What was ww1

The war saw severe treatment of minorities. In particular, Tsarist Russia persecuted its Jewish population and the Ottoman Empire deliberately destroyed its Armenian minority through massacre and deportation. World War One was also global in terms of the range of ethnicities and nationalities mobilised to fight. The British mobilised more than a million Indian men for the war. They made up one third of the British army on the Western Front in - but also fought in East Africa and in Mesopotamia.

The Germans too mobilised black colonial troops but only for use in Africa - Germany believed using non-white troops in Europe was a dangerous breach of colonial racial hierarchies. Along with fighting men, the British and French also recruited colonial labour on a massive scale, to work on the Western front and in other war theatres.

Both Britain and France also conducted an enormous recruitment campaign in China bringing some , Chinese labourers to Europe to do war work. Colonial labourers often found themselves close to the front lines, under fire. If we measure the war in terms of its ideological effects it was clearly global. The war's economic legacy changed the world as the capital of finance shifted during the conflict from London to New York and, with vast swathes of European agriculture ruined, Argentina and Canada greatly increased their market share as food suppliers.

Global attitudes were also changed. The Japanese called for a clause on the equality of all races to be inserted into the League of Nations covenant after the war - they were unsuccessful, but the idea revealed changing mindsets. The first Pan-African Congress, held in Paris in , advocated that African peoples should govern themselves. The war's legacy was new global ideas about the right of peoples to self-determination and the need for a global system of international co-operation, which was embodied in the League of Nations.

It was a war that utterly altered the world and in this regard, in the sheer scale of the changes it brought, it was certainly a first. Countdown to WW1. Image source, Getty Images. The Seven Years' War. Image source, Alamy.

North America, India, the Caribbean, the Philippines and large parts of central Europe were affected. To edit this worksheet, click the button below to signup it only takes a minute and you'll be brought right back to this page to start editing! Sign Up. This worksheet can be edited by Premium members using the free Google Slides online software.

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The war lasted exactly four years, three months and 14 days. See the fact file below for more information about World War I. World War 1 was a military conflict lasting from to which involved nearly all the biggest powers of the world.

It involved two opposing alliances — the Allies and the Central Powers. The WW1 facts listed on this page are amazing and very interesting when you consider that the events happened in very recent history.

This entire Unit plan will give your students or children the entire education they need on the Great War. With over 40 pages of challenging worksheets and activities, this is a comprehensive unit plan to use in any learning environment. Within this unit you will explore all aspects of WW1. Students are also challenged at the end of each study guide with a number of unique worksheets.

Below are listed the main concepts that students may understand by the completion of these worksheets. If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source. These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

KidsKonnect is a growing library of high-quality, printable worksheets for teachers and homeschoolers. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Skip to footer. Sign Me Up Already a member? Log in to download. In contrast to the historian Fritz Fischer who saw German war aims - in particular the infamous September Programme of with its far-reaching economic and territorial demands - at the core of the German government's decision to go to war, most historians nowadays dismiss this interpretation as being far too narrow.

They tend to place German war aims, or incidentally all other belligerent nations' war aims, in the context of military events and political developments during the war. Whole libraries have been filled with the riddle of Was the war an accident or design, inevitable or planned, caused by sleepwalkers or arsonists?

To my mind the war was no accident and it could have been avoided in July In Vienna the government and military leaders wanted a war against Serbia.

The immediate reaction to the murder of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June was to seek redress from Serbia, which was thought to have been behind the assassination plot and which had been threatening Austria-Hungary's standing in the Balkans for some time. Crucially, a diplomatic victory was considered worthless and "odious". At the beginning of July, Austria's decision-makers chose war. But in order to implement their war against Serbia they needed support from their main ally Germany. Without Germany, their decision to fight against Serbia could not have been implemented.

The Berlin government issued a "blank cheque" to its ally, promising unconditional support and putting pressure on Vienna to seize this golden opportunity. Both governments knew it was almost certain that Russia would come to Serbia's aid and this would turn a local war into a European one, but they were willing to take this risk.

Germany's guarantee made it possible for Vienna to proceed with its plans - a "no" from Berlin would have stopped the crisis in its tracks. With some delay Vienna presented an ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July which was deliberately unacceptable. This was because Austria-Hungary was bent on a war and Germany encouraged it because the opportunity seemed perfect. Victory still seemed possible whereas in a few years' time Russia and France would have become invincible.

Out of a mixture of desperation and over-confidence the decision-makers of Austria-Hungary and Germany unleashed a war to preserve and expand their empires. The war that ensued would be their downfall. It is human nature to seek simple, satisfying answers, which is why the German war guilt thesis endures today. Without Berlin's encouragement of a strong Austro-Hungarian line against Serbia after Sarajevo - the "blank cheque" - WW1 would clearly not have broken out.

So Germany does bear responsibility. But it is equally true that absent a terrorist plot launched in Belgrade the Germans and Austrians would not have faced this terrible choice. Civilian leaders in both Berlin and Vienna tried to "localise" conflict in the Balkans. It was Russia's decision - after Petersburg received its own "blank cheque" from Paris - to Europeanise the Austro-Serbian showdown which produced first a European and then - following Britain's entry - world conflagration.

Russia, not Germany, mobilised first. Still, none of the powers can escape blame. All five Great Power belligerents, along with Serbia, unleashed Armageddon.

The war was started by the leaders of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Vienna seized the opportunity presented by the assassination of the archduke to attempt to destroy its Balkan rival Serbia. This was done in the full knowledge that Serbia's protector Russia was unlikely to stand by and this might lead to a general European war.

Germany gave Austria unconditional support in its actions, again fully aware of the likely consequences. Germany sought to break up the French-Russian alliance and was fully prepared to take the risk that this would bring about a major war.