WORLD WAR I
                     WORLD WAR I
Introduction
• World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 
1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United 
States, the Middle East, and other regions. 
Source: www.britannica.com
Central Powers 
• The war pitted the Central Powers mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey 
against the Allies mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, 
the United States.
Source: www.britannica.com
20th-century geopolitical history
• World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It 
led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, 
and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization 
of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.
Source: www.britannica.com
The outbreak of war
• With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912–13, 1913), 
Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of “liberating” the South 
Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
Source: www.britannica.com
GLOBAL WAR
• Over 30 nations declared war between 1914 and 1918. The majority joined on the 
side of the Allies, including Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Italy and the United 
States.
• They were opposed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, 
who together formed the Central Powers.
Source: www.iwm.org.uk
WAR OF PRODUCTION
• National resources were mobilised as each combatant nation raced to supply its 
armed forces with enough men and equipment.
• In Britain, early failures in munitions manufacturing led to full government intervention 
in war production. 
Source: www.iwm.org.uk
WAR OF INNOVATION
• Major innovations were also made in manufacturing, chemistry and communications. 
Medical advances made the First World War the first major conflict in which British 
deaths in battle outnumbered deaths caused by disease.
Source: www.iwm.org.uk
WAR OF DESTRUCTION
• The First World War left an estimated 16 million soldiers and civilians dead and 
countless others physically and psychologically wounded. The war also forever 
altered the world’s social and political landscape.
Source: www.iwm.org.uk
TECHNOLOGY OF WAR IN 
1914
• Machine guns and rapid-firing artillery, when used in combination with trenches and 
barbed-wire emplacements, gave a decided advantage to the defense, since these 
weapons’ rapid and sustained firepower could decimate a frontal assault by either 
infantry or cavalry.
Source: www.iwm.org.uk
THE EASTERN FRONT
• On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held 
regions of East Prussia and Poland, but were stopped short by German and Austrian 
forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.
Source: www.iwm.org.uk