Period 6: World War I Flashcards
How was the Triple Alliance created?
- Germany worried that France (its archenemy since the Franco-Prussian War in 1870) would seek revenge for its defeat
- Otto von Bismarck created and negotiated the Triple Alliance in the 1880s before he resigned from office
- Bismarck also had a pact with Russia
Who was part of the Triple Alliance in the 1880s?
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Who was William II?
- ousted Bismarck from power in 1890
- ignored Russia and allowed previous agreements between the two countries to wither
- France thus allied with Russia and the Franco-Russo alliance sandwiched Germany
What was the Schlieffan Plan?
- 1905
- Germany planned to attack France swiftly through Belgium (an officially neutral country that had a growing relationship with Britain)
Who was part of the Triple Entente in 1907?
Britain, France, and Russia.
Who was Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
- from Austria-Hungary
- visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in 1914
- shot by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist
What happened as a result of Franz Ferdinand’s death?
- Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
- Russia who was allied with Serbia declared war on Austra-Hungary
- when Germany implemented the Schlieffan Plan, Britain joined to protect France
- Italy declared itself neutral but the Ottoman Empire took its place
Who was part of the Central Powers?
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.
Who was part of the Allies?
Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. Italy joined the Allies in 1915.
Why did America join the Allies in 1917?
- a German submarine sank the British passenger liner the Lusitania in 1915, killing over 100 Americans on board
- as Germany tried to cut off all shipments to Britain in order to starve the island country it attacked U.S. merchant ships en route to Britain
- the Zimmermann telegram was intercepted by the U.S. and President Wilson flipped out lol
What was the Zimmermann telegram?
The Zimmermann telegram was a secret message sent between German diplomats suggesting that Mexico might want to join forces with Germany and thereby regain the territory it had lost to the U.S. in the Mexican-American War of 1846.
What was the Treaty of Versailles?
- signed in 1919
- brought an official end to World War I
- Germany was required to pay war reparations, release territory, and downsize its military
- divided Austria-Hungary into separate nations and created other nations such as Czechoslovakia
What was President Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
- focused on establishing future peace and a workable balance of power
- Britain and France needed to justify the human and financial cost of the war and the duration of the war to their own demoralized populations and so found Wilson’s proposal unacceptable
What was the League of Nations?
- a joint council of nations
- purpose was to preserve peace and establish humanitarian goals
- England and France weren’t enthusiastic
- Germany and Russia scoffed at the idea but later joined
- the U.S. openly rejected it lol
- President Wilson couldn’t persuade the isolationist U.S. Congress that the league was a step toward lasting peace
Who was Nicholas II?
- ruled Russia from 1894 to 1917
- went to war with Japan over Manchuria in 1904 but was defeated
- Bloody Sunday: moderates protested Nicholas II peacefully in attempt to encourage him to enact Enlightened reforms but Nicholas II ordered his troops to fire on the protestors
- forced to abdicate his throne in 1917 in the face of rising casualties and food shortages, ending the Romanov dynasty
