AH CH.

19: THE FIRST WORLD WAR

I. World War I Begins

One American’s Story

1. First women elected to Congress? State?

Long-Term Causes of World War I

1. Which 4 long-term causes for World War I do historians generally site?

2. Term for the belief that national interests and national unity should be placed ahead of global co-
operation, and that foreign affairs should be guided by national self-interest?

3. Nationalism is often expressed as ________________________________________with, and even

________________________________________ for, other nations.

4. Which 2 nations competed with one another for European leadership?

5. Which 2 territories had France lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian War (1871)?

6. Which European nation wanted to protect its newly industrializing economy by ensuring open markets
in Europe and access to overseas territories?

7. Which nation regarded itself as the protector of Europe’s Slavic peoples (which included the Serbs)?

8. Millions of Serbs lived outside of Serbia under the rule of…

9. Which 2 nations were rivals for the influence over Serbia?

10. Which Eastern European people wanted to reunite as an independent nation (their nation had earlier
been divided among Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia)?

11. Which European people were restless under the domination of Austria-Hungary?

12. Which 3 industrialized European countries competed with one another for raw materials (cotton, oil,
rubber, etc.), as well as markets for manufactured goods?

13. The growth of _____________________________ and ___________________________ caused

military budgets to rise.

14. Term for the policy of developing armed forces and their use as a tool of diplomacy?

15. The strongest nation on the European continent by 1890?

16. Which European country had the strongest navy in the world by the early 20th century?

17. List 5 nations that competed in a naval arms race in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

18. What led the nations of Europe to sign treaties of assistance that committed them to support one
another if they faced attack?
19. Which 3 European nations belonged to the mutual-defense pact known as the Triple Entente (later the
Allies)?

20. Russia also formed a separate treaty with…

21. Which 3 European nations belonged to the mutual-defense pact known as the Triple Alliance?

22. Which 3 nations comprised the Central Powers during World War I?

An Assassination Leads to War

23. Which nation did Austria-Hungary annex in 1908?

24. Which nation encouraged the Bosnians to reject the rule of Austria-Hungary?

25. On which date did Gavrilo Princip assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie?
Where did the assassination take place?

26. To which secret society did Princip belong?

27. What was the aim of the Black Hand?

28. On July 28, 1914, _________________________________ declared war against ________________.

29. What pulled other European nations into the conflict?

30. On August 1, 1914, _______________________________ declared war against _________________.

31. On August 3, 1914, _______________________________ declared war against _________________.

32. Great Britain then declared war on which 2 nations?

The Fighting Starts

33. Which nation did Germany invade on August 4, 1914?

34. At which site in France did British and French troops halt the German advance (September 1914)?

35. By the spring of 1915, what zigzagged across northern and eastern France (the Western Front)?

36. Term for the barren expanse of mud pockmarked with shell craters and filled with barbed wire
entanglements, found between the trenches?

37. Total casualties from the First Battle of the Somme (July-November, 1916)
Germans: British: French:

38. Term for a military operation in which the opposing forces attack and counterattack from systems of
fortified ditches rather than on an open battlefield?

39. Which 2 nations fought on the Eastern Front during World War I?

40. Which 2 nations fought on the Italian Front during World War I?

41. Which 2 nations fought in Africa during World War I?

American Neutrality

42. Some Americans criticized the war as an imperialist struggle between German and British
businessmen to control raw materials in China, Africa, and the Middle East. True or False?

43. Which Americans believed that war was evil, and that America should set an example of peace to the
world?

44. Why did many Americans feel close to England?

45. Which nation’s reported brutality (particularly in Belgium) increased American sympathy for the
Allies?

46. America’s economic ties with the [Allies/Central Powers] were far stronger with the [Allies/Central
Powers].

47. List several war supplied U.S. manufacturers shipped to the Allies.

The Untied States Enters the War

48. Why did the U.S. mobilize for war against the Central Powers by 1917?
A. B.

49. The British blockade of Germany resulted in a shortage of which 2 items?

50. About how many Germans starved to death as a result of the British blockade?

51. About how many people lost their lives as a result of German submarine warfare?

52. The effects of the British blockade were only visible inside______________________________, while
the German ____________________________ attacks were spectacular events, easily exploited in the
_______________________________reaching the U.S. from Britain.

53. Which British luxury liner did a German U-boat sink on May 7, 1915, killing 128 Americans?
Which British liner did a German U-boat sink in July 1915, killing 2 Americans?
Which French passenger steamer did a German U-boat torpedo in March 1916, killing or injuring 80
Americans?

54. In the ______________________________, Germany agreed to halt the use of unrestricted submarine
warfare, provided the U.S. could persuade Great Britain to life its blockade of food and fertilizers.

55. President Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November 1916 after campaigning on which slogan?

56. On January 31, 1917, the German Kaiser announced that…

57. The ___________________________________ was a telegram sent by the German foreign minister to
the German ambassador in Mexico and intercepted by British agents.

58. The Zimmerman note suggested an alliance between which 2 nations?

59. In the Zimmerman note, German promised Mexico that if war with the U.S. broke out, Germany would
support Mexico in recovering which lost territories?

60. Germany sunk ____ unarmed merchant ships, killing _____ Americans.
61. Revolutionaries overthrew the government of which nation in March 1917 (ending that nation’s
involvement in World War I)?

62. When did President Wilson ask Congress for a resolution of war?

63. Wilson wanted to make the world “___________________________________________________”

II. American Power Tips the Balance

American Military Mobilization

1. What was the first task confronting the U.S. upon entering the war?

2. How many men were in military service when the U.S. declared war?

3. The U.S. air corps consisted of only _______ small planes and ________ pilots.

4. How did the federal government solve the lack of manpower?

5. In May 1917, Congress passed the ___________________________________, which required men to

register for military service.

6. About how many American men registered under the Selective Service Act by 1918?

7. Of these, how many were eventually chosen by lottery to serve?

8. How many troops reached Europe before the armistice was signed?
Of these, what fraction saw actual combat?

9. Inductees were primarily between _____ and ______, and about 1 in ____ military were foreign born.

10. Women were not drafted. True or False?

11. Which military branch refused to allow women to enlist?

Which military branch allowed women to enlist, but in non-combat positions?

12. How many women served in the navy and marines (as nurses, secretaries, telephone operators, etc.)?

13. Black soldiers served in ___________________________ units, and were excluded from the
__________________ and the _____________________.

14. Which all-black regiment saw more continuous duty on the front lines than any other American
regiment?

15. Which 2 African Americans were among the first Americans to receive the French military honor of
the Croix de Guerre (the cross of war)?

American Success in Combat

16. What complicated the task of transporting American troops, food, and equipment overseas?

17. Which employees were exempt from the draft, or given deferred status?
18. What construction technique for building ships quickly did shipyards develop (where standardized
parts were built elsewhere and merely assembled at the shipyard)?

19. Term for the strategy in which merchant vessels would travel in a large group with a guard of circling
destroyers and cruisers (and later, submarines and airplanes)?

20. By what fraction did the convoy system reduce shipping losses to German U-boat attacks?

21. What did the U.S. navy lay down across the North Sea from Scotland to Norway (to bottle up the
U-boats that sailed from German ports)?

22. Of the 2M American soldiers who sailed to Europe during the war, how many were lost to German
U-boat attacks?

23. Apart from their numbers, what did the American troops bring to the Allied war effort?

24. Who commanded the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe?

25. Nickname given to American infantrymen?

26. Pershing insisted that the AEF remain ____________________ and _____________________ from
other Allied forces (because he wanted the U.S. to have a strong voice at the peace table).

27. What did knocking Russia out of the war allow the Germans to do with their armies on the Eastern
Front?

28. German troops come within ______ miles of Paris before being driven back by American forces.

29. Term for a person who opposes warfare on moral grounds?

30. On October 8, 1918, ________________________ killed 25 Germans, and, with six other doughboys,
captured 132 prisoners.

Fighting “Over There”

31. Nickname for the terrifying German cannon that could hurl an 1800-pound shell a distance of 75
miles?

32. Term for a gas-filled airship that enable the Germans to drop bombs on English coastal cities?

33. The machine gun was capable of spraying ________ rounds of ammunition per minute.

34. Greenish-yellow ___________ gas was spayed to suffocate troops at the Battle of Ypres in April 1915.

35. As a result of the use of chlorine gas, what equipment soon became standard for everyone?

36. Two most innovative weapons used in the war?

37. Term for warfare that relies on machines powered by gasoline and diesel engines?

38. Term for air combat between planes?

39. Term for a complete emotional collapse?

40. What caused the disease known as trench foot? Cure?

The Collapse of Germany

41. When did German sailors and marines refuse to obey orders, arguing that there was no use fighting any
longer?

42. What did the German kaiser (emperor) do when the people of Berlin rose in rebellion, and declared
Germany to be a republic (a government without a monarch)?

43. When was the armistice (agreement to halt fighting) signed?

44. Length of the war? Number of nations involved? Death toll?

Number wounded? Number who became refugees? Cost?

Key Players: Eddie Rickenbacker (1890 – 1973)

1. Why did Eddie Rickenbacker become one of America’s most celebrated heroes of the First World War?

2. During the war, Rickenbacker became the commander of the ____________ Squadron.

3. In the Spring of 1918, Rickenbacker scored victories over which German squadron?

4. Nickname given to Manfred von Richthofen?

World War I Casualties

1. Which nation sustained the greatest number of World War I casualties? Amount?

2. How many World War I casualties did the U.S. sustain?

III. The War at Home

Congress Gives Power to Wilson

1. During the war, it was necessary to mobilize the entire economy, to shift from producing
____________________________________________ to producing ____________________________,
__________________________, and other war supplies.

2. Congress gave President Wilson the power to ___________________ prices and to _______________
(even nationalize) certain war-related industries.

3. Regulatory board established in 1917 that encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to
increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by standardizing products?

4. The War Industries Board set production ______________ and allocated ______________________.

5. Under the WIB, industrial production in the U.S. increased by about _____ percent.

6. What happened to retail prices during the war (because the federal government applied price controls on
at the wholesale level)?
7. List 3 changes in women’s fashions that the war brought about.

A. B. C.

8. During the war, the _________________________________controlled the nation’s railroads, while the
______________________________________ monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and
heating oil.
9. What did many Americans voluntarily adopt during the war to help conserve fuel?

10. What did the Fuel Administration introduce in March 1918 as a way of taking advantage of the
longer days of summer (first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1770s)?

11. During the war, union membership climbed from about _______ in 1916 to more than ______ in 1919.

12. How many strikes broke out during the war (in protest of stagnant wages at a time of inflated prices)?

13. Federal regulatory board established in 1918 to deal with disputes between management and labor?

14. The National War Labor Board pushed for the ____-hour workday, urged factory owners to allow
_____________________________________, and pressured manufacturers to observe the federal ban
on _____________________________________.

15. Which future U.S. president did President Wilson appoint to head the Food Administration?

16. Hoover organized a publicity campaign that called on people to observe the “_____________________
__________________________________.”

17. What measures did Hoover take to conserve food for shipment overseas?

18. What did homeowners plant in their yards (to produce their own food)?

19. Where did children spend their after-school hours growing vegetables (as participants in the U.S.
School Garden Army)?

20. As a result of Hoover’s efforts, what happened to American food shipment to the Allies?

21. When Hoover set a high government price on wheat, farmers responded by putting an additional ___M
acres into production, and by doing so, increased their income by almost ___%.

22. How many women did the wartime need for labor bring into the work force?

23. Most women in war plants received [more/less] pay than men, and almost all of them lost their jobs
when the war ended.

Selling the War

24. List the 2 aspects of the propaganda campaign the federal government embarked upon during the war.

25. About how much did the U.S. government spend directly on the war effort?

26. How much did the federal government raise through taxes (including a steeper income tax)?

27. How did the federal government raise the remainder of the revenue necessary for the war?
28. List 3 popular movie stars who sold war bonds at public rallies.

29. Federal propaganda agency the federal government set up to popularize the war?

30. Which muckraking journalist headed the Committee on Public Information?

31. Creel mobilized the nations artists and advertising people to create thousands of…
32. Creel recruited ______K men to serve as __________________________, who would deliver a speech
anytime, any place on a war-related topic (liberty bonds, victory gardens, the draft, rationing, etc.).

33. Creel ordered the printing of 7M copies of which pamphlet (in several languages)?

Attacks on Civil Liberties

34. How many Americans had been born in Germany?

35. What happened to many Americans with German-sounding last names?

36. Orchestras refused to play the music of which German composers?

37. What did some towns with German names do?

38. What did schools stop teaching?

39. What did librarians remove from library shelves?

40. Some German-Americans were the targets of violence, including lynching. True or False?

41. Provide several examples of some the name changes which occurred as a result of the anti-German
fervor.

42. What behavior was punishable under the Espionage and Sedition Acts (1917, 1918) by up to 20 years
in prison and/or a $10,000 fine?

43. How many Americans were arrested under the Espionage and Sedition Acts? Convicted?

44. What happened to those newspapers and magazines that opposed the war or criticized any of the Allies?

45. Which groups did the Espionage and Sedition Acts target?

46. Which leader in the American Socialist Party was handed a 10-year prison sentence for delivering a
speech in which he discussed the economic causes of the war (pardoned after 3 years)?

47. Which labor union was destroyed when William “Big Bill” Haywood and other leaders were accused
of sabotaging the war effort because they urged workers to strike for better conditions and higher pay?

Social Changes During the War

48. Who encouraged American blacks to co-operate with the Wilson administration because he believed
that African-American support for the war would lend strength to calls for racial justice?

49. Most African Americans backed the war. True or False?

50. Term for the large-scale movement of African Americans from the South to the North in the early 20th
century?

51. Many African American migrated North to escape…

52. What factors destroyed much of the South’s cotton crop in the second decade of the 20th century?

53. A drop in European immigration during WWI increased job opportunities for African Americans in…
54. How many African Americans migrated to northern cities between 1910 and 1920? In the 1920s?

55. What problems did African Americans encounter in northern cities?

56. What new jobs did women perform during WWI?

57. What did many women volunteer to do during the war?

58. Which pacifist founded the Women’s Peace Party in 1915?

59. The contribution of women to the war effort helped bolster support for…

60. When did Congress pass the 19th Amendment, granting women’s suffrage?

61. What fraction of U.S. population fell ill in the Influenza outbreak of 1918?

62. How many Americans died in the Influenza epidemic before it disappeared in 1919? Worldwide?

IV. Wilson Fights for Peace

Wilson at Versailles

1. Who arrived in Europe in 1918 to represent the U.S. in the peace negotiations?

2. Term for Wilson’s plan for world peace, which he presented to Congress on January 18, 1918?

3. Wilson’s plan called for the formation of the _________________________________________,

an international organization to address diplomatic crises, allowing nations to discuss and settle their
grievances without having to resort to war.

4. Representatives from France and Great Britain came to the Paris peace conference determined to make
which country pay?

5. Which nations were excluded from the peace negotiations?

6. Identify the “Big Four” of the peace talks (include the name of each representative and his nation).

Treaty of Versailles

7. When was the Treaty of Versailles ending WWI signed? Where?

8. List 3 new nations the treaty created.

9. The Ottoman Empire was carved into which 4 mandates?

Which 2 nations would governed these mandate until they were ready for self-rule and independence?

10. Palestine is now the nations of…

11. Which nation did the treaty demilitarize, stripping it of its air force and most of its navy, and reducing
its army to 100,000 men?

12. Which territory did the treaty require Germany to return to France?
13. How much in reparations (war damages) did the treaty order Germany to pay?

14. Which portion of the treaty forced German to acknowledge that it alone was responsible for WWI?

15. List the 3 basic weaknesses of the Treaty of Versailles, which provided the seeds of postwar
international problems and eventually led to the Second World War.

A. B. C.

16. Some people in the U.S. objected to the Treaty of Versailles, for various reasons. True or False?

17. The main objection in the U.S. to the Treaty of Versailles centered on the creation of the…

18. Which conservative senator led opposition to the Treaty of Versailles?

19. When did Wilson embark on an 8,000-mile tour to rally support for the Treaty of Versailles and the
League of Nations?

20. How many speeches did Wilson deliver in 22 days?

21. What happened to Wilson on October 2, 1919?

22. In November 1919, the Senate [ratified/rejected] the Treaty of Versailles.

23. When did the Senate fail to ratify the treaty for a second time?

24. When did the U.S. sign a separate treaty with Germany?

The Legacy of the War

25. Many Germans were shocked by the armistice and angered at the Treaty of Versailles. True/False

26. When did a severe economic depression hit Germany?

27. Term for the democratic-republic government established in Germany following WWI?

28. Which Austrian corporal blamed Germany’s problems on Jews and socialists in the Weimar Republic?

29. World War I strengthened the desire of most Americans to…