America's role in the greatest wars in the 20th century |
World War I and World war II
World War I
Amid tensions in Europe in 1914, the assassination of of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark that ignited World War I. One side consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, while the other side was composed of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and the United States in 1917. With the introduction of trench warfare, modern weaponry and vehicles, and chemical weapons; more than 9 million people died and 21 million were wounded (History, n.d.). The destruction across Europe was tremendous as well since the war was fought on multiple fronts including: the Western Front, the Eastern Front, and the battles at sea. German submarines were very aggressive toward shipments of goods to Great Britain, and several ocean liners were sunk by U-boats. The United States was brought into the war after a U-boat sank the Lusitania British ocean liner and sank multiple U.S merchant ships shortly afterward. After many strategic defeats and several allies surrendering, Germany sought an armistice on November 11, 1918 thus ending World War I. The following images depict key defining attributes of World War I.
World War II
After the Versailles Treaty, Germany suffered harsh economic conditions since they were forced to accept all responsibility for the damage done during World War I, and were forced to pay back reparations to certain countries that crippled them. Adolf Hitler was able to move up the ranks in Germany by uniting Germans who suffered greatly after World War I. After building up the Nazi army, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with Russia in 1939 and ultimately invaded Poland shortly after. This invasion started World War II after Poland's allies France and Great Britain declared war. Both Italy and Japan joined Nazi Germany and became the axis of evil, while the United States joined the war after the bombing by Japanese fighters in Pearl Harbor. While Germany was waging war across Europe, Japan fought fiercely against China. Hitler conquered much territory in Europe during World War II, but made the mistake to invade the Soviet Union during the winter. As allied forces made strides, Hitler was fighting two fronts once the allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France on D-day June 06, 1944. He sent the majority of his forces to square off against the allies on the French front, but they ended up being defeated. The United States ended up dropping the atomic bomb twice in Japan which led to Japan's surrender. World War II ended on May 8, 1945 when Germany surrendered and Hitler committed suicide a few days prior in Berlin. World War II is characterized by massive casualties and the destruction of groups of people, like the Jewish people in what is called the Holocaust. Berger (2010) remembers his father was actually in a concentration camp where his own parents were killed, and his father remained devastated over the loss and memories of his stay in the concentration camp. Like World War I, mass destruction from war created a landscape of war-torn cities, villages, and lands across Europe. According to Alex (2014), over 72 million people died from the war including 34 million civilians and almost 6 million Jews. World War II is considered the deadliest and most destructive war in world history.