Chapter 20

World war I effectively launched the twentieth century, considered a new phase of world history. Europe's modern transformation and its global ascendancy were not accompanied by a growing  unity or stability among it own peoples, quite the opposite in fact. The biggest division was among competing states. By the early twentieth century, the balance of power was expressed in two rival alliances. The Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Triple Entente of Russia, France, and Britain. Slavic nationalism and Austro-Hungarian opposition to it certainly lay at the heart of the war's beginning. The Great Powers of Europe competed intensely for colonies, spheres of influence, and superiority in armamnets and the public pressure of competing nationalism ensured widespread popular support for the decision to go to war, at least initially. Each country had a incentive to strike first and rapid industrialization  of warfare which led to some 10 million deaths. United States involvement came in 1917 when German submarines threatened American shipping. Around 2 million Americans took part in the first U.S militant action on European soil and helped turn the tide in favor of the British and French. This war mocked the Enlightenment values of progress, tolerance, and asked the question of, who could believe any longer that the west was superior or that its vaunted science and technology were unquestionably good things?


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