Mastering Depth study A: The First World War, 1914-18: IGCSE History Study Notes

The war that remade everything

The First World War lasted four years, killed roughly ten million soldiers, and dismantled four empires. Depth Study A of the Cambridge IGCSE History syllabus (0470) asks you to understand not just what happened between 1914 and 1918, but why events unfolded as they did. Four questions drive the study: why stalemate developed on the Western Front, whether this was truly a world war, how other fronts shaped the outcome, and why Germany requested an armistice. Each question requires you to build causal chains - linking military decisions to political pressures, technology to tactics, and home front morale to battlefield results.

This guide works through all four topics in sequence, with key chronology, comparison tables, worked exam examples, and the common errors that cost candidates marks.

1. Why was there stalemate on the Western Front?

The Schlieffen Plan and its failure

Germany's war plan, devised by Count Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905 and modified by Moltke, aimed to knock France out in six weeks before turning east against Russia. The plan required a rapid sweep through Belgium and northern France, encircling Paris from the west. It failed for several reinforcing reasons.

After the Marne, both sides attempted to outflank each other northward in what is called the Race to the Sea. By November 1914, a continuous line of trenches stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border. The war of movement was over.

Trench warfare: conditions and stalemate

Defensive technology dominated. Machine guns, barbed wire, and artillery made frontal assaults across open ground devastatingly costly. Trenches were not a single line but a system: front-line, support, and reserve trenches connected by communication trenches. Conditions were grim - mud, rats, lice, trench foot, and the constant threat of shelling. Soldiers rotated between front-line duty and rest areas, but psychological strain was relentless.

The stalemate persisted because neither side could achieve a decisive breakthrough. Attackers had to cross no man's land under fire, cut through wire, and then hold captured positions against immediate counter-attacks. Defenders could bring up reserves along their own trench railways and roads faster than attackers could advance on foot across churned ground.

New weapons and methods

Verdun and the Somme

These two 1916 battles illustrate the Western Front's grinding logic. At Verdun (February-December 1916), Germany aimed to "bleed France white" by attacking a symbolically important fortress city. France held, but at enormous cost: roughly 377,000 French and 337,000 German casualties. Neither side gained significant territory.

The Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916) was partly launched to relieve pressure on Verdun. On the first day alone (1 July 1916), the British suffered approximately 57,000 casualties, the worst single day in British military history. Over nearly five months, the Allies advanced about 12 kilometres. Combined casualties exceeded one million. The Somme demonstrated both the futility of massed infantry assault against prepared defences and the early potential of tanks, which appeared for the first time in September 1916.

2. To what extent was it a world war?

The war extended far beyond Europe. Calling it a "world war" is justified by the geographic spread of fighting, the involvement of colonial empires, and the global economic disruption.

Global dimensions

• Colonial troops: Britain drew soldiers from India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and West Africa. France mobilised troops from North and West Africa. These contributions were militarily significant and politically consequential - colonial soldiers returned home with expectations of greater rights.
• Fighting outside Europe: Campaigns took place in East Africa (German colonies), the Middle East (Ottoman Empire), the Pacific (German island territories), and China (Tsingtao).
• Economic warfare: The British naval blockade strangled German imports, causing severe food shortages by 1917. Germany's submarine campaign targeted Allied shipping worldwide.

Naval warfare

The Battle of Jutland (May-June 1916) was the only major fleet engagement. Britain lost more ships, but Germany's High Seas Fleet never again challenged British control of the North Sea. The strategic outcome favoured Britain: the blockade held.

Germany's submarine (U-boat) campaign proved more consequential. Unrestricted submarine warfare, resumed in February 1917, aimed to starve Britain into submission by sinking merchant ships regardless of nationality. The sinking of the Lusitania (May 1915, 1,198 dead including 128 Americans) had already angered the United States. The resumption of unrestricted attacks in 1917, combined with the Zimmermann Telegram (a German proposal for a military alliance with Mexico against the USA), brought the United States into the war in April 1917.

US entry and its significance

American troops began arriving in France in significant numbers from spring 1918. The US contribution was less about immediate battlefield impact and more about the balance of resources: fresh troops, industrial capacity, and financial credit at a point when both sides were exhausted. Germany's military leadership recognised that time was no longer on their side once American mobilisation began.

3. How important were other fronts?

The Eastern Front

The Eastern Front was vast and mobile compared to the West. Russia's initial invasion of East Prussia in August 1914 forced Germany to divert troops (contributing to the Schlieffen Plan's failure), but the Russian army suffered catastrophic defeats at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. Russia lacked the industrial capacity to sustain a modern war: shortages of rifles, ammunition, and transport plagued its forces throughout.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the strategic picture. The Bolshevik government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918), taking Russia out of the war and freeing approximately one million German troops for the Western Front. This was Germany's single greatest strategic gain of the war, but it came too late to offset American entry.

Gallipoli (1915-16)

The Gallipoli campaign aimed to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles. The naval assault (February-March 1915) failed when mines and shore batteries halted the fleet. The land campaign (April 1915 - January 1916) bogged down on narrow beachheads against determined Ottoman defence. Allied forces withdrew in January 1916 having suffered over 250,000 casualties. The campaign is a case study in strategic ambition undermined by poor planning, inadequate intelligence, and underestimation of the enemy.

The Middle East

British and Allied forces fought the Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), Palestine, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab Revolt (1916-18), supported by figures such as T.E. Lawrence, tied down Ottoman forces. General Allenby's campaign captured Jerusalem (December 1917) and Damascus (October 1918). These campaigns contributed to the Ottoman Empire's collapse and shaped the post-war settlement in the region.

4. Why did Germany ask for an armistice in 1918?

The Spring Offensive (Ludendorff Offensive)

With Russia out and American forces still building up, Germany launched a series of massive offensives from March 1918. The initial attacks (Operation Michael, 21 March) achieved dramatic gains, breaking through Allied lines and advancing up to 65 kilometres in places. Stormtrooper tactics - small, fast-moving units bypassing strongpoints - proved effective against static defences.

The offensives ultimately failed. Germany lacked the reserves and logistics to sustain the advance. Troops outran their supply lines. Exhausted and underfed soldiers sometimes stopped to loot Allied supply dumps rather than pressing forward. By July 1918, the offensives had stalled, and Germany had spent its last strategic reserve of manpower.

The Allied counter-attack and the Hundred Days

From August 1918, coordinated Allied offensives drove the German army back along the Western Front. The Battle of Amiens (8 August 1918) - which Ludendorff called "the black day of the German Army" - demonstrated the effectiveness of combined-arms warfare: tanks, aircraft, artillery, and infantry working in coordination. The Allies broke through the Hindenburg Line in late September. German forces retreated steadily, suffering heavy casualties and losing territory gained over four years.

Home front collapse

Germany's military defeat was inseparable from internal disintegration. The British naval blockade had caused severe food shortages: the "Turnip Winter" of 1916-17 was followed by worsening conditions. Civilian morale crumbled. Strikes and protests spread. In late October and November 1918, naval mutinies at Kiel sparked a revolutionary wave across German cities. Workers' and soldiers' councils formed. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November 1918. The new civilian government signed the armistice on 11 November.

Worked exam example

The following model answer demonstrates the standard expected in the IGCSE 0470 exam for a 6-mark explanation question.

Question: "Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?" Explain your answer. [6 marks]

Model answer structure:

The Schlieffen Plan failed because of a combination of factors that destroyed its tight timetable. First, Belgian resistance at Liege and elsewhere delayed the German advance by several critical days, which mattered because the entire plan depended on speed. Second, Russia mobilised more quickly than Germany expected, forcing Moltke to transfer two corps to the Eastern Front. This weakened the right wing that was supposed to encircle Paris. Third, the BEF's intervention at Mons and the subsequent French counter-attack at the Marne halted the German advance before it could reach its objective. The result was that by late 1914, both sides had dug in, and the war of rapid movement the plan required had become a static trench war.

Why this scores well: Three distinct, developed factors. Each one names a specific event, explains the causal link ("which mattered because..."), and connects back to the plan's failure. No wasted sentences.

Common mistakes IGCSE candidates make

1. Treating the Western Front as the entire war. Depth Study A explicitly covers other fronts, naval warfare, and global dimensions. Candidates who focus exclusively on trenches miss marks on questions about Gallipoli, the Eastern Front, or reasons for US entry.
2. Confusing the Schlieffen Plan with the entire 1914 campaign. The plan was Germany's opening strategy. It failed by September 1914. Events after that (Race to the Sea, trench construction) are consequences of its failure, not part of the plan itself.
3. Claiming a single weapon broke the stalemate. No individual technology ended trench warfare. Tanks, gas, and aircraft each had limitations. The breakthrough came from combined-arms tactics integrating multiple weapons with improved coordination.
4. Stating the Lusitania sinking caused US entry. The sinking occurred in 1915; US entry came in April 1917. The direct causes were unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram.
5. Ignoring the home front in Germany's defeat. Military setbacks alone do not explain the armistice. The blockade, food crisis, strikes, mutinies, and revolution were equally critical. Strong answers link military and civilian collapse.

Key dates for quick reference

Self-check questions

Use these to test your readiness for IGCSE History Paper 1 and Paper 4 questions on Depth Study A.

1. Give three reasons why the Schlieffen Plan failed by September 1914.
2. Explain why trench warfare produced a stalemate. Refer to at least two features of defensive warfare in your answer.
3. Compare the Battles of Verdun and the Somme. What did they have in common, and how did their objectives differ?
4. To what extent was the First World War genuinely a "world war"? Give evidence from at least three different regions.
5. Why did the Gallipoli campaign fail? Identify both strategic and tactical reasons.
6. Explain how the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk affected Germany's position on the Western Front in 1918.
7. Why did Germany's Spring Offensive of 1918 ultimately fail despite its initial success?
8. "Germany lost the war because of events on the home front, not on the battlefield." How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer with reference to both military and civilian factors.