Age of Total War

Handout Two

Topic: War and Diplomacy

 OUTLINE:

 II. War and Diplomacy

A.     The Spark

B.   The Start

C.  The West Front

D.  Looking for New Partners

E.   The Eastern Front

F.  Here Comes the Yanks

G.  Promises, Promises

QUESTIONS:

 1.      The verdict of history is that the World War I was a disaster, a horrific event that should not be repeated. Where did the military planners go wrong? What accounts for the stalemate on the Western Front?

2..      How effective were the each of the Alliances in finding additional allies during the course of the war? While nations have different reasons for going to war, why did Italy switch sides? What did Japan gain from their part in the war?

3.      Woodrow Wilson was an enigma, yet he offered considerable promise for a better world. While he proposed that Americans should be neutral in thought as well as in deed, was that practical? What role did the United States play in war before the United States became an “associated power?”

4.      While Wilson promised to make the world safe for democracy, how did he handle relations with Mexico and Germany?

5.      What factors best explain why the United States entered the conflict in 1917? How did the British help Wilson make his decision?

6. Traditionally revisionist historians have argued that there was enough blame for World War I to go around; however, only recently has one writer, David Fromkin, challenged that assumption. What is the basis of his arguments? Who does he blame more than others for the outbreak of the First World War?

 TERMS:

 William Jennings Bryan              HMS Lusitania                Winston Churchill

Battle of Jutland                          Black Tom                        Ferdinand Foch

Verdun                                       John J. Pershing                Poncho Villa

 Somme                                      Tannenburg                       Fourteen Points

Paul von Hindenburg                   Eric Luddendorff              Stormtruppen

Meuse-Argonne Offensive          Lost Battalion                   Gallipoli