hi there my name is Kylie and welcome to world war 1 part 1 in this video you'll
learn about how a world war 1 began who fought in it and how the United States
became involved
many believe that World War one began when an Austrian Duke and his wife were
assassinated in 1914 however trouble in Europe had been
brewing long before that some historians believe that the trouble between the
many different countries and their allies who fought in World War 1 started
back many years before 1914 during the later part of the 1800s many different
alliances between different groups and countries in Europe were formed an
alliance is when two or more countries agreed to help one another out in times
of need like war natural disaster and other issues some alliances are formal
meaning detailed documents were written and signed telling the countries what
specific help they would give and when other alliances were informal meaning
agreements were discussed between rulers or the different countries but not
written on paper if a country was in an alliance with one or more other
countries they would have to defend and fight with those countries whether they
liked it or not with over eight Alliance groups containing over 20 countries
things in Europe got very complicated imperialism is also thought of as one of
the factors that caused World War one
imperialism is when one country takes over another and forces that country to
obey their laws and customs they also force them to give them the resources
for example by 1900 Great Britain had an empire that spread over five continents
their ally France also had a lot of colonies and control over a large
portion of Africa in contrast Germany who was not an ally of France or Great
Britain did not have control over a lot of other countries with their
populations growing the need for more resources was causing a lot of countries
to try to get as many other countries as possible under their control with
everyone in Europe taking sides joining alliances and trying to take
over other countries in Africa India and elsewhere countries in the early 1900's
started beefing up their armies and navies militarism is when governments or
countries start placing a lot of importance on their armies and navies
they decide to spend a lot of money on new ships more soldiers and the latest
and greatest weapons when one group of allies saw that another group got a
better ship or a new weapon they would rush to outdo them for example Great
Britain had invented and built a newer stronger battleship in 1906 it was
called the dreadnought it was huge it had many weapons which were for fighting
off destroyers and torpedo boats no other boats could come close to this
power and speed Germany immediately started constructing its own battleships
to try and outdo Great Britain all this struggling to make the best weapons and
get the biggest armies made a lot of countries in Europe as well as countries
around the world very nervous before the war broke out in 1914 two smaller fights
occurred in 1904 the country of Morocco had been given to France by Great
Britain the Moroccans were not happy with this they wanted their independence
and Germany because it was against France and Great Britain supported the
Moroccans by 1911 war was about to break out but Great Britain convinced the
Germans to not help the Moroccans Great Britain did this by giving Germany a
small portion of the French Congo in Africa it was like the larger countries
were playing a board game with the smaller weaker countries then in 1908
austria-hungary took over Bosnia Serbia felt Bosnia should be theirs and were
very very angry Serbia threatened austria-hungary with
war because Russia was allied to Serbia it mobilised its forces this means
Russia started sending troops and supplies to fight
Germany allied to austria-hungary mobilized its forces and prepared to
threaten Russia something needed to give tensions between all the countries
involved were very high governments and leaders of countries not only had to be
worried about their own colonies finding more smaller countries to take over and
at the same time building up their militaries they had to worry about their
allies getting them into trouble all that needed to happen was something to
set off countries fighting on June 28th 1914 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and
his wife countess Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo Bosnia the
assassin was a member of a Serbian terrorist group called the black hand
his name was gari o Princip this called the Austrians to declare war on the
Serbians and everyone the Allies soon followed in 1914 a group of allies or
friends of Austria joined in war against the countries that supported the
assassination the group that included Austria was called the Central Powers it
was made up of Germany austria-hungary the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the
group against Austria was called the allies and included Britain France
Russia Italy and later the United States even though World War one started in
1914 the US did not get involved until 1915 the u.s. wanted to remain neutral
this means the United States did not want to take sides and believed it was
not an issue that mattered to their country many Americans as well as US
presidents Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson Delta all
issues the major European powers were dealing with really were not an issue of
the United States the u.s. had plenty of resources room for its people and was
not building up there military to find new places to take over
and colonize that opinion would change the u.s. eventually ended its neutrality
and decided to join the Allies in 1917 this all started in 1915 when a
passenger civilian ship the Lusitania was attacked and sunk by the Germans
1198 people were drowned including a hundred and twenty eight Americans
civilians are people not actively fighting in a war and who are not
members of the army or Navy between 1915 and 1917 failed talks between the US and
Germany about the sinking of ships with civilians and the outrage of Americans
about more civilians being killed by the Germans led the United States to declare
war on the Germans on April 6 1917 you have just learned about how World War 1
began who fought in it and how the United States became involved be sure to
watch our next video to learn about the way the war was fought and how it was
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