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The Great War

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America and the Great War
Jerry Bryant
Devry University
United States History
Morgan Deane
June 23, 2013

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were a time of colonization of Asia and Africa by European powers. England was in control of most of Africa and India; the Belgians controlled Congo; Germany, France, and Italy also inhabited African lands. These colonies were responsible for the economical statues and even the foreign business of European products, and therefore expansion became necessary. To add to the fire, land available was quickly sought after due to Germany, France, England, Italy, and Belgium occupying most. Border disputes broke out between colonists of different nationalities; the Boer War in South Africa between the Dutch and the English and the Middle East, the crumbling Ottoman Empire was tempt to Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia. Germany set an example in military organization and efficiency; Europe was similar with large reserves and detailed planning of the Prussian system. Technological and organizational developments led to general staffs with accurate plans for mobilization and attacks that could not be reversed. The German von Schlieffen Plan was to attack with Russia which drew more countries into war than France before Russia. By 1889, the British had a new principle; in order to maintain naval superiority in the event of war, they would have to have a navy two and a half times as large as the second-largest navy; which motivated the British to launch the Dreadnought, invented by Admiral Sir John Fisher, in 1906. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 showed the effectiveness of Dreadnought. German official Otto von Bismarck saw this as an opportunity to use the Italian’s resentment towards France to create the Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy and Austria- Hungary in 1882. Italy's agreement was to stay neutral

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