Unit 7: World War One Flashcards
World War One has been called
“The Great War”, “the war to end all wars”, “the first total war”, and the war “to make the world safe for democracy”
WWI was the result of
militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism
The Balkan Peninsula
“the powder keg of Europe”
the spark that ignited the war
June 28, 1914 assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian Gavrilo Principe (of the Black Hand) in Sarajevo, Bosnia
Triple Alliance
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy
Triple Entente
Britain, France, and Russia
What happened when Germany offered Austria-Hungary a blank check & Russia mobilized to defend the Slavs?
Germany declared war on Russia and France & invaded neutral Belgium; Britain responded and declared war on Germany
Allied Powers
Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, Portugal, & US
Central Powers
Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, & Bulgaria
Anglo-German Alliance
During WWI, the British blockaded Germany to prevent them from getting supplies to fight the war and 750,000 Germans starved. The Germans counter-blockaded Britain, torpedoed British ships and 75,000 Britons drowned. Upon the death of Queen Victoria, her grandsons George V and Wilhelm II signed Anglo-German Alliance
Saxe-Coburg-Gothe
British royal family (with German roots since the Hanover dynasty) who changed their surname from Saxe-Courge-Goth to Windsor in response to anti-German sentiment
the Schlieffen Plan
in the summer of 1914, the Germans set out to defeat France quickly and then defeat Russia and win the war
the Battle of Tannenberg
the German Army nearly destroyed the Russian Army
the German Army nearly destroyed the Russian Army
the French Army stopped the Germany Army on the Western Front
trench warfare
unlike the Eastern Front, the British, French, and Belgians fought trench warfare
new military technologies
tanks, machine guns, artillery, zeppelins (blimps), U-boats (submarines), and airplanes
the Second Battle of Ypres
the Germans used poison gas
the Battle of Gallipoli
when the Allies tried to take control of Turkey, the ANZACs were sacrificed in a suicide mission
the Battle of Verdun
the French fought the Germans to stalemate within a space of 10 miles
the Battle of the Somme
one million soldiers died; morale was waning and nationalists within the empires rose up
the Easter Uprising
Irish republicans staged an unsuccessful independence movement
the Armenian Genocide
on the Eastern Front many Armenians supported Russia rather than the Ottoman Empire, and the Turks responded by killing one million Armenians
Arthur Zimmerman Telegram
German Foreign Minister who attempted to form an alliance with Mexico
John J. Pershing
General who led the American Expeditionary Force
led the British
Douglas Haig & Herbert Kitchener
led the French
Joseph Joffre & Ferdinand Foch
led the Germans
Paul von Hindenburg & Erich Ludendorff
Mata Hari
a spy from the neutral Netherlands, who used her feminine wiles to get information, became a double agent for the Germans and was executed by the French
Sidney Reilly
“the ace of spies” for Scotland Yard, was born in Russia, worked for the Allies, and then executed by the Bolsheviks
Manfred von Richthofen
German ace pilot who became known as the Red Baron and shot down 80 planes before he was killed
T.E. Lawrence
British Colonel who led the Arabs against the Turks, and they captured Jerusalem
Arthur Balfour
British Foreign Secretary who proposed the creation of the modern state of Israel in Palestine after the war and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
In the spring of 1918, after the March Revolution and the abdication of Czar Nicholas II, Lenin and the Bolsheviks signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was an armistice with Germany and a loss of territory
the Battle of Amiens
made clear that the Central Powers had lost the war
Veterans’ Day
the armistice was signed
The Big Four
David Lloyd-George of Britain, George Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Woodrow Wilson of the US
Paris Peace Conference
blamed Germany entirely with the War Guilt Clause & punished the defeated country severely (with reparations, territorial loss of Alsace and Lorraine, demilitarization, and occupation of the Rhineland); although Wilson’s 14 Points were largely ignored, they tried to follow the principle of self-determination
New nations created after the war
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, and separate Austria and Hungary
League of Nations
(United Nations today) was created (also one of Wilson’s Fourteen Points), but the Senate rejected the Treaty and did not approve US membership in the League because many Americans had become isolationists
US participation in the war
In April 1917, the US joined the Allied war effort; US soldiers only fought in Europe for one year but American manpower and resources were invaluable
