The World Fights For Freedoms

The World Fights for Freedom

By:

Joshua Cloyd

Ms. Hilger

Language Arts

10-25-07

America was in both of the World Wars, and we helped the Allies win both. America's involvement was undeniable. If the U.S just ignored the outside world, the world would not be as it is today. The U.S had the man power and the will to overcome impossible odds and beat Germany with the help of the other countries in the wars.

I. WW1

A. Causes

1. Who

2. Why

B. Important People

C. America's Involvement

II. WW2

A. Causes

B. League of Nations

C. Japans attack on Pearl Harbor

D. Important Dates

E. America's Involvement

America was in both of the World Wars, and we helped the Allies win both. America's involvement was undeniable. If the U.S just ignored the outside world, the world would not be as it is today. The U.S had the man power and the will to overcome impossible odds and beat Germany with the help of the other countries in the wars.

Wars are an ugly thing to be in; so many people die, before, during, and after the war. Most of the time wars are caused because one person doesn't like another. Other times wars happen because of politics. When politics are involved, the war can last for several years such as the War in Iraq. Even though the war may seem simple to the public, it is actually a very complicated and delicate thing that need lots of attention.

The reason that America entered World War I was because the Germans were doing unrestricted submarine warfare and because of Lusitania. Lusitania was an event where a German submarine sunk a British cruise/transport ship bound for Britain from New York. 1195 people died when this ship was sunk, including 128 Americans. It is believed that America would have stayed out of the war if it wasn't for the unrestricted submarine warfare (Trueman).

Overall the main causes of the way were: the arms race between Germany and Britain, Militarism, and the balance of power in Europe. The arms rave concerned the naval armies of Britain and Germany; they were both racing to have a bigger and more powerful naval army. Britain did maintain a lead over the other nations which may have caused some jealousy in Germany, and may have been one of the causes of the Great War (Trueman). Militarism was when the military departments in some countries were getting way too much power and wanted more power and less democracy. This is a very awful thing because when the military gets more power then its needs, it can lead to protests and riots. The balance of power refers to countries looking for alliances and agreements with other countries (Trueman). For example, Britain seemed to favor a strong Germany after the Franco-Prussian war to help keep away the common enemy, France. After Germany began to construct its naval plans to rival Britain, this stance shifted. France, looking for an ally to balance the threat created by Germany, found it in Russia. Austria-Hungary, facing a threat from Russia found support in Germany (Wheeler). Now that countries were allied with other countries it was only a matter of time before they went to war with their common enemy's.

Another even that may have started the war was when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28th, 1914. The guy who assassinated him lived in Serbia and was part of a group whose mission was "To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This organization prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret"(Black Hand, Simkin). Austria-Hungary demanded that he be punished for this unforgivable crime, Serbia did not do anything. Because Serbia didn't do anything against the man who assassinated Franz, they declared war on Serbia. Many people believe that this was the main thing that caused the war because this little fight let to other countries joining the war.

There were two sides; the Allies and the Central powers. The Allies definitely outnumbered the Central powers, but the Central powers would end up doing more damage to the Allies. The Ally countries consisted of: Belgium, Australia, British Crown Colonies, Canada, Indian Empire, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Greece, Italy, Empire of Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, Romania, Russian Empire, Serbia, United States, Andorra, Armenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Liberia, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Republic of China, San Marino, Siam, and Uruguay. The Central powers were: German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria (Wilde).

America was not prepared at the start of the war in April, 1917. The U.S. only had about 300,000 troops; this was including all of the National Guard. The arsenal of war supplies were non-existent and out fight with Mexico a year earlier left us with even less supplies and men then we already had. When the war first began, America was a neutral country. But after a couple of years of German unrestricted submarine warfare had been going on, this pressured President Wilson to go to war because it was killing innocent Americans (Trueman). When America entered the war, things weren't going very well for the Allies; Russia was in a revolution and would soon be out of the war, Italy suffered a huge loss when the Austrians captured 275,000 soldiers in the Battle of Caporetto. This battle forced the French and the British to spread their troops so they could cover the western front to keep Italy in the war (eye witness). Also in the French army about this time, mutiny was spreading in the army, and fear was rising that they would lose from within (eye witness).

All the ally countries were looking for America for help. The allied needed weapons, men, and vehicles to help in the war. The French wanted America to produce 2,000 airplanes a month; America barely had 800 before the war. Basically the allies wanted to U.S. to supply them with unlimited supplies. This was an almost impossible task for America because we didn't have the man power or all of the materials