U.S. History

It was described as the “war to end all wars,” but it wasn’t.

By its founding nature and culture, America has been reluctant to engage in foreign wars. However, in the early 1900s, things happened in Europe that eventually drew almost the entire world into war. The history of the US military in modern action began in World War I.

The Beginning of World War I

In 1914, an obscure archduke, Franz Ferdinand of Austria, was assassinated in the Austo-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, places few in America today could find on a map. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, which led to numerous other nations declaring war on each other in response. Suddenly, the world was at war. The beginning of World War I is all the more unusual because it started with a wrong turn, as History.com tells the story. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Ferdinand was visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia. Following an attempt on his life earlier in the day by a bomb-throwing assassin who failed, the archduke attended meetings and then asked his driver to go to the hospital where he could visit the people injured in the bomb’s explosion.

Ferdinand’s driver was unfamiliar with Sarajevo and turned the open-air automobile onto the wrong street. An anarchist and coconspirator involved in the previous attack, Gavrilo Princip, was having coffee in a corner cafe on the street when they passed. Realizing the opportunity, Princip got up quickly from his table, pulled out a pistol, ran to the street, and shot Archduke Ferdinand in the neck and chest and his wife, Sophie, in the stomach. Both died within hours.

The assassination of a member of the royal family by a Serbian anarchist was the final affront. Austria-Hungary and its 1879 inseparable alliance with the German Empire were also aligned with Italy in opposition to Russia. There were bubbling tensions with Bosnia, Serbia, and Herzegovina, made worse when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia. It didn’t take much of a spark to ignite the war that then burned across Europe. The killing of Archduke Ferdinand did the trick. It was an affront that must be answered. Again, as History.com explains, following the archduke’s assassination:

“Austria-Hungary seeks support from Germany. Germany agrees, and Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Russia, Serbia’s ally, mobilizes its forces, and as a result, Germany declares war on Russia. France, Russia’s ally, mobilizes its forces, which causes Germany to declare war on France. In turn, Great Britain declares war on Germany; Austria-Hungary then declares war on Russia; Serbia then declares war on Germany; and France and Great Britain declare war on Austria-Hungary.”

Did you follow all of that? See how easy it is to start a world war with one wrong turn. The United States in 1914 remained neutral, believing it was none of America’s business. President Woodrow Wilson favored neutrality then, and the US a trade relationship with both sides in the conflict. This position for America remained practical until Germany made the mistake of allowing its submarines unfettered permission to sink non-aligned ships, including passenger liners. This assault on all shipping in the Atlantic Ocean by German U-boats (early combat submarines) became untenable when Germany designated the sea lanes around Great Britain as a “war zone.”

German Submarines Bring the US Into the Fight

(Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

German U-boats began sinking American ships, resulting in diplomatic protests. However, when the Lusitania, on its voyage from New York City to Liverpool, England, was torpedoed and sunk, killing 1,100 passengers and crew members, of which 120 were Americans, public opinion in the US turned dramatically against Germany. The US was ready for war. President Wilson addressed Congress on April 2, 1917, requesting a state of war be declared against Germany. American soldiers gathered up their kit and headed for France to fight alongside the Allies in World War I.

However, it was more than just a world war. It was the first “modern” war. It was the battlefield for introducing weaponry, variations of which are used today. Those weapons making their debut were the machine gun, the battle tank, combat aircraft, and the use of poisonous gas – the first weapon of mass destruction. Modern naval tactics and comparisons to the threat the US faces against China have precedent in the World War I Battle of Jutland, “where the German and British navies collided in the largest naval engagement of the war,” according to RealClear Defense. These weapons resulted in dead and wounded in numbers never before encountered. By the time the Armistice ending the fighting was signed on November 11, 1918, “The First World War saw the mobilization of more than 65 million soldiers and the deaths of almost 15 million soldiers and civilians combined. Approximately 8.8 million of these deaths were military personnel, while six million civilians died as a direct result of the war,” Statista reported.

Looking at the carnage the First World War left, nothing could top it, or so people thought. The four-year fight was called by many “The War to End All Wars.” But it wasn’t. The international deals that were made by the winning countries created geopolitical insults to the losing side that weren’t addressed for another 20 years, when the Second World War began.

1. World War I was the first war that we could call modern by today’s standards. It saw the introduction of machineguns, combat planes, battle tanks, and poisonous gas used as a weapon – all things still used to this day in war.
2. World War I began after an anarchist from a relatively small country assassinated the archduke of another relatively small country. But because of the alliances on both sides, it quickly escalated into a war that included all of the major powers in Europe. The United States got involved only after German submarines sank a ship with American passengers on it.
3. People had never encountered a war like World War I, and people gave it nicknames like The Great War and The War to End All Wars. But the deals that were made after the war by the winning countries led directly to the beginning of World War II 20 years later.