03 World War One

Unit Overview

Student Contribution #1:

One of the Major issues of the 20th Century is world wars. Wars play a significant role in the world by bringing countries together and tearing them apart from each other. One significant war that happened in the 20th century was World War I; the war between the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary). One of the causes of World War I was Germany’s Nationalism and the Interaction and Exchange history force relates to the immigration of Germans and other people who are seeking refuge because of the war. It was the Germans who first declared war on France because they wanted to mobilize their troops across Belgium, which was neutral to the war. This led to Great Britain declaring war on Germany for violating Belgium’s neutrality.

The war spark excitement to the citizens to take part of the war and fight. In the reading “Excitement of War” by Zweig, he discussed how people vision war because of their little knowledge about it. The people only saw paintings, read books, and hear about it, that is why they treat war as something legendary and a wonderful and exciting experience that they will never want to miss. Another thing that sparked the people’s interest in the war are the posters, specifically the “Uncle Sam” poster. Each country then has similar poster as the “Uncle Sam” poster because of the meaning and the depicted picture. The reading “Patriotic Poster Boys” by Palermo, it explains more on how the posters represented each country’s desperation to recruit and encourage people to join the war.

During the war, there were significant events that happened. The first event happened in 1914 where Germans initially won the western fronts and eastern front after fighting the war in trenches for two years. During this fight, new artilleries and weapons has been introducing such the machine guns and the mustard gas. The next significant event happened in 1915 when the Germans sunk the Lusitania, the British ocean liner, which caused the United States to join the war with the Triple Alliance. This resumed the trench warfare. In 1916, Airplanes are becoming more significant in the battle but was not much used until the second World War. Another significant event that happened in 1916 was the Battle of Verdun where the French won the battle but both sides suffered a huge casualties and death. This however ended the trench war but sparked a new war with Tanks. In addition, in 1917, the Russians sought for peace and ended up with more Alliance victories. Lastly, in 1918, the Germans became offensive in the spring which caused them to run out of supplies and in the fall, the Allies were becoming offensive which ended up a lot of casualties and death for the United States. The significance in this year is the treaty of both sides to stop fighting for s short period of time.

World War I left a mark throughout the world. One change is in Political policies where the creation of the League of Nations, the Monroe Doctrine was created and President Wilson’s Fourteen Points; which was one of the biggest significance in this era. Another effect of the war was the weakening of the countries in terms of economic crisis and man power. Each country lost a big number of people during the war and many of the soldiers and people who survived suffered with casualties. Furthermore, Social change after the war gained women more involvements and roles in the community. Women are becoming more active compared to the when the war have not started. Lastly, Germany lost a lot of its land and many of the countries in Europe in present time is being created.

Key Vocabulary Terms:

Set #1:

• Balance of power: Balance of power states that national security is best when military is distributed so no one country has an advantage over others. This would prevent countries from trying to take over other ones because they are “weaker”. The issue of this was it was up to interpretation, so once countries started building up, others followed eventually leading to WWI. After WWI, this idea was replaced by League of Nations which would try to serve as the balancer.
• Isolationism: Isolationism is a foreign policy idea of a country not getting involved with other countries. This could include not making agreements, working with, alliances, trade, joining wars, etc. An early example of this would be by George Washington in his farewell address when he warned the United States about getting involved with foreign countries because of all their conflicts. Prior to joining the war, president Woodrow Wilson had kept the United States uninvolved in WWI by remaining neutral and tried to focus mainly on what was happening on the home front.
• Militarism: Militarism is the idea that a country should have a strong military that is capable of gaining power and achieving goals through force or other military methods. This could be seen as one of the potential causes of WWI in that there was a race between the European countries for arms. Before WWI for example, Britain has arguably one of the strongest navies in the world, so Germany tries to compete with Britain’s navy so they increase their numbers. Britain sees that Germany is trying to build a better navy then them, so they increase their navy and try to come up with ways to make it even better. During this time, many efforts were put in to benefit the military such as policy and labor at factories.
• Suffrage: Suffrage is the right to vote in elections. Before the start of WWI, most women worked at home and cooked, cleaned, and looked after the kids. When the war started, women went to work to fill the places that men had been prior to the war. During this time, they worked in factories and did other work that supported the war efforts like making weapons, ammunition, etc. Because of their large role on the home front during the war, many women’s rights advocates and protestors used this as why they should gain the right to vote. In 1920, the 19th amendment was put in place and women across the nation gained the right to vote.
• Self-determination: Self-determination is the right of a nation or people to decide on its own form of government, without any outside influence. Before WWI, many nations wanted to break away from ruling countries and become self-governed. These idea lead to revolts, protests, boycotts, etc. During the Balkan War in 1912, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro formed an alliance and defeated the Ottoman Empire, which to the Ottoman Empire losing a large part of the land in Europe. Following WW1, Austria-Hungary was dissolved and countries like Germany and Russia lost large parts of land, both lead to the creation of new nations.
• Total war: Total war is a war that is unrestricted in use of weapons, land involved, objects pursued, and laws of war are usually ignored. WWI could be seen as an example as the first total war. During WWI, many countries focused their entire nation on war efforts economically, politically, and socially. Weapons such as machine guns, tanks, planes, and mustard gas were all used. Germany also went from warning vessels of an attack with submarines, to attacking right away and even fired at a cruise ship that came to close.
• Triple Alliance: The Triple Alliance was a secret agreement made between Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary in 1882. The treaty stated that Germany and Austria-Hungary would provide assistance to Italy if attacked by France. If Germany was attacked by France, Italy would provide assistance, and if a war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Russia, Italy would remain neutral. Although the treaty was renewed until 1912, Italy entered WWI on the opposing side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Set #2:

• War Guilt Clause: War Guilt Clause also known as Article 231 in the Treaty of Versailles that put an end to the first World War. War Guilt Clause incriminated Germany for all the fault in WWI. In another word, War Guilt Clause in the Treaty of Versailles claimed that Germany must be responsible for everything happened during WWI. It causes Germany to go in debt and brought a huge humiliation to the country and their people.
• League of Nations: League of Nations was an organization under the Treaty of Versailles. The purpose of League of Nations is to solve disagreements between countries and enforce world peace due to WWI. It’s part of President Woodrow Wilson’s idea of Fourteen Points for peace in Europe. However, America was never a part of it.
• Mustard gas: Mustard gas was used as one of the deadly weapon that slowly wipe out a huge population of soldiers during WWI. The gas doesn’t kill its victims right away, but gradually filled up the victim’s lung with fluid, which will eventually become brutal with in 3 weeks. The gas unable soldiers to fight causing its enemy having to deal with sick soldiers instead of focusing on the war. Mustard gas also heavier than air, therefore without a direct hit, mustard gas can still flow into the trenches of the enemies and kill them slowly.
• Ethnic reunification: Ethnic unification happen when a country wants to bring ethnics group want back inside after they had been given to surrounding countries. Germany used this as a justification in both World War One and World War Two.
• Propaganda: Propagandas were widely used to promote war among the government and its people. The government used picture of Uncle Sam pointing at the observer saying “We want use for the U.S. Army”. It’s another way to influence people to join war by becoming a soldier for the U.S. Army. Propagandas also aimed at mothers, sisters, brothers, children, and so on enforcing them to contribute to war in all type of ways. Some of the propagandas promoted more worker to produce ammunition and weapons, some with pictures of a mother support her son to enter war, some propaganda influenced saving food to donate to war, and so on.
• Armistice: Armistice also known as Armistice of Compiègne were signed by all forces (France Great Britain, and Germany) agreeing to put an end to the war as all these countries are exhausted after so many years fighting each other. The Armistice declared victory of other forces and the heavy losses of Germany during World War I. However, the Armistice is not the end treaty to the war, but it is the Versailles that were signed a few months after.
• Triple Entente: Triple Entente were formed as Russia, Britain, and France were daggered under the incredible growth of the German’s Army. It was also form to limit the power of Triple Alliance which were formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It main purpose is to support each other if they were to get attack, but not enforce countries to enter war because of the promise.

Potential Essay Questions:

Essay Question #1. What were the long-range and immediate causes of World War One, and why did the course of the war turn out to be so different from what the warring countries had expected?

This is a good example of where information to answer this essay question of the long-range causes of a historical event extends back to the previous units on imperialism and the industrial revolution as well as the beginning of this unit on WW One. Include material from those units to help support your essay response. Use your assigned readings for additional source material: Zweig, Remarque, and Palermo.

Student Contribution #1

Introduction:

- When WWI started and what countries were involved (Triple Alliance and Triple Entente)

First Body:

- Long-range causes

Industrial Revolution:

1. factory towns and conditions of working= hard work, bad pay, strict rules.

2. Mention of anarchism

Imperialism:

1. Major sectors for competition of western colonial empires

2. Mention of New Imperialism

3. Mention of the different choices for confronting the imperialists

Second Body:

- Immediate causes of WWI

1. German Nationalism

2. Militarism

Third Body:

- Mention Palermo’s article on why it was important for countries to defend their nation (nationalism) and the use of propaganda

- Mention excitement of war by Zweig to help support why the course of the war turned out to be so different from what the countries thought it would be

- Mention the result of WWI and the deaths to support why it turned out to be different from what nations expected

Conclusion:

- Mention the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente and how the war affected each nation

- Briefly summarize the long range and immediate causes

- Briefly summarize how the war was different from what the nations thought it would be

Essay Question #2. What were the new technologies introduced during World War One? How did they have an impact of this war and their potential use in future wars?

Your lecture notes and the videos played during class will be the best sources for this essay question.

Student Contribution #1:

• Tanks

o Destroyed trench warfare easily

o Cope easily with trench warfare

o Could move through mud and forest

o Harder to get destroyed/greater defense armor

♣ Potential use in future wars: Would still uses tanks since technology has become advanced and that means tanks could get stronger and better.

• Mustard Gas

o Used to destroy enemy hiding in trench warfare

o Poisoned and killed enemies in unreachable hidden areas

♣ Potential use in future wars: Many countries would try to develop better poisonous gas to use in the future.

• Machine Guns

o Killed enemy at a faster pace

o Fire automatically and rapidly

♣ Potential use in future wars: Stronger machine guns would be used in future wars because of its powerful speed. Different countries are looking for ways to manufacture the best machine gun.

• Air planes

o Dropped bombs over enemy

o Destroyed enemy on hidden areas

♣ Potential use in future wars: Would still use air planes to drop more bombs, carry soldiers, deliver supplies, etc. Different countries are trying to build the best aircraft and future wars could be worse and dangerous due to the amount of technology now a days.

• Trench Warfare

o Provided better defense against the enemy

o Made it difficult for enemy to cross and take over the defended grounds

♣ Potential use in future wars: Many countries would still use trench warfare as strong defense grounds in the future. It is a great way to protect the soldiers and their bases.

----------------------------------------------------------------