UNIV 3539 Blog

As in the, "Age of Hope," Europeans were being to evolve and adopt the principle of Liberalism. They were beginning to demand social equality and believed that if they went to war, they would not only be able to express themselves freely but, to physically defend themselves and their beliefs. I believe that that the real reason that Europeans were so eager to go to war is because they believed that if they all banded together and fought for a just cause they would inevitably win the war; it was just a matter of going for it and getting it over with. Additionally, there had been a sense of peace and tranqulity throughout and soldiers were eagerly anticipated a victory that was sure to come quickly and easily. The experiences of ordinary soldiers and their expectations were vastly different. As stated in the broadcast, soldiers expected excitement adventure, and glory. However, when the soldiers actually began fighting, it was a different story. According to the readings, in training soldiers were taught how to properly salute an officer, which was a skill, or lack thereof, that could be utilized in the trenches on the battlefield. There was fierce fighting and soldiers were dying by the millions, due to poor training. The conditions of the actual war was not expected. Men would be shot and left for dead and because so many of them were dying, their carcasses were eaten by rats and left to decompose in the trenches. Food was scarce and soldiers were forced to eat horsemeat to gain substinence; men suffered from lice and inhaled poisonous gas. The Great War finally ended in favor of the U.S. and the Allies. The reason the war ended is because Germany ran out of supplies and their defense was weakened because they were outnumbered by the U.S. and the French closed the Belgium frontier, which resulted in them losing their main supplies: oil and food. The American troops indeed saved the day. It is my belief that the allies truly won. They outnumbered the Germans and worked a skill plan to bring Germany to its knees.