Why wwi resonates

Name required. Follow Following. The Pietist Schoolman Join other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The engagement was disastrous for all three monarchs.

The question of which country or countries caused the war is sometimes flipped on its head by scholars who have asked which countries — had they conducted themselves differently — could have prevented it. Sir Richard J Evans, Regius professor of history at the University of Cambridge disagrees, arguing that Serbian nationalism and expansionism were the root cause of the conflict.

Despite widespread horror in the US over newspaper reports of German atrocities against civilians, the general feeling among in the early months of the conflict was that American men should not risk their lives in a European war. That all started to change in May , when a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British passenger liner the Lusitania as it crossed the Atlantic, killing 1, of the 1, people on board.

The attack provoked shock and fury across the world. Among the dead were Americans, putting substantial pressure on the government to abandon its neutral stance on the conflict. Nevertheless, the pro-war sentiment in the US continued to fester - and when Germany announced plans to resume its naval strikes on passenger ships in January , it exploded. Public opinion was further inflamed, writes Gregory, over the emergence of a telegram, supposedly from the German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico offering military assistance if the US entered the war.

Observers soon came to believe that the change in public feeling made US entry into the war inevitable, and eight weeks later Congress approved a resolution declaring war on Germany. The Royal Navy at the time was regarded as the most powerful in the world, although its primary purpose was not military, but the protection of trade.

A shipbuilding arms race with Germany began in , but Britain had gained a technological edge over its rival by , with the development of a new class of battleship — the dreadnought. Ultimately, Germany was unable to keep pace with the spending power of its rival and shifted attention away from its navy back to the development of its army. Attempting to identify which nation or nations should be held accountable for the war is an exercise doomed to failure, Margaret MacMillan argues in her First World War history, The War that Ended Peace.

According to MacMillan, the alliances drawn up between nations before the war could actually have helped to preserve the fragile peace. The Guardian identifies six people who, from a British perspective, had the largest roles in the events leading to the outbreak of war:. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia , who found himself caught between Russia's loyalty to Serbia, and his desire to avoid war on the continent.

Skip to header Skip to main content Skip to footer. In Depth. Remembrance Day: why do we fall silent and wear poppies? So when Hitler began to rearm Europe, instead of responding, the British and French wanted to avoid conflict at all costs. There are other reasons why they did that. But the casualties list in the Great War was a major reason for appeasement. A: The response to the war in the United States was resentment about what many people feel was a failed peace effort at Versailles.

The president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, promised this would be a war to end all wars and would be followed with a peace without victory. French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander of the Allied forces, enters the city of Metz, Germany, later reverted back to France after decades of German occupation the day after Armistice Day in Syracuse University medical school graduate Edward S.

Van Duyn , who served at a U. From the Edward S. He said we needed a return to normalcy, and so the U. When Hitler was rearming Europe and fascism was spreading, the response inside Congress was to pass the Neutrality Acts to make sure the United States would not be dragged into another war. The same thing happened in the Middle East, with the creation of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, which were all part of a great barbecue divided up by the French and British as spoils of war.

The borders had nothing to do with the nature of where the populations lay. The British promised the Arabs autonomy in their area, and also promised the Jews a national homeland in the Holy Land—both unable to be fully realized.