WWI Centennial: “The War to End All Wars” | Mental Floss WWI Centennial: “The War to End All Wars” Getty Images Like us on Facebook The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that shaped our modern world. Erik Sass is covering the events of the war exactly 100 years after they happened. This is the 139th installment in the series. August 14 - 19, 1914: “The War to End All Wars” “We have not sought this reckoning, we have done our utmost to avoid it; but now that it has been forced upon us it is imperative that it should be a thorough reckoning,” the British futurist writer H.G. Wells wrote in an article titled “The War That Will End War,” published in The Daily News on August 14, 1914. Commonly cited as “the war to end all wars” or a similar variant, the phrase was quickly adopted as a slogan to explain British and later American participation in the war, as set forth by Wells in his essay: This is already the vastest war in history. It is a war not of nations, but of mankind.

It is a war to exorcise a world-madness and end an age… For this is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war! In fact, pundits welcomed the war for a whole variety of reasons, coincidentally reflecting their own agendas. Some predicted it would lead to a “rebirth” of society in a “purified” form, which could mean anything from the end of class distinctions, to a return of chivalrous ideals, to the purging of “foreign” racial elements. Others, like Wells, hoped it would result in the overthrow of tyranny and triumph of democracy. Colonial subjects believed the war might force white Europeans to grant them more rights, or even independence. Illinois.edu But for many ordinary young men who volunteered to fight in the early days of the conflict, it simply seemed to offer an opportunity for adventure and (ironically) freedom. Jack O’Brien, a Canadian volunteer, recalled telling his friend, “I can't get it out of my head.

There is going to be the devil of a scrap over there—and say, boy! I've got to get into it!” The German novelist Carl Zuckmayer later recalled that for young middle class men volunteering meant Liberation from middle-class narrowness and fussiness… from the doubts about choosing a profession and from all the things that we perceived—consciously or unconsciously—as the saturation, closeness, and rigidity of our world… It had become serious… and at the same time a huge exhilarating adventure... We shouted out “freedom” while we were jumping into the strait-jacket of the Prussian uniform. It sounds absurd. But we had become men with a single blow. 1914-1918.net In Britain, 299,000 men enlisted in August (the scene in Whitehall, above), followed by another 463,000 in September, while 350,000 Frenchmen volunteered in the first week of August alone, and comparable numbers flooded recruiting centers in Germany. Everything around them seemed to confirm they were making the right decision.

Across Europe, young men enlisted and went off to war in a festive atmosphere, amid cheering throngs who smothered them with candy, flowers, alcohol, cigarettes and—in a memorable departure from propriety for some young women—kisses. French and British troops in Belgium and British troops in France received similarly delirious welcomes. Hugh Gibson, the secretary at the American embassy in Brussels, described the arrival of French scouts in Brussels: The people in the crowd had bought out the near-by shops of cigars and cigarettes and chocolate and small flasks of brandy, and as each man rode by he was loaded up with as much as he could carry… All the cafes around the Porte Louise sent out waiters and waitresses with trays of beer to meet the troops… Each man would snatch a glass of beer, swallow it as he rode along, and hand it back to others… The French and British troops can have anything they want in this country.

Wikimedia Commons Philip Gibbs, a British war correspondent, recalled: “In every market square where the regiments halted for a rest there was free wine for any thirsty throat, and soldier boys from Scotland or England had their brown hands kissed by girls who were eager for hero worship and had fallen in love with these clean-shaven lads and their smiling grey eyes.” Hidden Fears But these public scenes didn’t tell the whole truth, as many people kept their fears private— especially women who, finding themselves suddenly alone, still tried their best to put on a brave face. Princess Blücher, an Englishwoman married to a German aristocrat who was living in Berlin, wrote in mid-August: … a lady has just been in to see me who came straight from parting from her only son, a boy of 21. She described how heartrending were his excitement and delight at going off with the rest, and how she could hardly hide her grief when beaming with pride he showed her the little metal disc with his name on it, which every soldier wears for identification in case of being killed… In fact this seemingly unfeeling heroism often puzzles me.

There is hardly any thought of life and love and relations in the young men going away, but a sort of reckless joy in the certainty of the near death awaiting them… One can do nothing as a woman but remain passive and look on, although on a perfect rack of torment. Everywhere, the public displays of enthusiasm coexisted with anxiety about the future. Many people hoped the war would be “over by Christmas,” but Lord Kitchener, the hero of Sudan who was hastily appointed Secretary of State for War on August 6, shocked the British public with his prediction that the war would last at least three years and require millions of men. Equally sobering were the first contacts with refugees. On August 14, Piete Kuhr, a 12-year-old girl living in eastern Germany, wrote: “You suddenly get the feeling that the enemy is quite near. People are becoming uneasy. Fresh refugees have arrived from East Prussia… One woman with noisy children kept crying out, ‘Where can we go?

Where can we go?’ She said, ‘A girl like you can have no idea what it’s like, can you?’ and tears ran down her chubby red cheeks.” The Enigma of War This widespread anxiety was heightened by a general sense of helpless ignorance; indeed, one of the most remarkable aspects of the Great War was how little most people, civilians and soldiers alike, actually knew about what was going on. This was the inevitable (and probably intended) result of wartime censorship, instituted by emergency decrees and legislation like Britain’s Defense of the Realm Act, which left an information vacuum to be filled by rumor and official propaganda. Soldiers were often stunningly misinformed.

On August 9, Hugh Gibson, the secretary at the American embassy in Brussels, heard about German prisoners of war who “did not know what they were attacking and thought they were in France.” Around the same time Gladys Lloyd, an Englishwoman traveling in Belgium, had a friendly encounter with German Uhlans (cavalry) who occupied the village she was staying in: “Many honestly believe, and have probably been told so by their officers, that Belgium wantonly declared war on Germany.” On the other side many people believed that the United States was joining the war on one side or the other. Gibson, the secretary at the U.S. embassy in Brussels, recalled: “They were pathetic in their confidence that the United States was coming to save them… Nearly every group we talked to asked hopefully when our troops were coming…” Irvin Cobb, a writer for the Saturday Evening Post, was asked by a Belgian innkeeper: “Messieurs… do you think it can be true, as my neighbors tell me, that the United States President has ordered the Germans to get out of our country?” A few days later, Cobb met a German private who asked him if the U.S. was going to join the war on Germany’s side.

Even people supposed to be “in the know” were anything but. On August 9, the French General Joseph Gallieni, sitting in a Paris café in civilian attire, overhead a newspaper editor at a neighboring table assuring his friend that he, Gallieni, had just entered Colmar, 230 miles to the east of Paris, at the head of a victorious French army. Amused, Gallieni whispered to his friend, “That is how history is written.” Foreigners were sometimes better informed than natives, if they had access to outside information. On August 23 Eric Fisher Wood, the U.S. military attaché in Paris, wrote: Here in Paris, extraordinary as it may seem, we have had no real news of the progress of the war. The Official Communiques carry to a fine point the art of saying nothing of any importance. The newspapers are so strictly censored that they are permitted to publish little except these communiques or editorials based upon them. Letters and papers from America really give us the first accounts of events which are happening at our very gates. Americans Caught In the War Zone Wood’s colleagues at the U.S. embassy had their work cut out for them.

Among the Great War’s more marginal victims were thousands of Americans who’d been enjoying a lovely summer on the continent only to find themselves suddenly caught in a war zone. They were a cross section of American society, from wealthy tourists to middle class college students, bohemian artists, professional musicians, and everyone in between, but they all had one thing in common: they wanted out—now. This was a challenge, as railroads were taken over by each nation’s military, berths on ships leaving Europe quickly sold out, and the international banking system froze up, making checks drawn on American banks useless. The latter was an especially trying circumstance for American millionaires who now found themselves literally penniless and adrift in a foreign country. Meanwhile anyone with the misfortune to be caught in Germany had an extra layer of logistics to deal with, since the only way out was through the neutral Netherlands, Switzerland, or Scandinavian countries. Charles Inman Barnard described meeting some American tourists recently arrived in Paris from Germany via Zurich, including one family… lucky enough to catch the last train conveying [German] troops westward.

They traveled for two days without food or water, one of the ladies fainting from exhaustion, and after the train reached its destination they had to walk several miles across the frontier, where they were taken on board a French troop train. They lost all their baggage. Eight other Americans reported a similar experience. They had a tramp of ten miles into France, and one of their number, a lady partly paralyzed, had to be carried. They could procure no food until they reached France. The U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Henry van Dyke, recalled: I never had any idea, before the war broke out, how many of our countrymen and countrywomen there are roaming about Europe every summer, and with what a cheerful trust in Providence and utter dis­regard of needful papers and precautions some of them roam! There were old men so feeble that one’s first thought on seeing them was: “How did you get away from your nurse?”… There were col­lege boys who had worked their way over and couldn't find a chance to work it back. There were art-students and music-students whose resources had given out.

There was a very rich woman, plastered with diamonds, who demanded the free use of my garage for the storage of her auto­mobile. When I explained that, to my pro­found regret, it was impossible… she flounced out of the room in high dudgeon. Now, not for the first or last time, the U.S. government set about the task of extricating its hapless citizens from a very complex and unpleasant situation overseas. Congress allocated $1.5 million in gold to provide credit (or grants) to stranded Americans and on August 6 the battleship U.S.S. Tennessee departed for from New York for Europe carrying this money, as well as $3 million in private bankers’ gold, and Assistant Secretary of War Henry Breckinridge to oversee the relief and evacuation efforts. After the Tennessee arrived in Britain on August 16, the United States Relief Commission set up its headquarters London, where thousands of Americans from across the continent had already washed up. Meanwhile Breckinridge proceeded to tour U.S.

embassies and consulates across the continent, stopping in the Hague, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Geneva, and Paris, with funds to help indigent Americans get as far as London, where the relief commission would take over. Spy Scares Ambient feelings of ignorance and insecurity helped fuel a wave of paranoia that swept Europe in the first weeks of the Great War, fixating on spies. Although both sides doubtless employed spies to keep tabs on enemy troops movements and public opinion, it’s also very likely that thousands of innocent people were accused—and in some cases executed without trial—for totally imagined offenses. In Germany there were rumors of Russian agents driving cars full of French gold back to Russia, leading peasants to stop anyone in a car at gunpoint—and on occasion shoot first and ask questions later. In Berlin Princess Blücher lamented the “extraordinary spy-fever prevailing here as everywhere. People are being arrested all over the country, and the most harmless individuals are accused of being spies if they look the least different from their neighbours. Continual mistakes are being made, which often lead to fatal results for the victims.” Belgium, treacherously invaded by a much larger neighbor, suffered some of the worst spy mania.

According to Wilson McNair, Belgian boy scouts led the persecution: One newspaper… had an article telling how a boy scout tracked a German spy and caught him while in the act of setting up a wireless installation on a housetop. From that hour every boy scout in Brussels became a spy-hunter… The thing became a plague within twenty-four hours… They followed the most innocent people and spread terror wherever they went… Spies were everywhere, and every man began to feel himself unsafe. Suspicion soon crossed into the realm of the absurd, according to Paul Hamelius, who fled Liège before invading German forces, along with some other unfortunates: “A pathetic site was a group of three Chinese students from the University of Liège, youths of the Mandarin caste, with small hands and polite manners. They told us, in their harsh accent, and with the humble Oriental smile, how they, of all men, had been taken for German spies.” Germans March Through Belgium Hamelius and his new friends left Liège in the nick of time, as one fort after another fell under the methodical, merciless bombardment of the German Army’s huge 42-centimeter siege guns.

Fort Pontisse, the first victim of the “Big Berthas,” fell on August 12; on August 13, it was the turn of Embourg and Chaudfontaine; and by August 14 all the forts east of Liège had fallen, with the surrender of Boncelles, Liers, and Fléron. Finally, on August 16, the last holdout, Fort Loncin, was completely destroyed when a lucky shot hit the magazine (below). A German officer related the heroic, last-ditch resistance of Belgian troops led by General Gerard Leman: By this time our heaviest guns were in position, and a well-placed shell tore through the cracked and battered masonry and exploded in the main magazine. With a thunderous crash the mighty walls of the fort fell. Pieces of stone and concrete twenty-five cubic meters in size were hurled into the air… All the men in the fort were wounded, and most were unconscious. A corporal with one arm shattered valiantly tried to drive us back by firing his rifle.

Buried in the debris and pinned beneath a massive beam was General Leman… We thought him dead, but he recovered consciousness, and, looking around, said, “It is as it is. The men fought valiantly,” and then, turning to us, added: “Put in your dispatches that I was unconscious.” Nieuwdossier The fall of Liège cleared the way for the German First and Second Armies to advance into northern and central Belgium in force (top, German troops advance in Flanders) while the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Armies advanced through Luxembourg into the Ardennes Forest region of southeastern Belgium. On the other side, in the first half of August chief of the French general staff Joseph Joffre sent the Third Army under Pierre Ruffey and the Fourth Army under General Fernand de Langle de Cary to the eastern Belgian frontier to await the Germans, while the Fifth Army under General Charles Lanrezac advanced to a position near Mézières and Sedan.

Joffre’s Plan XVII anticipated an advance by the German right wing through the Ardennes—but as Lanrezac predicted several months before, the German right wing, consisting of the First and Second Armies, was actually advancing through central Belgium some 50 miles further north, suggesting a sweeping envelopment of the French armies from the rear, which was indeed the essence of the Schlieffen Plan (see map below). In an age before spy satellites, it was difficult to gather reliable intelligence about the enemy’s position, as analysts tried to piece together disparate, sometimes contradictory information from spies, scouts on horseback, and pilots who attempted to estimate troop concentrations and movements with the naked eye. Nonetheless, in the first half of August a stream of alarming reports seemed to confirm Lanrezac’s suspicions: on August 7 German cavalry reached the River Meuse at Huy, just ten miles east of the key fortress city of Namur, and seemed to be preparing to cross west of the river into central Belgium. But on August 10 Joffre, busy with First Army’s short-lived invasion of Alsace, dismissed Lanrezac’s warning.

Then on August 12, as German Uhlans skirmished with Belgian forces at Halen, Joffre again refused to allow Lanrezac to move Fifth Army north to Namur—although he grudgingly agreed to move a single corps (out of five in Fifth Army) to Dinant, barely across the Belgian border. He repeated the refusal on August 14. Meanwhile Lanrezac wasn’t the only one getting nervous. On August 11, Field Marshal Sir John French, the field commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), was briefed with intelligence revealing a large number of reserve divisions in the German front line – a surprising development, suggesting that the Germans were staking everything on a huge blow through Belgium. The following day Lord Kitchener, the new Secretary of War, predicted a German invasion west of the River Meuse and argued that the BEF should form further back, at Amiens, but was overruled by the French and British general staffs: The British divisions would concentrate near Maubeuge, close to the Belgian border, as originally planned.

French Advance Into Lorraine Joffre, the architect of the Allied strategy, remained convinced that the main German thrust would come across the Franco-German frontier to the south, and acted accordingly. Following the embarrassing withdrawal of the First Army’s VII Corps from Mulhouse on August 10, on August 14 he ordered a new attack by the French First and Second Armies into the “lost province” of Lorraine, while the reinforced VII Corps, now acting as the independent Army of Alsace, mounted another attack into Alsace. In short, it was to be an all-out attack across the length of the frontier. Once again, the French offensive seemed to begin easily, as the First and Second Armies attacked towards Sarrebourg and into the Vosges Mountains, as well as northeast towards Morhange, and forward elements of the German Sixth and Seventh Armies withdrew before them. However, German resistance stiffened in the evening of August 14, with machine guns and heavy artillery inflicting heavy casualties, and the following day Second Army’s advance slowed as French troops encountered massed rifle fire. The French brought up artillery support and continued advancing doggedly, suffering more casualties as the Germans used long-range artillery to blunt the French offensive.

Bibliothèque nationale de France Despite heavy opposition, on August 18 the First Army under Auguste Dubail occupied Sarrebourg in Lorraine, while the Second Army under Édouard de Castelnau was closing in on Morhange, about 20 miles to the northwest, and to the south the Army of Alsace under Paul Pau captured Mulhouse (for the second time) on August 19. However the tide was about to turn against the French. As they pursued Joffre’s ambitious goals a gap had opened between the French First and Second Armies, leaving the flank of the Second Army vulnerable. On August 16 the commander of the German Sixth and Seventh Armies, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, asked for permission to mount a counteroffensive, and (after several days of waffling by chief of the general staff Moltke) received tentative approval on August 18.

Of course this was a major departure from the strategy outlined in the Schlieffen Plan, which called for the German Sixth and Seventh Armies to mount a fighting withdrawal intended to lure French forces into Alsace-Lorraine, leaving the job of envelopment to the German right wing, swinging down through Belgium and northern France to attack the French forces from the rear. Instead Moltke now began to consider attempting a “double envelopment,” with the German left wing attacking at the same time as the right wing to speedily encircle French forces and achieve a decisive victory early on. As early as August 14, in fact, Moltke had begun shifting forces from the right wing to the left wing—a move that fatally weakened the all-important northern offensive, critics later alleged. Joffre Begins to Move Fifth Army While French forces seemed to be making progress in Alsace-Lorraine, the French high command was finally beginning to see signs of serious trouble to the north. On August 15 Lanrezac’s sole army corps at Dinant came under attack by German advance forces trying to cross the River Meuse, which the French managed to repel in heavy fighting, and news also arrived that the Germans were approaching the fortress city of Namur.

Thus, on the evening of August 15, Joffre ordered Lanrezac to send reinforcements from Fifth Army north towards Dinant—but he still refused to move the French Fourth Army under Langle de Cary further west at the same time, meaning Lanrezac’s Fifth Army was stuck guarding a larger area with the same number of troops. Joffre wanted the Fourth Army to stay where it was for his planned invasion of the Ardennes, set to begin August 21. Towards that end he also split the French Third Army, creating a new Army of Lorraine to guard the right flank while the remainder of the Third Army attacked northeast towards Luxembourg. By August 19, the stage was set for two major clashes—one in Lorraine and another in the Ardennes region of southeast Belgium. Joffre’s Plan XVII was about to meet reality. Belgians Withdraw to Antwerp Belgium’s King Albert was already staring some unpleasant facts in the face. After the fall of Liège, the vastly outnumbered Belgian Army had no hope of holding off the advancing Germans by itself.

Disappointed by the failure of the French and British to send sizeable forces to Belgium’s aid, and alarmed by the approach of Von Kluck’s First Army to the River Gete just 20 miles east of Brussels, on Tuesday, August 18, Albert ordered the government and Belgian Army to withdraw from the defenseless capital and head north to the fortified city of Antwerp, now dubbed the “National Redoubt.” Here they would be able to hold out for at least a few more months, and hopefully receive Allied reinforcements via Britain’s Royal Navy. A Stunning Serbian Victory While everyone expected Austria-Hungary to crush Serbia quickly at the beginning of the war, against all odds the Serbs delivered a humiliating defeat to Hapsburg forces in August 1914, foreshadowing a whole series of military disasters in store for the Dual Monarchy. At the beginning of the war the Serbian commander, Marshal Putnik, mobilized his three small armies in central Serbia, leaving the capital Belgrade undefended, in order to gain time and space to organize his forces and assess Austrian intentions.

At first Hapsburg advance forces under Bosnia’s military governor Oskar Potiorek struggled to establish bridgeheads across the river Sava, which marked the northwestern border of Serbia, but by August 12 they had crossed the river and occupied the town of Šabac on the south shore. This cleared the way for the Austro-Hungarian Second, Fifth, and Sixth Armies to invade Serbia in force. The main battle began on August 15, when Austro-Hungarian forces met Serbian forces on the slopes of Cer Mountain, about 15 miles southwest of Šabac. After heavy losses on both sides, the Hapsburg forces began to fall back on August 16, and the following day the Serbs mounted an unsuccessful attack on Austro-Hungarian forces in Šabac. The Austrians in turn attempted to push the Serbs back on August 18, but this also failed as the Serbs brought up artillery and cavalry reinforcements. A series of skirmishes through the night culminated in a major victory on August 19, as the morale of the Hapsburg forces collapsed and they began to retreat in total disorder.

By August 24, they had withdrawn from Serbia completely. Meanwhile, the Austro-Hungarian chief of the general staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf, was alarmed by the rapid advance of Russian forces invading the empire’s northeastern province of Galicia (see map, below); he was also facing urgent requests from the German chief of the general staff, Moltke, to transfer more troops to the Russian front in order to take pressure off the German Eighth Army, guarding East Prussia against the advancing Russian First and Second Armies. Thus Conrad reluctantly put his plan to “punish” Serbia on hold and began transferring the Second Army from the Balkan front to Galicia. Russians Invade East Prussia Like the Austrians, the Germans were surprised by the speed with which the Russians were able to take the offensive: instead of six weeks, as expected, the first Russian forces crossed the border into East Prussia just two weeks after the beginning of mobilization. The Russians had rushed their forces into action before mobilization was complete, thus fulfilling their promise to France to attack within 15 days of mobilization, in the hopes of forcing the Germans to withdraw forces from the Western Front.

Two Russian armies, the First Army under Paul Rennenkampf and the Second Army under Alexander Samsonov, were supposed to converge on the German Eighth Army under Maximilian von Prittwitz, guarding the old Prussian capital of Königsberg as well as the bridges across the River Vistula. However Russian communications and logistics were extremely poor, and the armies were separated by East Prussia’s patchwork of lakes, which presented an additional obstacle to a coordinated attack; it probably didn’t help that Rennenkampf and Samsonov apparently despised each other. On August 17, Rennenkampf’s First Army was held up briefly by a minor German victory at the Battle of Stallupönen, but this border skirmish had little effect beyond inflating the ego of the German corps commander, Hermann von François, who flagrantly disobeyed Prittwitz’s order to retreat (this would be a recurring theme wherever François was involved). The First Army continued to advance, and two days later the Samsonov’s Second Army crossed the German border to the south. The arms of the Russian pincer were closing, and the German Eighth Army was surrounded – or so it seemed.

History: A War to End All War A War to End All War Edwin Stepp This year marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. While the so-called Great War quickly proved to be anything but the war that would prevent all future conflicts, the concept is still intriguing: Can a war put an end to war? As one of the fathers of science fiction, British writer H.G. Wells (1866–1946) was considered a prophet by his contemporaries. Known mostly for his novels The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, Wells predicted vast technological advances for the 20th century. But he also infused his dramatic and compelling stories with critique and commentary on the human condition and the failure of political systems to solve the problems of an emerging modern world. Wells was a prolific writer not only of fiction but also of nonfiction and essays. He often wrote about the evils of war, advocating primarily pacifist views—that is, until the First World War descended on Europe. He believed strongly that the German military buildup, which had been occurring since the nation’s 1871 unification, was driven by a corrupt industrial and political system that needed to be eradicated.

As a result, he concluded that there could be a just war and that the only way to end the current “great” war was to fight it completely and totally. “So long as the unstable peace endured, … it was still possible to argue that to be prepared for war was the way to keep the peace. But now everyone knows better.” H.G. Wells, The War That Will End War Prescient as he was, did Wells hit on something? Can a war bring about the eradication of war? A War for Peace In 1914, near the start of World War I, Wells began to write a series of essays and then published them as a short book titled The War That Will End War. He advocated a full disarmament of the German Empire as the only solution to completely stave off further war in Europe. That, of course, could only be done through a political and military alignment of other nations with the resources to take on an ever-more-powerful German military machine. Britain and France stood to lose the most if they failed to halt Germany’s advance. The United States was less immediately threatened, but it was easy for them to see that a Europe controlled and dominated by Germany posed a great threat.

In his treatise, Wells called on these allies to bring to bear every resource available to end the German Empire. In light of his pacifist views, it is surprising that Wells himself was Pollyannaish enough to believe that the Great War could end all wars forever. Yet he wrote: “This is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!” He was even further idealistic in his views that weapons themselves could somehow be eradicated: “In this smash-up of empires and diplomacy, this utter disaster of international politics, certain things which would have seemed ridiculously Utopian a few weeks ago have suddenly become reasonable and practicable. One of these … is the absolute abolition throughout the world of the manufacture of weapons for private gain. Whatever may be said of the practicability of national disarmament, there can be no dispute not merely of the possibility but of the supreme necessity of ending for ever the days of private profit in the instruments of death. That is the real enemy.

That is the evil thing at the very centre of this trouble.” The dream of disarmament spans human history. It brings to mind an often-cited prophecy from the Bible about a day when people and nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). But can that day be brought about by war or enforced by a government made up of fallible humans? Are the weapons themselves at the center of the trouble, as Wells asserted? Or are they just a symptom of the real problem? Empty Slogan Today the First World War is regarded as the first “total war,” in which each side engaged all its resources—military, industrial and human—on a scale never before thought possible. An estimated 10 million soldiers were killed as modern weapons and technologies overwhelmed outdated battle strategies. The media of the time captured the brutal horrors of the trenches in reports, news stories, photographs and even film in a way people had never before seen or experienced.

“It is characteristic of such times as this—that much in the world, and, more particularly, much in the minds of men, much that has seemed as invincible as the mountains and as deeply rooted as the sea, magically loses its solidity, fades, changes, vanishes.” H.G. Wells, The War That Will End War As the war progressed, therefore, and Wells’s book gained popularity, its title became a rallying cry for the citizens of Britain and her allies to dedicate all to the defeat of Germany and the Central Powers. The phrase gained traction and became ever more popular, morphing into a utopian slogan. Before long many were calling World War I “the war to end all wars.” But the bullish sentiment would soon wane. Even before the armistice, David Lloyd George, British prime minister during the latter part of World War I, reputedly remarked, “This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.” Even so, Wells has been praised as a kind of clairvoyant because in his writings he had foreseen robotics, air travel, aerial bombings, tanks, chemical weapons and nuclear bombs.

He had even predicted that world war would envelop the globe and had anticipated the threat of a world-ruling dictator. In The War That Will End War he had further argued that a league of nations would bring about a one-world government; the militaries of the powerful nations would collaborate to keep perpetual peace as they patrolled the seas and the globe. We can forgive the fact that this prophecy failed, because many others advocated similar solutions. Among them was US president Woodrow Wilson, who helped put together the League of Nations immediately following the First World War. The world had never faced such a calamity as global war before, so there had never been a need to try something like this. However naïve the notion was, therefore, it was a logical and powerful idea to consider—and the best that humanity had to offer. Before 1914 no one had imagined that the entire globe could be engulfed in war. With such a huge disaster under way, many tried to find optimism that, in the insanity of it all, humanity would come to its senses and see the utter brutality of war and the futility of thinking it could resolve conflicts between nations and peoples.

Cooperation between nations is needed in any attempt to end war, of course, but as the record shows, not only the League of Nations but later the United Nations failed to prevent further conflict in the 20th century. “The so-called peace movement in our world has consumed money enough and service enough to be something better than a weak little grumble at the existence of war.” H.G. Wells, The War That Will End War The reality is that even though World War I brought devastation and slaughter like nothing before seen, the lesson was short-lived. The events that followed the Great War all too quickly confirmed that declarations of an end to bloodshed were overoptimistic. After the Paris Peace Conference, which settled the war, British field marshal Archibald Wavell is said to have dismissed the solutions drafted there by saying, “After ‘the war to end war’ they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris at making a ‘Peace to end Peace.’” Tensions in Europe began to rise again, and it became clear that another world war loomed: perceived injustices on the part of the victors led the defeated to regroup and retaliate.

Ironically, from then on Wells’s phrase was used mostly in cynical argument against the idea that humanity could ever “end all wars.” Even Wells himself revived the phrase in this negative way in his later novel The Bulpington of Blup, written against the backdrop of a Europe once again facing conflict, and with the clouds of the Second World War beginning to gather on the horizon. He wrote: “The War to end War—that’s the magic phrase that has befuddled Father. He thinks that when we’ve smashed that fleet of theirs and massacred their infantry and taken those Krupp guns and all that, Lloyd George and King George and the Tzar and the French and the bankers and munition-makers are going to sit down together in a friendly conference, pool their flags and crowns, finish all that the eighteenth century left undone, and inaugurate the Millennium” (an allusion to the thousand-year-long time of peace prophesied in the Bible to begin at the return of Jesus Christ). Wells then drew an analogy to show the irony of using war to end war. The same character went on to say: “You won’t abolish cannibalism by eating cannibals.

You’ll never end war by war because it’s the best war-maker [who] wins.” The Cause of War While the main argument in The War That Will End War proved to be futile, Wells did make some very astute observations that hinted at the real cause of war. “This is already the vastest war in history,” he wrote. “It is war not of nations, but of mankind. It is a war to exorcise a world madness and end an age.” “All the realities of this war are things of the mind. This is a conflict of cultures, and nothing else in the world. All the world-wide pain and weariness, fear and anxieties, the bloodshed and destruction, the innumerable torn bodies of men and horses, the stench of putrefaction, the misery of hundreds of millions of human beings, the waste of mankind, are but the material consequences of a false philosophy and foolish thinking. We fight not to destroy a nation, but a nest of evil ideas… . “How are we to gather together the wills and understanding of men for the tremendous necessities and opportunities of this time?

Thought, speech, persuasion, an incessant appeal for clear intentions, clear statements for the dispelling of suspicion and the abandonment of secrecy and trickery; there is work for every man who writes or talks and has the slightest influence upon another creature. This monstrous conflict in Europe, the slaughtering, the famine, the confusion, the panic and hatred and lying pride, it is all of it real only in the darkness of the mind. At the coming of understanding it will vanish as dreams vanish at awakening. But never will it vanish until understanding has come.” H.G. Wells, “The War of the Mind,” in The War That Will End War He rightly understood that what ultimately needed to be changed was the way people think—that certain ideas and beliefs had to be destroyed, and that our human character had to be changed before there would be an end to further war: “The character of the new age that must come out of the catastrophes of this epoch will be no mechanical consequence of inanimate forces. Will and ideas will take a larger part in this swirl-ahead than they have even taken in any previous collapse.

No doubt the mass of mankind will still pour along the channels of chance, but the desire for a new world of a definite character will be a force, and if it is multitudinously unanimous enough, it may even be a guiding force, in shaping the new time.” A new character and way of thinking in men and women everywhere must be established if war is really ever to be ended. Is that possible? Wells thought that World War I might just be the thing to do it—that humanity would see the carnage and say, “Enough is enough”—that the madness of certain ideas could be seen and eradicated. “Our business is to kill ideas,” he wrote. “The ultimate purpose of this war is propaganda, the destruction of certain beliefs, and the creation of others. It is to this propaganda that reasonable men must address themselves.” He also realized that there was a kind of evil that needed to be removed: “Now at last we shake ourselves free and turn upon this boasting wickedness to rid the world of it. The whole world is tired of it.

And ‘Gott!’—Gott so perpetually invoked—Gott indeed must be very tired of it.” He rightly saw that Gott (German for “God”) was tired of being invoked in human wars. War’s End Human conflict can never end war. The record suggests that no matter how atrocious war becomes, humanity will never say, “Enough is enough.” Even the obscenity of World Wars I and II, with the ultimate horror of nuclear bombs, did not convince humankind to put away war. As Wells came to see, it will require a complete change of human nature and a defeat of all ideas that lead to violence and war. The first part of that most famous prophecy in Isaiah 2 hints at what will be required. Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, rejected for humanity the only true source of peace. When the first humans decided they wanted to choose right from wrong without instruction from and submission to God, they took civilization down the road to inevitable, continual war. In Isaiah’s prophecy we see that before the swords are turned into plowshares, God will judge the nations and rebuke many people. He will return to end humanity’s rebellion against His authority and rule.

The book of Revelation talks about this judging and rebuking of the nations, and about a time when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4). It will be the result of a godly war that truly will end all wars: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war… . He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron” (Revelation 19:11–15). The conqueror on the white horse is a righteous leader and the only one qualified to fight a war to end all wars.

This coming warrior and king is Jesus Christ, who came to the earth the first time to prepare for this role by sacrificing himself completely and living in perfect love toward all people. While He was here on earth, Jesus taught His followers to do good to their enemies rather than returning evil for evil: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43–45). This idea is rarely understood and difficult to practice. But it lies at the very core of the teachings of the Bible and is one Jesus lived by during His time on earth as a human being. He went to His death for even His enemies in order to set an example of sacrifice and service. It is a principle that seems impractical and impossible to adhere to in today’s world. But those who live by it foreshadow a new world that will be dominated by new ideas and a new character—the very character and nature of sons of God.

It is an idea that will be introduced by the coming war to end all war, as revealed to the apostle John in the book of Revelation. Selected References David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (1989, 2009). H.G. Wells, The Bulpington of Blup (1932). H.G. Wells, The War That Will End War (1914). Related Content BBC NEWS | Special Report | 1998 | 10/98 | World War I | The war to end all wars Tuesday, 10 November, 1998, 15:43 GMT The war to end all wars World War I was a war without parallel - all previous wars were eclipsed by its scale of destruction. It was a struggle between Europe's great powers, which were grouped into two hostile alliances. The number of men mobilised by both sides: the central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey), and the allied powers (Britain and Empire, France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, USA), totalled over 65 million.

When the fighting was finally over, no-one could tell exactly how many had been killed but historians estimate that up to 10 million men lost their lives on the battlefield - and another 20 million were wounded. As well as all the great powers of Europe being involved, the war also extended into Asia and Africa. Troops throughout the Commonwealth rallied to support Britain.Over three million came from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Sea battles took place in the South Atlantic and the Pacific. The USA also intervened in European affairs for the first time, with more than 100,000 American troops killed helping to guarantee an allied victory. World War I is also regarded as the first "total war" in which the combatants mobilised all their resources, military, industrial and human, on a scale never before thought possible. The war begins Posters encouraged women to persuade their menfolk to go to war The catalyst for the war was the death of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was assassinated while he was visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

He was assassinated in protest because many Bosnians wanted to be free from the empire to unite with neighbouring Serbia. In retaliation and urged on by Germany, Austria invaded Serbia. Serbia called for help from Russia, which was suspicious of Austria's ambitions. Each country in turn was drawn into the conflict. Germany, keen to expand its empire, soon declared war on Russia and France and invaded Belgium and Luxembourg. Most thought the war would be over by Christmas Both Russia and France mobilised to protect their national territory. Britain declared war on Germany for its violation of the independence and neutrality of Belgium. None of the states that went to war realised how long it would last or how terrible the cost might be. Most thought it would be over in a few short months and that peace would return in 1915. Once the war had begun, the initial reasons for being involved seemed to become less important. The great powers battled it out to see who would be left standing at the end. Trench warfare For the first time war involved the use of new technology such as aeroplanes, tanks and submarines. But it is trench warfare that remains the lasting image of World War I.

The increased power of the more modern weapons gave much greater advantages to defence, making it more difficult to win quick victories. This led to often huge losses by the attackers - on the first day of the Battle of the Somme 60,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. Trench warfare created an endless demand for men, munitions and supplies with often no apparent gains or victories. The armistice and after 10 million were killed in World War I By the beginning of 1918 the tide of battle turned and the German armies began to retreat. Demoralised German workers, suffering from food and fuel shortages, threatened revolution at home. German leaders feared a communist take-over and eventually asked the allies for peace. The armistice went into effect at 11am on 11 November, 1918. The war resulted in a radical reshaping of the political map of Europe. It spelled the end of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires and was the catalyst for the Russian revolution. It left much of Europe in severe economic hardship. As well as political changes the war led to social changes in Europe too - with wider opportunities and greater equality for women.

But 80 years later it is perhaps best remembered for the staggering loss of human life. In the decade following the Great War many had the firm conviction that it should be "the war to end all wars". WATCH/LISTEN Who said "the war to end all wars"? | Reference.com Who said "the war to end all wars"? A: Quick Answer Former President of the United States Woodrow Wilson is the person responsible for saying "the war to end all wars." Ironically, while Wilson used this phrase to refer to World War I, World War II began just two decades later. Full Answer As Jim Garamon explains in an article for the American Foreign Press Service, Wilson kept the United States out of the war and was re-elected in 1916; however, the U. S. Congress declared war in 1917 after Germany instituted unrestricted submarine warfare. U.S. troops arrived in France in June 1917 and faced a German attack before they even had a chance to mobilize completely. In 1918, from May to the Armistice in November, over 50,000 American troops lost their lives.

Disease took the lives of other soldiers, and in totality throughout the whole war, there were over 113,000 American casualties. Immortal Quotes from the Great War Only the dead have seen the end of war. George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, in a counter to Wilson's words Click the picture above or a blue arrow to see the previous or next quote, or click here to go back to the Frontpage of the 'Heritage of the Great War' War to End All Wars - definition of War to End All Wars by The Free Dictionary War to End All Wars - definition of War to End All Wars by The Free Dictionary World War I n. Abbr. WWI A war fought from 1914 to 1918, in which Great Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, the United States, and other allies defeated Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria.

World War I n (Historical Terms) the war (1914–18), fought mainly in Europe and the Middle East, in which the Allies (principally France, Russia, Britain, Italy after 1915, and the US after 1917) defeated the Central Powers (principally Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey). The war was precipitated by the assassination of Austria's crown prince (Archduke Franz Ferdinand) at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 and swiftly developed its major front in E France, where millions died in static trench warfare. After the October Revolution (1917) the Bolsheviks ended Russian participation in the war (Dec 15, 1917). The exhausted Central Powers agreed to an armistice on Nov 11, 1918 and quickly succumbed to internal revolution, before being forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919) and other treaties. Also called: First World War or Great War World War I n.

the war fought mainly in Europe and the Middle East, between the Central Powers and the Allies, beginning on July 28, 1914, and ending on Nov. 11, 1918, with the collapse of the Central Powers.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend: Battle of the Somme , Somme , Somme River - battle in World War I (1916) battle of Tannenberg , Tannenberg - a battle in World War I (1914); decisive German victory over the Russians battle of Verdun , Verdun - a battle in World War I (1916); in some of the bloodiest fighting in World War I the German offensive was stopped first battle of Ypres , Ypres , battle of Ypres - battle in World War I (1914); heavy but indecisive fighting as the Allies and the Germans both tried to break through the lines of the others second battle of Ypres , Ypres , battle of Ypres - battle in World War I (1915); Germans wanted to try chlorine (a toxic yellow gas) as a weapon and succeeded in taking considerable territory from the Allied salient battle of Ypres , third battle of Ypres , Ypres - battle in World War I (1917); an Allied offensive which eventually failed because tanks bogged down in the waterlogged soil of Flanders; Germans introduced mustard gas which interfered with the Allied artillery Translations The War

 to End All Wars | United Church of God United Church of God The War to End All Wars You are here UCG.org / The Good News / The War to End All Wars The War to End All Wars Posted on Jul 1, 2014 Login or Create an Account With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later!

Sign In | Sign Up × German philosopher Friedrich Hegel perhaps said it best when he noted that "the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history." UCG.org The War to End All Wars John McCrae was a 42-year-old Canadian medical officer when he fought in the second battle of Ypres, in Belgium's Flanders region, in 1915 during World War I. Twelve days into the battle, the day after performing the burial service of a friend killed by a German artillery shell, he penned what is considered the most famous poem written in that war— “In Flanders Fields.” It begins: In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie in Flanders fields… Hugely popular during the war, the poem is often still used in Canada during annual Remembrance Day ceremonies to honor those who died in the war. The Nov.

11 commemoration is sometimes called “Poppy Day,” with brilliant red poppies serving as a poignant reminder of both the poem and the blood that was shed by so many young men in that conflict. Today the fields around Ypres are much more peaceful, with more than 100 cemeteries providing a resting place for many of the thousands of British, British Commonwealth, French, German, American and Belgian soldiers who perished there. Rows and rows of white crosses stand out against the neatly manicured grass. Thousands carry the sad epitaph, “A soldier of the Great War, known unto God”—marking the graves of unidentified dead who never returned home. During the war more than 1.7 million men were killed or wounded in the area of Ypres alone. The horror and carnage of that conflict led to it being called “the war to end all wars,” reflecting the hope that nations would come to their senses and put an end to war before war put an end to them. But it was not to be.

After some 37 million military and civilian casualties suffered on both sides, many of the same nations lined up for a second worldwide conflict a generation later, this time killing an estimated 60 to 85 million and maiming millions more. As the world commemorates the outbreak of World War I this August, what have we learned? German philosopher Friedrich Hegel perhaps said it best when he noted that “the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Sadly, he was right. In spite of centuries of trying to overcome and unlearn the scourge of war, we have failed miserably. Currently the world is plagued by no fewer than 11 wars (defined as conflicts in which more than 1,000 people are killed annually) on three continents. In spite of the curses we've brought on ourselves, there is hope for humanity. The Bible calls it the “gospel,” or good news . It's the source for the name of this magazine. What it promises won't come about by human effort, but by a divine intervention to save us from ourselves.

“The War to End All Wars” didn't, but the time isn't far off when the Prince of Peace truly will bring peace to our troubled world. That's why He urges us to daily pray, “Your Kingdom come”! The War to End All Wars - TV Tropes The War to End All Wars You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share The War to End All Wars × Really makes the "Never Again" part look rather sarcastic... "They said... it's a war to end all wars." "See her, boy? This is Evangelina Parr. She's big. Perhaps even great. But by no means, she is the whore to end all whores." — The Witcher Saga Any war described in universe as being final, whether or not it actually is. It usually isn't . May come under different names, but they are all clearly intended to end the current conflict and prevent future conflict in one fell swoop. The Trope Namer was World War I , as noted in the Real Life section. Which wasn't , so they called it World War I instead.

Examples: Anime & Manga One of these is a major part of the backstory in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ; it ended with humankind forced to live underground in a misguided attempt to save it from the Anti-Spiral. A more literal example takes place during the course of the series, in which humanity fights back against the Anti-Spiral and defeats it , and the newly-liberated civilizations of the universe join with humanity in peace. Naruto : It seems Nagato's plan was to create a weapon so powerful it could (and would) destroy an entire country in a single attack. Thus ending all wars out of fear of the weapon's use and ushering in an era of true peace . Of course, he's also cynical/realistic enough to expect that this won't really last as people begin to forget how terrifying the weapon is, war will flare up again, and the weapon will be used to enforce peace, over and overï¿½ Tobi's plan, he started the next "world war" with the goal of trapping the entire world in a Lotus-Eater Machine of world peace and dead loved ones brought back to life.

What Treize and Zechs brought about in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing , and it worked...for a year. The war of Zaibach vs. everyone in Vision of Escaflowne is meant to end all war by securing for Dornkirk certain macguffins necessary to build a machine that will grant everyone on the planet their deepest desires. Unfortunately, it turns out that some people really desire war. In Crest of the Stars , the Abh have declared that should they win the galaxy-spanning war the series depicts, it will be the last war humanity ever fights... at least with itself. Because if the Abh win, the entire human race will be unified under their government, which admittedly has done a pretty good job maintaining peace within its borders for nearly a thousand years. As the series continues, it remains to be seen who will eventually win the war. Honor Harrington : The Final War, and as far as the planet Earth is concerned it really was final. For human colonized space, not so much. The war between Manticore and Haven was initially supposed to be this, too.

Time and again, David Weber reminded us that the only possible outcomes are either the end of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, or the end of the People's Republic of Haven. In the end that was technically true, as Haven dropped the "People's ." The Last Battle in The Chronicles of Narnia ends with the destruction of all Narnia. The goodies get their happy ending in "True Narnia", a thinly-disguised version of Heaven after the Apocalypse. The Prophecy of the Stones seems to be leading up to a Final War but the ending reminds us that evil cannot be permanently defeated. In Mark S Geston 's novel Out of the Mouth of the Dragon armies are constantly battling to determine whether good or evil will ultimately triumph. To everybody's dismay, however, none of the battles are ever final or decisive, and the world ends with a protracted whimper. The Nine Years War in Brave New World , which happened approximately 500 years before the novel sets. The war between the the Draka and the Alliance for Democracy in S.M. Stirling's The Stone Dogs is called "The Final War", as afterwards there is no power left on Earth capable of challenging Drakan dominance.

From the ashes of the Final War emerges the Final Society, as the Draka genetically engineer themselves and their serfs into two codependent post-human races. Afterwards, the Draka still find themselves in conflict with the descendants of defeated Americans who fled the Solar System to found a colony on Alpha Centauri. In Keith Laumer 's Bolo series, the Final War really is. Both interstellar empires are annihilated, each sterilizing all known worlds of the other. The few overlooked colonies have neither the desire nor the ability to keep fighting. The "Autumn Rain" trilogy by David J. Williams culminates in WW III, with weaponized space. The nuclear destruction of a continent takes roughly three paragraphs of writing, and perhaps a few hours. Most of the Earth is more or less saturated with nuclear weapons, space-dropped kinetic energy weapons, high powered directed energy pin-point strikes against anything trying to shoot down those weapons, and deliberate destruction of any and all communications and electronic infrastructure either physically or through hacking. The fate of the moon and the fleets stationed at the libation points is not much better...though it takes a few days for them.

LiveActionTv In MASH, Colonel Potter at one point bitterly toasts the last of his friends to die with the toast ' Here's to you, boys. To Ryan, who died in WWI: the War to End All Wars. To Gianelli, who died in the war after that. Woodrow Wilson Blog Woodrow Wilson Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, the son of a respected Presbyterian minister whose Calvinist values helped to shape the future president. The elder Wilson relocated his family to Augusta, Georgia , where he pastored another congregation and served as a chaplain to Confederate troops. One of young Wilsonï¿½s early memories was of witnessing Jefferson Davis in chains being taken through the streets of Augusta on his way to prison. Answering other ministerial calls, the Wilson family moved to Columbia, South Carolina and later to Wilmington, North Carolina. Despite the rigors of war and Reconstruction, the Wilsons managed to maintain a comfortable existence throughout. Young Woodrow had difficulty as a student and some later observers have speculated that he may have been dyslexic; his father`s patient attentions helped him with his studies. Woodrow Wilson was admitted to Davidson College in North Carolina, where he hoped to prepare for the ministry.

In 1875 he enrolled at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton ) and gained a reputation as an excellent debater, but only an average student. However, during these years he gave up on plans for the ministry and developed an interest in history. In 1879 he entered the law school at the University of Virginia , but ill health forced a premature end to his formal studies. Wilson returned home and undertook a self-directed study of law; his health improved and he opened a law practice in Atlanta in 1882. The venture, however, was not very successful and he returned to school at Johns Hopkins University in 1883 in the hope of becoming a university professor. He rapidly blossomed into a talented scholar and published his doctoral dissertation, Congressional Government (1885), in which he examined the role of Congressional committees, a topic poorly understood by the public at that time. An appointment to the faculty at Bryn Mawr College in 1885 ushered in an unhappy experience; Woodrow Wilson was not comfortable in a womenï¿½s institution and three years later he secured a position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

He became a popular faculty member, prepared another book, (The State), and coached a winning football team. In 1890 Wilson was appointed professor of jurisprudence and economics at Princeton. These were busy years for the popular teacher, who also devoted his energies to the publication of Division and Reunion (1893) and History of the American People (1902), as well as public lecturing and writing for popular magazines. A frequent theme that emerged at Princeton was his belief in the wisdom of having a strong executive at the helm of the nation. In 1902 he was unanimously elected president of Princeton, the first layman to hold that position. As a college president, Woodrow Wilson was an innovator and reformer whose stands eventually wore out his welcome. He was dedicated to the goal of making Princeton an institution of the first rank and fostered instructional reform through the use of ï¿½preceptors" ï¿½ young academics who were assigned to live with the students and to hold discussion sessions related to the class work. Wilson also was successful in updating the universityï¿½s curriculum. However, he ran into strong resistance on two other issues.

He failed in an effort to eliminate the exclusive eating clubs that had long been a part of campus life. Wilson wanted to replace that institution with more democratic dining facilities in the dormitories, but wealthy alumni rebelled and threatened to cut off donations if the clubs were ended. Wilson also lost a battle over the location of a new graduate school. He wanted the new facility to be located in the heart of the campus, but the enterprising dean ï¿½ perhaps wanting increased independence ï¿½ gathered donor backing for an off-campus location. Wilsonï¿½s victories and defeats were widely reported in the New Jersey press, making him a popular figure. Tiring of butting heads over academic issues, and capitalizing on recent publicity, Woodrow Wilson accepted the Democratic nomination for governor of New Jersey in the summer of 1910. James ï¿½Sugar Jim" Smith held the reins of the state machine and thought the college president would lend an aura of reform to his tarnished party. Wilson won an overwhelming victory in the fall and then quickly divested Smith of any notion that he would be easily manipulated.

Smith had anticipated a Senate seat for helping Wilson, but the new governor spearheaded a movement on behalf of another candidate ï¿½ and won. Woodrow Wilson aligned himself with legislative progressives and managed to record major accomplishments in short order. Laws were passed providing for regulation of public utilities, school reform, workmenï¿½s compensation, direct primaries, and later, state antitrust legislation for the formerly permissive New Jersey. These successes made Wilson a national political figure. During this period, Wilson developed a close political relationship with ï¿½Colonel" Edward M. House of Texas, who would later engineer Wilsonï¿½s nomination for president and then served as one of his closest advisors. Woodrow Wilsonï¿½s triumph in the Democratic convention of 1912 was not assured, but in the end owed much to former nominee William Jennings Bryan .

The main challenge in the campaign came from Theodore Roosevelt , the Bull Moose candidate, who trumpeted his progressive message as the ï¿½New Nationalism." Woodrow Wilson responded with a vigorous campaign of his own and dubbed his more restrained form of progressivism as the ï¿½New Freedom." Both reform candidates recognized that the main issue of the day was the relationship between big business and government. Wilsonï¿½s whopping electoral victory was somewhat misleading; he received only about 42 percent of the popular vote, but that was sufficient to become the first Democratic president in 20 years. Woodrow Wilson experienced great early success by fulfilling his New Freedom pledges of reform in tariff revision , banking and currency matters, and antitrust modification . In foreign affairs , Bryan was rewarded with an appointment as secretary of state and devoted sincere efforts to negotiating a series of arbitration treaties as a means of preventing war; efforts were made to establish order in the western hemisphere and yielded mixed results. Tragically for Wilson, World War I broke out the same week that his first wife died.

He sought vainly to maintain the neutrality of the American people and gain recognition for the nationï¿½s trading rights as neutrals on the seas, but a series of crises made the public increasingly sympathetic to the Allied cause. Woodrow Wilson was slow to join the movement for national defense preparedness, but on November 4, 1915, Wilson delivered a speech that drew on a biblical passage, Ezekial 33:6, "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned ... his blood will I require at the watchman`s hand." At Wilson`s request, the following spring Congress approved an unprecedented peacetime increase in the American army and navy. Wilson was easily renominated in 1916 , but faced a stiff challenge from his Republican opponent, Supreme Court Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes . The president reluctantly downplayed his domestic accomplishments and adopted the campaign slogan, ï¿½He kept us out of war." Following a pledge not to sink passenger vessels in May 1916, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, provoking American entrance into the conflict.

Wilson asked for a declaration of war on April 2; Congress complied four days later. The president quickly emerged as a skilled wartime leader by molding public opinion with such optimistic phrases as ï¿½a war to make the world safe for democracy" and ï¿½a war to end all wars." In January 1918, Woodrow Wilson laid out his vision of the structure of a lasting peace in his Fourteen Points , a statement whose essential fairness played a role in lessening the German peopleï¿½s enthusiasm for the war. After the armistice in November 1918, Wilson decided to head the American peace delegation personally, hoping to assure the implementation of his conception of the postwar world. Despite being received with great adulation by the public in Europe, the president was soon confronted by Allied leaders who preferred that the peace process be a means to incapacitate the German war machine for generations to come. Dubbed derisively as ï¿½the drum major of civilization," the idealistic president was forced in the end to approve compromises in order to achieve his top priority, the League of Nations , included in the Treaty of Versailles .

An exhausted Woodrow Wilson returned to the United States, where opposition to the treaty and League was gaining strength. In typical fashion, he took his appeal directly to the public on a railroad speaking tour through the Midwest and West. In late September Wilson collapsed and was taken back to Washington, where he suffered a stroke on October 2. He was partially paralyzed and was incapable of spearheading the fight for the League; the Senate defeated proposals late in 1919 and again in the spring of 1920. Rather than accept compromise, Wilson chose to take the treaty to the electorate by publishing entreaties on its behalf, believing that a Democratic triumph in the Election of 1920 would force the Senate to see things his way. His call for a ï¿½solemn referendum" was not heeded by the voters, who handed Warren Harding and the Republicans a smashing victory. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in late 1920 for his services in the previous year. However, his brief retirement in Washington was unhappy; the ill and embittered former president lived out his days in virtual seclusion. He died on February 3, 1924. ---- Selected Quotes ----

Question: Which war was said to be 'The war to end all wars'?
Answer: World War I