1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,000 Hello class, today I'm going to explain the most important stages and events in the First World War. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:16,000 So let's start by looking at the first stage in this war, which was the War of Movement, 3 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:23,000 that took place from the summer of 1914 up to the end of the year. 4 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:30,000 The war began at the same time on the Western Front and at the Eastern Front. 5 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:37,000 It happened when Germany tried a flash victory over France. 6 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Actually, they suddenly attacked France through Belgium and Luxembourg. 7 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:50,000 The Germans tried to win very quickly against the French, 8 00:00:50,000 --> 00:01:00,000 because they were planning to move very quickly all their troops on the Eastern Front, 9 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 so as to defeat the Russian Empire. 10 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:16,000 This plan was called the Schlieffen Plan, and it was designed by the German Chief of Staff Schlieffen 11 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:24,000 very soon in this century, in the 20th century, in 1905. 12 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:29,000 The Germans at that moment, due to the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, 13 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:37,000 due to the imperialism, had many fights against the British and the French, 14 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:48,000 and they had the idea of a short war to win very quickly against the French and the British. 15 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:54,000 At the beginning of the war, everything was according to plan, 16 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:02,000 because the Germans were, by the beginning of September 1914, pay attention, 17 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:09,000 only 40 km from Paris. They were about to get Paris. 18 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:21,000 However, the British and the French resisted in a defensive line over the river Marne. 19 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:27,000 And I'm going to explain the origins of this important battle in history. 20 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:36,000 The French developed the Plan XVII in order to defeat the Germans. 21 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:48,000 This is the first movement in this war when the French developed the Plan XVII over Alsace and Lorraine, 22 00:02:48,000 --> 00:03:00,000 because the French, due to the Franco-Prussian War, tried to take over very quickly Alsace and Lorraine, 23 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:10,000 because those territories were lost in 1870, and the French were claiming for revenge. 24 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:25,000 For this reason, they developed the Plan XVII at the same time that the Germans launched the Schlieffen Plan over France. 25 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:35,000 However, the French were defeated in the German border, and fortunately for them, 26 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:45,000 they knew that the Germans were close to get Paris, because the Germans were only 40 km from Paris. 27 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:52,000 So, when they knew that, they retreated from the German border up to Paris. 28 00:03:52,000 --> 00:04:05,000 They took all taxis in Paris to move their troops from the surroundings to the front in the river Marne, 29 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:16,000 and both of them, the British and the French, created this defensive line, and as a consequence, they resisted. 30 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:29,000 In the beginning of September in 1914, here we might see the French and the British troops. 31 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:37,000 They managed to expel the Germans, but the Battle of the River Marne was a bloodbath. 32 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:48,000 Actually, there were 250,000 casualties, and 80,000 of them were only French. 33 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:55,000 But the French and the British resisted the first stage of this war. 34 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,000 What happened at that moment on the Eastern Front? 35 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:10,000 On the Eastern Front, the Russians moved so quickly, actually they reached the border of the old Prussia, 36 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:23,000 and there was an important battle between the Russians against the Germans in the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. 37 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:31,000 However, the Germans had better pieces of weaponry due to the Second Industrial Revolution. 38 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:39,000 They had also better trains to move their troops very quickly, because they had less soldiers. 39 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:49,000 The Russians had more soldiers than the Germans, but the Germans were able to move faster their troops 40 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:56,000 due to the trains which were built during the Second Industrial Revolution. 41 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:05,000 So, as a consequence, the Russians were defeated, but they recovered very soon, 42 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:17,000 and they reached the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they defeated the Austrians in the area of Galicia. 43 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:25,000 So, the Russians took over the area of Galicia at the end of the year. 44 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:35,000 So, this is more or less the most important information that happened during the first stage of the war, 45 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:45,000 during the War of Movement, and at the end of the year, both contenders, 46 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:54,000 I would say that both armies thought that the war would finish very soon, at Christmas, 47 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:00,000 but they fought for more years. Incredible. 48 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:10,000 At the end of the year, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, because the war was stuck at that moment. 49 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:25,000 There was a deadlock in the war. The deadlock was here on the western front, and actually here on the eastern front. 50 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:35,000 This is the moment when both contenders built trenches from Switzerland to the North Sea, 51 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:42,000 and also from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Baltic Sea. 52 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:51,000 So, in conclusion, in a nutshell, I would say that due to the absence of a decisive victory, 53 00:07:51,000 --> 00:08:02,000 at the end of the year, in 1914, both fronts were stabilized with trenches. 54 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:13,000 There was a deadlock, and we are going to see on the following stages of this war if this deadlock was broken or not. 55 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,000 Thank you for your attention, and bye bye.