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During World War I, approximately 370,000 black men in the US military served in segregated regiments and were often relegated to support duties such as digging trenches, transporting supplies, cleaning latrines, and burying the dead.
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting took place throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia.
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May 7, 2015 · Almost nothing that he knew in 1914 about how to fight a battle would be of much use in 1918. On the other hand, if a battalion commander from 1918 were to jump forward to a World War II battlefield of 1940 or 1941, he would be able to understand the broad outlines of what was happening.
- Overview
- War in Europe and US neutrality
- The United States enters World War I
- World War I on the home front
- Aftermath: consequences of World War I
- What do you think?
World War I was the "war to end all wars." It had major consequences on Americans both at home and abroad.
On June 28, 1914, Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Princip and his accomplices wanted to unite the Yugoslav people and liberate them from Austrian rule. The assassination set off a series of events that culminated in a declaration of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Due to the European alliance system, all major European powers were drawn into the war, which spread around the globe and became the first world war in human history.1
World map showing the nations of the world highlighted according to whether they fought with the Allied Powers or the Central Powers in World War I.
World War I was truly a world-wide war. Here, countries that were allied with the Triple Entente, known as the Allied Powers, are highlighted in green. Countries that were allied with the Central Powers are highlighted in orange. Map courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
The war pitted two groups of allies against each other: the Triple Entente, composed of Russia, France, and the United Kingdom, against the Central Powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary.
[See a list of principal World War I combatants]
Though everyone believed the war would be quick and decisive, it instead bogged down in a prolonged war of attrition, with soldiers in the trenches fighting ferociously to move the battle lines by mere inches.2
US President Woodrow Wilson sought to maintain US neutrality but was ultimately unable to keep the United States out of the war, largely because of escalating German aggression. On May 7, 1915, the Germans sunk the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which had over a hundred Americans on board. Wilson warned that the United States would not permit unrestricted submarine warfare or any further violations of international law.
In January 1917, the Germans resumed submarine warfare. A few days after this announcement, the Wilson administration obtained a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram, which urged Mexico to join the war effort on the side of Germany and pledged that in the event of a German victory, the territories of Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico would be stripped from the United States and returned to Mexico. The publication of the Zimmermann Telegram and the escalation of German submarine attacks on US merchant vessels led the US Congress to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
More than 1.3 million men and twenty thousand women enlisted in the armed forces.3 Though some Americans opposed US entry into the war, many believed they had a civic duty to support the war effort. US government propaganda sought to mobilize the American citizenry through appeals to patriotism and civic duty, and by linking US democracy with support for the democracies of Western Europe.
The Selective Service Act of 1917 authorized the conscription of military manpower for the war effort so that the United States did not have to rely solely on volunteers.4 Because many American citizens believed it was their patriotic duty to support the war effort, the draft was well-received and rates of draft-dodging were relatively low.
The First World War had an enormous impact on US politics, culture, and society. Advocates of female suffrage successfully linked the patriotic efforts of women in the war with voting rights. This strategy was highly effective, and in 1920, the US Congress ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.5
Others were not so lucky. Hyper-vigilance on the home front led to spontaneous outbreaks of violence against groups whose loyalty to the United States was considered suspect. German-Americans, labor activists, suffragists, immigrants, African Americans, and socialists were subjected to threats, harassment, imprisonment, and physical violence.
The experience of the First World War was traumatizing. The so-called “civilized” Western democracies had plunged into a ferocious and deadly conflict with uncertain origins and an unsatisfying outcome. As a result, many became disillusioned with the values and ideals of American political democracy and consumer culture. The generation that came of age during the First World War and the “Roaring 1920s” is known as the “Lost Generation.”
On the political front, a debate erupted between President Wilson and his supporters, who sought an expanded role for the United States in world affairs, and isolationists in Congress, who feared becoming embroiled in future European conflicts. Though Wilson was the foremost advocate of the League of Nations, an international peacekeeping organization, the United States never officially joined the League due to isolationist opposition.7
Why was President Wilson unable to keep the United States out of the war?
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World War I was fought between the years of 1914-1919. The war was long and devastating, the most devastating the world had seen. Germany and Austria-Hungary initially fought against France and Great Britain before the United States entered the war with a majority of the war fought on the continent of Europe.
Discover how country alliances led to World War One and why the great war started in this BBC Bitesize history KS2 guide.
Overview. World War I mobilization, 1 August 1914. The German population responded to the outbreak of war in 1914 with a complex mix of emotions, in a similar way to the populations in other countries of Europe; notions of universal enthusiasm known as the Spirit of 1914 have been challenged by more recent scholarship. [1]
