7 World War I 1 914 1918 Key Terms Treaties Russian Revolution Fourteen Points Conscription League of Nations I Build up to War Together combine to cause conditions for beginning of the World War 1 Imperialism Europeans are getting increasingly concerned that their neighbor might have more power than they do makes them a little angry Imperialism heightens tension between Europeans They are getting paranoid and weirded out thinking what if the world isn t enough and want to start imperializing each other 2 Arms Race increased tensions lead to arms race If Europeans have to fight each other they need to win and in order to win they need a lot of guns Europeans are looking to get the new weapons in big quantities such as machine guns chemical ware far tanks air plane and submarines They want the newest and best technology than their neighbor What starts happening is there is a race a drive to see who can get the biggest the best weaponry just in case The act of stockpiling weapons increases tension and mindset for war fare goes up another notch 3 Treaties if you are going to war and want to win it would be helpful to have allies In the late 1800 s individual European countries would sign a treaty with another individual country If England goes to war France is agreeing to go and help Vis versa They sign this treaty now France makes a deal with Russia France and Russia do the same deal Treaties were getting turned into webs of alliances getting complicating interwoven What ends up happening two major alliances the Triple Entente France England Russia form this If one goes to war they are all going to be in two Second alliance Triple Alliance Ottoman Empire doesn t officially join until after the war starts replacement country Italy joins up but when war actually starts they runaway Austria Hungary Germany Now we have built up our causes Significance Basically with the treaties it creates a situation where everyone gets dragged in Basically created this war 4 Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austria Hungary Empire By heir he was next man in He is married to Sophia with kids they have a loving marriage In June of 1914 Archduke and Sophia visit a region part of Austria Hungary Empire The region is called Bosnia in the city of Sarajevo Bosnia the region has quite a bit of differences from Austria Hungary Bosnia thinks it would be really nice for them to have independence their neighbors Serbia recently became an independent country so Bosnia wants to be like them The Heir goes to send a message to them that they re all in this together he cares for them but is still the leader A terrorist group called the Black Hand have dedicated themselves in fighting Austria Hungary Empire The terrorist group think he s helping out Bosnia by assassinating the Archduke A member from the group throws a bomb at their car misses and it explodes killing Bosnian civilians Archduke has already gone by and decide they want to turn around and go see the civilians in the hospital By coincidence the guy who was throwing the bomb was on the same street as the Archduke instead of bombing them he shoots them killing them both Very quickly Austria Hungary finds out is was people from Serbia that committed act of terrorism They offer them an ultimatum Austria Hungary gets to bring back tanks and troops and run them Serbia had recently signed a treaty with Russia so basically they say hey Russia we are getting invaded which is considered an act of war If they are going to war Russia is going to join Russia is now in this uncomfortable position because now they have to go to war Tensions are really high and Austria Hungary has a partner Germany that does not want to back down from this war In July of 1914 Serbia says they aren t going to give them their country so Austria Hungary invades Serbia Serbia looks to Russia to invade along with France and England Austria Hungary fights the war with Italy and Germany II The U S Enters WWI 1 Neutrality The United States position is neutrality they re not picking sides The Europeans need food which the US is good at so they go to US for it Since they are neutral they sell to both sides US likes the Triple Entente better so they sell more food to them There s a lot of complications in our neutrality Once of the first incidents involves a boat the Lusitania made by a British company In 195 the ship is traveling from New York to Liverpool On this trip it is carrying about 1 200 passengers about 1 000 of them British headed home The rest of the Americans were warned they were traveling into a war zone and that something bad might happen Just off the coast of Ireland part of England at this time a German U boat shot torpedoes at this ship and it sunk fast The ship sinks in 15 minutes everyone dies Poncho Villa a Mexican He gives the land to the poor He invades the land of the rich people and hands it to the poor He rides into New Mexico killing a couple hundred people classified as Americans He invaded so Americans can t let this stand President Woodrow Wilson says we can t let some Mexican guy kill us so he sends 10 000 guys into Mexico to find Poncho Villa Villa is back in Mexico where he is really popular and they can t find him In 1917 the United States intelligence agency intercept a telegram going from Germany to Mexico known as Zimmerman Telegram This telegram during war time was in code a series of numbers meaning something The United States figure out what it says and when they decode it is says Dear Mexico we Germany would be delighted to help you if you wanted to go to war with the United States The United States is not ready for this war but it is coming after them Basically the US looks around thinking they re going to get involved in this war one point or another April 2nd 1917 Woodrow Wilson goes to the congress and says we have to go to war with Germany specifically We join World War 1 declaring war on Germany 2 Russian Revolution Russia has a very oppressive government and most of the people work in farming held as slaves surfs Because most of the population has lived their lives as farmers Russia is a very behind on industrialization This is a problem when you re going to war because this war is all about what kind of weapons you have which Russia doesn t have They have a lot of people but literally don t have enough guns for their soldiers Sometimes when they went into war the commanding officer would tell them to pick up the gun from