WW1 main info Flashcards
Which countries are in the Triple Alliance?
Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary
Which countries are in the Triple Entente?
Britain, France and Russia
Who was Kasier Wilhelm II?
- He was keen on military parades and appointed most of the important roles to military people
- Was closely involved in Germany’s plans for war
- He became Kaiser at the age of 27 when the German industry was growing fast
What did Germany have and want before the war?
They had: - Colonies in Africa - Second largest Navy They wanted: - Even more colonies - Not to be surrounded (encirclement) - Replace Britain as the most powerful navy
What was encirclement?
The idea of being surrounded by enemies
What did Austria Hungary want and have before the war?
Had:
- Blank cheque from Germany
- Triple Alliance
Wanted:
- To keep hold of the smaller nations that wanted independence
- Not for Serbia to grow more powerful as a country (as they were backed by Russia)
What did Italy have and want before the war?
They had:
- an agreement with Germany and Austria Hungary that protected them
They wanted:
- To set up colonies and build up an overseas empire
What did Britain have and want before the war?
They had:
- A huge overseas empire
- Alliances with France and Russia
They wanted:
- Not to get involved with European politics (splendid Isolation)
- Not for Germany to get a larger empire than them
What did France have and want before the war?
They had:
- a close friendship and secret alliance with Russia (not triple entente)
- a built-up industry and army
They wanted to:
- protect themselves against attacks from Germany
- get back the region of Alsace-Lorraine which Germany took
What did Russia have and want before the war?
They had: - Large armies in case of emergencies - Largest land They wanted: - Influence over Austria-Hungary due to the Slavs
What is the definition of Militarisation or Rearmament?
Equipping or rearming the army in preparation for war
Give the causes of ww1 and the final trigger
- Traditional rivalries
- European Militarisation
- Morrocan crisis (both)
- Bosnian crisis and Balkan wars
- Rising nationalism in the Balkans
- ASSASSINATION
How many dreadnoughts did Britain and Germany have in 1908 and 1914?
Britain - 6 and 29
Germany - 4 and 17
What was Britain’s militarisation looking like?
- their military had been secretly involved with French commanders
- they set up the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) which could go to France at any point to aid them on short notice
What was Russia’s militarisation looking like?
- They were badly equipped, but it was huge
- Their plan was that if war ever broke out, they would just overwhelm Germany and Austria-Hungary by sheer weight of numbers
What was France’s militarisation looking like?
- They had a large and well-equipped army
- Their plan was called ‘Plan 17’ and it was to charge across the frontier and attack deep into Germany forcing surrender
What was Austria-Hungary’s militarisation looking like?
- They knew they needed the help of Germany to hold back Russia
- It also relied on the success of the Schlieffen Plan so that Germany could help them beat Russia
What was Germany’s militarisation looking like?
- Not the biggest army but was the most powerful and trained
- Their worry was they would have to fight Russia and France at the same time
- The Schlieffen plan meant that they would quickly attack and defeat France and turn their forces on Russia (they assumed they would take longer to get ready for war)
What was the aim of the Schlieffen Plan?
To avoid war on both fronts
In the 1st Moroccan Crisis, why did the Kaiser want more influence in Morocco?
He wanted to prevent France from occupying Morocco
What was the outcome of the Algeciras conference?
- Britain and France had strong relationships and the Triple Entente was formed
- Kaiser failed, and France took Morocco
Why was Morocco increasingly unsettled domestically in 1911 and what was the French response?
There was an uprising against the Sultan and some French troops and so France 20,000 colonial troops were sent to protect residents and properties
What was Germany’s response after the French sent troops after Morocco’s uprising and why did this worry Britain?
Germany sees this as France trying to extend their control and they sent one of their ships to the coast of Morocco - Britain was worried that Germany would try to establish a naval base in Morocco. This ruined the trust between nations
Why did the Moroccan Crisis make the Kaiser bitter and paranoid?
- The Kaiser left embarrassed after his views were rejected as he was treated as if he had no right to speak
- After the Triple Entente was formed, the Kaiser saw this policy as a threatening example of encirclement
Who were the Slavs?
An ethnic group of peoples living in Central and Eastern Europe
What did annex mean?
To assume control over another territory
What was the sequence of events of the Bosnian Crisis?
- A rebellion in Turkey
- Austria-Hungary takes advantage of Turkey’s weakened state to annex Bosnia
- This angered the Serbians who asked Russia for help
- Russia called for an international conference
- The German Kaiser was unhappy with Austria-Hungary’s actions, they decided to support them
- Russia did not want war so backed down the threat of war was avoided due to the Alliance System but they were confident that Germany would back them
What is the Balkan league?
- Turkey continued to grow weaker and was defeated by Italy in North Africa
- Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro joined forces to form the Balkan League to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire
- Russia was supportive of the League as it was a useful ally against A-H
What happened during the First Balkan War?
- The war between the Balkan League and Turkey lasted 50 days and involved around half a million soldiers
- Turkey was defeated and, at a conference in London, agreed to withdraw from all of its territories in Europe
What happened during the Second Balkan War?
- There were disagreements over the amount of land each country the Balkan League should take from Turkey
- The King of Bulgaria felt his country had not received its fair share and declared war on Serbia and Greece
- Turkey and Romania both joined the war against Bulgaria
- It was a total disaster for Bulgaria which lost most of the land it had gained in the First Balkan War
What were the results of the Balkan Wars?
- Increased tensions
- Made countries, especially Bulgaria angry and annoyed and they wanted revenge
- Serbia wished to increase its influence further because of the Slavs in A-H
- Serbia almost doubled in size and was very strong
- Slavs in Bosnia wanted to be a part of Serbia
- A-H saw Serbia as a threat (its friendship with Russia was intimidating)
- Underground gangs against A-H such as Black Hand Gang
What is Nationalism?
Identification of one’s own nation and supports its wishes, even if it means putting other nations at risk
What was the two power standard?
Britain must always have a navy which is twice the size of the next largest one
What was Weltpolitik?
The ambition of Germany and the Kaiser to become a dominant empire in the world
What happened to the Kaiser after Germany lost the war?
He fled into exile and died 20 years later
Who was the Black Hand Gang?
A Serbian terrorist group
Name the events of the Assassination of the Archduke
- He was on tour in Bosnia with his wife (even though he knew he wasn’t popular and people didn’t like him)
- The assassinators had weapons from the Serbian governments - there was 3 assassins
- The first person did nothing
- The second threw a bomb but it bounced off the car, went underneath the car behind and blew up, injuring many people
- The car turned down the wrong road where the last assassin was waiting and stalled
- They shot the Archduke and his wife and they died
Give three long term causes of the assassination
- Serbia believes that the Slavs should have their own independent nation
- Traditional rivalries
- Germany’s policy of Weltpolitik to expand their empire to match Britains (militarisation)
Give three short term causes of the assassination
- Austria Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia
- The Moroccan and Bosnian Crisis’s
- Black Hand Gang’s plan to assassinate the Archduke
What was the July Crisis and what happened?
- Austria-Hungary sends Serbia a 10 point ultimatum stating Serbia must take full responsibility for the assassination, get rid of the BHG and the A-H will patrol Serbia - they were given 48 hrs to respond
- Russia supports Serbia and they get ready to aid them
- Austria- Hungary declares war on Serbia
- The Kaiser tells Russia to stop, but they do not
- Germany declares war on Russia because of its alliance with A-H and the French prepares their army
- Germany attempts to execute the Schlieffen plan but it fails
HOW did Germany’s Schlieffen plan fail?
- Belgium wouldn’t let them through so Germany officially declares war on France and invades Belgium anyway
- An old treaty with Britain and Belgium from 1839 comes into play (Germany didn’t believe that Britain would actually get involved) and Britain send a message to the Kaiser to stop the invasion
- Kaiser ignores the message and as a result, Britain declares war on Germany
- France declares war on Germany and A-H declares war on Russia
(Basically a whole load of declaring war going on…)
How did Schlieffen assume French and Russian armies would mobilise?
Slowly
How many soldiers did Schlieffen send for Russia and France?
Russia - 250,000
France - 1.5 million
WHY did the Schlieffen plan fail?
- G assumes that Russia will mobilise slowly and France quickly
- Germany assumes that Belgium is going to allow them to pass through
- Assumes Britain won’t get involved because of Belgium
- It took Germany longer than they had expected to get France and this gave France and Britain more time to prepare
- Stalemate (trenches in Northern France)
What is the 20 Mark question structure?
INTRO (address the statement and say what you think) PARA FOR PARA AGAINST (another cause) PARA AGAINST (another cause) CONCLUSION
How was Serbia’s nationalism rising?
- Annexation of Bosnia (slavs wanting to be free)
- Formation of the BHG
- Balkan wars which further angered Slavs and Serbians and de-stabilised the Balkan Nations
How was the Alliance Systems causing the war?
- Idea of a safety net - allowed countries to be reckless
- Blindly following the ally even if they disagreed
- Meant that countries that weren’t directly involved in the first place, are now involved
What does Outflank mean?
To get around the end of…
What happened at the battle of Alsace-Lorraine?
- The French launched a direct attack on Germany through Alsace-Lorraine
- France lost over 12,000 men in 12 days and had to regroup their forces
What was the race to the sea?
When Germany realised they could not break through enemies lines and so they charged towards the sea to try and outflank the enemy’s lines
What was the Battle of Alsace-Lorraine and Battle of Marne the result of?
The failure of the Schlieffen plan
Why did Germany have to transfer troops to the East?
Because the Russians moved faster than expected, and this was due to Germany’s assumptions
What happened during the Battle of Marne?
- Neither side could make any progress and they built trenches for protection and this was the first sign of stalemate
- The German Commander decided not to go round Paris and so went straight for it - the German was on foot and the French advanced by taxi (Germans were outstretched
- German supreme had to pull 100,000 troops out of the army going to Paris because the Russians were faster than expected
- Britain and France were able to halt Germany advancing, but couldn’t get them fully out of France
What is the definition of stalemate?
A situation which further action or progress seems impossible
How were the trenches a reason for stalemate?
- Used for a place to shied from fire of guns
- Both sides were stuck in their trenches as the land between trenches and on both sides was known as No Mans Land (it was hard for them to survive once left the trench)
How was the telephone a reason for stalemate?
- Enabled Generals to command troops without risk
- Units always had to wait for orders instead of taking advantage of opportunities that arose
- Generals would not always advise what was best as they weren’t physically there
How was canned food a reason for stalemate?
- Provided food at all times so there was no worry of their food supply being cut off
- They could remain in the same position and still have access to food
- Neither side had to leave as it never ran out