Questions About World War I

Lucy Lastovic 

February 24, 2015

Mrs. Lawson- H Block

Questions About WWI

1. WWI began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. The immediate cause in the starting of World War I  was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria-Hungary. His death at the hands of Gavrilo Princip – a Serbian nationalist with ties to the secretive military group known as the Black Hand – propelled the major European military powers towards war. Many scholars also believe that the gradual emergence of a group of alliances between major powers was partly to blame for the descent into war. The two groups of allies were: Britain, France and Russia formed the Triple Entente, while Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy comprised the Triple Alliance.                                        http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/first-world-war/59782/how-did-the-first-world-war-start#ixzz3Sfx2SgWC
2. On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies--Britain, France, and Russia--to fight in World War I. On May 7, the British-owned ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the nearly 2,000 passengers aboard, 1,201 were killed, including 128 Americans. The German government maintained, correctly, that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels, but in November a U-boat sank an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. With these attacks, public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany; the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms-appropriations bill intended to ready the United States for war. In late March, Germany sank four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2, President Wilson went before Congress to deliver his famous war message. Within four days, both houses of Congress had voted in favor of a declaration of war.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/us-enters-world-war-i
3. Germany had formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all nations had agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated. On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war.                                           http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_ww1_3.html
4. The main terms of the Versailles Treaty were:                                                                             (1) the surrender of all German colonies as League of Nations mandates;                                     (2) the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France;                                                                                 (3) cession of Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium, Memel to Lithuania, the Hultschin district to Czechoslovakia                                                                                                                             (4) Poznania, parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia to Poland;                                               (5) Danzig to become a free city;                                                                                                 (6) plebiscites to be held in northern Schleswig to settle the Danish-German frontier;               (7) occupation and special status for the Saar under French control;                                           (8) demilitarization and a fifteen-year occupation of the Rhineland;                                             (9) German reparations of £6,600 million;                                                                                     (10) a ban on the union of Germany and Austria;                                                                     (11) an acceptance of Germany's guilt in causing the war;                                                             (12) provision for the trial of the former Kaiser and other war leaders;                                         (13) limitation of Germany's army to 100,000 men with no conscription, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no poison-gas supplies, no aircraft and no airships;                                                     (14) the limitation of the German Navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with no submarines;Germany signed the Versailles Treaty under protest. The USA Congress refused to ratify the treaty. Many people in France and Britain were angry that there was no trial of the Kaiser or the other war leaders.                                                                                           http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWversailles.htm                                                                    The US did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles because the League of Nations said if another nation was attacked we would automatically send troops to ensure their territorial integrity we did not want to do that.                                                             https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080526211028AAX6LXJ
5. What was Germany's reaction to the Treaty of Versailles? How much did Germany have to pay for the war? What issues from WWI took part in the start of WWII?