Question 1
Otto Von Bismarck was a Prime Minister of Prussia and the founder and 1st Chancellor of the German empire formed in 1871. He played a role in the unification of Germany by annexing the smaller German states into the larger German empire. He did this by using diplomacy as well as the Prussian army to bash out the influence of Austria, Denmark and France from areas that he wanted to be part of the German empire and later convincing these areas to unite under Prussian leadership to form German empire.
Question 2
The Conservative Party- Represented Prussian aristocracy, nationalism and landed property
The National Liberal Party- Represented Liberals who had accepted the lack of full democracy in Germany because they placed greater value in national unity. They favored secularization and a laissez faire economic policy.
The Progressive Party- Represented individuals who opposed Bismarck’s authoritarian rule and those who championed the extension of the German parliament power.
The Center Party- Was a Roman Catholic party which displayed a conservative approach towards monarchical authority but which championed for social reforms.
Question 3
Militarism- Military power was glorified and countries wanted to have armies that were always prepared for war. This consequently led to an enormous arms race amongst Europe’s nations.
Imperialism- Strong nations tried to dominate weaker nations politically, socially and economically. This led to competition between various countries for colonies.
Nationalism- Belief that individuals should be devoted to their countries led to fierce competition between nation’s for materials as well as markets to make one nation superior to others.
Alliances- Nations with common interests united against those with differing interests.
Question 4
The rationale for offering retirement benefits, health insurance and disability insurance to workers in the industrial workplace was to stimulate the German economic growth by giving the industrial workers greater security. It was however not supposed to display any socialistic aspect. In fact, Bismarck was dubious to issues such as safe working conditions or limitation of working hours as he thought they would decrease overall productivity.
Question 5 and 6
- The Russian mobilization process would take more than six weeks
- The Netherlands and Belgium would let Germany through and not offer any resistance
- The Germans would surprise the French and would thus prevent them from mobilizing or defending themselves.
- The mobilization of the German military would discourage the English from getting involved.
Question 7
The Kulturkamph was a struggle between the German Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck and the Roman Catholic Church. It was introduced by Bismarck in 1871 and its target was to cut down the Catholic’s church’s political influence (against Bismarck) in the recently unified Germany. The Kulturkamph however backfired and failed to accomplish its goals as it only energized the Church more to become an enormous political force.
Question 8
A war of attrition is a war fought until a nation can longer sustain the costs of the war and where the nation left with the most men ultimately wins. In such a war, nations often run of men, money and weapons. This war of attrition influenced military leaders to adopt a policy of forcing their soldiers to fight to their last breathes to try and tire out their opponents
Question 9
The German people were generally welcoming of the Russian Revolution. They saw it as an opportunity for Russia to withdraw from World War 1. This would then allow the Germans to concentrate more on the Western Front and ultimately win the war.
Question 10
The problem of the unrestricted U Boat activity was that it caused a lot of human life loss. The activity was suspended after public outcry but was later reinstated. This eventually caused the United States to declare war on Germany.
Question 11
The continued blockade of food and medical supplies to Germany even after the signing of the armistice was a strategy to prevent the German’s military power resurgence. In addition, it was meant to suppress revolutionary upheavals in the nation and also in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. An action such as this raised ethical questions such as the Allies’s value for human life.
Question 12
No man’s was an area of ground between opposing armies. In this case, the land was between opposing armies trenches. For one to get to the No Man’s Land, one had to crawl under a lengthy set of barbed wire. It was located in areas where opposing forces met for war but were not willing to engage on a one on one mode.
Question 13
One weakness of the free capitalistic economy during wartime is that it causes the government to overspend during war time on national defense. The impact of this weakness was particularly felt during the World War 1 which occurred a few years after the invention of the first plane. The war greatly hindered further development of air technology. This could have been avoided had governments set aside funds to aid further development of air technology.
Question 14
Article 231 was known as ‘The War Guilt Clause”. It appeared in Part VII “Reparations”. The article stated that Germany accepted full blame for the initiation of World War I and the Allies affirmed this acceptance of responsibility by the Germans.
Question 15
The gap between enlisted men and officers in the war mainly emanated from superiority feelings from officers who felt that they were more enlightened than their enlisted counterparts. This led to feelings of animosity between the two groups. The problem affected all the sides in the war equally since enlistment was a common feature everywhere.
Question 16 and 17
The images evoke anti German feelings. They were developed by the Triple Entente side of the war. This is because in both posters a destructive element of the Germans is displayed, for instance in the first poster, there is a bloody German hand which can supposedly be blotted out if one buys bonds.
Question 18
The phrase about World War I that describes it as “the war Europe expected and the war that Europe got’ generally means that it was a war that was foreseen before its onset. The statement is quite accurate the period before the beginning of the war was an optimum period of imperial vocation of the nations of Europe. Countries such as Germany craved power while others such as Britain and France were ready to offer total resistance. International rivalry was therefore a palpable reality several years before the actual war happened.
Question 19
Belgium played two pivotal roles in the initiation of World War I. Germany invaded the neutral country so that they could reach Paris by a shorter route. Britain was obligated by a seventy five year old treaty to defend Belgium and it therefore declared war on Germany.
Question 20
Triple Alliance
- Germany
- Austria-Hungary
- Italy
Triple Entente
- Russia
- France
- Britain
Question 21
The causes of World War I have been a subject of discussion for historians for many years. Although Germany is painted as the guiltiest party, there is still a lot of vagueness and unclarity that surrounds this issue. The main reason why Germany is blamed for the war is because of its invasion of Belgium which was under sworn protection from the British. It is however not fair to place Germany as the sole initiator of this destructive war.
The spark or trigger that ignited this war was the assassination of the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the hands of a Serbian revolutionalist. This event marked the onset of a range of war declarations that involved such countries as Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Italy.
The leaderships of those warring countries were however under misguided beliefs about national character and national destiny that caused them to act more recklessly. For instance, Germany was under a misguided notion that it was powerful than all other nations.. The leaderships of these countries were eager to prove their superiority over each other and they therefore made rush decisions in which they could not foresee their consequences. Had these misguided beliefs not existed, the crisis could have been solved more amicably and in a conventional and less destructive way.
Works Cited
Orlow, Dietrich. A History of Modern Germany: 1871 to Present. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1987. Print.
The Great War ( A Complete History of World War I). DVD.
