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AP World History
Chapter 33 Study Packet
The Great War: The World in Upheaval
Table of Contents
2...... Overview 3...... Introduction 4...... A.P. Key Concepts 5...... Study Questions - Drift Toward War 6...... Study Questions- Global War 8...... Study Questions- The End of War
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Chapter 33 Study Packet The Great War Overview
Overview
The Great War of 1914-1919 was a nearly global conflagration that included all the major powers of Europe, their colonies, and overseas allies. The immediate provocation was a relatively minor incident—the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire—but the causes was long-standing and much more complex. Pressure to seek war and resist compromise had been mounting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, fed by aggressive nationalism, ambitious militarism, and complex national alliances. The war, when it came, was not what anyone expected.
• New kind of warfare. New technologies transformed the experience of war. Offensive battle plans stalled in the trenches, where soldiers were pounded by heavy artillery, trapped by machine-gun fire, and vulnerable to poisonous gas. Casualties were counted in the hundreds of thousands, and progress was measured in yards gained. • Total war. World War I engaged civilian populations to an unprecedented degree. On the home front, women took up the work abandoned by recruits. Governments took control of wartime production, and propaganda campaigns demonized the enemy and glorified the war effort. Civilians were also targets of war through aerial bombing and naval blockades. • The Russian revolution. The revolution was triggered by the war but sprang from the long-standing failure of the tsarist government to meet the needs of the Russian people. For a while it seemed that a liberal democracy might emerge, but within months the Bolshevik Party under the direction of Lenin overthrew the provisional government. • Peace and unresolved questions. Armistice came in 1918, shortly after the United States entered the war. At the Paris Peace Conference, the victors, especially Britain and France, dictated harsh terms to the defeated Central Powers, dismantled their colonial empires, and imposed economic penalties. The bitterness engendered by the peace settlement virtually ensured that another conflict would follow.
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Chapter 33 Study Packet The Great War Introduction
For the causes of World War I the acronym often used is MAIN.
Militarism. This is embodied in the arms races between various nations, the best example being the naval contest between Germany and Great Britain. Alliances: The rival systems of alliances that obligated nations to go to war if their allies did. Imperialism: The competition and conflict between nations over colonies. Nationalism: The idea that ethnic groups should have their own nations, free from outside control. Nationalism was also to represent national pride, demonstrated by the existence of colonies and a superior military.
By 1914, Europe had separated into two main alliances. The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria‐Hungary, and Italy with the Ottoman loosely allied with Germany. The other alliance was the Triple Entente comprised of Britain, France, and Russia. In June of 1914, Serbian nationalists assassinated the Austrian Archduke Francis‐Ferdinand. Austria‐Hungary declared war on Serbia and Russia mobilized to defend its ally. One treaty commitment after another brought most of the European powers into the war by mid‐August. This conflict became known as World War I. Neither side gained the quick victory. The western front turned into a bloody stalemate included “trench warfare.” On the western front, the war went on for four years and cost millions of lives without any major gains by either side. The eastern front was more fluid but still bloody, and on that front there was also no victory either for side. World War I saw the introduction of poison gas, aircraft, and submarine warfare, as well as the concept of “total war.” Governments took over industries, imposed war and price controls, rationed some goods, and imposed a draft (involuntary military service). Women moved into the work force in large numbers, replacing the men who were in uniform. This had lasting effects and helped promote women’s suffrage. The war quickly drew in people from all parts of the globe, as Britain and France brought soldiers from their colonies to fight. Japan entered the war because of a naval treaty with Britain, and then used the war to expand her control of China. There were also minor battles in Africa and a major clash at Gallipoli in Turkey. In Russia, continuing losses brought about a revolution in February of 1917, which forced the abdication of Nicholas II and put a provisional government in charge. By October of 1917, the government had still not remedied the problems and Lenin and his followers took control of the government. The United States remained neutral until a German submarine sunk the Lusitania, a British ship carrying American passengers. The United States declared war on Germany in April of 1917. Masses of fresh troops from the U.S. and the collapsing economies of the Central Powers brought the war to an end in November of 1918. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 included twenty‐seven allied nations but did not include the Central Powers or the Soviet Union. The settlement, which became a major cause of World War II, forced Germany to pay for the war and broke up the Austrian‐Hungarian Empire. Germany’s other ally, Turkey, drove out the allied occupation forces and under Ataturk founded a democratic secular state. The Paris Peace Conference also established the League of Nations, an international peace‐keeping organization. However, there was renewed U.S. isolationism at this time, and the United States did not become a member. With no political or military power to enforce its decisions, the League had very little impact on the events to come in world history. After the war, operating on the principle of self‐determination, the map of Europe was redrawn to create Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia. A system of mandates (trusteeships) was put in place to attend to the colonies of the Central Powers. The war weakened Europe and propelled the United States to a dominant, political and economic position.
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Chapter 33 Study Packet The Great War A.P. Key Concepts
Key Concept 6.2 Global Conflicts and Their Consequences
I. Europe dominated the global political order at the beginning of the 20th century, but both land‐based and transoceanic empires gave way to new forms of transregional political organization by the century’s end.
IV. Military conflicts occurred on an unprecedented global scale.
Key Concept 6.3 New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society and Culture
I. States, communities and individuals became increasingly interdependent, a process facilitated by the growth of institutions of global governance.
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Chapter 33 Study Packet The Drift Toward War (Read pages 1-9)
IDENTIFICATION: TERMS/CONCEPTS
1. Dreadnought
2. Balkan Wars 1912-1913
3. Allies
4. Central Powers
STUDY QUESTIONS 1. What goals and values were expressed in the various nationalistic movements of the early twentieth century? Which ethnic groups in particular asserted the right of self-determination?
2. How did the imperialistic rivalries of the European powers contribute to international tensions before World War I? Be specific.
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Chapter 33 Study Packet Global War (Read pages 10-21)
IDENTIFICATION: PEOPLE
1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand
2. Kaiser Wilhelm
3. T E Lawrence
4. Mustapha Kemal (Atatmk)
IDENTIFICATION: TERMS/CONCEPTS
1. Gallipoli
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STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Summarize the forces set in motion by the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. When and why did the war begin?
2. What was the typical experience of the soldier in World War I? Explain how new technologies changed the experience of war.
3. What role did women play in the war effort? Were these changes long- or short-term?
4. How else did the war transform civilian life? Consider especially the enlarged role of the government.
5. Why did Japan enter WWI? What did they gain?
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Chapter 33 Study Packet The End of War (Read pages 22-33)
IDENTIFICATION: PEOPLE 1. V.I. Lenin
2. Woodrow Wilson
IDENTIFICATION: TERMSICONCEPTS 1. Bolsheviks
2. Lusitania
4. League of Nations
5. Mandate system
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STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What factors caused the Russian Revolutions in February and October of 1917? What changes emerged initially from these revolutions?
2. How did Lenin and the Bolsheviks come to power?
3. When and why did the United States enter the war? What did this move mean?
4. What was the intent of the League of Nations? What were the weaknesses of this body?
5. How did the mandate system work in the Middle East? Who profited most from this system?
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