World War I Flashcards

1
Q

Who first posited the theory of evolution?

A

In his 1859 work, On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin posited the theory of evolution. Darwin’s basic idea was that plant and animal life had evolved from earlier, simpler organisms, a process driven by what Darwin termed “natural selection.”

Darwin’s theory of natural selection contended that some species were able to prosper because they were more fitted to endure in their environment, a process known as “survival of the fittest.”

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2
Q

What economic argument did English sociologist Herbert Spencer derive from Darwin’s evolutionary arguments?

A

Spencer contended that individuals, companies, and nations were governed by the same rules as biological natural selection; for instance, strong companies thrive while weak companies go bankrupt.

Spencer’s theory, known as Social Darwinism, was used by many advocates to argue that the white race was superior to other races and that European nations were better suited than native inhabitants to govern far-flung empires.

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3
Q

Define:

Romanticism

A

The Romantic Movement was a cultural movement prevalent in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. It emphasized the importance of emotional subjects and heroism over reason. Romanticism influenced art, music, philosophy, and religion.

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4
Q

What cultural movement began as a reaction against Romanticism?

A

In the 1850s, Realism began as a reaction against Romanticism.

Realists attempted to portray subject matter truthfully and accurately, without artificiality, and sought to avoid exotic and supernatural elements.

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5
Q

Taking realism one step further, _____ writers such as Émile Zola sought not only to describe their subjects but also to find the underlying causes that influenced their subjects’ actions.

A

Naturalist

Naturalists such as Zola were strongly influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Rather than simply describing societal ills, naturalists sought to explore their underlying causes.

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6
Q

Define:

Realpolitik

A

Realpolitik refers to diplomacy or politics based not on idealistic, moral, and ethical principles, but on practical and material factors.

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7
Q

Define:

communism

A

Communism refers to a system of government in which the government owns the means of production. Under a pure communist system, the government owns all land and factories, as opposed to a pure capitalist system, in which individuals own the means of production.

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8
Q

The “Eastern Question” dominated European diplomatic relations from at least the 1770s, becoming acute in the last half of the 19th century. What was the Eastern Question?

A

The Eastern Question arose as the Ottoman Empire declined in power. Both Austria and Russia sought to take advantage of the power vacuum, while Britain sought to shore up the Ottoman Empire to protect their interests in the region. Meanwhile, France saw the Eastern Question as a means to disrupt the Concert of Europe and assert her independence of action in European affairs.

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9
Q

Define:

Impressionism

A

Impressionism was a form of painting that emerged in Paris in the 1870s. Impressionists such as Renoir and Monet focused on the effect of light upon everyday subject matter and used characteristically visible brush strokes. Many Impressionist painters concentrated on temporary, fleeting moments: a woman reading or workers pausing from harvesting hay.

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10
Q

Which artist is recognized as Cubism’s founding father?

A

Pablo Picasso is recognized as Cubism’s founding father and was the first artist to systematically break down objects and reassemble them in an abstract geometric formula.

Cubism as an artistic movement flourished in France in the 1910s and 1920s and along with Impressionism represents the birth of Modern Art.

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11
Q

What was Expressionism?

A

Expressionism developed in Germany in the years before World War I and sought to portray and evoke emotion by distorting the representation of the physical world. The most commonly cited example of Expressionist art is Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

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12
Q

What is meant by the term “Angel in the House”?

A

The term “Angel in the House” was used to describe the idealized role of women in British middle-class society during the Victorian Era.

With few of the labor-saving devices available today, running a household in the 19th century was a full-time job, and middle-class women were expected to oversee the household management, manage the servants, and provide a refuge for their husbands from the world’s cares.

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13
Q

How many European countries allowed women to vote in 1900?

A

None, but in the early decades of the 20th century, especially in Western Europe, those who advocated for female suffrage, known as “suffragettes” saw modest gains, and women were allowed to exercise their right to vote for the first time.

The suffragettes were highly organized and were led by women of the middle class.

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14
Q

What is the Bessemer Process?

A

The Bessemer Process was an inexpensive method for making steel from iron.

Since the Industrial Revolution began later in America and Germany than in the United Kingdom, American and German firms did not have to convert their foundries and mills from older iron methods to steel production, but could equip their factories at the outset with the newest methods.

By the 1880s, both American and German manufacturing output in steel and other industries was rapidly approaching that of Great Britain.

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15
Q

Germany’s Industrial Revolution began later than Britain’s, but made rapid strides in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. What industrial areas proved particularly fruitful for the Germans?

A

Since Germany’s Industrial Revolution began later, German factories were outfitted with the latest technology, and German firms rapidly began to dominate fields such as steel-making and chemical production.

Germans such as Rudolf Diesel also developed industrial technology. Diesel’s internal combustion engine would power German submarines and lead to the development of the automobile.

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16
Q

What was the Dreyfus Affair?

A

The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal in France in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

In the late 19th century, Albert Dreyfus was the only Jew on the French General Staff and was falsely accused of being a German spy.

The allegations against Dreyfus were motivated primarily by the virulent anti-Semitism endemic to the French military. Dreyfus was exiled but eventually cleared and allowed to return to France.

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17
Q

What was the effect of the Japanese victories in the Russo-Japanese War?

A

In 1905, the Japanese roundly defeated the Russians on both land and sea. In Russia, the defeats signaled the weaknesses of Tsar Nicholas II’s regime and encouraged the hopes of those who sought to limit the Tsar’s power.

Throughout the rest of Europe, there was grudging admiration and disbelief that an Asian army had defeated a European one.

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18
Q

What was Bloody Sunday?

A

On Sunday, January 9, 1905, Russian demonstrators peaceably assembled near the Tsar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present the Tsar with a list of grievances. Tsarist troops opened fire on the crowd, killing 96.

In response, a wave of protests and looting broke out and a general strike was declared by the city’s unions. Bloody Sunday marked the start of the 1905 Russian Revolution, and revolts quickly spread to the peasantry.

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19
Q

How did Tsar Nicholas II react to the outbreak of the 1905 Russian Revolution?

A

Tsar Nicholas II agreed to convene a representative legislature (known as the Duma); granted civil liberties such as freedom of the press, speech, and assembly; and declared that he would reorganize the government.

In the wake of the Tsar’s promises, the Revolution abated. In the years following the Revolution, the Tsar did convene the Duma, but basically ignored it. Most his other promises were rescinded within a few years.

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20
Q

Germany exacerbated European relations in the early 20th century by commencing an expansion in what branch of her armed services?

A

While Germany possessed Europe’s most powerful army, prior to the early 20th century her naval presence was negligible. Kaiser Wilhelm II announced a massive naval program building battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines.

If Germany built a large navy in addition to her army, it raised the potential of one power dominating Europe and upsetting the balance of power. Further, the new German navy was a threat to Great Britain, which had the world’s largest navy. Britain announced that for every battleship the Germans built Britain would build two, setting in motion an arms race.

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21
Q

What three powers made up the Triple Entente at the outset of World War I?

A

Britain, France, and Russia comprised the Triple Entente.

Russia and France had a treaty dating to the late 19th century. Britain never formally pledged her cooperation in a European war, but mounting German militarism led to closer ties with France and Russia and an end to the British policy of “Splendid Isolation” from the affairs on the Continent.

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22
Q

Define:

Pan-Slavism

A

Pan-Slavism referred to the unification of all Slav territory in Austria-Hungary into a single state. Pan-Slavism was fomented by Austria-Hungary’s enemy Serbia, who aspired to head a Pan-Slav state.

23
Q

In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, technically an Ottoman territory that Austria-Hungary had been administering. How did Serbia respond?

A

The annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina highly irritated the Serbs, who felt that they had justifiable territorial interests in the area. Russia, as a Serbian ally and self-proclaimed protector of the Slavs, backed Serbia’s protest, and Serbia mobilized her army.

War was narrowly averted when Serbia and Russia backed down and agreed to a diplomatic resolution. Relations between Serbia and Russia on one hand and Austria-Hungary on the other had been irreparably damaged, and Serbia would not back down from the next Balkan crisis.

24
Q

What strategic concern faced the Germans before World War I?

A

On one border, Germany was faced with the hostile Russian Empire, and on the other, the French Republic, bent on revenge for the Franco-Prussian War.

To the south, her only ally, Austria-Hungary, had a weak army and was rent by internal divisions. Were France and Russia to declare war on Germany and attack her from both sides, Germany would be severely outnumbered.

25
Q

How did Germany propose to deal with the prospect of a two-front war in 1914?

A

The German Schlieffen Plan sought to take advantage of the time it would take the slow-moving Russian Army to mobilize and sought to conquer France first by amassing troops on the Western Front before transferring troops to the Eastern Front to fight Russia.

France’s border with Germany was heavily defended and would unacceptably delay the German offensive, so the German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen designed a plan where the German Army would make a right hook around the French fortifications by marching through neutral Belgium.

26
Q

What event set off World War I?

A

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Slav nationalist with ties to the Serbian secret service, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie. The assassination took place in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

27
Q

How did Austria-Hungary diplomatically respond to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand?

A

Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, and after making sure that Germany would support Austro-Hungarian actions, sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding retribution. Serbia refused and Austria declared war.

Serbia’s ally Russia began to mobilize her troops, and Germany and Austria declared war on Russia, which was followed by a German declaration of war on Russia’s ally, France.

28
Q

What prompted Britain to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1914?

A

As part of the Schlieffen Plan, Germany invaded France through Belgium, a neutral country.

Great Britain declared war in response to the German invasion. Recent historical research into pre-war British plans has revealed that had Germany not invaded Belgium, the British would have done so.

29
Q

As the First World War progressed, which two nations joined the Central Powers?

A

In late 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. In 1915, Bulgaria followed suit.

Although nominally an ally of Austria-Hungary and Germany, Italy originally declared neutrality in the conflict, then joined the Allies after Britain and France bribed her with the promises of Austro-Hungarian territory.

30
Q

What system of defense characterized warfare on the Western Front?

A

By late 1914, trench warfare prevailed on the Western Front, and trenches stretched from the Swiss border to the English Channel. Attempts to break the stalemate typically led to slaughter; in the Battle of the Somme nearly 60,000 Britons died.

The Germans were much better at preserving the lives of their men, and their casualties were one-third of those experienced by the British and French.

31
Q

Define:

total war

A

Total war refers to devoting the entirety of a nation’s economic resources to war. During both the First and Second World Wars, both sides converted factories to military production and used the full measure of their industrial capacity for war purposes.

32
Q

How did suffragette Emily Pankhurst request that British women respond to the outbreak of World War I?

A

Pankhurst encouraged the suffragettes to pause the campaign for female votes for the war’s duration. Near the end of the war, the British government extended the franchise to include women, in part because of the contribution of women to Britain’s war effort.

Thousands of British women worked in factories throughout the War, freeing men for front-line duty.

33
Q

What was the Easter Rebellion?

A

In 1916, Irish Home Rule advocates rebelled against the British government during Easter, hoping to take advantage of the fact that Britain was distracted by World War I. The revolution was a failure, and several leaders of the Easter Rebellion were executed.

34
Q

Erich Maria Remarque penned the quintessential novel of life on the Western Front during World War I, _____ ____ ____ ____ _____ ____.

A

All Quiet on the Western Front

Although Remarque’s novel depicted the life of German soldiers amidst the horrors of the trenches, the life he described spoke of the experience of millions of men on both sides of the war.

35
Q

What led to the collapse of the Romanoff dynasty in Russia?

A

In 1917, Russia was exhausted from years of war and faced food shortages at home. When workers rioted in St. Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas II sent troops to put down the unrest.

Instead of firing on the crowds, the soldiers mutinied. The mutiny spread, leading the Tsar to abdicate and to the establishment of the Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky and prominent members of the Duma.

36
Q

What strategic mistake doomed the Kerensky-led Provisional Government in Russia in 1917?

A

While Kerensky’s government did establish some far-reaching reforms, including imposing an eight-hour working day and freedom of religion, it continued the war against the Central Powers.

The Russian forces met with little success. And popular discontent against both the new government and the war ensured that the Provisional Government would never be able to establish itself as the long-term Russian government.

37
Q

Who was Vladimir Lenin?

A

Vladimir Lenin was a professional revolutionary, who was exiled from Russia in the wake of the 1905 Revolution. After Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne, the Germans arranged for Lenin to return to Russia to foment a Communist revolution against the Kerensky government.

38
Q

Define:

soviet

A

During the Russian Revolution, the soviets were “Councils of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Deputies,” who were to serve as local governments under the Provisional Government.

39
Q

How did Lenin and the Bolsheviks manage to seize control of Russia between April and November 1917?

A

Lenin, with the able assistance of his ally Leon Trotsky, first instituted Bolshevik control of the workers’ soviet in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg). Working in opposition to Kerensky’s Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks argued that power should reside in the soviets.

In late October, Lenin and Trotsky planned a coup, and by early November had used the Petrograd Soviet to seize Petrograd’s key strategic, transportation, and communication centers. By the night of November 6, the Winter Palace had been captured and the coup was complete.

40
Q

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk resolved what conflict?

A

After six months of negotiations, the new Soviet Union signed the treaty with the Central Powers in March 1918. The treaty ended World War I on the Eastern Front, freeing the German forces to concentrate on the war in France and allowing the Soviets to turn their attention to the civil war raging inside Russia.

41
Q

In 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger liner _____, as part of a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

A

The sinking of the Lusitania led to the loss of 718 lives, including more than 100 Americans. Despite warnings in New York newspapers that the ship would be sunk, American popular opinion was outraged. By 1917, unrestricted submarine warfare would lead the United States to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente.

Naval archeologists would later discover that the Lusitania was carrying American manufactured munitions for the British army, a clear violation of neutrality.

42
Q

Overwhelming naval superiority enabled the British navy to conduct what form of naval warfare?

A

Britain’s naval supremacy enabled the country to blockade Germany, cutting Germany off from shipments of food and medical supplies from neutral countries, such as the United States.

Britain kept up the blockade even after the Germans surrendered, only lifting it after the Treaty of Versailles was signed.

43
Q

What was the Zimmermann Telegram?

A

In 1917, the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Mexico seeking to ascertain Mexico’s interest in declaring war against the United States.

Although the telegram was similar to diplomatic initiatives that the Triple Entente had directed to Romania and Italy, the United States took intense umbrage to Germany’s diplomatic measures, and the Zimmermann Telegram was one of the primary American justifications for war.

44
Q

Why did Woodrow Wilson request Congress to declare war on the Central Powers in 1917?

A

In an attempt to starve the island nation into submission, Germany had announced she would attempt to sink by submarine any ship approaching Great Britain. Wilson requested Congress to declare war on the Central Powers because of this policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

On the other hand, Wilson registered nary a protest at Britain’s blockade of German ports, which prevented much needed foodstuffs from reaching German citizens.

45
Q

In March 1918, Germany launched the ______ _____, with forces transferred from the Eastern Front.

A

Ludendorff Offensive

The Ludendorff Offensive was Germany’s last large-scale attempt to secure victory on the Western Front before the arrival of American forces. By mid-1918, the offensive had collapsed and the Allied counteroffensive pushed the Germans back toward the German border.

In November 1918, Germany’s armies were disintegrating, and Germany sued for peace invoking Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

46
Q

What were Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points?

A

The Fourteen Points were Wilson’s attempt to make clear that American entry into the First World War was for a moral cause and to ensure a just postwar peace. The Fourteen Points included freedom of the seas, ethnic self-determination, and free trade.

The Fourteen Points encouraged the Germans to believe that the Allies would provide a just settlement of the war. In surrendering, Germany specifically accepted the terms as the basis of a postwar settlement, only to see the points mostly ignored in the Treaty of Versailles.

47
Q

How much input was Germany given into the final terms of the Treaty of Versailles?

A

Germany was given no input into the Treaty of Versailles, much of which violated the spirit of Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Especially troublesome was the “war guilt” clause, which stated that the Germans accepted full and complete blame for starting the War; the Germans felt that there was more than enough blame to go around.

Germany initially refused to sign the treaty but acquiesced in the face of Allied threats of renewed conflict.

48
Q

Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to pay _____, which in 1921 were calculated to be $31.4 billion.

A

reparations

By assigning the totality of the blame for the War on Germany, the Allies were able to extract German promises to repay the War’s cost. In the years following the War, German reparations would become a sizable portion of French budgetary calculations.

49
Q

What limits did the Treaty of Versailles place on the German armed forces?

A

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces were severely limited. Germany was banned from having submarines, airplanes, blimps, and tanks. Her army was limited to 100,000 men and only a small navy was allowed.

For a nation that had prided itself on having a large and efficient armed service, the limitations were humiliating.

50
Q

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which Eastern European nation gained independence for the first time since the 1700s?

A

As part of the Treaty of Versailles, Poland gained independence.

To provide Poland with an outlet to the sea, the city of Danzig was ceded to Poland. Danzig separated Eastern Prussia from the rest of Germany, providing an irritant to German national opinion that was to continue until World War II.

51
Q

What international organization did Woodrow Wilson propose to resolve disputes between nations?

A

As part of his Fourteen Points, Wilson proposed the League of Nations.

Due to Congressional resistance, the United States never joined the League. For all the hopes its supporters had regarding the League, it later proved ineffectual to prevent the rising militarism of the 1930s.

52
Q

By the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, what befell the German colonies in Africa and the Pacific?

A

Germany’s African colonies were divided between France and Britain, while Japan took over many of Germany’s small colonies in the Pacific Ocean, such as Samoa and Tsingtao.

The Fourteen Points’ terms had specifically suggested that overseas colonies would be adjusted with fairness to both sides, a suggestion that was ignored at Versailles.

53
Q

What was the fate of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War?

A

At the War’s end, pursuant to the ideas embodied in the Fourteen Points, many of the various nationalities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were established as their own countries, such as Hungary.

Other countries were conglomerated into nations, such as Czechoslovakia, which combined the Czechs and Slovaks. These ethnically mixed states were weak and looked to France for protection against aggression. Austria itself, bereft of its monarchy, became a republic.

54
Q

In the wake of World War I, the Ottoman Empire fell. What was the fate of the lands once under its control?

A

Some lands in the Middle East were governed by the Great Powers under a mandate from the League of Nations. For instance, Syria was a mandate governed by France, and Palestine was a mandate held by Great Britain.

Other former Ottoman territories coalesced into independent nations, such as Saudi Arabia.