WWI Flashcards
militarism
The policy of glorifying military power and keep an army prepared for war
Triple Alliance
A defensive military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy formed on May 20, 1882 and renewed periodically until it expired in 1915 during WWI.
Kaiser Wilhelm II
Ruler of Germany in 1890 who forced Bismarck to resign. A proud and stubborn man who did not wish to share power with anyone. “I and the army were born for one another,” he declared agyer taking power.
Triple Entente
An alliance between Britain, France, and Russia. While it did not bind Britain to fight with France and Russia, it ensured that Britain would not fight against them.
Otto von Bismarck
Prussia’s blood-and-iron chancellor (the chief minister of state) who used war to unify Germany between 1864 and 1871. Then after 1871, he turned his energy to maintaining peace in Europe. His first goal was to isolate France as revenge for Prussia’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. He wanted France isolated from its allies.
nationalism
A deep devotion to one’s nation. Nationalism can serve as a unifying force within a country, but it can also cause competition between nations with each seeking to overpower the others.
Imperialism
The quest to colonize Africa and Asia and to form overseas empires.
Armenian Massacre
By the 1880s, about 2.5 million Christian Armenians in the Ottoman empire demanded their freedom. Throughout the 1890s, Turkish troops killed tens of thousands of Armenians. When WWI started in 1914, Armenians pledged their support to the Turks’ enemies. In response, the Turkish govt deported nearly 2 million Armenians. Along the way, more than 600,000 died of starvation or were killed by Turkish soldiers.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne., He and his wife went to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. They were shot at point-blank range by a member of the Black Hand, a secret society committed to ridding Bosnia of Australian rule.
Why might the “machinery of war,” set in motion by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand have been difficult to stop?
- A Serbian killed the Archduke, so Austria decided to use the murders as an excuse to punish Serbia.
- Angry Kaiser Wilhelm II urged Austria to be aggressive and offered Germany’s unconditional support.
- So Austria had free license to do what they wanted to Servia.
- July 23, Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum that was deliberately harsh. Serbia agreed to most of the demands, but Austria was in no mood to negotiate and the leader’s were settled on war.
- Austria rejected Serbia’s offer, so Serbia’s ally, Russia ,ordered the mobilization of troops toward the Austrian border.
- The European stability looked like it was going to collapse. The British foreign minister, Italian Govt, and Kaiser himself urged Austria and Russia to negotiate, but the machinery of war was put in motion. It was too late.
Infantry
Soldiers that fight on foot, generally with bayonets, machine guns, and mortars
Bayonets
A knife blade which soldiers attached to their rifles and used in close combat with the enemy
Trench Warfare
A war fought in the man-made trenches. The Western Front became a war of attrition rather than a break through. It took approx 10x as many men to mount an attack on an enemy trench than to defend it. The new weapons of war (machine guns, poison gas, and tanks) were more effective for defence than for attacking.
Fame throwers
Germans initiated the use of flame throwers in October 9114, then British and French used similar weapons. The burning fuel terrified the victims. It was effective as a short-range weapon but the possibility of the cylinder exploding meant it could endanger the user too.
Grenades
Timed fuses to percussion grenades were made to detonate when they hit something. In 1917 the Mills bomb grenade was made as a fragmentation bomb that exploded into many small sharp pieces.
Machine guns
Belgians began using machine guns in 1914 and Germans followed. These machine guns could fire 8 bullets per second and could inflict casualties very quickly. The weight (30-60kg) limited their portability and they needed water to cool them down They often jammed. Even with these problems, they were as effective as 80 rifles.
Poison gas
The French used tear gas grenades in August 1914. The Germans used chlorine gas in cylinders in 1915 at the second Battle of Ypres. All Allied armies adopted gas weaponry after.
Rifles
One of the most important weapons of the war, rifles
were much easier to transport than most weapons.
Effectiveness depended on the skills of the user. British
rifle fire at Mons in 1915 was so fast (15 rounds per minute)
that the Germans thought they were using machine guns.
Tanks
Initially of limited value as they were very slow, liable
to break down, had poor maneuverability (they could
only move in a forwards direction) and were extremely
uncomfortable for their occupants. By early 1917, tanks
were being used more effectively in crashing through
enemy lines, although infantry support lagged far behind.
Trench Mortars
While effective when fired from one trench to another
against enemy machine gun or sniper positions in a time of
static warfare, the trench mortar was of little use after the
resumption of a war of movement in 1918.
Cop a blighty
Obtain a wound which was serious enough to require the victim to be sent back to England
Shell shock
a psychological disorder with physical symptoms ranging from irritability and poor concentration to inability to move in a coordinated manner
Snipers
marksmen who waited in hiding for opportunities to shoot soldiers in the opposing trenches
Suffragettes
Suffragists conscripted rhetorical claims advanced in favor of the war, and pointed to women’s key role on the home front, to bolster their arguments in favor of domestic expansion of voting rights
Gallipoli
Gallipoli Campaign, (February 1915–January 1916), in World War I, an Anglo-French operation against Turkey, intended to force the 38-mile- (61-km-) long Dardanelles channel and to occupy Constantinople.
Commonwealth Nations
Around 15,000 West Indians enlisted, including 10,000 from Jamaica. Others came from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, British Honduras (Belize), Grenada, British Guiana (Guyana), the Leeward Islands, St Lucia and St Vincent.
Although a few served in regular British Army units, most men from the Caribbean served in the West India Regiment and the British West Indies Regiment (raised in October 1915), serving in France, Italy, Africa and the Middle East.
Conscientious objectors
Such men were known as ‘conscientious objectors’, because they placed their own consciences and beliefs before the demands of the state. Typically a conscientious objector would refuse to accept his military kit on arrival at camp, and be given a short period of imprisonment during which to reconsider his position.
