WWI Causes IDs #1-23

Total War

Total War

A country uses all its human, economic & military resources to fight the war & ensure complete victory over the enemy; creating a large fighting force through the use of conscription; using civilians in the war effort (industry & home defense); using all weapons available & developing new ones in order to ensure victory. government control of key aspects of the economy, so that it can be directed into the war effort; government control of the media in order to maintain civilian morale & also to ensure the population sees the enemy as one that must be defeated at all costs; the targeting of civilians as well as combatants in the quest for complete victory over the enemy's political, social & military structures.

Limited War

constraining the way in which war is conducted; confining the geographical area in which fighting takes place; restricting the type of targets that can be attacked; restricting the weapons that can be used; restricting the degree of mobilization. Limited war is the opposite concept to total war.

Civil War

Conflicts fought between two factions or regions of the same country; the warring sides clash over ethnic, religious, political or ideological issues; combatants aim to take control of the political & legal institutions of the state; the violence tends to be longer lasting than in a coup d'état; combatants can be identified as incumbents or insurgents; often there is foreign involvement & depending on its role & impact, this could be viewed as broadening a the war into an international conflict.

Guerilla War

From the Spanish word for "little war" this is "unconventional warfare" because, rather than trying to attack an enemy head-on with conventional tactics, small groups of fighters use tactics such as ambush and hit-and-run (small-unit raids against a larger & less mobile formal army).

Deterrence

• Actions or policies designed to discourage an attack by making the consequences of the attack prohibitive.

Neo-mercantilism

An economic doctrine that emphasizes the need to decrease imports by moving toward self-sufficiency. This move often requires an increase in colonial holdings to supply raw materials and provide markets for finished goods.

An economic theory that maximizes the benefits to and interests of a country such as higher prices for goods traded abroad, price stability, stability of supply, and expansion of exports with concomitant reduction of imports.

Ottoman von Bismarck

-Conservative Prussian statesman who dominated German and European affairs from the 1860s until 1890
-appointed Minister President of Prussia
-provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark, Austria and France, aligning the smaller German states behind Prussia in defeating his arch-enemy France
-formed the German Empire with himself as Chancellor, while retaining control of Prussia
-realipolitik dipolmacy led to German unification and rapid economic growth
-distrusted democracy and ruled through a strong, well-trained bureaucracy with power in the hands of a traditional Junker elite that comprised the landed nobility of the east

"Blood & Iron" (1862)

Speech by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck given in 1862 about the unification of the German territories. Although he was an outstanding diplomat, the phrase has become a popular description of his foreign policy partly because he did on occasion resort to war in a highly effective manner to aid in the unification of Germany and the expansion of its continental power

Prussian - Danish War (1864)

Causes: land dispute/ports (Schleswig - Holstein); succession dispute (king died without an heir acceptable to the German Confederation); ethnic dispute; Prussian & Austrian Invasion. Effects: Treaty of Vienna (cession of Schleswig - Holstein to Prussia & Austria-Hungary); German militarism (reinforces militarism as a solution to diplomatic disputes); last hurrah for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Austro - Prussian War (1866)

Conflict in central Europe fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the other that resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states.

shift in power among the German states away from Austrian and towards Prussian hegemony, and impetus towards the unification of all of the northern German states in a Kleindeutschland that excluded Austria

Franco-Prussian War (1870 - 1871)

Conflict between the Second French Empire and the German states of the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The conflict emerged from tensions caused by German unification. The Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck planned to provoke a French attack in order to draw the southern German states into an alliance with the Prussian dominated North German Confederation. The conflict ended in a German victory. The German conquest of France and the unification of Germany upset the European balance of power that had existed since the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Alsace & Lorraine

French territory annexed by the German Empire in 1871 following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War

Revanche Movement

a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement

Franz Josef (r. 1848 - 1916)

Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary from 1848 until his death in 1916. He was also the uncle to Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He divided his empire into the Dual Monarchy, in which Austria and Hungary coexisted as equal partners. In 1879 he formed an alliance with Prussian-led Germany. On June 28, 1914, the assassination of the heir-presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand, at the hands of Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, resulted in Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia.

Nicholas II (r. 1894-1917)

The last tsar of Russia ruled from November 1, 1894 until his forced abdication on March 15, 1917. His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse.

The Eastern Question

The diplomatic and political problems posed by the decay of the Ottoman Empire including instability in the European territories ruled by the Ottoman Empire.

Three Emperors' League (1873)

First alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary from 1873 to 1879.
Together they would control Eastern Europe, making sure that restive ethnic groups such as the Poles were kept in control.
Otto von Bismarck took full charge of German foreign policy from 1870 to his dismissal in 1890. His goal was a peaceful Europe, based on the balance of power. He feared that a hostile combination of Austria, France and Russia would crush Germany.

Dual Alliance

Defensive alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was created by treaty on October 7, 1879 as part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's system of alliances to prevent/limit war. In it, Germany and Austria-Hungary pledged to aid one another in case of an attack by Russia. Also, each state promised benevolent neutrality to the other if one of them was attacked by another European power.

Three Emperors' Alliance

Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia → Mutual defense; promised neutrality

Triple Alliance (1882 - 1914)

Military alliance among Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, (as opposing the Triple Entente which consisted of an alliance between Britain, France and Russia), that lasted from May 20, 1882 until World War I in 1914.

The Reinsurance Treaty (1887)

1887 Treaty initiated by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to continue to ally with Russia after their earlier alliance had broken down in the aftermath of the RussianAustrian confrontation over the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Facing the competition between Russia and Austria- Hungary on the Balkans, Bismarck felt that this agreement with Tsar Alexander III was essential to prevent a Russian convergence toward France and to continue the diplomatic isolation of the French so ensuring German security against a threatening two-front war.

Wilhem II (r. 1888-1918)

The last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from June 15, 1888 to November 9, 1918. He was the eldest grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe. Crowned in 1888, he dismissed Bismarck as Chancellor in 1890 and launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the crisis of July 1914 that led in a matter of days to the First World War. Bombastic and impetuous, he sometimes made tactless pronouncements on sensitive topics without consulting his ministers, culminating in a disastrous Daily Telegraph interview that cost him most of his influence in 1908. His top generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands.

Weltpolitik

"World Policy". The foreign policy adopted by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany in 1890, which marked a decisive break with former Chancellor Bismarck's "Realpolitik." The aim of was to transform Germany into a global power through aggressive diplomacy, the acquisition of overseas colonies, and the development of a large navy.