World War I

“The Great War” or if you prefer the “War to end ALL Wars,” these are but a couple of the titles given to the first modern world war. World War I as many Americans call it ushered in a new era for the once floundering democracy across the pond. There are many aspects about the war that many have and will continue to debate, but one thing is for sure the United States emerged from the war as a major player in the political and military arenas of the world. So how did a war that had such an impact on the global political and military structure of the world begin? This is where I would like to begin this blog session, because of all the things I would like to have learned in my educational career this is one that has been nagging me for years, how and why did this war begin. Dr. Keene was more than ready for the task. Her weaving together of the story lines, decision, and blunders helped to bring this picture into focus. The discussion centered on the three themes of accidental, inevitable, and choices.

Most American children are never given the choice of decision and are simply forced to memorize the accidental strand of WWI’s beginnings, within this strand the story goes that through a series of events the driver of Archduke Franz Ferdinand took a wrong turn accidentally leading him into the hands of a terrorist Gavrilo Princip who proceeded to shoot the Archduke and his wife. This strand is very dependant on chance and is therefore a mere piece of a much bigger puzzle, let us continue. The next strand lays out the unavoidable groundwork for war through the political and militaristic dealings of the major powers that were in a transitional stage of protraction and retraction. The major players in this imperialistic game are Britain, France, Russia, Austro-Hungary and Germany. Within this strand the learner is taught that 1914 is arbitrary and that had the war not started then it would have at some point, thus inevitability. This is easy to learn, but can lead to many assumptive thoughts by students leading them to think that all matters of decision making are out of their hands and this can be dangerous historical thinking. Dr. Keene’s third strand is predicated that on the ideas that the choices we make will have an impact on the future and is best described as a middle ground. This is an area of reasoned thinking and is usually where the answers reside. Too many people get caught on one extreme or the other and the answer is usually somewhere in the middle. The decision of Germany to fully mobilize its army and implement the Schlieffen Plan was a decision that was not inevitable or predicated on the assassination of the Archduke. It was what it was a decision to be made or not made, but one that would change the course of history. And although the history of WWI has been made the study and analysis of the decisions made decades, centuries, and a millennia continues to be written.

Citation: ARC Identifier: 641788
World War I Draft Registration Card for Charles Hamilton Houston Front
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