Welcome to the week 15 module.

By the early 20th century, competition between European states over colonial resources began to affect the cohesion of the international community. A growing arms race between Great Britain and Germany also raised concerns about European stability. In response to these growing tensions, European nations began making secret military alliances for mutual protection in the event of war. Tensions finally came to a head in the summer of 1914, when Serbian terrorists assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Germany and Austria-Hungary threatened to invade Serbia, but Russia elected to protect the small state. As a result, these nations declared war on each other and treaty alliances forced France and Great Britain to join the conflict. By its end in November of 1918, World War I had consumed over eight million lives and had become the most deadly and destructive conflict in world history.

In this unit, we will examine the origins of the war and study how and why it spread so rapidly throughout the world. We will also evaluate the role that European colonies and colonized peoples played in the conflict. Finally, we will take a look at how European states attempted to maintain their colonial possessions through post-war peace agreements and how colonized peoples began to directly challenge European rule.

At the end of this fifteenth week you should be able to do the following:

identify the origins of World War I and analyze how the war's outcome altered economic and political balances of power throughout the world
Discuss how World War I modernized nation-states economies and increased the role of propaganda in those governments.

To do list when completing this week's module:

Participate in discussion board by submitting your answers by Wednesday and responding to classmates by Friday

Let us get started with this week's readings!