IB 1 History-WW I

Pre-WWI Great Powers of Europe

Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary

Balkan Peninsula

Southeast European landmass with a great variety of ethnic diversity

Ottoman Empire

'Sickman of Europe'; Source of the 'Eastern Question'

Nationalism

a feeling that people have of being loyal to and proud of their country often with the belief that it is better and more important than other countries

Militarism

the opinions or actions of people who believe that a country should use military methods, forces, etc., to gain power and to achieve its goals

Alliances

a union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or organizations-often in terms of military defense/aggression

Franco-Prussian War

1870-71 War between France and an association of German states that resulted in French defeat and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Following the war, Germany unified.

Conscription

compulsory enlistment for state service, typically into the armed forces.

Triple Alliance

Pre-WWI alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy

Triple Entente

WWI alliance between France, Russia and Great Britain

Mobilization

is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war.

Franz Ferdinand

Austrian Archduke assassinated on June 28, 1914 leading to the July Crisis

Bosnian Crisis 1908

6 October 1908, Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, territories formally within the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire leading to Serbian anger

Balkan Wars 1912-1913

two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.

Gavrilo Princip

Serb-nationalist assassin of Franz Ferdinand

Blank Check

German promise of support to Austria-Hungary should they be attacked by Russia following an Austrian attack on Serbia

Schlieffen Plan

German pre-war military plan to avoid a two-front war by invading France through Belgium followed by an attack on Russia.

Encirclement

Germany fears of being surrounded by hostile nations

Revisionist

An historian that challenges the status quo of an historical opinion, based on new evidence or interpretations

Sydney Fey

American historian of the 1920s that challenged the views of the causation of WWI by suggesting the MAIN themes (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism) were the causes of the war and not any one nation.

Fritz Fischer

Historian who claimed Germany was totally to blame, sought an aggressive war of expansion and territory grabbing to solve their own economic and cultural problems

Niall Ferguson

Claims England is most to blame for the outbreak of war because of its misinterpretations of German ambitions.

Battle of the Frontiers

1914. Start of WWI. Series of battle fought along eastern border of France and southern Belgium.

Race to the sea

Name given to the continuous series of flanking movement by Germans and British in October and November 1914; resulted in a continuous line of trenches from the Marne to the English Channel.

Trench Warfare

Fighting with trenches, mines, and barbed wire. Horrible living conditions, great slaughter, no gains, stalemate, used in WWI-primarily noted on the Western front

War of Attrition

A war based on wearing the other side down by constant attacks and heavy losses.

Western Front

A line of trenches and fortifications in World War I that stretched without a break from Switzerland to the North Sea.

Eastern Front

In WWI, the region along the German-Russian Border where Russians and Serbs battled Germans, Austrians, and Turks.

Russian Revolution

February 1917, Tsar Nicholar II forced to abdicate throne, ending the Romanov dynasty (ruling family for 3 centuries);

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

A policy that the Germans announced on January 1917 which stated that their submarines would sink any ship

Zimmerman Note

Originally sent from Germany to Mexico saying that if Mexico can keep the US out of the Great War then Germany would help Mexico regain its territories taken from the US like New Mexico, Texas and Arizona.

Spring Offensive

March 1918; series of five German offensives in the final year of World War I, ultimately failed to break through

Armistice

Agreement to stop fighting. 11/11/18 for WWI

Marne

A river in France where the French and British armies pushed back German forces from advancing on Paris, beginning a long and bloody stalemate between the two groups.

Tannenberg

August 1914, major battle at beginning of WW1, in which Germany beat entire Russian Second Army and about 100k soldiers taken prisoner.

Masurian Lakes

Battle that inflicted another devastating blow to Russian forces two weeks after Tannenburg

Gallipoli

A poorly planned and badly executed Allied campaign to capture the Turkish peninsula during 1915 in World War I; more than 50 percent casualties on both sides.

Somme

A five-month offensive between July and November 1916 in France. On the first day alone the British lost 60,000 men. The battle ended in a stalemate, after torrential rain turned the trenches into a quagmire. There were more than 650,000 casualties on both sides

Verdun

A battle in WWI. Is considered some of the bloodiest fighting in WWI and the German offense was stopped; offensive battle on the western front initiated by Germany in which they hoped to crush France; Nearly a million killed

No Man's Land

area between trenches

Blockade

An action taken to isolate an enemy and cut off its supplies

u-boat

German Submarines

Lusitania

A British passenger ship that was sunk by a German U-Boat on May 7, 1915. 128 Americans died. The sinking turned American opinion against the Germans.

Battle of the Jutland

was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War.

Technological Advancements of WWI

Airplane, tank, Gas, Machine Gun

Propaganda

Ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause.

Censorship

Control of what people read or write or see or hear; efforts to prohibit free expression of ideas.

War Socialism

when government takes over economy to stop strikes, ration goods, control prices, etc.

Mutiny

Deliberate refusal to obey orders given by those in command

Moroccan Crisis of 1905

international crisis over the international status of Morocco; Germany resented France's increasing dominance of Morocco, and insisted on an open door policy & gave a speech which Teddy Roosevelt mediated

Moroccan Crisis 1911/Agadir Crisis

When the French sent troops to put down unrest in Morocco, Kaiser Wilhelm sent a gunboat to Agadir to protect German interests. Once again, Britain supported France and Germany had to back down. This crisis made Britain even more worried about German intentions. Britain and France began making plans for military cooperation in the event of war.