AP World History - Unit 7: Global Conflict

Triple Alliance

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy alliance formed to protect against France in 1880s

Contributors to Start of WWI

Feuds between European countries, industrialism, rise in nationalism, military build-up and powerful weapons, power-grabbing alliances

France-Russian Alliance

formed to keep Germany in check

Schlieffen Plan

Germany’s planned attack on France through Belgium (neutral country)

Triple Entente

Britain, France, Russia - later joined by Japan (and Italy when they switched sides in 1915)

Event that started WWI

Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip - Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia led to all allied groups getting involved

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Archduke of Austria-Hungary

Central Powers Alliance

Ottoman Empire, Germany, Austria-Hungary

How many countries joined the WWI?

over 40 - most due to colonial ties and alliances

Why did US join WWI?

1. Germany sinking British civilian boat Lusitania in 1915

2. Zimmermann telegram

• Previously had an isolationism policy

Zimmermann telegram

Secret telegram between German diplomats saying Mexico could regain territory taken by US if they joined forces

Isolationism

neutrality, focusing on internal affairs instead

WWI End

Germany and Central Powers gave up in November 1918

WWI Effects

• 8.5 million soldiers were killed

• 20 million civilians died

Treaty of Versailles

signed in 1919 - official end to WWI

Treaty of Versailles Main Points

1. Germany was to pay war reparations, release territory, downsize military to prevent them from rising to power again

2. Austria-Hungary divided into other nations like Czechoslovakia

3. Britain and France put strict punishments on Germany - US wanted to focus on President Wilson’s Fourteen Points

President Wilson’s Fourteen Points

more focused on future peace and workable balance of power - but was disapproved of by Britain and France

League of Nations

President Wilson called for formation of council to preserve peace and establish humanitarian goals, but was not widely accepted (even by US)

Czar Nicholas II

Russian czar who was forced to resign in 1917 over growing resentment among working class

Alexander Kerensky

established a provisional government in Russia after czar Nicholas II - ineffective because it disagreed with the local councils, soviets, who represented workers, peasants, and soldiers

Bolsheviks

Led by Marxist leader Vladimir Lenin - Socialist party that was backed by the Russian working class

April Theses

issues by Vladimir Lenin - demanded peace, land for peasants, power to soviets

• within 6 months took power of government - soon to be called Soviet Union

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

1918 - armistice with Germany - ceded part of western Russia to Germany so they dropped out of WWI

Red Army

Bolshevik military force under Leon Trotsky to defeat counterrevolutions against Russian leadership

What happened when Ottoman Empire joined Central Powers in WWI?

A movement to reclaim Turkish culture occurred and spawned a genocide of Armenian minority and a shift to Turkish nationalism

• resulted in loss of most of remaining land in peace negotiations

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)

Led successful military against invading Greece and overthrew Ottoman Empire to become first president of Turkey

What did the Soviets do when they dropped out of WWI?

Focused on their own domestic problems - Lenin instituted the New Economic Policy

New Economic Policy (Vladimir Lenin)

1920s - allowed farmers to sell portions of grain for profit - successful, but Lenin died and new Communist leader, Joseph Stalin discarded it

Five-Year Plans (Joseph Stalin)

taking over private farms for state-owned enterprises (collectivization) - really was totalitarianism

USSR

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics led by Joseph Stalin - relied on terror (secret police, bogus trials, assassinations)

What led to The Great Depression (1930s)?

War was expensive and Europe owed a lot of money to America, who had given out loans to a lot of countries and weren’t getting them back

• US stock market crash in 1929 leading to international catastrophe

Who has hit the hardest by the Great Depression?

US and Germany - 1/3 of workforce unemployed

• loss of trust in government in countries with weak democracies = fascism

Fascism

Political structure with goal to destroy will of individual in favour of the people

• Wanted a unified society like communists, but did not eliminate private property or class distinctions

• Pushed for extreme nationalism - often on basis of racism

Fascism in Italy

First fascist state - founded by Benito Mussolini in 1919

• Led through force and fear which led him to take over the government in 1922

• Utilized Blackshirts

Blackshirts

Fought socialist and communist organizations to win over factory and land owners

Weimar Republic

German emperor was abdicated after WWI so a conservative democratic republic took over

Nationalist Socialist Party (Nazis)

Mussolini’s success in Italy was influencing Germany so Nazi party was formed to help the economic crisis in Germany and rose to power in the 20s

Reichstag

Weimar Republic elected body - rejected by the people due to the economic crisis in Germany

Adolf Hitler

became head of Nazi Party in the 20s - believed in extreme nationalism and superior race - believed the Aryan race was the most superior race

• eventually became leader of the Reichstag in 1933

Third Reich

Hitler’s fascist rule in Germany from 30s to 40s

How did Hitler go against the Treaty of Versailles?

1. Began rebuilding military

2. Withdrew Germany from League of Nations

3. Took back the Rhineland part of Germany

4. Formed alliance with militant Japan

5. Annexed Austria

Dictatorship in Spain

Spain was in turmoil after fall of Spanish monarchy - nationalist army under General Francisco Franco took control of large parts of Spain

• Established a dictatorship in Spain in 1939 with help from Germany and Italy

Munich Conference of 1938

Hitler, Mussolini, Neville Chamberlin of England

• Hitler given Sudetenland to cease his expansionist activities (appeasement) - did not work

Hitler’s Invasions that Led to Start of WWII

1. Invaded rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939

2. Invaded Poland in 1939

• Britain and France first declared war on Germany

Nazi-Soviet Pact

Germans and Soviets signed a pact to stay out of each other’s countries and agreed to divide rest of Europe’s land between them

How did Japan gain more power?

• Accepted an alliance with Britain in 1905

• Japanese militarists gained momentum after economic downfall in Japan from Great Depression

• Invaded Manchuria in 1931 and renamed in Manchukuo

• Withdrew from League of Nations and signed Anti-Comintern Pact (against communism) with Germany, beginning their alliance

How did Japan get involved in WWII

Alliance with Germany and 1937 war with China (which eventually moved into WWII

WWII Timeline

1939: War officially declared against Germany - allied countries get involved

1940: Hitler’s blitzkrieg technique got control of Poland (half with USSR), Holland, Belgium, France - tried taking over Britain but were unsuccessful

1941: Germany invaded Greece breaking their deal with Soviet Union, so they invaded the Soviet Union too - Japan bombs Pearl Harbour in Hawaii so US declares war on Japan and joins WWII

1943: US and Britain take control of Italy

1944: US, Britain, and Canada land on French beaches (D-day) and eventually liberate France

1945: Allied forces close in on Germany and end Europe war when Hitler commits suicide

End of WWII in Pacific

US drops atomic bomb on city of Hiroshima in Japan - when Japan refused to surrender, they dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, causing them to surrender

Battle of Britain

Airstrike war between Germany and Britain in attempt for Germany to capture Britain

Winston Churchill

Britain’s PM during WWII that prevented Britain from being captured

The Holocaust

Millions of Jews under German control were rounded up and killed in concentration camps to create the Aryan race

WWII Peace Settlement

US and Soviet Union became superpowers and Germany and Japan forced to demilitarize

Marshall Plan

US movements to rebuild Europe (only accepted by Western Europe nations) and rebuilt their economies in less than a decade

WWII Causing Decline in Colonialism

War inspired native populations to rise against their oppressors

WWII Causing Changes in Women’s Rights

Women took over the workforce while men were fighting - after the war, many women kept their jobs

United Nations

established in 1945, to prevent break out of another great war - goal was to mediate and intervene in international disputes

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Published by UN in response to Holocaust

Cold War

US or Soviet Union did not want each other to spread its influence beyond their borders, so they began strategizing how to contain each other - lasting for the next 50 years