AP Euro Ch.25

balfour decleration

A 1917 British statement that declared British support of a National Home for the Jewish People in Palestine.

petrograd soviet

A huge, fluctuating mass meeting of two to three thousand workers, soldiers, and socialist intellectuals modeled on the revolutionary soviets of 1905.

What did the Schlieffen Plan call for in 1914?

A lightning attack through neutral Belgium and a quick defeat of France before turning on Russia

league of nations

A permanent international organization, established during the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, designed to protect member states from aggression and avert future wars.

trench warfare

A type of fighting used in World War I behind rows of trenches, mines, and barbed wire; the cost in lives was staggering and the gains in territory minimal.

total war

A war in which distinctions between the soldiers on the battlefield and civilians at home are blurred, and where the government plans and controls economic and social life in order to supply the armies at the front with supplies and weapons.

who was alexander kerensky?

An agrarian socialist who became Prime Minister of Russia in July 1917

What was the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916?

An agreement between Great Britain and France to divide up parts of the Near and Middle East after the war

"war guilt clause"

An article in the Treaty of Versailles that declared that Germany (with Austria) was solely responsible for the war and had to pay reparations equal to all civilian damages caused by the fighting.

schlieffen plan

Failed German plan calling for a lightning attack through neutral Belgium and a quick defeat of France before turning on Russia.

treaty of brest-litovsk

Peace treaty signed in March 1918 between the Central Powers and Russia that ended Russian participation in World War I and ceded Russian territories containing a third of the Russian empire's population to the Central Powers.

walter rathenau is remembered for his

Role in Germany's total war mobilization.

what did germany's auxiliary service law require?

That all men between seventeen and sixty work at jobs considered critical to the war effort.

treaty of versailles

The 1919 peace settlement that ended war between Germany and the Allied powers.

triple alliance

The alliance of Austria, Germany, and Italy. Italy left the alliance when war broke out in 1914 on the grounds that Austria had launched a war of aggression.

war communism

The application of centralized state control during the Russian civil war, in which the Bolsheviks seized grain from peasants, introduced rationing, nationalized all banks and industry, and required everyone to work.

national self-determination

The notion that peoples should be able to choose their own national governments through democratic majority-rule elections and live free from outside interference in nation-states with clearly defined borders.

february revolution

Unplanned uprisings accompanied by violent street demonstrations begun in March 1917 (old calendar February) in Petrograd, Russia, that led to the abdication of the tsar and the establishment of a provisional government.

What was the February Revolution in Russia in 1917?

an unplanned uprising of hungry and angry people in the capital

What did the Balfour Declaration of november 1917, written by british foreign secretary arthur balfour, announce?

britain favored a national home for the jewish people in palestine

what was the primary consequence of the first moroccan crisis in 1905?

britain, france, and russia began to see germany as a threat to dominate all of europe

Which nations joined the war on the side of the Central Powers?

bulgaria and the ottoman empire

During the First World War, the African colonial subjects of Britain and France

generally supported their foreign masters

What part of Otto von Bismarck's alliance system did William II abandon?

german's alliance with great britain to control the north sea

What did the "war guilt clause" in the Treaty of Versailles declare?

germany (with austria) was solely responsible for the war and had to pay reparations

What issue contributed to tensions between Germany and Great Britain in the first decade of the 1900s?

germany's decision to build a large fleet of battleships

how did henri-philppe petain maintain order among the french troops by the late 1917?

he formed a tacit agreement with the troops that there would be no more grand offensives

How did Lenin respond to the peasants' seizure of land when he rose to power in 1917?

he mandated land reform in order to offer his approval for what the peasants had already done

what was french premier georges clemenceau's opinion at the paris peace conference?

he wanted to create a buffer state between germany and france

what was the result of the allied support of the white armies in the russian civil war?

it helped the bolsheviks, who could appear to patriotic nationalism against the allies

why did austria-hungary deliberately choose war in july 1914?

it hoped to stem the tide of hostile nationalism within its borders

Why did Italy, after declaring neutrality in 1914, decide to join the Triple Entente in 1915?

it was promised austrian territory in return

Bismarck's alliance system was designed to isolate France and to

maintain peace between russia and austria-hungary

What did the Petrograd Soviet Army Order No. 1 state?

military officers were stripped their authority and power was played in the hands of elected committees of soldiers

who assassinated griogori rasputin in 1916?

nataionalistic aristocrats

how did paul von hinden burg and erich lundendorff react to germany's loss in the war in the fall of 1918?

not wanting to shoulder the blame, they insisted moderate politicians should take responsibility for the defeat

what was the principle of national self-determination promoted by woodrow wilson?

people should be able to choose a national government through a democratic process and live free from outside interference

Following the First World War, what was one of the most difficult domestic problems faced by governments?

providing care for the large number of injured veterans

what were the two-front wars that military planners had anticipated prior to the first world war?

russia had assumed a two-front war against germany and austria-hungary, and germany had assumed a two-front war against russia and france

triple entente

the alliance of great britain, france, and russia prior to and during the first world war

How did Lenin and the Bolsheviks' view of the Marxian party in Russia differ from the Mensheviks' view of the party?

the bolsheviks wanted a small, disciplined party, while the mensheviks wanted a democratic party with mass membership

what was the immediate cause of british entry into the first world war?

the german invasion of neutral belgium

Germany's initial offensive was stopped on the outskirts of Paris at the Battle of

the marne

Why were the Balkans considered the "powder keg" of Europe?

the ottoman empire had been forced to give up its territory in the region, leading to growing ethnic nationalism

what happened to armenian inhabitants of the ottoman empire during world war I?

the ottoman empire ordered their mass deportation from their homeland, resulting in about a million armenian deaths from murder, starvation, and disease

what ultimately happened to ukraine and belarus, parts of the russian empire ceded to germany in the treaty of brest-litovsk?

the soviet union reconquered those territories during its civil war

What was the fatal turning point in the Russian prosecution of the war?

the tsar's decision to assume command of russia's armies, leaving the government in the hands of the strong-willed, autocratic tsarina

How did the war on the Eastern front differ from the war on the Western front?

the war on the eastern front remained more mobile, with germany in a more dominant position

Throughout the First World War, what mistake did military commanders repeatedly make?

they attempted to mount massive offensives designed to break through entrenched lines

why did the german military command recommence submarine warfare in the atlantic despite knowing that it would lead the united states to enter the war against them?

they believed that improved submarines could starve britain into submission before the united states could come to britain's rescue

How did the moderate Social Democrats in Germany put down the radical communist Spartacist Uprising?

they called on bands of demobilized soldiers called free corps to crush the uprising

what was the common effect of western-front offensives during the first world war?

they caused the slaughter of massed infantry units

what was the primary political weakness of the white forces as they fought against the bolsheviks?

they had a poorly defined political program that failed to unite the enemies of the bolsheviks

why did the germans accept the treaty of versaiiles?

they had little alternative, especially as the naval blockade was still in place and the german people were starving

how did the western powers react to the declerations of of independence of syria and iraq shortly following the first world war?

they invaded the two regions and defeated the independence movements

bolsheviks

vladimir lenin's radical, revolutionary arm of the russian party of marxist socialism, which successfully installed a dictorial socialist regime in russia

fourteen points

woodrow wilson's 1918 peace proposal calling for open diplomacy, a reduction in armaments, freedom of commerce and trade, the establishment of the league of nations, and national self-determination