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Learn
About World
War I
Triggered
by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, World War I began in August 1914 when
Germany invaded Belgium and France. On the Eastern Front, Russia agreed
to stop fighting late in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. The
Western Front was stalemated in trench warfare for three-and-a-half
years before the United States intervened in 1917 on the side of the
Allies.
Several
events led to U.S. intervention: the sinking of the Lusitania, a British
passenger liner; unrestricted German submarine warfare; and the Zimmerman
note, which revealed a German plot to provoke Mexico to war against
the United States.
CONSEQUENCES:
1.
Nearly 10 million soldiers died and about 21 million were wounded. U.S.
deaths totaled 116,516.
2.
Four empires collapsed: the Russian Empire in 1917, the German and the
Austro-Hungarian in 1918, and the Ottoman in 1922.
3.
Independent republics were formed in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Turkey.
4.
Most Arab lands that had been part of the Ottoman Empire came under
the control of Britain and France.
5.
The Bolsheviks took power in Russia.
6.
Under the peace settlement, Germany was required to pay reparations
eventually set at $33 billion; accept responsibility for the war; cede
territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, and Poland; give
up its overseas colonies; and accept an allied military force on the
west bank of the Rhine River for 15 years.
World
War I killed more people--9 million combatants and 5 million civilians--and
cost more money--$186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion
in indirect costs--than any previous war in history. Politically, it
resulted in the downfall of four empires and contributed to the Bolshevik
rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy
in 1922. The war allowed the United States to become the world's leading
creditor and industrial power. Its consequences included the mass murder
of Armenians in Turkey and an influenza epidemic that killed over 25
million people worldwide.
I
Did My Bit for Democracy
Andrew Johnson was an African-American veteran interviewed in 1938.
In the excerpt below, from the Library of Congress' American Life Histories,
1936-1940, he describes some of his experiences serving in the military.
To
learn more
Maps:
Maps
illustrating World War I
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/
Map:
Images:
To
learn more
Timelines:
Click
here for timeline of World War I.
Fact sheets and lesson plans:
Fact sheet:
World
War I
Recommended
lesson plan:
The
369th Infantry and African Americans during World War
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/369th-infantry/
Fact checks:
Test
your knowledge about World War I
Recommended readings:
David
M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Examines
the impact of the war on the home front, including its impact on labor,
dissenters, intellectuals, and African Americans, and assesses Wilson's
presidential leadership.
 Recommended
films:
All
Quiet on the Western Front
This anti-war film, based upon the 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque,
received the Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie's prologue
states:
 This
story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all
an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face
to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men
who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed
by the war...
View
the movie trailer (requires Windows media player):
http://us.imdb.com/Trailers?0020629&4312&28
Gallipoli
 Masterminded
by Britains First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, the Gallipoli
Campaign of 1915 and 1916 was designed to take Turkey out of the war
by gaining the Dardanelles strait and capturing Constantinople. A
lack of cooperation among the Allies and tough Turkish resistance
made the campaign a costly failure.
View
the movie trailer (requires Windows media player):
http://us.imdb.com/Trailers?0082432&1713&28
Learn
more:
learn
more film
 Recommended
Web site:
The
Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar
To
learn more
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