WWI: The Spark of a Global Conflict - Essay Sample

Introduction

The first world war began in July 1914 in central Europe after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo, in the Bosnian capital and lasted for four years between 1914-1918 (Taylor, 2013). The assassination set off a chain of events that escalated rapidly as Austria-Hungary, the same to other countries around the world, blamed the government of Serbia for the attack and hoped to utilize the incident as a justification to settle the issue of Serbia nationalism once and for all. This event has persisted a peak in several processes and historical forces that have rumbled in Europe for some years. Austria-Hungary was backed by Germany to declare war on Serbia, which was supported by Russia that was supported by France, and afterward, many countries joined. During that period, militarism, imperialism, and nationalism were on the rise.

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Apart from its immediate cause, which is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, much of the origin was based on Slavic people who were in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be excluded from Austria-Hungary, instead be part of Serbia (Halpern, 2012). This ethnic revolt and nationalism are what led to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

The war was a conflict of destructiveness and unprecedented scale. With Europe's great powers being on the battle for decades before 1914, many factors showed that war was coming, and it was inevitable (Taylor, 2013). The presence of an alliance system was the reason why the war spread to many countries. Also, the countries have invested effective weapons, which led to conflicts as countries sought to stay on top of others.

Possibility of the United States to Maintain Neutrality in World War 1

The United States couldn't maintain neutrality during World War 1. The main reason is that the United States sought to continue trading with Great Britain despite the various blockades that each country imposed on the other (Taylor, 2013). Then Germany, in response to the blockade of its ports by Britain, announced that the merchant ships heading to the British would be sunk by German submarines. The announcement by Germany made the United States be on quandary. Instead of stopping their trade with Britain out of caution, the U.S gambled that the leaders of Germany would be unwilling to risk the emergence of war by sinking their ships heading to Britain.

The sinking of vessels carrying Americans such as the Sussex and Lusitania nearly broke war, but Germans backed down from that policy (Halpern, 2012). Then in 1917, Germans announced unrestricted submarine warfare, which led to a war that became almost uncertain as the United States would not allow their rights as neutrals to trade with Great Britain. Generally, the U.S was not able to maintain neutrality because of aggression that Germany had, which forced the United States Congress to declare war on Germany, which started on April 6, 1917 (Halpern, 2012).

Analysis of the United States in World War 1 Concerning the World Democracy

On April 2, 2017, the United States president Woodrow Wilson asked for war and termed the process making the world safe for democracy (Larsen, 2013). The President saw it necessary to enter the war because Germany was seen to be a threat to humanity, and the U.S president saw it as restraint of law. The United States had to join the war to save the world for democracy as German was killing several people out of their aggression by using its submarines to sink vessels that approach ports of Ireland and Great Britain. Germany was a country with a government that has subscribed to the humane practices that were followed by the civilized nations and their act of not respecting the international law that proclaim that no single nation has the right dominion on places like seas where the world highways lay (Larsen, 2013). The United States saw the submarine warfare of Germany was against commerce was against humanity. The war that Germany was doing in the submarines was a war against all nations as the ships had citizens from various other countries who were innocent.

Effectiveness and Fairness of the Treaty of Versailles

The treaty held Germany responsible for the war as they started the war by backing up Austria-Hungary to declare war against Serbia. In the treaty, Germany has imposed penalties which were imposed in terms of loss territory, demilitarization, and massive reparations payments. The treaty was signed at the Palace of Versailles in Paris in June 1919 at the end of world war one and its humiliated Germany (Anievas, 2014). It was not fair effective in the sense that it focused on penalizing Germany and failed to resolve the issues that underlie the war in the first place.

The resentment and economic distress of the treaty fueled the sentiment of ultra-nationalist, which resulted in rising of Adolf Hitler and the coming of World War 11 that emerged two decades later (Anievas, 2014). At the treaty, Germany, together with defeated powers like Turkey, Bulgaria, and Austria-Hungary, were not represented at the treaty, which makes it unfair.

United States Senate Position on the Treaty of Versailles

The United States Senate, in 1919 rejected to approve the treaty of Versailles as they denied the consent of the treaty. President Woodrow Wilson negotiated the treaty, but in arriving at the Senate, it received support from the Democrats (Anievas, 2014). Still, Republicans were divided with reservationists that Senator Henry Cabot Lodge led calling for approval of the treaty if some alterations are done. The opposition was on Article 10, which gave power of declaring war to the League. It was right for the Senate not to approve the treaty because it had unfavorable terms, and the United States was giving up a lot of power under the treaty.

References

Anievas, A. (2014). International relations between war and revolution: Wilsonian diplomacy and the making of the Treaty of Versailles. International Politics, 51(5), 619-647. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ip.2014.26

Halpern, P. (2012). Naval history of World War I. Naval Institute Press.

Larsen, D. (2013). Abandoning Democracy: Woodrow Wilson and Promoting German Democracy, 1918-1919. Diplomatic History, 37(3), 476-508. https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/37/3/476/430643

Taylor, P. M. (2013). The First World War. In Munitions of the Mind. Manchester University Press. https://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781847790927/9781847790927.00031.xml