WW1 Flashcards
What were the watershed events of the 20th century
wwi
wwii
cold war
collapse of communism
what was strange about this short war
didn’t apply to other short wars where there wouldn’t be any damage. wwi did a significant amount of damage
why was it a great war
there were empires all over the world that were controlled by countries in europe. 150 countries were involved
what’s a total war
more than militarism was involved, including ordinary citizens. originally coined for ww2 but still applicable
why is it interesting
helped shape modern world
parallels ww2
living memory
when was italy and germany unified
1860-61
when was dual monarchy created
1867 - austria hungrary
when was the balkan war
1912-13
when did the germans and ottomans have a secret alliance
- this was secret diplomacy which wasn’t ok.
causes:
industrialism
trade in africa
annexation of bosnia and herzegovina
alliance between germany and ottomans
assassination of franz
russian military growth
german paranoia
arms race - war became inevitable due to everyone preparing for the worst, ensuring the worst would happen
serbia was threatening to ottomans due to balkan war
historiography:
homage herwig
believes that german foreign military published documents were carefully edited in order to blame the cause of world war one on international relations breaking down instead of germany
fischer thesis
argues that germany had expansionist foreign policies and caused world war one. they decided to do so in 1912 but decided to wait to 1914.
he has access to ww1 archives
