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HISTORY OF WORLD WAR I

by Albert E. Mckinley, Ph.D.

To understand World War I, it is not sufficient to read the daily happenings of

military and naval events as they are told in newspapers and magazines. We
must go back of the facts of today and find in national history and personal
ambition the causes of the present struggle. Years of preparation were
necessary before German military leaders could convert a nation to their
views, or get ready the men, munitions, and transportation for the war they
wanted. Conflicts of races for hundreds of years have made the southeastern
part of Europe a firebrand in international affairs. The course of the Russian
revolution has been determined largely by the history of the Russian people
and of the Russian rulers during the past two centuries. The entrance of
England and Italy into the war against Germany was in each case brought
about by causes which came into existence long before August, 1914. A
person who understands, even in part, the causes of this great struggle, will be
in a better position to realize why America entered the war and what our
nation is fighting for. And better yet, he will be more ready to take part in
settling the many problems of peace which must come after the war is over.
For these reasons, the first few chapters of this book are devoted to a study of
the important facts of recent European history.
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO− It is remarkable that almost exactly a century
before the present world war, Europe was engaged in a somewhat similar
struggle to prevent an ambitious French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, from
becoming the ruler of all that continent, and of America as well. He had
conquered or intimidated nearly all the states of Europe− Austria, Prussia,
Russia, Spain, etc.− except Great Britain. He once planned a great settlement
on the Mississippi River, and so alarmed President Jefferson that the latter
said the United States might be compelled to “marry themselves to the British
fleet and nation.” But England’s navy kept control of the seas; Napoleon’s
colony in North America was never founded; and at last the peoples of
Europe rose against their conqueror, and in the battle of Waterloo, June 18,
1815, finally overthrew him.
EUROPE SINCE 1815− After the downfall of Napoleon the rulers of Europe
met in conference at Vienna and sought to restore conditions as they had been
before the war. They were particularly anxious that the great masses of the
people in their several nations should continue to respect what was termed
“the divine right of kings to rule over their subjects.” They did not, except in