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/ 5 History - World War 1 The World War I proved to be the bloodiest war in the human history (until the WWII happened) that greatly influenced the lives of not only individuals but also whole countries and nations. With the Germany and its allies being the aggressors; Russia, Great Britain, France, the USA had formed the military coalition directed to stop the German aggressors on their way to Russia, Africa and Europe. The World War I had been fought as a reactive defense attempt to the German military expansion to the East (Russia) to form new colonies, something that the Germany did not have by the time of its unification. While the countries like Russia, Poland, France could certainly say that they were defending their own territories, the countries like the Great Britain and the USA in particular claimed to have fought to support freedom on the continent without actually incurring the German forces on their own lands (Blat, 2001). In the following essay I am going to speak about contradictory actions of the US allies with respect to the defending the democratic principles, present various historic findings as well as express my personal opinion on the given matter. The USA had kept the business concepts in its economic and military policies throughout the world war (Smith, 2002).
At the same time it had to certainly support the fighting block for the following reasons: Create the Image of the USA as of the international politics player. Prior to WWI the USA did not get involved in any European politics or wars. Establish new markets for the goods produced in the USA Strengthen its national currency. Defeat the aggressor, who would certainly conquer the USA should the European countries lose the war. It is no wonder that because of such objectives set in the national mind of the USA the country was reluctant to directly engage in military operations but rather play as a side player in the game of war (Ryan, 2000). During the World War I the USA was supplying the allies with the necessary ammunition, food, and warm clothes and medicine.
The Great Britain that although being detached from the continent still had to resist the German expansion to the West and was directly interested in the positive fast results of the war. The USA on the other hand wanted the war to continue as long as possible for the fact that the country benefited from selling supplies to both sides: The German aggressors and their opponents (Smith, 2002). The whole country believed that although this may sound unethical, yet it certainly filled up the government budget as well as pockets of the war industries owners (OConnell, 2000). The US dollar became the only strong currency whose country was not at war at the moment. Together with the positive trade balance that was achieved through war trade with the both sides, the US dollar gained global recognition as well as greatly benefited the US economy (Kinney, 2001). During the World War I, the communists managed to grasp control of the government in Russia and subsequently promulgated the idea of global communism to the other fighting countries.
The Russia therefore did not fight for the democratic principles whatsoever: it was fighting because its territories were invaded, and because it wanted to show the world that the communist army was also capable of heroic military actions (Kinney, 2001). I would also like to note that during the WWI, a lot of countries entered the war because of the existing military, non-aggression, and other pacts, as well as because they understood that unless they entered willingly the war on one side they would still be forced into that war that lasted for almost four years. In conclusion, I would like to say that the Allies, especially the USA did not fight exclusively for the democratic principles. The USA was involved in the war to benefit its own economy and establish international political presence. The Great Britain was facing with the eminent aggression from Germany and its military block, and knew well that should Europe lose the war the Great Britain would be the Germans next target.
Russia during the war successfully managed to change the government, and had to fight mostly because its territories were attacked by the Germans and its allies (Japanese attacked Russia in the East). Bibliography: Peter Smith, The World history Illustrated, McGraw Hill, 2002. Michael Blat, The European history, NY Random House, 2001. John Kinney, The WWI and its consequences, Prentice Hall, 2001. Richard OConnell, The new and old history, Penguin Books, 2000.
Paula Ryan, The US at war, Oxford University Press, 2000. Thackeray, Frank, and Finding, John E. , Events, That Changed the World in the Twentieth Century, Greenwood Press, 1995.
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