Hello, and welcome to the second lesson in this unit on World War I, where we'll be answering the inquiry question, how total was it for people across the British Empire? In the course of this unit, we'll be looking at lots of things, including the international tension leading up to the War, how the War broke out in 1914.

We'll also how it impacted people both within Britain, but across the world.

For this lesson, you're going to need a pen and paper.

If you don't have any, not to worry, just pause the video now, get everything you need, and then come back and press Play when you're ready to go.

Great.

Now we're ready to go.

We can see our lesson outcome on the slide.

By the end of the lesson, you can explain how the assassination of Franz Ferdinand caused European powers to declare war on each other as a result of the alliance system.

However, in order to reach this outcome, we're going to need some keywords.

And for this lesson, we've got four keywords.

The four keywords for this lesson are, nationalism, assassinate, ultimatum, and mobilise.

Before we get stuck into the lesson, it'd probably be a good idea to have a look at some definitions of these keywords before we see them in context.

So nationalism is the support for the political independence of a country.

To assassinate someone is to murder an important person for a political or religious reason.

An ultimatum is a final demand, which if denied, will usually result in some form of retaliation.

And finally, to mobilise is to prepare an army for war.

Now, with our keywords we can get started.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts.

I'll be starting by looking at the trouble in the Balkans.

The Balkans is a region in southeastern Europe, and they were part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries from as early as the 1300s.

However, by the 1800s, the Ottoman Empire was beginning to fall apart, and the Austro-Hungarian empire had taken this as an opportunity to expand their empire into the Balkans.

However, while this was all going on, there was growing nationalism in the region.

Remember, nationalism is the support for the political independence of the country.

So there was growing support for the political independence of the countries in the Balkans, and this meant that people beginning to fight much harder for their freedoms. As a result, from 1912, local wars broke out in the Balkans.

As we can see from the image on the slide, this is a French poster of soldiers fighting in the Balkan wars from 1912 to 1913.

And the nation that emerged the most powerful from these wars was Serbia.

They emerged as a powerful independent state after these wars.

Now, it wasn't just because they were independent, it posed a threat to Austria-Hungary, who had successfully begun to expand their empire into the Balkans during these wars.

But it was also because they had become an ally of Russia in this process.

And as an ally of Russia, they became an increasingly powerful threat to Austria-Hungary.

And as a result, tension was growing between Austria-Hungary, who was trying to extend their power in the Balkans and Serbia as a newly independent country who was supporting the growing nationalism in other Balkan states who were trying to fight back against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Now, all of this tension reached ahead on the 28th of June in 1914.

And the reason that happened was because a man named Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, were travelling through a city called Sarajevo in Bosnia.

And as they were travelling through Sarajevo on the 28th of June, 1914, they were assassinated by a 19 year old Bosnian called Gavrilo Princip.

Now you might be wondering, what on earth has that got to do with Serbia? If a Bosnian man assassinates the Archduke and the heirs per throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, how does that increase tension between Austria-Hungary and Serbia? Now, the reason for this is because Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb and he had got his weapons from a Serbian terrorist organisation known as the Black Hand Gang.

Now, Gavrilo Princip was not the only assassin sent to murder the archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, he was actually one of seven.

Although the first assassination attempt had failed, the second succeeded, and this showed Austria-Hungary how much of a threat Serbia had become because it wasn't a single assassin.

This was a calculated attempt, and this just showed the scale of the threat of Serbia towards Austria-Hungary.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not just see this as an attack against the Imperial family, but as an attack against the empire itself.

Now, before we see where this trouble led, we're gonna stop, take a moment and check our understanding with a quick question.

True or false? Serbia emerged as the strongest independent power in the Balkans by 1913.

Pause the video, have a think and press Play when made a decision.

(no audio) Great work.

This statement is true, but why? Now we're going to justify our answer.

Is it true because A, Serbia remained independent and became a close ally of Russia or B, Serbia remained independent and became a close ally of Austria-Hungary? Pause the video again.

Make your decision and press Play when you've got an answer.

(no audio) Great work, it's A.

Serbia emerged as the strongest independent power in the Balkans because they've remained independent and became a close ally of Russia.

And you may already know that an alliance is a relationship formed between two or more countries for a particular purpose.

Here we know that Serbia had become an ally of Russia as they emerged as an independent state following the growth of nationalism in the Balkans.

So this was an alliance formed largely for protection.

However, we will see later in this lesson how that actually turned out.

Before we go on to the rest of our story for today, let's put what we've learned into practise.

I would like you to explain one reason why the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to war between Austria-Hungary, and Serbia.

Now you can pause the video, give yourself about five minutes to complete the task and press Play when you're done.

(no audio) Great work.

Let's have a look at what your answer might include.

Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

This meant that his assassination would be seen as an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they would be likely to retaliate with force, especially since the assassins got their weapons from the Serbian terrorist organisation, the Black Hand Gang.

Now, this would be a fantastic response because not only can you see the use of important terms from the task instruction like Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary, and Serbia, there's also the inclusion of other knowledge like the Black Hand Gang, which was a Serbian terrorist organisation.

As well as this, you can also see that this answer has shown why an assassination led to such a large response.

The answer has made it clear that it's because Austria-Hungary had blamed Serbia for the assassination.

Remember, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a 19 year old Bosnian called Gavrilo Princip.

But this answer shows us what that has to do with the relationship between Austria-Hungary, and Serbia, and has also made it clear why they were attacked with so much force because it was seen as not just an attack on the Imperial family, but an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire itself.

Really fantastic work.

Now we can see what this trouble would lead on to.

In the next part of the lesson, we're going to be looking at something called the July Crisis.

This was the month that followed the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Now following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary were quick to blame Serbia.

This meant that a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia seemed almost inevitable.

However, as we know, world War I became a war that involved pretty much the entire world.

So we need to try and figure out how on earth we got from a war, how on Earth we got from a war between two nations in southeastern Europe to a war that involved initially many of the major powers in Europe within only a matter of weeks.

And this began with Austria-Hungary issuing Serbia an ultimatum as a result of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand because they blamed the Serbian government for the assassination.

In this ultimatum, they issued a set of 10 demands that the Serbian government had to accept or else they would declare war.

However, when Serbia refused Austria-Hungary would go on to declare war on the 28th of July, 1914.

But like I said, at this point, this is still a war between two nations in southeastern Europe.

How would it become a war that would involve many of the major powers in Europe? That process is known as the July Crisis, 'cause following the Declaration of War by Austria-Hungary, several European powers found themselves involved in this war within a matter of weeks.

If we have a look at the map, it will remind us of the alliance systems that you may have already learned about.

The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in the late 1800s, and the Triple Entente between Britain, France, and Russia from the early 1900s.

Now, as a result of these alliances and the actions of key political figures, we will see that what began as a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia declared on the 28th of July would then involve Russia who declared war on Austria-Hungary on the 30th of July.

Because as we learned in the beginning part of this lesson, Russia was a close ally to Serbia from the early 1900s.

However, the War did not stop here.

It then spread westwards as Germany declared war on Russia.

That was because Germany was an ally of Austria-Hungary, if you remember, they were both in the Triple Alliance, but again, the War did not stop here.

It spread further west as France then declared war on Germany because France and Russia were allies in the Triple Entente.

At this point, the War had spread to cover most of Europe, and part of the problem that Germany now faced was that they would have to fight Russia in the East and France in the west, however, they had a plan.

Before we get into this plan, we're gonna stop and take a moment to check our understanding with a couple of quick questions.

First, which of the following was the first country to declare war in the July Crisis? Was it A, Austria-Hungary, B, Germany, or C, Serbia? Pause the video, have a think and press Play when you've made a decision.

(no audio) Great work.

It was Austria-Hungary.

You'll remember that Austria-Hungary declared war in Serbia because they blamed them for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Which member of the Triple Entente had not become involved in the War by the 3rd of August, 1914? Was it A, Britain, B, France, or C, Russia? Pause the video, have a think and come back when you're done.

(no audio) Great work.

The answer is Britain.

Because as we know, Britain was not yet involved in the War because they were preoccupied with other issues going on within Britain.

The main one being what was known as the Irish question, as people across Ireland were demanding independence from Britain and the British government was taking quite a bit of time to try and figure out how to respond.

We know that France and Russia had got involved in the War by the 3rd of August because they'd put Germany in a very sticky situation as they would now be facing on war on two fronts, although we do know that they had a plan.

But before we find out more about that plan, let's put what we've learned into practise.

I would like you to complete the following passage by adding in the missing words.

You can now pause the video, give yourself about five minutes to complete this task and press Play when you've completed the paragraph.

(no audio) Absolutely great work.

Let's have a look at what your completed paragraph should look like.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the War that broke out could have remained between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

However, as Russia was a close ally to Serbia, they declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany then came to Austria-Hungary's defence and declared war on Russia.

Then France came to Russia's defence and declared war on Germany.

Now let's move on to the final part of our lesson.

(no audio) (no audio) In the final part of our lesson, we are going to look at that plan that I've been telling you about.

However, as we can see here, it was a failed plan.

We're going to be looking at the failed Schlieffen plan.

Now, the idea of war was not a complete surprise to Germany.

They'd been prepared for as early as 1905 for the potential outbreak of war, and they knew that France and Russia had been allies, so they'd prepared the Schlieffen plan.

This plan involved attacking, this plan involved sending the German army west to quickly attack France and defeat them in battle before turning their attention to the East, to then attack the Russian army and defeat them, and therefore avoid the near impossible task of a war on two fronts.

However, for this plan to work, there were two things that this plan depended on.

The first was that Russia would be slow to mobilise because if Germany had turned their attention westward, the French troops, and in the meantime Russia had already started marching towards Germany, this plan just wouldn't work.

It also depended on Britain remaining neutral, which may seem absurd to us now.

However, at the time, not many people expected Britain to get in a war had it expanded across Europe.

This was because they had lots of issues that they were dealing with within Britain, so they were not particularly concerned with getting involved with outside issues.

One of the main issues that Britain was dealing with at the time was what became known as the Irish question.

As many people in Ireland called for independence from Britain, the British government was figuring out how to respond.

Therefore, the chances of them getting involved in a war did seem very slim.

Unfortunately, this just wasn't how it played out because when the War did break out and France did declare war in Germany, Schlieffen Plan was adjusted slightly, where previously it was believed that they would march through Holland, on this occasion, now that the plan was actually in action, German military leaders decided they would marched through Belgium.

Now, this seems like a small difference.

We can see the German troops marching through Belgium here.

However, this would be a detrimental decision because in 1839 in something called the Treaty of London, Britain had promised to support Belgium.

Belgium was considered a neutral country, so with German troops marching through Belgium to attack France, Britain was left with very little choice but to get involved in the War, which they did on the 4th of August.

Now, this would prove to be a huge problem for Germany because as they declared their involvement in the War, Britain sent 150,000 trained troops known as the British Expeditionary Force to France to support the French Army.

This meant that the German troops marching towards the French army were having to face many more troops than they had previously expected.

Despite this, they still hoped for a quick victory, and it seemed that their plan was working as the British suffered an early defeat of the Battle of Mons, which fought the Germans within striking distance of Paris, the capital city of France.

However, it soon became clear that Germany's plan had failed because German army had now had to split themselves between the Western front fighting France and the Eastern front fighting Russia as Russia had mobilised far quicker than they had expected.

And as a result of communication breaking down between this divided army, they had to withdraw slightly and begin to dig trenches from where they would fight the remainder of the War.

It soon became clear to the troops that thought they would be home by Christmas, that this would not be an easily won war, that a war they thought would be a quick defeat against the French, and then the Russians was going to take much longer and require much more force than they had hoped.

Before we put what we've learned in this last section to practise, we're gonna have a quick question just to check our understanding.

So starting with the earliest, I'd like you to sort these events into chronological order with one as the earliest event.

Pause the video, put your events in order, and then press Play when you're done.

(no audio) Great work.

Let's have a look at these events in the correct order.

So we know that first, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on the 28th of June, 1914 by the 19 year old Gavrilo Princip who had got his weapons from the Serbian Black Hand Gang.

Then we know Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum that they refused, and as a result, Austria-Hungary declared war, then triggering the July Crisis, which is the period in which a war between two nations spread across Europe to involve many of the major powers in Europe, including Germany, France, and Russia.

This put Germany in a very sticky position as they faced a French attack in the West and a Russian attack in the East.

However, remember, they were prepared with The Schlieffen Plan, but as we know, the final event on our list is that The Schlieffen Plan failed because as we know, Britain got involved in the War sending 150,000 troops to defend France, and as the divided German army began to lose communication between the two fronts, they were forced to withdraw.

Let's put what we've learned in this section into practise.

I would like you to explain why the Schlieffen Plan failed.

In your response I would like you to use the following terms, French Army, mobilised, Russian Army and Belgium.

You can now pause the video, give yourself approximately five to 10 minutes to complete this task, and then press Play when you finish writing your response.

(no audio) Fantastic work.

You have done so well this lesson.

Let's have a quick look at what your answer may have included.

In order for the Schlieffen Plan to work, the German army would march west and defeat the French army while Russia took some time to mobilise their troops.

Then the plan involved marching German troops east to defeat the Russian army.

However, the Russian army mobilised quicker than they expected.

In addition to this, as the German troops marched through Belgium, the British declared war in Germany, which meant that it would be much more difficult for the German army to defeat their enemies in the West.

Brilliant work this lesson, you have done absolutely fantastically.

Before we finish, let's wrap up what we've learned today.

As we've looked at the outbreak of the War in 1914, here's a summary of what we've covered.

Tensions rose in the Balkans as the nation struggled for independence.

We know that Serbia was a nation that was successful in their fight for independence.

However, other nations like Bosnia were still part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

We know that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand led to a war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary as Serbia refused to accept demands of the ultimatum that had been issued to them.

We know that the system of alliances caused Germany and Russia to declare war in defence of their allies.

And finally, the failure of the Schlieffen Plan brought Britain into the War because although Germany had planned to march through Holland, when the plan was actually carried out, they marched through Belgium instead, and Belgium had been a neutral nation who Britain had sworn to protect.

(no audio).