AP®︎ World History: Topic 7.3 Flashcards

War in which governments mobilize armed forces, civilians, economies, information, culture, and imperial resources for the war effort

Allies: France, Britain and its empire, Russia, Serbia, later Japan, Italy, and the United States; Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria

Mass warfare sustained by factories, conscript armies, railroads, communications, and large-scale production of weapons and ammunition

Germany’s plan to defeat France quickly through neutral Belgium before turning against slower-mobilizing Russia

September 1914 battle in which French and British forces halted Germany outside Paris, ending hopes for a quick German victory and helping produce stalemate on the Western Front

The Western Front became a dense, trench-bound stalemate, while the larger and less concentrated Eastern Front remained more mobile

A strategy of defeating an enemy by exhausting its soldiers, supplies, economy, and willingness to continue rather than winning one quick breakthrough

Defensive warfare using interconnected front-line, support, reserve, and communication trenches, especially on the Western Front

The exposed ground between opposing front-line trenches, covered by barbed wire, shell craters, artillery, and machine-gun fire

World War I term for psychological trauma caused by combat and prolonged shelling, now associated with post-traumatic stress disorder

Rapid-fire defensive weapons that made mass infantry attacks across exposed ground extremely costly

Large guns used for prolonged bombardment; they caused many casualties but often failed to destroy deep defenses and instead churned terrain into mud and craters

Defensive wire that slowed and trapped attackers in areas covered by machine-gun and artillery fire

A 1916 German attempt to bleed France through attrition at a position the French defended as a national symbol

A 1916 British and French offensive intended partly to relieve Verdun; it produced over one million combined casualties without a decisive breakthrough

Chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas used to blind, burn, suffocate, or disable soldiers; masks limited their strategic effectiveness

Armored vehicles first used by Britain at the Somme to cross trenches and wire; early models were slow and unreliable but later showed greater potential

Airplanes first used for reconnaissance and artillery spotting, then developed into fighters and limited bombers

Britain’s effort to cut the Central Powers off from overseas food, fuel, fertilizer, and industrial materials, causing shortages and malnutrition

German submarines used to attack Allied and neutral shipping and threaten Britain’s overseas supply lines

German policy of sinking ships in designated waters without warning, damaging Allied shipping but helping bring the United States into the war

Method of reducing U-boat losses by having merchant ships travel together under naval escort

Failed 1915 Allied campaign to seize the Dardanelles, open a supply route to Russia, and possibly force the Ottoman Empire out of the war

Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose troops became especially associated with the Gallipoli campaign

Compulsory military service imposed by a government to provide the large numbers of soldiers required for total war

Government direction of factories, raw materials, transportation, labor, agriculture, and finance to sustain military production

Loans purchased by civilians from the government to finance the war, promoted as a form of patriotic service

Government limits on civilian purchases of scarce goods to reserve supplies for the military, distribute shortages, and reduce hoarding

Women expanded into munitions, transportation, agriculture, offices, nursing, and public services, increasing their economic roles despite unequal pay and postwar displacement

Empires recruited or coerced colonial soldiers and laborers and drew food, money, and raw materials from their colonies

Selective and emotional information used to recruit, sell bonds, promote conservation and production, sustain morale, and demonize the enemy

Wartime appeals portraying sacrifice as a patriotic duty necessary to defend the nation’s survival, honor, and civilization

Government restriction of reports, letters, publications, and speech about troop movements, casualties, defeats, shortages, and opposition

Civilian society organized to support military operations through production, agriculture, transportation, finance, rationing, and morale

Agreement that ended fighting on the Western Front after military losses, blockade, shortages, unrest, and Allied pressure exhausted Germany

March 1918 treaty that withdrew Bolshevik Russia from the war, allowing Germany to transfer troops from the Eastern Front to the west