WW1 (SOL Review #3)

  • Causes of the Great Depression

    • German Reparations 

    • Expansion of production capacities and dominance of the United States in global economy

    • Excessive expansion of Credit which overly inflated the economy

    • IMMEDIATE CAUSE: The Stock Market Crash of 1929

  • MAIN Causes of WW1

    • Militarism

      • Anglo-German Naval race: intense competition to build superior battle ships

      • Conscription

    • Alliance System: 

      • Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, Russia, 

      • Triple alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy

    • Imperialism

      • Scramble for Africa and Asia 

        • Race to claim territory across the globe to secure raw materials

      • Anglo-German Rivalry: Britain forced to make concessions with France

    • Nationalism

      • Franco-Prussian war: Germany as #1 Hegemon 

  • Immediate Cause of WW1: Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

    • Austria-Hungary’s immediate response

    • Wilhelm II’s Blank Cheque to Austria

    • Austria’s harsh ultimatum to Serbia

    • Russia's Full mobilization

    • Germany’s ultimatum to Belgium

    • Great Britain’s Treaty to belgium

  • Key Leaders of WW1

    • Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm II

      • Emperor of Germany 

    • Georges Clemenceau

      • Prime Minister of France who wanted Germany harshly punished

    • David Lloyd George

      • Prime Minister of Great Britain who wanted Germany to pay reparations

    • John (BlackJack) Pershing

      • Commander of American Expeditionary Forces 

      • Insisted American soldiers fight as independent US forces rather than being absorbed into Allied armies

      • Solved military issues

    • Woodrow Wilson

      • President of US

      • 14 Points

        • Called for self determination, peace and no aggrandizement 

  • Key Battles

    • First Battle of Marne

      • Allied Forces stop Germany's hopes for a Scheffen Plan

        • Led to trench warfare on western front

    • Gallipoli Campaign

      • Allied amphibious assault to weaken Ottoman Empire

    • Verdun

      • Germany’s attempt to “Bleed France White”

      • Symbol of French determination

    • Somme

      • Allied counter-offensive against German Lines

      • First large scale use of tanks by GB

    • Meuse-Argonne

      • FINAL Allied offensive led by American Forces

      • Turned the War into a war of mobility

      • Helped break German defenses late in the war

      • Affectively used tanks

  • Weapons used during WW1

    • Machine Guns

      • Gun firing lots of bullets at once

      • Made frontal attacks extremely deadly

    • Poison Gas

      • Used to injure, blind or suffocate soldiers

    • Airplanes

      • First used as surveillance but guns soon got attached to them

    • Tanks

      • New style of mechanized warfare

      • Slow, but protected soldiers from machine gun fires

    • Artillery

      • Explosive shells fired over long distances 

  • Western Front Terms

    • Softening Up: bombardment of enemy trenches before an attack

      • Done so an infantry attack can have a better chance to affect soldier

    • Over the Top: Soldiers climb out trenches to run across no mans land toward enemy trenches

    • No Man’s Land: Open area between opposing trenches

  • American Genocide: systematic killing and forced deportation of the American population by Ottoman empire government 

    • Turkey refuses to acknowledge it and ethnically cleansed christian areas

  • Outcome of WW1

    • November 11, 1918, armistice day

      • Germany agreed on an armistice with allies ending fighting in WW1

    • Paris Peace Conference

      • Romantic hope of creating a New World Order

      • Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points

        • Self-determination and wanted League of Nations

        • Did not assert actual hegemony

      • Clemenceau

        • Wanted to permanently weaken Germany

        • Heavy reparations and military restrictions encouraged for Germany

      • Lloyd George

        • Wanted Germany punished but didn't want European stability to collapse

    • German war guilt-clause and German reparations

      • Forced Germany to take full responsibility for the war

    • United States undermined Peace of Versailles because they never asserted actual hegemony 

  • Mandate system

  • What are Mandates?

    • A territory placed under the temporary control of a country by the League of Nations after WWI

  • French Mandates

    • Syria and Lebanon

  • British Mandates

    • Palestine, TransJordan and Iraq