World War I and II: Causes, Events, and Consequences

Posted on Apr 1, 2024 in History

Part 1: World War 1

Causes of WW1:

  • Militarism: Germany was competing with the UK to rebuild battleships. The British feared an attack on their empire. Germany was competing with Russia to expand their armies.
  • Alliances: all major powers were linked by a system of alliances. The alliances made it more likely that a war would start. Once started, the alliances made it more likely to spread.
  • Imperialism: all great powers were competing for colonies/territories. The British forced Germany in Africa. The Austrians feared Serbia/Russia in the Balkins.
  • Nationalism: this was an age when all of the nations wanted to assert their power and independence. The Europe slavs, aided by Serbia and Russia, wanted to free Austrian rule.

The Schlieffen plan:

wanted to avoid a two-front war, attack France first through Beligum, then Russia must defend France fast.

Crown Prince Francis Ferdinand:

Archduke was about to be king of Austria-Hungary and while he visited the capital of Bosnia, him and his wife was assassinated by Gorvilo Prinep.

Ottoman Empire:

Germany was the only country that shared interest and eventually gets surrendered.

The Sussex pledge:

to not sink the ships w/o warning and Germany agreed not to do so, but did it, forcing the US to declare war.

The Zimmerman telegram:

Germany purposed a military alliance with Mexico if they went to war against the US. The British intelligence accepted a telegram from the Germans and suggested that Mexico should return their territory.

Treat of Brest-Litovsk:

Lenin and the Bolsheviks come to power in Russia and promise that they will end the war.  Russia and Germany/Austria Hungary signed a treaty to end hostilities, and Russia has to give up territory to Germany.

President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 points:

  • No more secret treaties
  • freedom of the sea/ships
  • reduced weapons
  • self-determination
  • free trade
  • & league of nations

Georges Clemenceau:

leader of France and he wants to humiliate Germany for starting the war.

WW1 technology:

  • inactive guns
  • artillery
  • grenades
  • aircraft
  • submarines
  • tanks/armour
  • barbed wire
  • chemical warfare
  • poisonous gas

Us support for allies over the central powers:

  1. business links
  2. trading issues
  3. unrestricted submarine warfare
  4. Zimmerman note

The Russian Revolution/Civil war:

Causes of the March revolution:

  • Czar Nicolas 2
  • Economic/social aspects
  • military problems
  • Gregory Rasputin

Russian Civil war:

Reds (supporters of Bolsheviks) vs white (anti-communists). The reds win because they outnumber the whites, more organized, Lenin is a strong leader, controlled Moscow, ad had lots of Russia’s support.

Proletariat:

the growing class of factory and railroad workers, minors, and urban age workers.

Russian Communist party:

  • Bolsheviks: radical socialists
  • Mensheviks: moderate socialists

New economic policy:

War communism causes the near collapse of the Russian economy, Lenin adapts the NEP which allowed some capitalists ventures, and Russian economy recovers and owed resistance to the new govt.

Rise of the totalitarians:

totalitarian:

form of dictatorship that wants to regulate every aspect of the citizens lives.

Fascism:

provides extreme nationalism that desires individual rights, glorifies war, violence, and obedience, encourages foreign expansion.

Propaganda

  • used to appeal emotion rather than interest
  • broad appeal to the masses
  • focuses mainly on are enemy, (message used to commence peoples minds)

Adolf Hitler and the national socialist German workers party:

Hitler was elected leader because he was able to solve Germany’s problems and created an anti-democratic government.

Mussolini fascist party-black shirts:

members of fascism.

Attraction to Italian Fascism:

restore Italy’s stability in the Sound of the Cresadas.

The Nuremberg Laws:

restricted Jewish life in Germany, could not attend school, banned from government jobs, couldn’t publish books, and banned from protecting law and medicine.

Stalin’s 5 year plan: to get goods, to increase out put of coal, steel, oil and build up heavy industry to improve transportation (good for the soviet union).

World war 2:

appeasement: to give into the aggressor to keep peace.
Third Reich: replaces Wiemar republic; empire instead of democracy, would dominate.
Kristallnacht: Known as the night of broken glass, it led to Jewish communities, being attacked all over Germany, Austria, and Czech.
Holocaust: a program of mass murder; term used when exclusively as it relates to the Third Reichs murder of Jews during WW1.
Miracle at Dunkirk: allies successfully evacuate the French and British troops because of Hitlers mistakes (cancels the German advance, to and from Dunkirk)
Battle of Britain: German planes could fly over England for 90 mins, good use of British radar as Germans never understood, and Hitlers change in strategy from attacking military to cities.
Operation Barbarossa: Hitler broke the Nazi soviet pact when he invaded the soviet union (Germany could never fight a two front war).
Battle of midway: American victory; turning point on the Pacific.
D Day: allied soldiers liberated France. Storming of the beaches, 150,000 participated, 10,000 dead. 
Island hopping: when the US went from island to island destroying the weaker islands first and passing off the larger ones to prevent casualties.
The Wansee conference: a conference that answered the Jewish question, leads to the Holocaust. 
The Manhattan project: collaboration of allied scientists who built tests for the first atomic bomb in New Mexico.  

The Cold war: 

containment: a policy that would prevent the spread of communism.
Marshall plan: gave 17 billion dollars to rebuild post-war Europe (success) and the US provided to all European nations that needed it who were against hunger and poverty. 
The Truman doctrine: to prevent the spread of communism in Greece and Turkey and asked congress for 400 million dollars to help free people (a success).
NATO: to protect america and allies in Europe from Soviet hostilities, approved national defense to use military to combat communism, and originally 12 members.
Warsaw pact: soviet military alliance in response to Germany joining NATO.
Massive retaliation: it threatens full scale nuclear attack on the soviet union in response to communist aggression anywhere in the world and US cant afford small wars.
Korean war: started when north Korea crossed the 38th parallel and Dean Achesm had delivered a speech at which he said that south Korea and Taiwan were not part of the defensive perimeter which the US was kept out of the war.
Sputnik: the first artificial Earth satellite which exclaimed the American public and made them think that their schools had foiled to teach students math and science. As a resolution, schools introduced tracking, differentiated curriculum, and IQ testing.
The Cuban missile crisis: Options available to the US: airstrikes against missiles, invasion of Cuba, and blockade. Resolution: after exchange of messages, Kennedy and Khrushchev resigned a conflict agreement… the US will remove IRBMS from Turkey and Italy, the USSR will remove missiles from Cuba, US pledged not to provide for Cuba, and the USSR assigned not to publicly reveal the removal of IRBMS.