World War I Review
MAIN Causes of World War I:
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Militarism: countries beginning to build up their supply of weapons
Alliance system: countries making alliances to protect themselves from empires
Imperialism: countries becoming competitive and wanting to increase the size of the empires
Nationalism: love of your country, being willing to do anything for your country
Alliances of WWI:
 Triple Entente (Allies): United Kingdom, France, Russia (The
US eventually joins the Triple Entente.)
 Triple Alliance (Central Powers): Austria-Hungary, Germany,
Italy (Italy eventually leaves the Triple Alliance and joins the
Triple Entente. The Ottoman Empire eventually joins the
Triple Alliance.)
The players involved in the start of WWI:
 Archduke Franz Ferdinand: the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary
 Gavrilo Princip: the 19-year-old Serbian who assassinated the Archduke
The events that spark WWI:
 Austria-Hungary annexes (takes over) Bosnia-Herzegovina
 Ferdinand visits Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
 Gavrilo Princip shoots the Archduke and his wife
 Austria-Hungary demands an investigation from the Serbian government. Serbia refuses and AustriaHungary threatens war
 As soon as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, Russia mobilizes (gets its troops together) to support
Serbia. Germany declares war on Russia.
Schlieffen Plan:
Germany’s way of preventing a two front (where the fighting takes place) war.
1. March into France by way of Belgium (neutral country) and catch them off guard.
2. Defeat France before Russia mobilizes (prepare and organize
troops). Planned on 6 weeks.
3. Swoop over to Russia and defeat them. The war will be over
in months.
Failure of the Schlieffen Plan:
 Germany gets bogged down on the Western Front because
of the trenches (Battle of the Marne)
 Russia mobilizes in 10 days, not 6 weeks
 Some German troops forced to go to Eastern Front to fight
Russia
 Germany is now fighting a 2 front war: Western (in France)
and Eastern (in Russia)
Trench Warfare:
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Trench Warfare: a system of trenches dug into the land to hide from the machine gun fire.
“Over the Top”: attacking infantrymen climbing out the trench to attack the opposing side.
Stalemate: when neither side wins.
War of Attrition: a slow wearing down process of each side until one is left standing.
Total War: an entire country’s resources going into the war effort.
The US Enters the War:
• Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: Germany will sink vessels such as freighters, cruise ships, and tankers
without warning. (The sinking of the Lusitania is an example although it was a British ship and it
happened 2 years before the US entered the war.)
• The Zimmerman Telegram: A telegram intercepted by the British that was from the German foreign
secretary to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the case of
war between the United States and Germany.
Wilson’s Fourteen Points:
• Before the end of WWI, President Woodrow Wilson worked on a plan for world peace.
• He wanted to settle the issues of WWI and prevent any future wars. This was laid out in his peace plan
called “The Fourteen Points”.
• The 14th Point was the League of Nations (an international organization to provide a forum for
resolving international disputes).
Russia withdraws from the war:
• Civil unrest due to war-related shortages of food and fuel
• The Czar abdicates (gives up) his throne (March 15, 1917)
• Russian soldiers refuse to fight any longer (nearly 5.5 million had been killed, wounded or taken
prisoner)
• Germany and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 3, 1918): Russia surrenders land to Germany
(present day Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)
The last push of the war:
• With Russia out of the war, Germany can now send all of its forces to the Western Front
• 2nd Battle of the Marne (in France)
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Germans get within 40 miles of Paris
Arrival of 2 million American troops allows the Allies to advance towards Germany
Germans exhausted and low on supplies
Nov. 9, 1918 – German Kaiser Wilhelm II steps down
Nov. 11, 1918 – armistice (agreement to end fighting) signed to end the war. Went into effect at 11/11
11 am. It is singed in a train car in France.
Treaty of Versailles:
Paris Peace Conference (1918-1919)
32 Nations attended
Controlled by Big Four: Britain, France, Italy, & USA
Absent from the conference are Germany, Austria-Hungary
Article 231: blames Germany for the war. Germany loses land and its military
New Countries are created out of the Central Powers:
1. From Austria-Hungary: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland
2. From the Ottoman Empire: Turkey, Palestine, Iraq, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon
3. From Russia: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania
• Mandates: After World War I, many colonies wanted their independence.
Therefore, the League of Nations created the mandate system. The main
purpose of the mandate system was to administer the colonies of
defeated powers on a temporary basis. The most famous place for
mandates was the Middle East: both France and Great Britain became
mandatory powers (had mandates there).
***Remember***
French Sign Language: French = Syria & Lebanon
I Taste Peanut Butter: Iraq & Transjordan & Palestine = Britain
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***Know the Post WWI map of Europe***