World War I

Question 1

When did WW1 start and end?

Answer 1

WW1 started 28 July 1914, and ended 11 November 1918.

Question 2

What were the M.A.I.N. causes of WW1?

Answer 2

militarism: having a strong military force
alliance: association or union formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries
imperialism: dominance over other nations
nationalism: being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one’s country

Question 3

what was Australia like at the beginning of WW1?

Answer 3

• australia became a federated nation in 1901
• australia was still part of the british empire, even though it was an independent nation and used british currency until 1910.
• it was a time of rapid, extensive industrialisation, with great advances made in science and technology

Question 4

Which countries dominated Europe?

Answer 4

• austria-hungary –> the empire had a large military but lacked the latest technology
• germany –> heavily invested in improving its military and navy, which were modern, well equipped and trained
• france –> the french army was not modern, it used conscripts and generally suffered from low morale
• britain –> the british navy was the most advanced int he world. however they were becoming increasingly concerned about the growing economic, political and naval strength of germany
• russia –> had a huge land mass and large population, but its economy was undeveloped and based on agriculture. huge army, outdated weapons
• ottoman empire had lost most of its European territories in the Balkan Wars, it had undergone a series of reforms and moderisations, with some help from germany.

Question 5

What were the long term causes of ww1?

Answer 5

• militarism –> an arms race broke out between Germany and Britain. Wary of Germany’s growing navy, Britain built the largest, fastest and most modern battleship of its time. Soon Germany started to build some of its own
• alliances –> European nations formed strategic military agreements (alliances) with each other. The most important were the Triple Alliance (central powers) and the Triple Entente (the Allies or Allied Powers).
  The triple alliance was an agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. When Austria-Hungary declared war in July 1914, Italy claimed to be neutral and did not enter the war.
  The triple entente was formed by France and England in 1904, Russia joined the agreement in 1907. These agreements brought the countries together and solved arguments about territories in Asia and Africa.
• imperialism –> the expansion of a country’s power and influence by colonising other countries, often by force
• nationalism –> the nation-state was relatively new in Europe. By 1914, many of Europe’s young nations were looking for a national identity to bind their peoples together. People were encouraged to be loyal to their own nation, so when war broke out, many men enthusiastically enlisted to support and defend their country.

Question 6

what were the short term causes of ww1

Answer 6

the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne and the subsequent political crisis the shooting caused were short term events that led to the start of ww1.
- in June 1914, Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie went to Bosnia to inspect the army’s training and manoeuvres.
- despite being warned that it was dangerous to go, they went anyways
- on June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot and killed by assassin Gavrilo Princip.
- he was a Bosnian-Serb nationalist and a member of the Black Hand, which was an organisation that wanted to unite all serbians into one nation
- the assassination led to a diplomatic crisis, where Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination and issued an ultimatum of 10 demands which would have politically embarassed Serbia’s rulers and drastically reduced its power in the Balkans.
- serbia complied with all the demands except one, to let Austro-Hungarian agents manage the investigation of the assassination.
- because serbia did not comply to its commands, austria-hungary declared war on sebia on 28 July and invaded the country two weeks later
- Austria-Hungary used Serbia’s minor refusal as an excuse to declare war and try to expand its power in the Balkans.
- Austro-Hungarian leaders were confident because Germany had declared that it would support its ally with a blank cheque (meaning that they would support Austria-Hungary both militarily and politically, without placing limits on the amount of assistance).
- The first response to the declaration of war came from Russia, which backed its ally Serbia. More and more allies entered the battle on both side and within four months, all the great powers of Europe were at war.

Question 7

Why did ww1 become a global war?

Answer 7

the world was already divided into a compex network of alliances before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, so when the dispute escalated into a global war, each country took the side of their allies. The world became divided between the Allies (the triple entente) and the Central powers (Germany, Hungary and their allies)

Question 8

what was australia’s response to the war?

Answer 8

• During the early 20th century, Australia’s ties to Britain were very strong. When Britain entered the war, Australia also joined by extension.
• Initial response: when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, Australia considered itself at war with Germany too. Some people believed that the war would be over by Christmas, while other were more skeptical and concerned. However, most Australians believed that it was right to enter the war and support England in its hour of need.
• Due to Australia’s armies being very small and not being allowed to fight outside Australia, the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) was created to allow men to fight overseas. Calls for enlistment started straight away. At the time, Australia’s population was about 4 million people, making roughly 82000 men of fighting age (19-38 years old). When Australia offered 20000 soldiers to the British government, the offer was accepted immediately.

Question 9

reasons australian men enlisted

Answer 9

○ Many Australians still held familial and cultural ties to England, so fighting to protect the mother country felt important
○ Australians were proud of their new nation and they wanted to represent their country overseas and show Europeans what Australians could do
○ As Australia was a mostly rural nation, people were very isolate. So travelling to Europe or the Middle East was an exciting idea for many young men.
○ There was lots of social pressure. Army propaganda posters were everywhere and enlistment became the main topic of conversation. Eligible men who didn’t enlist might find a white feather in their letterbox, suggesting they were cowards
○ Football teams, cricket teams and groups from small towns would often all enlist together.

Question 10

did australia have conscription during ww1?

Answer 10

After the initial excitement, the number of recruits declined as the war went on and casualty rates increased. As news filtered back to Australia of the brutal nature of trench warfare, these numbers declines further. In order to combat this issue, the Australian government proposed that Australia create an army based on conscription, meaning that eligible men would be forced to enter the army for a certain period. However, in order to demonstrate public support in order to pass legislation in the Senate, plebiscites (similar to referendums) were held. The first plebiscite to introduce conscription was held in 1916, and was narrowly rejected (51% of Australians voted against conscription). The second plebiscite was held in 1917 and was rejected once again, this time with a larger majority, with 54% of Australians voting against conscription. The government did not try to implement conscription again during World War 1. Opinions on both sides of the argument were very strong.

Question 11

what was trench warfare?

Answer 11

Trench warfare was a new fighting technique that was used heavily during World war 1. In trench warfare, soldiers on the frontlines dug and occupied extensive trenches on the battlefield. Within the trenches, the soldiers were protected against enemy artillery. However, to take territory, the soldiers had to advance out of the trenches, where they could easily be shot. The Western Front (located through France and Belgium) was the main region of trench warfare. Both sides had extensive networks of trenches, along with underground tunnels and foxholes. These were surrounded by barbed wire, mines, traps and obstacles. The deadly zone between the opposing trenches was called No Man’s Land.

Question 12

what was life like in the trenches?

Answer 12

Life on the front line was a mix of monotony and sudden action. Raids on the enemy’s trenches were conducted at night. During the day, officers kept their soldiers busy with a strict routine of cleaning, training, repairing and building trenches. Soldiers usually spent about 5 days per money in the frontline trenches, which was five days of bombardment, knee-deep in freezing water and surrounded by corpses, rats and other vermin. After a short rest period away from the trenches altogether, soldiers would move to supply and support trenches, and then back to the frontlines for their next stint.

Question 13

why was ww1 known as the machine age war?

Answer 13

WW1 was known as the machine-age war as it was the first modern war, and the development of artillery was the thing that made it most clear that this was a new age. Large calibre guns, automatic machine guns, mortars and grenades were all used. Artillery was the most destructive weapon on the western front, even if a soldier wasn’t killed by the impact of a shell, he could be killed or seriously wounded by shrapnel that flew around at incredibly high speeds. After the guns fell silent, soldiers would get out of the trenches and advance through No Man’s Land. This area was riddled with bomb craters and barbed wire. Millions of kilometres of barbed wire were rolled out in No Man’s Land in order to slow advancing troops. Men would get caught in knots of barbed wire, unable to escape while they got shot. Tanks also represented a new challenge on the battlefield; heavily armoured, terrifying and capable of causing significant damage. Early tanks were slow and risked getting stuck, however they became increasingly deadly as designs improved. Other new weapons include flamethrowers and poison gas. Volatile and leaking fuel, flamethrowers were often as dangerous for the person wielding them as they were for the soldiers subjected to the flames. Mustard gas was fired at the enemy in special shells. It flowed through the trenches and burnt the eyes and lungs of soldiers who could not escape it. Gas killed many soldiers and left survivors with lifelong injuries.

Question 14

what were some things that were used for the first time in ww1?

Answer 14

• Planes
  
  • Mustard gas
  • Trenches used at such large scales
  • Tanks
  • Penicillin
    
    • Plastic surgery in response to some of the wounds soldiers suffered

Question 15

what new machines or improvements were there to fighting in the air?

Answer 15

At the start of World War 1, planes were only used for recon. Pilots would fly over enemy territory and sketch or photograph enemy positions. They did not go into battle. However by 1915, planes were faster, could fly for longer and were more agile, which meant they could be used for air combat. Initially, pilots would shoot at each other with pistols, or drop bombs by hand on enemy positions. By mid-1915, machine guns could be mounted to onto planes and pilots could shoot at planes in front of them without hitting their own propellor. Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron, was a heron in Germany as he was a very skilful pilot.

Question 16

what new machines or improvements were there to fighting on the sea?

Answer 16

The naval arms race between Britain and Germany led to the development of armoured dreadnoughts and battleships. World War 1 involved far less naval warfare than major conflicts of previous centuries. Battleships only came into direct conflict once, during the Battle of Jutland in June 1916, in which 14 British and 11 German ships sank. Ships were primarily used to transport troops and supplies, or to attack enemy transport ships. The submarine was introduced by Germany. Both Britain and Germany developed submarines, and Britain had for more, but Germany’s were faster and more advanced. Germany’s policy of ‘unrestricted submarine warfare’ meant their submarines would attack any ship they suspected of aiding the Allies, including civilian ships.

Question 17

what sort of weapons or armour did soldiers have?

Answer 17

Armour was almost non-existent, apart from metal or leather helmets that might occasionally deflect a bullet.

Question 18

where did the Australian soldiers serve?

Answer 18

Australia’s first active participation in combat occurred in Rabaul, a township in what is now Papua New Guinea. From the late 19th century, Germany had built a presence in the South Pacific with colonies in New Guinea, New Britain, the Solomon Island, Palau, Nauru, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. The Australian Navy was sent to capture German New Guinea in September 1914. On September 11, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force attacked a wireless radio station where six Australians lost their lives, making it the first casualties of the war. By 21 September, all German forces in the colony surrendered and it remained under Australian occupation till the end of the war.
The Australian Imperial Force was a volunteer army. By September 1914, there were 20,000 men in it. By the end of the year they were in Egypt, where they trained and got to know the 10,000 soldiers from New Zealand who joined them. Together, these soldiers were known as the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs). The corps also included a small number of British and Indian units.
By November 1914, the Anzacs had competed their training, and travelled to Gallipoli and then to the Western Front. Between 1916 and 1918, the Anzacs also participated in battles within both Egypt and Palestine in support of British forces fighting against Turkey.

Question 19

how many men enlisted in total in ww1?

Answer 19

In total, 416,809 Australian men enlisted in World War I, of whom 331,781 served overseas. Of these, 61,720 died during the war and 137,013 were wounded.

Question 20

how did Australian soldiers serve at gallipoli?

Answer 20

Australian soldiers played a key role in the Battle of Gallipoli, which was one of the bloodiest wars of World War 1. 8700 Australian men died in the fight to control the Dardanelles. Allied forces ultimately withdrew and the Ottoman army declared victory.
The Gallipoli peninsula is a coastal region in Turkey and it runs along a narrow sea passage called the Dardanelles, which ultimately leads to the Black Sea. This was a key transport route as well as a communications link with Russia. When the Ottoman Empire joined the war, it closed the Dardanelles to ships from Russia, France, and the UK. This meant that Russia could not easily receive supplies, and to support its ally, the British Navy planned an attack to gain control of this strategic sea passage.
The Anzacs arrived at Gallipoli at a place which is now known at Anzac Cove, before dawn on April 25 1915. They came under heavy fire from the Turkish artillery and struggled to gain ground. The quick, decisive victory which was envisioned by the Allies did not occur as fighting dragged on for months. As the death toll rose, so did the risk of diseases such as typhoid and dysentery, the corpses of soldiers, rotting in the hot sun, attracting swarms of flies. Occasional breaks in the fighting allowed for both sides to clear their dead and attend to the wounded soldiers in No Man’s Land. Such breaks often followed attacks and counterattacks, such as the massive Turkish push on 18-19 May, where 42,000 Turks tried to rush the Allies, more than 10,000 lives were lost.
The two key battles the Anzac forces played a role in were the Battle of Lone Pine (where the Anzacs created a diversion to distract the Turks, allowing Allied troops to land at Sulva Bay and threaten the high ridges), and the Battle of the Nek (where Australian Light Horse troops attempted to storm a ridge and capture the Turkish positions.)
By November 1915, Allied leaders decided to withdraw and redeploy the remaining soldiers to the Western Front. Under cover of darkness, the Anzacs withdrew without further loss.

Question 21

how many allied troops were at gallipoli?

Answer 21

The Battle of Gallipoli lost approximately 44,250 Allied troops, of which 8700 were Australian. Approximated 100,000 Allies were injured and the Ottoman Empire lost approximately 86,700 men, with hundreds of thousands injured.

Question 22

how did Australian soldiers serve on the western front?

Answer 22

The Western Front was the most renowned and deadliest battleground of the war. Close to half of the Australians who fought there died. The western front was a stretch of land situated between the north of France and the German-Swiss border. It became a battleground early in the war when Germany invaded Belgium on 3 August 1914. The German plan was to race through Belgium and conquer France within 6 weeks, and then focus on fighting the Russian in the east, this was known as the Schlieffen Plan. The plan didn’t work because Russian troops attacked Germany while Germany was busy invading France. This led to it becoming a long fight. Hastily dug defensive trenches quickly developed into a sophisticated system of frontline and supply trenches. The Allies had more soldiers on the Front, but the German trenches were better defended and protected, so neither side made much progress. The stalemate was not broken until 1918, when new offensive weaponry was used in more effective ways, most notably by the Australia general John Monash. Australian soldiers were sent to the Western Front in March 1916, and were involved in almost 30 battles. More than 295,000 Australian soldiers served on the Front, and around 46,000 soldiers died there, and another 132,000 were wounded.

Question 23

What was Australia’s First Nations peoples’ experience of war?

Answer 23

When the war began, there were approximately 90000 First Nations Peoples living in Australia. More than 1000 First nations men served in World war 1. In 1903, an act was passed by the federal parliament, ruling that First Nations men could not enlist in the defence forces. In 1917, with demand for soldiers high and enlistment numbers falling, the Defence Act was amended. Volunteers from the First Nations could be accepted provided they had one parent of European descent. The first nations men probably enlisted for the same reasons as other volunteers, or for financial reasons, as they would’ve received more pay by enlisting than they would have by working in Australia. At least 70 first nations soldiers were at Gallipoli, with 14 losing their lives there.
After the war ended, many first nations soldiers returned to their lives as second-class citizens. They were often not invited to join Anzac Day marches, and were prevented from entering Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL) facilities. Some first nations soldiers returned home to find that their children had been taken as part of the Stolen Generation. The contribution of the first nations soldiers had gone almost completely unrecognised. Only in recent years has their service been celebrated.

Question 24

what was life like on the homefront?

Answer 24

Australia’s participation in the war affected the whole population both directly and indirectly. There was widespread support in schools, charities and communities for the war effort, while others spoke out against the war. there were many jobs for women and children to do while the men were away at war.

Question 25

what were some of the roles for women on the homefront?

Answer 25

Before the war, most women worked in the home or in domestic service, cooking, nursing or teaching. When the war broke out, many women wanted to support the war effort, so thousands volunteered for local organisations, sending packages to the frontlines, raising funds to support soldiers, sending food to soldiers and volunteering at hospitals. The only was women would serve in the army was to become and nurse, and more than 2200 women signed up to be a nurse. They served on transport and hospital ships, as well as in war zones.

Question 26

what were some of the tasks for children on the homefront?

Answer 26

○ Preparing clothing and other goods to send to soldiers
○ Take on more household duties to cover for their parents
○ Fundraising
○ Collecting scrap metal for recycling
○ Undergoing cadet training
○ Enlisting to fight (some teenage boys lied about their age to join the army)

Question 27

how was australia’s economy affected and standard of life affected by the war?

Answer 27

With manufacturing redirected to support the war effort, the cost of living rose sharply in Australia, it went up 50% between 1914 and 1918. Inflation increased alone with the price of food, rent and taxes. Growing inequality emerged, leading to serious strikes in 1916 and 1917.

Question 28

what was the prosecution of German-Australians like in Australia?

Answer 28

In 1914, Australia had a small German population of about 100,000 people (2% of the population). Life drastically changed for these people when the war broke out. All Germans were required to report to the local police station weekly, sometimes daily, where the police would fill out a report stating if the person could be trusted or not. Internment camps were established and many German and Austrian men were put into these camps for the duration of the war. Some voluntarily went into camps to ensure that their wives and children would receive government allowance. In some towns, German language schools and churches were closed, German food was renamed and German music was banned.

Question 29

how did world war 1 end?

Answer 29

The key events that led to the end of the war played out on the western front. In 1917, Russia’s Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne under pressure from countrywide strikes and protests. In November 1917, Vladimir Lenin and the Communist party took over and one of the first acts the new party signed was to sign a peace treaty with Germany, allowing Russia to exit the war. This was a major blow to France and England, as it meant that Germany no longer had to fight Russia and soldiers could be sent to support those on the Western Front. General Ludendorff, the man in charge of the German army planned a massive offensive for the early spring of 1918. This Kaiserschalacht was meant to break the stalemate on the Western Front. It was a gamble, but the odds were towards the Germans. Still, they lost. A lack of resources, too much confidence placed on the Germans’ ability to mount a strong attack and tactical wins by the Allies caused the offensive to fail, meaning the Germans had effectively lost the war.

Question 30

what was the schlieffen plan?

Answer 30

the schlieffen plan was a plan devised by Germany to race through Belgium and conquer France in 6 weeks, and then focus of fighting Russia in the east. however, this plan didn’t work because russian troops attacked germany while germany was busy invading france

Question 31

what was the armistice?

Answer 31

On 1 October 1918, General Ludendorff suggested that an armistice was the only way forward. By November 1918, the German miliary commanders recommended to Kaiser Wilhelm II that an armistice was needed. On the 11 of November, at 11 o’clock in the morning, the armistice began, the war was over

Question 32

who was part of the triple entente?

Answer 32

• great britain
• france
• russia

Question 33

Who was part of the central powers?

Answer 33

• germany
• austria-hungary
• italy