World War I - Rarely Asked Questions

I have made up a short quiz (answers are below) of questions, the answers to which we were never taught in school. One hundred years on, isn't it time to re-think the usual portrayal of events of that time?

1. Who was described as ‘The Apostle of Peace’ in 1913?

2. Who in 1908 said that Germany needed a strong army as ‘ her sole defence against invasion. Here is Germany in the middle of Europe with France and Russia on either side with a combination of armies greater than hers’?

3. When a foreign naval base was attacked by local people, a commander from which country ordered his troops into a neighbouring village to kill every male over the age of ten, and to rape all the women ‘to put some Aryan blood into their race.’?

4. During the Hague Convention, when the Germans refused to reduce the size of the army, what did Britain and the United States refuse to do?

5. Who said in 1895: “Only in peace can the world’s trade be developed, in peace only can it prosper. We desire to maintain that peace and will do so.”

6. Of which member of the family was Queen Victoria speaking when she told one of her granddaughters, “He is not to be trusted.”?

7. At the outbreak of war, which combatant country had known peace for over forty years?

8. Which of the following was the last to mobilise: France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, Germany? 

9. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who told the Austrian government that every one of his fellow countrymen ‘wished heartily that Serbia should receive a sound and lasting lesson?’

10. Which King told his Foreign Secretary that he must find any excuse for his country to enter the war?

11. Which prominent political figure during WW1 wrote – in regard to a previous war - “We must kill the parents in order that their children may have respect for us?”

12. Which country, and on whose orders, illegally flew false flags on its naval vessels and disguised them as passenger ships?   

Answers:

1. Kaiser Wilhelm II

2. Britain’s David Lloyd-George

3. United States

4. Britain refused to reduce the size of her navy. The United States refused to ban specific horrific weapons

5. Kaiser Wilhelm II

6. Her son, the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII

7. Germany

8. Germany

9. The British Ambassador to Vienna

10. King George V

11. Winston Churchill

12. Britain, on the orders of Winston Churchill 

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The Innocence of Kaiser Wilhelm II