Cause Of The Great War Essay

Words: 451
Pages: 2

The motorcade for Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was detoured on June 28, 1914. Due to a set of conditions that were set in motion by the driver becoming lost, he was assassinated. This act was able to stir the nationalistic emotions of the Austrian-Hungarian people. This was one of the major factors that led to the beginning of The Great War. This chain of events caused Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to call upon his allies. He accomplished this by calling upon several treaties and declared war with the rest of the world.
Once Americans became aware of the events unfolding in Europe, the population mostly agreed upon remaining neutral. This attitude was substantiated by the reelection of President Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on the platform that he was able to keep the country from going to war. Americans felt far too distant from the was going on across the Atlantic Ocean, and decided to remain ignorant to the fact that victory of the German side would lead to lasting negative effects on home soil.
After the war had gone on for some time, President Wilson realized that America had a responsibility for keeping the peace, not only at home, but on foreign soil as well.
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Before long, Americans began to believe in a xenophobic hatred of the Germans. Not even Americans born from German ancestors were safe from the harassment and abuse set upon them by this new attitude. Many young Americans became eager to go to war, despite knowing the high death tolls, if only to get a chance to help bring down the Kaiser’s army. When these men came home, they were awoken to the truth that there is no glory in war, as promised, only death and unspeakable horrors. The old ways of war were long gone. They had been replaced by machine guns, considered to be the first weapon of mass destruction, and chemical