World War I, the Great War, took place from June 28, 1914 until November 11, 1918. The Great War began after several countries declared war on each other. There were four fronts: Eastern front, Western front, Atlantic front, and Middle Eastern front. All the actions that took place in each front all led to the armistice being signed on the eleventh of November. World War I started as mainly a European conflict seeing as most allies originated from countries in Europe and Europe had most of the power, but in the end it expanded to beyond Europe as outside countries were brought into the conflict for multiple reasons. By tweaking small things along the way, millions of lives could have been spared, but unfortunately were not.
A quick glance
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An obvious example was, in May 1919, a leader of the Germans wrote a letter protesting the accusations from the Versailles Peace Conference. It read, “But we energetically deny that Germany and its people, who were convinced that they fought a war of defense, were alone guilty” (Doc 4). Article 232, aka the “war guilt” clause, placed full blame for the war on Germany. However, in the letter Germany placed blame on Russia and did not accept the allegations towards them. Even though, the article was written from the point of view of Germans, other sources later mentioned, support that it was not just Germany’s fault. The Treaty of Versailles was written by Great Britain, France, and the US. Basically, European countries took turns placing blame on each other. Similar to Germany, during 1919, a Vietnamese nationalist created a petition for the Paris Peace Conference. One wish was, “Article six: Authorization of [free] movement [of Vietnamese] around the world” (Doc 7). Vietnamese constructed these articles, for the Paris Peace Conference, in hopes to gain independence from France. Britain had used its power to manipulate Vietnam during war and furthered their power by declining their freedom. Clearly, Vietnam did not have as big of an influence because their wish was never granted. In corroboration with document four, according to Sidney Bradshaw Fay, the main idea of why World War I started was, “In …show more content…
For instance, in July 1915, the Sherif of Mecca wrote a letter declaring the circumstances for them to join war. The goal was, “to accomplish their freedom [from the Ottomans]” (Doc 2). The Arabs were promised, by Great Britain’s manipulation, to aid in the war in return for freedom. When the war was almost to an end, the Ottomans were defeated in the Middle East. Since Britain had gotten what they wanted, they did not follow up with that promise to the Arabs. Equally important, Zimmerman wrote a letter to send to Mexico, but London intercepted it and decoded it for the US. Germans used submarine warfare to counteract the British mines. Zimmerman wrote, “We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral” (Doc 5). This led to, the sinking of the Lusitania, which upset the Americans (Doc 8). These documents corroborated each other to prove why the US had joined war. Zimmerman’s note and the sinking of the Lusitania were the two main reasons that US joined the Allied Powers. While the intention of Zimmerman’s plan was to keep the US neutral, that did not happen. When the Lusitania sunk with Americans on it, that broke the last straw for Americans. In a similar way, a leader of the In Flanders Fields Museum gave an explanation of the lack of respect Asian and Africans received after participating in World War
World War 1 started in 1914 and went through 4 years and ended in the year 1918. The war started out with an assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Austria then declared war on Serbia and Serbia had Russia as its allies. Russia threatened Austria then Austria told Germany the problem and Germany declared war on Russia and its ally which was France. Germany went into Belgium and then Britain entered the war on the Russian side.
The “Great War” was World War 1 it commenced in 1914 and had a duration of 4 years. Franz Ferdinand’s assestination was what caused the war to commence. Documents 7 and 9 show the alliances in Europe: Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
War broke out in 1914 due to forces that had been building up in Europe for years. While the Allies blamed Germany for the war too harshly, its actions certainly did directly contribute to World War I, as did those of Austria Hungary. However, each country involved fostered militarism in their country, and became in entrenched in the web of alliances and race for imperial power, all causes of the environment that led to the Great War. Therefore, it could be said that all European countries were responsible, in part, for World War I, as reflected in Documents 5, 6, and 7.
“In Britain and Europe, no event, is less forgotten than World War 1, or ‘The Great War,’ as it was called until 1939” stated by Michael Korda. World War 1 or also known as ‘The Great War’, was an worldwide conflict from 1914 to 1918. A big cause for the war was imperialism. The war was fought between the Central powers ( Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey) and the Allied cause (France, Great Britain, and later U.S.) U.S. remained neutral and sold goods to both sides until 1917, U.S. then later declared war on Germany for many reasons. The contributions from U.S. to the Allied Cause helped turn the course of the war.
One example is when America and Britain had conflicts. Britain, in refusal to show respect for America, began impressing American soldiers and keeping trade posts, as shown in the Map of American Posts Held By British After 1783, on American territory. Jay’s Treaty was a feeble attempt at resolving British-American relations, but it did not stop the British or help America a significant amount. This is shown in James Madison’s Criticism of Jay’s Treaty where he criticised Jay’s Treaty for pandering too much to the British and not standing up for America. In addition, during Adams's presidency there was an undeclared naval war between America and France.
Of course, every country who participated in the war had some sort of reason. Although it wasn’t a single country
America wanted neutrality to keep its citizens safe against unlawful violence but soon realized that neutrality was unrealistic after German submarines attacked other nation’s ships and did not allow neutrals to carry munitions across the seas. It was certain that American citizens’ rights would not be ignored or
If the U.S. was truly neutral, they would not have interfered in war with the accomodations relating to their connections with Britain. The Zimmerman Note, large amounts of exports and loans to the allied powers, and Woodrow Wilson’s War Message, all present evidence surrounding the United States not acting like the neutral country they claimed to be, ultimately leading to the United States being forced to enter World War I.
Causes of World War I World War I was the bar fight of all bar fights and was expected to end quickly. Unfortunately, the treacherous battle field held soldier's longer than expected. At first, Europe had been flourishing with colonies worldwide and had developed in technology greatly.
Some of those reasons include alliances, militarism, and imperialism. Alliances was one of the underlying causes of this war. Alliances are agreements between countries stating that they’ll help each other in time of need. For example, as shown in document A, the United Kingdom, France, and Russia all had an alliance with each other called the “triple entente”.
These events led to the shift in opinion of The United States. At the beginning of World War I, The United States declared their position as neutral. In Woodrow Wilson’s Address to Congress, he said, “The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as name, during these days that are to try men’s souls” (“Declaration”).
Altogether, the US needed to secure its nation due to many threats across the world. During war, many things occurred and happened. Germany created some strategy against the United States, which was revealed in the
‘The First World War was the result of a series of unintended consequences.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?’ ‘The First World War was the result of a series of unintended consequences.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement?’ ‘The First World War was the result of a series of unintended consequences.’
There are a a lot of events that led to the beginning of World War II. But, a lot of the events leading to World War II were a direct result due to World War I. One event leading to World War II started with Hitler rising to power in the 1930s, as he was trying to rebuild Germany. As Germany, was crippled due to World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was crippled due to World War I and the Treaty of Versailles because Germany lost the war, had to take responsibility, and pay a large amount of money. This caused Germany to be in a turmoil.
The First World War was fought between the Central Powers (Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria) and the Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy). The aim of the war was to set the world back in order and to prevent war in future It was a standout amongst the most dangerous wars in present day history. About ten million soldiers died of the conflict as a result of hostilities. The huge losses on all sides of the contention brought about to part from the presentation of new weapons, similar to the automatic rifle and gas warfare, and the disappointment of military pioneers to modify their strategies to the undeniably mechanised nature of fighting.