated powers were not invited--much like past major European diplomatic conferences such as the Congress of Vienna. In the protracted diplomatic discussions at Versailles, Wilson, David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister (1863-1945), Georges Clemenceau, the French Premier (1841-1929), and Vittorio Orlando, the Italian Prime Minister (1860-1952), all compromised their initial bargaining positions in a way that left each subject to bitter recrimination from their contemporaries and condemnation from future historians. For example, Wilson abandoned much of his original principles when he supported territorial acquisitions, but he did so quite inconsistently. For instance, he supported Italy's claims in the Trentino, but not in Fiume. Lloyd George, similarly, agreed to divide up the German colonial empire but was more cautious with respect to German territorial changes in Europe. Clemenceau did oversee the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France and did get a demilitarized zone in the Rhine River valley, but he did not obtain the Rhine River as the Franco-German border. Almost immediately after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the diplomatic situation changed dramatically. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and then Wilson fell ill. The British began having second thoughts about the severity of the treaty, and the French became overly pre-occupied with their security in Europe. Many later historians and contemporary analysts pointed directly to the treaty as the cause for the rise of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Italy and Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) in Germany. It was often claimed that the treaty merely started the chain of events that became a "road to war." In reality, that was far from the case. Despite its many shortcomings, did provide a workable peace, if the signers had decided to continue to work within the context of the treaty.

Sinking of the Lusitania


 * ship that was one of the best all around ships ever created during this time


 * Lusitania was named the "greyhound of the sea"


 * as war began to grow, the ship was going to be used for government services


 * May 7, the ship was near Ireland, and was attacked by a torpedo followed by another attack shortly after


 * The second explosion broke through the ship causing mass chaos


 * Most passengers did not have a chance, the ship had sunk within 18 minutes


 * 1,119 people died

Schlieffen Plan


 * France and Britain agreed to the Entente Cordiale, this was to encourage co-operation against Germany's threat


 * plan used 90% of Germany's forces


 * It was heard that Russia was going to join this alliance with France, and Britain


 * Schlieffen decided that it would be best to attack France before Russia could get their troops to help them out


 * Schlieffen attacked through holland, belguim, and luxembourg


 * Germany was stopped by the advanced russian army, and were forced to retreat

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand


 * the assassination led to outbreak of war in europe


 * the assassin who killed Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, was Gavrilo Princip


 * Ferdinand was shot after already surviving one assassination attempt earlier in the day, on the way to a town hall reception


 * his wife insisted on coming with him in the limo car


 * after he was shot, he said one word "Sofia..." and then died

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