Page 9 - 21st Century Defense 100th Anniversary WW1

including 128 Americans. German U-boats preyed on neutral World War I marked the marriage of warfare and technology
shipping in direct violation of international policy. Finally, there that led to a new way of combat—and larger numbers of death
was the Zimmerman affair, in which the Germans sent the and destruction than had ever been envisioned in the history
government of Mexico a secret telegram offering to return of combat. That was perhaps the war’s most lasting legacy.
US territory in exchange for its support in the war. That was Finally, the warring sides signed an armistice on November
predicated on the premises that Germany would win the war 11, 1918. One of the ensuing questions was who lost and who
and the US would stay out of it. Neither happened.
won. Central Powers forces had defeated the Russian armies in
Wilson could not ignore Germany’s transgressions and 1918. The Russian government had fallen to the communists,
declared war against it on April 4, 1917. The problem was that who signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.
the US did not have an army or navy ready to go to war, which According to the terms, Russia renounced all claims to Estonia,
actually worked in its favor. By time US troops and naval forces Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland. The Germans
reached Europe the fighting had reached a stalemate and they accepted responsibility for determining the future status of
were able to tip the balance in the allies’ favor just enough to these territories in agreement with their respective populations.
bring about an armistice.
Later the two sides agreed to the partition of Poland, which
The fighting morphed into a brutal war of attrition that allowed the country to revert to its 1772 borders. The treaty
involved millions of troops using new weapons of mass was vitiated after the allies triumphed over the Central Powers
destruction that had devastating effects on both sides. They and the two sides signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28,
included tanks, planes, submarines, and gases that affected 1919, which cost Germany in particular control over many of
civilians as well as the combatants. These weapons made it its colonies and territories. But the outcome did not settle the
easier to kill and main one another from afar, and woe to issues that had led the Central Powers and their adversaries
civilians who got caught up in gas attacks or ran afoul of into the war in the first place. In fact, it created more, most
German U-boats that disregarded the rules of engagement. notably with territorial alignment.

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