World War I was World's First "Total War"
By lenner Keene the Gilder Lehman institute of American history adapted by Newsea staff
32 09 2010
World War I swept across Europe in the summer of 1914. The Allies were England.
France, Belgium, Serbia and Russia, and eventually totaled 18 nations including Japan.
Italy and the United States. They fought the Central Powers, which were Germany,
Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, Nine million lives would be lost in
the wa
in June of 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was shot and killed by
assassins in order to gain land. This led to Germany attacking Belgium and France in
August 1914. In the early months of the war, Germany, France and Britain dug dirt
trenches that ran 460 miles from the North Sea to Switzerland, where millions of
soldiers would live and die.
Americans debated for two and a half years about joining the war. In 1914, President
Woodrow Wilson said the United States would stay neutral, because many Americans
were immigrants from countries of both the Central Powers and the Alies. They
disagreed over which countries had started the war and which countries should be
supported by America, so Wilson urged Americans not to take sides.
For the U. S., staying neutral was difficult
However, America traded with both England of the Allies, and Germany, of the Central
Powers. Staying neutral was difficult. Wilson worried that U. S. business could be hurt by
the war. At first, Wilson stopped American banks from loaning money to countries
fighting the war. This would make it impossible for them to buy what they needed to
continue fighting, England, France and the Allies started running out of money and
stopped buying Anerican goods. This plan was not working. so American banks were
allowed to loan money to the Allies again. The war hurt American and German trade,