World War I Flashcards
~World War I
● Began in the summer of 1914 and lasted until the fall of 1918
● Killed approx. 10 million soldiers, another 2-5 million civilians and woulded or disabled 28-30 million
● Destryoed four gerat empires00German Reich, Russia’s tsarist regime, Austria-Huntary’s Habsburg dynasty and Ottoman TUrkey
● Began the process of toppling EUrope from tis position fo global preeminence
~Bosnia
● A Slavic province under Austrian authority but with a large Serb population and coveted by the intensely nationalistic state of Serbia
~Blank Hand
● A terror group supported informally by influential parties in Serbia
~Franz Ferdinand
● Heir to the Autrian throne
● Assassinated by Black Hand in Bosnia
~July crisis
● Austria issued a lsit of humiliating demands and threatened war if Serbia did not accept this ultimatum
● Russia, Austria’s rival in the Balkans, backed Serbia, but Germany persuaded Austria not to back down even if Russia intervened (blank check)
~Schlieffen Plan
● Germany’s strategy for avoiding a long two-front war
● Requried lightning speed and the Germans moved quickly against France and neutral Belgium
● Germnas drove into northern France as expected and came within reach of Paris
● Failed and Germany was forced to fight a two-front war
~First Battle of the Marne
● Foiled the Schlieffan Plan and dahsed any hope of a quick end to the war
● The Allies stopped Germany from taking over France
~Trench wafare
● Military technology disproportionately favoring the defensive trench warfare
● Especially on the Western Front, the 500-mile chain of trenches, bukers, and barbed wire that stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border
~Verdun Offensive adn the Battle of the Somme
● Both in 1916
● Combat operations that brought about no useful outcome, and virtually no mvoement, despite costing hundreds of thousands of casualties
~Poison gas
● First use in modern warfare
● Battle of Ypres
~All Quiet on the Western Front
● Erich Maria Remarque’s novel
● Anti-war art
~Eastern Front
● Deadly especially for the Russians who sustained crushing defeats at Germany’s hands and who found themselves cut off from their allies when Ottoman Turkey sided with the Central Powers, denying Russia access to the Mediterranean
~Arab revolt
● British support for the Arab revolt against Ottoman power and the Russians thust through ottooman defenses on the Caucasus frontier
● Key figures was the guerilla leader T.L. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
~Armenian massacres
● In 1915, Ottoman state perpetrated the Armenian massacres, systematically killing between 500,000 to 2 million men, women and children
~Anglo-German naval race
● Underlying cause of the war
● Few surface battles took place in WWI
~War at sea (WWI)
● Allied fleets imposed a blockade ont he Central Powers, constricting their economies and causing the starvation of thousands–although far fewer than the Germans later claimed
● Germany mastered submarine warfare (U-boats) to intercept the transatlantic movement of Allied supplies and troops
~Sinking of Lusitania
● In May 1915, Germany’s sinking of Lusitania, a British ship carrying more than a hundred American passenger, nearly brought an angry US into the war
~October Revolution
● Communists seized power and took immediate steps to pull Russia out of the war, freeing large numebrs of German troops for service ont he Western Front, where the balance of force was razor-thin
~Spring Offensive
● All-out assault on Paris
● Halted at the Second Battle of the Marne, the Germans were forced into full retreat by August
● Strikes and mutinies in the fall compelled the Ottomans, the Austro-Hungarians, and the Germans to cease fighting in October and November
~Total war
● Requiring the near-complete mobilization of populations and resources
~Home front
● Became a crucial part of every combatant nation’s war effort, as entire economies were geared for war
● The procurement of raw materials (steel, coal, petroleum, rubber, cloth) was centralized, as was agricultural production and the manufacture of uniforms, weapons, and other military necessities
~Rationing
● Of food, fuel and consumer goods becmae increasingly strict, and painfully so by late 1916 and early 1917, when all European belligerents were suffering terrible material shortages
~Restriction of civil liberties
● Even in the democracies
● All combatants censored the press and the mail
● Special laws allowed anyone suspected of espionage or treason to be arrested nt reid without due process
● Trade unions and socialist parties were supervised and their activities curtailed
● Even pessimism or an insufficient show of patriotism could get one in trouble
● Men who sought conscentious objectors status were often denied and harassed or ridiculed if they succeeded
~Recruitment and conscription
● The war required mass recruitment and then conscription, or hte involuntary drafting of soldiers
● Cause much social stress,including protests and riots
● Imperial powers mobilized large numbers of colonial troops