Causes of World War I (2:17)
By 1914, military tensions and a series of alliances have Europe on the edge of war. In August, the fuse is lit by an assassination in Sarajevo. By war's end, more than 100 countries would be involved in the conflict.
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Causes of World War I
Causes of World War IVideo Clip (2:17)
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By 1914, military tensions and a series of alliances have Europe on the edge of war. In August, the fuse is lit by an assassination in Sarajevo. By war's end, more than 100 countries would be involved in the conflict.
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Treaty of Versailles Ends World War I
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World War I: Germans Attack U.S. Navy Boats
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1916 Battle of the Somme
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After two years of trench warfare, the Allies attempt to break through German lines on the Western Front. The ensuing battle will last for months and result in more than one million casualties.
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U-Boats Sink the Lusitania in 1915
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When Germany torpedoes a British passenger ship believed to be smuggling arms, anger at the resulting American deaths increases pressure on President Wilson to enter World War I.
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James Watson Gerard, American ambassador to Germany during World War I, gives a notorious speech to the Ladies Aid Society of St. Mary's Hospital in New York in November 1917, calling for German Americans to be loyal to the United States or risk being shipped back to the Fatherland.
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Gompers Pledges Labor's Support for World War I
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In a speech recorded from the battlefield in France on April 4, 1918, Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, rallies American support with a patriotic message.
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In a broadcast to the nation, on June 5, 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt tells Americans that, with the fall of Rome, the first of the Axis capitals "is now in our hands."
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On April 27, 1940, just two weeks before Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered an attack on the West, Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop addresses the German people about what he calls the "aggression" of England and France.
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