The End of the War

Being the first total war, World War I had a great impact on all the countries involved in this process. The United States was not able to keep out of changes as well. Firstly, a huge amount of major reforms, like passage of 19^th amendment, were catalyzed by the war. Also, many jobs, prohibited women before the war, became available for them because of the wartime labor necessity. As a result, about million more women were added to the work force. However, women took jobs traditionally considered “men’s”. Also war made US military stronger, putting it in shape in case another war could suddenly begin. World War I was advantageous to American economy. The war forced government to control industries, especially those connected with producing goods for army. It essentially changed the economic system, originally based on “Laissez-faire” act. Another advantage of America was absence of active hostilities on its territory, which allowed the US continue producing food and prevented it from additional costs on reconstruction of the cities. Also, America still was able to loan money to European nations, who extremely needed it. As we can see, there were some positive changes caused by the World War I among the negative effects such as the deaths of millions of people.

Alex Knight

Editorial: President Wilson’s Fourteen Points

President Woodrow Wilson recently gave his speech about the necessary actions for peace for the world, especially for the nations in Europe. I strongly support his beliefs that there should be no restrictions on trade in the seas. This will make it safer for Americans and everyone else to travel around the world and trade with other nations. If the United States can establish its democratic roots in those nations at war in Europe, then all conflict can be resolved. I also support the idea that there should be no more trade restrictions because the United States would be able to trade with everyone equally and because we are already a more economically powerful nation. The United States has not invested as much money as the European nations in the war or sacrificed its land for it to be blown to pieces during battle. Meaning, that we can export more and sell more to the European nations because they have no place to grow their food so they need to get it from us. If  peace is restored to Europe then we would not have to engage ourselves in anymore costly wars. I am fully supportive of President Wilson and his plans for peace outside the United States.

 

By Alex Knight  

Early flow of the war

World War I began on July 28, 1914 as a result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary gave Serbia an ultimatum. Serbia agreed to all demands except for one, which was enough for Austria-Hungary to declare war. In response, Russia mobilized its army along its Austro-Hungarian border. Germany, in turn, demanded that Russia remove its troops within twelve hours. Russia ignored this demand, giving Germany a reason to declare war against it. Two days later Germany declared war against France as well, because France was an ally of Russia. Throughout the war, the Triple Entente was called the Allies, and the Triple Alliance was called the Central Powers.

During the World War I, Central Powers, Germany in particular, had to fight for two theaters – western, which is also called “French theater”, and eastern, which is also called “Russian theater”. As for the western theater, it was the most important goal for Germany in 1914, though activity decreased noticeably in 1915. With the help of modern weapons, they planned to finish the war with France and originally neutral Belgium quickly. In 1915, Central Powers on the contrary changed their priorities to the eastern theater, where they succeed as well as in western theater in 1914.

By Anna Melnikova

Art and Writing During WWI

American art and literature basically came to a halt during World War I. The money that the government has previously invested in the arts stopped because it was used to fund the war. Many up and coming writers and artists were sent off to war and traumatized by their experiences there. The things that were published at that time by those who were not in combat were often taken down by the government because they were seen as too radical or against the government and the war effort. Any songs, painting, or books that were accepted by the government were created to make the people support the war. Ernest Hemingway changed the way books were written because he used short and to the point sentences that got his idea across, rather than lengthy, wordy sentences. Many believe that if World War I never happened, then the writing we see today would be very different.

 

By Anna Hernandez

American involvement into the World War I

On April 6, 1917, the United States, remaining neutral, declared war against Germany, joining Britain, France and Russia. What reasons did affect involvement the most? No doubt, there should be some substantial causes to enter war on another continent. Furthermore, being an industrial country, America had a great opportunity to trade with other countries, which needed not only ammunition and weapons, but food as well – trench warfare made agriculture impossible. The other necessary resource for countries involved in World War I was money. Therefore America loaned large amounts of money to European nations. Remaining neutral, the USA also could trade with both warring sides without being denounced in disloyalty, as if it was a part of one of the alliance.  Thus, America was able to gain more from staying out of the war. The other reason to keep out of the war laid deeply in the US history. Being multinational country, American citizens supported belligerents depending on their ethnic background. Involvement into the war as an ally of one or another side was able to cause disagreement in the society. Obviously, underlying causes should have been strong enough. The main reason was German unrestricted submarine warfare, which caused sinking of British unarmed vessels. Thus, the USA got reasonable grounds to enter World War I.

On April 2, 1917, addressing to the Congress, Woodrow Wilson clarified the necessity of the involvement to the war and the main reasons to do it:

Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the really free and self-governed peoples of the world such a concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth ensure the observance of those principles. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of neutrality in such circumstances. We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states.

Also President Wilson mentioned involvement into this war as a duty to establish peace in Europe bringing freedom to all the nations.

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts,—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free people as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood, and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.

By Anna Melnikova

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

On June 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, nineteen years old Serbian nationalist, during their visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke was inspecting imperial armed forces. According to the latest information, terrorist organization Black Hand is responsible for the murder. Awaiting along the course of motorcade, while Franz Ferdinand was travelling in an open cab with his wife and Oskar Potiorek, Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a group of seven Serbian nationalists tried to kill him twice. First Nedeljko Čabrinović attempted on Franz Ferdinand’s life with a grenade, but failed, killing driver of the third car and wounding twenty people in total.  Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and tried to hide by jumping into Miljacka River. However, being unprepared he did not know that Miljacka River was only 13 cm deep, causing him to break his leg, and cyanide only caused vomiting. Nedeljko Čabrinović was caught immediately. Other terrorists, including the successful assassin, Gavrilo Princip, failed to act. After being almost killed by a bomb, the Archduke and his wife continued to the City Hall, where he gave a speech. Later, Franz Ferdinand decided to visit the people who suffered from the bombing. The Archduke’s wife, Sophie, and Governor Potiorek insisted to come with him to the hospital. To be safe, they decided to take different route. However, the driver did not know about their plans. As a result, their cab passed closely to the place where one of the assassins, Gavrilo Princip, was still loitering. In order to turn the car driver stopped. Meanwhile, the young Serbian nationalist took an advantage of unexpected opportunity to complete the assassination. Gavrilo Princip fired twice, shooting Franz Ferdinand and his wife. Both of them died within an hour on their way to Governor’s residence.

By Anna Melnikova

United States Contributions

The United States entered the war in the Spring of 1917, but was not engaged in any fighting until the Spring of 1918. The first battle American troops were called to participate in was the Battle of Belleau Wood. The United States Marine Corps was assigned the atrocious task of clearing the deep wooded forest. After five unsuccessful attempts, the Marines were finally able to drive the Germans out of the forest on the sixth attempt. The Marines faced the highest number of casualties, about 10,000, in the taking of the woods. Because of the density of the forest it was very easy for the Germans to hide in the trees and brushes, but once they fired their gun their position was given away and the Americans could attack. Many of them had to resort back to hand-to-hand combat with the Germans using knives and bayonets. This win was a huge morale boost for the Allies because it showed that the American troops were a major component to the their success. 

The Battle of Meuse-Argonne began in the fall of 1918 and was the final push for an Allied victory and an end to the war. The battle lasted 47 days and there were an estimated 47,000 American casualties. The troops had to trek through a dense forest, a valley and across a river to win the battle. The United States was again crucial to this Allied victory because of the enormous amount of men they brought in. They were poorly trained, which is why there were so many casualties, but it was enough to overcome the Germans’ force. The Allied forces took control of the last German railroad hub, which gave them complete control over Germany’s railroads and ended the war.

By Isabelle Haake

20th Century Warfare

     World War I has been a time of great technological advancements in war weapons and materials. This is the first war where casualties exceeded the millions and man’s power of destruction greatly increased. The fighting in wars previous to World War I was called infantry warfare, where men fought hand-to-hand and were within closer range of each other. The advancement of the machine gun allowed troops to kill their enemies faster and in greater quantities. Those equipped with machine guns could aim and shoot accurately from a further distance. The United States supplied ammunition to the Allies because of the large factories built to produce bullets, grenades and other war materials. Both sides used used chemical warfare, such as gas, but the Germans were most advanced in using it, unlike the United States. They were behind because their soldiers were not properly trained to use their gas masks and most men refused to use them because it hindered their ability to see. Mustard gas was most commonly used and perfected by the Germans, which would cause those who inhaled it to go blind and then severely burn the lungs and skin and kill them soon after. The British first used tanks in 1916, which were large, bulky automobiles armed with men and machine guns. They were able to navigate the British troops through heavy artillery fire and rough terrain on the battle field. Flamethrowers were introduced by the Germans who had found that they could easily be used to kill large amounts of the enemy in the trenches without causing any harm to the trenches themselves, which German troops would then occupy once the enemy had retreated. The Germans’ use of U-boats allowed them to destroy tons of cargo being sent to Europe by the United States and killed thousand of sailors and civilians. All of these advancements in technology have changed the way war is fought around the world and created new heights of human’s mass destruction.

 

By Isabelle Haake

Propaganda: Women and Their War Efforts

Women were very important in the ways that they supported the war. It started at home by the way they prepared the meals. They ran a tight house hole in order to save what they could and spend less money. The women were being very supportive to their husbands of them being in the war. They encouraged their men not to resist the draft and go to war.

The women also went to work. They worked in factories making weapons for the war. They made medical supplies and clothing for the soldiers. Some even went off to war and worked as nurses providing the much needed care for soldiers. The war depended on women’s help, and without them they wouldn’t have been able to get much done.  

The unexpectedly enthusiastic outpouring of women volunteers profoundly affected American attitudes toward the role of women. The women were obviously not helpless nor unpatriotic: they were fighting in essential ways for American values. The experience guaranteed overwhelming support for the suffrage movement.

 

By Anna Hernandez

A Letter to the Editor: The Home Front

I am writing today as a concerned citizen about what is happening right now. The government is attempting to pass the Espionage and Sedition Acts, which will not be good for our country. This will not be good because any person will be fined or put in jail for saying anything against the government or war. These laws violate the First Amendment, which also violates our freedom. We all came to the United States for freedom, which is not what are getting right now.

 

By Anna Hernandez