1. WWI The Great War

2. 5 causes = MANiA • M = MILITARISM: arms race develops amid countries in W. Europe -French and German armies double in size between 1870-1914, British and Germans fight for mastery of the seas • A = ALLIANCES: agreements between countries to help each other out; if a country declares war on another, the alliance members will also fight in the war • N = NATIONALISM: having great pride in your country; Congress of Vienna sorted out problems in Europe, left Germany & Italy divided • I = IMPERIALISM: a country takes over another & makes it subject to their rule; British empire extended over 5 continents • A= Assasination of ArchDuke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary: shot and killed in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb

3. VIDEO Causes of WWI http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/videos#causes-of-world-war-i

4. Troubles with Neutrality • Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire VS Allied Powers – Britain, France, Russia, Italy(later) • “impartial in thought and deed” – Statement of Woodrow Wilson at war’s start in which he encouraged Americans not to pick sides but maintain strict neutrality • Sussex (1916) – French steamer attacked, Germany backs down again • “He kept us out of war!” (1916) – Wilson’s campaign slogan, emphasizing U.S. maintaining neutrality, while Wilson was secretly preparing country for war

5. Troubles with Neutrality • Unrestricted submarine warfare (1917) – Germany decides to attack all ships in Atlantic to cripple Allied shipping, despite risk of forcing U.S. into war • Russian Revolution (1917) – Russia signs peace treaty with Germany, allowing Germany to shift full attention to Western Front • Conscription (military draft) – Selective Service Act recruits 3 million soldiers, an additional 2 million volunteered • American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and “Black Jack” Pershing – U.S. military forces in Europe tip balance in favor of Allied Powers, remain under U.S. command structure

6. All Aboard the Lusitania… • British luxury liner, RMS Lusitania, ferried people & goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the US & Great Britain. • May 1, 1915, left New York for Liverpool with 1,959 people, 159 were Americans • World War I made ocean voyage dangerous, be on the lookout for U-boats & travel at full speed making zigzag movements. • Approximately 14 miles off the coast of Southern Ireland captain slowed the ship due to fog, no one realized that the German U-boat, U-20, had already spotted and targeted them. At 1:40 p.m., the U-boat launched a torpedo and sank the Lusitania

7. Video clip • Lusitania sinking • http://www.history.com/videos/causes-of-world-war-i#u-boats-sink-the-lusitania-in-1915

8. Zimmerman Telgram Zimmerman Note (Jan. 1917) – Germany offers military alliance to Mexico promising to help Mexico reacquire land lost to U.S. in Mexican-American War • British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering US territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. • This message helped draw the US into the war