Lesson 5 - 1914 -The Lights Go Out Across Europe

INTA 4803 TP WAR IN THE 20th CENTURY

WW I: 1914 - The Lights Go Out Across Europe

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"The lights are going out all over Europe.
We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Edward Grey
British foreign secretary, August 3, 1914

"Maybe if we can understand [the Great War] better, we can come nearer
to being what the men of that time were not, masters of our destiny."

A. J. P. Taylor , British historian
The First World War: An Illustrated History, 1963

Lesson Objectives

• Understand and be able to discuss the major causes of World War I.

• Be able to describe the opening moves of the war in Europe.

• Be able to describe the Schlieffen Plan and its modifications prior to August 1914.

• Begin to understand why the opening moves of the war did not go as anyone planned.

Study Guides

• What were the underlying causes of World War I?

• What was the attitude of people in Europe to the possibility of war prior to August 1914?

• Who was Alfred von Schlieffen and what was his concept for fighting the war?

• What was the primary German concern in planning for the war?

• What was the French concept for fighting the war?

• What was the British strategy at the beginning of the war?

• Outline the events from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (July 28, 1914) and the Battle of the Marne (September 1914).

• What was the significance of each of the following events:
• Battle of Tennenberg • Battle of the Marne • Race to the Channel

• Describe the differences between expectations and reality in the first four months of World War I.

Assignment

Readings:

"Introduction to the Great War"
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
Public Broadcasting System
       NOTE: This site will provide the central readings for the World War I block.
       READ ALSO:
         • Europe in 1914 (Play the animation to see the impact of the interlocking alliances.)
         • Chapter 1: Explosion and Stalemate
         • Trench Warfare

"World War I Timeline" Read through 1914
The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
Public Broadcasting System
NOTE: Use map to the right with this timeline. =>

"Europe Plunges Into War" (multimedia map)
The Map As History: The First World War

"Schlieffen Plan"
Wikipedia
NOTE: Use map to the right with this reading. =>

"Schlieffen Plan of 1905 and French Options in Plan XVII"
Our Atlases
Department of History, United States Mililtary Academy

Supplemental Resources:

"The Causes of World War One"
Michael Duffy
FirstWorldWar.com: The War to End All Wars
       READ: To and thru "Bismarck's Need for Alliances"
       SCAN: To and thru "Unsettled Empires"
       READ: "Germany's Path to War" to end.

Battles of World War I (chronologically, all fronts)
   • Western Front • Eastern Front • Gallipoli • At Sea

The Western Front
The Eastern Front
War Times Journal

"World War One" (high quality maps of the Great War)
Our Atlases
Department of History, United States Mililtary Academy

Essays on World War I
       This series of essays was written in 1918 and published in magazines of the time.
       Each essay offers a valuable contemporary view of the conflict.

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