AP®︎ European History: Topic 8.2 Flashcards

The 1914–1918 global conflict in which industrialized warfare and total mobilization caused immense losses, revolutions, and the collapse of four European empires

National prestige, territorial ambitions, and separatist movements intensified rivalries among great powers and destabilized multinational empires, especially in the Balkans

The movement promoting solidarity among Slavic peoples, which supported Serbian ambitions and encouraged Russia to defend Serbia

Europe's rival alliances enlarged local crises by encouraging states to support partners and mobilize against perceived threats

The alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed in 1882; Italy remained neutral in 1914 and joined the Allies in 1915

The strategic alignment of Britain, France, and Russia that opposed the Triple Alliance before World War I.

The elevation of military values, armed strength, and preparedness in politics and culture, encouraging arms races and rapid mobilization

Germany's plan to avoid a two-front war by rapidly defeating France through neutral Belgium before turning against Russia

Colonial, naval, and global rivalries increased distrust, linked prestige to military power, and reinforced Europe's hostile blocs

Germany's policy of seeking a larger global and imperial role, challenging the established positions of Britain and France

German confrontations with France over Morocco in 1905 and 1911 that strengthened Anglo-French cooperation and isolated Germany

Austria-Hungary's 1908 annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which angered Serbia and made Russia determined not to retreat in another Balkan crisis

The 1912–1913 wars that weakened Ottoman authority, enlarged Serbia, and intensified hostility between Serbia and Austria-Hungary

The June 28, 1914 killing in Sarajevo of Austria-Hungary's heir by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, triggering the July Crisis

The 1914 crisis in which Austria-Hungary's ultimatum and attack on Serbia, followed by Russian mobilization and German declarations of war, turned a Balkan dispute into World War I.

Germany's promise of unconditional support to Austria-Hungary against Serbia, even if Austro-Hungarian action caused war with Russia

The Central Powers centered on Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria; the Allies centered on France, Russia, and Britain and later included Italy and the United States

The September 1914 battle in which French and British forces stopped Germany near Paris, helping produce stalemate on the Western Front

The Western Front became a nearly fixed trench line, while the larger distances and lower troop density of the Eastern Front allowed more mobile warfare

Defensive warfare from interconnected trenches in which machine guns, artillery, and barbed wire made attacks across no man's land extremely costly

A strategy of exhausting an enemy's manpower and material through prolonged losses rather than winning an immediate decisive victory

Germany's 1916 attack on a symbolically important French position, which France held despite immense losses on both sides

The 1916 British and French offensive that caused devastating casualties while achieving no decisive breakthrough

The failed 1915 Allied attempt to force the Dardanelles, weaken the Ottoman Empire, and open a supply route to Russia

Rapid-fire defensive weapons that allowed small forces to inflict severe losses on infantry advancing across open ground

Long-range guns whose explosive, shrapnel, and gas shells caused most battlefield casualties and devastated trenches and terrain

An inexpensive defensive obstacle that slowed and concentrated attacking infantry under machine-gun and artillery fire

Chemical weapons such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas that caused choking, burns, blindness, and lasting injury but did not break the stalemate

Armored vehicles designed to cross trenches and crush wire; unreliable at first, they aided coordinated Allied offensives by 1918

Aircraft first used for reconnaissance and artillery direction and later developed for air combat and bombing

German submarines used to attack Allied shipping and threaten Britain's dependence on overseas supplies

The 1915 German sinking of a British passenger liner that killed nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans, and angered U.S. opinion

Germany's policy of sinking ships without warning, resumed in 1917 in an attempt to defeat Britain before U.S. forces could intervene

Britain's naval restriction of food and raw materials to the Central Powers, contributing to shortages, malnutrition, and declining civilian morale

War in which governments mobilize armies, economies, labor, public opinion, and imperial resources while weakening the distinction between battlefield and home front

Refusals by French soldiers to continue suicidal offensives after the failed Nivelle Offensive, while generally remaining willing to defend France

The 1916 Irish republican rebellion against British rule whose suppression and executions increased support for Irish independence

Revolutions driven partly by wartime defeat and shortages that overthrew the tsar and brought the Bolsheviks to power, removing Russia from the Allied coalition

The March 1918 treaty in which Bolshevik Russia surrendered extensive territory to the Central Powers and left World War I.

The uprising begun amid military defeat and sailors' mutinies that forced Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate and made Germany a republic

The extension of the war through imperial manpower, resources, and fighting across Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific

The Ottoman state's deportations, massacres, starvation, and forced marches that killed approximately 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915

The British-supported 1916 rebellion led by Sharif Hussein and his sons against Ottoman rule, encouraged by promises of postwar Arab independence

Japan joined the Allies in 1914 and seized German possessions in the Pacific and the German-leased territory at Qingdao

Japan's 1915 demands for expanded political and economic privileges in China

Germany's intercepted proposal for an alliance with Mexico if the United States entered the war, which inflamed American opinion

The April 6, 1917 U.S. declaration of war on Germany after unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram; American credit, industry, naval aid, and troops strengthened the Allies

Germany's major 1918 Western Front offensive after Russia's withdrawal, which gained territory but failed after heavy losses and supply problems

The agreement that ended fighting between Germany and the Allies but did not constitute the final peace settlement

World War I brought down the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires and produced new governments and states

Wartime credit, industrial production, military intervention, and diplomacy made the United States a major creditor and central participant in global affairs

The activation of reserves and railroad timetables to deploy armies, creating pressure to act quickly and leaving less time for diplomacy