Causes of WW!

Question 1

Intro to essay:

Answer 1

The environment in Europe during the pre-war period proved to be a time of great tension between the Superpowers.__ causes___left Europe in a sensitive and vulnerable state, which eventually led to war.

Question 2

What is nationalism?

Answer 2

strong feeling of support for one’s own nation. Nationalists believed their nation was more important than the needs of other nations. They were so proud of their nation that they wanted it to be the richest and most important.

Question 3

What did nationalism encourage?

Answer 3

population to feel intense pride in nation to point where opposing nations were despised

Question 4

Where was nationalism the strongest?

Answer 4

Britain strongest: increase in army and volunteers of 1 million men by the end of 1914. This large figure implies confidence of victory and nationalism

Question 5

What happened when news of war broke out in nationalist nations?

Answer 5

• civilians and soldiers supportive and welcomed war due to underlying sense of nationalism to country
• when war announced, parades broke out expressing joy and excitement that nation was entering conflict.

Question 6

What did Germany and Britain feel for nationalism?

Answer 6

appreciation that money directed towards militarism would be of worth. A short war as it was predicted to be

Question 7

what are some examples of nationalism that brought out conflict and tension?

Answer 7

• French nationalist were hostile towards Germany due to loss of Alsace and Lorraine in Franco-Prussian war and desired revenge
• encouraged Gavrilo Princip to assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austra.

Question 8

What is imperialism?

Answer 8

desire to own colony and form an empire.

Nations strive for territory and power and as a result, they clashed and tensions increased for same colony and resources

Question 9

Where did imperialism most occur?

Answer 9

in Africa and Asia
race for last territories open for colonisation.
fuelled rivalry and diplomatic incidents, eg. moroccan crisis

Question 10

What happened in first Moroccan Crisis?

Answer 10

In 1905 and 1911 there was two moroccan crisis that occurred.
the first crisis was when the German kaiser declared Morocco should be independent of France. Germany thought in the crisis that was sure to follow, Britain may back down and not support France (Entente Cordiale 1904). But the plan failed and by Germany waging war at France, it pushed FRance and Britain even closer.
Germany suffered diplomatic defeat as britain backed France

Question 11

What happened in the second Moroccan crisis?

Answer 11

ever since first, morocco remained unstable.
In 1911, second crisis began.
Morocco called France to suppress the rebellion, increasing its influence in Morocco.
After German was certain that this help would lead to a takeover, they sent a German gunboat Panther to Agadir.
When British became aware of this, they decided to join and intervene as it would damage Britain’s trade routes if Germany secured ports of Agadir.
Result: Germany suffered diplomatic defeat.

Question 12

What did the decline of Ottoman Empire result in?

Answer 12

European powers sought territory, influence and access in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

Question 13

Why was Germany aggressive in its imperialism ?

Answer 13

late start in colonial expansion due to late start in industrialisation. therefore only way to seize colonies was through war.

Question 14

What was the side effect of imperialism?

Answer 14

As each European country gained colonies, those colonies became committed to helping the ‘motherland’ in the event of a war. Imperialism in its worst form was seen by the Belgians on the country of Congo (rubber trade)

Question 15

What did imperialism lead to?

Answer 15

strained relationships and formation and strengthening of alliances and treaties.
Increasing intensity of arms race as nations stockpiled ammunitions and tried to secure their overseas colonies
rivalry, tension and hostility resulted in war

Question 16

What is militarism?

Answer 16

also added tension and fear among Great powers of Europe
Militarist believed their country should be well armed and that military methods could be used to gain nationalists needs.

Question 17

Why is militarism a cause for WW!?

Answer 17

at the beginning of 20th century, militarism was a powerful force throughout Europe.
The great powers competed in building their armed forces and supplies of weapons. Competition known as ‘arms race’ and in turn added tension.

Question 18

What was the arms race?

Answer 18

a race between Britain and Germany to see who can build the largest and strongest military force and receive military supremacy.

Question 19

Why did the naval arms race begin?

Answer 19

Since the early 1900s, both Germany and Britain had been engaged in a naval arms race. Britain was Europe’s major naval power, a status that Germany was seeking to attain. In 1898, Germany’s decision to build a navy capable of dominance over the British led to the British naval expansion for defence.

Question 20

When and what did Britain build in order to be better than Germany and stronger for militarism?

Answer 20

The threat of Germany influenced Britain to upgrade their current fleet and build the HMS Dreadnought in 1906, a battleship considered the most powerful afloat. When Wilhelm II learnt of the Dreadnought, German naval construction was focused around this new “battleship”. Although it possibly began as a defensive response, especially for Britain, the naval arms races became an increasingly offensive and aggressive tactic.

Question 21

What was arms race?

Answer 21

stockpiling large numbers of weapons. The arms race of the production of weapon on a mass scale of both naval and land

Question 22

When did the arms race?

Answer 22

in the early 1900s and lasted for 16yrs

Question 23

What happened during the arms race?

Answer 23

military spending on both nations, Germany and Britain, increased by 300%.
in order to recieve advantage on land, conscription was adopted by all major power in 1871.

Question 24

What was this new type of war due to militarism?

Answer 24

New explosives, machine guns and more advanced technology meant new type of war, industrial war.

Question 25

What were some of the contingency plans for war?

Answer 25

the Schlieffen Plan, Moltke Plan, -german
Plan 17 - French

Strategic fears were closely linked to military aims and plans. All European powers had developed detailed war plans in the expectation of war

Question 26

What was the Schlieffen Plan?

Answer 26

based on two front war
Germany wasnt strong enough to fight war on two fronts, France and Russia. Schlieffen thought it would take atleast 6 weeks for Russia to mobilise their army, so plan to defeat France first then Russia.

Question 27

What flaws did the Schlieffen plan have?

Answer 27

two flaws

• Germany has to being Russia into this and cant fight France by itself
• Germany would have to avoid any fortified borders, therefore would have to travel through Belgium and go into France. Belgium was neutral state

Question 28

What was the Moltke plan?

Answer 28

modified Schlieffen PLan. It was more precise and straight to point

Question 29

Plan 17? French plan

Answer 29

plan to quickly mobilise trooped and attack the two provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, in attempt to recapture these two lost provinces.

Question 30

Why was alliances formed?

Answer 30

to create balance of power and increase strength, but instead increased fear and suspicion between European powers.
Formed to ensure defense against each other but became hostile and well armed instead

Question 31

What happened by the alliances formed?

Answer 31

by 1907, Europe was divided into two powerful bloc/alliances. Triple Entente and Triple Alliance

Question 32

What countries were in Triple Entente?

Answer 32

France, Russia and Britain

Question 33

What countries in Triple Alliance?

Answer 33

Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy

Question 34

What did the alliance system mean?

Answer 34

any dispute involving one great power was likely to drag in the other great powers along with their empires.
This would spread the war around the world
Create fear and suspicion .

Question 35

Who started the alliance system?

Answer 35

Bismarck, German Chancellor to maintain domination of European continent.
His aim was to keep France isolated to stop from attacking Germany for loss of Alsace and Lorraine

Question 36

What did the alliances create and do?

Answer 36

created domino effect as nations were dragged into war by existing alliances.
played key role in decision taken by major players of war and strong factor for escalation of war to world wide scale

Question 37

How was the Triple Alliance formed with dates?

Answer 37

1872- League of three Emperors - Germany, Russia and Austria
1879- Dual Alliance - Germany and Austria = Russia left out and looked like Germany was favouring Austria due to tensions between them in the Balkan crisis.
1882 - Triple Alliance - Germany, Austria and Italy

Question 38

How was the Triple Entente formed?

Answer 38

powers became worried about strength of triple alliance and strong central bloc - fear of defeat
France saw opportunity to form alliance
1894- Franco-Russian Alliance - France and Russia (Aid if attacked by German allies)
1904 - Entente Cordiale - Britain and France as Britain was in vulnerable state without allies
1902- Anglo Japanese Alliance- naval treaty with Britain and Japan
1907 - Triple Entente - France, Russia and Britain

Question 39

What was the Balkan wars?

Answer 39

two successive military conflicts, depriving the Ottoman empire of almost all of its remaining territory in Europe

Question 40

What was the first Balkan War?

Answer 40

to destory Ottoman influence in region, Balkan League - Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece declared open war on Turkey.
In series of battles against Turkey in 1912-1913, Turkey was defeated and lost most territory

Question 41

What was the second Balkan War?

Answer 41

friction between victors and Bulgaria over division of their joint conquest in Macedonia, resulting into war.
Bulgaria fought against Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. Bulgaria was soundly defeated.
Greece and Serbia divided up most of Macedonia, leaving Bulgaria with only small portion.
Serbia emerged with more territory than gained in first, 1912

Question 42

What were the consequences of Balkan Wars?

Answer 42

• Serbia became most powerful state in Balkans. Determined to form a Slav nation from growth in size and power
• Austria-Hungary could seek help from aly Germany and Serbia could call on Russia for support. Any conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary had power to draw in other powers and escalate this to major confrontation on global scale.
• balkans unstable
• reached climax by assassination of Franz Ferdinand , lead directly to outbreak of world war