THE GREAT WAR Grades 9–12 Answer Key Answers listed below indicate main points and themes that students may address in their responses. Refer to research sources cited in the lessons, as well as the Great War videos, for additional answers.
ACTIVITY SHEET 2 Middle Eastern Front Gallipoli. Turks and Allies together suffered about 250,000 casualties. Where Did They Fight? 1. Why was the Ottoman Empire considered the “sick man of Europe?” Eastern Front 3. How did the war help shape the The size and strength of the Ottoman modern Middle East? 1. How was the war on the Eastern Empire had made it one of the great The emergence of the modern Middle East Front different than the Western? powers of Europe for centuries, but by stems from WWI. The Ottoman Empire’s While the war on Western Front was the early 20th century, the Empire was in defeat in 1918 led to the partitioning of locked in a stalemate, a war of movement decline; it had lost much of its territory in its territory. The central Turkish homeland ensued on the Eastern Front. Russia was eastern Europe and was facing internal became the modern nation of Turkey able to supply vast amounts of troops, division and calls for independence and while the remaining lands were divided but had difficulty mobilizing and moving autonomy from its non-Turkish population. into British and French mandates based them, as well as producing enough Despite the Empire being known as the on the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement. This weapons and supplies for them. German “sick man of Europe,” many European directly countered what Arab nationalists and Austro-Hungarian troops were also nations, especially Great Britain, tried had been promised by the British during better trained and better supplied than to prevent the Empire’s collapse in the the war, thus sowing the seeds of mistrust the Russians. The terrain was much more decades before World War I because they and discontent with the West among spread out than on the Eastern Front, feared it would leave a power vacuum in the people of the region. This animosity and the two sides fought over an area the region and allow other empires, such plagued relations between the Middle East that was more than 1,000 miles long. as Russia, to gain influence and power. and the West throughout the 20th century, Trench warfare was not common on and continues to cause conflict today. the Eastern Front because armies had 2. Why was the Battle of Gallipoli so room to maneuver, move, and fight over important? Italian Front larger distances. The Ottoman Empire’s main adversary was Russia, and in October 1914, the Turks 1. Which countries fought on this front? 2. Which soldiers served on the joined the Germans in bombarding Russian With Italy’s entry into WWI on the side Eastern Front? ports on the Black Sea. Within days, Russia, of the Allies in 1915, a new front opened Germany and Austria-Hungary fought Britain, and France declared war on Turkey. in southern Europe, pitting that country against Russia. In 1915, British troops and Australian and against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. New Zealander troops (called Anzacs) 3. How did the Russian Revolution landed at Gallipoli, the Turkish-controlled 2. What role did the physical terrain impact the Eastern Front? peninsula that protected the Dardanelles play on the Italian Front? The Russian Revolution (1917) brought straits. A success there would have Much of the fighting along this front Russia out of WWI, as Vladimir Lenin’s eliminated the Ottoman Empire from the took place in the Italian Alps. The Front Bolsheviks sought a separate peace with war and given the Allies a supply route to stretched from Switzerland to the Adriatic Germany. Following the armistice in Russia. But over the course of nine months, Sea, some 400 miles. Conditions on the December 1917 and the signing of the the Turks defended their homeland Italian Front were brutal, and both sides Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, successfully and beat back each of the struggled in the icy, snowy, mountainous Germany was free to concentrate all its Allied offensives. By December, the British terrain. Frostbite was common and some forces on the Western Front. and Anzac troops were forced to evacuate 40,000 died due to avalanches.
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3. Describe the campaigns along the Allied force of British, Indian, Nigerian, and communists, and anarchists were targeted Italian front. South African troops took control of the by the federal government. Italy’s preliminary objective was to break coast and major towns, forcing the colonial through the Austrian lines to capture German army to move deeper into the LESSON 4 Trieste. Over the next two years, the Italian interior. Lettow-Vorbeck did not surrender After the 11th Hour army slowly pushed the Austrians back until November 25, 1918, after South along the Isonzo River. In the fall of 1917, a African and British forces managed to get How do you think the Treaty of combined German and Austro-Hungarian word to him that Germany had signed an Versailles contributed to another force attacked unexpectedly at Caporetto, armistice in Europe. horrible conflict 20 years later? a lightly defended sector in the Italian Failures of the Treaty of Versailles Alps. Italy’s army retreated 60 miles before LESSON 3 contributed to military, political and stopping the enemy advance. Losses were economic instability in the decades after devastating: 40,000 casualties, 275,000 The American Home World War I. The Big Three powers of prisoners, 2,500 artillery pieces captured. Front in WWI France, Great Britain, and the United In the wake of Caporetto, the Italian Army States had conflicting goals and changed leadership, and by late October How did U.S. citizens support the war motivations, particularly with respect to 1918 forced the Austro-Hungarian army to effort once the country declared war? how Germany should be treated. seek an armistice. Americans supported the war effort in a variety of ways. They raised money France pushed for the harshest possible punishments for Germany, most African Front through the purchase of Liberty Bonds, worked to consume less meat and other of which were included in the final treaty. 1. Why was the war in Africa fought foodstuffs necessary for soldiers in Europe, Germany was forced to give up control differently than battles in Europe? and volunteered with organizations like the of all of its overseas colonies and large WWI in Africa took place across vast American Red Cross. amounts of territory in Europe, including distances and witnessed the practice of Alsace-Lorraine and the Rhineland in guerilla warfare, disrupting the lives of What role did propaganda play? Southern Germany, which was occupied millions of civilians. Lacking the trenches Spread to the American public by the by Allied troops. It had to demilitarize and associated with Europe, fighting in Africa Committee on Public Information (CPI), give up its weapons, and the size of its was nonetheless just as fierce, particularly propaganda in the form of posters, armed forces was strictly limited. Germany in the East African campaign. pamphlets, and films sought to convince was especially angered at the “war guilt” Americans of their patriotic duty to support clause, which stated that Germany accept 2. Why was there such a high death toll the war effort. Propaganda told Americans total responsibility for starting the war. for laborers during the war in Africa? what food to conserve and when/how to Germany was also forced to pay African laborers and porters were forcibly support Liberty Loan drives or civilian relief reparations (war damages). These drafted, and were ill-fed and ill-treated, in Europe, all the while pushing a prowar reparations helped weaken Germany’s leading to a high number of deaths from message and demonizing Germany. already fragile post-war economy, and disease and malnutrition. hyperinflation and unemployment were How did extreme patriotic sentiment common. Things worsened after the 3. What were some of the notable lead to violence and persecution? 1929 Stock Market Crash and resulting battles and campaigns in Africa? The patriotic fervor brought on by the worldwide economic depression. Over the course of WWI, British and French CPI’s propaganda created an environment The harsh punishments of the Treaty, forces conquered Germany’s four colonies in which antiwar sentiment was not as well as the fact that many Germans in Africa. In August 1914, Togo, in West tolerated. Civilian vigilante groups like felt they had not been defeated, sowed Africa, was quickly occupied. By July 1915, the American Patriotic League often resentment and bitterness in Germany. The South African forces, supported by British attacked those perceived to be disloyal or Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, capitalized ships, took control of South West Africa unpatriotic, and the federal government, on these feelings amid economic and (present-day Namibia). But in German under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, political instability. He attacked the Treaty, East Africa (later known as Tanganyika), persecuted and punished those who calling for a new, even more virulent and German forces held out for the entire dissented with the Wilson administration. violent form of nationalism—leading to the war, due to their remarkable commander, This charged atmosphere contributed to rise of the Nazi Party and the outbreak of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. An the postwar Red Scare, in which radicals, World War II in 1939.
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ACTIVITY SHEET 4 • Ottoman Empire/Turkey should conference? control only Turkish people. Land Independence for Baltic States (Latvia, The Paris Peace of non-Turkish people should be Conference given independence. Lithuania, and Estonia); creation of Finland; creation of Poland; breakup of Austria- • Creation of independent Poland What were Woodrow Wilson’s Hungary into separate states of Austria, (whose land had been conquered Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia; Fourteen Points? by Russia, Germany and Austria- breakup of German Empire, and massive The Fourteen Points were Wilson’s plans Hungary). New Polish state should loss of German territory in Europe (Alsace- for a permanent post-war peace in Europe. have access to the sea. Lorraine, Schleswig, Poland) and all of its He outlined this plan in a speech to the U.S. • Creation of League of Nations. overseas colonies; expansion of territory Congress in January 1919: for Romania and Italy. • No more secret treaties or What was the purpose of the League Breakup of Ottoman Empire and agreements between nations. of Nations, and why did the United creation of Turkey; former Ottoman lands States reject it? in Europe and Middle East, including Syria, • Freedom of navigation on the The League guaranteed political and Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and the seas, even during wartime. territorial independence of states; it sought Gulf States placed under a mandate system • Removal of economic barriers to find peaceful solutions to international of British and French control; creation between nations, encouraging and territorial disagreements; members of new territories of Arabia (later Saudi international trade. were not to use military forces (or threat of Arabia), Georgia, and Armenia. • Reduction in military weaponry, force) to solve disputes. disarmament of nations. The central concern and a primary How is the impact of the Paris Peace reason that the treaty and the League were Conference still felt today? • Impartial and fair resolutions of rejected was “Article X” of the League’s disputes over colonial matters. Although the League of Nations was founding covenant. Article X required greatly weakened by the United States’ League members to come to the military • Removal of all armies (especially refusal to join it, it did lay the groundwork Germany) from Russia. Russia aid of any other member in the event of for future international organizations, to be allowed to determine and the attack. Many feared that it weakened develop its own politics. most important, the United Nations, which American sovereignty over its foreign was created after World War II. Several affairs. Opposition to the League in the U.S. • Independence of Belgium and states created by the Treaty, including restoration of all territories it lost Senate came from the isolationist wing Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, forced during the war. of the Republican Party, led by Senators different ethnic and nationalist groups Charles Evans Hughes and William Borah. • Return of all French territory together. These states would come undone There was also a return to pre-war invaded during the war, as well as after the Cold War, and Yugoslavia in return of Alsace-Lorraine, which isolationist sentiments in the United States. particular faced brutal ethnic and religious Germany had held since 1870s. Many Americans did not want to continue wars during the 1990s. Divisions and to be involved in what they considered • Redrawing of Italian borders to conflicts in the Middle East can be traced European affairs, and did not want to include territories where Italians back to postwar boundaries and decisions contribute soldiers, money, or materials to make up majority of population. made by the Allies both during the war and the League or its future work. • National self-determination of at the Paris Peace Conference. President Woodrow Wilson refused to people living in Austro-Hungarian Empire, allowing them the compromise on aspects of the legislation freedom to form their own states. that would have helped gain support for its passage from both political parties. • National self-determination and independence for the Balkan States, including Serbia, How was the map of Europe and the Montenegro, and Romania. Middle East changed by the peace
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