...WORLD WAR I Era Bella: growing tension between powers, as a result of economic globalization and the rise of colonialism 1882 Triple Alliance: linking Germany with Austria-Hungary and Italy, to maintain the beneficial state for Germany. Weltpolitik: world hegemony policy driven by William II, after acceding to the throne in 1888 and in 1890 to dismiss the Chancellor Bismark • Withdrawal from Russia in 1890 to renew the Reinsurance Treaty. • Confrontation with Britain by economic competition and German shipbuilding plans. • Creation of a Franco-Russian alliance 1893: military assistance in case of war against Germany. • The Entente Cordiale in 1904 Franco-British • Anglo-Russian Agreement 1907 (Persia, Afghanistan (England), Tibet) • Finally, the formation of the Triple Entente to counteract this policy 1.1. The transformations of the new century and the conflicts between the powers. Emergence of USA and Japan, which retention passage of a European to a global. • Spanish-American War 1898: conflict between USA and Spain, the latter losing the Cuban island, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam • 1905 Russian-Japanese War: Russian aggression ultimately led to the British-Japanese alliance in 1902 which led to the aforementioned war, winning Japan. As a result Russia turned its attention to the Balkans, leads to clash with Astro-Hungary. 1.2. The Road to War 1905-1914 Balkans: • Austrian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina October 5, 1908 (United...
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...Russia in World War I. * The war began positively for Russia- it united the population behind the government behind a common cause and wave of patriotism focusing on loyalty to the Tsar swept the country * Only the socialists within the Duma opposed Russia involvement in the war and Lenin speaking from abroad fiercely denounced the bourgeois * The First World War was a devastating conflict for all countries involved but for none more so then Russia. She lost over 4 million men in the first year. * The Russian army had spirt and bravery but they lacked effective leadership or the technology and despite some modest victories were severely battered by the German * By mid 1915 Russia was facing terribal difficulties and the decision to assume commend of the armed forces. * The dicsion was strongly opposed by the duma who left that the Tsar had no experience of leading troops (they were right) and felt that the tsarist system under serious threat( * Mounting military defeat * Increasingly orginsed and vocal opposite from political group i.e. Liberals – The Duma was suspended in1915 in an attempt to silence the opposition * Rapidly falling living sanderds- food shortage, rising prices and fuel shortages. * Spiralling government expanding government began to point moer paper money * Resulted in inflationary problems * Alexandra assumed a lot of responsibility for ruling Russia whilst Nicholas was away with the troops- she was...
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...American and World War I Alina Ibrahim HIS/125 January 25, 2013 Matt Brickley American and World War I World War I began as a domino effect of one thing leading to another. In June 1914 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist while visiting Sarajevo (Schultz, 2012). Austria-Hungary then issued an ultimatum to the Serbians to bring the assassins to justice. This was an ultimatum that the Austro-Hungarians knew the Serbians would not meet prompting Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia (The Causes of World War I, 2009). Compelled by a treaty with Serbia, Russia mobilized its army in defense of Serbia. While Russia was an ally of Serbia, also bound by a treaty Germany was an ally of Austria-Hungary. This obligated Germany to mobilize its army in defense of Austria-Hungary. Britain and France also entered the war bound by treaty as an ally of Russia (The Causes of World War I, 2009). Hence, the domino effect of one country leading the other to enter the war. Throughout the first three years of the war America remained a neutral country. They were not bound by any treaties to ally themselves to fight for either side in the war. The war in Europe was at an impasse and both sides realized that in order to win the war they needed to submit the other to starvation (Schultz, 2012). The economies of the countries at war in Europe were quickly in ruins and they looked to the United States for supplies...
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...America and World War I Jeff Clark HIS/125 5/12/13 Michele Riley When war erupted in 1914, the United States attempted to remain neutral and was a proponent for the rights of neutral states. Isolationist foreign policy was encouraged by Congress's apprehensions about giving other countries a political door into US policies and the cultural melting pot of the United States' population. In spite of these factors, the United States did enter World War I, as a result of several events. In an attempt by both the allied and the central powers to involve the Americans, the US was heavily saturated with propaganda. Much of the material had a Pro-British slant which was aided by the connection to Britain as a "cultural brother" and the United States' concern with affairs in Western Europe. While propaganda sympathetic to Germany did also exist, it did not carry much weight with the American public. Germany was seen by most Americans as a dangerous monarchy with autocratic militarist thinking, including a hidden agenda to undermine democracy and US power. There were allegations of industrial sabotage, poisoning water supplies, kidnapping individuals, and engaging in espionage within American labor unions by Germans to keep the United States busy on the home front. These rumors, along with extensive submarine warfare, added to the distrust of the Germans. The US fought many battles but the second battle of Marne seems to have been the one that led to the demise of Germany...
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...World War I affected the nation in many aspects; however, the most evident were the economic and social aspects. In the early 1910’s the US was experiencing a recession that was quickly ended by World War I. The Great War increased the demand for production, thus creating jobs. WWI made it socially acceptable for women to join the work force as there was a demand for workers. Another social aspect that was impacted by WWI would be the African Americans and their attempt to obtain more equal rights by joining the war. World War I can be considered to be a total war as it included the entire society. In this case, it includes women, African Americans, and the entire US economy. As a result of the war, there was a great demand for the production of military supplies. However, the men would be drafted to the war. 3 million men were drafted into the army under the Selective Service Act and another 2 million joined various branches of the armed services voluntarily. This created job opportunities for women as the men were absent as a result of the war. Women took advantage of the industries’ great demand for workers to occupy the role of men in the workplace. Therefore, women demanded to be paid the same as a man would and demanded to have 8 hour days with the opportunity to get overtime. Women working in factories and other industries where only men would work, gradually became more socially acceptable. Women taking over the job industry was not only socially acceptable during...
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...World War I Bill Johnson DeVry University Professor Kevin Muir DeVry University June 22nd, 2014 World War I 1914-1918 will be dates forever ingrained into the history of the world. These dates bring about and highlight the human thirst for expansion, oppression, and war. These four years of time depict a flaw in human nature that goes against all common sense in the belief in peace. This is proven in the fact that humans have given identity to the event that took place as “The Great War”, a global conflict that saw the death of millions of combatants and still one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Nationalism, Imperialism, and Militarism are the forces that drove nations to this conflict, coupled with depression, oppression, and expansionism. The great economic powers of the world were assembled into two opposing alliances, one dubbed the Allies and one called the Central Powers none of which included the United States initially. World War I saw a resurgence of imperialism and this was the underlying cause and what eventually saw the United States, Japan side with its economic partners and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria join the Central Powers. The immediate spark that lit the flames of World War I was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo (Mitrovic, 2007). Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his death set off a diplomatic crisis as an ultimatum was delivered...
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...America's Involvement in World War I Jeremiah Wryals HIS/125 10/14/2012 Shane Oldenburg America's Involvement in World War I Although World War one began in 1914 and ended in 1918, the United States remained neutral for a majority of the war and did not begin to get involved until 1915.Most Americans were shocked by the rivalries and alliances that had caused the war and in disbelief over the amount of death and destruction in France. European emigrants still felt strong ties to their homeland and were conflicted with how they felt about the war. However, industrial leaders and politicians were Anglophiles, or persons who greatly admire England or things that are English(Merriam-Webster.com), instinctively had pro-British feelings toward the war. Before 1915, President Wilson urged American citizens to remain “impartial in thought as well as action”(Shultz p. 360 HIST 2, Volume 2). President Wilson had no intention of getting involved in the feud between the Allied and Central Powers, a stand that eventually got him reelected into office because “He Kept Us Out Of War”. However, despite President Wilson’s best intentions, the promise of making money slowly started pulling the United States into the war. With both the Allied and German forces’ economies in the pits, each side began to look to the United States for supplies; otherwise both sides would have starved to death. By 1915, the economic incentive to trade with them began to prove irresistible. The willingness...
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...World War 1 was called “The Great War”, “The war to end all wars”, and “The first modern war”. It had many causes and a few repercussions and I will describe them in detail. The most widely known reason for the start of World War1 was the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinad of Austria-Hungary in the Serbian capital of Sarajevo. The ArchDuke was there to talk to the Serbian leaders about peace in the Balkan Peninsula. After a Serbian was arrested for the assassination Austria-Hungary pulled out of the peace talks and declared war on Serbia. Germany who was allied with Austria-Hungary also declared war on Serbia. Russia who was allied with Serbia had to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. When Germany invaded France and Belgium, Great Britain declared war on Germany. World War 1 had begun. As the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg said, “Once the dice are cast nothing can stop them.” Indeed once the dice were cast on World War 1 nothing stopped them until 22 million people had died. Besides the assassination of the archduke there were four other reasons for the start of WW1. 1. Militarism- the building of large armies. All the nations in Europe at that time were engaged in what today could only be called an arms race. As soon as one nation built a new weapon, all the others followed suit. 2. Alliance System- The building of alliances to strengthen the borders of a country. In theses alliances if one country went to war all the other countries...
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...America’s Entry into World War I Abandoning the traditional isolationist foreign policy initiated by the founding fathers, the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917. Despite President Woodrow Wilson’s intent to remain neutral, the central theme of his re-election campaign, a series of events practically coerced American entry into the Great War. Speculation surrounds exactly which event served as the catalyst for military mobilization, with many historians pointing towards the German sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania. While the Lusitania sinking provided pro-ally propaganda, and temporarily soured relations with Germany, several other events actually facilitated the road to war for the U.S. Prior to American entry to World War I, the overwhelming sentiment was one of neutrality. With immigration on the rise, one out of every eleven Americans was German, or approximately 27% of the population, making German the largest ethnic group in America. The American economy grew early on in the war. War materials sold to the Allies, particularly Britain and France, provided a huge boon to the economy as Britain alone spent approximately $10 million per day in the states. Relations and popular opinion quickly changed however, as Germany initiated unrestricted submarine warfare on all shipping vessels around Britain, triggering President Woodrow Wilson to cease bi-lateral relations with Germany in February 1917. This was not the first time relations degraded between the...
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...Most major countries in Europe had been getting ready for war since 1870. German kingdoms united and became the largest power on the continent. Russia tried to align with Great Britain and France for protection. Great Britain tried to remain neutral but that just wasn’t possible. When war did erupt in 1914, it quickly escalated into the most deadly war the world had ever seen. Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and the Ottoman Turks untied to form the Central powers, while Great Britain, France and Russia formed the Entente powers. Although everyone in the US was in agreement to stay neutral through this war, Wilson soon realized that Germany’s U-boar campaign escalated the war to a new level. He pushed for mediation and settlement. He sent Colonel Edward House to England, France and Germany to propose a peace settlement in 1915, but no one was ready to listen. In May of 1915, 120 Americans were lost when Germany destroyed the British ocean liner Lusitania. Wilson, trying to remain out of the conflict asked Germany to end their attacks on non-shipping vessels. Within months of the destruction of Lusitania, another British liner the Arabic was sunk by a u-boat torpedo. Wilson again tried to reason with Germany. In early 1917, Germany announced that they would attack all vessels in waters around Europe regardless of purpose, nationality, or destination. Wilson is finally done talking and ended all diplomatic relations with Germany. What put the icing on the cake was when the US intercepted...
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...In the end, no one was singing. World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Eventually, armies all across Europe were fighting which resulted in over 10 million deaths. What were the not-so-obvious causes of the war? Three underlying causes of World War I were the alliance system with Europe, buildup of military, and competition for colonies. One underlying cause of World War I was Europe’s alliance system. Europe became divided into the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia, and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (Doc B). Due to the alliances, as one nation joined war, a chain reaction began and the war became larger and larger (Doc A). Each of...
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...During the pre-war period, there was controversy between many countries in Europe. Whether it was because of nationalism, militarism, alliances or imperialism, there were many problems between several nations. Although the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the main underlying causes of World War I which led to the uprising of many other events, there was much more to it, that led up to it. All the causes of World War I were all associated with each other, it they were all very different. For example, imperialism was pushed by nationalism due to the layalty of ones country, but they are both very different in how they cause World War I. The main three causes of World War I was imperialism, alliances and nationalism. Imperialism...
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...The use of horses in World War I marked a transitional period in the evolution of armed conflict. Cavalry units were initially considered essential offensive elements of a military force, but over the course of the war, the vulnerability of horses to modern machine gun and artillery fire reduced their utility on the battlefield. This paralleled the development of tanks, which would ultimately replace cavalry in shock tactics. While the perceived value of the horse in war changed dramatically, horses still played a significant role throughout the war. All of the major combatants in World War I (1914–1918) began the conflict with cavalry forces. Germany stopped using them on the Western Front soon after the war began. They continued to be deployed...
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...One of the major themes portrayed in literature following World War I was the realization that a difference existed between ideas and reality. The public had preconceived ideas about the superiority of their country and that battle would bring honor to oneself. The communication systems in place at the time could be prone to error or intervention from outside influences. In addition, staff officers lacked sufficient battle experience or enemy intelligence to plan battles that their troops were capable of meeting the promised outcome. These situations are the foundation for the perception that the public held about the concept of war that differed from what the young men on the front actually faced. Prior to World War I, the Napoleonic Wars took place almost 100 years prior from 1792 to 1815. Only stories existed about the horrors of battle with those who fought long dead. Without an oral history of what the troops experienced on the battled field the public perceived service and death in combat as the ultimate sacrifice to support ones county. This also dovetailed into the perception that society was only going to get better with the improvement in science and technology (Meyers). In Rupert Brooke’s “Peace” he wrote “And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping” and “Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move” (Brooke). These phrases in his poem established that young men at home were ignorant of what was going on around them and ignoring their duty to country...
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...East but is also a melting pot of different cultures; a place where East meets the West. In the period preceding the First World War, this region was undergoing dramatic changes that eventually went on to impact not just the rest of Europe but the entire world. These developments manifested in the form of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Nationalism in the region. The political landscape was further transformed through Austria’s attempts to secure its imperial integrity and Russia’s evolving ideology of Pan-Slavism and territorial expansion. These developing trends threatened the sustainability of the centuries-old ‘Balance of Power’ in Europe and caused extreme tension and stress in the Balkan region. War seemed inevitable and only a ‘spark’ was required to set off the fuse.1 The dreaded stimulus was soon provided through the assassination of the Austrian Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo in June 1914. The casus belli that the assassination presented Austria was too good to be missed. The prospects of an all-out war also aligned with Germans desire for establishing their military supremacy in the region. Hence they became actively engaged in the ensuing July Crisis and staunchly supported Austria. The Kaiser offered a ‘blank cheque’ to its ally.2 Unbeknown to many, the stage was set for the catastrophic World War 1. Background The Ottoman Empire had progressively conquered the Balkans starting in the fourteenth century leading up to...
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