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Unit 8: World War I and the Interwar Period

Instructional Videos

Targets

  • I can explain the causes of WWI. 

  • I can trace the course of events in WWI. 

  • I can explain why WWI is considered the first modern war. 

  • I can explain the short and long term effects of WWI. 

  • I can illustrate the changes in the borders of Eurasia as a result of WWI. 

  • I can explain the causes and impacts of the post-war global economic depression.

  • I can describe and exemplify the rise of extremism in Germany, Italy, and Japan following WWI. 

Unit Overview

The War to end all wars. This unit explores why World War I earned this nickname. Before, during, and after this war, was more gruesome and heinous than any war before and possibly since. The unit discusses the modern warfare development that led to horrible battles and gruesome deaths. The unit also explores the post-war period and its impact on the world. 

NearPod Codes

Causes of WWI - VHJUP

Fighting WWI - CGMIF

End of WWI - OERTK

Review Activities

Need to Know 

People 

  • Woodrow Wilson​

  • Kaiser Wilhelm II

  • Lloyd George

  • Georges Clemenceau 

  • Franz Ferdinand

Places

  • Tannenburg ​

  • Gallipoli 

  • Verdun

  • Austria Hungary

  • Soviet Union

Events 

  • Assassination of the Archduke

  • Battle of Tannenburg

  • Battle of the Marne 

  • Battle of the Somme

  • Battle of Verdun

  • The Gallipoli Campaign

Ideas

  • Isolationism

  • Communism

  • Economic Depression

​

Miscellaneous

  • League of Nations

  • Treaty of Versailles

  • 14 Points

From the State

Causes of World War I

  • Alliances that divided Europe into competing camps

  • Nationalistic feelings

  • Diplomatic failures

  • Imperialism

  • Competition over colonies

  • Militarism

Major events

  • Assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand

  • United States enters the war

  • Russia leaves the war

Major leaders

  • Woodrow Wilson

  • Kaiser Wilhelm II

Major battles of World War I

  • Tannenberg

  • Battle of the Marne

  • Gallipoli

  • Somme

  • Verdun

Technological advancements used in World War I

  • Submarines

  • Poison gas

  • Tanks

  • Machine guns

  • Trench warfare

  • Propaganda

Outcomes and global effect

  • Colonies’ participation in the war, which increased demands for independence

  • End of the Russian Imperial, Ottoman, German, and Austro-Hungarian empires

  • Enormous cost of the war in lives, property, and social disruption

Treaty of Versailles

  • Forced Germany to accept responsibility for war and loss of territory and to pay reparations

  • Limited the German military

  • League of Nations

League of Nations

  • International cooperative organization

  • Established to prevent future wars

  • United States not a member

  • Failure of the League because it did not have power to enforce its decisions

The mandate system

  • During World War I, Great Britain and France agreed to divide large portions of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East between themselves.

  • The division of the Ottoman Empire through the mandate system planted the seeds for future conflicts in the Middle East.

Causes of 1917 revolutions

  • Defeat in war with Japan in 1905

  • Landless peasantry

  • Incompetence of Tsar Nicholas II

  • Military defeats and high casualties in World War I

Rise of communism—a consequence of the Russian Revolution

  • Bolshevik Revolution and civil war

  • Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy

  • Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor

Causes of worldwide depression

  • German reparations

  • Expansion of production capacities and dominance of the United States in the global economy

  • High protective tariffs

  • Excessive expansion of credit

  • Stock Market Crash of 1929

Impact of worldwide depression

  • High unemployment in industrial countries

  • Bank failures and collapse of credit

  • Collapse of prices in world trade

  • Nazi Party’s growing importance in Germany; Nazi Party’s blame of European Jews for economic collapse

U.S.S.R. during the Interwar Period—Joseph Stalin

  • Entrenchment of communism

  • Stalin’s policies: Five-year plans, collectivization of farms, state industrialization, secret police

  • Great Purge

Germany during the Interwar Period—Adolf Hitler

  • Inflation and depression

  • Democratic government weakened

  • Anti-Semitism

  • Extreme nationalism

  • National Socialism (Nazism)

  • German occupation of nearby countries

  • Final solution: Extermination camps, gas chambers

Italy during the Interwar Period—Benito Mussolini

  • Rise of fascism

  • Ambition to restore the glory of Rome

  • Invasion of Ethiopia

Japan during the Interwar Period—Hirohito and Hideki Tojo

  • Militarism

  • Industrialization of Japan, leading to drive for raw materials

  • Invasion of Korea, Manchuria, and the rest of China

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