AP World Chapter 33 Vocab

Archduke Francis Ferdinand

• Heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire

• assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in 1914

Causes of the Great War of 1914-1918

• intense nationalism

• frustrated national ambitions and ethnic resentments

• pursuit of exclusive economic interests

• abrasive colonial rivalries

• General European and global struggle over balance of power

The Allies/The Triple Entente

• Britain, France, Russia

• originated in a series of agreements between Britain and France (1904) and Britain and Russia (1907)

• French wanted to stop Germany from growing

• suspicious of The Central Powers

• In 1915, Italy entered war on the side of the Allies

• In 1914, Japanese entered war on the side of the Allies

• In 1917, U.S. entered war on the side of the Allies

The Dual Alliance (1879)

• Germany & Austria-Hungary

• turned into the Triple Alliance when Italy joined

The Central Powers/The Triple Alliance (1882)

• Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy

• protection from Russian attack

• fear of France

• Italy left in favor of neutrality

Napoleonic conquests and French revolution

spread nationalism throughout most of Europe

Self-determination

• the idea that peoples with the same ethnic origins, language, and political ideals had the right to form sovereign states

• often ignored and/or opposed by dynastic and reactionary powers (such as towards Germans, Italians, and Belgians)

Ottoman empire

• controlled Balkan peninsula since the 15th century

• empire shriveled after 1829 due to Austria and Russia mostly and nationalist revolts

• aligned with the Central Powers at the end of 1914

Greece

first to gain independence from Ottoman empire (1830)

Slavic peoples

Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes

Serbs

• most menacing and militant Slavic peoples

• pressed for unification with the independent kingdom of Serbia

Pan-Slavism

• a 19th century movement that stressed the ethnic and cultural kinship of the various Slav peoples of eastern and east central Europe

• sought to unite those peoples politically

• advocated by Russian leaders

• supported Slav nationalism in lands occupied by Austria-Hungary

• promote secession by Slav areas, weakening Austrian rule for more territories of Russian annexation

dreadnoughts (British)

• super battleships

• high speed provided by steam turbines

The Naval Race

• race between Germany and Britain for naval power

• fueled international tensions and hostility between the two nations

Examples of colonial disputes

• Britain and Russia fought in Persia and Afghanistan

• Britain and France in Siam and the Nile Valley

• Germany and France in Morocco and west Africa

German-French antagonisms and German-British rivalries

shaped international alliances that contributed to the spread of war after 1914

Germany’s colonial race

• insisted that it too must have a “place in the sun”

• frustrated that Britain and France had already carved up most of the world

• late but aggressive

French-German confrontation over Morocco (1905)

• German government announced its support of Moroccan independence

• endangered French encroachment

• French threatened war to Germany (prevented by international conference in Algeciras, Spain)

Balkan wars (1912-1913)

• the states of the Balkan peninsula fought two consecutive wars for possession of European territories held by the Ottoman empire

• strained European diplomatic relations

• helped shape tense circumstances that led to Great War

States of the Balkan peninsula

Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, Romania

New means of communication

• newspapers, pamphlets, books

• fueled feelings of national arrogance and aggressive patriotism

Public pressure

• European societies had a high degree of political participation and chauvinism for their state

• placed policymakers in awkward situation (short-lived victories, long terms hostility from other countries)

Strains between Italy and Germany

• Italy declared war on Ottomans in 1911 while Germany tried to cultivate friendly relations with the Turks

• Italy wanted Tripoli (a region in north Africa belonging to Ottomans)

Plan XVII

• French military strategy: “attack”

• viewed enemy’s intentions as inconsequential and gave no thought to the huge number of casualties that it could cause

General Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913)

developed the Schlieffen plan in 1905

The Schlieffen plan

• German military strategy

• called for swift knockout of France and defense against Russia

• Russians were slower at mobilizing soldiers than French, so the Germans could focus all their military power onto France for a few weeks

• attack the weak left flank of the French army through Belgium

Problems with the Schlieffen plan

• moving 180,000 soldiers and their supplies into France and Belgium on 500 trains, with 50 wagons each

• serious obstacle to those wanting to preserve peace

• Germans wanted to stick to plan, which set motion for military conflicts

Bertrand Russell

• British philosopher

• observed that the average Englishman positively wanted war

Alain-Fournier

• French writer

• “this war is fine and just and great”

Date of assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand

June 28, 1914

Black Hand

• terrorist group of Ferdinand’s assassins

• dedication to unification of all south Slavs, or Yugoslavs, to form a greater Serbia

Ultimatum on the government of Serbia (July 23)

• Issued by the Austrians

• Serbian government accepted except the part that said that Austrian officials would take part in any Serbian investigation of persons found on Serbian territory connected to the assassination of Francis Ferdinand

• started the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia

Mobilization

• the activation of military forces for imminent battle

• the redirection of economic and social activities to support military efforts

Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918)

• ordered mobilization against Germany

• convinced that partial mobilization against Austria would upset complex military plans and timetables

• abdicated in 1917 due to police inability to suppress uprisings and mutiny of troops

German ultimatum on Russia (July 31)

• Germany demanded Russian army to cease its mobilization immediately

• Russians: “Impossible”

• Germany declared war on Russia

German ultimatum on France

• Germany demanded to know what France’s intentions were in case Germany and Russia went to war

• French: no response

• French started to mobilize when Germany declared war on Russia

Treaty of 1839

• Called for Belgiums neutrality

• Britain called ultimatum on Germany to respect the treaty

• Germans broke the treaty

• Britain declared war against Germany

Sentiment of German recruits for war

"Gott mit uns” (“God is with us”), written on their belts

Sentiment of Russian troops

fought for “God and Tsar”

Sentiment of British soldiers

“For God, King, and Country”

Sentiment of Americans for war

“make the world safe for democracy”

“race to the sea”

• Germans halted thrust towards Paris at river Marne

• German and French trooped undertook flanking maneuvers to the Atlantic coast

Western front

trenches ran from English Channel to Switzerland

Treaty of London

The Allies promised to cede Austro-Hungarian territories to Italy once victory was secured (south Tyrol and most of Dalmatian coast)

No-man’s-land

• deadly territory between opposing front-line trenches

• strewn with shell craters, cadavers, and body parts

Barbed wire

• confined cattle on America’s Great Plains

• highly effective in frustrating the advance of soldiers across no-man’s-land

Poisonous gas

• first used by German troops in 1915

• 1.2 million casualties among soldiers

Mustard gas

• a liquid agent that turned into a noxious yellow gas when exposed to air

• rotted body from within and without after 12 hours of exposure

• stripped off the mucous membrane after blistering the skin and damaging the eyes

• Death in 4-5 weeks

• victims strapped to bed from pain

Tanks

• First introduced in 1916 by British

• Allies deployed them to break down defensive trenches and restore fighting

• short-term effectiveness

• More effective in WWII

Airplanes

• showed improvement in speed, range, and altitude

• aerial reconnaissance

• featured “ace fighters” and “dogfights”

• More prominent in WWII

Submarines

• Used during the Great War

• German navy deployed it against Allied commercial shipping

• Also used by British and U.S.

• Diesel-powered

Battle of Verdun (1916)

• Germans tried to break deadlock with assault on the fortress of Verdun (France)

• French victorious but with 315,000 dead

• Germans lost 280,000 people

• Barely any bodies recognizable (less than 160,000)

Battle of Somme (1916)

• British and French counterattacked the Battle of Verdun against Germany

• No one gained strategic upperhand

• 420,000 casualties

French rallying cry

• “They shall not pass”

• used at the battle of Verdun

German zeppelin (against Parisians 1914)

• hydrogen-filled dirigible (flammable)

• underbelly rained bombs

• heralded air war against civilians

• killed one person

Naval blockade

used by military leaders to deny food to whole populations, hoping that starving masses would force governments to capitulate

British blockade of Germany

death of half a million of Germans

Helmuth Karl von Moltke (1800-1891)

• former chief of the Prussian General Staff

• predicted that future wars would not end with a single battle, because the defeat of a nation would not be acknowledged until the whole strength of its people was broken

Home front

expressed the important reality that the outcome of the war depended on how effectively each nation mobilized its economy and activated its noncombatant citizens to support war effort

Severe dangers of work in munitions factories (women, sometimes children)

• Explosions (keeping sparks away from volatile materials was impossible)

• TNT exposure

TNT explosives

• caused severe poisoning, depending on length of exposure

• turned victims’ skin yellow and their hair orange

• ineffective remedy was to rest, eat good food, and drink plenty of fresh milk

Effects of war on women

• patriotism and high wages drew women into formerly “male jobs” (management of farms and businesses left by their husbands, postal workers, police officers, nurses, physicians, communication clerks)

• making of shells in munition factories

• liberating experience for upper-class women (gave them a sense of mission)

• barely any change for working-class women (they’d always work for wages)

• after the war, voting rights were given to women (Britain, Germany, Austria)

• Sexual equality, birth control (Russia, China)

Ways government maintained home front spirit

• restriction of civil liberties

• censorship of bad news

• propaganda campaigns

Propaganda

• vilificate, discredit, and dehumanize the enemy 

• convince the public that military defeat would mean destruction of everything worth living for

• many stories originated from imaginations

• Public disbelief of propaganda led to an inability to believe in the abominations perpetrated during subsequent wars

Joseph Caillaux

• Former France prime minister

• spent 2 years in prison awaiting trial

• publicly suggested that the best interest of France would be to compromise with Germany

German propaganda

• depicted Russians as semi-Asiatic barbarians

• poster of bestial black Allied soldiers raping German women, including pregnant women

French propaganda

chronicled the atrocities committed by the German “Hun” in Belgium

Times of London (British propaganda)

published a story claiming that Germans converted human corpses into fertilizer and food

• later stated the German word for horse had been mistakenly translated as “human”

3 reasons for the Great War’s expansion

1. European governments carried their animosities into their colonies, embroiling them (especially Africans) in their war

2. British and French augmented their ranks by recruiting men from their colonies (millions of Africans and Asians)

3. The desire and objectives of some principal actors that entered the conflict had little to do with the murder in Sarajevo or other European issues (In simple terms, they had their own objectives to go to war)

French troops

Laborers from Algeria, China, French Indochina

British troops

Indian, African, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Newfoundland, South Africa

More nations that entered the Great War

• Japan

• U.S.

• Ottoman empire

Japanese ultimatum on Germany (August 15, 1914)

• Japanese government desired “to secure firm and enduring peace in Eastern Asia”

• demanded the handover of the German-leased territory of Jianzhou (northeastern China) to Japanese authorities without compensation

• demanded that the German navy withdraw its warships from Japanese and Chinese waters

• Japanese entered war on side of the Allies against Germany

Capture of German-held territories

• Japanese forces took the fortress of Qingdao (port in China’s Shandong Province)

• took possession of Marshall Islands, Mariana Islands, Palau, and the Carolines

• New Zealand and Australia joined Japanese in capturing Samoa, Bismarck Archipelago, and New Guinea

Twenty-one Demands (Japanese to China)

• reduce China to a protectorate of Japan

• Chinese confirm Japanese seizure of Shandong from Germany

• Grant Japanese industrial monopolies in central China

• place Japanese overseers in key government positions

• give Japan joint control of Chinese police forces

• restrict China’s arm purchases to Japanese manufacturers (and only with the approval of the Tokyo government)

• Chinese accepted most, but leaked rest to British

• reflected Japan’s determination to dominate east Asia

German-controlled African territories

Togoland, the Cameroons, German Southwest Africa, German East Africa

Conquest of German colonies in Africa

• Togoland to an Anglo-French force after 3 weeks of fighting, took extended campaigns over vast distances

• Germs were more deadly to Allied forces than Germans; Germs killed tens of thousands

• Allied force: British, Portuguese, French, Belgian, Indian, Arab, African

• Fight on land, sea, lakes, rivers, deserts, jungles, swamps, and air

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

• first lord of the Admiralty

• suggested that an Allied strike against the Ottomans would hurt the Germans

the Admiralty

British navy

Dardanelles Strait

• Ottoman-controlled strait

• British and French naval forces conducted an expedition to open a warm-water supply line to Russia

• Allies bombed the forts that defended the strait

• Floating mines damaged Allied ships and they withdrew

Gallipoli

• British high command ordered English, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers to the Gallipoli peninsula

• Turkish defenders pinned down Allies on the beaches

• Allies dug in and engaged in own version of trench warfare

• Took Allied leaders 9 months to admit Gallipoli campaign had failed

Effects of Gallipoli

• 250,000 casualties on both sides

• Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders suffered terrible casualties

• weakened imperial ties

• paved war for emerging national identities

• launched political career of commander of Turkish division that defended Gallipoli

Anzac Day / Australian and New Zealand Army Corps

• Australia’s most significant day of public homage

• first major military action by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli in 1915

Mustafa Kemal / Atatürk / “Father of the Turks” (1881-1938)

• crucial role in formation of the modern Turkish state

• drove out Greek, British, French, and Italian forces out of Turkey

• organized national army that led to formation of the Republic of Turkey

• instituted a program of modernization that emphasized economic development and secularism

• ruled Turkey as a virtual dictator until his death

Armenians

• 2 million in Ottoman empire

• last major non-Muslim ethnic group under Ottoman rule seeking autonomy and independence

• had relied on government reforms to prevent discrimination against non-Muslims

• resorted to confrontation when abuses continued

Turkish nationalism (Ottoman empire)

• intended to shore up the crumbling imperial edifice

• stressed Turkish culture and traditions

• aggravated tensions between Turkish rulers and non-Turkish subjects

• state viewed Christian minorities as an obstacle to Turkism

Armenian genocide (1915-1917)

• Ottoman government branded Armenians as a traitorous internal enemy, who threatened the security of the state, unleashed murderous campaign against them

• forced mass evacuations

• starvation

• dehydration

• exposure

• death of close to a million Armenians

• government-organized massacres: mass drowning, incineration, assaults with blunt instruments

• Turkish government rejects label of genocide, says it was by Christians, Muslims, disease, and famine

Hussein bin Ali (1856-1931)

• sharif of Mecca

• King of the Hejaz

• rose up against Turkish rule, Arab revolt

Arab revolt

• to secure independence from the Ottoman empire

• to create a unified Arab nation from Syria to Yemen

Sykes-Picot Treaty (1916)

• secret agreement between Britain and France (with assent of Russia)

• defined future spheres on influence and control in southwest Asia after victory in the war

• came to light in 1917

• divided Arab provinces into areas of British and French control

Balfour Declaration (1917)

• British government publicly declared support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”

• complicated issue for Arabs

Bolshevik revolutionaries (Russian empire)

• power yielded to by the provisional government

• took Russia out of war early 1918

Effects of the Great War on Russian empire

• undermined Russian state

• disintegrating armies

• mutinies

• food shortages

• street demonstrations and strikes in Petrograd

• Tsar Nicholas II abdicated throne

• Romanov Dynasty disappeared and ceased to be a monarchy

Petrograd

St. Petersburg

Romanov dynasty

disappeared after more than 300 years of uninterrupted rule (due to effects of Great War)

The March Revolution (February Revolution for Julian calendar)

• first of two revolutions in 1917

• unplanned, incomplete

• led to abdication of Tsar Nicholas II

• led to end of Romanov dynasty

Two new agencies of Russian political power

1. the provisional government

2. Petrograd soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies

Soviets

• revolutionary councils organized by socialists

• appeared for first time during Russian revolution of 1905

The Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies

• surfaced all over Russia

• wielding considerable power through control of factories and segments of the military

• called for immediate peace (opposite of provisional government)

• gained more support from people of Russia

Provisional government (Russia)

• first had public support because it disbanded tsarist police

• repealed all limitations on freedom of speech, press, and association

• abolished laws that discriminated against ethnic or religious groups

• couldn’t make fundamental changes (confiscating and distributing land to peasants)

• upsetted public

• “unswervingly carry out the agreements made with the Allies”

• continue the war to victory