THE FIRST
WORLD WAR
WORLD WAR I
BEGINS
 Many Americans wanted to stay neutral, but many
factors made neutrality difficult.
 US had felt many of the same pressures that led
European nations into war.
 4 long-term causes of the First World War:
nationalism, imperialism, militarism, & the formation
of a system of alliances.
 Devotion to the interests and culture of one’s nation.
 Led to competition & antagonistic rivalries among






nations.
Many feared Germany’s growing power in Europe.
Ethnic groups resented domination and sought
independence.
Ethnic groups looked to larger nations for protection.
Russia: protector of Europe’s Slavic peoples. (Serbs)
Serbia was an independent nation but millions lived
under the rule of Austria-Hungary.
Russia v Austria-Hungary for Serbia.
 European nations built vast empires for centuries.
 Colonies supplied European imperial powers with raw
materials and provided markets for manufactured
goods.
 Germany industrialized and competed with France
and Britain in the contest for colonies.
 Growth of nationalism and imperialism led to increased






military spending.
All nations wanted a stronger military than their potential
enemies, so they followed a policy of militarism –
development of armed forces and their use as a tool of
diplomacy.
1890 – strongest in Europe was Germany.
Germany had an army reserve system that drafted and
trained young men.
1897, German Kaiser Wilhelm II, decided Germany should
become a sea power to compete more successfully against
the British.
Germany v. Britain to build the largest battleships and
destroyers.
France, Italy, Japan, & US joined the naval race.
 1907 – two major alliances.
 Triple Entente (Allies) – France, Britain, Russia.
 Triple Alliance – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy.
 Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman
Empire.
 These alliances were a measure of international
security.
 Nations were reluctant to disturb the balance of power.
 Balkan Peninsula – “powder keg of Europe”
 European nations had interest in the peninsula for
personal gain.
 Russia – access to the Mediterranean Sea
 Germany – rail link to Austria-Hungary.
 Austria-Hungary – took control of Bosnia in 1878,
accused Serbia of subverting its rule over Bosnia.
 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austrian








throne, visited Sarajevo.
Serbian Nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke
and his wife Sophia.
Black Hand – organization promoting Serbian
nationalism.
Assassination started a diplomatic crisis.
July 28th, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
Alliance system pulled many nations into the war.
August 1st, Germany declared war on Russia.
August 3rd, Germany declared war on France.
Germany invaded Belgium and Britain declared war on
Germany & Austria-Hungary.
 August 3, 1914: Germany invaded Belgium.
 Strategy called Schliffen Plan; holding action against




Russia, combined with a quick drive through Belgium
to Paris.
After France falls, two German armies would defeat
Russia.
Allies were unable to save Belgium and fled to the
Marne River in France; halted German advance in
September 1914.
Armies struggled to outflank each other, so they dug
in for a long battle.
Spring 1915, two parallel trench systems crossed France
from the Belgium coast to the Swiss Alps.
 German in one set of trenches, Allies in the other.
 Trenches: Front Line, Support, and Reserve.
 Soldiers rotated through each.
 Dugouts were used as officers quarters.
 “No man’s Land” – barren expanse of mud
pockmarked with shell craters and filled with barbed
wire.
 If soldiers tried to cross, they were mowed down with
machine gun fire!
 1st Battle of the Somme (July 1 – mid Nov. 1916) – Britsh
suffered 60,000 casualties the 1st day. 1.2m lost total.
 About 7 miles of land changed hands.
 1914, MOST Americans did not see a need nor want to
join a struggle 3,000 miles away.
 The war did not threaten American lives or property.
 Public Opinion was strong however, and it was
divided.
 Socialists – capitalist and imperialist struggle between





Germany and England to control markets and colonies
in China, Africa, and the Middle East.
Pacifists – war was evil and the US should set an
example of peace to the world.
Many Americans did not want their sons to experience
the horrors of war!
Naturalized US citizens followed the war b/c they still
had close ties to the nations they emigrated.
Many Americans felt close to Britain b/c of a common
ancestry and language as well as similar democratic
institutions and legal systems.
Germany’s sweep through Belgium increases American
sympathy for the Allies.
 Germans attacked civilians, destroyed villages,





cathedrals, libraries, and even hospitals.
Atrocity stories – spread by British propaganda – made
one American magazine refer to Germany as “the bully
of Europe.”
America’s economic ties with the Allies were stronger
than with the Central Powers.
Before the war, American trade with Britain and
France was more than double that of Germany.
Allies flooded American manufacturers with orders for
war supplies; dynamite, cannon powder, submarines,
copper wire and tubing, & armored cars.
1915, America was experiencing a labor shortage
 Majority of Americans favored victory for the Allies
rather than the Central Powers, but still did not want
to join the war.
 1917, America had mobilized for war against the
Central Powers for two reasons: to ensure Allied
repayments of debts to the US and to prevent the
Germans from threatening US shipping.
 Britain blockaded the German coast to prevent weapons






and other military supplies as well as food from getting
through to Germany.
Extended the blockade to neutral ports and mined the
entire North Sea.
American ships carrying goods to Germany refused to
challenge the blockade and seldom reached their
destination.
Difficult for Germany to import foodstuffs and fertilizers
for crops.
1917 – famine stalked the country.
Est. 750,000 Germans starved to death.
Americans were angry at Britain’s blockade but soon
became more outraged with Germany’s response to the
blockade.
 Germany counter blocked Britain.
 Any British or Allied ship found






in British waters would be sunk .
May 7, 1915 – Lusitania was sunk.
1,198 people lost – 128 Americans.
Germans
“Liner carried ammunitions.”
Americans became outraged
because of the loss of American life.
American public opinion turned against Germany.
Wilson ruled out military response and favored a sharp
protest of Germany.
 August 1915, U-boat sank the British liner Arabic




killing 2 Americans.
US angered, Germany agreed not to sink any more
passenger ships.
March 1916, Germany torpedoed Sussex killing or
injuring 80 passengers including America.
US warned of breaking diplomatic relations.
Germany agreed; but if the US could not persuade
Britain to lift its blockade against food and fertilizers,
Germany would renew unrestricted submarine
warfare.
 Democrats re-nominated Woodrow Wilson.
 Republicans nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles
Evans Hughes.
 Wilson – “He Kept Us Out of War”
 Hughes – pledged to uphold America’s right to
freedom of the seas but also promised not to be too
severe on Germany.
 Wilson was re-elected!
 Wilson called for “a peace without victory….a peace
between equals”
 Wilson wanted all nations to join in a “league for
peace” to extend democracy, maintain freedom of the
seas, and reduce armaments.
 German’s ignored Wilson and hoped to defeat Britain





by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare.
Kaiser announced on January 31, all ships in British
waters – hostile or neutral – would be sunk on sight.
Germany’s decision meant the US would have to
engage in war.
Wilson held back waiting for “actual overt acts.”
Zimmerman Note – telegram from the German foreign
minister to the German ambassador in Mexico
intercepted by British agents.
Proposed an alliance between Mexico and Germany.
 Zimmerman Note – telegram from the German foreign
minister to the German ambassador in Mexico
intercepted by British agents.
 Proposed an alliance between Mexico and Germany.
 If the US entered the war, Germany would support
Mexico in recovering lost territory in Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.
 Four unarmed American merchant ships were sunk,
killing 36.
 March, the oppressive Russian monarchy was replaced
with a representative government.
 Supporters of American entry into the war could claim
this was a war of democracies against brutal
monarchies.
 April 2, 1917 – Wilson’s speech.
“Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare
against commerce is a warfare against mankind. … We are glad … to fight … for the ultimate peace of the world and for
the liberation of its peoples … The world must be made safe for democracy … We have no selfish ends to serve. We
desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities … It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into
war … But the right is more precious than peace.”
 Congress passed the resolution
and soon American troops would
be following the stream of
American money and munitions
that headed to the Allies
throughout the war.
 Wilson believed the US had to join the war to pave the
way for a future order of peace and freedom.
AMERICAN
POWER
TIPS THE
BALANCE
 US was not prepared for war.
 200,000 men were in service and few officers had
combat experience.
“What are you doing
for preparedness?”
 Selective Service Act, May 1917, required men to






register with the government in order to be randomly
selected for military service.
1918, 24m registered; 3m called to service.
2m reached Europe before the truce was signed, ¾ saw
actual combat.
Most had not attended high school and 1 in 5 were
foreign born.
400,000 African Americans served.
200,000+ served in France.
Segregated units and excluded from the Navy &
Marines.
 Most AA were assigned to non-combat duties.
 All-black 369th Infantry Regiment saw more




continuous duty on the front lines than any other
American Regiment.
Henry Johnson & Needham Roberts – 1st Americans to
receive France’s highest military honor – Croix de
Guerre. “cross of war”
8-month training; some in US, some in Europe.
17 hour days working on target practice, bayonet drills,
kitchen duty, and cleaning the grounds.
Real weapons in short supply, so soldiers drilled with
rocks instead of grenades, or wooden poles instead of
rifles.
 Women were not allowed to enlist but the army
accepted women in the Army Corps of Nurses.
 Denied rank, pay, and benefits.
 13,000 women accepted noncombat jobs in the Navy
and Marines serving as nurses, secretaries, and
telephone operators with full military rank.
 US had to figure out how to transport men, food, and
equipment over thousands of miles of ocean.
 1917, German submarines had sunk twice as much ship
tonnage as the Allies had built.
 To expand fleet, US took 4 crucial steps:
 Exempted shipyard workers from the draft & deferred
others; delaying their participation in the draft.
 US Chamber of Commerce joined in a public relations
campaign to emphasize the importance of shipyard work.
 Shipyards used fabrication techniques. (July 4, 1918 –
launched 95 ships)
 Government took over commercial and private ships and
converted them for transatlantic war use.
 U-Boats were a serious threat to the Allied war effort.
 US Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the British





to use the convoy system.
Fall of 1917, shipping losses had been cut in half.
US Navy laid a 230 mile barrier of mines across the
North Sea from Scotland to Norway.
Barrier bottled up U-Boats that sailed from German
ports and kept them out of the Atlantic Ocean.
1918, Germans had an increasingly difficult time
replacing their losses and staffing their fleet with
trained submariners.
Of the 2m Americans who sailed to Europe, only 637
were lost to U-Boat attacks.
 US main contribution other their #’s was its freshness
and enthusiasm.
 US was determined to hit the Germans hard!
 American Expeditionary Force led by John J. Pershing
 American infantrymen were called “doughboys,”
possibly b/c of the white belts they wore which they
cleaned with pipe clay called “dough.”
 Most doughboys had never ventured far from their
farms or small towns.
 Doughboys were also shocked by the unexpected
horrors of war on the battlefield & astonished by the
new weapons & tactics of modern warfare.
 2 most innovative weapons: tanks and airplanes.
 Heralded mechanized warfare, or warfare that relies






on machines powered by gasoline or diesel engines.
Tanks ran on caterpillar treads & were built of steel so
bullets would bounce off.
British 1st used tanks in 1916 Battle of Somme.
1917, British learned how to drive large #’s of tanks
through barbed wire defenses clearing a path for the
infantry.
Early planes were flimsy & used for scouting.
Early dogfights resembled duals.
Pilots sat in open cockpits & fired at each other with
their pistols.
 Mounted machine guns soon came about.
 Planes propeller blades kept getting in the way of the





machine gun fire.
Germans introduced an interrupter gear to permit the
stream of bullets to avoid the whirring blades.
Airplanes were built to travel faster & carry heavy bomb
loads
1918, British built up a strategic bomber force of 22,000
planes.
Observation balloons were used extensively by both sides.
Balloons were so important, they usually had protection
from aircraft flying close, and were prime targets for ace
pilots.
 New weapons brought horrific injuries and hazards.
 Fighting men were surrounded by filth, lice, rats, &





polluted water causing dysentery.
Inhaled poison gas & smelled the stench of decaying
bodies.
Lack of sleep.
Constant bombardments & other experiences leading
to fatigue & “shell shock.”
Trench Foot, Trench Mouth
Red Cross Ambulances
 Russia pulled out of the war in 1917 & Germans shifted




their armies from the eastern to the western front in
France.
US arrives in time to stop German advance at Cantigny
in France.
US played a major role in throwing back the German
attack at Chateau-Thierry & Belleau Wood.
July & August, US helped win the 2nd Battle of the
Marne.
Tide turned against Central Powers.
 Alvin York – sought exemption as a conscientious
objector, or a person who opposes warfare on moral
grounds. “Thou shalt not kill”
 Decided it was morally acceptable to fight for a just
cause.
 October 8, 1918 – with only a rifle and a revolver, killed
25 German; with six other doughboys he captured 132
prisoners.
 Promoted to sergeant and became a hero when he
returned home.
 November 3, 1918; Austria-Hungary surrenders to the





Allies.
Same day, Germans mutinied against government
authority.
November 9; socialist leaders established a German
republic.
Kaiser gave up his throne.
No Allied soldiers on German territory & no decisive
battle had been lost, but the Germans were to
exhausted to continue with the war.
11th hour, 11th day, 11th month 1918; Germany agreed to a
cease-fire and signed the armistice that ended the war.
 WWI was the bloodiest war to that point in history.
 Deaths 22m, more than half civilians.
 20m wounded.
 10m refugees.
 Economic cost of the war, est. $338 billion.
 US lost 48,000 men in battle, 62,000 to disease.
 More than 200,000Americans wounded.
 Americans rejoiced to hear the war had ended and
expected to return to normal .
THE WAR
AT HOME
 The entire US economy had to be refocused on the war




effort.
Shift from producing consumer goods to war supplies.
This was a complicated task, so instead of private
industry making the change, the government and
business handled the change.
Power of government greatly expanded.
Congress gave Wilson direct control over much of the
economy: power to fix prices, regulate and nationalize
war-related industries.
 WIB was the main regulatory body. (est. 1917 –







reorganized 1918)
Board encouraged mass-production techniques to
increase efficiency.
Eliminate waste by standardizing products. (5 not 150)
Set production quotas and allocated raw materials.
Industrial production increased approx. 20%
Price controls only at the wholesale level.
Retail $ soared to almost double in 1918 from before
the war.
Corporate profits soared as well: chemicals,
meatpacking, oil, & steel.
 Railroad Administration controlled the RR.
 Fuel Administration monitored coal supplies and
rationed gasoline and heating oil.
 “Gasless Saturdays” “Lightless Nights”
 1918, Fuel Administration introduced daylight savings
time as another conservation meassure.
 Wages rose in most industries during the war years:




metal trades, shipbuilding, meatpacking rose 20%.
Houses income was likely cut by rising food prices and
housing costs.
Stockholders saw enormous profits: DuPont Company
stock rose 1,600 percent from 1914-1918.
Because of uneven pay between labor and
management, increasing work hours, child labor, &
sped-up conditions; unions boomed.
2.5m (1916) – 4m (1919); 6,000 strikes during war time.
 National War Labor Board (1918)
 Workers who ignored board decisions could lose draft
exemptions.
 “Work of Fight”
 Board pushed for improved factory conditions, 8-hour
workday, safety inspections, and enforced child labor
ban.
 Helped produce and conserve food.
 Instead of rationing food, it called on people to








follow the “gospel of the clean plate.”
One day a week: meat-less, sweet-less.
Two days a week: wheat-less, pork-less.
Restaurants removed sugar bowls from tables
and only served bread after the 1st course.
“Victory Gardens”
School children grew tomatoes & cucumbers
after school in the park.
Food shipments tripled b/c of these acts.
High government price on wheat & other staples.
Farmers put an additional 40m acres into
production.
 Government was faced with two major tasks: how to
raise money and how to make people support the war
effort.
 US spent about $35.5b on the war.
 1/3 was raised through taxes: progressive income tax,




war-profits tax, higher excise taxes on tobacco, liquor,
& luxury goods.
2/3 by selling “Liberty Loans” “Victory Loans”
Government sold bonds.
Movie stars spoke at rallies at schools and factories.
Only “a friend of Germany” would refuse to buy war
bonds.
 Committee on Public Information – propaganda ag.
 Propaganda – biased communication designed to influence
people’s thoughts and actions. (George Creel)
 Nation’s artists and advertising agencies created thousands of




paintings, posters, cartoons, and sculptures promoting the war.
Creel recruited 75,000 men to serve as “Four-Minute Men,” who
spoke about the draft, rationing, bond drives, victory gardens, and
topics such as “Why we are Fighting” and “The meaning of
America.”
Creel ordered 25m copies of “How the War Came to America” in
English and other languages.
Distributed 75m pamphlets, booklets, & leaflets with the help of
Boy Scouts.
Creel’s propaganda campaign effectively promoted patriotism, and
also inflamed hatred and violations of the civil liberties of certain
ethnic groups and opponents of the war.
 Wilson expressed fears of war hysteria.
 Attacks on civil liberties, official and unofficial,
erupted.
 Main targets of the attacks were those who had immigrated








from other nations, especially Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Most bitter attacks were against those from Germany.
People with German names lost their jobs.
Orchestras refused the music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, &
Brahms.
Towns changed their German names.
Schools no longer taught the German language and books by
German authors were removed from the shelves.
Flogged, tar and feathered.
German measles – “liberty measles” Hamburger – “Salisbury
steak” or “Liberty sandwich”
Sauerkraut – “Liberty cabbage”
 1917 – Espionage Act





1918 – Sedition Act
Person could be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for
interfering with the war effort or for saying anything disloyal, profane,
or abusive about the government or the war effort.
Violated the 1st amendment.
Newspapers & magazines lost mailing privileges.
Targeted socialists & labor leaders.
Eugene V. Debs sentenced to 10 years.
 The lives of women and African-Americans changed
drastically after WWI.
 Black public opinion was divided.
 W.E.B. DuBois believed blacks should support the war.
 Believed support would strengthen racial justice.
 William Monroe Trotter believed victims of racism
should not support a racist government.
 Trotter favored protest.
 Most African-Americans backed the war.
 Greatest effect of WWI on African-Americans was its





acceleration of the Great Migration; large-scale
movement of thousands of Southern blacks to the
North.
Started with the escape from Jim Crow Laws.
Factors leading to the migration: Escape racial
discrimination in the South, which made it hard to make
a living & threatened their lives. Boil Weevil infestation
had ruined much of the cotton fields.
More opportunity in the North.
Ford opened his assembly line to black workers.
Drop in European immigration opened job opportunities
in steel mills, munitions plants, & stockyards.
 Northern manufacturers sent free RR passes through the
South.
 Chicago Defender – compared Dixieland lynching's with
the prosperity of African Americans in the North.
 Migrants to the North caused overcrowding in the cities
and intensified racial tensions.
 Women moved into jobs held by men.
 RR workers, cooks, dockworkers, bricklayers, coal





mining, & shipbuilding.
Women continued to fill the normal jobs however,
nurses, clerks, teachers.
Served as volunteers at Red Cross.
Encouraged the sale of bonds and growing of victory
gardens.
Jane Addams, “Women’s Peace Party”
Wilson – “The services of women during the supreme
crisis have been of the most signal usefulness and
distinction; it is high time that part of our debt should be
acknowledged.”
 Acknowledgement of the debt did not mean “equal
pay for equal work.”
 Help bolster public support for women suffrage.
 1919, Congress passed the 19th Amendment.
 1920, amendment was ratified by the states.
 1918, flu epidemic affected about a quarter of the US population.
 Shut down mines, telephone service was cut in half, factories and









offices staggered working hours to avoid contagion.
Shortage of coffins, poor people lay unburied.
Doctors didn’t know what to do: cleanliness and quarantine.
“so many people died from the flu they just ran the bells; they didn’t
dare take corpses into the church.”
In the army, the flu ran rampant b/c of the close living quarters.
More than a quarter of the soldiers caught the flu.
Some units, more than 1/3 died.
Germans hit the hardest.
Spread around the world by soldiers, killed 500,000 Americans before
the epidemic ended in 1919.
Like the flu, WWI came to a sudden end.
 Spread around the world by soldiers, killed 500,000




Americans before the epidemic ended in 1919.
Like the flu, WWI came to a sudden end.
4 years of slaughter and destruction.
“war to end all wars”
Leaders of victorious nations met in Versailles to work out
a peace treaty.
WILSON
FIGHTS
FOR PEACE
 Wilson was praised where ever he went.
 The last thing he expected was for his ideas to be
rejected in Europe.
 January 18, 1918; Fourteen Points speech to Congress.
 1st five points:
 1) There should be no secret treaties among nations.
 2) Freedom of the seas should be maintained for all.
 3) Tariffs & other economic barriers among nations should be lowered or
abolished in order to foster free trade.
 4) Arms should be reduced “to the lowest point consistent with domestic
safety, thus lessening the possibility of military responses” during
diplomatic crisis.
 5) Colonial policies should consider the interests of the colonial peoples as
well as the interests of the imperialist powers.
 8 points dealing with boundary changes. “along historically
established lines of nationality” Groups that claimed distinct ethnic
identities were to form their own nation-states or decide for themselves
to what nation they would belong.
 14th point – creation of an international organization to address
diplomatic crisis like the ones that started WWI. (League of Nations)
 Wilson failed to grasp the anger of the Allies.
 Georges Clemenceau lived through 2 German invasions





of France and was determined to prevent future
invasions.
David Lloyd George, British PM, just won re-election on
the slogan “Make Germany Pay.”
Vittorio Orlando, Italy PM, wanted control of Austrian
territory.
Peace conference did not include Central Powers ,
Russia, or the smaller Allied countries.
“BIG Four” worked out the treaty among themselves.
Wilson conceded on most of his 14 points in return for
the formation of the League of Nations.
 June 28, 1919 – BIG four and the leaders of the defeated
gathered in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of
Versailles to sign the peace treaty.
 Hope was the treaty would create stability for a rebuilt
Europe, but instead anger erupted.
 Established 9 new nations: Poland, Czechoslovakia,





Yugoslavia some.
Shifted the boundaries of other nations.
Carved 5 areas from the Ottoman Empire, given to
France and Britain.
Barred Germany from maintaining an army.
Required Germany to return the region of AlsaceLorraine to France.
Germany must pay reparations, war damages,
amounting to $33b to the Allies.
 Treatment of Germany weakened the ability of the
treaty to provide a lasting peace in Europe.
 Several flaws sowed the seeds of postwar international
problems that eventually led to WWII.
 Germany was humiliated. War-Guilt Clause, forced Germany to admit sole





responsibility for starting WWI.
German militarism played a role in igniting the war, but other European
nations were guilty of provoking diplomatic crisis before the war.
Germany could not pay the huge financial reparations.
Germany was stripped of its colonial possessions in the Pacific which could
have helped it pay the reparations.
Russia lost more territory than Germany & became determined to regain
the ground.
Ignored claims of colonized people for self-determination.
 Wilson faced opposition for the treaty.
 People thought the treaty was to harsh.
 Hoover -“The economic consequences alone will pull
down all Europe and thus injure the US.”
 Some considered the treaty a sell out to imperialism
b/c it simply exchanged one set of colonial rulers for
another.
 Ethnic groups objected to the treaty b/c the new
national boundaries it established did not satisfy their
particular demands for self-determination.
 Opponents believed the League threatened the US
foreign policy of isolationism.
 Henry Cabot Lodge, led a group of senators who were
suspicious of the provisions for joint economic and
military action against aggression although voluntary.
 These men wanted the constitutional right of
Congress to declare war put into the treaty.
 Wilson ignored the Republican majority in the Senate when he






chose the members of the American delegation.
If Wilson were more likely to compromise the Senate would have
been more likely to accept the treaty.
Wilson set out on an 8,000 mile tour in September 1919 only to
suffer a stroke on October 2.
November 1919, the treaty came before the Senate and Senator
Lodge introduced a number of amendments, the most important of
which qualified the terms under which the US would enter the
League of Nations.
Feared that membership in the League would force the US to form
its foreign policy in accord with the league.
US signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921 after Wilson was
no longer President.
US never joined the League, but was an unofficial observer at
meetings.
 When WWI ended, Americans looked to regain their lives of normalcy.
 The world was transformed.
 US – war strengthened the military and the power of the government.
 US – accelerated social change especially for African-Americans and




Women.
Europe – destruction and massive loss of life severely damaged social
and political systems.
Europe – war created political instability and violence for decades.
Europe – 1st Communist state Russia was established. Militant fascist
organizations seized control in Italy, Spain, & Germany.
Looking at the scale of destruction, Americans called the war “the war
to end all wars.”
 Treaty of Versailles settled
nothing.
 Some Europeans longed to
resume the fight.
 An threatening look at things to come
emerged in the writings of an
Austrian named Adolf Hitler,
an angry veteran of WWI:
“It cannot be that 2m Germans should
have fallen in vain …. No, we do not
pardon, we demand – vengeance!”