Triss Gold

The reasons of the First World War are one of the most discussed topics in the world historiography since the beginning of the war in August 1914. A common direct cause of the beginning of hostilities is the Sarajevo assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Serbian by nineteen year old student nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of the secret organization “Mlada Bosna”, fighting for the union of all South Slavic nations into a single state. However, it was only a “push” to the war, while many other hidden factors gradually led to the outbreak of the war. The central factors were rival nationalistic interests of the major European powers https://essaysprofessor.com/essay-editing.html

At the turn of 19-20 centuries, capitalism grew into imperialism. The world was almost entirely divided between the major powers. The economic and political development of countries had intensified an irregularity. The USA, Germany, Japan quickly moved forward and covered the world markets. At the same time, the old capitalist countries - Britain and France – were aggressively seeking for the redistribution of colonies.

Since the beginning of XIX century, China was penetrated by Western European countries, especially Britain. In order to control the market, the activity of missionaries led to China’s isolation in terms of its foreign policy. Preceding this, in 1898, a lot of spontaneously formed groups, which were subsequently called “boxers" by Europeans, started to work in the north of China. Their common feature is, first of all, hostility to foreigners, mainly to missionaries, as well as to the Chinese-Christians. It should be noted, that the exacerbation of inter-state conflict, division of Europe into military-political blocs, the growth of militarism and nationalism rose starting with Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in China.

Economic and political rivalries of the world countries was accompanied by the increasing of the arms race and the creation of enormous armed forces, continuously growing military investments, increasing the role of the military in social life, extending of the military propaganda and creating a new spiritual atmosphere with the spirit of aggressive war. All this confirmed an unprecedented strengthening of militarism.

A stiff competition of Germany and the UK in naval arms brought them to the first place in armed forces. By 1914, the German navy was on the second place in the world after the UK fleet. The ideological preparation for a war inspired peoples’ thoughts of the inevitability of armed conflict, strongly propagated by militarism. All means of propaganda were used for this purpose: the press, literature, art, church. The bourgeoisie of all countries justified the arms race, disguised predatory aims arguments about the need to protect the country from external enemies.

The class struggle and national liberation movement came into action in the 1910s. Russia made a substantial impact by means of the revolution of 1905-07 on the rise of the working masses struggle for a social and national liberation. There was a significant increase in the labor movement in Germany, France and Great Britain. The class struggle reached the highest level in Russia, where in 1910, a new revolutionary upsurge began. Following it, there was the Shirilis national liberation movement in Ireland and the struggle of the oppressed peoples of Austria-Hungary. The imperialists tried to suppress the growing liberation movement of the working class by war and oppressed peoples in their countries order to hold the world revolutionary process.

Industrialization caused a considerable territorial displacement. Industrialization implied standardization of skills: the process is also involved a “cultural homogenization”. In this historical context, there appeared a need for an ideology capable of producing the internal consistency and loyalty of individuals within large-scale social systems. This was done in the West, and the ideology of nationalism became the ideology of the state. It postulated the existence of “imagined communities” that were based on a common culture and integrated into a state, in which individuals were loyal to the state and the law. In 1891, the association of German intellectuals, military, landowners and industrialists under the name of the Pan-German Union was established. The Pan-German Union advocated the active German colonial conquests, strengthening the power of the German Navy. Later, the leaders of the Union began to support the expansion of Germany in South-East Europe and the Middle East.

On the other hand, the rise of Pan-Slavism characterized the social mood in the Eastern Europe. This ideology proclaimed Slavic peoples, led by Russia, to differ from “Europe”, resulting in the necessity to maintain their identity. By “Europe” they meant the Romano-Germanic countries. Poland was considered to belong to the ‘West’, because it lost its Slavic character by its historical destiny allegedly. Pan-Slavism played a pivotal role in the establishment of world ideologues of the Eastern Question, which they viewed as a concrete confrontation between the ‘Slavs’ and ‘Europe’.

There were a number of secret and open agreements, which later led to formulating of two military-political blocks. In the years 1879-1882, the Triple Alliance - the military-political bloc of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy was founded. It was created by aggressive military forces in Europe directed against Russia and France. The opposite block, the Entente, was formed during 1904 - 1907. The Entente block, which united Russia, Britain and France, was initiated by Russia aiming at counterweighing the Triple Alliance. England was forced to join the block threatened by arising of German forces. On the 5th of September, 1914, there was signed an agreement between Russia, Britain and France, in which all three states accepted the obligation “not to conclude a separate peace over war” and not to “put the peace conditions without prior agreement with each of the other allies”. This agreement resulted in the union contract: three members of the Entente pledged to jointly wage war and not leave it except by a mutual consent. Allies turned into a formal block.

The United States was not willing to engage in an armed struggle. On the 4th of August, 1914, President Wilson declared the neutrality of the United States. Wilson proposed to Congress of the state to build a large merchant fleet to supply the warring Europe in 1915. With the same purpose, he completely reversed the injunction Brian forbidding American bikes to lend to the belligerent powers in September 1915.

The U.S. was resented by the German invasion of Belgium and sending 300 thousand Belgians for a forced labor in Germany in 1916. Regarding the British propaganda, the United States, of course, preferred England to Germany. London was more concerned with the cultural and ethnic centers of the United States and provided a greater influence than Berlin.

At the beginning of 1915, large quantities of American missiles began to enter to the front lines.

Before the U.S. entered the war, there were a number of acts of sabotages on 47 ships that sailed from the U.S. to Europe since the beginning of 1915. Bombings have completely or partially destroyed 43 plant and several large military depots in the United States.

The actions of German submarines caused a substantial disturbance in the United States. On the 7th of May, 1915, the German submarine U-20 released its torpedo on the passenger ship ‘Lusitania’, which was passing by the southern coast of Ireland. 124 American passengers died. Another victim of the German submarine’s torpedo was the ‘Sesseks’ in 1916.

Though Wilson held the presidential election campaign of 1916 under the banner of neutrality and abstinence from entering the war, it became clear that the U.S. will take part in the Great War. On January 31, Germany notified the U.S. to resume an unrestricted submarine warfare. On the 3rd of February, 1917, the President called the Congress to declare a war after the break of diplomatic relations with Germany. On April 6, 1917, the Senate and the House of Representatives adopted a resolution on the state of war with Germany.

In 1917, a steel production in the U.S. almost doubled its amount compared to 1914 and exceeded 45 million tons. More than half of the world production of primary metal for the war industry was produced by the Americans. The U.S. government provided loans to foreign countries by almost 10 billion dollars.

American soldiers came in France only in June, 1917. In October, only one division of the U.S. Army has taken a position at the front. The U.S. Army has mobilized almost 1 million people. Its maximum expansion reached 4 million soldiers. All the U.S. armed forces during the war reached 4,800 thousand. Thousands of American soldiers and officers fought in the battles in France. Relatively small, but fresh American forces helped the French to stop the German advance towards Paris at Chateau-Thierry in May. On August 14, the Great War was over.

The participation of the USA in the Great War made a considerable impact on the economic development of America and its position in the world. It concentrated 1/2 of the world's gold. Industry, agriculture, finance and credit system developed successfully. Out of a debtor country, the U.S. became the largest lender. The export of products and goods increased three times. The United States continued to develop the market economy, unlike other industrialized countries, where the economy was transformed into market-regulated.

In January 1918, Wilson addressed the Congress on the order of war and peace, which is based on the program known as Fourteen Points. They were: the secret agreements rejection, openness of the international diplomacy, freedom of navigation beyond the territorial waters, freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers, solving territorial disputes, ensuring Russia sincere, hospitable reception in the community of free nations on the basis of the free choice of its political system, the creation of new states (in a separate paragraph, it was a question of independent Poland, which brings together all of its ethnic territory, with access to the sea), the creation of the League of Nations. Wilson was the first among the U.S. presidents to make an official visit to Europe. His goal was to participate in the Paris Peace Conference on the establishment of a new global order after the First World War.

America entered the period of prosperity. After overcoming the problems of post-war period, restructuring and reducing taxes on the defense of industry, the United States embarked on creating a consumer oriented economy. By the end of 1920s, the industrial output grew by 70% compared to pre-war levels. The USA production was 10% more than that of England, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. A crucial role was played by the U.S. auto-mobile industry in the industrial development.