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Imperialism
Imperialism is a system where one "mother" country controls various colonies. Usually, they gain control over these colonies by forceful methods like infiltration or political pressure. By 900, the British Empire had taken control of over five different continents and France had control over large areas of Africa. The amount of land that Britian and France owned increased their tension with Germany. This fight for land and power contributed to the World War. -
Nationalism
Nationalism is an intense form of patriotism. In this case, the intense amount of nationalism can be unifying within a country but causes a large amount of competition with other nations. Nationalism caused an intense rivalry with Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Italy and France. They all created an internal competition to become the greatest of the great nations and to become that, they had to excel in their military and economically. -
Militarism
Militarism is the idea of the government should have a strong military and always be prepared to use it to defend national interests. It influenced the arms race which increased defense spending and new technologies for the military. Militarism was one of the causes of World War 1 because it established an environment where war and violence was the best solution to resolving international disagreements. -
Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated along with his wife, Sophie. by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The assassins shot Ferdniand in the neck and his wife in the abdomen killing them both on site. The assassination is thought to be the final cause of World War 1 as it resulted in Austria-Hungary to take action against Serbia which slowly looped all other allies into the conflict. -
Germany's Blank Check to Austria-Hungary
The beginning of the blank check happened when Austria-Hungary requested formal support from Germany as they decided they wanted to declare war against Russia. They sent a representative to speak to Kaiser Wilhelm II and discuss Russia and Kaiser said he did not think Russia would respond with violence or their military. Kaiser hoped everything would happen in a civil manner because he believed Russia was not ready for war but promised that Germany would help fight attackers if Russia responded. -
WWI Begins
World War 1 began after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. It began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Soon after, Germany declared war on Russia and France, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia and Serbia declared war on Germany. The first official battle of the war was fought between Russia and Germany in Tannenberg. Due to Great Britian's alliances within other European powers, they became involved in the war. -
Germany's Resumption of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Unrestricted submarine warfare is when freighter and tanks are sunk without a warning by the submarines. Germany used this tactic for their naval warfare and they used this to bring the Lusitania down, Germany tried to argue that it was a war tactic when the United States chose to break off their alliance with them. Once Germany had sunken the Lusitania, United States officially entered into World War 1 against the Germans. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
The sinking of the Lusitania is the reason that the United States became involved in World War 1. A torpedo was fired into Lusitania causing the large ship to sink after only 18 minutes. The attack killed 1,198 passengers and crew members including 128 Americans. -
Alliances
An alliance is formed when there is an agreement between two or more nations. Most of the time, those who are allies agree to support each other in the event of war or aggression. Alliances contributed to the first World War because they encouraged more countries to get involved in the violence even if it was not their fight to fight. The major alliances that caused havoc were the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmerman Telegram was sent from the German minister, Arthur Zimmerman, to the German ambassador of Mexico, Von Eckhardt. This telegram said that if Mexico joined the German cause, the United Stares territory would be offered up to other nations. This telegram scared the United States and contributed to them officially declaring war on Germany, forcing them into WWI. -
U.S. Entry into the War
The United States entered into the war for various reasons but the two main reasons were because of Germany's submarine attacks and the Zimmerman Telegraph. The U.S. officially declared war on Germany on December 7, 1917 placing them into the World War. They impacted the World War by supplying weapons to their allies and possibly shortening the overall war. -
Effects of WWI
World War 1 officially ended on November 11, 1918 and effected many as a result of the four year war. Many of European nations were reformed and changed as a result of this war. One example of the changes that occurred was that the Ottoman Turks were able to get the country of turkey and Poland. Along with that, Austria-Hungary, which became the four different nations later known as, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. There were 37,466,904 casualties and 8,528,831 people killed. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles officially ended the first World War. It consisted of 15 parts and 440 articles that reassigned the German boundaries. The biggest goal of this treaty was to ensure that a new war would not be able to come up in the near future for the same reasons this one had begun. The German government was resentful about signing the treaty because it caused them to lose land and pay 6,600 million in reparation for the damage. -
Dawes Plan and Young Plan
The Dawes plan gave economic benefits to the German economy and helped with the burden that the war left behind. It made the largest impact on the Germany economy that was depending on the foreign markets. The Young plan was the revised report of the Dawes plan that was ran by Owen D. Young. -
The Great Depression
The Great Depression was the longest lasting economic downturn in the Western world. The depression began soon after the stock market crash in October that sent Wall Street into havoc and lost millions of investors. Over the next years, people stopped spending and investments were dropped which caused downfalls in the industrial outputs and unemployment throughout companies. -
Rise of Hitler
Within the chaos after WW1 in Germany, many people were looking for a new leader to put their energy into and at that time, Hitler and his group began to rise to power. The largest contributing factor to Hitler's rise of power was his ability to speak which demanded people to listen to him whether or not they agreed. Hitler's speaking abilities gave him the ability to speak out in the Nazi party and due to the chaos in Germany, he was able to rise to higher power than he would have been able to.
