The History of~The United States (Part 8: The World Wars)

As we continue our page series about the History of the United States, we left off from here it was about the West and how it was more "tamed" than we actually thought.

This page will talk about America going to war...........again. But this time, America will be on the global stage fighting in Europe and Asia.

This page will only talk about the major battles that the USA took part in the 2 world wars, for a more detailed info about the 2 world wars, please click on these links below

World War 1

World War 2

The United States has been at war with other nations. As we all know, they were at war with Britain and Mexico for  control over territories. But as America is still obsessed with Manifest Destiny, it wants to expand its influence beyond the confines of North America. It was competing with the Empires of Europe to control several other territories such as Great Britain, France, Russia and in particular Spain. In the 1890's, the USA decides to go to war with the waning Spanish Empire for control over their islands such as Cuba, Hawaii and the Philippines.

The USA wins this war and they get control over their islands, though the USA would deal with an uprising in the Philipines. But it would be nearly 20 years before the USA would go to war........again.

## World War 1

Things in Europe were already falling apart by the 1910's. Weapons were getting deadlier, the German Empire wanted more territories and it was in a naval race with Britain.

It wasn't until 1914 when the Archduke of *Austria-Hungary* named *Franz Ferdinand* was making his visits to the city of *Sarajevo*. There would be a first attempt on his life when a Serbian separatist would throw a bomb at his car, though this attempt would fail as the bomb would bounce off the car. The second attempt, another separatist would use a small pistol and aim for this throat, this attempt would succeed as Ferdinand would die soon thereafter.

The reason why war broke out because of clauses and poorly interpreted treaties between the European Nations, so the nations had no other choice but to also declare war on once known allies.

The extremely slow movement of soldiers as well as the extensive usage of Trench Warfare would make the war a very long one as the Western Alliance and the Central Powers, casualties would also skyrocket throughout the war as well.

What about the USA? Eventhough, they declared neutrality at the breakout of the war, they would be a supplying ally to the Western Alliance as they would bring Britain and France supplies. But on May 7, 1915, a German submarine would torpedo a British Passenger liner called the *RMS Lusitania*, Killing around 1,198 people on board (which included several Americans)

Though the US President *Woodrow Wilson* was reluctant at first, but he had no choice to declare war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917 (over 2 years after the sinking of the Lusitania) with Germany still using unrestricted submarine warfare, with this the USA has formed something called the *American Expeditionary Force* (AEF for short). With this, the American forces saw a massive increase in it's military. With this, the USA would go on to fight on the side of the Western Alliance and into the Trenches in Northern France.

By the Spring of 1918 is when the Western Alliance made a breakthrough when the fresh US Forces achieved their first victory in the *Battle of Cantigny*, they were also werew able to help the exhausted British and French forces in many other battles and push the Germans back and played a key role in the *Hundred Days Offensive* which went all the way until the end of the war on *November 11*.

## Between the wars

After the war, Wilson met with British Prime Minister *David Lloyd George* and French Prime Minister *Georges Clemenceau* at the Palace of Versailles to discuss the treaty which would be named after the palace.

Wilson (unlike the Prime Ministers) wanted to go easy on the defeated Germans, he introduced his "14 points" policy to the treaty of Versailles so that way Germany is let off easy and to rebuild the broken European economy.

Now, now every of Wilson's "14 points" was implemented in the treaty, but it did (for a time at least) helped with the economy of Europe.

By the 1920's, things would start to spiral downwards for the USA. Crime Lords such as *Al Capone* would get rich as the US Government would put a banning on Alcoholic Beverages, which allowed criminals like Capone to bootleg Alcohol and sell it in underground places known as *Speakeasies*. But it'll all hit the fan in October of 1929 when the US Stock Market would crash and people would become unemployed. This would start *The Great Depression* which would defy the USA for the next decade.

To make matters worse, the Midwest was also going through a huge drought which consisted of blinding and deadly clouds of silica dust blowing into the Atmosphere, this would be called *The Dust Bowl*.

## World War 2

On September 1, 1939. Nazi Germany (led by Adolf Hitler) would invade Poland (with the USSR invading to prevent the German advance from going further, World War 2 would begin. Though in Asia, the Japanese Empire would invade China (interrupting the Civil War there).

At first, the USA wasn't interested in going to war. In fact, around 75% of Americans wanted their country to stay neutral in the war.

It wasn't until December 7, 1941 when the Japanese Empire (responding to the USA's oil embargo) made an attack on the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor.

This immediately shifted public opinion in the USA who now have a desire for revenge against Japan. However, US President *Franklin Delano Roosevelt* made a decision to go after the Nazis first, as they can (and almost have) taken down Britain (who the USA was helping discreetly in the beginning parts of the War).

The USA would fight in both theaters of World War 2, they would first engage in a naval battle in the Atlantic and then conduct bombing raids on Nazi Occupied Europe. The army's first land battle would be in North Africa (during Operation Torch) and as they defeated Vichy France, they venture to Tunisia where they fought (and lost) to the Nazis at Kasserine Pass, the British would then come in and save the US from total defeat.

In the Pacific, the USA would take on the Japanese Navy who was bombing Midway Island. The USA would suffer casualties, but would eventually defeat the Japanese in this battle, with this the US Navy would slowly but surely gain the upper hand in the Pacific Theater.

However, the USA and Britain would make breakthroughs in Europe. On June 6, 1944 an Allied mission called *Operation Overlord*. The battle was horrific, but the Allies would prevail and liberate France for the rest of the summer, eventually defeating the Nazis in 1945.

The USA would make breakthroughs in the Pacific too. They would re-take the Philippines and capture all of the Japanese occupied islands (which included Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa).

In 1945, the USA would create 2 Atomic Bombs (Little Boy and Fat Man), and in the summer of 1945, the USA would drop them on Japan.

Little Boy was dropped on *Hiroshima*, and Fat Man was dropped on *Nagasaki*, killing over 200,000 people. With this, Japan surrenders and the war was over.

It seems now that the USA has achieved superpower status since it now won the world wars. However, it isn't over yet. The USA's newly achieved status would be contested by a seemingly strong superpower: The *Union of The Soviet Socialist Republics.* Another war would be waged, though would it be bloody and violent as the world wars?

This concludes this page for this series of the histroy of The United States. The Next page will talk about the Cold War, and how would it shape our modern society, just click here to continue. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.