Militarism and Alliances - Madison

              The roots of the issues that caused World War I started back in the 1860s, while America was stuck in the Civil War.  Prussia, the German kingdom, won a series of wars to gain more land and support, and by 1871 it had reunited all of the Germany puzzle pieces to form the German Empire.  During these wars, Prussia attacked and defeated France, and they became indignant enemies.  From this mutual hatred, two alliances arose: the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance.  The Triple Alliance was composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.  The Franco-Russian Alliance was between France and Russia.  Later, it added Great Britain and turned into the Triple Entente. 

                In Europe, militarism was expanding exponentially throughout its countries.  This caused the countries to be wary of each other and they continued to increase their militarism for protection.  Germany began to construct a strong Navy to intimidate the British, and the tension between them grew when they started to compete in building warships.  Great Britain joined France and Russia in their alliance because they were threatened by Germany.

Imperialism and Nationalism - Isaac

          Nationalism is the respect and pride of one’s country, and in Europe, it had become a powerful idea that contributed to the causes of World War I.  Those countries had become so arrogant that they never stopped competing with each other and they thought that they were entitled to expand their borders without caring about the other countries.  Imperialism was also increasing, which is the belief that a country can become more powerful and influential by spreading their rule across other countries.  This contrast caused Europe to slowly lack order.  Many different groups fought for independence, like the Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and Slovenes, but other countries wanted to add other nations to their growing empire, like Austria-Hungary. 

A Terrorist Attack Brings War - Jenn

               

               The tension between the European countries grew, and the trigger that caused them to snap was an assassination. In the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were shot to death by a man named Gavrilo Princip.  Princip was a member of the Black Hand, a revolutionary Serbian nationalist group who purposefully wanted to start a war with the Austria-Hungarian Empire. 

                Austria-Hungary was furious and decided to attempt to punish the Serbians, just like they had planned.  It became even more serious when Austria-Hungary utilized their alliance with Germany for backup and necessary precautions in the war to come. The Serbians recruited the Russians, and the Russians were sure to count on the French.  In the matter of a couple days, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary made the first move in declaring war on Serbia.  Russia immediately responded and sent their troops over, also surrounding the eastern Germany border simultaneously.  The anxious Germans immediately retaliated by declaring war on Russia, and not even two days later it began to commence war with France. 

                Germany had finally got what it wanted: a chance to win a war and claim more territory and authority.  They were ultimately too arrogant to see the flaws in their plan though.  The German troops had to travel though Belgium in order to get to France, but Belgium happened to be a neutral territory aided by the British.  This caused Great Britain to join the war.  Then, much faster than Germany had expected, Russia invaded their land.  Germany had to bring some troops back from the battle with France and have them ward off the Russians.  This was to the Allies’s (France, Russia, Great Britain, and soon Italy) advantage because they would get to fight a two-front war.  The Battle of Marne stopped the German’s further invasion into France, but locked them in a stalemate with the French.  However, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) persevered on the eastern front and were successfully able to invade Russia.  

The Americans Take Sides - Maija

             The President repeatedly stressed to Americans about not taking sides during the war. The U.S. had 8 million German Americans and 4.5 million Irish Americans. Many of the German Americans sided with Germany because it was their homeland and there was a possibility that they had family and friends remaining in Germany. Many of the Irish Americans sympathized with Central Powers. A vast majority of Americans valued the heritage, language, and political ideals Britain shared with them. Others came to value the link America had created with France during the Revolutionary War.

           The U.S. remained neutral for more than two years. In 1915 Carrie Chapman Catt and Jane Adams (both leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement) created the women’s peace party. They worked alongside the League of Limit Armament to keep America out of the war by telling the President not to build up the military.

Organizing the Economy - Madison

               To manage the economy during World War I, Congress founded many new agencies to promote effective relationships between the federal government and America’s private corporations.  The War Industries Board was made in July 1917 to control the distribution of resources, construct more factories, and tell the factories what they should manufacture.  To make sure that the troops would receive plenty of food without the expense of the civilian’s starvation, the Food Administration was developed.   Daylight savings time was introduced to conserve the energy of the working factories, which was one of the goals of the Fuel Administration.  Even after Congress’s implementation of taxes and the government’s use of bonds, the U.S. still lost around $32 billion by the end of the war.

                The National War Labor Board was established in March 1918 to prevent worker strikes and involve more people in the workforce.  Factories and other workplaces began to hire women, and African Americans started to move north for work.  The Mexicans wanted to obtain more jobs, so they migrated north too to help extinguish the employee shortage.  To keep people supporting the war efforts, the Committee on Public Information advertised excessively for their noble cause.  The Espionage Act and Sedition Act were passed to prohibit people from stealing government information to aid the enemy and state your opposition to the war publicly.  

Building the Military - Isaac

                At the beginning of the war, America only had a total of 300,000 soldiers, so they had to find new ways to recruit more people.  The selective service was created to draft men into the Army since most people wouldn’t volunteer.  Progressives weren’t very fond of this idea, but they didn’t have a choice.  There were around 2.8 million people drafted, and they were chosen by a random lottery.

Approximately 2 million citizens were brave enough to volunteer, mainly because they thought it was their duty to stand up for their country and protect their democracy.  As you can see though, many more people were drafted instead.  It was understandable because so many people were afrais of the war; afterwards, 50,000 had died and 200,000 were wounded from their efforts.  African Americans and women also took part in the war.  The African Americans still were discriminated against and were sent to aid the French, and they eventually proved themselves as worthy soldiers.  Women were often recruited to be nurses, and about 20,000 nurses were a part of the Army Nursing Corps.

A Bloody Conflict - Jenn

              

              During World War I, artillery fire caused major destruction and was the cause of death for thousands.  A network of trenches was dug so that the troops had a way to avoid the rapid-fire bullets.  Poison gas was also concocted and used successfully by the Germans.  The British were quick to react with their new prototype of a tank.  These tanks were unreliable and only served the purpose of shielding its passengers and busting through barbed wire.  On all sides, aircraft became a popular weapon to effectively drop bombs onto the enemies.

                Around two million “doughboys” fought for America, inexperienced and giddy.  Americans sailed across the seas in groups called convoys, which transported the troops to Europe.  The war started to heat up and the Russians broke out in riots because of the war’s impact on the government and society.  Czar Nicholas II abdicated his throne and kick-started the Russian Revolution.  Russians were soon under the authority of a Communist government after Vladmir Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks, took office.  Another substantial change that Russia faced was the loss of a large expanse of territory with Lenin’s signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. 

                After the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the Americans punctured through Germany’s defense and caused them to retreat.  The Austria-Hungarian Empire began to break apart into separate countries and Germany experienced changes too when Emperor Kaiser resigned.  Germany became a republic and signed an armistice on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918.  Later, the Big Four (Wilson, George, Clemenceau, and Orlando) would come together to help form the Treaty of Versailles.  President Wilson proposed his Fourteen Points, which would be the basis of how the League of Nations was born.  His Fourteen Points were accepted, but America’s senate refused to sign the treaty because they thought this League of Nations would go against the Founding Father’s ideals.