Introduction:

The new weapons that evolved during WWI were machine guns, and airplanes. The machine guns fired its ammunition automatically. With the use of a machine gun, you could literally wipe out dozens of people at a time. Now for the airplanes. This was an amazing ordeal for a plane to be used in war, or any type of combat for that matter. The planes were a big advantage. They played numerous roles. We also became smarter about the use of airplanes today.

When Russia had a second revolution the communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin gained power. Lenin deiced to end his country’s involvement in the war. Well the first thing he did was make a truce with Germany. From this the Russian government had to give over Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to Germany. Even after the war when the treaty became invalid, those countries gained their independence. If this had not happened those countries would not be independent today. Maybe this is a good thing because if Russia still had those countries they would be more powerful and one day might deiced to challenge the U.S.

During WWI when the men were at war the woman took on the mans everyday job. This included factories, shops, offices and so on. Woman all of a sudden were constructing, farming, even running hospitals. Something back then men thought was impossible for them to do. As well as working their everyday jobs, they would help the war men with food, clothing and supplies. It was like the woman became the dominate role. They went to work and then would come home and tend to the children and housework. After the war when the men returned, peoples views changed. I think that had a lot to do with the people later on who struggled for woman's rights. If that is so, then I am glad because today I have rights and woman have became equal to men.

I looked through my History book and jotted down numbers of wounded and/or killed throughout WWI. The first count started with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. So that is one down and millions more to go. In February of 1916 the Germans launched a very big attack against the French. Each side was said they lost about 300,000 men each. When the British attacked the Germans in the valley of Somme River 20,000 Brittish soliders were killed the first day alone. Can you believe that! When Germany and Russia fought more than 30,000 Russian soliders were killed. The Russians were said to have lost two million Russians in 1915 alone. By 1917 though nearly 5.5 million Russian soliders had been wounded or killed. Overall about 8.5 million soliders died and more than 21 million were wounded.

World War I

Section 1: Participants:

Cause: Imperialsim was another reason why World War I started. This was basically little fights over who would conquer what. For example; Germany and France fought over who would control Morocco in Northern Africa.

Cause: Since growing international rivalries started, the countries started to take sides. The Triple Alliance was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Triple Entente was made up of Great Britain, France, and Russia. All of these countries were ready to begin warm just as soon as something flicked the “ON SWITCH.”

Conflict: Well on June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were paying a visit to Savajevo when a 19 year old member of the Black Hand shot him down. This set off a chain reaction within the alliance system and would result in the largest war the world has ever seen.

Section 2: People:

Kaiser Wilhelm was the son of Emperor Frederick II and Victoria. He was born in Berlin in 1859. Growing up he received a strict military and academic education at the Kassel Gymnasium and the University of Bonn. Kaiser was a strong opponent of socialism. He supported Germany’s militarism and imperialism, as well as govern there for the next few years. Kaiser was a strong and stubborn man, who forced Bismark to resign, and they did. Kaiser was very good at being sly and deceitful. Obviously he did not want to share power with anyone. For Kaiser was then eager to challenge Great Britain. So to be prepared Wilhelm started a big ship-building program in Germany in hopes it would out-stand Britain's. In 1908 Wilhelm suffered from a nervous break down and because of that his role in Germany’s government became much less.

Woodrow Wilson was America’s twenty-eigth President. He was the son of a Presbytenan minister. Throughout his life he was many things, including a History Scholar, a Professor, and of course our President. He was a very religious man with good morals. Wildrow was also a part of the Big Four. Around January of 1918, Woodrow Wilson came up with a series proposals. These were known as the Fourteen Points. Basically it was a plan for lasting peace. The basic idea behind these points was self-determination. This would allow people to make up their own mind under what government they wished to follow. He did all of this between the time of the end of the war to the postwar.

George Clemenceai was born in 1841. He was also a part of the Big Four. Beginning in the 1870’s George was involved in politics and with journalism as well. He was in several political officers, founded two newspapers as well as a magazine. In 1902 Clemenceau was elected to the senate. He would urge the French military to be prepared against the growing menace from Germany. After the war ended, George held that the Germans should be rendered incapable of further warfare. He participated in a lot of the postwar diplomacy in the Treaty of Versailles.

Section 3: Turning Points:

The new weapons of the war was another turning point. This included Poison gas, machine guns, tanks, airplanes as well as submarines. Poison gas was introduced by the Germans, but both sides used them. Soldiers would wear masks to protect themselves from this poisonous gas because if they didn’t, it would cause blinding or really bad blisters. Most of the time, you would just choke to death or when the poison would reach your lungs you would end up coughing up chunks.

Machine guns was another new weapon. It would fire ammunition automatically. Since these were used, it would literally wipe out waves of attackers. It made it difficult for forces to get very far. It also helped create a stalemate.

Tanks were armored combat vehicles, that moved on chain tracks. This was introduced by the British in 1916. The earlier tanks were slower and clumsier. Most of the time they wouldn’t be able to go very far, but a few feet. They later improved and were able to help a lot.

WWI was the first time in history were planes were used in a combat role. In the begging planes were used to get an aerial view of where the enemies were located. Later they were used to drop bombs. Even guns were attached to airplanes. A part of war also happened in the air. Another use of airplanes was to bring food to people on the front line. This did not happen after awhile because the enemies would know exactly where their enemies were located.

The last one was the submarine. Around 1914 is when the Germans introduced the submarine as an effective warship. The German submarines were known as the U-Boats. They eventually waged unrestricted warfare on Allied ships.

I believe these are all turning points because when certain ones of these were introduced, they had a big impact on the success of certain countries.

Section 4:

1. They surrendered all of the German colonies as league of nations mandates.
2. The return of Alsace-Lorraine in France.
3. A ban on the union of Germany and Austria.
4. An acceptance of Germany’s guilt in causing the war.
5. Provision for the trial of the former Kaiser and other world leaders.
6. Limitation of Germany’s army to 100,000 men with no conscription, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no poison gas supplies, no air crafts as well as no airships.
7. The limitation of the Germany navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with no submarines.

Well in the end Germany signed the Versailles Treaty and the people in France and Britain were angry that there was no trial for Kaiser or the other war leaders.

The Gulf War

Section 1: Participants:

Cause: It all began when Kuwait lowered their prices in oil. So the rest of the world went to them instead of Iraq. Well Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein didn’t like this. So Hussein thought he should go get their oil, since Kuwait's population was so small compared to Iraq's.

Conflict: Iraq goes over to Kuwait and tortures the people as well as kill them. It was like they basically took over. They went so far that they were near Saudi Arabia’s border. Well Saudi Arabia didn’t like this because the felt endangered. So the President of Saudi Arabia calls the President over in America and ask for help. America agrees and goes to help Saudi Arabia. When America goes over to Saudi Arabia, they tell Iraq that if they don’t get out of Kuwait in the time period of two days they will start bombing. Basically Iraq said “NO” and America followed through with what they were going to do and the war began.

Section 2: People:

A while after the war was over a guy by the name of James Baker took a couple trips over to the Middle East to promote many plans which resulted in an international conference on Arab Israel peace which was sponsored by the U.S and the Soviet Union. This happened in Madrid around October of 1991. The U.S also signed new agreements with several coalition members which would provide training and propstioning of military equipment. You can see James Baker played a big role in all of this.

There was really no one else on the other side so I am going to tell you about another person on this side. I am going to tell you about a guy named PowelI. I could not find a lot of information about him. The only think I could find out about him was that he was a national security advisor to President Reagan. He was the one who told the president what to do. Without him the president may of made different decisions that would effect the outcome. He was this around 1987 till about 1989. When he left the White House he went and became chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of staff.

Person: Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in Tikrit District, Iraq. He was the one who took over Kuwait. He was responsible for all of the torturing and killing that went on their. His invasion of Kuwait sparked operations at Desert Shield as well as Desert Storm.:

Section 3: Turning Points:

Well we got smart and on January 24 the Iraq’s attempted to mount a strike against the major Saudi oil refinery in Abqaiq. Well when the Saudi’s arrived the Iraqi MiG’s turned tail, but the Mirages pressed on. A captain by the name of Iyad AL Shamrani maneuvered his jet behind the Mirages and shot down both air crafts.

Well after awhile things settled down, Iraq stopped the air attacks and gave it’s jets over to Iran. Well the Allies liked this and all but they still refused to call it quits. I think this was a turning point because Iraq realized that they had made a mistake by going to war.

The other turning point I believe was on February 24, 1991, when the Marine Decisions kicked off the ground campaign with a fight deep down in the heart of Kuwait. You see the Saudi and the Muslims got together and attacked along the Kuwait coast.

Section 4: The end results:

Works Cited

1. Littel, McDougal. “Patterns of Interaction.” World History. McDougal Inc: Evanston, IL, 1999.
2. Taylor, Helen. The Wars. New York: New York, 1999.
3. “Gulf War.” Time Almanac. CD-ROM. 1994. N.pag.
4. “WWI.” The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Mindscape Inc. 1995. N.pag.
5. WWW. Gulf War/aol.com. Viewed on 2-24-00. American Online.