AP WORLD UNIT 7: Global Conflict After 1900 (WWI)

AMSCO topics 7.1-79

4 Main Causes of WWI

• Militarianism

• Alliances

• Imperialism

• Nationalism

Militarianism

building and maintaining large armed forces to protect your interests or threaten others

Alliances

agreements or promises to defend and help other countries

Imperialism

 the creation and maintenance of an empire whereby a powerful country controls one or more less powerful countries

Nationalism

an extreme form of patriotism, a belief that your country is right, and a willingness to defend it. 

The Spark that Sets off WWI

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Black Hand

• Serbian terrorist group- does not want to be a part of Austria-Hungary, instead, wants to have its own country of united Slavs (Yugoslavia)

• Sent group of teenage operatives to assasiante the Archduke

Trenches

•  elongated pits dug 6-8ft into the earth, and stretching over a hundred miles. 

  • Led to stalemate

  • Distance between opposing trenches was called no man’s land and could range from 30 meters to 1 mile

New Tech Developed to Break stalemate

• Poison gas

• Machine guns

• Airplanes and tanks

War Conditions

• Lots of mud

• If socks don’t keep dry- you will get trench foot

• Lice were common

• Corpse rats 

• Wore gas masks

• No showers. 

Gas

• Could this break the stalemate?

• Mustard, chlorine, and tear gasses

• Got outlawed after the war

Battle of Tannenberg

Poland-1914

• Resulted in almost complete destrtuction of the Russian army

• Killed most of their two armies

Gallipoli

Turkey-1915

• Russia desperate for supplies, but no roue open

• Allied invasion of Turkey/ottoman empire

• ANZAC forces used

• Allies eventually withdrawal, leads to rise in ANZAC nationalism

ANZAC forces

Australians and New Zealanders fighting for the British

Japan During WWI

• Uses WWI as an opportunity to expand its sphere of influence in CHina

• Also to capture Germany’s colonies in the Pacific ocean

Propaganda

• Used to recruit soldiers from the colonies to fight 

• Many were written in native languages of the colonies and suggested they would be fighting for freedom

European Arguments for Allowing Colonists to Fight

• More labor and soldiers to fight against enemies

  • Employ non-white troops on the western front

• Would give alliances a much larger army for a greater advantage

European Arguments Against Allowing Colonists to Fight

• Colonists might end up turning on the Europeans and fighting against them with the weapons they supplied

• Allowing colored people to fight with Britain against a white enemy might tarnish the established racial heirarchy

Colonist Arguments for Fighting With Europeans

• They got to travel and see different cultures/races in person

• After fighting is done, might be granted independence

Colonists Arguments Against Fighting for Europeans

• Distrust of alliances

• Some may have thought it was not their war to fight.