As significant as World War II was as one of the monumental events of the past century, the perceived importance of World War I often fades into the background.  The typical American knows at least the basics of World War II. It had a fairly straightforward, easy to follow narrative. The Americans and their allies fought the Imperial Japanese and the Nazis because the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and Hitler was committing a genocide against the Jews.  World War I on the other hand was much more complex. In particular, the impetus for the war, as well as the motivation for American involvement, are far less clear. However, I would argue World War I was every bit as historically crucial as World War II because the consequences of the war played such a large role in creating the conditions for World War II.  Additionally, the steps taken by President Woodrow Wilson to engage the U.S. in a European war that had nothing to do with American security would go a long way towards breaking down the traditional American position of non-intervention and setting the stage for the next century of U.S. imperial foreign policy.

So what was World War I all about, who were the involved parties, and how did it start?  The war began in June 1914 when Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by radical Serbian nationalists in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.  While significant, this event alone should not have led to a continent-wide war. However, there had been such a built up web of entangling European alliances, which meant that conflict between any small number of nations could require their allies to also join the conflict.  The events that led to World War I, whereby various powers entered into the conflict one by one in order to support their allegiances, was the very reason George Washington so fervently warned the U.S. against involving itself in “entangling alliances”. “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliance with any portion of the foreign world,” he said.  Initially, the Germans came to the aid of their ally Austria-Hungary and provided a “blank check”, meaning they would unconditionally support the Austro-Hungarians if they decided to retaliate against the Serbs or any Serbian allies that got involved.  Russia quickly jumped to the defense of its ally Serbia, and when the Germans marched through neutral Belgium to attack France, a Serbian ally, after declaring war on them, the British and French joined the war on the side of the Allies as well. By the time the war was in full swing, the main Allied Powers consisted of Serbia, Russia, France, and the British Empire, while the Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

The Americans, with little at stake in a war across the Atlantic Ocean and no real public desire to get involved, initially remained neutral.  However, there was a gradual build up of war fever and propaganda pushed by factions who thought America should intervene and support the Allies.  The U.S. began supplying the British with weapons and supplies, much of which was transported by way of passenger ships. In response, the Germans attacked and sank the Lusitania in May 1915, a British steamliner that was one of the largest passenger ships in the world, which was carrying 128 American citizens.  The sinking of the Lusitania led to the emergence of the “Preparedness movement” in America, which proposed that the U.S. should immediately begin building up forces and weaponry to prepare to enter the fight, as many saw the sinking as an act of war necessitating reciprocation.  However, America remained militarily neutral until 1917.

The primary justification for U.S. entry into World War I was the Zimmermann Telegram.  German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Mexico proposing an exchange by which Mexico would aid the Central Powers in the war and Germany would help Mexico reclaim the territories of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico that they had lost in the Mexican-American War 70 years prior.  The telegram was intercepted by the British, who relayed it to Wilson, who then released it to the American public. The notion that Germany, which didn’t have the naval power to feed its own people during the war, had the ability to come to North America and attack the American southwest for the Mexicans was preposterous.  Still, it was enough to push war support among the American public over the edge and this, along with increased German submarine warfare against American ships in the Atlantic Ocean, led to the U.S. formally declaring war in April 1917.

Before the Americans entered World War I, the Allies and the Central Powers had essentially fought to a stalemate.  Neither side could gain the upper hand and enthusiasm for the war appeared to be dwindling across Europe. When the U.S. joined, it immediately shifted the balance of power and allowed the Allies to achieve victory.  By November 1918, the Central powers had surrendered and a final armistice was agreed to. In June 1919, the main Allied Powers and Germany agreed to the Treaty of Versailles, the most important of the peace treaties that officially brought the war to an end.  The treaty included a number of devastating conditions for the losing Germans, who were forced to pay for damages from the war as well as many other forms of reparations to the Allies.

U.S. involvement in World War I undoubtedly altered the European landscape for years to come.  It’s unknown exactly how the war would have played out had America not entered, but it certainly appeared as if the fighting was reaching an endpoint and neither the Allies nor the Central Powers would have finished in a dominant position over the other.  Instead, the Versailles Treaty that proceeded from the Allied victory led to utter devastation of the German economy. With no possible way to legitimately pay for the reparations that had been forced upon them, the Germans instead turned to the printing press to accommodate their costs, which led to hyperinflation and economic collapse.  As is often the case, Germany’s economic calamity led to the rise of an authoritarian movement in response. In interwar Germany, the movement was Nazism led by Adolf Hitler, who had condemned the Germans for capitulating to the severe demands of the Treaty of Versailles and promised a strong nationalism led by his powerful, irresistible will.  Hitler’s rise to power of course led to the Holocaust and many of the conditions that caused the Second World War, which devastated much of the world, killed tens of millions, and created political instability all over the globe.

Despite the fact that the war was not fought on U.S. soil and American casualties were relatively limited, the damage done to America’s political system was incalculable.  The war led to an expansion of state power at home, as is generally the case during war time. Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, a government agency whose job was to promote war propaganda to increase public support.  The state also became increasingly more involved in the control of economic resources, as war planning and preparation required actions that would not have been adequately supplied by the private sector independently. For example, the United States Food Administration under Herbert Hoover created a campaign to teach citizens to ration food, grow “victory gardens” in order to supply U.S. soldiers with food, as well as directly manage food distribution and prices.  World War I also saw the initiation of the Selective Service Act, by which more than 24 million men were required to register to be drafted and nearly 2.7 million were conscripted into the army.

The war signified a paradigm shift in which the U.S. went from being a nation that defended its own security and did not involve itself in the affairs of other nations to one that saw its role as one to “make the world safe for democracy,” as Wilson put it.  This dogma, that it is America’s moral obligation to spread its goodness around the world militarily, exists to this day and can largely be attributed to the ideas and the actions of Woodrow Wilson in World War I.  While World War I is not a war that is widely understood by average Americans, its consequences are essential to understanding the circumstances that led to World War II, as well as to explaining the roots of America’s current global imperial presence.