1. Describe the major issues which lead to world war 1:-
- Self-determination suggested that each ethnic group had a right to a sovereign state.
- Concept was ignored or opposed by dynastic powers.
- Considerable nationalistic tensions in Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Russian empires.
- Slavic nationalism: stressed kinship of all Slavic peoples.
- Ottoman empire shrank as first Greece, then others, gained independence.
- Serbs of Austria-Hungary sought unification with independent Serbia.
- Russians promoted Pan-Slavism(a movement that stressed ethnic and cultural kinship of the various Slav people of parts of Europe and sought to unite those people politically) in the Austria-Hungarian empire.
- Germany backed Austria-Hungary to fight ethnic nationalism.
- The naval race between Germany and Britain increased tensions
- Germany's rapid industrialization threatened British economic predominance
- Both states built huge iron battleships, called dreadnoughts
- Colonial disputes of the late nineteenth century
- Germany unified in 1871; came late to the colonial race
- German resentment and antagonism toward both France and Britain
- France and Germany nearly fought over Morocco in 1905
- Balkan wars (1912-13) further strained European diplomatic relations
- Public opinion supported national rivalries
- Attitudes of aggressive patriotism among European citizens
- Leaders under pressure to be aggressive, to take risks
- Rival systems of alliance obligated allies to come to one another's defense
- The Central Powers:-
- Germany and Austria-Hungary formed a Dual Alliance 1879
- In fear of France, Italy joined the Dual Alliance in 1882, thus, the Triple Alliance
- Ottoman empire loosely affiliated with Germany
- The Allies:-
- Britain, France, and Russia formed the Triple Entente, or the Allies
- Shifting series of treaties ended with a military pact, 1914
- War plans: each power poised and prepared for war
- Military leaders devised inflexible military plans and timetables
- France's Plan XVII focused on offensive maneuvers and attacks
- Germany's Schlieffen plan: swift attack on France, then defensive against Russia
2. Summarize the events which led to world war 1:-(aka. where it went down)
- The guns of August: triggered a chain reaction
- June 1914, Austrian Archduke assassinated by Serbian nationalist
- Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, July 28
- Russia mobilized troops to defend its Serbian ally against the Central Powers
- Germany: July 31, sent ultimatums to Russia and France, which were ignored
- Germany declared war on Russia and France, invaded Belgium to reach France
- August 4: to protect Belgium's neutrality, Britain declared war on Germany
- War was greeted with enthusiasm on all sides; was expected to be brief
- The western front:-
- German invasion of France halted along the river Marne for three years
- Trenches on the western front ran from the English Channel to Switzerland
- Italy entered war with Allies, maintained defensive line against Austria-Hungary
- Stalemate and new weapons
- New technologies favored defensive tactics over offensive tactics:-
- (a) Poisonous gas: introduced by Germans, used by both sides
- (b) Eight hundred thousand casualties from mustard gas
- Armored tanks used to break down trenches toward end of the war
- Airplanes used mainly for reconnaissance
- Submarines used especially by Germans against Allied shipping
- No-man's-land littered with dead, the grim reality of trench warfare
- On the eastern front, battle lines more fluid
- Austrian-German forces overran Serbia, Albania, and Romania
- Russia invaded Prussia 1915, but was soon driven out
- Russians' counterattacks in 1916-1917 collapsed in a sea of casualties
- Bloodletting: long, costly battles
- At Verdun: French "victory" with 315,000 dead, defeated Germans lost 280,000
- At the Somme, Britain and Germany saw losses of 420,000 each
- New rules of engagement
- Civilians became targets of enemy military operations
- Air raids against civilians; naval blockades common
- On the home front: the economy mobilized to the war effort
- Governments militarized civilian war production
- Imposed wage and price controls
- Extended military draft in Germany from ages sixteen to sixty
- Women served the war by entering the workforce
- Took over jobs vacated by soldiers
- Did hazardous work with explosives, shells, TNT
- A liberating experience, especially for middle- and upper-class women
- Women granted the vote in western nations after the war
- Propaganda campaigns to maintain national support for the war
- Included censorship and restrictions on civil liberties
- Criticism of the war regarded as treasonous
- Propaganda designed to dehumanize the enemy
- Expansion of the war beyond Europe
- European animosities extended to the colonies
- British and French forces recruited colonials into their armies
- Eventually, Japan, United States, Ottoman empire entered the war
- Japan entered war with the Allies, 1814
- Seized German-leased territory in China
- New Zealand and Australia likewise seized German-held lands in the Pacific
- The Twenty-One Demands
- Japan advanced its imperial interests in China
- The Twenty-One Demands were designed to reduce China to Japanese protectorate
- Britain intervened, prevented total capitulation of China to Japan
- The war in sub-Saharan Africa
- Allies targeted the four German colonies in Africa
- Togoland fell quickly, but not the others
- Many Allied soldiers and workers died from tropical diseases
- Battle of Gallipoli, 1915, in Ottoman Turkey:-
- British decided to strike at the weakest Central Power, the Ottomans
- Battle of Gallipoli a disaster, with 250,000 casualties on each side
- Weakened ties of loyalty between Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain
- The Ottoman empire lost ground after Gallipoli
- Lost Caucasus to Russians
- Successful Arab revolt aided by British