American Participation in World War I

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The US Military Effort in WW1

About the War: Background

World War War1 also known as the 'Great War' was a conflict that occurred in Europe from 1914-1918. As a major war, it involved all the great powers of the world at that time: the Allied or Entente Powers headed by the UK, France, Belgium & Belgium who were supported by Japan,Italy, Serbia, Greece, Portugal and Russia. The US joined the Allied effort in the last year of the War. The opposing side was known as the Central Powers headed by Germany and supported by Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. Prior to the war, there were 5 major European military 'Empires' - the British Empire (this includes all British commonwealth countries), Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russian and Ottoman (present-day Turkey). After the War, all empires ceased to to exist except for the British. It was a bloody war where millions of lives were lost as it was fought via trench warfare. In the number of soldiers alone, the casualties, losses and MIA numbered close to 40 million. The number increases exponentially when the civilian dead and wounded is included. Prior to the war, the 19th century was a period in which all the 'great powers' worked to maintain a power balance. This was still the last century of colonial power. This resulted to a series of military and political alliances that all came crumbling down after a series of far smaller conflicts (i.e. the Balkan war of 1912-1913 which shrank the Ottoman Empire leaving the Ottomans thirsting to gain back territory), the attack of Serbia & Greece by Bulgaria in 1913 leading the second Balkan war plunge down to irreversible conflict via the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia in June 1914. The July that followed saw frenzied maneuvering between the aforementioned '5 powers' and when diplomatic understanding wasn't achieved, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, the Russians unwilling to lose ...