Tag Archives: World war I

03/30/11

Arranged Marraige: Africa

A cause of World War I not often discussed is the intense competition to rape Africa. A simple google search of “Scramble for Africa” would return you with plenty results citing the time period of the scramble as 1881-1914. There is no coincidence that World War I started in 1914. It is easily proving that tensions at during that time period were high among the European nations that wanted to colonize Africa for themselves. The Berlin conference was an effort put forth by several of these countries in order to try and ward off a war over Africa. So Action was taking similiar to when a prince chooses a princess to bring to countries together. The princess has no choice in the matter and neither did Africa. At the Berlin Conference the countries drew lines on a map of Africa and thus determined who was allowed to satomize which seection of Africa. France got most of West Africa, Belgum the Congo, Britian East and South Africa, Portugal 2 Colonies in South Africa, and Germany a small colony in each region. I Dont think it is a coincidence that Germany lost all four of its colonies after it lost WWI.

Scramble for Africa

03/10/11

Limiting My Inventory

The Washington Naval Conference was held in Washington D.C. for four months discussing and making treaties following the World War I. One of the most important treaties made was the Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty. This treaty limited the arms of five countries: United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy. This treaty is to prevent mass production of arms following the World War I. The limitations reflected on the tonnage of ships and aircraft carriers each country can have. This treaty was made in hopes of preventing a second world war.

03/7/11

Expansion and Power

Prior to WWI many new alliances and nations were competing to be the new world power. Power came with additional influence on territories outside of your own. The European influence and stream of expansion began in Asia and Africa long before the war, but this is probably one of the many other ways in which the countries competed for and maintained their status on a world platform. An additional cause may also be militarism. Power is also symbolized through the means of weapons and military strength a nation has. The arms race was one which was long and spread wide influenced competition between countries like Russia and Germany.

Lastly, nationalism always fuels wars. Each nation is fighting for the prestige and individual interest of their nation. The same holds true for WWI. Dominance and power can only be won through maintaining standards that boost of a nation’s capability, Europe fell victim to this epidemic as well.

03/6/11

Causes of World War I

The causes of World War I, which began in central Europe in July 1914, included many intertwined factors, such as the conflicts and hostility of the four decades leading up to the war. Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict as well. However, the immediate origins of the war lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis of 1914, causes belli for which was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife by Gavrilo Princip, an irredentist Serb.

03/3/11

Nationalism

Nationalism is one of the causes of World War I.  Nationalism is what made people become proud of their country. It also makes them support and fight for their country. Including imperialism and militarism, countries started to increase their armies power. Countries like Italy, Germany, Russia, and France became great powers. Nationalism encourage countries to be independent. Other countries that weren’t a great power like Serbia wanted to be independent because of Nationalism. They wanted to form their own country and be separate.

03/3/11

Imperialism

Imperialism was one of the long-term causes that increased the rivalry in Europe, which influence the start of World War I. European countries started taking over colonies through the world since the fifteenth century. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. With the rise of industrialism, countries (Great Britain, Germany and France) needed new markets. The amount of lands ‘owned’ by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who only had small areas of Africa entering the scramble to acquire colonies. As a consequences, it caused Germany to ally with Austria-Hungary, and Britain to ally with France.

03/2/11

The Cause of a World War- the Alliance System

Map of World with Participants in World War I :

Allies- in green

Central Powers- in orange

Neutral- in grey

The triggering event cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in 1914. The fact that the assassination did not lead to a war of two nations, but a war among many nations around the whole world, has to do with the alliance system in the era. Although the actual causes of the war are complicated, the escalation of the size of the war can be partly attributed to the alliance treaties.

For the readers’ convenience,  some of the entrances of the participants will be listed below:

1. Austria-Hungary- declared war on Serbia due to the assassination.

2. Serbia- became a participant by Austria-Hungary’s war declaration.

3. Russia- allied to Serbia by their treaty

4. Germany- allied to Austria-Hungary by their treaty

5. France- allied to Russia

6. Britain- allied to France. Since Britain has entered the war, her many colonies have became participants, whether with direct military support or financial support.

7. Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa- entered the war because of their ties with Britain

8. Japan- entered the war due to its treaty with Britain.

As we can see, over 10 additional nations were involved because of their alliance treaties with other nations. Although some nations have entered the war with reasons of their own, it is undeniable that the alliance treaties were strong factors for the escalation of the war to a world-wide scale.

03/2/11

It’s happy hour somewhere

While I agree with Foners description of the Prohibition Act, I don’t believe he provided the right amount of time and information. The Prohibition Act was a very significant change in US laws and lifestyle. It involved an amendment and a ratification of the amendment and I feel Foner should have paid more attention to it. The whole issue of prohibition was a real debated issue and a lot of the supporting opinions argued back then are argued today with many issues the United States are facing. The image above, taken from cartoonstock.com depicts the closing of the saloons/bars during the days of prohibition.

03/2/11

Peace Treaty Gone Wrong

World War I ended with the peace treaty signing called the Treaty of Versailles. Within this treaty, the victors asked for unreasonable demands. Some of these demands include putting all the blame of this war on Germany, dividing the land up, occupying the lands rich of iron and coal, restriction on Germany’s future army size and even ask for astronomical reparations reaching between $33 billion to $56 billion. Wilson initially wanted to this to be a peace treaty that ended future wars, but with such demands, anger and frustration was bound to lead into another war. The only thing good that came out of this treaty in Wilson’s eyes was the League of Nations.

Foner’s description of the Treaty of Versailles was well made but seemed a bit vague. It didn’t seem like it completely covered all aspects of this treaty. Foner confirmed my knowledge of this history in that this treaty was unjust and over demanding.

03/2/11

The Test of Mental Strength

During the beginning of World War I, there brought many controversies in the United States to whether to join the war or not. There were groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World and the Socialist Party whom were completely against entering in this war. They deemed this war as “a crime against the people of the United States.” With so much negativity towards this, the Wilson administration created the Committee of Public (CPI) on April 1917 to counter these groups. The job of the CPI were to create propaganda to promote people to join the war efforts in order to fight for their liberties. Edward Barnard considered this as a “intelligent manipulation” to the masses.

Foner did a good job explaining how the Wilson Administration went about to counter the negative feelings about war and ultimately convincing people into joining the war. This confirms what I’ve thought about propaganda being used and added in a way on how propaganda was distributed

03/2/11

Who has the bigger stick?

Gas masks and Machine guns used in World War I


World War I brought about major changes in the advancement of weapons and technology. The arms race called for modernized and advanced weapons that could give any nation a huge advantage over others on the battle field. The latest technology such as armored cars, tanks, aircrafts and machine guns plowed the battle field killing hundreds of people with only a few blows. With quicker communication abilities such as wireless communicators and telephones, orders and commands could be sent across the country in just a few minutes. As if these advancements weren’t enough, dangerous gases were called into play. Soldiers used gas masks to protect themselves from gases such as chlorine, mustard gas and phosgene that burned enemies. U-boats (submarines), blimps and hydrophones were also used in the war.

Foner barely mentions the arms race in chapter 19. However, he does explain how such advancements led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in various countries.

03/1/11

Racial Violence

During War World I, there were still racial violence going on in the United States. Foner gives examples of several racial violence in his book. Black people got killed or lynched unfairly not only in the North, but also in the South. According to Foner said, for example,  in Chicago in 1919, a black teenager got drowned by white bathers just because he accidentally crossed the unofficial dividing line between black and white beaches on Lake Michigan. During the year of 1919 in Chicago, “more than 250 persons died in riots in the urban North”.

03/1/11

The Short-lived Amendment: Prohibition

Lips that Touch Liquor Shall not Touch Ours

Prohibition is one of the drastic changes that happened during the course of World War I. Looking through the course of American history, it is perhaps unbelievable that alcohol, one of the foundations of pleasure for many citizens, would be banned. On top of that, the banned was even written in an amendment, which is ridiculously difficult to be passed. Although Eric Foner only spent a little more than half page on the topic, he was able to inform us about many details of the topic. In three paragraphs, he had informed me things that I didn’t know, such as 1) how the Anti-German attitude generated hatred toward German breweries, 2) labor reformers wanted prohibition to have a more disciplined work force, and 3) the Baptists and Methodist were opposing drinking in a political way. Foner may not have given us a full picture of prohibition, but he did well to inform us by squeezing in as much information as possible in three paragraphs.

03/1/11

Ketchup for my Liberty Sandwich, Please?

In World War I, Germany was considered the main culprit and provacateur of the war. Therefore, it stirred the movement against Germans in United States. Prior to the war, German-Americans were able to express and promote their ethnic culture through the fine arts and language. Once the war began, German-Americans came under public scrutiny and ostracism. To raise support for the war, German culture was belittled to establish the notion of superiority of America. Any traces of German culture was erased in America. For example, instead of saying “hamburger,” which has German roots, it was called “liberty sandwich.”

I thought Foner did a good job in presenting the Anti-German Crusade.  He stated several statistics to demonstrate how the war negatively affected German-Americans and their culture.  However, Foner could have developed and expanded the topic more to illustrate the hardships of German-Americans during the war. The three images above adds depth to the portrayal of how German-Americans were singled out and excluded from mainstream America.

02/28/11

Zimmerman Telegram

Zimmerman Telegram is one important reason why the U.S went to World War I. Foner talks about how the Zimmerman Telegram was made public by the British spies in March 1917. He says how the German foreign secretary  Arthur Zimmerman call on Mexico to join the war against the U.S and promised to help recover their territory lost in the Mexican War of 1846-1848. I think that Foner basically covered most of what the Zimmerman Telegram was.
A revolution in Russia overthrew the czar and established a constitutional government making it more plausible to believe that the U.S would be fighting on the side of democracy. The war resolution was passed the Senate 82-6 and House of Representative 373-50.

02/28/11

Womens Movements

Women were gaining momemtum in the 1900s fighting their hardest for rights. They were able to gain power in the labor force and were now demanding rights as a citizen and equal human being. The movement demanded that the government expand laws to include women and to stop the discrimination based upon gender. Rights such as abortions, voting, and more working power came into effect because of the women who fought so hard during this time