When we think about war most of us imagine WWII. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, the Holocaust, and many other atrocities. The thing we overlook though is that there was a large number of issues that lead up to and may even be considered as causing WWII. The issue that I want to address is the more commonly overlooked WWI. The causes, effects and the war itself will all be addressed. To begin we must first ask what caused WWI. There is a number of reasons for WWI the first to address is militarization in Europe. Leading up to WWI many of the major nations in Europe knew that war was coming. Fear was beginning to mount that one of the major powers in Europe would become too powerful and take over the rest of Europe. The only way to avoid this was
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Nations in Europe in the years leading up to WWI had begun to develop strong national pride. People were proud of their countries and were willing to fight to protect their national pride. Roland Dorgeles a French writer discusses in his essay “After Fifty Years,” the ideas that war Is heroic and that war brings together people of the same nation. This shows the sentiments that were shared by many European citizens who had grown up being told that war was a good thing. Besides national pride nations began to develop strong imperialist beliefs. Imperialism was the idea of gaining land especially colonies to show the strength their nation. The belief was that stronger nations deserved more land to expand their “superior” cultures. This idea was exemplified by German Heinrich von Treitschke who claimed the war was a biological necessity to weed out the …show more content…
The Russian people following a revolt to overthrow the government implemented a new government to pull Russia out of the war. Russia made peace with Germany with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they paid a heavy price for peace but the Russian people were willing to pay to stop the fighting. Soon after Russia left the war the US joined on the side of the allies. German submarines had sunk a British passenger liner caller the Lusitania which had 128 Americans on board. The Germans had also further infuriated the US by sending a telegram called the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico asking for Mexico to attack the US if the US declared war on Germany. However, the telegram was intercepted by the British and delivered to the US. These two events helped to encourage the US to enter the war. While the US was preparing to deploy troops Germany made a big push into France. Soon Germany began to run out of troops. As Germany was running out of troops the US entered the war with fresh new troops. Germany was soon being pushed back and the military began to fall apart. The German Kaiser was forced to give up power and a cease fire was called on the 11th day of the 11th month on the 11th
Nations in Europe in the years leading up to WWI had begun to develop strong national pride. People were proud of their countries and were willing to fight to protect their national pride. Roland Dorgeles a French writer discusses in his essay “After Fifty Years,” the ideas that war Is heroic and that war brings together people of the same nation. This shows the sentiments that were shared by many European citizens who had grown up being told that war was a good thing. Besides national pride nations began to develop strong imperialist beliefs. Imperialism was the idea of gaining land especially colonies to show the strength their nation. The belief was that stronger nations deserved more land to expand their “superior” cultures. This idea was exemplified by German Heinrich von Treitschke who claimed the war was a biological necessity to weed out the …show more content…
The Russian people following a revolt to overthrow the government implemented a new government to pull Russia out of the war. Russia made peace with Germany with the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they paid a heavy price for peace but the Russian people were willing to pay to stop the fighting. Soon after Russia left the war the US joined on the side of the allies. German submarines had sunk a British passenger liner caller the Lusitania which had 128 Americans on board. The Germans had also further infuriated the US by sending a telegram called the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico asking for Mexico to attack the US if the US declared war on Germany. However, the telegram was intercepted by the British and delivered to the US. These two events helped to encourage the US to enter the war. While the US was preparing to deploy troops Germany made a big push into France. Soon Germany began to run out of troops. As Germany was running out of troops the US entered the war with fresh new troops. Germany was soon being pushed back and the military began to fall apart. The German Kaiser was forced to give up power and a cease fire was called on the 11th day of the 11th month on the 11th