People
 Otto von Bismarck
 Emperor William II
 Theophile Declasse
 Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
 Archduke Francis Ferdinand
 Count Alfred von Schlieffen
 Chancellor Theobald von
Bethmann-Hollweg (awesome
name!)
 Helmuth von Moltke (not so
shoddy, either)
 Tsar Nicholas II
 General Joffre (France)
 Generals Hindenburg and
Ludendorf (Germany)
 Lawrence of Arabia
 Woodrow Wilson
 Walter Rathenau
 David Lloyd George
 (English writer) Robert Roberts
 Karl Liebknecht
 Rosa Luxembourg
 General Petain
 Georges Clemenceau
 Emperor Francis Joseph
(Austria)
 Rasputin
 Tsarina Alexandra
 Alexander Karensky
 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
 Lavr Kornilov
 General Denikin
 Henry Cabot Lodge
Terms
 The Franco-Prussian War
 the Balkans
o the ‘sick man of Europe’
 Three Emperor’s League 
Triple Alliance  Alliance of
the Three Emperors  GermanRussian Reinsurance Treaty
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Congress of Berlin in 1878
‘occupy and administer’
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Sarajevo
‘The Marseillaise”
Splendid isolation
The Boer War
Anglo-French Entente
Algeciras Conference of 1906
People’s Budget (British)
Anglo-Russian Agreement
The Daily Mail
The Balkans
Slavs/Slavic
1st, 2nd, and ‘3rd’ Balkans Wars
the Black Hand
the Schlieffen Plan
Triple Entente
First Battle of the Marne
Stalemate
‘Over the top’
Battle of the Somme
Battle of Verdun
Artillery
Battle of Passchendaele
Battle of Tannenberg
Blockade v Convoy System
Home Front
Reichstag
Central Powers
The Dardenelles (successful?)
The Lusitania
Unrestricted submarine
warfare
Total war
War Raw Materials Board
(Germany)
Nitrogen ‘fixing’
Auxiliary Service Law
(Germany)
Totalitarian
Ministry of Munitions (Britain)
Russian Revolution (1917)
Easter Rebellion
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Duma
Progressive bloc
Hemophilia
Provisional Government
(Russia)
March Revolution of 1917
(Russia)
November Revolution of 1917
(Russia)
the Petrograd Soviet (of
Workers’ and Soldier’s Deputies)
Army Order #1
Anarchy
Grass Roots
Bolsheviks
Mensheviks
The Communist Manifesto
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Constituent Assembly
Reds (Russia)
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Whites (Russia)
the ‘Socialist Revolutionaries’
party
war communism
Cheka
Second Battle of the Marne
the Social Democratic Party
(Germany)
German Communist Party
The Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
Lloyd George quote about
‘squeezing the orange until the
pips squeak’
Alsace-Lorraine
German/Polish Danzig (a city)
The Rhineland
Reparations
Mandate system
Self-determination
Questions
 How did Europeans mistakenly view World War I at its outset?
 What were Bismarck’s basic goals in creating European Alliances in the late 19th
century? Which countries did Bismarck see as the greatest threats to peace during
the same time period and why? How did Bismarck seek to neutralize these
threats?
 How was Old Nationalism in Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire a
threat for Germany?
 What was the main point of Bismarck’s conservative Three Emperor’s League?
 What decisions were reached at the Congress of Berlin of 1878? What was
Bismarck’s overarching goal in Eastern and Southeastern Europe? Why would the
Bosnia and Herzegovina part of this decision be fateful? (you must understand the
start of the war to answer this last question).
 Who was in the Triple Alliance and what were the motivations of each country for
joining this alliance?
 How did Bismarck seek to focus French anger at Germany elsewhere?
 What does the signing of the Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty tell us about
Bismarck’s goals and methods?
 In what sense were Bismarck’s treaties successful? In what ways (several) did
German Emperor William II destroy Bismarck’s system and its success? How had
Bismarck treated France? How were William II’s blunders an opportunity for
France?
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What motivations and obstacles existed for Britain in regards to joining the
German, Austrian, Italian group versus joining the French, Russian group? How
did German actions help persuade the British to join the opposite side?
What role did journalists have in turning public opinion in Germany and
especially England against the other?
Know that Britain strengthened its ties with the U.S. and made an alliance with
Japan to face the German threat.
Understand the bungled opportunities that left Germany diplomatically isolated.
Understand the reason each major power chose the side it did in the years
immediately prior to the war.
The German decision to challenge British naval dominance is crucial.
Why were nationalistic tensions like those in the Balkans weaker during the
height of New Imperialism and stronger after 1903?
What myriad reasons existed for the tensions in the Balkans in the early 20th
century? Why was Bosnia-Herzegovina a source of special tension between the
Austrians and Russians on the one hand and among the Balkan peoples
themselves on the other hand?
What factors prevented an outbreak in the Balkans before 1900? What factors
caused the three Balkan Wars of the early 20th century?
Why was the Austro-Hungarian Empire fairly willing to take a gamble on a large
war? Who backed them up on this?
When deciding to back up Austria-Hungary, who had Germany gambled would
stay neutral? What part of their Schlieffen Plan spoiled this German hope?
Understand the importance of logistics and military timetables to the shortcircuiting of diplomacy.
Which of the European powers do historians generally blame as the aggressor
nation in World War I? What arguments are given to explain why this nation felt
the need for this aggressive posture?
In what sense have some historians blamed the outbreak of the war on
conservative elites’ sense of self preservation? In what sense was the conservative
gamble to solve their problems thorough war a grave miscalculation?
In what sense was nationalism the key cause of the war?
What factors caused the Schlieffen Plan to fail and the war on the western front to
degenerate into trench warfare? Understand geographically the extent of the
trench lines on the western front.
What are the basic themes of World War I fighting on the western front as evident
in the battles at the First Battle of the Marne, the Somme, and Verdun? Why was
the First Battle of the Marne so important?
How did the style of fighting and the experience of the troops set the stage for
post war problems, in particular between civilians and ex-soldiers?
How was the warfare different on the Eastern front? Who, ultimately, had the
greatest amount of success on this front?
On which sides and for what reasons did Italy, Bulgaria, Arab peoples, and the
U.S. join the fight? Why is the U.S. the most significant country on this list? What
was the result of their decision to join?
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What was the result of the war for the Ottoman Empire?
How did British and French colonial subjects react to the war? What happened to
German colonies?
Roughly how long did civilians in the home front remain patriotically and
romantically committed to total war? What factors caused cracks in this support?
How did governments control economies to help the war effort? Understand the
unique aspects of each country. How does this hearken back to Robespierre’s
France? Which countries had harsher, more complete, government control and
which had relatively looser control and why?
Why were there no true civilians in total war?
How did World War I decrease social inequality in European countries? How did
they improve the standing of labor unions and women? Which European countries
got the vote immediately after the war? What evidence of women’s growing
independence and ‘spirit’ existed? How were the deaths in World War I
surprisingly socially equal?
In what sense was Karl Liebknecht a precursor to Lenin?
What events show cracks in national support for WWI? What techniques did
conservative and military leaders use to shore up these fissures? Know that the
fissures were deeper in the Central Powers than in the Western members of the
Entente (and how Socialists and Catholics in Germany and ethnic minorities in
Austria-Hungary reacted), but were even deeper in Russia than in either of the
others. Know the importance of the British blockade to the crumbling of morale in
the Central Powers.
Why was support initially high in Russia for the war and when and why did this
support to evaporate?
What was the central reason that Russia had a rougher time coping with the
strains of war than the other Great Powers?
What fatal mistake does Tsar Nicholas II make? How does the Tsarina fall under
the ‘spell’ of Rasputin? Who decides to get rid of Rasputin and why? How do
these events signal the rise of anarchy in Russia and how did events at the front
and in Petrograd exacerbate this situation? Know that Nicholas II ultimately gave
up his power.
What led to the March Revolution? Who took over as a result of this first part of
the Russian Revolution? What reforms did the Provisional Government enact and
which did it stop short of? What factors weakened the Provisional Government?
In what basic ways was the Petrograd Soviet different from the Provisional
Government? What was the intended effect of Army Order #1 and how did it lead
instead to anarchy? How did this order and the radical land reform taking place in
Russia contribute to the destruction of the army?
What factors radicalized Lenin and what were the three unique aspects of his
brand of Marxism?
What were the basic differences between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks?
Which nation aided Lenin gain power in Russia and why? What were Lenin’s
radical positions once he returned to Russia? Why did Lenin’s first attempt at
revolution (in July) fail and why/how was he able to resurrect his movement?
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What were Trotsky’s main skills and how did he manage to bring the Bolsheviks
to power and maintain that power? What sentiments among the Russian people
aided this Bolshevik rise?
How did Lenin harness existing popular movements to increase the popularity of
the Bolshevik movement?
How did Lenin get Russia out of World War I?
What proves that Lenin was not interested in a democratically chosen
government?
What factors, in particular with respect to the short-lived Constituent Assembly,
caused civil war to break out in Russia?
What factors helped the Reds win this civil war? (there are many parts to the
answer to this question!)
Why was the Russian Revolution such an earth-shattering and influential event?
Why was Russia’s exit from World War I such a temporary relief for the Central
Powers? Who plays a new and important role at the Second Battle of the Marne?
How does Ludendorf poison the future of Germany as he sees victory slip away?
How do the actions of German workers help to bring about the end of the war?
What becomes of the Kaiser?
What becomes of Austro-Hungarian Empire?
In what ways is the revolution in Germany at the end of World War I similar to
and different from the revolution in Russia? What reasons does the text give for
the more moderate scope of the German revolution?
Why were many attendees at the Treaty of Versailles conference in Paris highly
optimistic? Why did many feel confident that they could out-peace-treaty the
authors of the Congress of Vienna?
What was Woodrow Wilson’s obsession at the Paris Peace Conference? How
would his zealotry ultimately doom his goals?
What were the basic goals of the French and British? Why were their goals
fundamentally different from those of the Americans? (this last question is only
answered implicitly in the text)
What did Clemenceau want at the peace conference, why was he forced to settle
for less, and what did he get? Why did he eventually lose even this final thing?
In what ways does the text see the text, before the meddling of the U.S. Congress,
as a reasonably good treaty?
What lands did France and England get from the Ottoman Empire in the Middle
East? What term did they use for these lands to give this act of Imperialism a
good spin? What does this demonstrate about the limits of self-determination?
What did Japan get for its support of the Triple Entente?
Why had Lenin’s revolution in Russia encouraged the delegates at the Paris Peace
Conference to work fast?
Why did the U.S. Congress reject the Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s defensive
alliance with France? (at least two reasons)
How does the Treaty of Versailles set the stage for future war? (not really
explicitly explained… but its there!) Which country does the text primarily
blame for this?