A Century of Hope
In just over a year, we'll be celebrating the centennial anniversary of one of the most momentous events in history. The United States joined what would later be known as World War I on April 6th, 1917. This was despite having been involved in previous warfare for many years by this point in time.
This blog post is going to help answer some common questions about WWI and its relevance to us today. It's simple to get caught up in the "this will never happen again" sentiment that pervades our culture after every event like this, but I think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that a similar mindset was present in 1917 when the war began as well.
The United States in 1917
The country we know today simply did not exist as we know it today in 1917. The United States had been very isolationist prior to this point, and didn't enter an official war until April 6th. Even so, American soldiers had been fighting in the Philippines for a couple of years by this point. You might also hear about events like the Zimmermann Telegram or the sinking of the Lusitania , but those really aren't historical reasons why the United States entered World War I.
The long version here is that most people who lived in the United States at this time were immigrants , and they were being attacked by German U-Boats. The U-Boat campaign was designed to starve England into submission, which would mean that it would be easier for Germany to win on land in Europe. The United States was also afraid of what would happen to its shipping industry if England lost.
The economy and politics of the United States in 1917
In some ways, 1917 was an ideal time for an American to be a politician. The war in Europe was good for the economy, especially because it helped suck in American soldiers who were being paid very well.
Companies like General Motors made huge profits thanks to the war, especially since they didn't have to worry about making their cars overseas because they were all made in factories on U.S soil. The people who owned these businesses would go on to become one of the wealthiest groups of Americans during this period, which is ironic considering that many of them had been immigrants themselves at one point.
A group I'd like to mention specifically is the Rockefellers . Of course, they're still one of the richest families in America to this day, but they also happened to be in a position of power at this time because they owned Standard Oil. They were allowed to monopolize the petroleum market because of some changes that had been made in government policies during the period that Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were president.
This is something I meant to cover before, and probably will soon, but it's important to note that one of the reasons for why people like the Rockefellers and GM owners were so wealthy at this point was because workers weren't being paid as much as they would later on.
The government at this time was obviously dominated by Republicans . That's why the House of Representatives had such a high rate of turnover between the two parties during this period.
You've probably heard of some events that happened during this time, like the Teapot Dome scandal and the Spanish flu pandemic . The Teapot Dome scandal was a particular corrupt event by which several oil companies paid off politicians to make regulations favorable to them. This is something that still happens in our current political climate. The flu pandemic was another one where people were dying at an alarming rate because no one knew how to stop it.
The situation in Europe
You've probably heard about all of the carnage that happened in Europe during World War I, but if you haven't then let me tell you.
Germany invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914. The country was completely unprepared for the attack and didn't have the resources to fight back properly, so they surrendered on September 28th.
On February 22nd, 1915, Russia declared war on Germany. This is where things became even more dangerous for England because of their alliance with France and how it threatened their supply routes to Germany's ally in Russia.
Things got worse when Romania joined them at the end of 1915. This alliance undermined Austria-Hungary's dominant position in East Europe and made the Austro-Hungarian military less effective than before.
Germany soon turned their attention to the Caucasus region of Russia where oil was plentiful, and they began making plans to invade the region. This is when things became so bad that the Romanians were forced to come over to the Allied Powers side because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn't.
The Russian government was also very corrupt at this point in history, so they had no desire to go to war with Germany. The German government supported some military officers who wanted this war, however, so they made some attempts at assassinating them.
On June 22nd, 1916 Austrian forces launched an offensive against Serbia and won it quickly. They continued into Russia on June 30th and captured large regions of the country. German soldiers began taking positions inside Romania on August 7th, 1916.
The Central Powers made a major breakthrough at Verdun, France in early 1916, which inflicted more casualties on the Allied Forces than they had suffered in any other battle before this point. The Allies were forced to fight back, though.
On February 21st, 1917 Russia overthrew their government and created a provisional government. They also signed an agreement with the Central Powers to stop fighting them for the rest of the war in exchange for peace and a withdrawal from Russian territory.
The United States and World War I
Despite Germany's attempts at invading the Caucasus, the United States was still very hit or miss with their involvement in the conflict. There really weren't a lot of reasons for why this was, but it's important to note that the American public didn't want any part of it.
People were calling for President Woodrow Wilson to keep America out of World War I, and he wasn't sure what to do. While his cabinet also believed that there wouldn't be much benefit from being involved, they decided to take a risk and go forward anyway.
This was one of the couple times during this period where things worked out in our favor instead of turning bad. The other time was when Woodrow Wilson won the election.
Wilson had been in office since 1913 and had done some important things while he was there, but World War I accelerated his schedule and he became a very effective leader during this time. Not only that, but the world needed someone to take charge at this point and it was already getting ugly in Europe.
Unfortunately, there were still a lot of anti-war Democrats running for office during the election of 1916, although most of them were losing to Republicans throughout the state. Wilson helped pass several protective tariffs that benefited American businesses along with progressive legislation like the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, among other things.
Conclusion
The United States, World War I, the Russian Revolution, German Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution are all very good examples of how a large nation can go from being a world power to being completely powerless within a short amount of time. It's important to understand these things so that we can learn how to avoid them in the future. But what's important is that we never want these things to happen again.
What do you think? If everyone could agree on something, what would it be? Leave your comment below!
~*Disclaimer: I do not own any of the images in this article. They belong to their respective owners and are used under fair use laws.