Did you know that Veterans Day was originally called Armistice
Day? On November 11, 1918, after more than four bloody years of fighting, World
War 1 ended. German officials surrendered and the Armistice agreement took effect
at 11:00 a.m. on 11-11-1918. That date – called Remembrance Day in many
countries – was observed in the United States until 1954, when the name was changed
to Veterans Day so that veterans of all wars would be honored.
When the First World War began overseas in August 1914,
President Wilson refused to involve America in a conflict that didn’t directly
involve the United States. Many people in America and, indeed, Great Britain,
believed that Wilson should have declared war on the Central Powers (Germany,
Austria-Hungary and their allies) after a German submarine sank the RMS
Lusitania, a British-owned luxury liner, on May 7, 1915, killing 1,200 men,
women and children, including 128 American citizens. Wilson refused to budge. However,
he began to change his mind when German U-boats (submarines) attacked American
ships, and German spy networks detonated numerous bombs and incendiary devices
on American soil. The final blow came when a letter to the Mexican president
was intercepted and taken to the White House. The letter’s contents were
shocking: the German government offered to assist Mexico with invading America
to take back the border states of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. They also
proposed that Mexico convince the Japanese to switch sides and join the Central
Powers.
Within days, Wilson declared war on the Central Powers
in April of 1917, more than 2-1/2 years after the war had begun. By the time
the Germans surrendered, the war had claimed over 18 million lives, with an
additional 23 million wounded (including civilians).
The official peace agreement, The Treaty of
Versailles, wasn’t signed until June 1919, after months of meetings, arguments,
and negotiations between the representatives of the conquering nations
regarding how the countries that made up the Central Powers should be
punished. An interesting fact is that representatives from the
Central Powers – most importantly, the Germans – weren’t included in the actual
peace negotiations in France. When the dust settled, the Germans were fined a
half-trillion dollars (in today’s currency), a monumental debt that wasn’t paid
off until 2010. The war devastated Germany economically. The people were
impoverished, starving, and humiliated. Germany was seriously in debt, not to
mention that they had lost millions of young men. In addition, they had lost
face and a great deal of territory.
Forced to sign the Armistice agreement, Germany was
humiliated, their economy ruined, and millions of their young men were
dead. Kaiser Wilhelm, grandson of Queen
Victoria, had been at the helm during the war. He resigned his position as leader of the German Empire and spent the rest of his life exiled
in the Netherlands.
These factors contributed directly to Adolph Hitler’s
rise to power. He used the devastating reparations the Germans would have to pay
to ignite the fuse of hatred that would lead to World War II less than twenty
years later.
