WWI video notes

• Sinking of the Lusitania
o Transatlantic ship attacked by U-boat torpedo
o This sank the ship with time only to release 6 lifeboats.
o 128 Americans died
• War began in 1914 when Franz Ferdinand got shot in June
• Nationalism was huge everywhere, most soldiers were volunteers who expected the war to be over by Christmas
• French casualties at the end of the 1st year: 1 million dead
• Tens of thousands of young educated Germans were killed in the first months.
• The US was officially neutral in the conflict- Wilson was reluctant to get involved
• US banks were doing well by loaning money to the Brits and the French who used it to buy American weapons
• Labor shortages drove northern factories to hire blacks who moved north to fill the need for workers.
• Trenches became a huge part of war
• “War of Attrition”
• New Weapons:
o Machine gun
o Tank-invented to get through barbed wire fences
o Gigantic artillery
o Flamethrowers
o Poison Gas
• In Russia, revolution broke out and the Czars were brought down and replaced by a provisional government who tried to continue the war. Lenin was brought home and took over in Russia to create a communist state, withdrawing when he took over.
• Americans entered the war
o Because Germany tried to convince Mexico to invade the US in summer of 1917.
o They were fresh and enthusiastic, but poorly trained and badly armed.