WWI

"(1914 – 18) International conflict between the Central Powers — Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey — and the Allied Powers — mainly France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and (from 1917) the U.S. After a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, a chain of threats and mobilizations resulted in a general war between the antagonists by mid-August. Prepared to fight a war on two fronts, based on the Schlieffen Plan, Germany first swept through neutral Belgium and invaded France. After the First Battle of the Marne (1914), the Allied defensive lines were stabilized in France, and a war of attrition began."(source)
"The explosive that was World War One had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Ferdinand's death at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, set in train a mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in the world's first global war."(source)

"The causes of World War One are complicated and unlike the causes of World War Two, where the guilty party was plain to all, there is no such clarity. Germany has been blamed because she invaded Belgium in August 1914 when Britain had promised to protect Belgium. However, the street celebrations that accompanied the British and French declaration of war gives historians the impression that the move was popular and politicians tend to go with the popular mood."(source)

"World War 1 became infamous for trench warfare, where troops were confined to trenches because of tight defenses. This was especially true of the Western Front. More than 9 million died on the battlefield, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat. Among other notable events, the first large-scale bombing from the air was undertaken and some of the century's first large-scale civilian massacres took place, as one of the aspects of modern efficient, non-chivalrous warfare."(source)

"Foreign policy was only occassionally an issue of broad concern in the United States in 1914. The country was excited over 'the slendid little war' with Spain, but that war lasted only a few months.The number of people actually involved with national security affairs-such as army and navy personal, diplomats, or colonial administrators-was miniscule. Contemporaies and historians debated the morality of conquering The Philipines and Theodore Roosevelt's methods in acquirering control over Panama. They disagreed over the meaning of the Open Door Policy for Asia and the purposes of dollar diplomacy. But these issues, as important as they were, did not immediatly bring fundamental changes to the character of the nation or the lives of the people. In 1914 an era passed. Foriegn policy suddely determined the nation's future. The ocassion was the outbreak of war in Europe."(source)

"By 1918 there were strikes and demonstrations in Berlin and other cities protesting about the effects of the war on the population. The British naval blockade of German ports meant that thousands of people were starving. Socialists were waiting for the chance to seize Germany as they had in Russia. In October 1918 Ludendorff resigned and the German navy mutinied. The end was near. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on November 9th 1918. On 11th November the leaders of both sides held a meeting in Ferdinand Foch's railway carriage headquarters at Compiegne. The Armistice was signed at 6am and came into force five hours later"(source)

"World War One was a milestone in U.S. History.While winners and losers in Europe came out of the war crippled, the United States, in many ways, gained in stature. The nation, at last, had become a world power. With all the pride and hardships that role brought with it."(source)

Book 1
Book 2