World War I and The Roaring 20’s

The Cause
World War I started with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria- Hungary. The assassination was committed by a terrorist from Serbia. As a result, Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia. Since Russia was Serbia’s ally Russia came to Serbia’s aid. And since Germany was Austria-Hungary’s ally they declared war on Russia. Soon, all the countries had taken sides. There were the Allied Powers and The Central Powers.(Allied Powers- Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States Central Powers- Germany,Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria)

The U.S
Woodrow Wilson was the president when World War I was going on. He said it was best if we stayed out of WWI. But we didn’t completely stay out of the war. We were sending ships full of supplies to France and Great Britain. On May 7,1915, a British liner- ship was sunk, called the Lusitania. 128 Americans died. The U.S made Germany promise not to attack any more U.S ships, but Germany broke its promise.The American liner Housatonic was sunk. On April 6, 1917, the U.S entered the war on the Allied Powers side.

Battle of Amiens
On August 8, 1918 the Allied Powers launched a surprise attack on the Central Powers, led by Sir Henry Rawlinson and General Marie-Eugène Debeney. There were 27,000 German casualties. The battle lasted 3 days. Germany surrendered and lost.THE ALLIED POWERS WON!!!!

The Treaty of Versailles
To end the war a treaty was created. This treaty made Germany accept all the blame for the war. Germany wasn’t allowed to make any weapons and had to take out people from the army. Germany also had to give up a lot of land to surrounding countries. They also had to pay £6,600 million in reparations for war damage.The U.s didn’t want to punish Germany too harshly, so we didn’t sign the treaty. We also didn’t become part of the League of Legends. Germans didn’t like the conditions of the treaty, and Adolf Hitler created a group called Jugendbund der NSDAP. Less than 20 years later he had gained power and this was one of the causes for WWI.

Roaring 20’s
After the war people just wanted to enjoy their lives, just in case there was another war. People were getting paid more and working for less hours, so they had free time. Also, African American were moving to the North (Harlem) ,because there was less segregation there. This was called the Harlem Renaissance or The Great Migration. There were many amazing artists like Langston Hughes, a poet, and Louis Armstrong, who was a trumpet jazz player. There was also Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart who sailed across the Atlantic. Sports like baseball were getting popular and Babe Ruth was a famous baseball player. Travel was getting easier with cars. Henry Ford made the assembly line which made cars cheaper and more affordable. There was A LOT of artists in this time period. This eventually led to the GREAT DEPRESSION, because of the stock market crash in 1929 when a lot of banks failed.

Conclusion
I hope you learned a lot and this helped you understand this time period!!! BYEE!!