World War 1 history (Fearless Blue)

I made this furom so other people who love history can talk about this major event witch i think is rather neglected and often forgot about because of ww2. I want to open this up with a qu7estion do u think the usa's involvment in ww1 was necassary??

The AEF tipped the scales allowing the Allies to break Germany's back militarily on the Western Front. The outcome was inevitable, however, due to the effectiveness of the Royal Navy's blockade.
WWI was a real tragedy and worthy of discussion in SC as it was begun in a conflict of egos.

let me get this straight. Fancis ferdinan however the hell u spell it was shot by a serbian nationallist. this caused austria to declare war on serbia (because of the issue of honor) russia serbias allie declared war on austria so germany declared war on russia is that correct? and if so why did bismark take over belgium thus starting a war with france and england?

The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism written by Paul Kennedy...... Examines the root causes of the Great War.


WWI was due to too many alliances. Another good lesson for SC.

Que recommended an great book there. WWI was a great mistake as you will learn.

Wyatt, Bismark took over Belgium because he knew that by declaring war on Russia, France would support their ally, Russia, and go to war with Germany (the natural enemy of France was Germany). In an effort to avoid fighting on the highly fortified Maginot Line and to strike France in a way that would supposedly have defeated them early, Germany marched through Belgium. However, the original German plan (the Schlieffen plan?) called for several actions that were not undertaken by the Kaiser. This incomplete strategy led to the failure of the invasion of France early in the war.

The point being that Germany declared war on Belgium in an effort to achieve a quick victory against France (and assumably setting the stage for an easy war with England) because they would have attacked Germany anyway via alliance.

So really the Kaiser (emperore of germany) was not at fault for ww1 and they were just helping there allies right? Also how did the ottomans get involved with the centrall powers and what effect did this have on the war?

It is amazing how really one bullet and one person can change the course of history. Because of the Great War many people died also many more will die because really the War did not ended which lead to another war. But one thing did come out of it The first attempt of the United Nations.

actually i dont think the united nations (league of nations at first) is such a great organzation it seems to be extremly currupt. Plz correct me on that statment if its false

As far as I know russia france and britain were allies at the time. Germany could not fight a war on both fronts so tried for a quick win in the west by attacking through belguim. However they got stuck which resulted in trench warfare in the west, but beat the russians in the east. The us did not realy need to enter the war as it was nearly over by that time. They made a few dollars in the process which has always been thier number 1 aim! The league of nations was a waste of space as wwII proves. Just as the UN is a wastte of space today!

As always the Europeans dragged us into their silly wars once things had been throughly mucked up. Flash to the present and we are the whipping boy for Euro-trash liberals for following their shining example for the past 232 years.

How can the apple fall far from the colonial tree?

lol.

The "reason" the US entered the war was because Germany kept sinking our ships. The Lussitania (spelling?) was a passenger liner the Germans sank, which outraged the American public. That's not so far off from what happened in September, 2001. Or March, 1775 (A MUCH lesser tragedy to be sure, but Americans were still attacked by "ousiders"

Am I wrong?

You're wrong. I'm wrong. The whole damn system is wrong!

Wait... Is that a misquote?

MM, spelling is only one S in the ship. GH, you're right about the alliance between Russia, France, and Great Britain. However, I have to repectfully disagree with the assessment that the US did not need to enter the war because it was almost over. The October Revolution which overthrew the Czar in Russia caused Russia to withdraw from the conflict, giving huge morale and strategic benefits to the Central powers. There was no longer two fronts. At the same time the populace of France and particularly Great Britain were extremely tired of seeing their young men killed, maimed, and gassed after 4years, in what was seemingly an endless war. The economies of all the Allied countries was in shambles due to the lack of workers. The sinking of the Lusitania was indeed the watershed event which finally garnered enough support for Woodrow Wilson to get a war declaration passed. The huge influx of "fresh" bodies and material was more than enough to counteract the loss of Russian involvement (they were never very effective during the war anyhow), and gave the needed morale boost to the populace. Agreed that the League of Nations was a loser, especially after Congress refused to give approval for the US to join.
Side notes: The Communists did not take over in Russia until later.
The US has nearly always been a "sleeping giant" in war situations. MM mentioned the Lusitania, 9/11, and the "Boston Massacre". How about "Remember the Alamo" which began the Mexican-American War, the "Remember the Maine" which began the Spanish-American War, Pearl Harbor, and the "Gulf of Tonkin incident" which allowed LBJ to commit full military resources in the Vietnam War.

Sorry for the double post. John, the Maginot Line was not built until the 1930's. The rest of your post is dead on target.

Actually, the cause of that war, was the deployment of one ship: HMS Dreadnought. In that one move, the rest of the worlds navies were outdated, and Germany thought it could match Britain's fleet, by producing its Dreadnought's.

This led to a naval arms race, with all the European powers constructing Dreadnought-class ships, which England put a stamp on, by building 8 (?) Dreadnoughts in a year.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination caused an Austrian ultimatum, of a type that were issued before, but this time, they didn't have the military might to back their words. Hence war was declared.

Okay, I feel like saying things right now. So, here we go! This is a quick, unbiased summary of WWI:

In the early 20th Century, Europe's most prominent empires were divided into two power-hungry factions that eyed each other suspiciously; they built up their armies, economies, and propaganda to hopefully outdo one another. Then, one day, a Serbian radical takes an advanced semi-auto pistol and puts a bullet in the Austrian Archduke. Then a period of political chaos began; ultimatums and diplomatic messages were flying all over the region as to the situation happening. Then, without anybody's consent, the war began. The Triple Entente and Commonwealth Powers were dragged into the grueling conflict - the world's first taste of conventional modern warfare - one by one. After some years of fighting and no progress being made, the good ol' US of A came about on the Entente side, after the alleged sinking of an 'innocent' supply ship to Britain (by the Germans). With the Americans (like me), the Entente beat the LIVING S**T out of the other side of the European coin of military alliances. When that ended, the treaty proposed by the Entente nations went to far - as they REALLY HATED the Germans, according to overexaggerated accounts - with making sure that a war of such magnitude was never to happen again. But unfortunately, they were DUMBA**ES; Germany tried to get back on its feet after the conflict, but it staggered so badly, that it seemed that there was no hope left for the Fatherland. That's where Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering come in. And then, twenty years later, this happens: WWII. The end.

Any questions?

It can be said that the war was started mainly because of three reasons. in 1870 when the prussians took Alsace and Lorraine, The french saw it as a matter of honor to retake those two regions. Then there is Nationalism as a second reason. Austro Hungary tried to Germanise the Yugoslavs, Germany tried to asymilate the population of Poland (poland was divided by russia austria and prussia in 1796). Then finaly there is imperialism. The UK had its power built in Asia, France was building a colonial empire in Africa. As Germany grew stronger the started to dream about colonies.
All this led to a cold war between two alliances, the "Summer at Sarajevo" was just like pulling the trigger. Austria wanted Serbia - Serbia wanted croatia which was in the austrian empire, Germany was allied to austria so they declared war on Serbia then it all happened. Russia declared war on Germany and austria, France did the same and so did the UK, gavrillo prinçip was not really respondible for this war.

"I made this furom so other people who love history can talk about this major event witch i think is rather neglected and often forgot about because of ww2."
True indeed. I love history and especially WW2. But I quickly learned that WW2 is a continuation of WW1 so therefor you can not study them in isolated manner but in conjunction with one another. Thanks for the forum, looking forward to dig in (pun intended)!

It was the Kaiser's fault, only his

your all ignorant..... confusing ww1 with ww2 and little falsities here and there

Filip is ignorant and Adler's last post is preposterous... Germany declared on Russia for mobilizing on Austria and the US went in all minding other people's business as usual. Period, it was all Austria's fault. Of course the arrogant French would want Elsass-Lothringen back... But they couldn't so they seized the opportunity in the Versailles Treaty, despite the Imperial Territory having a majority German population even before the Franco-Prussian War. Furthermore, Lusitania was a British Ship, the German Navy matched the British Navy prior and during the war and the US wasn't dragged into European politics... It meddles in it on purpose.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk promised Polish, Balkans and Ukrainian sovereignty, but they had to become the victims of course, especially Poland.

Voila

zimmerman telegram? unrestricted sub warfare? those are reasons enough for the US to get involved.... if you even want to call it involvement it was honestly a mere token force that the US sent not even enough to get Wilson's 14 points seriously considered.... before the end of WW2 US was mostly isolationist so save your rhetoric on americas meddling until we actually do meddle

adler seems to love his country very much and has overexagerated US involvement not to mention his not mentioning of the real reasons why US got involved..... its worth noting however that wilson had wanted to join the war with the entente he was an extreme interventionist by comparison to the rest of the country... you could call him pretentious really but his 14 points were good ideas however to good for the real world