Video:
Audio:
Recommended Reading:
- Powerpoint presentation
- George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter.
- The Eastern Question and the Voices of Reason by Jelena Milojkovic-Djuric
- The Fateful Alliance: France, Russia, and the Coming of the First World War by George Kennan
- The Balkan Wars 1912-1913 by Richard Hall
- Archduke of Sarajevo: The Romance and Tragedy of Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gordon Brook-Shepherd
- “The Why of World War I” by David Gordon
World War I: Beginnings – Quiz
- Identify the major fear afflicting each of the Great Powers in the years preceding WWI.
- Explain how the Balkan Crisis of 1875-1878 nearly resulted in a general European War and how it was resolved.
- Identify the members of the Triple Alliance.
- Identify the members of the Triple Entente.
- Identify the events in the Balkans between 1908 and 1914 that led Europe into war.
- Britain: economic competition from Germany; France: diplomatic isolation; Germany: two-front war; Austria-Hungary: ethnic tensions and separatism; Russia: lack of a warm-water port
- Russia forced the Ottoman Empire to cede territory in the Balkans and around the Black Sea; other Great Powers feared this would upset the balance of power and threatened war if Russia did not surrender some of the gains.
- Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
- Britain, France, Russia
- Austrian annexation of Bosnia; First and Second Balkan Wars; assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand