unit 1: www1 (the great war)

• Prime Mister of Canada

• promised no conscription in Canada and broke that promise after he visted injured soldiers in France

• “the tiger”

• President of France

• Emperor of Austria-Hungary

• sniper in the Canadian army

• one of the leading “aces” of the flying corps

• shot down 72 enemy planes

• assasinated by the Black Hand

• Archduke of Austria-Hungary

• president of the USA

• Emperor of Germany

• Canadian Minister of Militia

• refused to let the Canadians to be broken up

• Prime Minister of Great Britian

• King of Great Britian

• Emperor of Russia

• assassinated the Archduke

• apart of the serbian terrorist group the Black Hand

• suffers from tuberculosis which influences his his decision to go to Sarajevo

• Commander of the Canadian Corps

• narrow, muddy, treeless stretch of land, characterized by numerous shell holes, that separated German and Allied trenches

• people who had immigrated to Canada in the last 15 years from country’s who are at war with Canada

• everyone is effected by war, battlefront and homefront

• war based society, everyone doing their part

• the law enforcing all eligible men must enlist in the war

• camps where ‘enemy aliens’ were put to work (building roads, building and repairing buildings, clearing the land)

• internees were only paid 25 cents a day

• enemy planes fighting in the sky

• biased or misleading info used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view

• renforces nationalistic feelings: demonizes enemy

• incourages involvement on the battlefront and warfront

• forced germany to take all the blame for causing the war

• chunks of hot flying metal from artillery fire and explosives

• men who didn’t want to enlist

• germans used chlorine gas for the first time in the battle of ypres

• a war crime

• large-caliber guns used in warfare on land

• machine guns, heavy artillery, rifles

• canadain standard: the ross rifle

  • often jammed

• november 11th, 1918 both sides decided to cease fire

  • neither side felt that the had “lost”

• Introduced by Royal Navy June 1917

  • Would provide escort vessels for ships, guard against surface gunfire attacks, drops death charges (dropped into water, and when they hit a certain pressure in the ocean they explode)

• Canada’s main role in the war at sea was in shipping canadian troops, food, and munitions to Europe

• when both sides of a battle come to a standstill and neither are advancing or being defeated

• from overexposure to the front lines

• often diagnosed when a soldier was unable to function and no obvious cause could be identified

• a creeping, continuous massive artillery barrage to protect squads of advancing troops

• used for the first time at vimy ridge

  • vimy glide: 100 yard advance every 2 minutes

• from standing in stagneant water for too long, and gangreen sets in

• from the un-sanitary conditions in the trenches

• great britain, france, germany, austria hunagry, russia

• France, great britain, russia

• Russia and France are friends to contain/sandwich germany

• Germany, Austria Hungary , Italy

• italy gets involved with the alliance for defensive purposes

  • 1914, they bow out, 1915, they join the entente

• germans gave austria-hungary a cheque and told them whatever amount of money they wanted would be provided

• belief to keep a strong military/ the build up of a strong army

• Military = pride in nation

• Can build tension, suspicion, distrust

  • Leads to an Arms Race

• a union or association formed for mutual benefit

  • ex. triple entente, triple alliance

• controlling land around the globe/extending your empire

• More people = more soldiers

• More resources & markets

• a sense of pride/patriotism in your empire/pride for your country

• Becomes and issue when it becomes extreme

  • “Ultra Nationalism”

• avoiding political or economic entanglements with other countries

• ex. USA until they joined the war in 1917

• groups of women who sought the right to vote

• women whos children, husbands, or brothers were serving were given the right to vote

  • this occured becuase borden throught they would vote for conscription

  • the more men in war, the more woman who can vote/less of a chance for their loved one to be injured

• Australian New Zealand Army Core

• two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain superiority over one another

• often driven by paranoia

The spark: the assassination

→ Austria-Hugary declares war on Serbia

→ Russia declares war on Austria-Hungary

→ Germany declares war on Russia

→ Germany declares war on France

→ Britian prepares for France and Russia to declare war on Germany

*Italy doesn’t help becuase they said they would help on defensive, and AH and Germany are declaring war on everyone

• a serbian terrorist group

• assasinated the archduke

• germany’s best naval weapons

  • target: torpedo attacks on allied warships, moved to target allied merchant ships (to cut out all supplies and force the Brits to leave the war)

• a downside is they can’t tell who they’re sinking

• Subs can take down anything in the sea under their control (the north atlantic)

• social

• economic

• political

• military

• Heavily trenched

• 1916 opposing trenches had been carved into europe from the english channel to the swiss alps

• 1917: Wartime Elections Act

  • took away right to vote for “Enemy Aliens”

• 1917: Military service act

  • granted “status Indians” an exemption from conscription

• Conscription enforced to raise and mobilize an army

• Use of propaganda

• Purpose: bringing the war against germany to a close

  • To ensure that WW1 would be the last one

• Canada signs the treaty on their own accord

The Big “3”

• 3 allied leaders were in charge of negotiations

  • France: George Clemensau

    • Wants to murder germany and see them ripped apart

  • Britain: David Lloyd George

    • More on the french side than american, want to maintain their lead in the empires and world economy

  • USA: Woodrow Wilson

    • Idealist, doesn’t want to destroy germany for the future

• on their way to france, Germans invade Belgium

the archduke and his wife are vistsing Sarajevo and there were two attepts made by the black hand:

1. a grenade is thrown at the car, but it bounces back into the croud

2. the parade continues and Gavrillo Princip takes the oppourtunity to shoot both the archduke and his wife in the head, killing them both

• A.H. presents ultimatum to serbia (meet our demands or face war)

  • Allow austro-hungarian officers to enter Serbia, investigate assassination and crush all terrorist movements

• Serbia agrees to almost all of the terms, but not all of them which upsets A.H.

  • Russia, an ally of Serbia, will not tolerate it and begin to mobilized

• 1915

• Canadians first sent to Ypres, Belgium

  • Was to stop Germany from getting to the English Channel

• The Canadians had been assigned a section of the front-line trenches to hold off the germans

  • They hold the line for 2 days until reinforcements come to relieve them

• 6 035 Canadians (one man in every 3) became casualties of whom more that 2 000 died

• July 1st 1916- November 18 1916

  • Sept. 1916 canada enters the Somme

• Takes place in france, one of the bloodiest battles in WW1

  • First day of battle: 57 540 casualties

  • 91% of Newfoundland regiment wiped out in one day

  • A total of 1.25 million men were killed or wounded during the 5 month battle

• April 9th 1917

• All soldiers are given field maps and compasses for the first time

• Creeping Barrage used for the first time

• Easter Monday 5:30 am, the command is given to go “over the top”

  • 15 000 soldiers moved in the first wave of attack

  • The return of the german machine guns was murderous, but the canadians wiped out their front line

• In the four days, 3600 Canadians soldiers died, another 5000 wounded

• The ridge was taken, much of it in the first day. The valor of the troops the originality of the plan all contributed to a new nation’s pride

• Belgium, July-November 1917

  • Early oct canadians sent to belgium to relieve the batterf ANZAC forces

  • Muddy from the many belgian canals

• Three years of heavy fighting there had destroyed drainage systems

  • German machine gunners in pill boxes

• More than 4000 soldiers died in fighting there and almost 12000 were wounded

• Canada's sacrifices and achievements on the battlefields of europe indeed gained our country a new respect on the international stage

• 15 654 Canadian casualties, 9 Canadians are awarded the Victoria Cross

  • Some awarded posthumously

• British Passenger Liner- New York to Liverpool

• 1198 people killed - 128 Americans

• Military alliance with germany and mexico

  • Declare war on the US

  • Gain back texas, arizona, and new mexico

• British intelligence intercept and alerts the US

• Outraged the american people

• US enters the war on April 6, 1917

  • Declares war on Germany

  • Helps push the allies to victory

  • Turning point for the war

    • Both sides were already exhausted

Fighters/Bombers

• Needed to stop enemy observation

• Dog-fights

  • Enemy ships/planes battling in the sky

• Machine-guns added to planes

• kites/cameras used at first, manned balloons

  • Used for spying on the enemy

• Early planes used for spying and photos of troop movements/location

• multiple groups were against conscription, two large ones were french canadians and pasifists

  • french canadians didn’t want to be roped into a british war

  • people in the west had farms, and didn’t want to leave them

• violent protests take place in quebec

• December 6, 1917

  • 2 ships collide in the harbor

• 2 000 died, 9 000 injured

• Biggest man made explosion in human history, until Hiroshima explosion ended WW2

• Early in the war First Nations are denied access to the war

• Black Canadians also try to enlist and are denied by white officers running

• Asian volunteers were also turned away

• Canadians of German, or Ukrainians from parts of Ukraine controlled by Austria-Hungary decent (enemy aliens) were rejected

• 1916/17 numbers dwindle, and need to cut back on their restrictions

  • 1916 black volunteers recruited to join a segregated non-combat, construction battalion