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Master contenuto in White Spaces, Culture, literature and languages, di Deborah J. Ellis con Barbara De Luca. La storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, dal punto di vista dell'esperienza degli uomini che la vissero e ci morirono come soldati. Una trincea sul Carso, sul fronte che fu italo-austriaco, ci riporta alla memoria delle condizioni di vita e morte nelle trincee sul fronte occidentale, attraverso materiali di repertorio vediamo le trincee e la terra di nessuno, vale a dire lo spazio compreso fra le trincee contrapposte. La Grande Guerra fu una carneficina di massa che segnò il passaggio alla guerra moderna, nella quale il ruolo degli armamenti cancellò quello degli individui. Il viaggio nella memoria termina con due ossuari, che ospitano i resti di centinaia di migliaia di persone: a Douaumont in Francia, e a Redipuglia, vicino a Trieste, in Italia.

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Master contenuto in White Spaces, Culture, literature and languages, di Deborah J. Ellis con Barbara De Luca. La storia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, dal punto di vista dell'esperienza degli uomini che la vissero e ci morirono come soldati.

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In 1914, the most powerful countries in Europe went to war with each other.

World War One lasted for four years, from 1914 - 1918, and resulted in the deaths of millions of people.

Some of the causes of the war dated back to the 1800s and long-term tensions.

Germany was a relatively new country, formed in 1871. They had ambitions to grow an empire to compete with France and the UK. Kaiser Wilhelm II made a famous speech in Hamburg in 1901, saying he wanted Germany to have 'a place in the sun.'

Germany's ambition concerned the UK and France, as they started to see them as a potential threat. Germany interfered in French attempts to Morocco in 1911, sending a called The Panther to Agadir, on the Moroccan coast. Germany was eventually forced to back down, but they had shown their intent to challenge the UK and France.

The Triple Alliance created suspicion in other European countries. In 1894, France and Russia signed an agreement to support each other, forming the Franco-Russian Alliance, as they feared the strength of the Triple Alliance.

With France to the east and Russia to the west, Germany was surrounded by countries who had united against them in the Triple Entente. Germany created a plan to avoid fighting on their eastern and western fronts at the same time. They planned to invade France by going through Belgium and then circling back to fight Russia on the eastern front. This was called The Schlieffen Plan.

The Schlieffen plan made several assumptions:

There would be minimal resistance from Belgium.

Russia would take six weeks to mobilise their army.

The UK would not get involved.

The plan failed, because:

The Belgian army managed to slow the German advance, giving the French time to move their army to the border with Belgium.

Russia mobilised their army in ten days, meaning Germany had to move soldiers to the eastern front.

The UK declared war on Germany, honouring the Treaty of London, signed in 1839, that said Belgium should be a neutral country. The UK was also concerned about Germany winning control of Belgian ports, giving them a base to invade from.

Having failed with their plan for a quick victory, the German army decided to hold their position, digging 400 miles of trenches from the English Channel to the border with Switzerland. This was to protect soldiers from heavy artillery and machine gunfire.

In order to build an empire, Germany needed to expand their navy to be able to travel across the seas to other countries.

This was a threat to the UK, who at the time had the biggest navy in the world. They had adopted a 'two-power' standard, meaning they wanted their navy to be at least as big as the second and third biggest navies combined. Because the UK is an island, a navy was more important than an army for defence. They had a small standing army, compared to the size of France, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, but their navy was significantly more powerful.

This led to a naval race, with countries across Europe building up bigger and more powerful weapons and ships. The UK launched HMS Dreadnought in 1906, which was seen as the first modern battleship, and sparked a naval race with Germany, who wanted to challenge the UK's navy. Future ships built in this style were referred to as Dreadnoughts.

In 1914, a group was formed called the Black Hand. The Black Hand was a group of Serbians who wanted Austria-Hungary to leave Bosnia and planned to assassinate the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the nephew of Austria-Hungary's emperor Franz Joseph.

On 28 June, Ferdinand was visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia. The Black Hand's first attempt at assassination failed when their bomb exploded and missed the car he was travelling in.

When Ferdinand ordered his car to take him to visit the injured in hospital, it drove back past one of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip. He fired two bullets, killing both Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.

Austria-Hungary's emperor, Franz Joseph, was furious at the assassination of his nephew and heir to the throne. He issued a ten-point ultimatum to Serbia, holding them responsible for the murder. Serbia only agreed to nine of the points, so Austria-Hungary declared war.

The German Kaiser Wilhelm promised Austria-Hungary he would support them in whatever they decided to do, as part of their commitment in the Triple Alliance. This has become known as the 'blank cheque' and could be interpreted as encouraging Franz Joseph to declare war, as he was certain of German support.

Russia entered the war on Serbia's side. Germany followed the Schlieffen Plan which involved invading France by going through Belgium. The UK went to war to protect Belgium, because it had promised to do so in the 1839 Treaty of London, and World War One began. You can find out more about life on the front line in World War One in this guide .

Who or what do you think was the main cause for the outbreak of World War One?

Historians have often split the causes of World War One into four main reasons. You can use the word MAIN to help you remember them.

ilitarism - many countries believed it was important to build large armies and navies.

lliances - the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were said to have been formed to help prevent war. But in reality, they created opposing sides and conflict.

mperialism - European nations were creating empires and coming into conflict.

ationalism - countries wanted to show their power and strength over other countries.

It is important to look at how each reason is connected. The actions of one country often led to a response from another.

Regardless of who or what was responsible, the consequences for millions of people were extremely grave.

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In 1914, the most powerful countries in Europe went to war with each other. World War One lasted for four years, from 1914 - 1918, and resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Some of the causes of the war dated back to the 1800s and long-term tensions.

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Causes
Answer the questions.....
When completed send your answers to the class TEAM chat

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Ten historians from 10 countries give a brief history of the first world war through a global lens. Using original news reports, interactive maps and rarely-seen footage, including extraordinary scenes of troops crossing Mesopotamia on camels and Italian soldiers fighting high up in the Alps, the half-hour film explores the war and its effects from many different perspectives. You can watch the documentary in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic or Hindi thanks to our partnership with the British Academy.

Warning: contains images some viewers may find disturbing

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A global guide to the first world war - interactive documentary

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Ten historians from 10 countries give a brief history of the first world war through a global lens. Using original news reports, interactive maps and rarely seen footage, including extraordinary shots of troops crossing Mesopotamia on camels and Italians fighting high up in the Alps, the half hour film explores the war and its effect from many different perspectives.

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This map is part of a series of 19 animated maps showing the history of Europe and nations, 1918-1942.

After four long years of devastating war, symbol of the decline of Europe's importance in the world, the victorious Allies - France, United Kingdom, Italy and the United States - negotiated a series of treaties in 1919 and 1920 and, in the process, redrew the continent's national frontiers.

After their defeat, the authoritarian empires disintegrated. The first to fall was the Russian Empire. In order to end the war, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 and handed over a large number of territories to the West. The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires in Central Europe were then dismantled. The Treaty of Versailles amputated a number of regions from Germany, and Eastern Prussia was isolated from the rest of the German territory. Meanwhile, the Treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and of Trianon put an end to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many regions were lost and Austria and Hungary, their territory substantially reduced, became two separate nations.

Last, the Ottoman Empire was stripped of much of its territory and only allowed to keep a small foothold in Europe.

Recognizing the right to 'national self-determination', as stated in the "Fourteen Points" outlined by President Wilson of the United States, the treaties created independent states for minority populations previously part of the fallen empires. In northern Europe were created Finland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Poland, which had disappeared at the end of the 18th century, was reconstituted. Then two new multi-national states were created: Czechoslovakia for the Northern Slavs (Czechs and Slovaks); and Yugoslavia for the Southern Slavs (Slovenians, Croats and Serbs).

Among the victors, several countries increased their territory: France regained Alsace and Lorraine. Italy acquired Trentino and Trieste, Romania was given Bess Arabia and Transylvania. Denmark obtained the northern part of Schleswig, while Greece extended its frontiers to cover large territories in Bulgaria and Turkey.

At the end of the war, it appeared that liberal democracy and collective security had triumphed. The new states were founded as parliamentary regimes based on universal suffrage such as the Weimar Republic in Germany. During the peace negotiations, the American President stressed the importance of disarmament and of using diplomacy for the resolution of conflict, thus paving the way for the creation of the League of Nations, as foreseen in the treaties.

Nevertheless, the treaties did not just reshape Europe, but also established a new balance of power in favour of the victors, especially France which was eager to secure its boundaries by weakening Germany. Yet the creation of new nations did not resolve all the difficulties relating to national minorities.

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Discover a video on Europe between the Two World Wars

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This map is part of a series of 19 animated maps showing the history of Europe and nations, 1918-1942. After four long years of devastating war, symbol of the decline of Europe's importance in the world, the victorious Allies - France, United Kingdom, Italy and the United States - negotiated a series of treaties in 1919 and 1920 and, in the process, redrew the continent's national frontiers.

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PRIMA GUERRA MONDIALE: IL FRONTE ITALIANO [Parte 3 - Caporetto]

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Life in the trenches

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Onscreen: [Remembrance]

Before the First World War the focus of remembrance was commanders, was victories, and it was events that happened usually overseas. And it was very rarely about the individuals that took part and their families, and that was whole heartily detached from the experience of soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and the people that they knew and socialized with. I mean there's no doubt that before the First World War the people would still be extraordinarily affected by the loss of somebody they knew, what changed was that as larger communities and as a nation we took on both responsibilities out but also respect all those losses.

Soldiers have always had a very strong bond with the people that they live with in timeless of conflicts, the people they sit next to, sleep near, eat with and share both their experiences but also their possessions within times of great hardship. And so those people would have gone out of their way to commemorate and to remember the people that they've lost, but in many cases that wasn't always possible either because the war continues and their duties required them to focus on fighting, but also because in many cases the actual person all their possessions was no longer there. And so, we would they would commemorate either the site of great battles we're with crosses and other ways of marking the place in that, you may see photos for example of rifles stuck in the ground with helmets on top or with plaques or carved pieces of wood even just saying some memory or some or some name of somebody that that has fallen in that place.

Again, that individual nature of remembrance would also have been brought together under chaplains and under commanders who at certain points in the war would have addressed larger groups of soldiers and talked about the sacrifice collectively that these people were doing on behalf of their country. And as World War One progresses you start to see these types of collective memory coming together into a much larger national event, and that leads after the end of World War one to things like the Peace Parade and the March past the Cenotaph, you know the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and then to the tomb in silence and to the wearing of poppies.

These things became permanent for a number of reasons, and I think one of the most important is that is the sheer scale of that war, and of the impact it had on so many people's lives. The entire nation was mobilized industries, factories, communities, farmers, miners, soldiers, sailors and airmen. And all of their families would have had an incredibly personal connection to what happened there. Then it would have been one or more people in every single family on every Street in the land, when you offer the nation a chance for collective grief that then helps it transform into remembrance, into kind remembrance. Remembrance of sacrifice and remembrance of others. People need that and that was certainly a war that really brought that home on a national scale in a way that had not happened previously.

In many ways the act of remembrance has remained the same since the First World War, so for example it still takes place on the 11th day of the 11th month and 11th hour the point at which the armistice was signed. This still involves many of the same symbols, the poppy, the Cenotaph, and it takes place at war memorials around the country. The act of remembrance has also changed in a number of ways particularly as the generation involved in World War Two pass away. And a good example of that is that the people taking part in the remembrance parade have got younger, and in many cases, you'll see younger people marching or walking alongside their relatives. And also, you'll see people marching in place of relatives who served who are no longer with us. So, you will see these things continue but you'll see the character and the and the individuals involved evolving as time goes on.

There's another element here and that is that the practices of remembrance that sprung up in the First World War have been adopted by us in remembering many other types of tragedy and event that is important to us. And that can be seen in Facebook groups remembering people who've suffered a tragedy or were died from illness or killed in a car crash, but also the act of creating personal shrines where something significant has occurred.

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Remembrance In The First World War: KS3 Resource. Use these resources to find out about Remembrance during the First World War. IWM Learning Resources

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Test your knowledge of World War I in this KS3 quiz. Studying history is difficult because it can be tricky to find accurate primary sources that are not biased. Even with modern history, like the causes of the First World War, historians can disagree. Events had been building for about 30 years before war broke out. In 1871, the states of Germany defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war. The German states united after that to form an empire with a greater ability to develop a strong military force. During the first few years of the twentieth century, an increase in German military strength and their foreign policy worried several nations, including Great Britain, France and Russia.

The balance of power in Europe had become less stable. Two key alliances had been formed - one between Germany, Austria and Italy and another between Great Britain, France and Russia.

The countries had other alliances too, so when a Serbian assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, they wanted justice. They issued several demands to Serbia. Serbia, supported by Russia, only partially accepted Austro-Hungarian demands, so Austria-Hungary broke diplomatic relations with Serbia. When a group of Serbian reserve soldiers crossed into Austro-Hungarian territory, shots were fired and war was declared on Serbia.

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KS3 first world war - assassination of franz ferdinand

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Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 which led to a war. Learn about the First World War by playing this multiple-choice quiz from Education Quizzes

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This map is part of a series of 19 animated maps showing the history of Europe and nations, 1918-1942.

After four long years of devastating war, symbol of the decline of Europe's importance in the world, the victorious Allies - France, United Kingdom, Italy and the United States - negotiated a series of treaties in 1919 and 1920 and, in the process, redrew the continent's national frontiers.

After their defeat, the authoritarian empires disintegrated. The first to fall was the Russian Empire. In order to end the war, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 and handed over a large number of territories to the West. The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires in Central Europe were then dismantled. The Treaty of Versailles amputated a number of regions from Germany, and Eastern Prussia was isolated from the rest of the German territory. Meanwhile, the Treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and of Trianon put an end to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many regions were lost and Austria and Hungary, their territory substantially reduced, became two separate nations.

Last, the Ottoman Empire was stripped of much of its territory and only allowed to keep a small foothold in Europe.

Recognizing the right to 'national self-determination', as stated in the "Fourteen Points" outlined by President Wilson of the United States, the treaties created independent states for minority populations previously part of the fallen empires. In northern Europe were created Finland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Poland, which had disappeared at the end of the 18th century, was reconstituted. Then two new multi-national states were created: Czechoslovakia for the Northern Slavs (Czechs and Slovaks); and Yugoslavia for the Southern Slavs (Slovenians, Croats and Serbs).

Among the victors, several countries increased their territory: France regained Alsace and Lorraine. Italy acquired Trentino and Trieste, Romania was given Bess Arabia and Transylvania. Denmark obtained the northern part of Schleswig, while Greece extended its frontiers to cover large territories in Bulgaria and Turkey.

At the end of the war, it appeared that liberal democracy and collective security had triumphed. The new states were founded as parliamentary regimes based on universal suffrage such as the Weimar Republic in Germany. During the peace negotiations, the American President stressed the importance of disarmament and of using diplomacy for the resolution of conflict, thus paving the way for the creation of the League of Nations, as foreseen in the treaties.

Nevertheless, the treaties did not just reshape Europe, but also established a new balance of power in favour of the victors, especially France which was eager to secure its boundaries by weakening Germany. Yet the creation of new nations did not resolve all the difficulties relating to national minorities.

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Discover a video on Europe between the Two World Wars

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This map is part of a series of 19 animated maps showing the history of Europe and nations, 1918-1942. After four long years of devastating war, symbol of the decline of Europe's importance in the world, the victorious Allies - France, United Kingdom, Italy and the United States - negotiated a series of treaties in 1919 and 1920 and, in the process, redrew the continent's national frontiers.

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Overview of the outbreak of WW1