Part 1 of a Series
The Great War
World War I (WWI) or The Great War (1914-1918), was the war to end all wars. It dwarfed those of previous wars as the total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel with the civilian death toll estimated at 6 to 13 million. It altered the world forever as three major empires fell, (Ottoman, German, Russian) and rearranged the map of the globe. It also brought about radical social change and the creation of the Bolshevik Revolution, which would spread to the rest of the world. 5
President Woodrow Wilson was committed to neutrality until Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917, to break the British naval blockade. The breaking point that pushed Wilson into a declaration of war came about when the Zimmerman telegram was made public. This was an invitation from the German Empire to the Mexican government to make war on the US and in return Mexico would recover the territory it lost during the Mexican American War (Texas, New Mexico and Arizona). 6
The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, and drafted a four-million-man army known as the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). The entry of fresh US troops, or “doughboys”, into the conflict broke the stalemate of trench warfare and by November 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II, abdicated as emperor. German society had broken down as starvation prevailed, its navy mutinied, and the spread of Bolshevism infected his empire. The war officially ended with an armistice, or a cease fire on November 11, 1918, at the eleventh hour. Unexpectedly, WWI ended about one year earlier than the AEF had planned. This left two million American troops, idle in France, waiting to return home. 7
TO BE CONTINUED
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