Long Term Causes of the First World War

The Spark: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Schlieffen Plan

Reactions to the outbreak of war

The British Expeditionary Force

Interactive Timeline of the First World War

Simulation: The Western Front

Statistics relating to the First World War

The First World War and the role of women

War Poetry

Life in the Trenches

Coastal Bombardments

Zeppelin Raids

The Battle of the Somme

The Changing role of women

Before the war women had been campaigning for the vote. These suffragettes used often-violent tactics to draw attention to their cause. They smashed windows, chained themselves to railings and set fire to empty buildings. One, Emily Davis, killed herself at the Derby by throwing herself at the racehorses. Once the war began the campaign stopped. During the war the number of working women grew by 1 million. Many of these jobs had been thought of as men only occupations. Over 120,000 women trained to be nurses and from 1917 women were allowed to join the army and serve in non-combat roles.

Women became firefighters, plumbers, carpenters and electricians, some even served as police officers.

“Shells made by a wife may save her husband’s life.”