World War 1

The assassination of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the catalyst for WW1. Instigation of allies disseminated the spread of the conflict to other areas of the world. The great power struggle of the Triple Entente (British Empire, France and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) assured it would take a place in history as “one of the deadliest conflicts” . (Wikipedia, 2009) WW1 aka War to End all Wars lived up to this alternate name.

Battles ensued in Germany, Africa, the Western Front and Asia. Troops were impeded by the tools of war (barbed wire, deadly artillery, machine guns and poison gas). In an effort to get out of the trenches the ‘Race to the Sea’ began in hopes of naval victories. This modality by the British fleet proved effective in cutting Germany off from not only military supplies but civilian supplies as well. The Germans countered with u-boats (submarines) which eventually culminated in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. The United States (US) protested the sinking of this passenger ship. The Germans fearing US involvement embarked on unlimited u-boat activity in an effort to keep the American army at bay by cutting off the water passage ways. Their fears came to fruition when the US broke its isolationism policy and declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The entry of US troops initiated the turning of the tide in WW1. Blimps were instituted as patrols for the German u-boats. As the battles became more decisive and Germany realized they could not win they still wanted to be seen as victorious regardless of these facts. So they resisted signing agreements that implied the truth. (Wikipedia, 2009)

The informal end of WW1 was reached with the signing of the Armistice with Germany in the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’ 1918 (November 11, 1918). (Wikipedia, 2009) The Treaty of Versailles was the official end of the war on June 28, 1919 with Germany made to own accountability for the start of the war. The League of Nations was born during this treaty in an effort to prevent further world conflicts. (Jones et al., 2008)

References

Jones, J., Wood, P.H., Bortelsmann, T., May, E. T., & Ruiz, V.L. (2007). Created Equal (Vol. 2,

2nd ed., New York, Pearson Education.

WWI. (2009, July 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:42, July 19, 2009

from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_I&oldid=302908058