History - Unit 5

• Nationalism


  Modern trend of nationalism, encouraged by many political leaders, led to instability & anti-others sentiments
• Imperialism


  Germany wanted to increase colonies along with other European powers
• Militarism


  Glorification of armed strength, status symbol, competition to be the best
• Alliance System


  All leading world powers, alliances created before the war
• Schlieffen Plan


  German general Alfred, Count von Schlieffen's 1905 plan intended to ensure German victory over a Franco-Russian alliance
• When Belgium was attacked by Germany, it brought Britain into the war
• The Germans plan was to attack France and avoid a two front war
• Speed through rail transport was key to knock out France by going through Belgium to get to Paris
• The war was seen as a way to protect honor & pride, yet death rates with new technology was increasing exponentially
• Initially, Socialists fought for peace
• Crowned heads of England, Germany and Russia were related, yet realism was beating out the idealism of international cooperation
• WWI was seen as the 'people's war' and most thought it would be over by Christmas
• The western front in France was virtually unchanged for 2.5 years, with major battles like Marne, Ypres, Somme, Vimy, Cambrai, Verdun, Amiens
• Trench Warfare


  New way of fighting, strategy of digging, hiding, running, war of attrition
• The front stretched 600 kilometers from the North Sea to the Swiss border
• The Battle of the Somme showed the horror of war, with the Entente suffering 60,000 deaths in a day
• New Technologies


  • Poison gas and gas masks
  • Tanks
  • Machine guns
  • Grenades
  • U-boats
• Unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany could sink any ship they found, sinking the Lusitania and leading America to join the war
• Homefront


  Mobilizing the economy for efficiency, control, & conformity, organizing industries under federal agencies, involvement of women, impact on civilians
• 1917 was a pivotal year, with Russia withdrawing from the war due to the Russian Revolution, and the USA entering the war
• Wilson's 14 Points


  Aimed at solving border/territory issues and creating a world organization to prevent future wars
• The Treaty of Versailles was a "victor's peace" that Germany never ratified, and led to years of debt and the decline of European power
• Consequences of WWI


  • Beginning of the decline in European power dominance
  • Japan and USA step up into new major roles
  • Nationalism spreads, creating a political force to challenge European domination
  • Smaller nations replace old empires
  • End of "laissez faire" liberalism
  • Smaller powers prove themselves
• The aftermath of WWI becomes one of the leading causes of WWII
• Russification


  To ensure Russian protection, enforced Russian language and Orthodox Christianity
• Russia was not industrialized and lost the Russo-Japanese war as a result
• Bloody Sunday (1905) was a massacre of peaceful protestors
• Soviets


  Councils of workers and soldiers set up by revolutionaries, more powerful and had more support than the provisional government
• Communism


  Idea developed by Karl Marx to eliminate class structure and have all property shared, with the government controlling the means of production
• Vladimir Lenin


  Socialist who adapted Marxist ideas to fit Russian conditions, called for an elite group to lead the revolution into communism
• Peace, Land, Bread


  Lenin's goals to get Russia out of WWI, end serfdom and give peasants land, and increase food supply
• The Bolsheviks quickly seized power in cities after the November Revolution in 1917
• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk forced Russia to surrender huge amounts of territory to Germany
• War Communism


  Communist forces' policy of taking over banks, mines, factories, railroads, and forcing peasant farmers to deliver crops and labor
• New Economic Policy (NEP)


  Lenin's policy in 1921 that allowed small businesses to open for profit and peasants to sell surplus crops for profit, to revive the Russian economy
• Joseph Stalin


  Shrewd political operator who took control of the Communist Party after Lenin's death, defeating Leon Trotsky
• The Ban on Factionalism and the Centralized Party Machine were factors that influenced Stalin's rise to power
• Thought the Soviet Union would soon return to "pure" communism
• Stalin


  Came to power after Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924 due to a power struggle in the Communist Party
• Primary contenders for power after Lenin's death

  • Joseph Stalin
  • Leon Trotsky