World War One Unit
Unit Test Study Guide
Honors
Test Format:
 Multiple Choice (50-75)
Important Concepts to Study:

Know the main members of the Triple Alliance, members of the Triple Entente, and which side was victorious in
the war.

Know the basic circumstances surrounding the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Know that this
was the spark that started World War One.

The phases of World War One (from our chart)

Schlieffen Plan
o What was it?
o What role did the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Marne play in the failure of the Schlieffen
Plan?

Race to the Sea

Trench warfare
o Trench warfare & military strategy
 What technology led to the emergence of trench warfare?
 Why did trench warfare result in a stalemate?
o Trench warfare & The physical experience of war
o Trench warfare & The psychological experience of war

Total War
o What is total war?
o How was total war part of a military strategy?
 Creeping Barrage on the Battlefield
 Actions against civilians off of the battlefield
o What is the relationship between total war and trench warfare?
o What was the effect of total war on civilians? How were they brought in as both perpetrators and
victims?

Stalemate Becomes Slaughter: The Battle of Verdun & The Battle of the Somme
o Describe the participants and winners and losers of theses battle?
o What was the creeping barrage strategy and why was it employed?
o How do these two battles signal the growing pointlessness of World War One?
o How is a war of attrition part of a total war strategy?

Russia Exits The War
o How does Russia leave the war?
o Why does Russia’s exit from the war tip the war in Germany’s favor?
o (You will not be tested on the details of the Russian Revolution, but need to know that it is Lenin and his
government that sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk)?

The United States’ Entrance to the War
o Know about the German decision to increase unrestricted submarine warfare and how this effect the
United States
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o
o
Zimmerman telegram
How did the U.S. entry into the war serve as a turning point in World War One?

How did World War One end?
o Role of the United States
o Role of German Revolution
o Who is the Weimar Republic?

Treaty of Versailles
o What is it?
o Who negotiated it?
o What were France, Great Britain, and the United States’ interests when negotiating the Treaty?
 Know the Points of View of Wilson and Clemenceau
o What were the four main terms and conditions imposed on Germany by the Treaty?
o Know Article 231
o What was the goal of the Treaty of Versailles?
o Was the Treaty of Versailles part of the offensive strategy / total war of World War One?
o Was the Treaty of Versailles a 19th century solution to a 20th century war?
o How might the Treaty be an attempt to resolve the sense of purposelessness coming out of the war?
o What was the role of the Weimar Republic in the Treaty of Versailles?
o How does the Treaty of Versailles connect with issues of war memory

Shift in European Thought After World War One: Age of Anxiety
o How was WWI remembered?
o Know the individual theories of: Freud, Quantum Physics, and Nietzsche (at a general level)
o Know collectively how they create a new sense of European thought after World War One.
o Know connections between these theories and World War One.

Themes to trace across lessons:
o 19th century strategies in a 20th century war
o Notions of masculinity
o Strategy of assaulting/barraging the enemy
o Total war
o Sense of purposelessness of the war
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