Origin of the Name

This was the first “big” European war after Napoleon. Great did not only connotes the great scale of the war, nor the enormous number of men sent and lost. It also was called the Great War, because they thought this was the ultimate war. Before Armageddon or the Biblical battle of Good and Evil, since they thought that the evil militarism had taken control of Germany. This is not to diminish the indeed cruel number of deaths.

WWI Begins!

Terms to Know

• Nationalism: The unique cultural identity of a people based on common language, religion, and national symbols.
• Militarism: Reliance on military strength.
• Imperialism: The extension of a nation´s power over other lands. 
• Alliance System: Is a formal agreement or treaty between two or more nations to cooperate for specific purposes.
• Conscription: Military Draft
• Trenches: A long, narrow excavation in the ground, the earth from which is thrown up in front to serve as a shelter from enemy fire or attack.
• War of Attrition: A war based on wearing the other side down by constant attacks and heavy losses, such as.
• Soviets: A Russian council composed of representatives from the workers and soldiers.
• War Communism: In World War I Russian, government control of banks and most industries, the seizing of grain from peasants, and the centralization of state administration under Communist control.
• Reparations: Payment made to the victors by the vanquished to cover the costs of a war.
• Mandate: A nation governed by another nation on behalf of the League of Nations.
• Total War: A war that involves the complete mobilization of resources and people, affecting the lives of all citizens in the warring countries, even those remote from battlefields. 
• Armistice: A truce or agreement to end fighting.
• Propaganda: Ideas spread to influence public opinion for or against a cause.
• The Black Hand: Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist organization that wanted Bosnia to be free of Austria-Hungary and to become part of a large Serbian kingdom.Planned Economies: An economic system directed by the government agencies.

USA Enters the Great War

USA Enters the Great War

In 1915, the British passenger liner the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, killing 128 Americans and further heightening tensions. As a response to the murdering of those innocent Americans, in 1917, the U.S. enters the war. Many Americans did not want their country to get in this tension, but instead to remain neutral.

-Woodrow Wilson was indignant with the German Empire’s policy towards ships. They would sink any ship, but they would alert that ship and give a chance of saving their lives. This horrible policy was not respected and they sank all ships.

-He also did not believed that a nation to swore to protect human rights overseas could commit such atrocities. 

-He firmly believed that their nation would not be involucrated on this war for revenge, but to protect human rights.