World War I

Term Paper # 105183

History > European - World Wars

World War I

This paper outlines the history and events of World War I.

1,910 words () | 7 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the causes of World War I, describes the confidence throughout Europe that the war would only last a few weeks and shows how, instead, the war became a bloody stalemate by the end of 1914. The paper depicts the new, deadly methods of mass killing that caused the scale of injury and death to be beyond anything people had believed possible. The paper also points out that tragically, this war to end all wars failed to achieve these lofty goals and within a generation the world was plunged into an even more destructive and horrific war. There is a large amount of source material appended to the paper.

From the Paper:

"Historians are in general agreement that World War I was caused by intensifying political and economic rivalries between the great powers of Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century. The leading nations of Europe all sought to expand their empires, which led to arms races, entangling alliances, and increasing tensions. By 1914 these factors combined to produce such instability that the crisis in the Balkans triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary rapidly degenerated into a general European war characterized by unprecedented slaughter."

Sample of Sources Used:

"Battle of the Somme." BBC.co.uk. Online. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk /history/worldwars/wwone/battle_somme.shtml. 30 August 2007.
Carr, Edward. The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923. New York: W. W. Norton, 1985.
"Collapse." The Great War. PBS. Online. Available: http://www.pbs.org/ greatwar/chapters/ch3_collapse.html. 30 August 2007.
Kan, Vincent. "RMS Lusitania: The Fateful Voyage." FirstWorldWar.com. Online. Available: http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/lusitania.htm. 29 August 2007.
Keegan, John. The First World War. New York: Vintage, 2000.