The Great War: The War to End all Wars?
10th grade World History: World War I's Legacies and Failures
Content Standards
10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War.
1. Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world leaders, the terms and influence of
the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the causes and
effects of the United States’s rejection of the League of Nations on world politics.
2. Describe the effects of the war and resulting peace treaties on population movement,
the international economy, and shifts in the geographic and political borders of
Europe and the Middle East.
3. Understand the widespread disillusionment with prewar institutions, authorities,
and values that resulted in a void that was later filled by totalitarians.
4. Discuss the influence of World War I on literature, art, and intellectual life in the
West (e.g., Pablo Picasso, the “lost generation” of Gertrude Stein, Ernest
Hemingway)
10.6 Students analyze the effects of the First World War.
1. Analyze the aims and negotiating roles of world leaders, the terms and influence of
the Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and the causes and
effects of the United States’s rejection of the League of Nations on world politics.
2. Describe the effects of the war and resulting peace treaties on population movement,
the international economy, and shifts in the geographic and political borders of
Europe and the Middle East.
3. Understand the widespread disillusionment with prewar institutions, authorities,
and values that resulted in a void that was later filled by totalitarians.
4. Discuss the influence of World War I on literature, art, and intellectual life in the
West (e.g., Pablo Picasso, the “lost generation” of Gertrude Stein, Ernest
Hemingway)
Essential Historical Questions
- What were the political and diplomatic motivations of the world leaders during the conference in Versailles?
- What connections did the Treaty of Versailles have on the political, economic, social, and geographic changes in Europe, Middle East, and Asia?
- In what way did the treaty negotiations alienate the United States?
- In what ways did the conclusion of the peace conference lead to WW II?
Big Ideas
- World leaders motivations during the peace conference and popular sentiments towards their enemies
- Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen points and goals for an appropriate peace treaty were ignored during the peace conference
- America's resentment towards Europe and its fear of further involvement in a "European War" rejected the Peace Treaty
- Europe's political systems changed as a result of prewar ambitions and postwar sentiments among the world leaders
- The geography of Europe and the Middle East changed with the creation of new borders and resulted to mass population movements
- The creation of the League of Nations proved to be inadequate, but settled as a precursor to the United Nations
- The Treaty of Versailles recreated confrontation between Germany and the leaders of the Allied Nations of Europe and Russia
Assessments
- Anticipation guides
- K-W-L charts
- Journal Entries
- Think-Pair-Share
- Analyzing Wilson's Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles
- Analysis of news articles and journals/diaries, reflecting the popular opinions among world leaders and its citizens
- Presentation on the effects the peace conference had on a nation involved in WW I