Christmas day in the First World War

What is Poppy Day?

Poppy - Wikipedia

Poppy Day or Remembrance Day (in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom) is a day to remember people who fought and died in wars. It is on November 11th to remember the end of World War I on that day with Armistice with Germany in 1918.

Remembrance Day was started in 1919 by King George V from the United Kingdom. On the same day, other countries also have days to remember war and soldiers. There is Veteran's Day in the United States, and Armistice Day in France, Belgium, New Zealand and other countries.

Traditions

Poppies are often worn on Remembrance Day, and a few days before

There are some things that people do on Remembrance Day. One is having two minutes of silence at 11:00 AM. It is at 11:00 AM because that is when World War I ended. At a ceremony for Remembrance Day, before the two minutes of silence, a song called "The Last Post" is played on a bugle (or sometimes a trumpet). At the end of the silence, the bugle plays a song called "Reveille."

People often bring wreaths made of poppies to Remembrance Day ceremonies. The wreaths honor people who have died in wars.

In many countries, many people wear a fake poppy on Remembrance Day, and for a few days before. The poppy is a symbol to show that they remember the wars, and the soldiers who fought in them. Poppies were chosen to be a symbol because they often grew in battlefields, after the soldiers stopped fighting there.

Adapted from Simple Wikipedia

100 years since the beginning of the First World War

picture from Wikipedia

World War I (or WW1), also known as the First World War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. In America it was initially called the European War. More than 9 million combatants were killed; a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate. It was the fifth-deadliest conflict in world history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.

The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although Italy had also been a member of the Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary, it did not join the Central Powers, as Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive against the terms of the alliance. These alliances were both reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy, Japan and the United States joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the Central Powers. Ultimately, more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history.

Although a resurgence of imperialism was an underlying cause, the immediate trigger for war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set off a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia,[14][15] and international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked. Within weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world.

On 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation for the invasion of Serbia.

As Russia mobilised, Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, leading Britain to declare war on Germany. After the German march on Paris was brought to a halt, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that would change little until 1917. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, but was stopped in its invasion of East Prussia by the Germans. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. Italy and Bulgaria went to war in 1915 and Romania in 1916.

The war approached a resolution after the Russian government collapsed in March 1917 and a subsequent revolution in November brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers. After a 1918 German offensive along the western front, the Allies drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives and American forces began entering the trenches. Germany, which had its own trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on 11 November 1918, ending the war in victory for the Allies.

By the end of the war, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires—ceased to exist. The successor states of the former two lost substantial territory, while the latter two were dismantled. The map of Europe was redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created. The League of Nations formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such an appalling conflict. This aim failed, with weakened states, renewed European nationalism and the German feeling of humiliation contributing to the rise of fascism and the conditions for World War II.

text fromm Wikipedia

Beginning of the First World War - the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

Gavrillo Princip, Franz Ferdinand's murderer

WHAT HAPPENED 100 YEARS AGO?

100 years ago, on the 28th June 1914, the heir to the Austrian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, was murdered in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, while he was visiting the city.

Franz Ferdinand

Bosnia was in the very south-east corner of the Austrian empire and some people there wanted to be independent from Austria and set up their own state which could run itself.

WHY DID THIS MURDER LEAD TO THE WW1?

Serbia was blamed by Austria for this murder. Serbia was near to Bosnia and it had encouraged the Black Hand Gang and given the gang weapons. Serbia hoped that both herself and Bosnia would unite to form a new Balkan state.

Austria decided that Serbia must be punished and planned to invade her. Serbia called on her old friend Russia to help her. Now the alliance/entente came in to play. One country from each was involved on opposite sides. The situation could only get worse.

Serbia would have been easy for Austria to crush but Russia was a different issue. She had a huge army and Austria would not have coped with a Austro-Russian war. Austria called on Germany for help. The German government agreed to this and their response provoked the French government.

However, unknown to anybody other than the German government, the German army had created a plan called the Schlieffen Plan. Schlieffen was a senior German army officer and he believed that the German army was superior to any army in Europe but that it could not fight a war on two fronts - France and Russia. 

However, he calculated that the vast Russian army would take 6 weeks to get itself organised - called mobilisation - and that in that time, the Germans could attack the French, beat them and then send their army across Europe to fight the Russians. The German High Command accepted this plan. But it had one problem. It relied on what the French or Russians did and the actions of one would provoke a German response and not the other way round. In other words, the Germans had to react to a situation as opposed to controlling it.

When France called up her army, Germany had no choice but to carry out the Schlieffen Plan. This plan involved an attack on France via Belgium.

Britain had given Belgium a guarantee in 1839 that if anybody attacked her, Britain would attack the attacker.

Therefore, within weeks of the murder at Sarajevo, five out of the six countries that had signed the two treaties were on the verge of war.

On August 4th, 1914, Germany invaded Belgium. Britain declared war on Germany. France and Russia supported Britain. Austria supported Germany. Only Italy did not get involved - yet.

Every country concerned was convinced that the war would last only from August to Christmas 1914 but it lasted until 1918 and millions of people died in what was later called the Great War.

adapted from  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sarajevo_assassination_1914.htm 

Unit 9 - The First World War from Ana Arias Castro

OUR CLIL RESOURCES ABOUT WW1

READ MORE:

• Wikipedia
• History Learning Site
• History
• First World War
• Jetpunk Quizz about WW1

CLIL - First World War

UNIT 9 - The First World War

- unit 9

- presentation 9

- glossary 9

- additional text from Wikipedia

- Austro-Hungarian banknotes 

- Independence Day in Poland (by our Polish partners-International Calendar-eTwinning project) 
- ESL video: Frightful First World War
- revision test
- match-what is it?
- match what European powers wanted
- match the powers in Europe
- match the powers and their plans
- match the people
- crosswords
- fill the gaps - Wilson's 14 points

- audio1

- audio2

- audio3

- audio4

Materials for other units in our Social Studies ESO-4 page.

What did the First World War change?

Geography

• Many countries disappeared and others were born:

• Countries disappeared: Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Bosnia, Serbia, Austria_hungary, German Empire, Montenegro.
• Countries Changed: Great Britain, Romania, Germany, France, Austria, Hungary, Italy.
• Countries Created: Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iran, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Danzig, Albania, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland.

History

• It was one of the main reasons for the Soviet Revolution in Russia.
• The USA was involved in this originally European war.

Society

• Nazism was born after the Treaty of Versailles.

Women

• Before the war, most women were housewifes. As men went abroad to fight, many women started to work in factories, shops and offices. Women kept economy moving. After the war many women lost their jobs but many others kept them. Read more.

Warfare

• Aircrafts became essential to help ground troops.
• Tanks were used.
• Armies were more mobile.
• The submarine and automatic rifles were first used as weapons.

Economy

• The economy of the USA benefited from the war whereas German economy suffered after the war.