a policy of aggressive military preparedness, large armies drew up vast and complex plans for quickly mobilizing millions of men and enormous quantities of supplies for war
Alliances
France and Russia alliance in 1894
Triple alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary
Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia
Nationalism
Germany
Emperor William II “in questions of honor and vital interest, you don't consult others” sought to expand empire
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary sought to stop Serbia from expanding their empire
Balkans
still dreamed of creating a national state
Russia
wanted to maintain power by protecting its interest in the Balkans
Imperialism
German Empire Model- includes parts of Russia, Belgium, France
France wanted to regain control of Alsace Lorraine
Great Britain sought to maintain its world empire
Assassinations
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian activist and member of the Black Hand (July 28, 1914)
Czar Nicholas II
Domino effect of alliance system
Austria was backed by Germany after assassination
What crisis in the Balkans immediately preceded the outbreak of World War I? What roles did Serbia, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire play in this?
The rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Russia for domination of these new states created serious tension
Daily life in the trenches was predictable. Thirty minutes before sunrise, troops had to “stand to,” ready to repl any attack. If no attack was forthcoming that day, the day routine consisted of breakfast followed by inspection, sentry duty, restoration of the trenches, care of personal items, or whiling away the times as best they could. Soldiers often recalled the bedroom of life in the dreary, lice-ridden, muddy or dusty trenches. At many places along the opposing lines of trenches, a “live and let live” system evolved based on the realization that neither side was going to drive out the other anyway. On both sides, troops produced their own humorous magazines. Battlefields were hellish landscapes of barbed wire, shell holes, mud, and injured and dying men. The introduction of prison gas in 1915 produced new forms of injuries. Soldiers in the trenches also lived with the president's presence of death.
Why did the Ottoman Empire side with the Central Powers? What was the purpose of the Gallipoli Campaign? How did it turn out?
The Ottoman Empire had already come into the war on Germany’s side in the autumn of 1914. Russia, Great Britain, and France declared war on the Ottoman Empire in November. Although the forces of the British Empire attempted to open a Balkan front by landing forces at Gallipoli, southwest of Constantinople, in April 1915, the empty of bulgaria into the war on the side of the Central powers ( as Germany, Austria- Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire were called) and a disastrous campaign at Gallipoli caused them them to withdraw. The Italians entered the war on the Allied side after France and Britain promised to further their acquisition of Austrian territory. In the long run, however, Italian military incompetence forced the Allies to come to the assistance of Italy.
Who was Lawrence of Arabia? How did the Middle East become involved in World War I?
Because the major European powers controlled colonial empires in other parts of the world, the war in Europe soon became a world war. In the Middle East, the British officer T.E. Lawrence, who came to be known as Lawrence of Arabia, incited Arab princes to revolt against their Ottoman overlords in 1916. In 1918, British forces from Egypt and Mesopotamia destroyed the rest of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. For their Middle East campaigns. the British mobilized forces from India, Australia, and New Zealand.
What did Japan do in World War I?
In East Asia and the Pacific, Japan joined the Allies on August 23, 1914, primarily to seize control of German territories in Asia. As one Japanese statesman declared, the war in Europe was “divine aid… for the development of the destiny of Japan.” The Japanese took possession of German territories in China, as well as German -Occupied islands in the Pacific. New Zealand and Australia quickly joined the Japanese in conquering the German- held parts of New Guinea.
What made the warfare experienced by soldiers in World War I different from previous wars? How did industrial technologies affect military advancements?
The First World War differs from previous wars because of its reliance on advanced industrial technology and the elaborate economic and political organization of belligerent nations. The first widespread use of machine guns, air power, submarine operations, poison gas and armored vehicles created mass destruction and efficiency in warfare.
Explain the impact of each of the following new technologies:
Machine Gun
At first, pilots fired at each other with handheld pistols, but later machine guns were mounted on the noses of planes, which made the skies considerably more dangerous.
Barbed Wire
Barbed wire went from being largely defensive to working as a deadly instrument in World War I. On the front, soldiers laid out wired to defend their trenches, but also to create areas where the enemy could be trapped for slaughter.
Submarine
Barbed wire went from being largely defensive to working as a deadly instrument in World War I. On the front, soldiers laid out wired to defend their trenches, but also to create areas where the enemy could be trapped for slaughter.
Airplane
The planes were first used to spot the enemies position, but soon they began to chat ground targets, especially enemy communications. Sites for control of the air occurred and increased over time.
Poison Gas
The introduction of toys and gas in 1915 produce new forms of injuries, as one British writer described: I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war could see a case of mustard gas...Could see the poor things burnt and blisters all over with great mustard colored suppurating blisters with blind eyes all sticky.
Tank
Tanks were also introduced to the battlefield of Europe in 1916. The first tank- a British model- Used caterpillar tracks, which enabled it to move across rough terrain. Armed with mounted guns, thanks can you check enemy machine gun positions as well as enemy infantry. The British mark the model tanks had more powerful engines in greater maneuverability They could now be used in large numbers, and coordinated with infantry and artillery, they became effective instruments in pushing back the retreating German army, a whole new kind of warfare.
What is "total war?" How did total war affect the following?
Government centralization:
Even countries that traditionally relied on volunteers (Great Britain) were forced to resort to conscription, especially to ensure that skilled workers did not enlist but remained in factories that were crucial to the production of munitions.In 1916, despite widespread resistance to this extension of government power, compulsory military service was introduced in Great Britain. Under total war mobilization, the distinction between soldiers at war and civilians at home near Road. In the view of political leaders, all citizens constituted a national army dedicated to victory.
Economic regimentation:
Since the war was expected to be short, little thoughts had been given to economic problems and long term wartime needs. Governments had to respond quickly when the war machines failed to achieve their knockout blows and made ever greater demands for men and material. Wartime governments expanded their powers over their economics. Free market capitalist systems were temporarily shelved as governments Experimented with price, wage, and rent controls, the rationing of food supplies and materials, the regulation of imports and exports, and nationalization of transportation systems and industries. Some governments even moved toward compulsory employment. In effect, to mobilize all of their resources for the war effort, European nations had moved toward planned economies directed by government agencies.
Public Order:
Internal dissatisfaction replaced the patriotic enthusiasm that had marked the early stages of the war. By 1916, there were numerous signs that civilian morale was beginning to crack under the pressure of total war. The first two years of war witnessed only a few scattered strikes, but there after, strike activity increased dramatically. In 1916, 50,000 German workers carried out a three day work stoppage in Berlin to protest the arrest of a radical socialist leader. Internal opposition to the war came from two major sources in 1916 and 1917 liberals and socialists. Wartime Governments made active use of propaganda to arouse enthusiasm for the war.
Social Behaviors:
The withdrawal of millions of men from the labor market to fight, combined with the heightened demand for war time products, lead to jobs for everyone able to work. The cause of the labor Also benefited from the war. The enthusiastic patriotism of workers was soon rewarded with a greater acceptance of trade unions. World War I also created new rules for women. With so many men off fighting at the front, women were called on to take over jobs and responsibilities that had not been open to them before.
Russia had to drop out of the WWI and the Allied Powers in 1917 when a full scale revolt broke out. What were some various causes of the Russian Revolution in the years from 1905-1917?
Poverty the majority of the Russian population was very poor and had no real reason to be loyal to the Czar. Poor leadership while most of Europe was enjoying a time of prosperity and liberal reforms, the casual continued authoritarian Management of his empire. Russo Japanese war Russia was humiliated when they became the first European nation to lose to an Asian opponent. Bloody Sunday when laborers protested for better working conditions the Czar allowed his troops to fire on the crowd. Rest Beuten when the holy man became a favorite of Czarina, people began questioning the sanity of the royal family. World war one the Russian army at times led directly by Cesar, sustained tremendous casualties. Communist leadership none of the other reasons may have mattered had the communist leaders not been able to take advantage of them and stage the October Revolution.
Peasant and Worker discontent was a major factor in the frustration Russia's people were experiencing. What is a "soviet" and what happened in St. Petersburg (now Petrograd) during the March Revolution? What was the overall outcome of the March Revolution?
The provisional government also faced another authority, the Soviets, or councils of workers and soldiers deputies. The Soviet of hair girl had been formed in March 1917; around the same time, Soviet spring spontaneously in army units and towns. The Soviets represented the more radical interest of the lower classes and were largely composed of socialist of various kinds. Among them was the Marxist social Democrat party, which had formed in 1898 but divided in 1903 into two factions known as the Mensheviks in the Bolsheviks. At the beginning of March, a series of strikes broke out in the capital city of Petrograd where the actions of working class women helped change the course of Russian history. Weeks earlier, the government had introduced bread rationing in the city after the price of bread skyrocketed. Many of the women who stood in line waiting for bread were also factory workers who put in 12 hours days. The number of women working in Petrograd factories had doubled since 1914. On March 8 about 10,000 women marched through Petra God shouting peace and bread and down with auto Chrissy. Soon the women were joined by other workers, and together they called for a general strike that succeeded in shutting down all the factories in the city on March 10. The troops were ordered to disperse the crowd, shooting them if necessary. Initially, the troops obeyed, but soon significant numbers of soldiers joined the demonstrators. The situation was now out of the tsar’s controls. The Duma, or legislature, which the teaser had tried to deserve, Matt anywhere on March 12 declared that it was assuming governmental responsibility. It established a provisional government on March 15;the tsar abdicated the same day. In just one week they had fallen apart.
Who was Vladimir Lenin and why was he such an important figure of the Russian Revolution? How were Lenin's ideas, although highly influenced by Marx, very different from the Marxist view of communist revolution?
The Bolsheviks were a small section of Russian social Democrats who had come under the leadership of Vladimir , known to the world as V.I. Lenin. Lenin’s Search for a revolutionary faith led him to Marxism, in 1894 he moved to Saint Petersburg, where he helped organize an illegal group known as the union for the liver Asian of the working class. Arrested for this activity, learning was shifted to Siberia. After his release he chose to go into exile in Switzerland and eventually assumed the leadership of the bolshevik wing of the russia democratic party. Under Lenin's direction, the Bolsheviks became a party dedicated to a violent revolution that would destroy the capitalist system. He believed that a vanguard of activists must form a small party of well disciplined professional revolutionaries to accomplish the task.
What was the October (sometimes called November) Revolution? What was the Storming of the Winter Palace?
By the end of October, the Bolsheviks had achieved a slight majority and the Petrograd in Moscow Soviets reports of unrest abroad had convinced Lenin that we are on the threshold of a war proletarian.
What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? Why was it a humiliating prospect for Lenin?
Lennon had also promised peace, and that he realized, was not an easy task because of the humiliating losses of Russian territory that it would entail. There was no real choice, however. On March 3, 1918, the new communist government signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Jeremy in Cave of eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland and the Baltic provinces. To his critics, Linen argued that it made no difference since the spread of socialist revolution throughout Europe would make the treaty largely irrelevant. In any case, he had promised peace to Russian people. But real peace did not occur for the country and soon lapsed into civil war.
Russia fought a Civil War from 1918-1921. What two sides fought against each other and who led each side?
The new Bolshevik read game faced great opposition, not only from groups loyal to the tsar but also from bourgeois and aristocratic liberals and anti Leninist Socialist, including Mensheviks in socialist revolutionaries. In addition, thousands of our troops were eventually sent two different parts of Russia in the hope of bringing Russia back into the great war
What happened to the Romanov family during this time?
The royal family was yet another victim of the Civil War. After the tsar had abdicated , he, his wife, and their five children have been taken into custody. They were moved in August 1917 two Tobolsk in Siberia in April 1918 to Ekaterinburg, A mining town in the year rolls. On the night of July 16, members of the local Soviet murdered the tsar family and his and burned their bodies in a nearby mine shaft.
How did things end for Wilheim II and why is November 11th a significant day?
On September 29, 1918, General Ludendorff inform German leaders that the war was lost. Unwilling to place the burden of the fee on the army Lee then Dorf demanded that the government sue for peace at once. When German officials discovered that the allies were unwilling to make peace with the autocratic imperial government, they instituted reforms to set up a liberal government. But these reforms came too late for the exhausted and angry German people. On November 3. Naval units in Kiel mutinied, And within days, councils of workers and soldiers, German versions of the Russian Soviets were forming throughout northern Germany and taking over the supervision of civilian and military administrations. William the second tabulated to public pressure and left the country on November 9, while the socialist under Friedrich Ebert announced establishment of a republic. Two days later, On November 11, 1918, an arm is still as agreed to buy the new German government went into effect. The war was over, but the revolutionary force is set in motion by the war we’re not exhausted.
Who were the casualties of the Great War?
WWI devastated European civilization between eight and 9 million soldiers died on the battlefield; another 22 million where we need. Many of those who survived had suffered the loss of arms or legs or other forms of mutilation . Many died later from war injuries. The birth rate in many European countries decline noticeably as a result of the death or meaning of so many young men. WWI also created a lost generation of war veterans who had become accustomed to violence and who would form the postwar bands of fighters who supported Mussolini and Hitler in their beds for power. Untold numbers of civilians died from war, Civil War, or starvation. In 1950, using the excuse of a rebellion by the American minority and their supposed collaboration with the Russians, the Turkish Government began systematically to kill Armenian men and expel women and children. Within seven months 600,000 Armenians had been killed, and 500,000 had been deported. Of the latter, 400,000 died while marching through the deserts and swamps of Syria and Iraq. By September 1915, as many as 1 million, and possibly more, Armenians were dead, the victims of genocide.
What kind of revolutions took place in Germany after the defeat of the Germans in WWI?
Like Russia, and Germany and Austria Hungarian experienced political revolution as a result of military defeat. In November 1918, when Germany began to disintegrate in a convulsion of mutinies and mass demonstrations, only the social Democrats were numerous and well organized enough to pick up the pieces. But the German socialist had divided into two groups during the war. A majority Of the social Democrats so favored parliamentary democracy as a gradual approach to social democracy and the elimination of the capitalist system.
How were the revolutions in Germany different than those experienced in Russia?
Unlike Russia Bolsheviks, Germany's radicals failed to achieve control of the government by ending the war on november 11th. A fear of german middle classes was manipulated later on my German dictator Adolf Hitler.
What happened to Austria-Hungary after the war ended?
Austria Hungary too experienced disintegration and revolution. When it attacked serbia in the 1914 the Imperial regime had tried to crush the nationalistic forces that it believed were destroying the empire.
What kinds of differences emerged between the Big 3, or Big 4 (GB, US, FR, IT) on how peace was to be decided in the wake of WWI?
Wilson was basically the spokesman for a new world order based on democracy and international cooperation / wilson soon found that other states paris peace conference were guided by considerably more pragmatic motives.
What was self-determination? How did this idea, and others from Woodrow Wilson's 14 points work their way into the peace settlements in Paris?
the reduction of national armaments to a point "point consistent with domestic safety" and the self determination of people so that all well defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction.
Give a detailed rundown of the Treaty of Versailles. War guilt? Reparations? Demands? Territorial changes? League of Nations? Mandate territories? What was the giant irony of the Treaty negotiated at Versailles? How did the US respond to this?
The final peace settlement of paris consisted of five separate treaties with the defeated nations. Germans considered this a harsh like peace. Reparations were a logical consequence of wartime promises that allied leaders america drew and by doing so it forced France to stand alone.