Summary History Memo 3TTO 1.2-1.4

Summary History 1.2, 1.3, 1.4




1.2 Main causes of WW1

We are going to work up to the Great War with four MAIN causes.

M = militarism

A = alliances

I = Imperialism

N = Nationalism



1.2 Imperialism = the drive to have a big empire

Africa is actually pretty rick in raw materials  every European country wanted their own piece of
Africa.

More colonies = a bigger empire =

1. More raw materials which helped with mass production
2. More status
3. More people

So in 1914 Great Britain (GB) and France (FR) had 10+ colonies in Africa alone Germany (GER) had 3.



1.2 Militarism

= thinking that the army, soldiers and war are very important and cool. Before WW1, people generally
thought war was a good thing. Combine militarism and nationalism and you have the idea that your
country’s beautiful army is going to win this war easily because you are the best anyway.

More resources are necessary to make the army bigger/better, which leads to more imperialism.



1.2 Nationalism

= love for your country, or that you want to have your own country.

- If your own country is the best, then all the other are worse.
- War leads to a rise of nationalism

, - GER had beaten FR in the Franco-German war in 1971: FR felt humiliated and angry, GER united
itself fand was proud. GER was also the strongest most modern country in Europe. Its emperor,
Kaiser Wilhelm II, built up the fleet and military.

1.2 Mass production

Making products is much faster and cheaper if you split the work on one productaround 1900 the
assembly line was popularizedit was now possible to produce in larger amounts = mass production

The chemical and electrical industries flourished. Moreover, new communication was possible: the
telegraph, radio, telephone and film made news travel fast.



1.2 Alliances

Everyone knew a war was coming, so the European countries made alliances. If one country was
attacked the other would help:

1. Triple Entente: GB, FR and Russia
2. The Central Powers: GER, Austria-Hungary(A-H), the Ottoman Empire and Italy (switched sides)

The Triple Entente had the most land and the highest population, but GER was the biggest industrial
power. The US did not join the war yet.



1.2 Franz-Ferdinand

June 1914: The Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip kills the archduke of A-H Franz-Ferdinand in SarajevoA-H
sends an ultimatum to SerbiaRussia, an ally of Serbia gathers (mobilizes) her armyGER declares war
on RussiaFR mobilizesGER declares war on FR and attacks France through Belgium with the Von
SchlieffenplanGB mobilizes and helps Belgiumthe war is now a world War.



1.3 The Von Schlieffenplan

GER doesn’t want to fight a two-front warthe plan is to conquer France within 6 weeks and then go to
Russia, because Russia will mobilize slower. FER wants to attack through Belgium, because on the border
of FR and GER there are heavy fortifications. (versterkingen). But GB helps Belgium. BEL, FR and GB
resist more than expected an Russia mobilizes very quicklythe GER army is split. In BEL and FR both
sides dig in and trench warfare begins.