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The Triple Entente, later known as allies, consisted of France, Russia, and Britain.
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Germany and Austria-Hungary, together with the Ottoman Empire; an empire of mostly Middle Eastern lands controlled by the Turks.
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to
the Austrian throne, visited the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. As
the royal entourage drove through the city, Serbian nationalist
Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the
Archduke and his wife Sophie. -
Germany invaded Belgium using a strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan, which called for a holding action against Russia, combined with a quick drive through Belgium to Paris; after France had fallen, the two German armies would defeat Russia.
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Germany responded to the British blockade with a counter blockade by U-boats. Any British or Allied ship found in the waters around Britain would be sunk—and it would not always be possible to warn crews and passengers of an attack.
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On May 7, 1915, a U-Boat sank the British liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland. 1,198 lives were lost, and 28 of those were Americans.
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Another British liner sunk from a German U-Boat in August 1915, and 2 Americans drowned.
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Led by General John J. Pershing, it included men from many widely separated parts of the country
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Shell shock is a term used during World War I to describe a complete emotional collapse from which many never recovered. Trench foot was a disease caused by standing in cold wet trenches for long periods of time without changing into dry socks or boots. Trench mouth was a painful infection to the gum and throat.
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The United States protested, and this time Germany agreed not to sink any more passenger ships. But in March 1916 Germany broke its promise and torpedoed an unarmed French passenger steamer, the Sussex. The Sussex sank, and about 80 passengers,
including Americans, were killed or injured. -
The first battle of Somme lasted from July to November, and the British suffered 60,000 casualties the first day alone. Final casualties totaled about 1.2 million, yet only about seven miles of ground changed hands.
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Armies fought in trenches (dugouts) and they fought for mere yards of ground.
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A telegram from the German foreign minister to the
German ambassador in Mexico that was intercepted by British agents. -
After the election, Wilson tried to mediate between the warring alliances. The attempt failed. Wilson made a speech for the senate on January of 1917, “a peace without victory. . . . a peace between equals,” Wilson hoped that all nations would join in a “league for peace” that would work to extend democracy, maintain freedom of
the seas, and reduce armaments. -
A person who opposes warfare on moral grounds, pointing out that the Bible says, “Thou shalt not kill.”
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The main regulatory body was the War Industries Board. It was established in 1917 and reorganized in 1918 under the leadership of Bernard M. Baruch.
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As soon as war was declared, attacks on civil liberties, both
unofficial and official, erupted. The main targets of these attacks were Americans from other nations, especially those from Germany and Austria-Hungary. The most bitter attacks were directed against the Americans who had been born in Germany, but other foreign born persons suffered as well. -
Revolutionaries ousted the czar in March 1917 and established a provisional government. In November, the Bolsheviks, led by
Lenin and Trotsky, overthrew the provisional government. They set
up a Communist state and sought peace with the Central Powers. -
The act required men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service. By the end of 1918, 24 million men had registered under the act.
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More than 400,000 African Americans fought in the war, and half of those served in France. The 369th Infantry Regiment was an all African-American regiment that saw more continuous duty on the front lines than any other African-American unit.
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Congress passed the Espionage Act in June 1917, and in May 1918 it passed the Sedition Act. Under these acts a person could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the government.
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The Espionage and Sedition Acts targeted socialists and labor leaders. Eugene V. Debs was handed a ten-year prison sentence for speaking out against the war and the draft.
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The anarchist Emma Goldman received a two-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine for organizing the No Conscription League. When she left jail, the authorities deported her to Russia.
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Victor Berger, a socialist congressman from Wisconsin, was denied to sit down by the House of representatives because of his antiwar views.
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Big Bill Haywood and other leaders of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW) were accused of sabotaging the war effort because they urged workers to strike for better conditions and higher pay. He was sentenced to a long prison term. -
A heavy guard of destroyers escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic in groups. By fall of 1917, shipping losses had been cut in half.
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President Wilson presented his plan for world peace even before the war was over. He delivered his (now famous) Fourteen Points speech for Congress.
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To deal with disputes between management and labor, President Wilson established the National War Labor Board in 1918. Workers who refused to obey board decisions could lose their draft exemptions.
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To help produce and conserve food, Wilson set up the Food Administration under Herbert Hoover. Instead of rationing food, he
called on people to follow the “gospel of the clean plate.” -
The United States spent about $35.5 billion on the war effort.
The government raised about one-third of this amount through taxes, including a progressive income tax, a war-profits tax, and higher excise taxes on tobacco, liquor, and luxury goods. It raised the rest through public borrowing by selling “Liberty Loan” and “Victory Loan” bonds. -
The government set up the nation’s first propaganda agency, the Committee on Public Information to popularize the war. Four minute men spoke about everything relating to the war: the draft, rationing, bond drives, and victory gardens.
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The turning point of the war. Allies advance steadily after defeating
the Germans. -
On November 3, 1918, Austria-Hungary surrenders to the Allies.
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On the same day that Austria-Hungary surrendered to the Allies, German sailors mutinied against government authority. The mutiny spread quickly. Everywhere in Germany, groups of soldiers and workers organized revolutionary councils. On November 9, socialist leaders in the capital, Berlin, established a German republic.
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Germany agreed to a cease-fire and signed the armistice, or truce,
that ended the war on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. -
It established nine new nations including Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia and shifted the boundaries of other nations. It carved five areas out of the Ottoman Empire and gave them to France and Great Britain as mandates, or temporary colonies.
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The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to return the region of Alsace-Lorraine to France and to pay reparations amounting to $33 billion to the Allies. War guilt clause forced Germany to admit its responsibility for starting WWI.
