World war 1

• When did World War 1 start and end

  1914-1918
• What were the 6 major powers in europe?

  Great Britain, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Italy
• Sources of tension includes

  • Competition for materials and markets
  • Territorial dispute (French lose Alsace Lorraine to Germans in 1870, still angry in 1914)
  • Austria Hungary and Russia wanted to control Balkans but Balkans wanted their own independence
• Imperialism

  domination of 1 country economically, socially, and/or politically by another country

  Led to arms race as each country tried to outdo the others
• Millitarism

  Love for military and war
• Otto Van Bismarck

  1864-1871

  He used war to unite Germany and formed alliance with russia
• In 1871, Germany declared itself a "Satisfied power" and decided to see peace instead
• 1879: Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary
• In 1881: Germany signs treaty with russia
• 1882: Triple alliance - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
• Kaiser Willhell 2

  1892 and 1894: Russian signs a treaty with France because he let the Russian treaty lapse.

  Goes on a ship building spree to try and make Germany navy bigger or equal than British

  British joins the Triple Eatente with Russia and France
• Panslavism

  Unity for all Slavic people especially those controlled by non Slavic empires

  Reason why Serbians wanted to extend thru the Balkans
• 1908: Austria Hungary took over Bosnia and Herzegovina
• June 28, 1914: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie and

  July 28, 1918: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

  Kaiser gave A-H a blank check (do what you want, I will support)
• July 28th: A-H declares war on Serbia and Russia mobilizes their troops

  August 1: Germany declared war on Russia

  August 3: Germany declared war on France

  August 5: Great Britain declares war on Germany
• What were the 2 warring powers europe was divided into in world war 1?

  Allied power (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan)

  Central Powers (Germany, A-H, Bulgaria and Ottoman empire)
• Everyone thought the war will end quickly but it turned into a stalemate along the Western front
• What was the Schlieffen Plan?

  German military strategy to quickly defeat France in the west and then turn to fight Russia in the east.
• Describe the taxi cab battle?

  September 15th, 1914: Allies attack Germans and 600 taxis were used to transport soldiers.
• 1915: Opposing armies dug miles of trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. People would fight from the trenches. The area between the trenches was called "No man's land" because no one could survive
• What were some weapons that made the Stalemate worse?

  Machine guns, Poison gas, Tanks, Submarines, and barbed wire.
• July 1916- 20,000 British troops were killed and by the end in November 1916, there was over half a million casualties on both sides
• In 1916, Russian war effort was near collapse because they had not industrialized like West Europe and their army was short on common necessities like food and ammunition. Only thing keeping them was their population
• February 1915: British, Australia, and New Zealand troops made repeated assaults on the Gallipoli Peninsula

  May 1915: Gallipoli became a stalemate

  December 1915: Allies gave up and retreated
• Russia: Major land power- enormous number of troops, lacked supplies, poor military leaderships and politically unstable
• Tsar Nicholas 2 was not a good ruler and was unpopular

  His popularity decreased due to Grigori Rasputin
• February 1917: Tsar deposed, provisional government takes control and Russia in war. Germany sent Vladmir Lenin into Russia to revolutionize. He led a communist revolution in October 1917 and took control of Russia.
• March 1917: Civil War begins in Russia and removed Nicholas as leader of Russia
• November 1917: Lenin takes power in Russia and signed a treaty with Germany. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 ended the war between Russia and Germany
• Japanese overtook China and captured Germany's failed colonies
• April 6th 1917: USA entered WW1 against Germany
• Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917
• May 7th 1915: Germany sank british passenger Liner Lusitantia because they thought it was carrying amunitions
• What was the point of resuming the Unrestricted submarine warfare?

  To enforce a naval blockade forcing British to surrender
• February 1917: U.S officials sent a telegram by Mexican officials, written by Arthur Zimmerman, it said that Germany would help Mexico reconquer the land it lost to U.S if Mexico would ally with Germany. Mexico denies and passes the note to U.S
• Central power collapses

  Russia's withdrawal allowed Germany to focus on the Western front. They launched an attack in March 1918. Bulgaria and Ottoman surrender and Austria Hungary has a revolution in October-November 9 1918
• Wilhell 2 forced to step down by troops and he meets with Marshal Foch in a railway car to sign an agreement to end the war
• War end on November 11th at 11:00 am