World War I (6 апр 1917 г. – 11 ноя 1918 г.)

Описание:

A massive conflict mostly between European nations and their colonies. The war started with the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip in 1914. Austria-Hungary soon declared war on Serbia, and due to a large network of alliances made in secret, every major European power became involved. France, Russia, and Great Britain formed the Allied Powers, while Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East formed the Central Powers.

The US at this point in time was strongly isolationist, with the public opinion being strongly against entering in the war. US President Wilson embodied this policy (at least for Europe; he had no such issues in intervening in Latin America). The American public had been divided since 1914 on which side to support. However, Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium began tipping the public opinion in the Allied Powers' favor. US arms dealers began selling weapons to Great Britain, even sneaking them on board ships with civilians. Germany shot down one such ship, the Lusitania, with a U-boat in 1915, killing over 100 Americans. Americans started supporting intervention more, but Wilson refused. In 1917, British intelligence intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram, a message sent by Germany urging Mexico to declare war on the US to distract it from the Great War. Facing growing pressure to declare war, Wilson successfully asked Congress to do so, claiming that the country had to protect democracy by fighting against the authoritarian regime of the Central Powers. The US officially declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1917, but it took until 1918 for the first troops to arrive in Europe due to the long time it took to mobilize.

The US military was comparatively weak compared to many of the belligerent nations in the war, so in 1917 Congress created the draft, which they used to conscript 4 million men. By the summer of 1918, US troops began arriving on the Western front at a rate of 10,000 a day, putting the numbers in the Allied Powers' favor. America's main problem was experience: there were few veterans among their ranks and many of the commanding officers used obsolete battle strategies that resulted in high casualty counts. Nevertheless, they made important contributions to the war effort, including Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, the Spring Offensive, and the Hundred Days' Offensive. They also boosted Allied morale, which had waned after Russia's capitulation to Germany. The war continued until November 1918, when an armistice was declared and peace negotiations began.

Though the war was not fought in the US, it still changed the country's home front. In order to meet costs for the war, production quotas skyrocketed.


Casualties:
9,500,000 Allied troops/civilians (116,000 Americans)
8,000,000 Central Powers troops/civilians

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