WW1, inter war, WW2 Study Guide

WWI Dates

1914–1918

Immediate Cause of WWI

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914

Four Long-Term Causes of WWI

MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism

Why Great Britain Entered WWI (1914)

Britain entered after Germany invaded Belgium and refused to withdraw

Why the U.S. Entered WWI (1917)

Unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking of ships with Americans, and the Zimmermann Telegram

Zimmermann Telegram

1917 message from Germany to Mexico proposing alliance against the United States

Why Russia Left WWI

Russian Revolution and civil unrest; signed peace with Germany in 1918

New Fighting Style of WWI

Trench warfare with opposing trenches separated by no man’s land

Advantages / Disadvantages of Trench Warfare

Protection from enemy fire, but mud, rats, disease, and little movement

WWI Weapons / Technology

Machine guns, poison gas, submarines, artillery, tanks, radios, airplanes

Selective Service Act (1917)

U.S. law creating the draft to rapidly build the military

How WWI Ended

Armistice signed on November 11, 1918, then peace treaty followed

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

Peace treaty ending WWI that blamed Germany, reduced its military, and required reparations

League of Nations

Organization created after WWI to prevent wars; weakened because the U.S. never joined

Germany Before WWI

Constitutional monarchy under Kaiser Wilhelm II

Weimar Republic

Democratic government of Germany from 1919 to 1933

Interwar Period Dates

1919–1939

Great Depression Cause / Impact

Started with 1929 stock market crash; caused worldwide unemployment and instability

Adolf Hitler

Leader of the Nazi Party who became dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945

How Hitler Gained Power

Appointed Chancellor in 1933; gained full power after Hindenburg died in 1934

Enabling Act

Law allowing Hitler to make laws without parliament, helping create dictatorship

Nuremberg Laws (1935)

Laws removing rights from Jews and other targeted groups

Armenian Genocide

Systematic killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during WWI

Holocaust

Systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazi Germany

Groups Targeted by Nazis

Jews, Roma, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, political enemies, Slavs

Concentration Camps

Prison and labor camps where people were imprisoned, abused, and often killed

Death / Extermination Camps

Camps built mainly for mass killing as part of the Final Solution

Hitler’s 1936 Treaty Violation

Remilitarized the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles

Japanese Expansion Before WWII

Manchuria and parts of China

Italian Expansion Before WWII

Ethiopia and Albania

German Expansion Before WWII

Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, then Poland

WWII Dates

September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

Five Causes of WWII

Dictatorship, Militarism, Nationalism, Imperialism, Failure of Appeasement

Event That Started WWII

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939

Non-Aggression Pact

1939 agreement where Germany and Soviet Union agreed not to attack each other

Appeasement

Policy of giving in to Hitler’s demands to avoid another war

Why the U.S. Stayed Out at First

Isolationism and desire to avoid foreign wars

Pearl Harbor

Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 that brought the U.S. into WWII

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan

Allied Powers

Britain, France, Soviet Union, United States, and others

How WWII Ended in Europe

Germany surrendered in May 1945

How WWII Ended in Asia

U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrendered in 1945

D-Day / Normandy

June 6, 1944 Allied invasion of France that helped liberate Western Europe

Kamikaze Attacks

Japanese suicide pilots who crashed planes into Allied ships

Island Hopping

U.S. Pacific strategy of capturing key islands while bypassing others

Important Pacific Battles

Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa

Why Truman Used Atomic Bombs

Heavy casualties in Pacific battles made invasion of Japan seem too costly

Blitzkrieg

German “lightning war” using fast tanks, aircraft, artillery, and infantry

WWII vs WWI German Strategy

WWII used fast Blitzkrieg; WWI relied more on slow trench warfare

8 Events That Led to WW1

Franco - Russian alliance (1894), First German Naval Law (1898), Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), Austria Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1908), Second Moroccan Crisis (1911), Italy invades Libya (1911), Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Assassination of Archduke Francis (1914)