Download Brian Lam US History Term 2 Test 2 Causes of

 B r i a n L a m : U S H i s t o r y T e r m 2 T e s t 2 S t u d y S h e e t : P a g e | 1 Brian Lam
US History Term 2 Test 2
Causes of World War I
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Generally, the four long-term causes cited for World War I are nationalism, imperialism,
militarism, and alliances.
Nationalism caused France and Germany to fight over control of Europe.
Imperialism caused Germany to compete with France and Britain for colonies.
Imperial powers started to follow militarism and built up their armed forces.
Because of mutual fears and desires, multiple nations in Europe created alliances with
each other. Under these alliances, one country faced attack, the other would have to help.
The Allies
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The Allies consisted of France, Great Britain, and Russia. However, Russia also had a
separate treaty with Serbia, which later becomes pivotal in starting World War I.
The Central Powers
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The Central powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman empire.
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
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Austria Hungary wanted to get Serbia under its control, but many Serbians rejected
Austria-Hungarian rule. So when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were in
Bosnia, a young man leaped and fatally shot both of them. The assassin, Gavrilo Princip,
turned out to be part of a secret society called the Black Hand. He was trying to unite all
Serbs under one government, except he pretty much wound up starting World War I
instead.
Austria-Hungary starts a war with Serbia. As mentioned before, Russia had a separate
treaty with Serbia, so Serbia joins in the war against Austria-Hungary. Because Germany
has to support Austria-Hungary, they join the war. Then Germany declares war on
France, because France is Russia's ally. Great Britain is allied with France so it joins in
the war too.
The War Starts
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The Germans start with their Schlieffen Plan, which included driving through Belgium
into Paris and then defeating the Russian czar after France falls. Because the British and
the French were unable to save Belgium, they retreat to the Marne River.
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The soldiers in the Allies and in the Central Powers fought using trench warfare, where
there would be rows of trenches. Between the lines of trenches of each side was a "no
man's land" which was overseen by machine guns and poison gas, so as to prevent one
side from climbing out of their trenches and charging the enemy position.
Final casualties were 1.2 million people killed in this Battle of the Somme.
American Neutrality and Eventual Involvement
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Although officially, America was neutral, many Americans took a side in the war. For
example, people of German descent sympathized with the Germans. However, for the
most part, the US supported the Allies because America has cultural similarities with
Great Britain and because Germany was so harsh (Germany was seen as the bully of
Europe).
America was also more willing to help the Allies unofficially because it had such strong
trading ties with the Allied nations (Britain in particular).
Great Britain set a blockade along Germany to prevent not only the travel of weapons and
other military goods, but also of food. About 750,000 Germans died from starvation as a
result of the British blockade.
Germans responded to the blockade using their U-boats, which were submarines. Their
U-boats attacked indiscriminately, and as a result, when they attacked the British ship
Lusitania, 128 Americans died even though American was not yet involved in the war.
In the Sussex pledge, Germany agreed to temporarily stop its unrestricted submarine
warfare if the united States persuaded Britain to lift its blockade.
However, president Wilson tried his best to remain out of the war so he didn't get
involved yet. As a result, he is re-elected because people like that he kept the country out
of war.
The German foreign minister sent the Zimmerman note to the German ambassador in
Mexico. The Zimmerman note offered an alliance between Mexico and Germany with
promise that Mexico would reclaim Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back from the
United States if they helped Germany.
On April 4, the United States officially became involved in World War I and supported
the Allies.
Drafts
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There weren't enough people in the armed forces and American was undermanned, so the
United States passed the Selective Service Act, which drafted people (primarily men
between 21 and 23) to fight in the war. However, training for those people was poor
because of lack of materials.
Alvin York was a conscientious objector, or a person who opposed warfare because they
believed it was immoral. However, he was drafted anyway and wound up becoming a
B r i a n L a m : U S H i s t o r y T e r m 2 T e s t 2 S t u d y S h e e t : P a g e | 3 war hero because he and some other Americans killed 25 Germans and captured 132 of
them as prisoners. He eventually decided that war was morally acceptable if the cause
was just.
American Navy
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The United States government realized that it needed ships, so they exempted shipyard
workers from the draft, or delayed their participation in the draft. They also emphasized
the importance of shipyard work to the public, developed fabrication (building a ship
using standardized parts rather than parts you make on your own), and took control of
every ship that was under construction for private owners and converted them for use in
the war.
Countries started to realize that to defeat the U-boats, they had to use the convoy system,
in which merchant vessels would be escorted by guard destroyers and cruisers. U-boats
started to be destroyed much more often after the convoy system was used.
American Armed Forces
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American infantrymen in the American Expeditionary Force were called doughboys
because they wore white belts which they cleaned with pipe clay. The AEF was led by
General John J. Pershing, who believed in aggressive combat. It's also worth mentioning
that Alvin York was in the AEF.
Because the Americans were new to the war, they brought a fresh attitude and good
morale to the other soldiers.
New technology
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World War I was fought with mechanized warfare, which meant that the warfare relied
on machines that operated on gasoline and diesel. For example, tanks were used to clear
paths for the infantry.
A lot of soldiers wore gas masks because gas warfare was common in WWI.
Airplanes were really crappy to a point that pilots would shoot at other pilots by opening
their cockpits and shooting their pistols. Then a Dutchman who worked for Germany
invented an interrupter gear that allowed planes to shoot bullets while avoiding the
plane's propellers.
Health and Medicine in the war
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Soldiers often died from disease because the trenches were so dirty.
Soldiers also suffered from trench foot, which happened when they stood in wet trenches
for too long without changing into a pair of dry socks or boots. The foot would have to be
amputated.
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In November of 1918, the German Grand Fleet at Kiel ignored the German admiralty's
order to set out to sea. Soon, mutiny spread and there was an armistice. Both sides
stopped fighting.
In the end, the war was the bloodiest war to that point. Approximately 26 million people
died from it, roughly half of which were civilians.
Economy
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Congress granted President Wilson many powers over the economy.
Wilson started the War Industries Board, which encouraged companies to mass produce
to be increase efficiency. Other agencies were set up too, such as the Railroad
Administration and the Fuel Administration.
Because labor was needed for wartime, many women started to work. This earned
woman more respect, but they still earned less than men did and almost all of them lost
their jobs after the war was over.
President Wilson knew that he needed to encourage people to help one way or another in
the war. So amongst other things, he started the Committee on Public Information, or the
CPI. It was headed by George Creel, who was a former muckraking journalist. Creel
created art to promote the war and persuaded many institutions to join in the effort to help
the war. Most notably, he recruited 75,000 Four Minute Men who would deliver speeches
encouraging people to help the war effort.
Society
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Americans started to become very bitter against Germans because of the war. As a result,
Americans who had German names wound up losing their jobs.
It soon became socially accepted to discriminate against German.
In the Great Migration, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from the
south to the north. Although many of them had to live in poor living conditions, they
were encouraged to set up businesses.
Women began to get new roles in society because of the war. For example, some of them
drove cabs and delivery trucks. Some even mined coal and helped build ships.
Espionage and Sedition Acts
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In 1918, Congress passed the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which were blatantly
unconstitutional. Under these laws, a person could be sentenced to jail time if they said
anything disloyal or profane about the government or about the war effort.
Flu Epidemic
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The whole world was afflicted with a flu epidemic, which was spread from France, who
got it from Chinese war workers. Approximately a quarter of the US population was
afflicted with the flu.
The flu caused the economy to degrade because telephone service was cut, mines were
shut down, and factories and officers had to avoid contagion. So many people died that
there was even a shortage of coffins.
In the end, approximately 500,000 Americans died from the epidemic. Historians believe
that the epidemic could have killed as many as 40 million people worldwide.
Fourteen Points
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Wilson delivered a famous Fourteen Points speech before Congress. It was his famous
speech for world peace.
The first five points were that there would be no secret treaties amongst nations, that
freedom of the seas would be maintained for all countries, that foreign tariffs should to
lowered to encourage free trade, that military power should be reduced, and that
imperialist powers should consider the interests of the colonial people, not just the
interests of the imperialist powers.
The next eight points were about specific boundary changes.
The fourteenth point called for an international organization to address diplomatic crises.
This set up the League of Nations.
The Fourteen Points were not accepted by the other Allied leaders.
Treaty of Versailles
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The Treaty of Versailles was signed and established nine new nations and shifted
boundaries of other nations.
Moreover, the treaty required that Germany be stripped of its force and that its navy and
army should be decreased to 100,000 men.
The treaty required that Germany pay $33 billion dollars to the Allies because of
reparations, or war damages.
Lastly, the treaty required Germany to acknowledge that it was responsible for World
War I. This was written in the war-guilt clause.
The treaty humiliated Germany and was clearly written against Germany.
When President Wilson returned to the US, he found that many people were opposed to
his treaty. Many people considered it to be too harsh.
The treaty becomes a factor in starting World War II.
League of Nations
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The big argument against the Treaty of Versailles was the establishment of the League of
Nations.
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Some people believed that the League of Nations would get the United States entangled
in other countries' affairs.
One important opponent against the League of Nations was Henry Cabot Lodge.
However, Wilson could not smooth out the issues with the treaty because he was very
tired from writing it and because he later suffered from a stroke.
Ultimately, the United States signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921 after Wilson
was not president anymore.
The United States never joined the League of Nations.
Adolf Hitler
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Germany needed to search for scapegoats to blame the war on. Hitler blamed German
problems on Jews. His Nazi Party won control of Germany's government and his policies
led to the Second World War.