Causes of WWI
● Alliance: European nations signed secret treaties that created a system of alliances pitting nation versus nation.
● Nationalism: There were intense feelings of nationalism on the part of subjugated nationalities. These feelings would eventually lead to rash acts.
● Imperialism: Competition to develop vast empires caused tension and conflict.
● M Militarism: Nations built huge armies to defend themselves and help to gain these empires. It was a natural feeling for them to want to use these militaries.
● Anarchy: There was no international organization to help them deal with their problems. The Alliances
● Central Powers: Great Britain, France, Russia
● Allied Powers: Germany, AustriaHungary, and the Ottoman Empire/Turkey
New Kind of War
● WWI was a new kind of war because it was the first time the world had experienced total war. Total war is defined as the total mobilization of a society to assure the destruction of the enemy including civilians. The term total war comes from WWI because for the first time civilians were considered to be fair game during times of war.
Prior to WWI, influenced by the Enlightenment, civilized nations did not turn guns on civilized nations. WWI also marked a massive shift in war technology, including:
Movie reel footage of conflict was available for the first time to mass audiences (albeit in a propagandized form) The technology of tanks, razor wire, toxic gases (Mustard gas), machine guns, aircraft etc created war as mobile conflict. Where before the emphasis had been on fortification now fortification was pointless. The dynamics of this war promoted the prolonged standoff and devastation on the Western Front where combatants could neither advance the lines nor defend themselves a devastation never seen before in history.
Terms
● Lusitania:
The Lusitania was a British passenger ship that was sunk by a German
U-Boat on May 7, 1915. 128 Americans died. The unrestricted submarine warfare caused the U.S. to enter World War I against the Germans.
● Isolationism:
In American diplomacy, the traditional belief that the United States should refrain from involvement in overseas politics, alliances, or wars, and confine its national security interest to its own borders.
● Uboats:
German submarines used in World War I; they sank many Allied ships around the British Isles. They were responsible for the sinking of the HMS
Lusitania and the Sussex.
● Sussex Pledge: Germany agreed not to sink unarmed passenger ships with out warning. They violated this in 1916 when they torpedoed this French passenger ship.
Wilson threatened to break diplomatic relations because of this
● Zimmerman Note: 1917 Germany sent this to Mexico instructing an ambassador to convince Mexico to go to war with the U.S. It was intercepted and caused the U.S. to mobilized against Germany, which had proven it was hostile
● Flapper: carefree young women with short, "bobbed" hair, heavy makeup, and short skirts. The flapper symbolized the new "liberated" woman of the 1920s. Many people saw the bold, boyish look and shocking behavior of flappers as a sign of changing morals. Though hardly typical of American women, the flapper image reinforced the idea that women now had more freedom.
● Prohibition: the 18th amendment and prohibited the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages. repealed by 21st
● Hooverville: Shanty towns that the unemployed built in the cities during the early years of the Depression; the name given to them shows that thte people blamed Hoover directly for the Depression.
● Dust Bowl: Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas that were hit hard by dry topsoil and high winds that created blinding dust storms; this area of the
Great Plains became called that because winds blew away crops and farms, and blew dust from Oklahoma to Albany, New York. Ruined farms and left many