WORLD
WAR I
The Great War to End All Wars
Julie Knutson Illustrated by Micah Rauch
Contents Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Introduction
Beyond the War Room. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1
Alliances Between Nations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter 2
The Dominoes Fall.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Chapter 3
All’s Not Quiet on the Western Front.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chapter 4
Old Strategies, New Tech.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Chapter 5
The Eastern Front and Revolution in Russia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Chapter 6
Neutral No Longer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Chapter 7
A Fragile Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Glossary Resources Select Bibliography Index
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Introduction
Beyond the War Room
How can citizens of the twenty-first century envision the realities of World War I?
More than 100 years after the war ended, it can be difficult to imagine the horrors of World War I. One way we can gain experiential knowledge of the events is through primary sources. These accounts from the actual time period help us better grasp what soldiers and civilians felt as the battles, surges, and retreats played out on the global stage.
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A line of men snakes toward an invisible destination. Those in the foreground nearest to the viewer allow us a glimpse of their individual features and quirks. There’s a sickle-carrying farmer sporting a red neck scarf and patterned cap. There’s a judge clutching a scroll, white wig atop his head and black robe cloaking his body. Farther along, a golfer in a crimson jacket rests a club against his right shoulder. There are gentlemen wearing tophats and bowlers, carrying briefcases and picnic baskets. With each step away from our vantage point, their individuality blurs. They become one, khaki-clad mass, steps and shadows in sync. The poster begs all sorts of questions: Why are these men marching? What people and places are they leaving behind? What are they marching toward, what lies in that mysterious distance? And, who isn’t in line? What are the consequences of not stepping into place?
WORLD WAR I | INTRODUCTION
Four, simple words in bold blue letters call out from this British propaganda poster, designed to recruit soldiers for the Great War effort: “STEP INTO YOUR PLACE.”
An English propaganda poster from World War I
THE DETAILS OF THE CONFLICT
THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE Between 1914 and 1918, posters were used worldwide as propaganda tools. With striking visuals and graphics, they promoted patriotism and stoked fears of the enemy. The “Step in your Place” poster was used to recruit soldiers in England. Propaganda organizations reached potential soldiers in a variety of other ways and in a range of other locations, from soccer stadiums to movie theaters. Why do you think they advertised to people in places of fun and entertainment?
World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918. What began as a nationalist conflict between AustriaHungary and the tiny country of Serbia ballooned into a war involving 32 countries separated into two camps: the Allied and Central Powers. The core Allied Powers were When war broke out in 1914, Britain’s Britain, France, and Russia, which backed the soldiers needed to meet strict age and small independent nation of Serbia. On the physical requirements. As the conflict Central Powers side, Austria-Hungary brought wore on and death tolls rose, more its reliable friends—Germany and the troops were badly needed for combat. Ottoman Empire—to the battlefields. Scores As a result, some requirements— of other countries chose one side over the such as those surrounding a other, based on factors ranging from pre-war soldiers’ height—were lowered. alliances to who seemed more likely to win.
BATTLE LINES
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Primary sources come from people who were eyewitnesses to events. They might write about the event, take videos, post messages to social media, or record the sound of an event. For example, the photographs in this book are primary sources, taken at the time of the event. Paintings of events are usually not primary sources, since they were often painted long after the event took place. They are secondary sources. Why do you think primary sources are important?
Troops in Russia during WWI
Battles were fought across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and along the coast of South America. Fighting happened on land, in the skies, and on the open seas. The technologies used during battle, from submarines to machine guns to mustard gas, were new, untested, and capable of killing on a mass scale.
BATTLE LINES
After two-and-a-half years of neutrality, the United States entered the war on the Allied side in April 1917. Though American troops began arriving in Europe in June 1917, they did not fully participate in frontline combat and trench warfare until October of that year.
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WORLD WAR I | INTRODUCTION
Estimates vary widely, but it is believed that a total of 9.7 million soldiers died and 12 to 13 million civilians perished. An additional 21.1 million were wounded and 7.7 million went missing, bringing military casualties to more than 40 million, a number unseen in human history.
Many civilian deaths were caused by the byproducts of war, including famine, disease, and genocide.
MORE THAN 100 YEARS LATER It’s been more than 100 years since the end of World War I. No longer a living memory, the generation of people that participated in this conflict, directly and indirectly, have largely passed on. Today, we rely on a diverse collection of primary sources, including posters, films, letters, books, newspaper articles, government documents, and photos, to piece together the war’s arc, magnitude, and impact.
From the United States to the Indian subcontinent, from Austria to Australia, war posters were everywhere during World War I. Before the rise of radio and television, posters offered a key way for governments to communicate with citizens. Designed by teams of artists and marketing gurus to inspire patriotism and action, they were plastered on buildings, in workplaces, and in subway cars. They also drew on stereotypes and symbols to amplify fear of the enemy. As curator David H. Mihaly told Smithsonian Magazine on the centennial of the war in 2014, “Posters sold the war.” He explains, they “inspired you to enlist, to pick up the flag and support your country. They made you in some cases fear an enemy or created a fear you didn’t know you had.” Take a look at some propaganda posters in this video. How do you hear about global events today?
PBS world war I posters Beyond the War Room
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New Zealand troops in the trenches in France, 1917
BATTLE LINES
Credit: Henry Armytage Sanders
Mining this trove of documents to reimagine life between 1914 and 1918 World War I is sometimes called the First is no small task, but we need to dust World War, The Great War, or The War to them off if we’re to add color, depth, End All Wars. The term “World War,” or and context to our image of those Weltkrieg, was first used in Germany in 1914. bound for the front. We need to closely examine these documents if we are to humanize a conflict in which the loss of life was of such a mass scale that it can easily get reduced to a series of statistics.
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WORLD WAR I | INTRODUCTION
Studying the history of World War I, or really any historical conflict, means engaging with different perspectives.
This is how we gain insight into how a few years can change the way people viewed their world and can also show us how events long past continue to shape our world today. Even today, the questions asked by contemporary human rights activists about the rules of engagement, such as the targeting of civilians during wartime and the use of chemical weapons such as poison gases, are rooted in this conflict. So, too, are questions about freedom of opinion in wartime and the role of governments in shaping public opinion through propaganda. The map of the world as we see it was drawn as a result of this war. The twentieth century’s most deadly genocide, the Holocaust of World War II, also traces its origins to this historical moment. From the landscape of the Middle East to the rise of communism in Russia, World War I’s aftershocks were felt for decades. And, many of the questions the war raised about injustice and persecution remain unresolved by today’s world powers. Examining the human dimension of World War I means looking at the accounts of real people who participated in the conflict in different ways. In this book, we turn to a range of primary documents to understand the war’s causes. What motivations— political, economic, religious, intellectual—led leaders and civilians to the choices they made?
STEP INTO PLACE The notion that young men should “Step into their place” wasn’t limited to Great Britain. On all sides, recruits were told to set aside their individual hopes and ambitions for the national interest. A scene from the 1979 film adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel All Quiet on the Western Front captures expectations in pre-war Germany. Early in the movie, a recent high school graduate who is reluctant to pack his things for the front stands before his teacher’s desk. The teacher stresses that the time for play has passed. Now, he tells his former pupil, “the entire class will go as one man to serve the Fatherland.” Why do you think that kind of expectation had so much power on young people? Do you think there is that kind of expectation for teenagers today?
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First-hand accounts bring into focus the nationalist fervor that convinced entire populations not only that they were superior to their neighbors, but that those just beyond their borders were monstrous tyrants needing to be slayed. They point to the reasons why some world leaders believed war was politically and economically necessary. They also show why others thought war was a tool that governments were using to distract citizens from uniting around other problems, such as inequality and workers’ rights. The last known surviving veteran
BATTLE LINES
of World War I died on February 4, 2012, just shy of her 111th birthday. Florence Green served in Great Britain’s newly formed Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) during the war’s last two months in 1918.
Primary sources help us understand the effects of the war. How did the war impact people and communities, and how did that impact vary by location, social class, race, age, and gender?
We begin by zooming out to observe the panorama of global relations in the years just before the war. Then, we telescope in to the summer of 1914, examining the sequence of events that led to total war. Following that, we steady our focus on how the conflict played out on different fronts during the course of four years, and look at the shaky resolutions that were reached in its aftermath. Finally, we reflect on its long-term impacts, examining how the world we live in today is one that this war made.
TEXT TO WORLD What do you know about the wars raging today? Do they affect your daily life? Why or why not?
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WORLD WAR I | INTRODUCTION
KEY QUESTIONS • What evidence supports the statement that World War I was a “global war”? • What is propaganda, and what is one example of how governments used propaganda to shape public opinion during World War I?
WORLD WAR I POSTERS
Inquire & Investigate
In a conflict of global scale, propaganda images that prove successful in one setting often migrate across oceans and continents. This happens today as well as in the past. In many instances, these visuals get adapted, remixed, and reused in new contexts for new audiences. Think of it as an early twentiethcentury form of the meme!
• Examine the gesture, posture, expression, and clothing worn by the central figure in each poster found at the links. • What visual similarities do the images share? Why do you think this was a feature that artists chose to reuse in different settings? • Are there familiar figures or symbols in the image? What power would the use of familiar visuals hold? • What visual differences exist between the images? What do the differences between the posters suggest about their audiences? • What words appear on the poster? Does the text relate directly or indirectly to the image?
• Research the history of each poster. Which was produced first? Where and by whom? For what purpose? • Make a timeline that shows when, where, and by whom each poster was made. In this way you can map its adaptation through the years.
Kirchner Britons
John Bull absent
Uncle Sam you
Canada war bonds poster
Daughters Zion recruit
To investigate more, visit a library or go online and research the history of the British War Propaganda Bureau (WPB) and the American Committee on Public Information (CPI). When did each group emerge? Who led them? What types of work did they create? Who were the audiences for these works of propaganda? How did they portray the enemy? Do we have anything similar today?
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Inquire & Investigate
VOCAB LAB Write down what you think each word means. What root words can you find to help you? What does the context of the word tell you?
A DIFFERENT KIND OF BATTLEFIELD In the early years of World War I, army recruiters went to soccer games and rugby matches looking for recruits. According to historian Adam Hochschild, soccer games “proved the single best venue for recruiters.” Arriving spectators would see recruiters wearing sandwich boards bearing the message, “Your Country Needs You.” The game would start with a patriotic speech. Players often stepped forward to enlist on the spot, and the fans quickly followed their lead.
• Early in the war, the British newspaper The Times published the following lines:
Allied Powers, Central Powers, genocide, nationalist, persecution, and stereotype Compare your definitions with those of your friends or classmates. Did you all come up with the same meanings? Turn to the text and glossary if you need help.
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Come, leave the lure of the football field With its fame so lightly won, And take your place in a greater game Where worthier deeds are done . . . Come, join the ranks of our hero sons In the wider field of fame, Where the God of Right will watch the fight, And referee the game.
• What is the “greater game” of which the poet writes? What lines justify the view that England has the support of a higher, divine power in wartime?
WORLD WAR I | INTRODUCTION
• Take a look at posters advertising the Sportsmens’ 1000 at these two sites. In speeches, articles, stories, and images, recruiters often presented war as another way of engaging in team sport “play.” Australian recruiters targeted athletes Sportsmens’ 1000 with the “Sportsmen’s Thousand” Australia campaign.
Inquire & Investigate
• Examine the posters. Read the description of the Australia’s Sportsmen’s battalion provided by the Australian War Memorial, and answer the following questions. • Who is targeted by this campaign? • Whose image are they using for recruitment, and why? • The image argues that sportsmen and soldiers share certain qualities. What are they?
To investigate more, consider that today, the military continues to sell itself to recruits in creative ways. In the United States, recruiting efforts are increasingly digital. Platforms such as Instagram and e-sports sites are popular ways for reaching potential enlistees. Listen to or read the following piece from NPR. How are the tactics of today’s military recruiters similar to those during World War I? How do they differ? Consider the language and NPR army imagery that they use. creative
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SAMPLE GLOSSARY alliance: a partnership
experiential: learning from direct observation or activity.
Allied powers: the countries that fought together against Germany and the Central Powers during World War I, including Great Britain, France, Russia, and the United States.
famine: a period of great hunger and lack of food for a large population of people.
between peoples or countries.
amplify: to make a
sound louder or an issue more well known.
byproduct: an extra and sometimes unexpected or unintended result of an action or process.
casualty: a person who is injured or killed during war. Central powers: the group
of countries that fought against the Allies during World War I, including Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.
citizen: a person who has all the rights and responsibilities that come with being a full member of a country.
civilian: a member of society who is not in the military.
communism: an economic and political system in which the government owns everything used in the production and distribution of goods. context: the background
front: the dividing point where two armies meet. genocide: the deliberate killing of a large group of people based on race, ethnicity, or nationality. guru: a teacher or an expert. Holocaust: a time before
and during World War II when the German Nazis tried to kill the entire Jewish race, as well as several other groups.
humanize: to address or
portray someone in a way that emphasizes that person’s humanity or individuality.
injustice: something that is very unfair or unequal.
nationalist: someone
who believes that one’s own country is superior to others, and places primary emphasis on the promotion of its culture and interests.
propaganda: biased, misleading, or false information that is promoted to persuade people to believe a certain viewpoint. recruit: to enlist new people
to a cause or army or someone who recently joined the armed forces or another group.
retreat: to move away from the enemy in battle. scroll: a piece of paper
or parchment with writing on it that is rolled up into the shape of a tube.
sickle: a sharp farming tool in the shape of a half moon.
statistics: numbers that
show facts about a subject.
stereotype: a judgment
about a group of individuals or the inaccurate belief that all people who share a single physical or cultural trait are the same.
technology: the tools,
methods, and systems used to solve a problem or do work.
Ottoman Empire: an empire
toll: the number of deaths, casualties, or injuries arising from particular circumstances, such as a battle or war.
getting involved in a war between other countries.
economic: having to do with the resources and wealth of a country.
enlist: to enroll in the military.
patriotism: devotion to
WORLD WAR I | GLOSSARY
to exterminate or drive away a group of people based on their religious beliefs or other characteristic.
neutrality: a policy of not
based in Turkey between the fourteenth and early twentieth centuries that controlled North Africa, southern Europe, and Southwest Asia.
or setting.
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fervor: great feeling.
persecution: a campaign
and love for one’s country.
trench warfare: when
opposing troops fight from ditches facing each other.
troops: large groups of soldiers.
SAMPLE GLOSSARY tyrant: a cruel ruler who denies people their rights. vantage point: a place or position affording a good view of something. veteran: someone who has served in the armed forces during a war. war bond: an investment issued by a government to finance military operations during times of war.
World War I: also known as The Great War, this conflict was fought from 1914 to 1918 between the Allied Powers (Russia, France, Great Britain, United States, and others) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, and others), and won by the Allies.
SAMPLE GLOSSARY
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YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION • EDUCATION RESOURCE focus on social studies
World War I sustained these staggering casualties: 9 million dead soldiers, 12 million or more civilian lives lost, millions more wounded. But those numbers only hint at the devastation, both political and personal, that lies at the heart of the Great War. World War I: The Great War to End All Wars brings to light the key details of this critical juncture in history, which marks the transition to a modern era in which mass destruction became not only a possibility but a reality through military technologies a century in the making. By focusing not only on military life on the battlefields and in the trenches but also on anti-war protest movements, art and popular culture, homefront efforts across the globe, and experiences in British and French colonies, this book offers a sense of how this war penetrated all corners of the world and impacted all of its peoples. Essential questions guide readers’ investigations while hands-on activities promote critical and creative problem solving, and textbooks from Nomad Press include to-world connections highlight the way the past the following educational components: provides context for the present-day world. Try these critical-thinking activities! • • •
Research recruiting on the football and rugby pitch Analyze the messages and the messengers Discover satire in the pre-war years
PRAISE FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP BY JULIE KNUTSON, WINNER OF A 2021 SKIPPING STONES HONOR AWARD “An eye-catching resource . . .”
Timeline of important events Age-appropriate, hands-on activities Links to online media Essential questions Text-to-world connections Primary sources, including maps, photographs, and writings Extensive back matter, including glossary, index, and resources Guided Reading Levels and Lexile measurements
—School Library Journal
PUB DATE: June 2022 PB: 9781619309722, $17.95 HC: 9781619309692, $22.95 eBook: all formats available, $12.99 Specs: 8 x 10, 128 pages, color interior with illustrations and photography Reading Level: Ages 12–15 Interest Level: Grades 7–10
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