Women preparing belts of bullets for machine gun belts. Photo: The Imperial War Museum

VIDEO PROGRAM Volume 185   CONCEPTS AND THEMES Unrestricted Warfare, Propaganda, Total War, Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide KEY GENERALIZATIONS AND IDEAS In "total war," the governments of combatant nations pursue policies that will involve as much of the population as possible, in as many ways as possible, to ensure the success of their armed forces. In total war, nations consciously and continuously wage simultaneous war on both the civilian and military populations of their enemies, using whatever means they believe appropriate in order to achieve victory. In total war, civilians enter occupations and take jobs that may not have been open to them earlier; many of these positions may be hazardous. In total war, nations harness as much of their resources and products as possible to wage war, restricting and regulating civilian consumption of many resources and products. In total war, civilians tend to accept a great many government restrictions and limitations on their behaviors--including some that are extralegal or unconstitutional under normal circumstances. In the context of human experience, "universal" refers to the majority of the members of all social classes, genders and special interest groups within a particular society. In a total war, one finds universal participation, universal commitment, universal bereavement, universal suffering or inconvenience, and universal loss. The mood and conditions of total war may mask the atrocities of ethnic cleansing and genocide; that is, these atrocities may be seen as mere extensions of the violence of the war, rather than as resulting from the jealousy and hatred of one group by another. Being the deliberate and continuous target of military actions during a war often strengthens a people's resolve to keep fighting. ` STUDENT LEARNING EXPECTATIONS TOTAL WAR discusses some of the important conditions, events, decisions and actions that made the Great War the first massive "total war." The violence, destruction and killing were repeatedly aimed at civilians, as well as military personnel. This video shows the ways that people tried to live in the midst of the violence, death and destruction of total war. It focuses on individual efforts to participate in, live in and cope with total war. At the end of the lesson, students should be able to do the following: 1. State the effects on a civilian population and national resources of keeping millions of men on the battlefront. 2. Define "total war" and state the major characteristics of a total war. 3. Explain the meaning of "participant in the war" in the context of total war. 4. State at least five important reasons a nation would deliberately treat territory miles from the battlefront and the civilian population of an enemy nation as legitimate military targets. 5. State the reasons the British believed it necessary to capture the peninsula at Gallipoli. 6. Describe the efforts of people who, like Mustafa Kemal, defended a particular location, and discuss what success and failure would mean to their nation. 7. Describe life for the men on the battlefield (at Gallipoli, for example) and discuss how the conditions often reflected the attitudes, abilities and orders of the commanding officers. 8. Describe the attitudes of some colonial citizens serving in the army of their Mother Country and how their experiences might affect postwar respect for their Mother Country. 9. Cite examples of the universal participation, universal commitment, universal bereavement and universal loss that characterize total war. 10. Describe the emotions of the participants in the Great War, including those who were on the front lines and those who waited at home. 11. Describe five specific contributions women made to the war effort and the impact of these contributions on their health and lives. 12. Describe four of the new "rules of military engagement" that were introduced during the Great War, and explain the effects of implementing each rule. 13. Explain the expression "battle for people's minds," and describe specific activities and materials that were generated to win this battle. 14. Define "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide," and describe the reasons for and results of these in the case of the Turkish treatment of the Armenians. 15. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of being in a state of total war.   BACKGROUND DISCUSSION In the spring of 1915 the trenches along the western front were filled with millions of soldiers, at the average rate of one soldier per four inches of trench. The job behind the front lines was to keep the men fed, equipped and ready to continue the fighting until the end came. The civilians behind the lines were as important to victory as the men on the lines. Because of their value to the war-making power of each nation, civilians became the target of the enemy. Since both sides targeted both civilians and military personnel, the Great War was a "total war." Although many of the principles of total war had been implemented before--most recently and notably in General Sherman's March to the Sea in the American Civil War--it was new to Europeans. A number of phenomena made the Great War the first massive, continuous total war. It involved soldiers from five continents and was fought on the land or off the coast of five continents; it involved men and women across the social spectrum of every combatant nation; both civilian populations and men in uniform were legitimate military targets, leaving no one safe from military actions; every major industrialized combatant nation sought to mobilize the vast majority of its citizens to participate directly in the war effort; and the Great War brought universal bereavement. The continued involvement of each nation in the war effort required the consent and financial support of its people. Governments used every available means to maintain public support of the war effort and to intensify hatred of the enemy. Large-scale propaganda was directed at demonizing the enemy and mustering support for the war effort.   LESSON PLAN SUGGESTIONS 1. Write the Concepts and Themes words on the board or overhead. Ask students to define each. Help them brainstorm characteristics of a "total war." Ask them to think of reasons people would want to wage a total war. Unless students consider these concepts immediately before, during and immediately following this video, they will miss many details. Also, the Concepts and Themes will help them see the video segments as related, complementing one another to describe the moods, events and contexts of this phase of the war. 2. Using an overhead or handout, ask students to consider the Key Generalizations and Ideas for this module. Ask them to paraphrase the ones that you want to emphasize. Ask them to watch the video with these points in mind, looking for relevant information. 3. Distribute Student Handout 3-A, Questions. You may want them to pay particular attention to specific questions, stopping the video after a segment to give them time to make notes. 4. Distribute Student Handout 3-B, Context and Overview of the Great War. Ask them to read this summary and answer the questions before watching the video. You might supplement this reading with textbooks, other readings or a lecture. 5. Distribute Student Handout 3-C, The Weapons of War. Ask the students to research each of the weapons listed, including the effects of each weapon. Ask them to compile a list of the ways each weapon was used. Ask the students to answer the questions at the bottom of the sheet. 6. Distribute Student Handout 3-D, Civilians at War. Ask the students to consider each of the occupations that civilians filled during the Great War, completing the form to identify the contributions each occupation made to the war effort and the risks associated with that profession. 7. Distribute Student Handout 3-E, Gas Warfare. Ask students to read about the use of poison gases and to answer the questions. Ask them to investigate the concerns and fears that the U.S. and its allies had about possible use of gases and deadly bacteria by the Iraqis during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf War. 8. Ask students to consider the title of the video, TOTAL WAR, and ask them to watch for the conditions, attitudes, events and actions--both on the battlefield and off--that led to both sides continuing to fight a total war. 9. Ask students to reflect on one quote from Student Handout 3-F, Noteworthy Quotes. Ask them to interpret the quotation in the context of the person speaking and the situation in which the statement was made. You might want to ask them to interpret these both before they watch the video and afterward, and then to compare the differences in their interpretations. Students might also offer their personal reactions to particular quotes.   ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES 1. Ask students to research the dangers of working in a munitions factory and the other hazardous jobs women and children did during the Great War. 2. Ask students to research the genocide of the Armenians, comparing it with other genocides of this century (including ones that may be taking place at this very moment). 3. Ask students to locate and read excerpts from civilians' memoirs, diaries and letters during the Great War, as well as poems and stories by civilians. Ask them to set up a "word collage" representing a particular theme or cross-section of themes that represent the thoughts and feelings of these people during the war. 4. Ask students to interview various members of their community about how they participated in the recent Gulf War, directly or indirectly. Ask the students to contrast this information with that of people who lived during the Great War. 5. Ask students to locate photos, drawings and paintings of events or conditions during the Great War. Ask them to interpret each one, explaining how each artifact reflects the concept of total war. 6. Ask students to create a collage depicting various aspects of the Great War to reveal how this war was a total war.   ADDITIONAL POST-VIEWING QUESTIONS In addition to the questions on the student handouts and in the section on Student Learning Expectations, the following questions may be asked: 1. What are at least five effects on a civilian population and on the national resources of keeping millions of men on the battlefront? 2. Why did the British think it was necessary to capture the peninsula at Gallipoli? 3. Describe the efforts of people who, like Mustafa Kemal, defended a particular location, and discuss what success and failure would mean to their nation. 4. Describe life for the men fighting at Gallipoli. How did their living conditions reflect the attitudes, abilities and orders of their commanding officers? 5. What were the results of the Turkish treatment of the Armenians?   STUDENT RESOURCES 3-A. Questions. This resource provides a set of questions to focus students' attention on the important content in each segment of the video. 3-B. Context and Overview of the Great War. This resource provides background details to help students understand the concept of "total war" and its impact on the lives of each individual within a nation. The information will also help them to understand the conditions, events, actions and moods of life during total war. It includes questions to be answered before seeing the video, questions that you may ask them to reconsider after the viewing. 3-C. The Weapons of War. This sheet contains a chart that lists a number of weapons that were either used for the first time or vastly improved during the Great War. Students are to complete the chart and answer the questions. 3-D. Civilians at War. This resource provides a list of civilian occupations. Students are to complete the chart by describing the contribution of each occupation to the war effort and the possible risks to a person in that occupation. 3-E. Gas Warfare. This resource provides important details about the poison gases that were used during this war. It includes questions to help students focus on the effectiveness of poison gas as a weapon and on the effects its use had on the soldiers in the trenches. 3-F. Noteworthy Quotes. This resource provides a number of quotes from individuals whose words express the prevalent thoughts and feelings about this total war.