Lesson
2: The beginning of World War I.
Objective:
To identify the causes of the war and define the boundaries in Europe before the War. To discuss the spark that started the War and the alliances that pulled the continent into strife. To play out the first few moves of the war.
Materials:
String (Lots)
Tape
Labels
Homework:
None – but there will be a writing assignment at the end of class collected with the maps.
Research:
Causes of the war:
Imperialism: European powers competed with each other for raw materials and colonies.
Nationalism: Some nations wanted back lands that had natives of their land mostly living there (France and Russia). Other nations wanted to gain national independence from countries that had engulfed their culture (Czechs, Poles).
Militarism: Imperialist nations had sparked an arms race to defend their holdings and possibly gain or regain territory.
Alliances: The Triple Entente – Britain, France, Russia.
Triple Alliance – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy.
Beginning of the War:
Archduke Francis Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary) is assassinated and Serbia is held Responsible. Austria-Hungary made demands on Serbia that were rejected and sent in troops. Russia, sharing a common heritage with the Serbs (nationalism) and opposing further Austrian expansion (imperialism), declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany, supporting its neighbor nation (nationalism, alliances) declared war on Russia. Germany also knew about the alliance of Russia and France, so they declared war on France. In order to get to France, Germany invaded Belgium to get to France (Belgium was allied with Britain), so Britain declared war on Germany.
Choosing sides:
August 1914 –
Central powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary, later Turkey and Bulgaria.
Allies – Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, later joined by Italy and Japan.
Instructional
activities:
Quick Draw:
Give the students about five minutes to practice drawing their geometric shapes for the countries of Europe. Then discuss “dollar diplomacy” as a style of teaching and offer two pops to the students that volunteer to come to the front of the class and draw their maps up on the board. The student must then choose a partner to identify the different countries. Distribute the pops.
In an orderly fashion we will take the students to a large carpeted area. There we will plot out a “quick draw” map of Europe. Then divide the students into areas of the Map.
30 – Students
Germany – (5 – 7)
Austria-Hungary – (5 – 6)
Serbia – 2
Russia – (5 – 8)
Great Britain – (3 – 5)
France – (5 – 8)
Belgium – 1
Discuss Alliances and tie the students holding signs with strings. Alliance between Belgium and Britain, Alliance between Russia and France and Britain, Triple Entente, Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Bring a Serbian up to Austria-Hungary and have him/her kill Archduke Ferdinand. Have the Austria-Hungarians declare war after asking for German support– Russia then defends Serbia (nationalism, imperialism), Germany (nationalism alliances) comes to the aid of Austria-Hungary, France (alliances), Belgium, Britain (alliances).
Discuss the causes: Alliances (Triple Entente, Triple Alliance), imperialism, nationalism, militarism, and run through the scenario once more quickly.
Clean-up, return to the class and have the students write a one page paper with their map that describes the causes of the war (with examples) and the course of the beginning of the war.