World War I - SAT Subject Test in World History

World War I ended with the capitulation of the Germans and a victory for the allied powers. The treaty was called the Treaty of Versailles, and it is very important for understanding what would happen next in the history of Europe. The treaty essentially blamed Germany for the entirety of World War I and established harsh, almost impossible, conditions and debts for the Germans to try and pay off. This led, directly, to the rise of Hitler and Nazism and the outbreak of World War II.

The main reason why large-scale conflict broke out in World War I was the series of entangling alliances that existed before the war. In the pre-war years, all the nations of Europe were heavily nationalistic and heavily militarized. They all feared the strength of each other and sought to ensure their protection by signing treaties. So, the Germans, surrounded on all sides by possible enemies, signed alliances with Austria-Hungary and Italy. The French, fearing the threat posed by the Germans, signed treaties with Russia and Great Britain. The Triple Entente was signed between France, Britain, and Russia to provide for their mutual protection.

The Triple Alliance, designed to counter the threat of the Triple Entente (the alliance between Britain, France, and Russia) involved an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

The League of Nations was the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson who put forth the suggestion as part of his Fourteen Points at the Paris Peace Conference. Although the League was approved and formed by the international powers, when Wilson returned to America, he found that Congress was unwilling to immerse America so fully in the global experience. Congress rejected the peace treaty and American involvement in the League of Nations. This ensured that from the very beginning the League was without one of the preeminent world powers.

During the early twentieth century, Germany and France heavily disputed the status of Morocco. This was one of the primary sources of tension between the two nations in the buildup to World War One.

The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist forces in 1914 was the direct inciting incident that led to the outbreak of World War One. In the years leading up to World War One the major powers of Europe signed extensive alliances with one another that ensured that if one country declared war on another country all the rest would be dragged into the conflict like falling dominoes. The Triple Entente between Britain, France, and Russia made the Germans and Austro-Hungarians feel threatened; the British promised to protect Belgian sovereignty; the Russians promised to fight for Serbian autonomy and so on.

Communism was not yet a major factor in international affairs in the period leading up to World War I, as the Russian Revolution had not yet happened. Nationalism and pan-slavism led to the increased ethnic tensions in Europe, especially in the Balkans, and they ultimately provided immediate catalysts for the war, namely the Serbian murder of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand and Russia's alliance with Serbia. Imperialism and militarism both contributed to growing rivalry and tension among the major European powers, namely Germany, Britain, and France. Imperialist ambitions, in particular, led to diplomatic incidents (such as the Agadir Crisis of 1911) that heightened tensions among these nations, especially due to British and French fears of German aggression.

David Lloyd George was the Prime Minister of England from 1916-1922. Georges Clemenceau was Prime Minister of France from 1917 to 1920. Both men were influential in reordering Europe after World War One at the Paris Peace Conference.

David Lloyd George assumed leadership of the British government in 1915 and ruled as Prime Minister until 1922. As such, he was the British representative at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 where the victorious Allied powers discussed how to reorder Europe and the world in the wake of the First World War.

The Schlieffen Plan began life as an experiment within the German military command at how the Germany army might effectively fight a simultaneous war against Russia in the East and France in the West. Following the outbreak of the First World War, the plan was implemented in part.

Although signed into an alliance with France and Russia, Britain originally wanted to remain primarily neutral in the First World War. Certainly, Britain did not want to fully commit its forces to the conflict. However, Britain was sworn to defend Belgian sovereignty. Once Germany invaded Belgium, Britain was forced into the war on the side of France and Russia against the Germans.

World War One began on the Western Front with a massive German troop movement through Belgium and into North-Eastern France. In response to German troops moving through Belgium and occupying the nation, Britain declared war (it had promised to protect Belgian neutrality and was allied with the French). The French and the British stalled the German offensive at the Battle of the Marne, and the mobile period of the First World War ended, to be was replaced with years of brutal trench warfare.

The leader of Germany during the First World War was Kaiser Wilhelm II. He replaced Bismarck as ruler of Germany in 1890 and set the nation on a course for warfare from the very beginning. He was forced to abdicate power following the end of the war and German capitulation.

The Zimmerman Telegram was sent to Mexico by the German government during World War One. It was designed to preempt American involvement in the war in Europe by ensuring that Mexico would keep America distracted at home. The telegram was made public knowledge and was an important motivating factor in America's final decision to enter the conflict.

The German U-boat policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was an important strategy in the Atlantic theatre of the First World War. In an attempt to cut off the British isles from foreign trade, the German submarines would sink any merchant boat headed there. This caused the sinking of American ships and helped turn public opinion in America towards war against Germany.

For much of the nineteenth century, the Russians had shown a distinct interest in the Balkan region. Russia wanted a port city to directly access the Mediterranean, but the Russians also saw themselves as the same, or similar, nationality as the Serbian people living in the Balkan region. The Serbs at the time were under the dominion of the Austria-Hungary Empire, and Russia sought to help free the Serbs.

The Russian Revolution occurred in 1917 and saw Russia pulled out of the First World War. The monarchy was replaced by a communist government run by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks differed from the Mensheviks in that they favored an immediate and artificial revolution.

The Russian legislature was called the Duma. It was created by the Tsar to give in to calls for democracy, but in reality, it had limited powers to effect legislation.

Kulaks were wealthy Russian peasants who emerged as significant landowners in the first decade of the twentieth century. They were branded as enemies of the state and of the communist ideal by Lenin and Stalin and persecuted in the years following the First World War.