Terms - Explanation

World History

1. Militarism Definition: The process of building up one’s military strength for

the purpose of intimidating other countries.
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Significance: This causes competition and rivalry between nations.
If one country builds up their military then all the others must do
so in order to “compete” with each other. Ex : Germany built up its
military in response to Britain building up theirs.

2. Allied Powers Definition: Great Britain, France, and Russia

Picture: Significance: The Allies won the war; France technically we're the
ones who defeated the German’s and then the US came in and
made sure that they remained defeated and wouldn't “get up” and
try to fight again.

3. Central Powers Definition: Germany, Austria, and the Ottomans

Picture: Significance: The central powers lost the war. Austria Hungary
were the ones who declared the first war.

4. Schlieffen Plan Definition: Plan from the Germans to quickly defeat France, then
 focus on Russia.
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Significance: Was not successful at all. German’s made a big
mistake by going through Belgium(neutral country.) Belgium
people tried to stop the German’s. France found out about this
“secret plan” and got Great Britain to help. Because the German’s
were stopped, this gave enough time for Great Britain and France
to prepare. This plan essentially just got Germany into a bigger
mess.

5. Trench Warfare Definition: A network of trenches dug out by the armies in which
soldiers lived, worked, and fought in.
Picture:
Significance: The living conditions were poor. The allied power
walls were made out of mud and the trenches would get soaked
with water. Allied powers also had ankle high boots which didn’t
help to avoid trench foot. Central powers lined their trenches with
some wood, which helped to not let as much water in. The PTSD
that World War 1 veterans have mainly comes from trench
warfare.

6. Unrestricted Submarine Definition: Any ships can be attacked without any warning.
Warfare
Significance: Germany announced in February of 1915 that they
Picture: would be using this. However they made a big mistake when they
sunk the Luisitana which had many British and American
passengers on it. The United States said that if they did
something like that again then they’d get involved with the war so
the German’s stopped. But later in January of 1917, they
announced they’d be using unrestricted submarine warfare again.

7. Propaganda Definition: Information, typically of a biased or misleading nature,

that's used to promote a certain political cause of point of view.
Picture:
Significance: Propaganda was used during both world wars. It was
 used to get men to join the war and to get women to start working
to make weapons, clothes, etc. It often made the war look like
“fun” or something that you’d actually want to join, in order for it
to get people to enlist(obviously people wouldn’t join if they knew
how rough it was.)

8. Russian Revolution Definition: Two revolutions in Russia.

Picture: Significance: The first revolution was democratic while the second
one was communist. Czar Nicholas II was a bad leader and the
Russian civilians didn’t like him.

9. Zimmermann Telegram Definition: Telegram sent by Germany

Picture: Significance: In January of 1917, Germany sent a telegram offering

Mexico an alliance. The deal was that if Mexico could start a war
with the US and keep them occupied and out of the war in Europe,
then they would get their land back(Texas, New Mexico, Arizona.)
This telegram never reached Mexico and was instead intercepted
by the British. The British told the US and gave them a warning
that the German’s were planning something sketchy. This made
the American civilians very mad. On April 2, 1917 Wilson asked
congress if the US could declare war against Germany.

10. Treaty of Versailles Definition: Treaty that ended World War I.

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Significance: The Treaty of Versailles mainly pertained to Germany.
The terms were :
- Germany had to accept the blame for causing WWI
- Germany had to pay reparations of 33 billion
- Germany could only have limited military
- Germany had to give up territory to France and Poland
- Germany had to give up its overseas colonies.
Germany was forced to sign it but were furious over it.