WH 300 E World War I

Handout One

Topic: World Before the War

 OUTLINE:

 I. The World Before the War.

A.     Introduction.

B.     The World Economy.

C.     The Age of Empires.

D.     The Uncertainties of the Middle Class.

E.      Nations and Nationalism.

F.      The New Woman.

QUESTIONS:

1. Eric Hobsbawn argues that the old world of the nineteenth century was dying well before the outbreak of World War I. What was the economic and political situation like in Europe and the developed world on the eve of World War I?

2. What role did women now play in the waning decades of the nineteenth century? How did roles of women change at that time?

3. What was the status of workers in the late-nineteenth century? How did worker unrest contribute to the death of liberalism?

4. It took a long time for liberalism to make headway in Europe; however, by the end of the century, liberalism clearly was under attack. How did nationalism and liberalism contribute to the fall of the liberal ideal before the war, at least in Europe?

TERMS:

 William McKinley                   Rosa Luxemburg

Protective Tariffs                     Madame Currie

Cecil Rhodes                           Beatrice Webb

Otto Von Bismarck                 Alexandra Kollontai

Kulterkampf                    Emma Goldman

Queen Victoria                         Oscar Wilde

Theodore Roosevelt                 Revolution of 1905

Marxism                                   Sergei Witte

Victor Adler                             Russo-Japanese War

Juan Jaures                               Franco-Prussian War

British Labour Party                Committee of Union and Progress

Home Rule                              

J. P. Morgan

J. D. Rockefelle