7.3

Question 1

Explain the methods used to conduct WWI, as well as how they made the war unusually long and tedious.

Answer 1

People expected it to end by Christmas. It was prolonged because of new war techniques and technologies.
- machine guns (already existed but now they were significantly improved)
- chemical warfare
*France: tear gas, which irritates lungs and eyes
*Germany: chlorine gas, which reacts with water in lungs and throat to create hydrochloric acid and eat through lung/internal tissues. Led to death or severe burns on outside of body.
- trench warfare
*rainwater would fill trenches, leading to decaying and rotting foot flesh and what we now call trench-foot
- total war: all countries involved were completely invested
*factories re-focused on wartime production
*women worked in factories
*food rationed
*censored media
*PROPAGANDA

Colonial powers made use of their colonies’ troops, sometimes promising them independence in return. They never followed through with their promises, though.
- France: West Africans, Indochinese
Britain: Indians, Australians, Africans

Question 2

Who were the Central powers in WWI?

Answer 2

Germany, Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungary

Question 3

Who were the Allies in WWI?

Answer 3

Britain, France, US, Russia, Italy

Question 4

Explain how the US became involved in WWI.

Answer 4

• German U-boats practiced USW (unrestricted submarine warfare) and they sunk Lusitania, killed over 100 US citizens
  -Zimmerman telegram: Germany was urging Mexico to wage war on the US so that the US wouldn’t be able to focus on Germany, and promised that Germany would restore lands that Mexico lost in the Mexican-American war. The telegram was intercepted by the US, and
  ** both of these happened in 1917, and the US became officially involved in 1917.

Question 5

Explain how WWI ended.

Answer 5

The Allies overpowered the Central powers, and held the 1918 Paris Peace Conference to draw up a treaty to end the war.
- attendees include: US, Britain, France, and Italy
Woodrow Wilson doesn’t want to punish Germany very harshly. Britain and France desire the exact opposite: French prime minister Georges Clemenceau was especially vocal about this.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was officiated.
- broke up the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian empire into new states
*Finland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Estonia
- war guilt clause
- reparations: Germany to pay the Allies for the costs of war

Question 6

Who are the “Big Four” during WWI?

Answer 6

Britain, France, US, Italy