Triple Alliance
Military and political alliance formed before World War I to counter moves by potential rivals England, France, and Russia; consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.
Triple Entente
Military and political alliance formed before World War I by England, France, and Russia; created to challenge moves made by the Triple Alliance.
The Great Powers
The industrialized, colonizing nations of Europe before World War I; includes England, France, Germany, Russia, and Italy; their rivalries led to the war.
Dreadnought
Class of modern battleship launched by Britain before the war; triggered naval rivalry, especially with Germany.
Western Front
War zone that ran from Belgium to Switzerland during World War I; featured trench warfare and massive casualties among the combatants, including Britain, France, Russia, and Belgium; later included the United States.
Eastern Front
War zone that ran from the Baltic to the Balkans where Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Balkan nations fought.
Tsar Nicholas II
Last emperor of Russia whose poor military and political decisions led to his downfall and Russia's loss in the war; he and Kaiser Wilhelm II made many moves that led to the start of the war.
Propaganda
Government-sponsored media coverage of the war designed to disseminate onesided versions of "friendly" and enemy conduct; used to gin up support for the war among its citizenry.
Bolsheviks
Socialists in Russia who promoted overthrow of the tsar and the establishment of a socialist state; means "majority" in Russian.
New women
Term used to describe career-oriented women in western Europe and the United States in the 1920s; they sought increased social and political rights.
Self-determination
Wilson called for national independence from colonial rule before Versailles; this encouraged colonial subjects in Asia and Africa until they discovered Wilson intended his rhetoric only for Europe.
Indian Congress Party
Nationalist group in India that called for independence from Britain; led by Western-educated Indian elites; led India in the early postcolonial era.
Morely-Minto reforms
In 1909, British colonial authorities expanded political opportunities for educated Indians.
Effendi
Prosperous Egyptian families who made up the middle class; leaders of the Egyptian nationalist movement came largely from this group.
Mandates
The Treaty of Versailles established British or French control over territories formerly held by Germany and the Ottoman Empire; especially important in regard to Arab areas after the war.
Zionists
Supporters of Jewish nationalism, especially a creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Pan-Africanism
Movement begun in the 1920s to promote African nationalism and unity; did much to arouse anticolonial sentiment.
Negritude
Literary movement in France that argued precolonial African societies were superior in many ways to European colonial societies in Africa; writers included L.S. Senghor, Leon Damas, and Aime Cesaire.
National Congress of British West Africa
Regionalized version of the pan-African movement.
Armenian genocide
Assault carried out by mainly Turkish military forces against Armenian population in Anatolia in 1915; over a million Armenians perished and thousands fled to Russia and the Middle East.
Montagu-Chelmsford reforms
Increased the powers of Indian legislators at the all-India level and placed much of the provincial administration of India under local ministries controlled by legislative bodies with substantial numbers of elected Indians; passed in 1919.