Grade 8 History: World War I (1914–1918)

Vocabulary study flashcards covering the causes, trench warfare, home front, international participants, and outcomes of World War I.

Allied Powers

The alliance during the First World War consisting of Britain, France, Italy, and Russia, along with their colonies.

Central Powers

The alliance during the First World War made up of Germany, Austria, and Turkey, along with their colonies.

The Great War

Another name for World War I (1914–1918), noted as the first war fought along modern industrial lines and the first to introduce chemical weapons.

Nationalism

A strong feeling of pride and devotion to one's country that drove European nations to compete to be the richest, most powerful, and strongest.

Dreadnought

A new class of British warship featuring an armoured deck and fast-firing, heavy guns, built to counter Germany's growing naval strength.

Naval Race

The intense military competition between Britain and Germany to construct bigger, better, and more superior warships to dominate the seas.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The heir to the Austrian throne from the Habsburg royal family whose assassination in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 served as the immediate trigger for World War I.

The Black Hand

A Serbian military group that aimed to remove Austrian control from the Balkans and was responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Gavrilo Princip

The Serbian member of the Black Hand who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.

Tsar Nicholas II

The Russian ruler who led Russia during the first years of World War I before being overthrown due to severe war casualties, starvation, and widespread discontent.

Propaganda

The deliberate misuse of information to appeal to emotion, using fear, exaggeration, and lies to persuade people to support a cause or point of view.

Conscription

Compulsory military service introduced in Britain in 1916 requiring all single men between the ages of 18 and 41 to enlist, unless they were widowed with children or ministers of religion.

Conscientious Objectors

Around 16,000 men in Britain who refused to fight in World War I due to pacifist, political, or religious objections.

White Feather

A symbol of cowardice handed out by women in Britain to men not wearing military uniforms to publicly shame them into enlisting.

Western Front

The border zone between France and Germany where the majority of large-scale battles and trench warfare took place during World War I.

Duckboards

Wooden planks placed along the bottom of battlefield trenches to allow soldiers to walk above the mud and standing water.

Dugouts

Shelters carved into the sides of trench walls where soldiers could rest and shelter from enemy fire.

No Man’s Land

The barren, dangerous open area located directly between opposing frontline trenches.

Shell Shock

A severe psychological breakdown experienced by soldiers due to constant gunfire, bombardment, and witnessing traumatic casualties on the battlefield.

In Flanders Fields

A World War I poem written from the perspective of fallen soldiers that commemorates their sacrifice and urges remaining soldiers to continue the fight.

Battle of Delville Wood (1916)

A devastating battle on the Western Front in France involving South African soldiers, in which only 755 of the 3,153 troops survived.

The Mendi

A ship carrying black South African non-combatants of the 5th Battalion, South African Native Labour Corps, which sank in 1917 on its voyage to the Western Front.

Suffragettes

A British women's organization that used militant tactics and civil disobedience to campaign for women's right to vote.

Weimar Republic

The new democratic German government established at the end of World War I that agreed to the armistice in 1918.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace treaty whose terms were dictated to Germany, forcing it to surrender territory, pay war damages, and disarm its military.

War Guilt Clause

A provision in the Treaty of Versailles requiring Germany to formally accept full responsibility and blame for causing World War I.