Wednesday, January 15, 2014

4 Main Causes of the WW1

Militarism: The belief in building up a strong armed forces to prepare your country for war.

Alliance System: Countries agreed to support one another in case of an attack. Two alliances would emerge: Triple Entente (good) and Triple Alliance (bad)
Triple Entente: France, Russia, Great Britain, and eventually the US.
Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Imperialism: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia all scrambles  for colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacfic. Each nation wanted new trade markets and the raw materials of these new regions.
Nationalism: Pride or decotion to one's country. Nationalism encouraged unity, and also would put nation against nation. 
Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Assassinated by a Serbian terrorist group called the Black Hand. This was the Immediate cause of WW1.

Sussex Pledge: In 1916 a promise was made by Germany to the US that a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was allowed only for armed merchant ships but not passenger ships to be torpedoed without warning. Primary rules were: Passenger ships would not be targeted, Merchant ships would not be suck until the presence of weapons have been established, if necessary by a search of the ship, and Merchant ships would not be sunk without provision for the safety of passengers and crew. This later made US declare war on Germany because of the Zimmerman Telegram.

Lusitania: 1915 Big British ship that carried people and goods across the Atlantic between US and Great Britain was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. Of the 1,959 people on board it killed 1,198, including 128 Americans. Thus the Americans were enraged.

Zimmermann Note: German minister Arthur Zimmermann send a coded message to Germany's ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhardt, in January 1917. The British managed to intercept the coded message and were able to decipher it.
Within the message, Zimmermann revealed Germany's plan to restart unrestricted submarine warfare as well as offered Mexico territory from the US if Mexico were to declare war on the US.
The British shared the message with the American public which made them outraged. WW1 was suppose to be contained to Europe, which seemed too far away, but now the US felt the war was being brought to their land.

Unrestricted Sub Warfare:


 

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