Transcript World War I
World War I has begun. You are the leader of a European country and must decide what to do. Your nation is one of several that have agreed to support each other in the event of war. Some of your allies already have joined the fight. You oppose the thought of war and fear that joining will lead to even more lives lost. Yet, you believe in being loyal to your allies. You also worry that your rivals want to conquer all of Europe—and if you don’t join the war now, your country may end up having to defend itself all alone. 1. Should you always support a friend, no matter what he or she does? 2. What might be the long-term consequences of refusing to help an ally? • Unit Standard: SSWH 16 Understand the longterm causes of World War I and its global impact. • Objectives: Identify the political and military forces at work in Europe in the late 1800s. Which countries made up the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. Summarize the events that set World War I in motion. • EQ: How did military buildup, nationalistic feelings, and rival alliances set the stage for a continental war? Read textbook pages 841 – 843. • Identify the MAIN causes of World War I. • Identify the members of the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. World War I The MAIN Causes of World War I • Militarism • Alliances • Imperialism • Nationalism Militarism • Militarism - A policy of glorifying military power and keeping a standing army always prepared for war. Alliances • Alliances - close associations of nations or other groups, formed to advance common interests or causes. Specifically, in World War I, a series of defense agreements involving two or more countries. Imperialism • Imperialism – A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically, or socially. Nationalism • Nationalism – a belief that people should be loyal mainly to their nation - that is to the people with whom they share a culture and a history – rather than to a king or an empire. Boundaries • War in Europe is not a new thing. Often they had fought over lands back and forth. • Alsace-Lorraine: two French provinces lost to Germany as a result of earlier war. • Bosnia-Herzogovina: Austria absorbed these as a result of the Balkan Wars. • Austria-Hungary: transfer so often that this region had three alphabets, three religions and eleven or more language groups. Nationalism • Nationalism – a deep devotion to one’s country. • The rise in nationalism caused intense competition amoung nations, each seeking to overpower the other. Tangled Alliances • Bismarck (the German Chancellor) forged many alliances between 1864 and 1871 primarily to isolate France, whom he considered Germany’s greatest threat. • He formed an alliance with AustriaHungary and then later with Italy, thus forming the Triple Alliance. He added an alliance with Russia to remove another possible ally from France. • When Wilhelm II became Kaiser, he forced Bismarck to resign. • In addition he allowed some of the alliances (especially the one with Russia) to lapse and began a tremendous military build up. • In response to Kaiser Wilhelm’s alliances and military buildup, England and France formed an entente (an alliance). Later Britain made another entente with both France and Russia. • The Triple Entente did not require Britain to fight with France or Russia, but it almost certainly ensured that Britain would not fight against them. Imperialism • Competition for colonies (and the natural resources they provided) in Africa and Asia pushed European nations to the brink of war. • Colonies required the colonizers to maintain a military force to protect them. • As European countries continued to compete for colonies their sense of rivalry and mistrust of one another deepened. Turn to textbook page 884. • Read the History in Depth “The Armenian Massacre” • What caused the Armenian Massacre? Assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand • Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. • On June 28, 1914, Gavrillo Princip, a member of the terrorist group the Black Hand, shot both the archduke and his wife. • The Austro-Hungarian government didn’t know if the Serbian government was directly involved but didn’t care. Assassination • Before the assassination of the archduke the smaller countries of Europe had a complicated system of secret treaties that bound them together in the event of a attack. • Within hours of the death of the archduke these alliances came into effect as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. • Russia sided with Serbia while Germany sided with Austro-Hungary Use the map on the left to answer the following questions. 1. Why would Germans worry about an alliance between France and Germany? 2. Based on the information on the map, which alliance do you think had the greater military advantage in 1914? Kaiser William II “All the long years of my reign,” William II (1859– 1941) complained, “my colleagues, the monarchs of Europe, have paid no attention to what I have to say.” As kaiser, he fought to win respect for himself and his empire. William’s rivalry with other rulers was in many ways a family feud. He and George V of Britain were cousins, grandchildren of Queen Victoria. Tsar Nicholas II was a cousin by marriage. When war broke out in 1914, the kaiser blamed “George and Nicky.” “If my grandmother had been alive, she would never have allowed it!” How did the kaiser’s desire for respect influence his policies?