A School History of the Great War

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A School History of the Great War

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by Albert E. McKinley, Charles A. Coulomb, and Armand J. Gerson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: A School History of the Great War
Author: Albert E. McKinley, Charles A. Coulomb, and Armand J. Gerson
Release Date: December 3, 2005 [EBook #17211]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A SCHOOL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR
BY
ALBERT E. McKINLEY, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
CHARLES A. COULOMB, PH.D. DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PHILADELPHIA
AND
ARMAND J. GERSON, PH.D. DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, PHILADELPHIA

Copyright, 1918, by
Albert E. McKinley, Charles A. Coulomb, and Armand J. Gerson

[Transcriber's Note: Certain characters within this text have been transcribed using the following scheme:
[=x] is equivalent to x with a macron above it; [)x] is equivalent to x with a breve above it.]

PREFACE
This brief history of the world's greatest war was prepared upon the suggestion of the National Board for Historical Service. Its purpose is to expand into an historical narrative the outline of the study of the war which the authors prepared for the Board and which was published by the United States Bureau of Education as Teachers' Leaflet No. 4, in August, 1918. The arrangement of chapters and the choice of topics have been largely determined by the various headings in the outline for the course in grades seven and eight.
The authors trust that the simple presentation here given may aid in developing a national comprehension of the issues involved in the war; and they hope it may play some part in preparing the American people for the solution of the great problems which lie immediately before us.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
EUROPE BEFORE THE GREAT WAR 5
II. WHY GERMANY WANTED WAR 27
III. GERMAN MILITARISM 34
IV. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE HAGUE CONFERENCES 38
V. INTERNATIONAL JEALOUSIES AND ALLIANCES 48
VI. THE BALKAN STATES 59
VII. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE GREAT WAR 67
VIII. THE WAR IN 1914 77
IX. THE WAR IN 1915 95
X. THE WAR IN 1916 107
XI. THE WAR IN 1917 118
XII. THE WAR IN 1918 135
XIII. THE UNITED STATES IN THE WAR 152
XIV. QUESTIONS OF THE COMING PEACE 168
CHRONOLOGY--Principal Events of the War 181
INDEX 190

A School History of the Great War
CHAPTER I
EUROPE BEFORE THE GREAT WAR
To understand the Great War it is not sufficient to read the daily happenings of military and naval events as they are told in newspapers and magazines. We must go back of the facts of to-day and find in national history and personal ambition the causes of the present struggle. Years of preparation were necessary before German military leaders could convert a nation to their views, or get ready the men, munitions, and transportation for the war they wanted. Conflicts of races for hundreds of years have made the southeastern part of Europe a firebrand in international affairs. The course of the Russian revolution has been determined largely by the history of the Russian people and of the Russian rulers during the past two centuries. The entrance of England and Italy into the war against Germany was in each case brought about by causes which came into existence long before August, 1914. A person who understands, even in part, the causes of this great struggle, will be in a better position to realize why America entered the war and what our nation is fighting for. And better yet, he will be more ready to take part in settling the many problems of peace which must come after the war is over. For these reasons, the first few chapters of this book are devoted to a study of the important facts of recent European history.
[Illustration: EUROPE IN 1913]
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.--It is remarkable that almost exactly a century before the present world war, Europe was engaged in a somewhat similar struggle to prevent an ambitious French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, from becoming the ruler of all that continent, and of America as well. He had conquered or intimidated nearly all the states of Europe--Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, etc.--except Great Britain. He once planned a great settlement on the Mississippi River, and so alarmed President Jefferson that the latter said the United States might be compelled to "marry themselves to the British fleet and nation." But England's navy kept control of the seas; Napoleon's colony in North America was never founded; and at last the peoples of Europe rose against their conqueror, and in the