preview

The Emergence Of WWI

Decent Essays

World War I was the beginning of a new era in world history. It marked the downfall of empires and the growth of new democratic nations. Although it was a violent war and cost former empires in lives and resources, after the war the world saw more independent nations and, as the title of the Clements text says, “The Emergence of the Americas” (Clements). Although each nation had different paths to, during, and after the war, in general the nations of the Americas benefit greatly while those in Europe had to deal with its consequences. Due the various paths each nation took, the various sources (Clements, Oxford, Zinn, Jackson, and Keylor) also reflect this divergence in consistency of WWI accounts and effects. The five sources can be compared …show more content…

To begin in all the texts, it is agreed that before the war began there was a huge international economic depression which hurt mostly the Latin American nations. One perspective on Latin America saw a low in foreign investments before the onset of war due to their monoculture and lack of internal development and depending on foreign investment (Clements). This makes them very sensitive to economic changes like the one just before the world war. In contrast, some saw Latin America as a rapidly growing region, with increases in European migrants (especially German) bring stronger industries and more investments (Oxford). In addition, according to these historians, the more aggressive economic changes brought by the German can be interpreted as an “economic imperialism” lead by the German Kiser’s wanting an “empire under the sun” (Oxford). During the onset of the war, many nations saw a cut off imports and exports due to tariffs, blockades, and U-boat patrols (Clements). In Peru, there was a food shortage within the first few weeks of the war in Europe, which caused internal strife and tension, putting blame on the native/migrated German population (Clements). In Brazil, German U-boats severely impeded on their exports and when they finally destroyed the key export ships Rio Branco, Paraná, and Macau, the Brazilians declared war on the Central Powers (Clements). On the brighter side, many nations like Argentina, Mexico, and Peru saw increases in nitrate, metal, beef, and oil exports, which helped fund internal development (funding domestic industries), but helped little for their future development (Clements). Moving north, in the United States, Americans saw strong anti-German propaganda, but also an initial want for neutrality. Many Americans wanted neutrality because, one, their large immigrant population opposed such actions, two, the U.S. was

Get Access