More civil liberty sadness

Before the U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917, many German-Americans — especially those that had been born in Germany — openly supported the Germans in the war against Britain, France, and Russia. Once the U.S. entered the war, though, the vast majority of German-Americans supported the American war effort.

Every war the U.S. has fought has been vocally opposed by a minority of Americans, and World War I was no different. But it was quickly assumed by many Americans that all German-Americans were loyal to the Kaiser. People with German-sounding last names were persecuted. German-owned businesses faced boycotts. In towns founded by German immigrants, German street names were changed. A Minnesota man was tarred and feathered when he was heard praying in German with a dying woman. At least one man was hanged merely because he was believed to be of German descent. High schools dropped German classes, and schools in majority-German areas were required to teach only in English. In Iowa, a 1918 law prohibited speaking any language other than English in public.

Woodrow Wilson’s administration was directly responsible for this anti-German-American hysteria. The government’s propaganda posters portrayed Germans as brutes and barbarians, encouraging Americans to dehumanize the enemy — to think of Germans as less than human.

In November 1917, former U.S. ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard made a speech in which he openly questioned the loyalty of German-Americans. Speaking to the Ladies Aid Society of St. Mary’s Hospital in New York, he demanded the complete devotion of all Americans to the war effort and threatened to hang German-American spies from lamp-posts. Twenty years earlier, Gerard’s speech would likely have been forgotten. But by 1917, the speech could be recorded, pressed onto records, and distributed. Gerard’s references to lynching were heard across the country.

Civil Liberties during War Time

Remember how we talked about how when Woodrow Wilson campaigned for the presidency, he ran on the platform that the United States would stay out of the affairs of Europe. In particular, the United States would not get involved with The Great War which would later become commonly known as World War I?

So, when Wilson did find it necessary in his second term to enter the war, there were large segments of the population that do not support the war effort. In some cases, the government felt many of these groups were taking steps to undermine the war effort. To help facilitate the winning of the war, Congress passed the Espionage Act of 1917 and extended by the Sedition Act on  May 16, 1918.

Public criticism of the war was definitely a major concern of the government. Since a significant number of troops would be needed to carry out the war effort, a draft was imposed. Among the concerns the government had was the notion that constant criticism would make recruitment and even conscription difficult.

The purpose of these Acts was to prohibit interference with military operations, to ban support of U.S. enemies during wartime or to promote insubordination in the military.

The Espionage Act gave US postal officials the authority to prohibit the mailing of  newspapers and magazines. The law also threatened individuals convicted of interfering with or refusing the draft  with $10,000 fines and 20 years in jail.

The U.S. Congress amended the Espionage law with the Sedition Act of 1918. Its purpose was to make it illegal to write or speak anything critical of American involvement in the war.

The Sedition Act of 1918 made it a federal offense to use "disloyal or abusive language" about the Constitution, the government, the American uniform, or the US flag.

Watch this five minute video and then comment on the blog. Do you feel like these Acts were unconstitutional or do you feel like they were the right thing to do under the circumstances?  Why do you feel this way?  

1920's Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age

The Harlem Renaissance was a period during the 1920's 

when African-American achievements in art, literature and music flourished. A period of great diversity and experimentation. The WW1 Great Migration saw the movement of thousands of African Americans from the farmlands in the south to the cities in  the north in order to find new opportunities and build better lives. Many made their way to the New York city neighborhood of Harlem in Manhattan, New York City which became the home of the movement.

The Harlem Renaissance coincided with the Jazz Age, a time of innovative ideas and modernism with rapid cultural and social changes. Harlem became a cultural center buzzing with new ideas and attracting African American scholars, writers, poets, artists, actors, musicians and singers. The Cotton Club was the most famous Harlem night spot where musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington played Dixie, the blues and developed the improvisational style of music called Jazz.

The Harlem Renaissance was important because it inspired an explosion of cultural pride and was perceived as a new beginning for African Americans. Black Americans were inspired to create works rooted in their own culture instead of imitating the styles of white Americans. African Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage.

The Harlem Renaissance was an era in U.S. History so full of creativity that it was short lived due to the Great Depression in 1929 and the beginnings of World War II.

Read this website and answer the questions on your

 Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance Worksheet

Flapper girls

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to vote, and declared that they deserved full citizenship. Finally, the battle was won! 

Watch each of these 2 minute video on suffrage.

A young woman emerged during the 1920’s who was very different from ladies of the past in her appearance, attitude and behavior. She was called a flapper. She had bobbed hair and short skirts. She behaved in ways that many people called unladylike.

Check out the dance styles of the 1920's...

Women's fashion and image changed drastically during the 1920's... 


The 1920's was an era of Consumerism and mass advertising and, although men were reluctant to wear the new fashions, women wanted to see their men in modern, fashionable clothes that reflected their prosperity and position in society.

Fashion for Men wore well-tailored pinstriped suits, tuxedos, silk shirts and handkerchiefs, raccoon fur coats, fedora hats, suspenders, bow ties, black patent leather shoes and spats.

Credit: https://kidskonnect.com/history/roaring-twenties/ 

Comment on the Blog: If YOU lived during the 1920's what would be YOUR preferred outfit? :)

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods during the Roaring Twenties. 

The most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. 

Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable. 

In 1929, there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Motels and gas stations were created to serve the needs of this new mobile society.

Henry Ford and mass production not only revolutionized the auto industry but changed what life looked like for most Americans. In the 1920's the motorcar came to represent the American dream, by offering independence and adventure.

Watch the following this videos: 

Then comment on the BLOG: What is consumerism??

1920's Consumerism

The rise of prosperity of the United States in 1920 led to the emergence of American Consumerism in the period in history known as the Roaring Twenties. 

Consumerism is the theory that it is economically attractive to encourage the attainment of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. 

American Consumerism increased during the Roaring Twenties due to technical advances and innovative ideas and inventions in the areas of communication, transportation and manufacturing. Americans moved from the traditional avoidance of debt to the concept by buying goods on credit.

Mass advertising and marketing techniques via the 1920's newspapers and the radio saw a massive increase in sales via easy consumer credit.

What does Consumerism mean? 

Consumerism is the theory that an increasing expenditure on goods is economically desirable. American consumerism in the 1920's led to the preoccupation of the purchase of consumer goods

What is an example of Consumerism 1920s America?

An example of American Consumerism 1920s the purchase of automobiles. In the Roaring Twenties over 60% of Americans bought their automobiles on credit. Debt was not a worry - people believed that America, and the Stock Market, were invincible.

Watch this 3 minute video and Comment on the blog one fact that you learned. Try not to repeat a fact that has already been stated. 

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is the name given to the era in American history between the end of WW1 in 1918 and the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929. 

The "Roaring Twenties" ushered in the birth of a new, modern national lifestyle, as war-weary Americans wanted to enjoy themselves and began to value convenience and leisure over hard work and self-denial. The period of the Roaring Twenties witnessed many Political, Economic and Social changes. 

What Characterized the Roaring Twenties?

The Roaring Twenties era was characterized by technological advances and prosperity with new labor-saving inventions that led to the large scale use of automobiles, telephones, the radio, motion pictures and electricity. 

People challenged traditional ideas and the new morality glorified personal freedom, nonconformists and youth, personified by the fashions and lifestyles of the "flappers" who danced the Charleston to the new music of the Jazz Age in the city speakeasies.

Read through this website choosing NEXT at the bottom of the page until you get to page three. At the bottom of the page click: QUIZ TIME: 1920s Quiz. 

Comment on the blog how many questions out of ten that you got correct . Tell us one cool thing that you learned about the 1920's.

Credit: http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/roaring-twenties.htm 

1920's Intro

Welcome to the 1920's!!

The 1920’s were a time of change in the United States. For the first time in history, more people were living in cities than in the country. The United States was also more wealthy than it had ever been.

The first movie theaters, called palaces, opened in 1915 in New York City. Historians estimate that by the end of the decade, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week.

Watch this Scholastic video (2 min) and this History Channel video (1.34) on the 1920's. 

Take a peek in the Dropbox for your famous person assignment. If you are asked to share a video upload it to this Dropbox. 

Log in information is: 
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Comment:  

Name an invention that changed life for those living in this era? Dont repeat an invention that one of your classmates has already mentioned! 

Flu pandemic of 1918

The influenza or flu pandemic of 1918 to 1919, the deadliest in modern history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. 

More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic. The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the U.S. and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. Surprisingly, many flu victims were young, otherwise healthy adults. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain or prevent its spread. 

In the U.S., citizens were ordered to wear masks, and schools, theaters and other public places were shuttered. Researchers later discovered what made the 1918 pandemic so deadly: In many victims, the influenza virus had invaded their lungs and caused pneumonia.

credit: http://www.history.com/topics/1918-flu-pandemic 

Watch this video on the Flu pandemic of 1918

Chicago Race Riot

The “Red Summer” of 1919 marked the culmination of steadily growing tensions surrounding the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the cities of the North that took place during World War I. When the war ended in late 1918, thousands of servicemen returned home from fighting in Europe to find that their jobs in factories, warehouses and mills had been filled by newly arrived Southern blacks or immigrants. Amid financial insecurity, racial and ethnic prejudices ran rampant. Meanwhile, African-American veterans who had risked their lives fighting for the causes of freedom and democracy found themselves denied basic rights such as adequate housing and equality under the law, leading them to become increasingly militant.

Did You Know?

In the summer of 1919, Richard J. Daley, who served as Chicago's powerful mayor from 1955 until his death in 1976, was a 17-year-old member of an Irish-American organization called the Hamburg Athletic Club. Though an investigation later identified the club among the instigators of the rioting, Daley and his supporters never admitted that he participated in the violence.

In this fraught atmosphere, the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization revived its violent activities in the South, including 64 lynchings in 1918 and 83 in 1919. In the summer of 1919, race riots would break out in Washington, D.C.; Knoxville, Tennessee; Longview, Texas; Phillips County, Arkansas; Omaha, Nebraska and–most dramatically–Chicago. The city’s African-American population had increased from 44,000 in 1909 to more than 100,000 as of 1919. Competition for jobs in the city’s stockyards was particularly intense, pitting African Americans against whites (both native-born and immigrants). Tensions ran highest on the city’s South Side, where the great majority of black residents lived, many of them in old, dilapidated housing and without adequate services.

A DROWNING IN LAKE MICHIGAN

On July 27, 1919, a 17-year-old African-American boy named Eugene Williams was swimming with friends in Lake Michigan when he crossed the unofficial barrier (located at 29th Street) between the city’s “white” and “black” beaches. A group of white men threw stones at Williams, hitting him, and he drowned. When police officers arrived on the scene, they refused to arrest the white man whom black eyewitnesses pointed to as the responsible party. Angry crowds began to gather on the beach, and reports of the incident–many distorted or exaggerated–spread quickly.

Violence soon broke out between gangs and mobs of black and white, concentrated in the South Side neighborhood surrounding the stockyards. After police were unable to quell the riots, the state militia was called in on the fourth day, but the fighting continued until August 3. Shootings, beatings and arson attacks eventually left 15 whites and 23 blacks dead, and more than 500 more people (around 60 percent black) injured. An additional 1,000 black families were left homeless after rioters torched their residences.

Watch this video on the Chicago Race Riots of 1919.

LASTING IMPACT

In the aftermath of the rioting, some suggested implementing zoning laws to formally segregate housing in Chicago, or restrictions preventing blacks from working alongside whites in the stockyards and other industries. Such measures were rejected by African-American and liberal white voters, however. City officials instead organized the Chicago Commission on Race Relations to look into the root causes of the riots and find ways to combat them. The commission, which included six white men and six black, suggested several key issues —including competition for jobs, inadequate housing options for blacks, inconsistent law enforcement and pervasive racial discrimination—but improvement in these areas would be slow in the years to come.

President Woodrow Wilson publicly blamed whites for being the instigators of race-related riots in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., and introduced efforts to foster racial harmony, including voluntary organizations and congressional legislation. In addition to drawing attention to the growing tensions in America’s urban centers, the riots in Chicago and other cities in the summer of 1919 marked the beginning of a growing willingness among African Americans to fight for their rights in the face of oppression and injustice.

Comment on the blog: 

What started the Riot?  How do you feel about the behavior of white people when they saw the boy in the raft?  What was the response of the police?  Tell us what you felt as you heard this story. 

American Homefront WWI

As over two million American soldiers boarded the transport ships bound for France. More than one million American women sustained the wartime labor force. A great many jobs, which had previously been considered “man’s work,” were being filled by women, in the factory, the shipyard, and the armed forces. Women plowed the fields, fixed the cars, delivered the mail, ran the elevators and the streetcars, and even wrote the traffic tickets.

President Wilson encouraged employers to pay female workers the same wages they had paid men but few did. Even worse, when the war was over and men returned to the workforce, a great many women were fired. Other women contributed to the war effort by volunteering. They served in the Red Cross, sold liberty bonds, and planted victory gardens. Others, like Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt, raised public awareness by actively demonstrating against war and militarism.

As the war dragged on, the nation began to appreciate the valuable contribution made by women in the war effort, creating a prime opportunity for a change in women's civil liberties. On January 10, 1917, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns of the National Women's Party took action. For almost a year they paraded and picketed the White House demanding passage of a constitutional amendment granting women suffrage—the right to vote. Wilson was out of office by the time the 19th amendment was ratified, but there was no doubt that the new role of women in America during World War One was a catalyst leading to the right to vote. 

Society also had to come to grips with a new role for African-Americans. Like most Americans, African- Americans were divided in their opinions about the war. Many felt that African-Americans were victims of racism and should not support a racist government. 

At home, the war contributed to the large-scale migration of more than half a million African-Americans into the industrialized cities of the north. They provided the workforce desperately needed to produce wartime goods. In addition, immigration into America had slowed to a trickle, and many immigrants had returned to their native homelands, leaving more jobs to be filled. 

Despite the many women employed, companies were still short of workers. Many African-Americans were anxious to leave the south and its pattern of racial discrimination, low pay, and all-too-often life threatening conditions. Between 1892 and 1919, approximately three thousand African-Americans were killed by lynching, mainly in the south.

When northern manufacturing companies sent recruiting agents with free railroad tickets into the south looking for laborers, hundreds of thousands of men and women boarded trains and headed for cities like Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

Get comfortable and watch this 9 minute video on Women in WWI. 

This 6 minute video about the Great Migration of African Americans during WWI.

One more 4 minute video about Alice Paul the suffragist. 

Comment on the Blog today. Tell us one thing you learned from each video. 

WWI: The end of the War

The Last Battles of The Great War

In August of 1918, the Allied commanders on the western front decided to go on the offensive. Starting on August 8th, a series of battles were fought called the Hundred Days Offensive. These battles included the Battle of Amiens, the Second Battle of the Somme, and several battles along Germany's Hindenburg Line. The Germans were pushed out of France and were forced to retreat back into Germany. 

 
People celebrating after the armistice 

Armistice 

By the end of the Hundred Days Offensive, the German forces were exhausted and running out of food and supplies. On November 11, 1918 they requested an armistice. An armistice is when both sides agree to stop fighting while a peace treaty is negotiated. The Allies agreed to the armistice and at 11 AM on November 11, 1918 the fighting in World War I came to an end. 

Treaty Negotiations 

The Allied Nations met in Paris at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to decide the fate of Germany and the Central Powers. Although a number of nations took part in the negotiations, the major decisions and discussions were between the leaders of the "Big Four" nations which included Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France), David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Great Britain), Woodrow Wilson (President of the United States), and Vittorio Orlando (Prime Minister of Italy). 

 
The Big Four

Each of the four nations had different opinions on how Germany should be treated. President Woodrow Wilson felt that the best solution was to incorporate his Fourteen Points. He thought that Germany should not be blamed for the war or punished too harshly. However, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau felt that Germany was responsible for the war and should take the blame and be forced to pay large reparations. 

Treaty of Versailles 

The Treaty of Versailles was signed between the Allied Powers and Germany on June 28, 1919. This officially ended World War I. The treaty was extremely harsh on Germany. It forced Germany to "accept the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage" of the war. Germany was forced to disarm, give up land to France, and to pay reparations of 132 billion Marks (around $442 billion in 2015 money). 

New National Borders 

The map of Europe changed significantly after World War I. Several new independent countries were formed including Poland, Finland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. Russia became the Soviet Union and the Ottoman Empire later became the country of Turkey. Germany also had to give up some land to France. 

League of Nations 

As part of the Paris Peace Conference, an organization called the League of Nations was formed. The League of Nations was formed in an effort to establish world peace. Its member countries hoped to prevent wars by helping to settle disputes between countries. The League also aimed to establish fair labor conditions, improve global health, control the global arms trade, and protect minorities in Europe. The League was officially founded by the Treaty of Versailles and had 42 founding member countries. 

Interesting Facts about the End of World War I

• The United States did not sign the Treaty of Versailles, but established its own treaty with Germany.
• The United States also did not join the League of Nations which was first introduced by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in his Fourteen Points.
• The reparations that Germany owed from the Treaty of Versailles were renegotiated several times and were not finally paid off until well after World War II.


Four European Empires disappeared after World War I including the German, Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

Please view "Ten Remarkable facts about WWI." 

Watch this video about the end of WWI.

Do this map puzzle of Europe. 

Battles of WWI

Where was most of the fighting? 

The majority of the fighting took place in Europe along two fronts: the western front and the eastern front. The western front was a long line of trenches that ran from the coast of Belgium to Switzerland. A lot of the fighting along this front took place in France and Belgium. The eastern front was between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria on one side and Russia and Romania on the other.

Major Battles 

A lot of the war was fought using trench warfare along the western front. The armies hardly moved at all. They just bombed and shot at each other from across the trenches. Some of the major battles during the war included the First Battle of the Marne, Battle of the Somme, Battle of Tannenberg, Battle of Gallipoli, and the Battle of Verdun. 

How did it end? 

The fighting ended on November 11, 1918 when a general armistice was agreed to by both sides. The war officially ended between Germany and the Allies with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. 

Credit: http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/ 

Watch these two videos on the 

Battle of Somme

&

Battle of Ypres

Finally, complete your worksheet using the following website. 

WWI: Wilson

Although World War I began in 1914, the United States did not join the war until 1917. The impact of the United States joining the war was significant. The additional firepower, resources, and soldiers of the U.S. helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies. 

When war broke out in 1914, the United States had a policy of neutrality. Many people in the U.S. saw the war as a dispute between "old world" powers that had nothing to do with them. Also, public opinion on the war was often split as there were many immigrants who had ties to both sides.

 
United States recruiting poster

 

When the Germans sunk the Lusitania in 1915, a passenger ocean liner with 159 Americans on board, the public opinion in the United States toward the war began to change. 

In January of 1917, the German leaders asked Mexico to join in the fight and in return Germany promised to return to Mexico that land that was once theirs - Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. 

 President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to Congress on April 2, 1917 asking for them to declare war on Germany. In his speech he said that the U.S. would go to war to "fight for the ultimate peace of the world." On April 6, 1917 the U.S. officially declared war on Germany. 

The U.S. army in Europe was under the command of General John J. Pershing. At first, the U.S. had few trained troops to send over to Europe. However, the army was quickly built up through the draft and volunteers. By the end of the war around 2 million U.S. troops were in France.

 
U.S. troops marching through London

The U.S. troops arrived just in time to turn the tide of the war in favor of the Allies. Both sides were exhausted and running out of soldiers. The influx of fresh troops helped to boost the morale of the Allies and played a major role in the defeat of the Germans. 

Watch this video on Woodrow Wilson (3.33)

Comment on the Blog: 

According to the video:

What are two reasons that America wished to stay out of WWI? (There are more than two) 

What slogan did Wilson use when he was running for President?  

What did joining in the War effort do for the USA’s reputation?

 

WWI: Life in the trenches

Why Trench Warfare in WWI?

In the early weeks of the First World War ( summer of 1914), both German and French commanders anticipated a war that would involve a large amount of troop movement, as each side sought to gain -- or defend -- territory. 

The Germans initially swept through parts of Belgium and northeastern France, gaining territory along the way.

During the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, however, the Germans were pushed back by Allied forces. They subsequently "dug in" to avoid losing any more ground. Unable to break through this line of defense, the Allies also began to dig protective trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived all day and night.

By October 1914, neither army could advance its position, mainly because war was being waged in a very different way than previous wars.

 Forward-moving strategies such as head-on infantry attacks were no longer effective or feasible against modern weaponry like machine guns and heavy artillery; this inability to move forward created the stalemate. 

Digging trenches was seen as a temporary strategy -- or so the generals had thought --  but it evolved into one of the main features of the war at the Western Front for the next four years.

What was it like in a World War One trench?

There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other.

In the middle, was no man's land, so-called because it did not belong to either army. Soldiers crossed No Man's Land when they wanted to attack the other side.

Food in the trenches

A total of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the First World War. The British Army employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food. At the beginning of the war British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. As the size of the army grew and the German blockade became more effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to 6 ounces of meat a day. Later troops not in the front-line only received meat on nine out of every thirty days. The daily bread ration was also cut in April 1917. The British Army attempted to give the soldiers the 3,574 calories a day that dieticians said they needed. However, others argued that soldiers during wartime need much more than this.

Soldiers in the Western Front were very critical of the quantity and the quality of food they received. The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food was now a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Kitchen staff became more and more dependent on local vegetables and also had to use weeds such as nettles in soups and stews. The battalion's kitchen staff had just two large vats, in which everything was prepared. As a result, everything the men ate tasted of something else. For example, soldiers often complained that their tea tasted of vegetables. Providing fresh food was also very difficult. It has been estimated that it took up to eight days before bread reached the front-line and so it was invariably stale. So also were the biscuits and the soldiers attempted to solve this problem by breaking them up, adding potatoes, onions, sultanas or whatever was available, and boiling the mixture up in a sandbag.

Rats

Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them.. Millions of rats infested the trenches and some grew as big as cats. 

Trench foot

Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and insanitary conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers in the trenches had to have three pairs of socks with them and were under orders to change their socks at least twice a day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers were told to cover their feet with a grease made from whale-oil. 

Body Lice

Men in the trenches suffered from lice. One soldier writing after the war described them as "pale light in color, and they left blotchy red bite marks all over the body." They also created a sour; stale smell. A British soldier was quoted as saying,  "The lice were the size of grains of rice, each with its own bite, each with its own itch. When we could, we would run hot wax from a candle down the seams of our trousers, our vests - whatever you had - to burn the buggers out. It was the only thing to do. Eventually, when we got to  back, they took every stitch off us and gave us a suit of sterilized blue material. And the uniforms they took off, they burned them - to get rid of the lice."

Text taken from:http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWtrench.htm 

The truce on Christmas Day. The most beautiful video EVER. 

View this video on trenches.
This one as well....

Comment on the blog: What do YOU think would be the worst part of this experience? 

WWI: Weapons

World War I

Changes in Modern Warfare

World War I introduced many advances in science and technology into modern warfare. These advances changed the nature of warfare including battle strategies and tactics. Scientists and inventors on both sides worked throughout the war to improve weapon technology in order to give their side an edge in the fight. 

War in the Air 

World War I was the first war where the airplane was used. Initially, airplanes were used to observe enemy troops. However, by the end of the war they were used to drop bombs on troops and cities. They also had mounted machine guns that were used to shoot down other planes.

 
German fighter planes

Tanks 
Tanks were first introduced in World War I. These armored vehicles were used to cross "No Man's Land" between the trenches. They had mounted machine guns and cannon. The first tanks were unreliable and hard to steer, however, they became more effective by the end of the war.

 
A tank during the Battle of the Somme

Trench Warfare 

Much of the war along the western front was fought using trench warfare. Both sides dug long lines of trenches that helped to protect the soldiers from gunfire and artillery. The area between enemy trenches was called No Man's Land. Trench warfare caused a stalemate between the two sides for many years. Neither side gained ground, but both sides lost millions of soldiers. 

Changes in Naval Warfare 

The most dangerous ships during World War I were large metal-armored battleships called dreadnoughts. These ships had powerful long-range guns, allowing them to attack other ships and land targets from a long distance. The main naval battle in World War I was the Battle of Jutland. Besides this battle, Allied naval ships were used to blockade Germany to prevent supplies and food from reaching the country. 

World War I also introduced submarines as a naval weapon in warfare. Germany used submarines to sneak up on ships and sink them with torpedoes. They even attacked Allied passenger ships such as the Lusitania. 

New Weapons

• Artillery - Large guns, called artillery, were improved during World War I including anti-aircraft guns to shoot down enemy planes. The majority of the casualties in the war were inflicted using artillery. Some large artillery guns could launch shells nearly 80 miles.
• Machine gun - The machine gun was improved during the war. It was made much lighter and easier to move around.
• Flame throwers - Flame throwers were used by the German Army on the western front in order to force the enemy out of their trenches.
• Chemical weapons - World War I also introduced chemical weapons to warfare. Germany first used chlorine gas to poison unsuspecting Allied troops. Later, the more dangerous mustard gas was developed and used by both sides. By the end of the war, troops were equipped with gas masks and the weapon was less effective.

 
Soldiers in gas masks firing a machine gun 

Interesting Facts about WWI Changes in Modern Warfare

• Tanks were initially called "landships" by the British. They later changed the name to tank, which was what the factory workers called them because they looked like a large water tank.
• The main form of transportation of troops during the war was the railroad. Armies would build new railroads as they advanced.
• British soldiers in the trenches used a bolt-action rifle. They could fire around 15 shots in a minute.
• Large artillery guns needed as many as 12 men to aim, load, and fire them.

Watch the following videos:

Airplanes used in war for the first time! (7.00)

Technological Developments  (4.00)

WWI Firsts (2.00)

Comment on the blog and tell us one fact that you learned from EACH of the three videos.