World War I

Alliance- an agreement between two countries to defend each other. Allied powers- Great Britain, France, and Russia Central Powers- Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire

Allies- friends (they worked together) Imperialism- policy of trying to take control of other lands and peoples. In 1914 both sides were imperialists.

Militarism- policy in which a country builds up its troops and makes plans for war Nationalism- a strong feeling of pride in one’s nation or culture.

Causes for World War 1 Arguing between European countries Imperialism Militarism Nationalism (triggered the war)

At first America stayed neutral and avoided taking sides. Isolationism- staying out of other countries affairs.

Two events that persuaded America to enter the war The German submarine sinking the Lusitania, a passenger ship in 1915. 128 Americans died. The Zimmerman note: a coded telegram asking Mexico to join the Central powers if the US declared war on Germany. British intercepted and note became public.

On April 2, 1917, Congress declared war on Germany. Both sides dug trenches (deep ditches) for protection. Soldiers started using poisonous gasses (mustard gas and chlorine) in warfare.

New or improved Weapons of WWI Poison gas German Submarines called U-boats used torpedoes (underwater bombs) Fighter planes were airplanes that attacked other planes or ground troops with machine guns. Machine guns could fire 600 bullets per minute. Tank- British built vehicle that was armored and ran on metal tracks and not wheels.

Half a million African-Americans migrated from the south to the north to find jobs. About 1 million women worked in Factories, offices, stores, and hospitals. Scarcity- shortage Americans were encouraged to grow victory gardens. On November 11, 1918 Central Powers surrendered.

American troops, known as doughboys, were instrumental in repelling the final assaults of German troops on the western front and breaking the deadlock of trench warfare.

The Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) agreed to an armistice with the Allies (Great Britain, France, and the United States) on the condition that peace negotiations would be based on Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

Woodrow Wilson played a significant role at the peace negotiations, although many of his Fourteen Points were ignored by the other nations. Wilson helped to redraw state borders in Europe so that they better reflected nations, groups of people with the same language, religion, and ethnic heritage.

Americans 116,000 died 200,000 wounded $33 billion spent on the war Total loss (All countries involved) 8,000,000 died

The Treaty of Versailles- the official peace treaty signed on June 28, 1919, in Versailles, France. It punished Germany for its role in the war and it lost 10% of land. It also had to pay back war costs to the Allied powers. Created the League of Nations. It would work for peace.

The Treaty of Versailles included an international peace-keeping organization, the League of Nations, which Wilson hoped would put an end to war. The United States Senate refused to ratify the treaty because many Senators thought that the League of Nation would compromise Congress’s constitutional right to declare war.

In the 1930s, the Congress limited American involvement in world affairs in a series of laws called the Neutrality Acts (designed to keep the United States out of the war that was brewing in Europe).   The Neutrality Acts addressed what Americans thought were the causes of American involvement in World War I.