1. Chapter 11

2. Section 1: World War I Begins
A PERSONAL VOICE
JEANNETTE RANKIN
“ I believe that the first vote I cast was the most significant vote and a most significant act on the part of women, because women are going to have to stop war. I felt at the time that the first woman [in Congress] should take the first stand, that the first time the first
woman had a chance to say no to war she should say it.”
—quoted in Jeannette Rankin: First Lady in Congress
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Jeanette Rankin was the first woman in Congress
And the voted against both World War One and
World War Two

3. Causes of World War I Nationalism Militarism Ethnic Hatred Imperialism
Nationalism is extreme dedication
to one’s own country. People had
gained a national identity by this
time, and they usually saw other
nations or them as inferior.
Countries had a long tradition of
militarism and believed that it was
a good solution to political problems.
they were usually used to winning
against weak colonial powers too.
Ethnic
Hatred
Imperialism
Under the Imperialist system a
country had to gain more territory
to be successful. By 1914 there was
no more land to conquer and this
created tension between countries.
One of the reasons there was a war
in the Balkans was hatred of Serbs
against other ethnicities and
religious minorities in the region.
This would be magnified in war.

4. June 1914: Assassination in Sarajevo
“As the car came abreast, [the assassin] stepped forward from the curb, drew his automatic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The
first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sophia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly. The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart. He uttered only one word: ‘Sophia’—a call to his
stricken wife. Then his head fell
back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly.”
A conspirator’s testimony, 1914
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World War I seemed to come out of nowhere in the summer of In this
section we will look at the conditions and causes that led to the disaster.

5. Road to War: 1914 Chain of Events
1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo June 28th, 1914.
2. Austria, with the backing of Germany, sends a severe ultimatum
to Serbia on July 23rd. Serbia rejects part of the ultimatum.
3. Austria declares war on Serbia July 28th.
4. Russia had a secret treaty of support with Serbia, so it mobilized its
troops on Austro-Hungarian and German border areas, also on July 28th.
5. Germany declared war on Russia August 1st. Following the Schlieffen Plan
Germany declared war on France (who was allied to Russia) August 3rd.
6. Allied to France, Britain declared war on Germany August 4th.
The Great War had begun!
7. The United States and Italy declared neutrality at first. Both would join
the war at a later time on the side of the Allies.

7. : Battles & Trenches
1st Battle of the Marne & its cost
Early on it looked as if Germany would have a quick victory. They easily
defeated the Russians at Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes, then they
marched through Belgium and into France. But the French held them at the
First Battle of the Marne. German troops could actually see the Eiffel Tower
in the distance but they could not advance further. In Paris taxicabs were used
to send soldiers to the front, and after much slaughter the war changed. A series of defensive Trenches were dug on both sides for hundreds of miles through France and both sides settled in for a long war of attrition.