19-1 Guided Reading

How did the following help ignite the war in Europe?
1) Nationalism: Lead to competitive and antagonistic rivalries between countries. many countries in Europe, as a result of this, began to fear Germany's growing power. One of the biggest factors was the desire of Serbia to be free from Austria-Hungary, which resulted in competition between Austria-Hungary and Russia, which considered itself to be a protector of the Slavic countries.
2) Imperialism: Nations had been building for centuries huge empires, colonizing so they could have economic and political control over the rest of the world. As Germany industrialized, it competed with England and France for colonies.
3) Militarism: Each nation wanted stronger armed forces than the others in order to protect their empire. Germany was, in 1890, the strongest country in Europe. This did not bother Britain because they relied mostly upon their navy for protection, being an island. The kaiser of Germany, Wilhelm II, then decided that Germany should become a major naval power, and so it put them in competition with England to make the most and best ships.
4)Alliances: Alliances (the Allies {France, Britain, and Russia} and the Triple Alliance {Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy} were made in order to keep the balance of power, but when one country declared war on another, its allies would then declare war on that country, whose allies would then declare war on the other country, so on and so forth.
5) Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand: After Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, after which many nations were pulled into the conflict by alliances.
Why did the following American groups oppose U.S. participation in the war?
6) Naturalized citizens: Still had ties to the nations from which they had emigrated.
7) Socialists: Criticized the war as a capitalist an imperialist struggle between Germany and England to control markets and colonies in China, Africa, and the Middle East
8) Pacifists: Believed that war was evil and the U.S. should set an example of peace to the world.
9) Parents: Didn't wants their sons to be exposed to the horrors of warfare.

How did the following nations encourage U.S. participation in the war?
10) Britain: Britain blockaded the German coast and to prevent weapons and military supplies from getting through. Thus, American ships for Germany didn't challenge the blockade and rarely reached their destinations.
11) Germany: Britain blockaded the German coast and to prevent weapons and military supplies from getting through. Thus, American ships for Germany didn't challenge the blockade and rarely reached their destinations. America was angry at Britain for the blockade, but Germany then attacked via submarine the British liner Lusitania and 128 Americans were killed. This incident was repeated and 2 Americans drowned. Germany promised not to do this anymore, but then broke its promise, and more Americans were killed. Germany then resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. The Zimmerman note then was discovered, a telegram from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico which proposed an alliance between Mexico ad Germany and promised that if war with the U.S. broke out, Germany would help Mexico recover lost territory such as Texas. Then 36 Americans were killed in the sinking of merchant ships by the Germans.
12) Russia: The Russian monarchy was replaced with a representative government, and so supporters of the idea of America entering the war could claim that it was a war of democracies against cruel monarchies.