In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Great War shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. For the first three years of the conflict, the United States sat on the sidelines, though it did provide numerous armaments and loans to the Allies. As a result, American shipping was targeted by German U-boats, which greatly angered Americans. It was not until unrestricted submarine warfare, the Zimmerman Telegram, and the Russian Revolution occurred that the United States was willing to join the "war to end all wars." The Germans wanted to break the Allies before American forces could could be brought to bear. In the spring offensive of 1918, over a hundred divisions hurled themselves at Allied lines, and though they pushed them back, the Allies never broke. American forces then plugged the gaps and an allied counter-attack signaled to German leaders that the war was lost. Mutiny, protest, and social upheaval gripped Germany as the Austro-Hungarians and Ottoman Empire capitulated. In the end, the Kaiser abdicated, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed, and the war was brought to an end, before Allied forces crossed the German frontier. During the Versailles peace conference, the Allies wanted reparations and territory, while Wilson wanted his League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles was devastating for Germany, as she was saddled with the blame and had to pay reparations that would devastate her already crippled economy. The treaty led to much German dissatisfaction, which in turn produced the "stabbed in the back myth" that demagogues like Adolf Hitler seized upon. This set the stage, for the next world war. The war killed millions, devastated entire countries, and left unanswered questions in the Balkans and the Middle East. In fact, the origins of the modern Middle East, and the problems of Islamic terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict, are part of the legacy of the First World War.

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