Overview
The
war of 1914-1918, called The Great War by contemporaries and later
named World War I, began with the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand (heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne) by a Serbian
nationalist in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Historians are still
debating the underlying causes: the desire for greater empire,
wealth and territory; a massive arms race; the series of treaties
which ensured that once one power went to war, all of Europe would
quickly follow. True to the military alliances, Europe's
powers quickly drew up sides after the assassination. The allies,
chiefly Russia, France and Britain, were pitted against the Central
Powers, primarily Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey.
Eventually the war spread beyond Europe as the continent turned to
its colonies and friends for help. This included the United States,
which joined the War in 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson called on
Americans to "make the world safe for democracy." Many
believed the war would be over by Christmas 1914. But by the
end of the first year, a new kind of war emerged on the battlefield:
horrible trench war producing stalemate. It continued for 1,500 days.
By the time the official Armistice was declared on November 11,
1918, nine million soldiers had died on the battlefield.
United
States Participation
From the beginning of the war in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the United
States could maintain profitable trade with the belligerent powers,
especially Britain, without being sucked in. Between
1914 and 1916, American merchants provided over $8 billion in
supplies and loans to the Allies. The Germans repeatedly
provoked the United States by sinking British ships that carried
American citizens and American cargoes. The
Lusitania,
sunk on May 7, 1915, is probably the most famous example.
Wilson nevertheless held to American neutrality, consistent with
public opinion and the will of Congress. Wilson demanded an
apology and reparations, but he insisted, "There is such a thing as
a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a
nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by
force that it is right." (Critics such as former president
Theodore Roosevelt seethed at Wilson's "cowardice and weakness.")
Wilson was reelected in 1916 on the campaign slogan, "Wilson: He
Kept Us Out of War." But in
1917 unrestricted German U-boat attacks and a German proposal to
Mexico (the Zimmermann note) provoked Wilson into a war he did not
want to fight. Once in it, however, he urged the United States
to "make the world safe for Democracy" and by 1918, five million
American men were in uniform. The presence of American troops
in France made the difference. The German army saw it could
not win the war, and thousands surrendered on the western front.
The German Kaiser abdicated on November 9 and fled to Holland on
November 10. The Armistice ending the Great War was signed the
next day.
Despite the military victory and hope
for a lasting peace, Americans recoiled from internationalism.
The United States Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles mainly
because of reservations about the League of Nations. |
