Molly Cox

Kaufman

Sea

9 April 2018

WWI

1. As Austria Hungary wanted to take over the Baltics they asked Germany for their

support; however, Germany was already allied with Russia at the time, but Russia was

against Austria. With the uneasiness between Russia and Austria- Hungary it was

inevitable that the alliance between them and Germany was doomed to fail. As soon as

Russia joined to help the Baltics against Austria their alliance broke; resulting in, Russia

asking their other alliances for help; France. France was then at war with Austria, and

Germany. Once the war fully exploded into WWI France asked for help from their ally

England. Other countries soon got involved too; such as, Serbia, Greece and Romania,

Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. This is how a the first world war became the very first

world war.

2. A German military leader, General Alfred Graf Schlieffen, created the Schlieffen plan.

The plan was to attack France first, since it was seen as a greater threat than Russia, but

then after France they would attack Russia too. Since Russia was lacking railroads the

Germans believed they would have a hard time moving their soldiers. Germany knew that

it would be extremely hard to break the French defense so by attacking Belgium they

thought it would make it easier. Once arriving to the border between them they were not

allowed to enter, because of this Germany attacked Belgium.

3. The Western front was along northern France, and was made up of mostly flat land.

Germany was at an impasse with French soldiers, and this is the reason why it’s called

trench warfare. Soldiers were made to dig narrow trenches in the ground to protect

themselves from weapons. Soldiers slept in heaps of mud, covered completely in it as

well as blood of other men. Fresh food wasn't available, rats were everywhere, and

hundreds of dead bodies/parts. The men got hardly any sleep at all because of consent

fighting going on. Bullets were constantly being fired everywhere. There were large areas

of flat land which were called “no man’s land”, which most likely mean injury or death

from enemy fire.

4. “No man’s land” was the area of land between two trenches and because getting shot at

was definite. When men rushed into no man's land, this was called going “over the top”,

it was extremely the risky to attack that way.

5. Many new, weapons were created during WWI. This allowed armies to kill many more at

once. These weapons were; poisonous gas, the machine gun, tanks, airplanes, and

submarines. Poisonous gases caused soldiers and citizens to wear gas masks to prevent

them from some harm. Machine guns fire bullets automatically, which killed large groups

of people. Tanks fired large artillery shells which would damage forts or trenches.

Airplanes and submarines made war much more intense on land and off.

6. The Eastern Front was a large stretch of land on the border between Germany and Russia.

The battles were Russians and Serbians against the Germans, Austrians, and Turks. The

fighting between these countries was constant. Russia was in dire need of resources to

fight. Without railroads it was extremely hard to move men. Food wasn’t passing through
very well since the Germans blocked off the borders;as well as, the constant fight and

moving. Unfortunately the Russian people were unhappy with their involvement with the

war. They were not as revolutionized as other countries.