ation of the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungry and Russia both wanted to control the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. With all of this tension already in Europe, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinan was all that was needed to spark the start of the war. Serbia firmly denied any compensation to Austria for the death of the Archduke, so Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany was an ally to Austria, and Russia was an ally to Serbia. Because of this connection those two countries, Germany and Russia entered the war. Germany quickly declared war on Russia and Russia's ally France. Germany then brutally invaded the neutral country of Belgium. The invasion of Belgium made Great Britain so mad that they too declared war on Germany. Europe was now divided into two separate powers, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. The Allies would eventually consist of Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, in 1915 Italy, and the United States in 1917. The Central Powers were made up of Germany, Austria-Hungry, Turkey, and in 1915 Bulgaria. The United States followed the Global War Policy that allowed neutral nations to trade with both sides in a war. President Wilson urged the American people to be neutral in thought and in deed. This meant that Americans were not supposed to support either side in the war. The United States was doing business with the Allies and the Central Powers. Germany felt that any ship carrying supplies for the Allies was fair game to sink. Germany started sinking US supply ships headed for Britain. Wilson cut off all ties with Germany and began viewing Germany as an outlaw after a U-boat sank the Lusitania. Wilson also found out about a plan that Germany was trying to get Mexico to enter the war and invade the United States from the south. This was too much for Wilson to ignore and he declared war. At first when war was declared men lined up at recruiting offices and volunteered to fight. To them war was a noble thing to do a...
