WWI Quiz - Key Terms & People

Franz Ferdinand

• Austrian Archduke (prince)

• Assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo

• Tried to convince Franz Josef not to listen to Conrad (who wanted to go to war w/ Serbia and Russia)

• Wanted to make changes in Austria-Hungary (which makes him very scary to radicals)

Gavrilo Princip

• Serb

• Assassinated Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

• Member of “Union or Death” Serbian secret society

• Acted w/ the knowledge of some Serbian officials

Schlieffen Plan

• Germany invades France through Belgium

  • They don’t want to invade through the heavily defended French-German border

• Take Paris in 6 weeks

• Knock out France so Germany is not stuck in a two-front war with Russia and France

Battle of Tannenberg

• August 24-28, 1914

• German victory

• Germany vs. Russia

• Ludendorff and Hindenburg vs. Samsonov

• Puts East Prussia totally under German control

• Shows that Russia is not as much of a threat as Germany previously anticipated

• Catapults Hindenburg to national hero status

Battle of the Marne

• September 6-9, 1914

• German defeat as they were forced to retreat

• Germany vs. France and Britain

• Germany is almost able to take Paris if they can win this battle.

• Terrible German communications because of Moltke’s decentralization

• French use taxicabs to rush soldiers to the front

• Show that the Germans have failed to accomplish the Schlieffen Plan in the west

Conrad von Hotzendorf

• Austrian

• Imperialist

• Army Chief of Staff at the start of the war

• “Go Austria! Raaaaaaah!” - this guy, probably

• “Both stupid and intensely energetic”

• Tried to get Austria to go to war 26 times in the 18 months leading up to WWI

• Wants to invade Serbia, even though Russia is the bigger threat

Franz Josef

• Emperor of Austria

Kaiser Wilhem II

• German Emperor during WWI

• Gives speech supporting Moroccan independence to test British loyalty to France

Helmut von Moltke

• Germany army chief of staff at the start of the war

• Appears to suffer a nervous breakdown and gets replaced in September of 1914 after failing to accomplish the Schlieffen Plan and being defeated at the Battle of the Marne

Pre-War Germany

• Unified (under Bismarck)

• Most powerful military power on the continent

• Have Alsace and Lorraine

• Believe that they have a right to a place in the sun

• Aggressive Weltpolitik (World Policy) ideology

• Supporters of Austria

• Generals want to start war with Russia before they industrialize too much.

• Triple Alliance w/ Italy and Austria

Pre-War Italy

• Just recently unified (Risorgimento)

• Weak

  • Many ethnic Italians living outside its borders

  • Southern Italy has outdated economy, corruption

  • Lack of confidence in the government

• Triple Alliance w/ Germany and Austria

Pre-War Austria

• Weak compared to Germany (who now dominate Central Europe)

• Minority groups want independence

  • Hungarians (Magyars) even got Dual Monarchy

• Allied w/ Bulgarians against Serb nationalism

• Want to annex Bosnia

• Triple Alliance w/ Germany and Italy

Pre-War Ottoman Empire

• “Sick man of Europe”

• Minority groups want independence

  • Greeks

  • Romanians (w/ Russia’s help)

  • Bulgarians (w/ Russia’s help)

• Young Ottomans want to modernize the country w/ political equality and patriotism through land instead of religious/ethnic identities

Pre-War Russia

• Want to promote nationalism

• Want Constantinople and access to warm-water ports

• Pan-Slavism

  • Russia is the “big brother” to all Slavic peoples

• Class division, small middle class, radical working class wanting to overthrow the autocracy

• Growing economy, increasing railroads.

• Could quickly defend borders by, say, 1917.

Pre-War France

• Want Alsace-Lorraine back from Germany

• Think Germany is a threat to European security

Pre-War Britain

• Mostly isolationist

• Growing concern over German naval power

• Want to control the seas during peace and war

Triple Alliance

• Formed in 1882

• Between Germany, Austria, and Italy

• Said that if any member got into war with 2 or more powers, then its allies would come to its aid

Triple Entente

• Between Russia, France, and Britain

• Not very official because Britain refused to commit

Robert Poustis

• French soldier who was excited to head to the front

• Imagined charging at Berlin with lances and bayonets

Anna Akhmatova

• Russian poet

• Wrote “July 1914”

• Used environmental imagery to symbolize her dread at the damage that she foresaw coming from the war.

• Emphasized that the powers would fight a war in which whoever could sacrifice the most and stay alive would win.

Alfred von Tirpitz

• German Grand Admiral

Sir Edward Grey

• British Foreign Secretary

• Doesn’t want to commit to joining the war if Russia is attacked

Alfred von Schlieffen

• Germany Army Chief of Staff until 1905

• Came up with the Schlieffen plan

Causes of war

Imperialism
Militarization
Alliances/Assassination
Geography
Internal problems
Nationalism
Economic goals (industrializatoin)
dragons (Fear)

Alexander von Kluck

• German general who led the First Army

• Western Front

Peter the Great

• Russian Tsar, 1682-1725

• Started the industrialization of Russia

Catherine the Great

• Russian Empress, 1762-1796

• “Enlightened”

• Serf rebellion happens under her rule, leading to growing alienation between the nobles and the working class

Alexander I

• Russian Tsar, 1801-1825

• “The Enigmatic Tsar”

• Starts out liberal (e.g. getting rid of censorship, constitution starts getting drafted, nobles can free serfs)

• Then, gets into a war with Napoleon and now opposes liberalism

Michael Sparansky

• Russian guy who was writing the constitution under Alexander I’s rule

• Later seen as a traitor and exiled

Nicholas I

• Russian Tsar, 1825-1855

• “Reluctant Autocrat”

• “Obey without Discussion”

• Secret police

• Censorship

• Pro-Serfdom

• Narodnost

Narodnost

• National policy under Tsar Nicholas I

• Orthodoxy

• Autocracy

• Russian Language

• “Faith, Tsar, Fatherland”

Alexander II

• Russian Tsar, 1855-1881

• “The Tsar Liberator”

• Goes the other way from his dad

• Relaxes laws and secret police

• Ends serfdome

• Gets assassinated

Alexander III

• Russian Tsar, 1881-1894

• “The Last AUtocrat”

• Doesn’t get over dad’s assassination or forgive the Russian people

• Regulations against students

• Anti-semitism/pogroms

• Pan-Slavism

Nicholas II

• Russian Tsar, 1894-1917

• Last Emperor

• Doesn’t really know what to do

• Turns to Rasputin

• Tsar DURING WWI

Rasputin

• Magic monk guy

• Nobles do not like him

Pyotr Stolypin

• Old School Secret police guy under Nicholas II’s rule

• Wants to root out rebellion

• Nicolas stops him from killing everybody

Alexander Pushkin

• Poet

• “The Bronze Horseman”

• About the legacy of Peter the Great

• The founding of St. Petersburg on Swedish land

• Compliments St. Petersburg

  • “Stern, muscular appearance”

• Tells tale of a young poor man named Evgenii.

• Neva River floods, destroying the home of his love, Parasha

• He roams as a madman

• He curses the Bronze Horseman statue, which then comes to life, chases him, and kills him.

Nicolai Gogol

• Ukrainian writer

• Loves Ukraine, loves traditional rural past, doesn’t like industrialism

• “The Overcoat”

• Combination of horror and satire

• Ordinary guy whose coat gets torn

• Saves money and buys new coat

• Gets treated differently because of new coat

• Gets mugged and loses coat. Police won’t help him

• He eventually freezes to death.

• His ghost looks for the coat and haunts people

• Message: “You may oppress us now, but we’ll come back.”

  • The Russian people will go after the nobility for their basic rights, not for political power

King Albert

• Belgian king

• Had to retreat his government from Brussels due to German invasion

Janissaries

• Ottoman military elite

• Conservative and oppose change/modernization

Ulama

• Ottoman religious scholars

• Conservative and oppose change/modernization

Tanzimat

• Ottoman reorganization

• Began modernizing

• Gave equal rights to non-Muslims

Young Ottomans

• Ottoman lower upper class (writers, lower level officials, etc)

• Pushed for political change

• Islamic modernism

• Wanted to implement European institutions, but keep an Islamic basis.

Young Turks

• Want a militantly secular Ottoman society

• Turkish nationalism

• Copy Western civilization, good and bad

Oskar Potiorek

• Austrian general who invaded Serbia

• Had never seen military action prior to WWI

British Expeditionary Force

• British force fighting in France

Envar Pasha

• Turkish minister of war

• Pro-German

• Allowed German ships into the Dardanelles

Joseph Joffre

• French Commander in Chief

• Had never commanded an army until WWI

Plan XVII

• French plan to attack Germany across the French-German border

Traditional war

• Weapons: bayonets, lances, swords

  • Take time to reload

• Mobility and quick movement

• Take the high ground

• Lay siege, starve them out

• Short wars

• Prolonged boredom punctuated by brief moments of terror

• Aggressor is in control

Modern warfare

• Weapons: Artillery, Hand grenades, Machine guns

• War of attrition

• Trench warfare

• Vast armies prevent mobility

• Defender is in control

War of Attrition

• A war that you win by killing more of the other side’s soldiers than your own.

• You win by outlasting your opponents

Rape of Belgium

• German troops killed Belgian civilians, claiming that they were participating in the war

• Leuven, for example. Execute hundreds, burn famous buildings.

Battle of Mons

• First battle in WWI with the British

Erich Ludendorff

• Hindenburg’s second in command

• Wins at the Battle of Tannenberg

Paul von Hindenburg

• German General

• Is elevated to national hero status after victory at the Battle of Tannenberg

Western Front

• Britain, France, Belgium vs. Germany

• Battle of the Marne

• Battle of Verdun

• Battle of the Somme

• Germany: Bulow, Kluck

• Significant trench warfare

Eastern Front

• Germany, Austria vs. Russia

• Battle of Tannenberg

• Much more mobile, very little trench warfare

• Long front, same number of soldiers as the Western front

Erich von Falkenhayn

• German Chief of Staff after Moltke

• Believes in a hard, aggressive war

Karl von Bulow

• Commanded German 2nd Army

• Western Front

Joseph Gallieni

• French general who requisitioned all of Paris’s taxicabs in the Battle of the Marne

Trench Warfare

• Started in the Battle of the Aisne

• Long battles, for weeks

• People dig trenches into the ground

• Communication trenches, backup trenches

• Dorms set up in the trenches

• Leave soldiers shell-shocked

• Very little movement

• Artillery barrages

• Less costly to defend than to attack

Henry Williamson

• British soldier who describes the horrors of living in the trenches

Conditions in the trenches

• Couldn’t sleep

• Dead lying on the ground

• Some people drowned climbing out

• Rats

• Water- and lice-borne diseases

Roland Leighton

• British officer who wrote to his wife about how beautiful woods were bordered by dead bodies in trench warfare

Siegfried Sassoon

• British lieutenant whose poem “Counter Attack” describes the appearance of dead bodies in the mud in Flanders

Lothar Dietz

• German soldier who constructed gardens in the trenches

Wilfred Owen

• British officer on the Western Front who described the effects of gas in his poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est”

Sir John French

• Initial commander of BEF

• Relieved of service after Battles at Artois and Champagne

Sir Douglas Haig

• BEF commander after Sir John French

Maximillian von Prittwitz

• German army commander on the Eastern Front

• Replaced after retreating in the Battle of Gumbinnen

Pavel von Rennenkampf

• Commander of Russia’s First Army

• Doesn’t like Samsonov

• Loses to the Germans after the Battle of Tannenberg

Aleksander Samsonov

• Commander of Russia’s Second Army

• Doesn’t like Rennenkampf

• Loses spectacularly to the Germans at the Battle of Tannenberg, after which he commits suicide

Maximillian Hoffman

• Ingenious German colonel on the Eastern Front who helped Hindenburg and Ludendorff

Race to the Sea

• Began after the Battle of the Aisne

• Outflanking maneuvers between France, Belgium, and Germany as they moved northward and dug trenches toward the North Sea

Alexei Brusilov

• Russian general who wrote about how their army was not properly trained

King Peter

• Serbian King

Emmanuel III

• Italian King

Antonio Salandra

• Italian PM

Luigi Cardorna

• Italian army leader

Italian Front

• Italy vs. Austria

• Mountainous, treacherous, very few passes, making fighting condensed over narrow areas

• Some trench warfare in these narrows

Virgilio Bonamore

• Italian soldier who described alpine warfare

Manifesto of 93

• Proclamation by 93 famous Germans giving support to the German cause in the war

• Says that Germany didn’t start the war

• Says that Germany didn’t trespass in Belgium

Lloyd George

• British PM

• “War to end all wars”

Battle of Verdun

• 2/1/1916 - 12/18/1916

• Germans vs. French

• First time since the Battle of the Marne that the Western Front had a war of motion

• Falkenhayn wanted the French to defend it desperately and bleed themselves to death (War of Attrition)

• French are ultimately victorious

• Huge losses, symbolized brutality of the war

Phillippe Pétain

• French general in charge of defending Verdun during the Battle of Verdun

Battle of the Somme

• 7/1/1916 - 11/18/1916

• Britain and France vs. Germany

• Huge losses

• Ultimately, the battle is inconclusive.

• British and French gain a slight amount of territory

Alexei Brusilov

• Russian Imperial General

• Repeatedly crushed Austrian forces

Woodrow Wilson

• American President

John Pershing

• American general

• “Blackjack”

Ferdinand Foch

• French general

• Supreme commander of Allied forces

Paul Hub

• German soldier who wrote about the quality of English goods compared to rationed German goods

Erich Maria Lemarque

• German veteran

• Wrote All Quiet on the Western Front

• Memoir about the war

• Wrote about being overwhelmed by Allied forces

• Wrote about psychological damages of war

• Wrote about how the Earth protected him

Karl

• Austrian Emperor

Prince Max of Baden

• Brief chancellor of Germany after Wilhelm renounces power

Friedrich Ebert

• Moderate socialist chancellor of Germany

• Negotiated armistice on 11/11b

Shift in European Thought

• Skeptical of industrialization and new technology

• Normalization of violence

• Traumatization

• Widespread mourning and respect for the dead

• The environment and nature is seen as foreboding/ominous

In peace, Wilson wanted…

• Idealist, free, peaceful treaty

• Put international relations in peaceful footing

Georges Clemenceau

In peace, France and Britain wanted…

• Territory/colonies in Africa

• Neutralize Germany

• Get their debts repaid/reparations