US History after 1877

Name Course Instructor Date World War I The war happened between July 28, 1914, and November 11, 1918. It was initially known as the Great War during the early times since massive damages happened during the war and affected people in many negative ways. Only when the world went to war again in the 1930s and '40s did the earlier conflict became to be known as the First World War. Its casualty totals were unprecedented, soaring into the millions. The war was recognized by the extensive system of trenches from which men from both sides fought. Lethal new technologies were released, and for the first time, a major war was fought not only on land and sea but below the sea and in the skies as well. The two sides were known as the Allies or Entente consisting primarily of France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and later the United States and the Central Powers, mostly composed of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburg Empire), Germany, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Many smaller countries aligned themselves with one side or the other. In the region of Pacific Japan, finding an opportunity to seize German colonies, threw in with the Allies. The Allies were the victors, as the entry of the United States into the war in 1917 aided a lot in the war. The war resulted in a dramatically changed geopolitical landscape, including the destruction of three empires: Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and the Russian. New borders were taken at its end and resentments, especially on the part of Germany, left festering in Europe. Ironically, decisions made after the fighting ceased led to the end of the war to be a significant cause of the Second World War. This paper will focus on the unfolding events that led to the start of the world war one, its development, the American involvement, solutions and challenges to the end of the war (Gould 165). Events That Resulted In the War Many factors contributed to the start of the war: • Fear of losing economic and diplomatic status. • Long-standing ethnic variations and rising nationalism in the Balkans. • The influence exerted by military leaders. • Concern over other countries' military expansion, leading to an arms race and entangling alliances. • French resentment of territorial losses in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War Following their 1871 victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the German states unified into a single state. Its leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II, best grandson of Britain's Queen Victorian Navy that rivaled Great Britain's vast and renowned fleet. It would increase German influence in the world and likely allow the country to expand its colonial holdings. Britain, fearful of losing its dominance of the seas, accelerated its naval design and construction to stay ahead of the Kaiser's shipbuilding program (Leary 69). Russia was rebuilding and modernizing his vast army and had initiated a program of industrialization. Germany and Austria-Hungary saw the danger fixed by the large Russian population and, hence, its ability to increase a massive army. They made a coalition for self-protection against the Russian bear. France, still stinging from the loss of Alsace and part of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian fight, made an agreement allying itself with Russia in any war with Germany or Austria-Hungary. Britain, after participating alone in the Second Boer War in South Africa from 1899 to 1902, allied itself with France and worked to improve relations with the US. Russia, having many ethnic groups inside its vast expanse, made a coalition with Serbia in the Balkans. The old Ottoman Empire was struggling; "The Sick Man of Europe" was the phrase employed to demonstrate the once-powerful state. As its ability to exert control over its holdings in the Balkans made them be weak, ethnic and regional groups broke away and formed new states. Rising nationalism led to the First and Second Balkan fights in 1912 and 1913. Following those wars, Serbia increased its size and started forcing for a union of all South Slavic peoples. Serbian nationalism led 19-year-old Gavriel Principal to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Habsburg throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Sophie. Austria-Hungary urged on by Germany, sent a list of demands to Serbia in response; the requirements were such that Serbia was confident to reject them. When it did, the Habsburg Empire declared a fight on Serbia on July 28, exactly one month after the archduke was assassinated. Russia supported the Serbs, Germany on the edge of the Habsburgs, and the puzzling alliances involving the nations of Europe pulled one after another into the war. The diplomats throughout Europe strove to settle matters without warfare right up to the time the shooting started; the influence military leaders enjoyed in many nations won out along with desires to capture new lands or reclaim old ones (Kingseed 25). America Joins the War America was taken into the conflict by the Zimmerman telegraph and unbounded submarine warfare. On January 16, 1917, Foreign Secretary of the German Empire Arthur Zimmerman sent a coded information to the ambassador of German in the city of Mexico, Heinrich von Eckart telling him Germany would be back to unlimited submarine warfare on February 1, a policy that might cause America to declare war. Zimmerman wrote, but if those efforts did not succeed, Eckart was to sway Mexico to become Germany's ally. As an inducement, Eckart was allowed to giv...