World War I History - World War I

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe–especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe–for years before World War I actually broke out. A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements. The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand—heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife Sophie by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina. But because Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause.

World War I | 1914-1918 Alternate titles: First World War; Great War; WWI World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. <ul><li><a href="/EBchecked/media/110333/A-British-soldier-inside-a-trench-on-the-Western-Front? 1920's Politics The period between the 2 world wars was characterized by world-wide tensions and saw the rise of mass political movements such as communism, fascism, and national socialism. Political Events of 1920 - The Palmer raids, the Red Scare, a drive to rid the country of "reds," (communists) began under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Mussolini, the Italian Premier, challenged any country to show so favorable a development as Italy has done under the Fascist regime. A lively debate ensued in 1927 when Secretary of the Treasury Mellon recommended a reduction in taxes that favored big business over wage earners. The League of Nations (forerunner of the United Nations) first council met in Paris. Then, as now, there was a major problem with illegal immigrants seeking a better life in the U.S. than their home countries and strong law enforcement efforts were made to control the problem. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. The American Socialist Party nominated Eugene V.

U.S. Entry into WWI - AP U.S. History Topic Outlines - Study Notes U.S. Neutrality During the summer of 1914, the tensions in Europe that had been growing for many years culminated with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist organization. Following the assassination, the Austrian-Hungary government (backed by Germany) and Serbia (strongly backed by Russia) entered into what became an intricate chain of political confrontations. As posturing between the two coalitions persisted, Russia began to mobilize its forces to strike against Germany. As war raged in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson argued that the United States should remain neutral in this conflict, urging Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as in action.” While U.S. policy remained neutral, both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers used propaganda in an attempt to sway American public opinion. However, America’s neutrality was soon tested on what the U.S. considered free international waters. Subs Germany’s pledge proved to be temporary.

PBS - JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns: Jazz in Time - Roaring Twenties Roaring Twenties excerpted from Jazz: A History of America's Music The decade following World War I would one day be caricatured as "the Roaring Twenties," and it was a time of unprecedented prosperity — the nation's total wealth nearly doubled between 1920 and 1929, manufactures rose by 60 percent, for the first time most people lived in urban areas — and in homes lit by electricity. They made more money than they ever had before and, spurred on by the giant new advertising industry, spent it faster, too — on washing machines and refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, 12 million radios, 30 million automobiles, and untold millions of tickets to the movies, that ushered them into a new fast-living world of luxury and glamour their grandparents never could have imagined. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. For some, jazz simply became synonymous with noise. Jazz — and the dancing it inspired — was also said to be having a catastrophic impact on the national character.

The Roaring Twenties Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of black culture—jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance—discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people in places like Indiana and Illinois joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Likewise, an anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist, or anti-immigrant, hysteria. These conflicts–what one historian has called a “cultural Civil War” between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, blacks and whites, “New Women” and advocates of old-fashioned family values–are perhaps the most important part of the story of the Roaring Twenties. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault.