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Wars & Battles — World War I flashcards

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World War I from Sarajevo to Versailles: causes and alliances, the Western Front, Eastern, Italian and Middle Eastern fronts, war at sea and in the air, home fronts and US entry, and the peace settlement.

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Learn deck · part of Wars and famous battles · written against: Conventional dates and outcomes from ancient Greece to 1945; contested figures given as ranges or left out. Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. Historians often sum up the long-term causes of World War I with the mnemonic MAIN. What do the four letters stand for?
    Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism.

    Watch out: it is a memory aid, not a full explanation — the decisions taken by governments during the July Crisis of 1914 matter just as much.
    Causes of the War
  2. Which three powers formed the Triple Alliance of 1882?
    Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

    Watch out: Italy declared neutrality in 1914 and entered the war on the Allied side in 1915.
    Causes of the War
  3. What was Germany's Schlieffen Plan designed to achieve?
    To avoid a long two-front war by defeating France quickly with a great sweep through Belgium, then turning east against Russia, which was expected to mobilize slowly.
    Western Front
  4. What did the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914 accomplish?
    A French and British counterattack halted the German advance short of Paris and forced a retreat to the Aisne, ending German hopes of a quick victory in the west.

    Example: Paris taxis famously ferried reinforcements — a morale boost more than a decisive factor.
    Western Front
  5. What happened at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914?
    German forces under Hindenburg and Ludendorff encircled and destroyed the Russian Second Army in East Prussia, helped by intercepted Russian radio messages.

    Why: it made Hindenburg and Ludendorff national heroes and later Germany's military leaders.
    Eastern & Other Fronts
  6. What was the strategic goal of the Allied Gallipoli campaign of 1915?
    To force the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople, knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a sea route to Russia. Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, was a leading champion.
    Eastern & Other Fronts
  7. What did Britain's naval blockade of Germany aim to do, and what was its effect?
    It aimed to halt Germany's seaborne imports, above all its food and raw materials. Severe shortages and hunger followed, as in 1916–17, when swedes replaced scarce potatoes in the "turnip winter".
    War at Sea & in the Air
  8. Who won the Battle of Jutland (31 May–1 June 1916)?
    Tactically inconclusive: Britain lost more ships and men, but Germany's High Seas Fleet never again seriously challenged British control of the North Sea.

    Example: the fleets were led by Jellicoe (British) and Scheer (German).
    War at Sea & in the Air
  9. What does "total war" mean for World War I?
    Mobilizing a whole society, not just its armies: conscription, rationing, state direction of industry and propaganda, with civilians becoming targets of blockade and bombing.
    Home Fronts & U.S. Entry
  10. What were Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points?
    His program for a just peace, presented to Congress on 8 January 1918: open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, freer trade, arms reduction, self-determination for peoples and an association of nations.
    Armistice & Peace

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Checked against Imperial War Museums First World War pages, the Canadian War Museum First World War pages, National Army Museum (UK) pages, the National Archives (US) Milestone Documents on the Zimmermann Telegram and the Fourteen Points, the U.S. Office of the Historian (history.state.gov), CDC 1918 pandemic history pages, and Encyclopaedia Britannica reference entries (reference only; all wording original).
  • Also checked against the treaty and document texts of the Avalon Project (Yale Law School) and the World War I Document Archive (Brigham Young University Library), the Representation of the People Act 1918 as enacted (legislation.gov.uk, Open Government Licence v3.0), Hansard, other National Archives (US) pages, the Library of Congress (U.S. Reports), the 2019 Armenian Genocide resolutions of the U.S. House and Senate (H. Res. 296, S. Res. 150), the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia, Veterans Affairs Canada, the National WWI Museum and Memorial, the New York State Military Museum, the Musée de l'Armée, the Palace of Versailles, the Truman Library, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the British Red Cross, the London Museum and the RAF Museum; edited reference works (the Oxford Companions to British History and to American Military History, the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Gale's Encyclopedia of Modern Europe, Encyclopedia of Russian History, World War I Reference Library and Americans at War, the Dictionary of American History, the Encyclopedia of World Biography, the Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450 and World Encyclopedia); and scholarly books (among them Tuchman, The Guns of August; Henig, Versailles and After; Spiers, A History of Chemical and Biological Weapons; Spencer C. Tucker, The Great War 1914-18; Chatty, Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East) (reference only; no text copied).
  • Australian War Memorial (awm.gov.au), consulted, not copied.
  • World History Encyclopedia (worldhistory.org), consulted, not copied.
  • Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO (dhm.de/lemo), consulted, not copied.

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