Historians don’t agree on one definitive factor that caused the First World War. There were a lot of different factors at play. This article explores the three different approaches that historians have taken to explaining how the world went to war in 1914. Perhaps the most common explanation was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But other historians point to deeper, systemic factors that led the world to war, like alliance systems, nationalism, and imperialism. And still other historians argue that the war was an accident of catastrophic proportions. Outdated diplomatic technology was unprepared to stop an industrial war.

This article provides three different historical approaches to explaining the same event. The evidence provided for each of the three approaches will help you to respond to the Unit Problem: What caused the global conflicts and atrocities from 1914 to 1945, and how did people experience this period of global war? As you read, consider how transformations in production and distribution, communities, and networks during the long nineteenth century led the world to war.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Who killed Franz Ferdinand? Why did they kill him?
2. How did the European alliance system help start the war?
3. How did imperialism help start the war?
4. Why does the author argue that industrialization made the war inevitable once preparations were started?
5. How might the First World War have happened on accident?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. This article gives several examples of how transformations in the long nineteenth century led to the war. Things like nationalism (communities frame), industrialization (production and distribution frame), and outdated diplomatic technology (networks frame) are blamed for the war. Can you think of any transformations during the long nineteenth century that might have helped prevent war had things gone differently?

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Britain and its empire died in the fields of Flanders during World War I. Britain didn’t mean to go to war, but German naval ambition and the invasion of Belgium forced Britain to enter the war. The huge British navy, its experienced Guards Regiments, and its industrial wealth proved decisive in the conflict. Trench warfare and industrial weapons produced an incredibly deadly and miserable war that devastated British communities. In this video, Nick Dennis explores the impacts of the war on Britain through conversations with two experts on Britain’s naval and military history.

This video provides evidence at the national level to evaluate why Britain went to war and why the war was so transformative for the island nation. As you watch, consider how British imperialism and industrialization during the long nineteenth century changed the course of the war.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. Why did Britain have the world’s largest navy?
2. Why did Britain and Germany get into an arms race and why did Britain win?
3. What type of person served on the Guards Regiments?
4. How did Belgium pull Britain into the war?
5. Why is the poppy a symbol of the war?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. During World War I, how did Britain’s systems of production and distribution provide the nation with advantages, but also create vulnerabilities?
2. What do the two poems in this video tell you about the war, and its impact on Britain and on British soldiers?

In this video, Trevor Getz interviews Heather Streets-Salter about how the First World War affected Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia was a complicated place in 1914. British, French, American, Dutch, and Japanese empires claimed control of much of the region. The region was home to many Chinese people and Muslims, who had broad transnational interests. The centerpiece of this video is Singapore, where one captured German submarine crew helped spark an uprising against the British colonial government. The uprising had many transnational connections to India, Europe, and San Francisco.

This video provides you with evidence at the regional level to help you identify the global impacts and connections of the First World War. It will allow you to respond to the Unit Problem and question whether the war was a threshold event. It will provide you evidence to support, extend, and challenge the communities and networks frame narratives by illustrating one complex transnational case study of revolt in Southeast Asia.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What was Southeast Asia like in 1914?
2. Why were people living in Southeast Asia interested in what was happening in the Middle East?
3. Why was the Russo-Japanese War important?
4. Why was Singapore a strategic city?
5. Why was the German submarine crew able to convince the Indian soldiers to revolt against the British?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Dr. Streets-Salter points out that, when we think about the First World War, we mostly think about trench warfare in Europe. But for most of the world, that’s not what the war was like. Clearly, the war was important for Southeast Asia. But do you think what happened in Southeast Asia was important to the war in Europe? How might you use one of the three frames to make your argument?

The end of the First World War redrew the borders of the Middle East, laying the foundations for many modern nation-states, as well as many of the conflicts that exist in the region today. Before the war, in 1914, the region was mostly divided between the Ottoman and British empires. These two powers found themselves on opposing sides of World War I. As the British looked for allies in the region, they found Sharif Hussein, who hoped to lead an independent Arab state after the war. Yet, the ambitions of British imperialists would frustrate his hopes.

This video provides further evidence to evaluate the impacts and experiences of the First World War, both on a regional and individual level. The video also introduces several important ideologies that would shape the Middle East in the second half of the twentieth century: nationalism, Arab nationalism, and Pan-Islam. These ideologies will provide you with further evidence to evaluate the communities frame narrative.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What was the Middle East like in 1914?
2. According to Dr. Genell, what was the purpose of the Ottoman Declaration of Jihad?
3. Who was Sharif Hussein, and how did the British convince him to join the war?
4. Why did Sharif Hussein not get what he wanted after the war?
5. What were mandates?
6. What identities became important after the war? Why?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Looking at the three maps of the Middle East in this video—1914, 1923, and the twenty-first century—what do you think was the most important way that World War I changed the region in the past 100 years?

Much like the Our Interconnected World yarn activity that you completed earlier in this course to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the world in 1450, 1750, and today, this activity will simulate the extent to which pre-existing and newly emerging networks contributed to the global scale of World War I. You’ll use yarn to create a visual representation of direct and indirect regional involvement in the war, which will help you think about how nineteenth-century trends of industrialization, imperialism, and nationalism set the stage for global interactions in the twentieth century and even today.

Contextualization, causation
The narratives involved in this activity present some global context for the scale of World War I, and you’ll be using your causation skills as you consider the reasons for global involvement around the world from 1914 to 1918.

In this activity, you’ll use yarn, just as you did in the first Our Interconnected World activity to create a visual representation of the networks that existed during World War I. By using string to illustrate the connections between Allied and Central Powers, you’ll begin to see how global this war became in a relatively short time.

Part 1

1. As you enter the classroom, your teacher will give you a region card with your assigned nations on them. Be sure to sit in your assigned region. It may help to memorize your assigned region so you know to take the yarn when your country is called out in the narrative. Then, your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Our Interconnected World – World War I worksheet.
2. Do you remember the last time the classroom was arranged in this way? And can you remember what the big idea of that activity was? In this activity, you’ll be taking another look at the world through our “networks” l.ens, but this time you’ll be examining the world of 1914.
3. Think about the top three major events or trends someone would need to know about to understand how the world changed from 1750 to 1914. Be prepared to share the trends you identified with the class.
4. Your teacher will either nominate a “runner” to carry a ball of yarn to the different locations around the room as the narrative is read, or will have you toss the yarn from one location to the next. When the yarn comes to you, you’ll hold onto the strand until you’ve heard the entire narrative.
5. Your teacher will project the narrative for the Networks of WW I on the board so you can follow along as they read aloud. Note that the blue portions of the narrative are the Allied Powers and the red portions are the Central Powers. Important locations are in green.

Part 2

Examine the web of yarn to see the alliances and networks of exchange that took place during the war. Then, either individually or in pairs, complete Part 2 of the worksheet. Remember that you can go back through the narrative to pull out pieces of evidence to support your answers. You should be looking for evidence that supports how the trends you identified at the start of this activity were contributing factors to the global scale of the war.

Be prepared to share your answers with the class.

The First World War started in a relatively small place: Europe. Why did it get so big? This article examines how a European conflict became a war of global proportions. Many of the people who actually fought in the war weren’t from Europe. The main combatants in the war had colonies around the world, and they asked their colonized subjects to fight for them. And, the nations who started the war wanted more colonies, which was part of the reason they fought. Though the main battles of the war were in Europe, the war was fought all over the world.

This article provides evidence at the global level to respond to one of the unit's questions: To what extent was the First World War both a "global" and "total" war? In order to understand the war as such, it needs to have had global impacts. This article will help you assess the war’s impacts on global communities and production. In particular, it highlights connections from Unit 5.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What were the main alliances in the war?
2. How does imperialism affect who fought in the war?
3. What does the author argue were some global motivations for the war?
4. Where were most of the battles outside of Europe fought?
5. What are the main consequences of the war that this article mentions?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. Lots of people from lots of places died in World War I, which certainly had huge consequences for communities everywhere. Lots of goods and weapons had to be made for the war, which certainly transformed global production and distribution. But what about networks? Can you think of any ways that the war changed global networks?

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful when responding to DBQs.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 2.1.

The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.

First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).

For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.

In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.

To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.

This collection explores the different faces of World War I: the propaganda at home, the experience of air bombing, the recruitment of soldiers in the colonies and imperial centers, how women, men, and children were affected, and the promises that were made and broken.

The primary source excerpts in this collection will help you assess how governments mobilized their populations for war. In turn, this will help you understand the continuities and changes that occurred from the First to Second World Wars and even in relation to conflicts today. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.

During World War I, propaganda posters were used throughout the world to influence people during this time of great conflict. You will analyze examples of these posters to gain a better sense of why governments were trying to influence people, and how this could have impacted citizens of different countries. While the focus is World War I, the lessons learned here can help you decipher the messages you encounter today as part of modern political campaigns and advertisements, and on social media. The development of these skills can help you decide what to believe—not only historically, but in your everyday life.

Sourcing, comparison, claim testing
Each of the posters used in this activity is considered a primary source, and analysis of these sources pushes you to think about the historical context, audience, purpose, point of view, and significance of each of poster. This process expands your sourcing skills beyond those used to analyze text-based primary sources. Additionally, you will be comparing posters within particular categories, engaging in the practice of historical comparison using images. After comparing the posters, you’ll answer questions and make assertions, and you’ll use your claim testing skills to support your answers.

In this activity, you will examine a variety of posters from World War I as a way of trying to develop an understanding of propaganda, nationalism, total war, and gender and social class during World War I.

Take out the World War I Poster Analysis worksheet and pick two posters from each category and compare them. The categories are:

• Women, minorities, and colonial subjects
• Total War
• Nationalism

Answer the questions provided for each set of posters as best you can. You might not always have precise answers for each poster, but you should examine the images and try to infer meaning from them.

Once you’re done, be prepared to share your impressions with your class as well as discuss the following questions: How were different groups of people valued during this time period? How might these posters have encouraged people to support and participate in the war effort? What types of tactics did governments use to encourage citizens’ support of the war? Note that for this particular exercise, there are not necessarily “right” answers—however, you should use your claim-testing skills to provide evidence to support any claims you make.

To wrap up, think about the kinds of messages that governments from around the world have put out in more recent history. Do the more current messages qualify as propaganda or are they generally more informational? How do we as citizens of a country determine which is which? Remember that claim testing and sourcing are both great ways to try to discern the intent of different types of government-produced documents.