World War I Jeopardy

Alliances, trenches, and the armistice: a complete WWI review board that teachers copy for free and classes play with phone buzzers on the big screen.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Sparks and Alliances

$200
This system, in which countries agreed to defend one another if attacked, turned a regional crisis into a world war in 1914.
What is the alliance system?
$400
This military alliance bound Germany and Austria-Hungary together before and during the war.
What are the Central Powers?
$600
This military alliance of Britain, France, and Russia opposed the Central Powers.
What are the Allied Powers?
$800
This Balkan nation received Austria-Hungary's harsh ultimatum in July 1914 after being blamed for harboring an assassin.
What is Serbia?
$1,000
This German battle plan called for a quick strike through Belgium to defeat France before turning to fight Russia.
What is the Schlieffen Plan?

Life in the Trenches

$200
This system of dug fortifications ran nearly unbroken from the North Sea to the Swiss border for most of the war.
What are the trenches?
$400
This painful foot condition, caused by standing for days in cold, wet trenches, afflicted soldiers on both sides.
What is trench foot?
$600
This blasted, shell-torn zone between opposing trenches had to be crossed at great cost during an infantry assault.
What is no man's land?
$800
Soldiers on both sides briefly left their trenches to sing carols and exchange gifts during this unofficial pause in December 1914.
What is the Christmas truce?
$1,000
This term named the severe psychological trauma many soldiers suffered after prolonged exposure to artillery bombardment.
What is shell shock?

Technology of War

$200
This water-cooled weapon, capable of firing hundreds of rounds a minute, made frontal infantry charges devastatingly costly.
What is the machine gun?
$400
First used by Britain in 1916, this armored tracked vehicle was designed to cross trenches and barbed wire.
What is the tank?
$600
First used on a large scale near Ypres in 1915, this poisonous gas forced soldiers to carry gas masks.
What is chlorine gas?
$800
This new form of aerial combat, featuring famous aces like the Red Baron, added a new dimension to the war.
What is dogfighting?
$1,000
Germany's use of this underwater naval weapon to sink merchant and passenger ships angered neutral nations.
What is a U-boat?

America Enters

$200
This 1915 sinking of a British ocean liner by a German submarine killed over a hundred Americans and shifted US opinion against Germany.
What is the sinking of the Lusitania?
$400
This intercepted German telegram proposed a military alliance with Mexico against the United States.
What is the Zimmermann Telegram?
$600
Germany's decision to resume this policy against all ships, including neutral and passenger vessels, helped push the US to declare war in 1917.
What is unrestricted submarine warfare?
$800
This American general commanded the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.
Who is John J. Pershing?
$1,000
This 1917 law required American men to register for military service, ultimately drafting millions.
What is the Selective Service Act?

Fronts and Campaigns

$200
This name describes the stalemated fighting between Germany and the Allies in France and Belgium, where trench lines barely moved for years.
What is the Western Front?
$400
This front, where Germany and Austria-Hungary fought Russia across a much larger and more mobile battlefield, collapsed after a 1917 revolution.
What is the Eastern Front?
$600
This 1916 battle near a French river produced over a million casualties for only a few miles of ground.
What is the Battle of the Somme?
$800
This ten-month 1916 battle at a French fortress town became a symbol of futile, grinding attrition.
What is the Battle of Verdun?
$1,000
This failed Allied campaign to open a sea route to Russia through a Turkish strait made Winston Churchill a target of blame.
What is the Gallipoli Campaign?

Armistice and Versailles

$200
Fighting ended at 11 a.m. on this date in 1918, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
What is November 11, 1918?
$400
This 1919 treaty formally ended the war and imposed harsh reparations and territorial losses on Germany.
What is the Treaty of Versailles?
$600
This clause in the treaty forced Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing the war.
What is the War Guilt Clause?
$800
This international body was created after the war to prevent future conflicts, though the United States never joined it.
What is the League of Nations?
$1,000
This US president championed the League of Nations and the Fourteen Points but could not persuade the Senate to ratify the treaty.
Who is Woodrow Wilson?

Final Jeopardy — How It Began

The June 1914 assassination of this Austrian archduke in Sarajevo set off the chain of declarations that began the war.

Who is Archduke Franz Ferdinand?

How to run this board

The Great War can blur into a gray mass of trenches for students; this board breaks it into the pieces that matter - how the alliance system turned one assassination into a world war, what new technology did to old tactics, why America entered, and what the peace treaty got wrong.

The Technology of War category pairs well with primary source photos if you want to pause mid-game. Otherwise the board plays straight through in about 40 minutes.

Use Final Jeopardy as a written exit ticket: everyone answers on paper, not just the leading team.

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