New technologies changed international conflicts in the 20th century. In 1915, chemical weapons were used for the first time on a large scale. It was this use of chemical weapons during World War I that shaped the world’s view of using these types of weapons.

HOW DID THE EXPERIENCE OF WWI SHAPE INTERNATIONAL OPINION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS?

CHEMICAL WAR1

Designed by Erik Nelson

Indian infantry in the trenches, prepared against a gas attack. Link.

GALLERY 1.1 Photographs of gas dispersal systems and the trenches: WWI

The trench warfare and stalemate of WWI meant nations needed new ways of breaking enemy lines. Instead of firing gas shells, canisters were set in the battlefield, and military weather men waited for the wind to be in their favor. Study the images of gas canisters being loaded and released over the battlefield.

DESCRIBE HOW GAS WAS UTILIZED ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF WWI.

READ THE QUOTES FROM WWI NURSES AND LIST THE DIFFICULTIES A NURSE MIGHT FACE TREATING GAS VICTIMS.

White utility nursing uniform c. WWI (American). Link.

A British nurse treating mustard gas cases recorded:

“They cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain even with the worst wounds but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.”

Another nurse recorded

“The men would come in with hideous blisters, extending from their shoulder down [the length of their bodies]. The nurses would clip away all this blistered skin, clean the … raw surface with antiseptic solution, dry it with an electric blower and spray on the “amberine.” Burns treated in this way healed in an incredibly short time.

Photograph of British soldiers wounded by gas leaving the battlefield. Link

A popular painting depicting soldiers wounded by gas. This photograph won acclaim in Britain just after WWI. Link

Study the photograph of soldiers, and the popular painting made just after the war, and answer the questions:

• ARE THERE PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PEOPLE IN THE IMAGES?

• DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE IN YOUR FEELING TOWARDS THE IMAGES.

• HOW MIGHT THE PUBLIC RECEIVE EACH OF THESE IMAGES BACK HOME?

• WHICH OF THESE IS A MORE RELIABLE HISTORICAL SOURCE? WHY?

• WHICH OF THESE IMAGES IS MORE POWERFUL? WHY?

A German trench after a gas attack. Link

• HOW EFFECTIVELY COULD TRENCHES PROVIDE COVER FROM MACHINE GUN FIRE VS. GAS ATTACK?

• HOW WOULD YOU FEEL HIDING FROM GUN FIRE IN A TRENCH WHILE BEING VULNERABLE TO GAS?

Soldiers in WWI faced few options for defending themselves. Their best was to hide in trenches from artillery and machine gun fire, which left them vulnerable to gas attacks.

A Canadian soldier with mustard gas burns, ca. 1917–1918. Link

• WHAT WAS THE RATIO OF SOLDIERS WOUNDED BY GAS TO KILLED BY GAS?

• WHAT WAS THE RATIO OF SOLDIERS WOUNDED BY NON-GAS WEAPONS TO KILLED BY NON-GAS WEAPONS?

• HOW DID THE EFFECTS OF GAS ON BOTH KILLED AND WOUNDED DIFFER FROM THE EFFECTS OF OTHER WEAPONS ON KILLED AND WOUNDED?

WWI by the Numbers

PowerTotal Soldiers

MobilizedTotal Wounded from

GasTotal Killed From Gas

Total Wounded from Non-Gas Weapons

Total Killed from Non-Gas Weapons

Allied Powers (Britain, France, USA, Russia, Italy) 39,284,467 852,655 78,198 15,279,315 4,654,489

Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany) 18,800,000 288,000 12,000 10,876,858 2,961,700

Total 58,084,467 1,140,655 90,198 26,156,173 7,616,189

WWI military strategists were planning new ways to use technology to win wars. READ THE EXCERPT from Italian General Giulio Douhet about his ideas of the future of war.

… The guiding principle of bombing actions should be this: the objective must be destroyed completely in one attack, making further attack on the same target unnecessary. Reaching an objective is an aerial operation which always involves a certain amount of risk and should be undertaken once only. The complete destruction of the objective has moral and material effects, the repercussions of which may be tremendous. To give us some idea of the extent of these repercussions, we need only envision what would go on among the civilian population of congested cities once the enemy announced that he would bomb such centers relentlessly, making no distinction between military and non-military objectives.

Giulio Douhet c. WWI. Link

WHAT EFFECT WOULD AN ATTACK LIKE THE ONE DESCRIBED BY GIULIO DOUHET HAVE ON A CITY?

Cover image from the leaflet entitled ‘Menace of Chemical Warfare to Civilian Populations’, published in 1932 by the Chemical Workers’ Union in Britain. Link

FIND A QUOTE FROM GIULIO DOUHET THAT IS ILLUSTRATED ON THE COVER OF THIS BRITISH PAMPHLET.

WHAT WAS ARTHUR J. GILLIAN’S OPINION ABOUT CHEMICAL WEAPONS? WHAT EVIDENCE FROM THE COVER OF THIS PAMPHLET PROVES YOUR POSITION?

Diplomats to the First International Peace Conference, the Hague, May - June 1899. Link

Before WWI Treaty on Chemical Weapons:

Document 1: 1899 Hague Treaty on Chemical Weapons

“The Contracting Powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases.”

After WWI Treaty on Chemical Weapons:

Document 2: 1925 Geneva Protocol

“Whereas the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials

or devices, has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world.”

• COMPARE THE 1899 HAGUE TREATY WITH THE 1925 GENEVA PROTOCOL.

• IN WHAT WAYS ARE THE DOCUMENTS SIMILAR?

• IN WHAT WAYS ARE THE DOCUMENTS DIFFERENT?

• HOW DID THE EXPERIENCE OF WWI INFLUENCE INTERNATIONAL OPINION OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS? CITE SPECIFICS FROM THE DOCUMENTS TO SUPPORT YOUR POSITION.

Works Cited in Order Used

• Cover Image: British 55th Division gas casualties 10 April 1918. Thomas Keith Aitken (Second Lieutenant) - This is photograph Q 11586 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums(collection no. 1900-22). Link

• Image: Livens gas projector loading, assumed British military - This is photograph Q 14945 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. Link• Image: "French soldiers making a gas and flame attack on German trenches in Flanders, 1 January 1917. Belgium." From National Archives and

Records Administration, cataloged under the ARC Identifier 530722. Link• Image: A gas attack photographed from an airplane. "German Frightfulness from the Air". Available from the German Federal Archive. Link• Image: Indian infantry in the trenches, prepared against a gas attack [Fauquissart, France]. Photographer: H. D. Girdwood. From the British

Library. Link.• Image: White utility nursing uniform (BUMED 09-8131-2), U.S. Navy BUMED Library and Archives. Link.• Quote: Cook, Tim (1999). No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War. UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0740-7.• Quote: Lavinia Dock, History of the American Red Cross Nursing, (New York: The Macmillan Press, 1922): 611.• Quote: Field Nurse Vera Brittain, 1918. Link.• Image: British 55th Division gas casualties 10 April 1918. Thomas Keith Aitken (Second Lieutenant) - This is photograph Q 11586 from the

collections of the Imperial War Museums(collection no. 1900-22). Link• Painting: Gassed, 1919. Sargent, John Singer. Le Bac-du-Sud, Doullens Road, Doullens, Somme, France. Imperial War Museums. Link• Image: Nach Gasangriff 1917. Herman Rex: Der Weltkrieg in seiner rauhen Wirklichkeit. Das Frontkämpferwerk. Oberammergau 1926. S. 85. Link• Image: A Canadian soldier with mustard gas burns, ca. 1917–1918. Canadian public domain. Link• Image: Giulio Douhet. Italian Public Domain. Link• Text: The Command of the Air (1921), by Giulio Douhet. Reprinted by Air Force History and Museums Program 1998. Pg. 20. Link• Image: Cover of the leaflet entitled ‘Menace of Chemical Warfare to Civilian Populations’. Published in 1932 by the Chemical Workers’ Union.

Written by Arthur J. Gillian. Link• Image: The First International Peace Conference, the Hague, May - June 1899 HU67224. From the Imperial War Museums. Link

REFLECTION ON MAKING THIS DBQ

My grandfather used to tell me stories of climbing Mt. Rainier in his youth. I loved his stories.  My imagination tried to relive those events, longing to know what that challenge was like. Growing up in Western Washington Rainier dominated our views on clear days; a monster of snow, ice and rock beckoning me. The challenge awaited, I needed to experience it for myself. No old person could tell me how or why, I needed to do it for myself. As a young teacher, I am re-learning lessons I should have understood from my own past. Learning happens through experience. As a teacher, I need to focus on creating opportunities for my students to experience history and social studies for themselves so that they can draw their own conclusions. In the same way my grandfather’s stories enticed me to the mountain but could not tell me how or why, I can present opportunities for my students to develop their own hows and whys about social studies. Creating my first DBQ has been an experience for me to learn as a teacher. It is very difficult for me to stay in the mindset of thinking how students might approach a document, let alone a series of documents. It is very easy for me to know how and why I am studying history, but not so easy for me to think how students might encounter the same sources. I am committed to treating my students as capable and independent learners, and DBQs like the ones we are creating in class can harness student independence and focus it into learning. As I curate source material and create accompanying questions to guide students I need to always keep the perspective of how they will approach the document in mind. This will allow me to give ownership of the creation of meaning and understanding to the students. Going through this process has helped remind me that the learning found in experience can be truly rich, and should be the type of learning I am committed to regularly making available to my students. They will need to experience for themselves the lessons, and not simply be told an answer from this old guy. My own experiences on Mt. Rainier mean so much more to me that my grand father’s stories, but I might not have my own experiences if he had not presented the ideas and possibilities for me to explore on my own. As a teacher, I hope I can always create opportunities for my students to learn through experience, and well crafted DBQs are a tool to facilitate that process. The irony is that I need to experience making more to make them well crafted. Further proof that the experiential process reveals the rich learning. ~ Erik Nelson Twitter/@ENelsonEdu | email

Image Credit: Mazamas hiking trip to Mt. Rainier. Original Collection: Gerald W. Williams Collection. Item Number: WilliamsG:Mazamas_Ranier1905. Link.

Complete iBook available free at iTunes

FROM - EXPLORING HISTORY: VOL II

This eBook is a collaborative project of Peter Pappas and his Fall 2014 Social Studies Methods Class School of Education ~ University of Portland, Portland Ore.

Graduate and undergraduate level pre-service teachers were assigned the task of developing an engaging research question, researching supportive documents and curating them into a DBQ suitable for middle or high school students.

For more on this class, visit the course blog EdMethods For more on the assignment and work flow tap here.

Chapters in chronological order1. The American Revolution by Scott Deal

2. The Pig War by Andy Saxton

3. Cesspool of Savagery by Michelle Murphy

4. Chemical War by Erik Nelson

5. Americans’ Perceptions of Immigration in the 1920s by Ceci Brunning and Jenna Bunnell

6. The New Deal and the Art of Public Persuasion by Kari VanKommer

7. Combat Soldiers in Context by Kristi Anne McKenzie

8. The Marshall Plan: Altruism or Pragmatism? by Sam Kimerling

9. Little Rock Nine: Evaluating Historical Sources by Christy Thomas

10. First Ladies as a Political Tool by Emily Strocher

EXPLORING HISTORY: VOL II

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Engaging questions and historic documents empower students to be the historian in the classroom.

Cover image: Replica of old French globeDate:1 January 1, 2013Petar Milošević

Peter Pappas, editor School of Education ~ University of Portland

His popular blog, Copy/Paste features downloads of his instructional resources, projects and publications. Follow him at Twitter @edteck. His other multi-touch eBooks are available at here. For an example of one of his eBook design training workshops tap here.

CC BY-NC 3.0 Peter Pappas and Erik Nelson, 2014

The authors take copyright infringement seriously. If any copyright holder has been inadvertently or unintentionally overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to remove the said material from this book at the very first opportunity.

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