World War I

World War I. Why did it Start? Decades of ongoing global Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria led the Central Powers (Germany, Australia-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire ) to go to war with the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan). The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917 after the loss of American lives with the sinking of the Lusitania and US merchant ships., Do you know its impact? In September 1914, the Germans were pushing the Allied forces back, so they "dug in" to avoid losing more ground. Germany was unable to break through this line of defense, so both sides dug protective defensive trenches, which became known as "trench warfare. " This war brought destruction to the French Colonial, British, and Ottoman Empires., How did it end? The war ended when Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy, and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919., Flanders Field: After the end of the war, Lt. Colonel John McCrae wrote a poem "In Flanders Field" from the perspective of the fallen soldiers. This poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance., How costly was it? Of the 65 million troops mobilized (4 million were Americans). 8 million soldiers died (116,000 were Americans), and 21 million were wounded., Factoid: world war one was the first time that fighter aircraft, chemical agents, tanks, submarines, flamethrowers, and sea depth charges were used in warfare.