I.               The War in the West

A.     The Schlieffen Plan

1.     Germany faced the daunting task of simultaneously fighting France on its western border and Russia along a lengthy eastern front.

2.     In order to prevent a two-front war, General Alfred von Schlieffen drew up a master plan calling for an all-out attack against France. The Schlieffen Plan gambled that France could be knocked out of the war before Russia had a chance to fully mobilize its forces.

3.     A lightening attack on France meant invading neutral Belgium.

4.     Germany’s unprovoked attack on Belgium outraged Britain. On August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany.

B.     Stalemate

1.     The Schlieffen Plan narrowly failed, making a quick victory impossible.

2.     Both sides now constructed an elaborate system of trenches stretching more than 600 miles from the English Channel to the Swiss border.

3.     Trench warfare produced a stalemate that lasted about four years and claimed unprecedented casualities.

C.     The Home Front

1.     Total War

a.     When it became clear that the war would not be over quickly, governments mobilized all human and industrial resources in order to wage total war.

b.     Governments tightly controlled the news and used propaganda to rally public morale and arouse hatred of the enemy.

2.     The Role of Women

a.     As more and more men went to war, millions of women replaced them in factories, offices, and shops. WWI marked the first time that the employment of women was essential to a sustained war effort.

b.     In 1918, Parliament granted the suffrage to women over the age of 30.

D.    All Quiet on the Western Front

1.     All Quiet on the Western Front is a war novel written by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of WWI.

2.     Remarque vividly described the senseless slaughter and suffering endured by soldiers on the Western Front.