First World War

                                                                   Causes 

• The rise of germany

  • France was disturbed by the fact that the leaders of perussia’1860 wanted to unite germany, so went to war against them from 1870 -71.
  • Germany grew economically and had an amazing industrial revolution

• The new kaiser and world power

  • Now that germany was the equal of Britain in terms of wealth and industry, the germans gelt that their country should have a worldwide empire
  • As a result of this attitude, Germany now posed as a threat to other nations

• The arms race

  • Germany started building an enormous navy in 1897 that could challenge the british
  • British responded with enlarging their army trength
  • Other countried like the French increased their forces.
  • This made the Germans scared that the mighty forces will one day flatten Berlin

• The two alliances

  • Germany signed a treaty of alliance with Austria-Hungary
  • There was an unofficial link, an etente that the specific countries would work together. The triple entente: An anti-german grouping of France, Russia and Britain

• The german decision for war

  • The argument between Austria-hungary and Serbia and Russia about how land taken from Turkey should devided led to a war between the two alliances
  • Due to a further more policy change in Germany, the kaiser gave his full backing for an austrian attack on serbia.

• Confusion about the british position

  • Germans were not sure whether the british would fight, which made the position of britain complicated.

  • When germany attacked france via belgium, the Britain stopped talking and a day later, went to war.

                                                                 Russian Revolution
    

• Russia before communism

  • Russia was autocratic, which meant that there were no limits to the power of the ruler. Greater part of Russia was poor
  • When Russia lost the war against Japan in 1904-05, and then took part in the first world was which was a disaster for russia and by 1917 many Russians were ready for another revolution.
  • The civil war:
    • The Bolshevik take-over was opposed by many Russians. in may 1918 fighting broke out between the Red Gaurds and anti-communist forces known as the ‘whites’. This started the civil war.
    • The Bolshevik leader, Leon Trotsky, organised the Red Army very effectively, the ‘whites were divided among themselves
    • By 1920 the war was over and the Bolsheviks won
  • in 1917, the Russian revolution in turn resulted them to turn communist, which also indirectly started the cold war.