Wwi Terms

Wwi Terms

World War I Terms

Stefan Zweig- an Austrian writer who captured well the orgiastic celebration of war in Vienna in 1914. During WWI he took a pacifist (peacekeeper, antiwar) stand with the French writer Romain Rolland, summoning intellectuals from all over the world to join them in active pacifism. He wrote about the excitement of the war, explaining how the war made everyone united, (at the beginning of the war) no one realized what the war could do to them, and that everyone had a false, blind perception of the war. He remained pacifist all his life but also advocated the unification of Europe before the Nazis came. He also has had some influence in the making of the European Union.

Kaiser Wilhelm II- was a German who ruled both the German empire and King of Prussia at the same time (showed a lot of power in Germany) but ended up fleeing to the Netherlands. He agreed to help Austria-Hungry in defeating the Black Hand (the secret organization that had plotted the killing) – and the source of this was Serbia. He wanted the German Empire to be a world power, but it was never his intention to conjure a large-scale conflict to achieve this. He made efforts to preserve the peace (by telling Austria that they should go no farther than Belgrade, limiting conflict) but it was too late because German officials were persuading him to sign the mobilization order (drafting order). Kaiser was responsible for unleashing the conflict of WWI. After the February Revolution in Russia, Kaiser arranged for the exiled Russian Bolshevik leader Lenin to return home for hope that Lenin would create political unrest and help end the war on the Eastern front. This way, Germany could concentrate on defeating Western allies.

Serbia- Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in 1914. Serbia’s ally, Russia, started to mobilize its troops in defense of Serbia, which resulted in Austria-Hungary’s ally, Germany, declaring war on Russia. The revenge by Austria against Serbia introduced a...

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