Entering the Great War

As a part of the preparedness movement, the government is now setting up camps to train American men for combat. As Americans I feel that we should support this movement. One third- of our nation’s population are immigrants or children of immigrants, making a lot of our nation personally involved. America has large sums of money invested overseas and the recent British naval blockade of the North Sea has placed those investments at risk. We need to put an end to our neutrality.

The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand has ignited a war among some of the world’s largest powers. Although, this act of terrorism is not the only cause for war, there are other causes that have been going on for years.

Imperialism of the late 1800’s caused competition among the powers of Europe. Germany’s leaders envied Britain and France that had colonized early and now controlled large, resource rich empires. Germany realized that they could only expand by taking land from other empires.

Militarism is aggressively expanding in Europe. The great powers of Europe including Austria, Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia have all been spending large sums of money on new weapons and warships for expanding their armed forces.

Nationalism is another main contributor to the war. There are two kinds of nationalism contributing. The first is the tenancy that countries of great powers to act in their own national interest. The second is occurring in countries with diverse ethnic populations. The longing of an ethnic minority for independence often led to violence.

The conflict of The Great War is expanding and we can stand by no longer.