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Germany and Austria-Hungary, together with the Ottoman Empire an empire of mostly Middle Eastern lands controlled by the Turks were later known as the Central Powers.
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by 1907 there were two major alliances in Europe. The tripple Entente, france, Britain, Russia. and the Tripple alliance, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. These alliances provide a measure or national securety.
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In June 1914 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. -
On August 3, 1914 Germany invaded Belgium following
a strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan 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. -
One of the worst disasters occurred on May 7, 1915, when a U-boat sank the
British liner Lusitania off the southern coast of Ireland. Of the
1,198 persons lost, 128 were Americans -
Three months later, in August 1915, a U-boat
sank another British liner, the Arabic, drowning two Americans. Again the United tates protested, and this time Germany agreed not to sink any more passenger sips. -
in March 1916 Germany broke its promise and torpedoed an unarmed rench passenger steamer, the Sussex. The Sussex sank and about 80 passengers,
including Americans, were killed or injured. -
During the First Battle of the Somme hich began on July 1, 1916, and lasted until mid-November he British suffered
60,000 casualties the first day alone. Final casualties totaled about 1.2 million. -
A elegram from
the German foreign minister to the
German ambassador in Mexico that was
intercepted by British agents. The
telegram proposed an alliance between
Mexico and Germany and promised
that if war with the United States broke
out, Germany would support Mexico in
recovering “lost territory in Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.” -
To meet the government’s need for more
fighting power, Congress passed the Selective Service Act in
May 1917. The act required men to register with the government
in order to be randomly selected for military service. -
German U-boat attacks on merchant ships in the Atlantic were a serious threat to the Allied war effort. American Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the British to try the convoy system, in which 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. -
In June 1917 Congress passed the Espionage Act, and in May 1918 it passed the Sedition Act. Under the Espionage and Sedition 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 or the war effort.
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When Russia pulled out of the war in 1917, the Germans shifted their armies from the eastern front to the western front in France. By May they were within 50 miles of Paris. The Americans arrived just in time to help stop the German advance at Cantigny in France. Several weeks later, U.S. troops played a major role in throwing back German attacks at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood. In July and August, they helped win the Second Battle of the Marne.
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To popularize the war, the government
set up the nation’s first propaganda agency, the Committee on Public Information (CPI). Propaganda is a kind of biased communication designed to influence people’s thoughts and actions. -
The main regulatory body was the War
Industries Board (WIB). It was established in 1917 and reorganized in 1918 under the leadership of Bernard M. Baruch -
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. “Work or fight,” the board told them. However, the board also worked to improve factory conditions.
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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.” He declared one day a week “meatless,” another “sweetless,” two days “wheatless,” and two other days “porkless.”
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On November 3, 1918, AustriaHungary surrendered to the Allies. That same day, German sailors mutinied against government authority. The mutiny spread quickly. Everywhere in Germany, groups of soldiers and workers organized revolutionary councils.
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On November 9, socialist leaders in the capital, Berlin, established a German republic. The kaiser gave up the throne.
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Although there were no Allied soldiers on German territory and no truly decisive battle had been fought, the Germans were too exhausted to continue fighting. So at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, in the eleventh month of 1918, Germany agreed to a cease-fire and signed the armistice, or truce,
that ended the war.
