Unit 3 Test Flashcards
Who were the “Big 5” of WWI?
- Austria
- Prussia
- Russia
- Britain
- France
What were the aims of Austria?
- Maintain a balance of power
- Opposes efforts to expand Prussia and Russia
What were the aims of Prussia?
- Expand its territorial holdings
What were the aims of Russia?
- Wanted control of Poland
- Collective security
What were the aims of Britain?
- Balance of power on the continent
- Priority to contain Russia
What were the aims of France?
- Restore self as a major power
- Wants to be an equal at The Congress
Who was Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
- Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne
- Assassinated on June 28th 1914
Who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand?
- Serbian nationalist organization “The Black Hand”
- Wished to unite Bosnia and Herzegovina with Serbia
- Austria-Hungary viewed the assassination as a conspiracy backed by the Serbian government
- Austria-Hungary believe Germany will support them
How did Austria-Hungary respond to the assassination?
- Gives Serbia an ultimatum
- Suppress all anti-Austrian-Hungarian activities, dismiss all officials hostile to Austria-Hungary, Austria-Hungary officials to enter Serbia to investigate assassination
- All must be answered in 48 hours
- Serbia follows through with all except the investigation
- Austria-Hungary mobilizes forces
What was the Schlieffen plan?
- Germany’s solution to fighting a two-front war
- Believed Russia would be slow to mobilize so they plan to quickly strike France through Belgium and circle Paris then attack Russia
Why did the Schlieffen plan fail?
- Strong Belgian resistance delayed German advancement
- Britain sends forces to Belgium to help stop Germany
- Russia mobilized quicker than Germany anticipated and more German troops were needed on the Eastern front
- Both armies could not break through each other’s lines which resulted in a stalemate
What were the Balkan wars (1912)?
- Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro went to war to drive the Turks out of Europe
- Serbian expansion denied
- Bulgaria attacked Serbia and fighting resumed
- Ethnic minorities in the Balkans were agitated (ignited WWI)
What altered relationships between the nations of the world prior to WWI?
- The Industrial Revolution
What were the results of the Industrial Revolution?
- Increased standards of living
- Increased military power
- Economic growth
How did industrialized countries have an advantage over other countries?
- Ability to wage mechanized war
- Ability to sustain long periods of fighting
What countries gained great-power status through industrialization (industrial powers)?
- Britain, France, Germany (first)
- United States, Russia, Japan (later)
Why did tensions between industrial powers arise?
- Each sought to expand their sphere of influenece
As war became imminent what two alliances were formed?
- The Triple Entente
- The Triple Alliance
What countries were apart of the Triple Entente?
- France, Britain, Russia
What countries were apart of the Triple Alliance?
- Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary
Why did these alliances form?
- Result of the Balkan Wars
What happened to the major powers after the Balkan Wars?
- All major powers increased their military expenditures (both in size of forces and production of war material)
What did the increase in spending cause?
- Upset the balance of power (over half a century)
- Threw decades of military planning into disarray
What countries in particular began rapid expansion and modernization of their armies?
- France and Russia
What did Great Britain realize at this time?
- Plans to send an army onto the continent as well as put its battle fleets into action
How did Germany respond to the arms buildup?
- Created the Schlieffen plan
- Already had a strong army and an expanding navy
- However, the increasing preparedness of rivals posed a lethal threat
Why did the United States join the war?
- The sinking of the Lusitania
- Zimmerman Telegram
What was the Lusitania?
- British ocean liner
- Transported people from the United States to Britain
- In 1915, was transporting 1959 passengers from New York to Liverpool (159 American)
- Was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland
- 1198 passengers died
- Americans were outraged that 128 U.S. citizens were killed in a war in which they were neutral
- Heightened tensions between U.S. and germany
What was the Zimmerman Telegram?
- German Foreign secretary Zimmerman attempted to send a telegram that was intercepted by the British on January 19th 1917.
- German ambassador made a proposal to the Mexican government in order to gain their support
- Mexico would receive financial assistance and an understanding that after the war, Germany would support Mexico’s claim to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona if Mexico would attack the United States
- Would divert the US’s attention away from Europe and result in German victory
When did American join WWI?
- Woodrow Wilson declared war on April 6th 1917
- Almost guaranteed a victory for the allies
- 12 million soldiers and thousands of tanks, airplanes and ships were to be constructed in a massive show of overwhelming industrial strength
What was the Home Front?
- Refers to life in Canada during the war
How did life change on the Home Front?
- Massive changes in the role of women
- Rationing of materials that would be used in the war
- Internment of enemy aliens
- War was responsible for surge in the economy
- New factories opened
- Many factories switched their production to war goods
- Agricultural production increased (Canada sent food to Europe)
What was Canada’s annual Federal budget in 1914?
- $130 million
How much did Canada spend on war efforts?
- $3 billion
How did Canada fund the war?
- Canadians bough war bonds
- When bonds weren’t enough, income tax was introduced
How did the role of women change on the Home Front during the war?
- Took over jobs of men who had left for war
- Served overseas as nurses and ambulance drivers
- Worked long hours in factories (low salary and resentment from male colleagues)
How did life change for women in Canada during WWI?
- Introduction of suffrage
- Many women organized themselves and formed the suffragist movements in Canada
- Dorothy Davis from British Columbia, Margaret Gordon in Ontario, Emily Murphy and Alice Jamieson from Alberta, and Manitoba’s Nellie McClung
- In January of 1916, women in Manitoba were given the right to vote, March- Saskatchewan, April-Alberta
How did life change in Britain during the war?
- Increase in numbers of women entering the work force
- Shortages reduced standards of living
- Wages rose
- Workers increased their bargaining power
How much did military spending increase in Europe from 1870-1914?
- 300%
How did the British government create permanent change in Britain?
- Government took total control of the resources of the nation
- Total reorganization of society
- Government assumed the widest powers over citizens and property
- Nearly all aspects of life were under government supervision
- Government established a rationing system
- Society became more homogenous
- War had brought an unintended social revolution
What contributed to the Russian Revolution?
- Russia remained in the war despite having far greater losses than any other nation
- Russia’s industrial and agricultural resources could not sustain their armies any longer
- Russians became sick of the war and its total collapse was inevitable
By 1917 how was the Russian army decimated?
- Successive German victories
- 3.6 million Russian soldiers had been killed
- 2.1 million Russian soldiers had been captured
- 2 million soldiers had deserted the army
How did the Russian government change?
- Romanov Dynasty fell as German forces advanced through Poland and Galicia
- The tsarist government was replaced by two provisional governments in succession
- Aleksander Kerensky proposed to continue the unpopular war despite public unrest and an increasing casualty rate
- Kerensky promised to hold elections in the fall
By the time the revolution occurred, how was Russia impacted?
- 700% inflation
- Series of crippling strikes ended any effort to supply the Russian armies
- Severe food shortages became widespread
What did the Russian Revolution result in?
- The inability of the provisional government to supply the people and the army led to the overthrow of the government in the October Revolution
- Brought Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and the Bolsheviks to power
How did Lenin win the support of the Bolsheviks?
- His platform
- Peace, Love, and Bread
How did the Bolsheviks overthrow the Russian government?
- Coup d’etat
What did the Bolsheviks do with their newfound power?
- Pulled Russian out of the war immediately
What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
- Ended Russia’s participation in WWI
- Russia forced to cede territory to Germany (contained a third of the country’s population and large quantities of iron, coal and factories that manufactured goods for the war effort)
- Russia required to pay 6 billion marks in reparations
- Marked German victory in the East
What was the purpose of the Triple Alliance?
- Isolate France
How did imperialism affect WWI?
- 1905 Moroccan Crisis: status of Morocco called into question as Kaiser Wilhelm declares his support for Moroccan independence (Angered Britain and France)
- In 1911 France sends troops into Morocco to protect Europeans (riots), Germany responds by sending a battleship and demanded the French Congo for the recognition of French influence
