Instituto de Enseñanza Superior San Miguel

Estudios socioculturales y literarios de pueblos de habla inglesa

Prof. Rosana Manca

WORLD WAR I
World War I is also known as the First World War or the Great War. It was
a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28th July 1914 to 11th November 1918.
Contemporaneously described as, "the war to end all wars,"] it led to the mobilisation of
more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of
the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an
estimated 9 million combatants and 7 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war,
while resulting genocides and the resulting 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to
100 million deaths worldwide.
CAUSES
On June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav
nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis. In response, on 23rd July,
Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the
Austrians, and the two moved to a war footing.
A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in
the Balkans to one involving most of Europe. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe
were divided into two coalitions:

● The Triple Entente consisting of France, Russia, and Britain. (The Allied Powers)
● The Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. (The Central
Powers)

Declaring war
Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-Hungary shelled the
Serbian capital of Belgrade, it approved partial mobilisation. Full Russian mobilisation was
announced on the evening of 30th July; on the 31st, Austria-Hungary and Germany did the
same, while Germany demanded Russia demobilise within twelve hours. When Russia
failed to comply, Germany declared war on Russia on 1st August in support of
Austria-Hungary, with Austria-Hungary following suit on the 6th; France ordered full
mobilisation in support of Russia on 2nd August.
German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to rapidly
concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within six weeks, then shift
forces to the East before Russia could fully mobilise. On 2nd August, Germany
demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory
over France. When this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3rd August and
declared war on France the same day; the Belgian government invoked the 1839 Treaty of
London and in compliance with its obligations under this, Britain declared war on Germany
on 4th August. On 12th August, Britain and France also declared war on Austria-Hungary; on
the 23rd, Japan sided with the Entente, seizing German possessions in China and the
Pacific. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance,
opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was
fought in and drew upon each power's colonial empire as well, spreading the conflict
to Africa and across the globe.

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Instituto de Enseñanza Superior San Miguel
Estudios socioculturales y literarios de pueblos de habla inglesa
Prof. Rosana Manca

The Entente and its allies would eventually become known as the Allied Powers,
while the grouping of Austria-Hungary, Germany and their allies would become known as
the Central Powers.
The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the
end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series
of trench lines that changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was marked by
much greater exchanges of territory).
In 1915, Italy joined the Allied Powers and opened a front in the
Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917,
expanding the war in the Balkans. The United States initially remained neutral, though even
while neutral it became an important supplier of war material to the Allies. Eventually, after
the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, the declaration by
Germany that its navy would resume unrestricted attacks on neutral shipping, and the
revelation that Germany was trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States,
the U.S. declared war on Germany on 6th April 1917.
End of the war - Consequences
Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, and Romania joined the Allied Powers in
1916 only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war
until 1918.
The 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with
the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent with the cost of the war led to
the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, and the signing of
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's
involvement in the war.
This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the
Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive. This offensive was initially
successful, but failed to score a decisive victory and exhausted the last of the German
reserves. The Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive, a
continual series of attacks to which the Germans had no reply. Bulgaria was the first
Central Power to sign an armistice. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire signed the
Armistice of Mudros. On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice
of Villa Giusti. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, and the military no longer willing
to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11
November 1918, effectively ending the war.
World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural, economic, and
social climate of the world. It is considered to mark the end of the Second Industrial
Revolution and the Pax Britannica. The war and its immediate aftermath sparked
numerous revolutions and uprisings. Britain, France and the United States imposed their
terms on the defeated powers in a series of treaties agreed at the 1919 Paris Peace
Conference, the most well-known being the German peace treaty—the Treaty of
Versailles. Ultimately, as a result of the war the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and
Russian Empires ceased to exist, with numerous new states created from their remains.
However, despite the conclusive Allied victory (and the creation of the League of
Nations during the Peace Conference, intended to prevent future wars), a second world
war would follow just over twenty years later.

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Instituto de Enseñanza Superior San Miguel
Estudios socioculturales y literarios de pueblos de habla inglesa
Prof. Rosana Manca

AMERICA’S INVOLVEMENT IN WORLD WAR I

The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917,
more than two and a half years after World War I started. A ceasefire
and Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. Before entering
the war, the U.S. had remained neutral, though it had been an
important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers.
The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies,
raw material, and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers arrived
at the rate of 10,000 men a day on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. During the
war the U.S. mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths,
including around 45,000 who died due to the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak. The war
saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war
effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. Armed Forces.
After a relatively slow start in mobilizing the economy and labor force, by spring
1918, the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership
of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it
sought to bring reform and democracy to the world, although there was substantial public
opposition to U.S. entry into the war.
The American entry into World War I came after a year-long effort
by President Woodrow Wilson to get the United States into it. American public opinion
sentiment for neutrality was particularly strong among Irish Americans, German
Americans and Scandinavian Americans,] as well as among church leaders and among
women in general. On the other hand, even before World War I had broken out, American
opinion had been more negative toward Germany than towards any other country in
Europe. Over time, especially after reports of atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and following
the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, the American people increasingly
came to see Germany as the aggressor.
As U.S. President, it was Wilson who made the key policy decisions over foreign
affairs: while the country was at peace, the domestic economy ran on a laissez-faire basis,
with American banks making huge loans to Britain and France — funds that were in large
part used to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic. Until 1917,
Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war and kept the United States Army on a
small peacetime footing, despite increasing demands for enhanced preparedness. He did,
however, expand the United States Navy.
In 1917, with Russia experiencing political upheaval following widespread
disillusionment there over the war, and with Britain and France low on credit, Germany
appeared to have the upper hand in Europe, while the Ottoman Empire clung to its
possessions in the Middle East. In the same year, Germany decided to resume unrestricted
submarine warfare against any vessel approaching British waters; this attempt to starve
Britain into surrender was balanced against the knowledge that it would almost certainly
bring the United States into the war. Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico
regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as
the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British Intelligence. Publication of
that telegram outraged Americans just as German U-boats started sinking American
merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all
wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war
on Germany on April 6, 1917. On December 7, 1917, the U.S. declared
war on Austria-Hungary. U.S. troops began arriving on the Western Front in large numbers
in 1918.