World War 1 Essay, Research Paper

W.W.I World War I was the first major war that included a country from almost every part of the world. It was the second

bloodiest war second only to W.W.II. The greatest destruction that humankind had ever previously experienced began on a

calm and beautiful August day. It was a senseless slaughter that no nation benefited from. It lasted from 1914-1918. America

was involved from April of 1917 to November of 1918. It ended with the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on November

11 at 11:11 a.m. in 1918. World War I started because of the assassination of Franz Josef Ferdinan and his wife Sophie while

they were in a motorcade in the capitol city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Franz Ferdinan was next in line for the thrown of

Austria-Hungry. Principe, a member of the Black Hand terrorist organization, shot them. Preceding the shot that started the

war, tension was created though out Europe when Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II increased the size of his army. The Kaiser had

a disturbed childhood. He was born with a bad arm that he couldn’t use. Germans valued perfection in humans and it would be

kind of hypocritical for the future leader of Germany to speak of perfection and not be perfect himself. His parents put him

through hell and back trying to fix his arm. Nothing worked and the constant medical experiments on his body left him

messed-up for life. At age 29 Kaiser Wilhelm II became the youngest emperor of Germany. The Kaiser had a personality all to

himself. He knew that he had all the power, and he let everyone know about it. The British Royal Navy had long fascinated

him, and he wanted one for his own. He got his wish and fulfilled his militaristic dream of having a large and powerful military.

The rest of Europe became alarmed at the sudden increase of German military activity. This made every European country look

more closely at Germany in fear that they would try to start something. Another source of tension in Europe was the

disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungry and Russia both wanted to control the disintegrating Ottoman Empire.

With all of this tension already in Europe, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinan was all that was needed to spark the

start of the war. Serbia firmly denied any compensation to Austria for the death of the Archduke, so Austria declared war on

Serbia. Germany was an ally to Austria, and Russia was an ally to Serbia. Because of this connection those two countries,

Germany and Russia entered the war. Germany quickly declared war on Russia and Russia’s ally France. Germany then

brutally invaded the neutral country of Belgium. The invasion of Belgium made Great Britain so mad that they too declared war

on Germany. Europe was now divided into two separate powers, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. The Allies would

eventually consist of Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, in 1915 Italy, and the United States in 1917. The Central Powers

were made up of Germany, Austria-Hungry, Turkey, and in 1915 Bulgaria. The United States followed the Global War Policy

that allowed neutral nations to trade with both sides in a war. President Wilson urged the American people to be neutral in

thought and in deed. This meant that Americans were not supposed to support either side in the war. The United States was

doing business with the Allies and the Central Powers. Germany felt that any ship carrying supplies for the Allies was fair game

to sink. Germany started sinking US supply ships headed for Britain. Wilson cut off all ties with Germany and began viewing

Germany as an outlaw after a U-boat sank the Lusitania. Wilson also found out about a plan that Germany was trying to get

Mexico to enter the war and invade the United States from the south. This was too much for Wilson to ignore and he declared

war. At first when war was declared men lined up at recruiting offices and volunteered to fight. To them war was a noble thing

to do and they were excited to go. Over 130,000 people volunteered, but in the end over 4,000,000 Americans went.

Theodore Roosevelt called the Great War “The Great Adventure.” The first American soldiers to arrive in Europe were young

and inexperienced. The French wanted to put them in the front line right away, but General Pershing insisted that he keep the

US soldiers together as a unit and train them better before they fight. He was afraid that the French would use the

inexperienced Americans as cannon fodder and let them absorb the first wave of an attack. After the US troops got into some

battles they realized that war is everything but exciting and glorious. They were losing friends every day and living around

constant death and destruction. The soldiers vowed that they would go home and tell the truth about war?if they made it home

alive. They found no glory in war; all they found was pain and suffering. World War I was not worth the cost of over

8,000,000 lives. The whole war started over the greed and ignorance of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the assassination of Archduke

Franz Ferdinan. The Kaiser made all of Europe nervous and that started them preparing for war, and once Franz Ferdinan was

killed the war was on. The whole world got involved in a war that should have been fought between two countries. All because

of a bunch of alliances that were meant to protect the countries of Europe.