First World War · 1917-1918

1917-1918: how the Great War ended

In 1917 the United States joined the war and Russia left it. In 1918 Germany made one last great attack, then collapsed. Students follow the final year to the armistice of 11 November 1918, signed in a railway carriage near Compiègne.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1914 to AD 1920
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In 1917 the United States joined the war and Russia left it. In 1918 Germany made one last great attack, then collapsed. Students follow the final year to the armistice of 11 November 1918, signed in a railway carriage near Compiègne.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain why the United States entered the war in April 1917.
  • Describe how the fighting on the Western Front ended in 1918.
  • Use the map to compare Europe before the war (1914) and after it (1920).
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1914

Russia leaves the war

Open the map in 1914 and find Brest-Litovsk, east of Warsaw. Here Russia's new Bolshevik government made peace with Germany in March 1918. Why did that worry Britain and France?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1914

The last offensives

Go to northern France between Amiens and Reims. In 1918 Germany attacked here first, then the Allies pushed back. Ask the atlas: "What was the Hundred Days Offensive?"

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1920

A new map

Switch between 1914 and 1920 with the time slider and watch central Europe. Which empires disappear? Name three new states.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why did German submarine attacks and the Zimmermann Telegram push the United States into the war?
  2. Russia left the war in March 1918. Why was this both good and bad news for Germany?
  3. The armistice took effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918. Why do many countries still hold a silence at that hour?
  4. Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands and lived there until 1941. Were the Dutch right to refuse to hand him over?
  5. A flu pandemic killed millions of people in 1918-1919. Why did it spread so fast at the end of the war?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Abraham Lincoln, a war leader who had to finish a terrible war and plan the peace. Then compare his choices with those of Woodrow Wilson and the Allied leaders in November 1918.

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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