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Alliance Building System
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy form an alliance. The wrote and signed a document promising each other that they would support their military if a war should break out. In the document, it stated they would stop anyone who tried to hurt one of the countries in the alliance. Germany and Austria-Hungary made the alliance together for more ethnic reasons than Italy. Italy really wanted protection in case of attacks from the North (France) -
Growing Militarization
By 1914, Germany was starting to build up its army. Both Britain and Germany really built up their navies, Industrialization was making countries armies more destructive. -
Growing Balkan Nationalism
In the Balkans, when a was a secret military society formed by members of the Serbian army assassinated in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand. They assasinated him because they thought it was the best thing for their nation. -
Assasination of Franz Ferdinand.
Seven balkans planned to kill Franz Ferdinand as he drove along the main road in Sarajevo. Ferdinand decided to leave ,after almost being killed, to go back to his home via a different way. However, the driver of the car didn't know that so he went the original route. Once the driver was aware Franz wanted to go a different way, he turned around right in front of one of the consprirators. The man shot Franz, and Franz bled to death. They shot him because Serbia didn't have any freedom. -
Trench Warfare
On the Western Front, soldiers would hide out in trenches to protect themselves from the new technology and powerful weapons. Some daily tasks they did were draining the trenches and reinforcing the trench walls. They always tried to catch some rest when they need to. Their living conditions were horrible and they lived in constant threat of snipers and toxic gas. Some men recieved "trench foot", which caused the feet to swell up. Sometimes, the feet would need to be amputated. -
The Sinking of Lusitania
A British passenger Lusitania crossed pahs with a German U-Boat. Germany shot a torpedo at the British ship. After two large explosions, Lusitania sank. 139 US citizens were killed and Britain felt that America had to declare war on Germany. However, President Wilson didn't want to overreact. Even though America wasn't ready for war, they, soon, declared war on Germany. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The British deciphered a telegram sent from the German minister to Mexico saying that they would give Mexico U.S territory if they joined them in battle. Woodrow Wilson was informed of this and declared war on Germany. Germany did this because they wanted to distract America because America was supplying Britain. -
U-Boats :)
Germany was the first country to use U-boats. They were miitary submarines. They were worked very well agaisnt British warfare. In April 1917, 430 of these U-boats were sunk and it looked like the Germans would succeed with their U-Boats. -
Unrestricted Warfare
The war wasn't going well for Germany. The rate of German sucesses were rare. They used U-boats because they thought that if in increased their sucesses shockingly enough, America would stay out of the war. Germany attacking civillian ships was unrestricted warfare however, they didn't really care because the sunk the Lusitania. -
Bolshevik Revolution
The Bolsheviks were a revolutionary group who followed the ideas of Karl Marx. The believed the group of people in society who worked would seperate themselves from the class who rules. This revolution happened because the Czar dragged a huge amount of peasants into World War I. The Russians were angry at what the Czar was doing to their people. Some of the outcomes were the power was transferred and some peasants recieved land. -
League of Nations
It was an organization who's goal was to maintain world peace. They planned to achieve this by preventing wars and ending disputes between countries. The League of Nations had official languages: French, English, and Spanish. This organization worked very well for about a decade after the war. The League never really died, however it faded away. Once countries were planning on starting World War II, they decided to not restore the League of Nations. -
Treaty of Versailles
This treaty was a treaty that theallowed the first world war to end. It stopped the conflicts between Germany and the allied powers, including Britain and America. In the treaty, Germany was suppored to take responsibility for starting the war. Also, they had to pay a lot of taxes back to the certain countries. In addition, armed aircrafts and posion gas was prohibited. This treaty completely humilated Germany. It caused Germany to be in extreme debt. -
The Great Depression
This event was when there was a worldwide ecnomic crisis. Personal income and profits and prices dropped. International trade plunged by more than 50%.1/4 of the U.S was unemployed. In Britain, many of the common industrial products were no longer in demand. However, the start of World War II allowed more jobs to be open. The war allowed for ecnomies to start up again. Here, governments could either stay democratic or turn to facism. -
Rise of Joseph Stalin
Stalin was one of the key leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution. He grew very close to Lenin during the revolution. Because he played important roles in the revolution, he was able to attain higher government positions. After Lenin's death, Stalin and Trotsky fought for the position of the czar. However, Trotsky grew more isolated and was ejected from the Central Committee. Trotsky was then exiled from the Soviet Union, giving Stalin the position of the czar. -
Rise of Facism
After the Great Despression, there was a lot of anger and bitterness. This allowed the nazis' to gain more power. They offered to make Hitler vice chancellor, but he refused. Hindenburg then allowed him to become chancellor, thinking he could control him. However, Hitler soon gained absolute power.In italy, Mussolini rose to power. These two fascists told people how awesome their countries were and offered plans to bring the economy up and to create jobs. -
Germany's Invasions
Hitler ordered his troops into Rhineland, even though he had a weak army. However, because France and Britain did not want to start another war, they didn't interfere and Germany won. Next, Germany wanted to take back the land that had been taken from them. Hitler ordered troops into Austria. After voting, Germany had a union with Austria. Finally, Germany wanted Sudetanlan. Britain met with Germany and agreed that Germany could have the land if they didn't invade any further into Czechoslovakia -
Spanish Civil War
Hitler and Mussolini sent troops to aid Spain's nationalists forces. Germany and Italy both wanted to stop the spread of communism. If it fell to the nationalists, it could be an important ally to both countries. The nationalists won and it strengethened Hitler because he had another powerful ally. -
Evacuation of Dunkirk
This was an event that evacuated allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France. A total of 338,226 soldiers had been rescued from the beaches. Sometimes the soldiers that had to get rescued would spend hours wading in the water waiting to get their turn to step onto the boats. -
Fall of France
The French collapse ripped up the balance of power in Europe, The only real government was ran by Marshal Philippe Pétain. The capital of the government was located at Vichy, France. The Vichy regime was authoritative and collaborated with the Germans. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority. IT was the first battle to be fought by mostly air forces. Germany lost to Britain and this was one of the very first losses Germany had during WWII. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
This attack was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The objective was to keep the U.S out of Japan's military business. The Japanese came in with bombers, fighters, and torpedos. It damaged all 8 U.S naval ships and sunk 4. This event caused America to go straight into WWII. -
Battle of Midway
This was a battle between Japan and America not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, this time Japan was defeated by the US. Japan underestimated America and thought their reaction to the attack would be different. American codebreakers were able to figure out when Japan was planning on attacking the US. The Battle of Guadalcanal was fought between Japan and the Allied forces. Japan was overwhelmed with how out numbered they were. Japan lost and the Allied forces won. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was a battle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for the control of the city Stalingrad. It's one of the bloodiest battles ever fought and it was a major turning point for the war because of the heavy losses Germany faced. The Soviets won because Germany had an insufficient supply of food, they were running out of ammunition, and they had no tanks. -
D-Day
D-Day was the first day that the allied forces made landing operations in Normandy. First, there would be an air assault by Britain, US, Canada, and French airborne troops followed by a landing. -
Bombing of Tokyo
The Bombing of Tokyo was conducted by many US air troops against Japan. The US very strategically dropped bombs on Japan. This bombing lasted for a couple of months until Japan capitulated. -
Victory in Europe Day
This was the official ending of Hitler. This caused years of misery and suffering for many across the globe. Some people were very happy about the war ending and threw parties. Some just reflected on the past couple of years. -
Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
America dropped a bomb over Hiroshima, Japan killing over 100,000 people in a split second. To add, 3 days later, another bomb was dropped over Nagasaki, Japan killing 40,000. After the bombings, Japan surrendered on August 15. Many people have criticized whether or not bombing Japan was the right decision or not. However, it was thought to be the only way to officially end the war. -
VJ Day
This day marked the end of the war with Japan. After the US dropped bombs on Japan, Japan really had no choice but to surrender. This day not only marked the ending of the war agaisnt Japan and in the Pacific, but it marked the actual ending of the WWII.
