Unit 4: World War One

28 June 1914

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo

Triple Entente

An alliance between Great Britain, France and Russia in the years before WWI

Triple Alliance

An alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in the years before WWI

28 July 1914

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

1 August 1914

Germany declares war on Russia and France and Germany begin mobilisation

4 August 1914

Britain and Australia declare war on Germany

25 April 1915

The Anzacs land at Gallipoli

December 1915

ANZACS withdraw from Gallipoli

March 1916

The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) joins the fight against Germany on the Western Front

July 1916

Battle of the Somme (first use of tanks)

28 October 1916

The first referendum on conscription is held in Australia

April 1917

USA entered the war

25 April 1918

Australians recapture town of Villers-Bretonneux

11 November 1918

Armistice signed ending WW1 at 11am

28 June 1919

Treaty of Versailles signed

Militarism

A focus within a country on boosting the strength of the military by growing the armed forces and spending on military equipment

Alliances

A series of agreements between powers to work together to achieve shared goals

Imperialism

the process of gaining and maintaining control over other countries for economic of strategic reasons

Nationalism

A sense of pride in one's country; the idea that one's culture and interest are superior to those of other nations

Conscription

The compulsory enlistment of people into the armed forces

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's military plan at the outbreak of World War I, in which German troops would go through Belgium to rapidly defeat France and then move east to attack Russia

ANZAC

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

Gallipoli Campaign

(1915) Failed attempt by the Allies (mainly ANZACs) in World War I to take control of the Dardanelles in Turkey

The Western Front

A line of trenches and fortifications in World War I that stretched without a break from Switzerland to the North Sea. Scene of most of the fighting between Germany, on the one hand, and France and Britain, on the other

700km

Approximate length of the Western Front from Belgium to Switzerland

Trench Warfare

A type of combat in which opposing troops fight from trenches facing each other

Trench foot

A painful condition of the feet caused by long immersion in cold water or mud and marked by blackening and rotting of the skin

Mustard Gas

A new invention in WWI - a yellow coloured gas that was fired at the enemy - it caused blindness, damage to the lungs and death

Propaganda

Ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause

'over the top'

Expression referring to climbing out of a trench or over the front edge of the trench to begin moving across no man's land

No man's land

A strip of land between the trenches of opposing armies along the Western Front during WW1

Shell Shock

Medical condition caused by prolonged exposure to the distressing experiences of trench warfare.

Armistice

an agreement made by opposing sides in a war to stop fighting for a certain time; a truce.