World War I Midterm

Directions: Do one of the following questions. Your response should be approximately five pages of length and double-spaced. If students use outside materials to answer the question, then endnotes or footnotes should be used to identify your sources.

1. One method of looking at World War I is to subdivide the war’s causation into three components. The first would be the pre-conditions, the very long-term events that made the war possible. The second was the precipitants, the very near-term crises that assured the outbreak of the war. The final element in this scenario was the trigger, the single event or events that lit the fuse that spark the war. How would you apply this to World War I?
2. All of the major belligerents believed that war could serve as a means of temporarily solving internal problems. What were the difficulties that Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria confronted in 1914? How would a short war resolve or postpone them; however, was that realistic? Explain.
3. Some may contend that World War I was not revolutionary in terms of introducing new weapon systems to the battlefield, since the Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War pioneered barbed wire, entrenchments, and the machine gun was around much earlier. Still it is obvious that weapons development far exceeded tactical innovations. How revolutionary was the First World War? What innovations introduced during the conflict changed warfare forever?
4. Before World War I generals and general staffs set policy far ahead of diplomats and foreign ministers. What impact would that have in the coming of World War I? How significant were military planning in the coming of the First World War?