-Also known as the Great War, or First World War
World War 1 consisted of 2 alliances:
The Triple Entente |
The Triple Alliance |
France (1914-1918)
Great Britain (1914-1918) Italy (1915-1918) Russia (1914-1917) United States (1917-1918) |
Germany (1914-1918)
Austria-Hungary (1914-1918) Italy (1914-1915) |
the main causes of ww1
-Modern imperialism
-Alsace and Lorraine
-Alliance
-Nationalism
-Alsace and Lorraine
-Alliance
-Nationalism
Modern imperialism
Imperialism is about colonies. Germany was a new country, so it didn't have a lot of colonies, but it wanted to have. All the countries in Africa were already taken by other European countries.
Alsace-lorraine
Alsace and Lorraine were a province of France. Germany took it, and France wanted it back.
On the left you see a map of Europe. The red part is Alsace-Lorraine, which is now part of France.
alliance
The alliance system was also a big cause from the 1st WW. If you for example have two friend groups, if you slap one person of the other group, the whole group will react.
Nationalism
Nationalism is all about own country. This involves the love for one's own country.
the schlieffen plan
Germany was surrounded by enemies, so it thought it had more chance to win the war if it'd attack first. They planned to attack France first and afterwards Russia. They planned to make a circle around Paris to capture it. But it failed because they failed to surround it. Germany was defeated.
After the war
Germany lost, and the other countries decided that Germany was responsible for starting a war and so Germany was punished. The other countries signed a treaty, the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had to pay for all the reparations due to damage caused in the war. Besides that, Germany lost all its colonies. Besides that, Alsac Lorraine was given back to France.