Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 there was a chain reaction that many contribute to the most immediate cause of World War I. However, prior to the start of the 20th century there were many changes going on in and around Europe that can also be considered as root causes to the rise of hostilities between the countries of Europe. This essay will discuss the events that ultimately lead to the beginning of World War I, the events that drew the United States into the War, the events that led to the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, and what effect the war had on America’s role in the world during the 1920s and 1930s.
Firstly, the forces of nationalism, imperialism and militarism had a great many influence to the rise of hostilities that lead the beginning of World War I. Nationalism was a long-term cause of World War I, as well as many of the other causes, nationalism takes time to create. People are not born with the love of their country; instead they must learn to love it and thus nationalism requires a longer period of time to complete (Brown, 2009). Until the mid to late 19th century many European “nations”, that is those peoples sharing a common language and similar …show more content…
New products seemed to burst from American production lines with the potential of revolutionizing American life. Other products that had previously been toys for the rich were now available to a majority of Americans. The standard of living increased as the economy grew stronger and stronger. The America of 1929 was vastly different from the America of 1919. The 1920s ushered in more lasting changes to the American social scene than any previous decade. This economic boom, following World War I, unleashed the transformation and its consequences made the Roaring Twenties an era to