World War I Begins

1. What are the four main causes of World War I? Give an example for each as to why it was a cause.
1.Nationalism: Caused Austria-Hungary to be rivals for influence over Serbia, and it led to competitive and antagonistic rivalries among nations
2.Imperialism: Colonies supplied the European imperial powers with raw materials and provided markets for manufactured goods. As Germany industrialized, it competed with France and Britain in the contest for colonies.
3.Militarism: France Italy Japan The US Germany and Britain all competed to try and have the most military forces, and so they were much readier for war.
4:Alliance System: When Germany went to war with Serbia all the countries in the alliances were forced to also declare war on each other, creating World War I.

2. How did the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand become the spark for WWI?
The assasination touched off a diplomatic crisis. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared what was expected to be a short war against Serbia. The alliance system pulled one nation after another into conflict.

3. What happened within the first few months of fighting?
Within a few months of fighting at the first Battle of the Somme, the British suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day alone, and the final casualties numbered about 1.2 million.

4. Generally, why did the United States want to stay out of the war?
The United States wanted to stay out of the war because Americans saw no point to join a struggle 3 thousand miles away and it posed no threat to American lives or property.

5. Specifically, Why did the following groups of Americans tend to oppose U.S. participation in the war? Naturalized citizens; socialists; pacifists; parents.
Naturalized citizens opposed the U.S. participation in the war because they all had ties with the nations that they came from. Socialists opposed U.S. participation in the war because they criticized the war as a capitalist and imperialist struggle between Germany and England to control markets and colonies in China, Africa, and the Middle East. Pacifists opposed the war because pacifists dont support war, and Parents didnt support the US participating in the war because they simply did not want their sons to experience the horrors of warfare.

6. How did Germany respond to the British naval blockade of Germany’s ports? What was the U.S. response?
Germany responded to the British naval blockade of its ports with a counterblockade by U-boats. Any British or Allied ship found in the waters around Britain would be sunk. The U.S.'s response after some of its people were killed was to convince Germany to stop its tactics and that if the United States could not persuade Britain to lift its blockade against food and fertilizers, Germany would consider renewing its unrestricted submarine warfare.

7. What forced the United States into the war?
The Germans ignored Wilsons calls for peace and stated that the U-boats would sink all the ships in British waters-hostile or neutral- on sight. The German decision meant that the United States would have to go to war.