Posted: August 29th, 2015

The Great War 1914-1918

The Great War 1914-1918

Book: Eric Dorn Brose, A History of the Great War: World War One and the International Crisis of the Early Twentieth Century. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Eric Dorn Brose, Death at Sea: Graf Spee and the Flight of the German East Asiatic Naval Squadron in 1914. Amazon Createspace, 2010. Also available in electronic format.

1. Drawing on lecture, video, and the Brose text, identify and discuss the historical importance of Identification A PLUS any other (2) of the following on the causes of WWI(15 points each/1.5 double-spaced pages each):
A. Ethnic/Racial Struggle in European History
B. The Failure to Implement Alternatives to War before 1914
C. Moroccan Crisis of 1905-1906 and Bosnian Crisis of 1908-1909
D. Armament Races
E. William II

2. Drawing on lecture, video, and the Brose text, identify/define and discuss the historical importance of any two (2) of the following on WWI 1914-1915 (15 points each/1.5d-s pages each):
A. Battle of the [Western] Frontiers
B. Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes
C. Enver Pasha
D. “Scarborough Raid” and Dogger Bank

3. Answer the following essay on Death at Sea (25 points/2.5 d-s pages)

Personality sometimes plays a crucial historical role in determining the course events take. We have already seen this in lecture and video – or soon will be – with leading figures like William II of Germany, Jacky Fisher of Britain, Nicholas II, Alexandra, and Rasputin of Russia, Dragutin Dmitrejevic and Gavrilo Princip of the Bland Hand, and others. Personality also factored into the outcome of 1914 naval action described in Death At Sea. Focusing on the personal strenths or weaknesses of Graf Maximilian von Spee and Karl von Muller on the German side, and Christopher Cradock and Frederick Sturdee on the British side, explain how certain decisions that were made, actions that were either exploited or squandered, altered the outcome of navel campaigns in the Indian Ocean, the Eastern Pacific (off Chile), and the South Atlantic – and may very well have affected the outcome of World War One.