Causes, U.S. involvement & Weaponry
Nationalism Imperialism Militarism Alliance building Errors of Kaiser Wilhelm II Assassination of Franz Ferdinand & wife
1. Feelings of superiority sparked nationalism and competition among Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary for power over natural resources, trade markets and territories (WWI lecture, slide 4). 2. Feelings of superiority also caused imperialistic Europe to vie for territories in Asia and Africa, and would cause hatred and distrust for one another (WWI lecture, slide 5). 3. Neighboring European nations began an arms race in the 1890’s (militarism), building and preparing large militaries for war that might happen someday. This caused further feelings of distrust for neighboring nations. 4. Initially, an alliance (Triple Alliance) was formed by Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary in hopes of maintaining long-lasting peace in Europe (WWI lecture, slide 6). Great Britain, France and Russia would come to form the alliance called the Triple Entente in response to Germany’s advances and tactics against the three. “But in their effort to prevent war through a balance of power, Europeans had actually magnified the possibility of large-scale conflicts . . . (Roark, et al., 2012; 715).” 5. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany made two errors: a. He let his alliance with Russia lapse, causing Russia to align itself with France, whom Germany was against. b. He challenged Great Britain to a naval arms race.
6. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungary, and his wife were assassinated in Serbia, eventually causing the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente to declare war on each other one month after the assassination (WWI lecture, slide 9).
From neutrality to full involvement
President Woodrow Wilson would make the claim for all Americans that “the war was purely a European matter (Roark, et al, 2012; 715)” and America would be neutral in “thought as well as action (WWI, lecture week 3; slide 11).”
Despite taking a neutral stance, America would be more than happy to supply war goods and loans to the allied forces.
Semi-neutrality would continue from the start of the war in 1914, through early 1917, but one event would cause even Wilson to rethink his neutrality claim to the war.
On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat sank the “passenger liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers (Roark, et al, 2012; 716)” including 128 American citizens.
Despite many attempts by Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing to broker peace between the warring Europeans, the persistence of the Germans in sinking several more ships, killing more Americans, would eventually cause the U.S. to be more than product supplier to Britain, France and Russia.
On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany and its allies. Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration on April 6.
The U.S. would begin preparing for war entry by: approving the “Selective Service Act (Roark, et al, 2012; 718)” to draft “all young men into the armed forces” a large scale public relations campaign to educate Americans on war support and garner patriotism training troops and troop support personnel building up armaments for our own troops passing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution to rally war support from women Create the War Industries Board that had power to “allocate raw materials, tell manufactures what to produce, order construction of new plants, and with the approval of the president, fix prices (WWI lecture, week 3; slide 28)”
During 1917, the U.S. sent small numbers of troops to Europe until October, when the French begged the U.S. to send more troops to aid the war weary allies to the U.S.
The U.S. continued to supply small numbers of troops until Spring of 1918, when the Germans “launched a massive offensive aimed at the French (Roark, et al, 2012; 721) and the American troops were called to relieve the French by Major Pershing.
American soldiers fought battles at Cantigny, Belleau Wood, St. Mihiel and in the Argonne Forest from May to November 1918.
The American presence finally convinced the Germans that the war could not be won because of the number of natural and human resources that America still had.
On November 11, 1918 the “war to end all wars” ended with the signing of an armistice . . .
But Not Before . . .
Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points were delivered to Congress in January 1918. The points were made up of rules that Wilson hoped the major world leaders would adopt to become “peace-loving nations (Roark, et al., 2012; 731)” and form “a League of Nations” that would serve as an intermediating agency to prevent future wars.
While the “citizens of the U.S. and of every Allied country greeted the Fourteen Points enthusiastically,” at the Paris Peace Conference, the leaders of the Allies would amend the Fourteen Points so much that Wilson was not present during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
Opponents to Wilson’s Fourteen Points forced Congress to ratify of the Treaty of Versailles, which established the League of Nations.
Even though Wilson “received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1920 for his central role in creating the League of Nations, the United States never became a member (Roark, et al., 2012; 735).”
Poison Gas &Chemical Warfare
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From this point on . . . Two of the many changes in warfare technology
Helicopters
“It was the first war to use helicopters (Ace, 2010; min. 3:57).” “ . . . the helicopter became largely a rescue aircraft, able to take off and land in restricted areas and to hover at sea. With the onset of conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, the military used the helicopter extensively as a troop carrier, gunship, and medical evacuation vehicle. Today, the military, together with civilian rescue teams, remain the prime customers for helicopter sales (DeLuca, R., n.d.).”
WWI
NOW
WWI is the first war in which poison gas and chemical warfare was used in large scale. “At the second battle of Ypres, the Germans introduced poison gas to warfare. Soon both sides used chemical weapons like chlorine which suffocated its victims or mustard gas that burned the skin and blinded its casualties (Bowen, M., 2009; min.2:28).”
lead to the Holocaust. lead to use of nuclear bombs. lead to military “need” for human testing of chemical war weapons. lead to use of Agent Orange. lead to modern-day fear of weapons of mass destruction.
A clipping from a local paper about my father.
“Once lead this people into war, and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will infect Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man on the street� Woodrow Wilson, as quoted in Roark, et al, 2012; 718. "Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, as well as famines. But this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come." Mark 13:8
Ace. (2010). Technology of World War I [online video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCRRS_MqcVQ.
Bowen, M. (2009). Trench Warfare and Weapons of WWI [online video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUCaqptNqKM#t=163.
DeLuca, R. (n.d.). Igor Sikorsky and his flying machines. Connecticut History: a Connecticut humanities program. Retrieved from http://connecticuthistory.org/igor-sikorsky-and-his-flying-machines/.
Roark, James L. The American promise : a history of the United States. Boston New York: Bedford/St.Martins, 2012. Print.
WWI. (n.d.). [PowerPoint lecture, week 3, History of the U.S. Since Civil War, California Baptist University]. Retrieved from calbaptist.blackboard.com/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_
group_id=_2_ 1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3 DCourse%26id%3D_41060_1%26url%3D.
Images: Google Images and personal file.