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World War I

The Basics - The following information has been on New York examinations

• The Causes of World War I
  

  1. Nationalism - The destructive belief that your country is superior to all others. Almost all European countries deemed themselves better than others.
     

  2. Imperialism - The belief that you can gain power by controlling foriegn lands. Many European countries directly competed with each other to gain trade partners and colonies around the world, especially in Asia and Africa.
     

  3. Militarism - Many European countries, especially Britain, Germany, and Russia, were building up their armies and military technologies to win battles should fights break out.
     

  4. Secret Alliances - Almost all European countries enetered into secret allinces to protect themselves should war break out. This required a country to join in battle if any of her allies were engaged in battle. There were two major alliances. The Central Powers were Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany. The Allied Powers were France, Britain, Russia, and Serbia.
     

  5. Shooting of the Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary - The Serbians and Slavs in Austria-Hungary conspired to kill this heir to the throne in Austria-Hungary. The assassination set off a war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, that, because of secret alliances, would have almost every country in Europe at war soon after.
     

• Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, won the Presidency by promising the U.S. would stay out of the war in Europe. However, after the sinking of the Luisitania with Americans on board and the interception Zimmerman Telegram (urgung Mexico to attack the U.S. supported by Germna supplies and money), Wilson led the U.S. into war, hoping to help the Allies (Britain and France) against the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Towards the end of the war, he planned to have his "14 Points" carried out to prevent future conflict. However, the U.S. Congress did not support mant things in Wilson's plan because it would require the U.S. to take a larger role in international events. At the close of the war, the U.S. wanted to become isolationist instead.

• The war saw new technologies, such as machine guns, chemical weapons (gas), tanks, and submarines. On the Western Front (between France and Germany), men fought in trenches. Trench warfare required the soldiers to be underground for weeks or months on end. The trenches were cold, wet and dirty and led to boredom and disease.

• Wilson hoped to create an international body to moderate behaovior of nations. The League of Nations was created, but it didn't work for the same reason that the Articles of Confederation failed - it could make laws, but had no executive power to enforce them. Also, the United States refused to join because of the desire to again pursue isolation.