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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who was the Home Secretary of Britain when the war began?
(a) Winston Churchill.
(b) Sir Edward Grey.
(c) Sir Henry Kitchener.
(d) Joseph Joffre.

2. Why did German deputies not know that the Belgians had rejected their ultimatum?
(a) Because the German leadership did not publish the response.
(b) Because they did not read the newspapers.
(c) Because they did not care about it.
(d) Because it had not been sent yet.

3. What order did the First Lord Churchill give when he heard of events in Austria in Chapter 7?
(a) For the British fleet to attack the German fleet.
(b) For the British fleet to hide in port.
(c) For the German fleet to attack the British fleet.
(d) For the British fleet not to disperse.

4. If Schlieffen wanted to be bold in his plans, what did Moltke want to do?
(a) Be reckless.
(b) Not be too bold.
(c) Be even bolder.
(d) Be fearful.

5. What instrument was played at King Edward VII’s funeral?
(a) Drums and bagpipes.
(b) Drums, bagpipes, and flutes.
(c) Horns, drums, and bagpipes.
(d) Horns and drums.

Short Answer Questions

1. The German ultimatum to what country expired at noon on Saturday, August 1?

2. How many weeks did the Germans estimate Russia would need to mobilize its armies?

3. What event took place two hours after Grey finished speaking to the House of Commons in Chapter 9?

4. What was in the large, red dispatch box brought in to the British government leaders at the end of Chapter 7?

5. Who was the ninth king attending Edward VII’s funeral whom “few observers had eyes for” (3)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Plan 17?

2. What was unique about the thoughts of the American Minister in Brussels about what the Belgian king’s 12-year-old son was thinking as he watched his father reject the German ultimatum?

3. Who said this and what did they mean: ”Some Damned Foolish thing in the Balkans” (71)?

4. What ultimatum did Germany send to Brussels?

5. How did Belgium, and King Albert, finally decide to respond to the ultimatum from Germany?

6. Who controlled the area of Alsace when the war began, and who had controlled it before that?

7. What were the two parts of Britain’s ultimatum to Germany, of which only the second part was truly an ultimatum?

8. What other country besides Germany planned to use the open frontier of Belgium as a route of invasion, however this time only after the Germans had violated Belgian neutrality? How did they plan to do this?

9. In the beginning of Chapter 2 it is revealed that the alliances and counter-alliances of the various powers of Europe had created a “heap of swords piled as delicately as jackstraws” (18). How does this complex web of alliances help lead to the outbreak of war in 1914?

10. What was meant by the line, “'When you march into France’ he said, ‘let the last man on the right brush the Channel with is sleeve’" (25).

(see the answer keys)

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