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On August 4th, 1914, the German army began crossing the border into Belgium.  The Belgians, understandably unwilling to allow such a thing to occur without offering firm protest, chose to stand and fight.  Bridges were indeed destroyed.  Roads were blocked.  Barricades were put up — and, while the nation’s small and ill-equipped army could not hope to defeat the German invaders, it did manage to slow them down to such an extent that the carefully drafted timetables of the planned invasion had to be rewritten from scratch, and the British Expeditionary Force was able to arrive in time to further delay the attempted conquest of Belgium and passage into France.  In an abstract sense, the First Battle of the Marne was won in the fields outside of Liège.

(continued at http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/memoryofwar/the-rape-of-belgium-revisited/)

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Lastly, the fifth major reason for the collapse of the economic system of that time is to be seen in the fact that after WWI the US had posed as the largest creditor on the world's financial markets....The surpluses were financed by an influx of gold and silver. In addition, German bonds were greatly appreciated by the American upper class to have otherwise superfluous liquidity being absorbed.

Germany After Capitalism p91

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By the end of the war the amount of money in circulation had risen fourfold and prices some 140 percent. Yet the German mark had suffered no more than the British pound, was somewhat weaker than the American dollar but stronger than the French franc. Five years later, in December 1923, the Reichsbank had issued 496.5 quintillion marks, each of which had fallen to one-trillionth of its 1914 gold value.

(continued at https://mises.org/library/hyperinflation-germany-1914-1923)

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The Treaty of Versailles amputated a number of regions from Germany, and Eastern Prussia was isolated from the rest of the German territory. Meanwhile, the Treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and of Trianon put an end to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Many regions were lost and Austria and Hungary, their territory substantially reduced, became two separate nations.

(continued at http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome03/Map-of-Europe-after-WW1-and-the-Versailles-Treaty.php)

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A century ago at the beginning of the First World War, the maps of Europe, Asia and Africa looked much different than they do today. Historians say many of the border changes - agreed upon after the war - were made for political rather than economic reasons, creating new problems whose impact can be felt even today.

(continued at http://www.voanews.com/a/how-wwi-changed-the-map-of-europe/1970075.html)

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Germany lost World War I. In the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the victorious powers (the United States, Great Britain, France, and other allied states) imposed punitive territorial, military, and economic provisions on defeated Germany. In the west, Germany returned Alsace-Lorraine to France. It had been seized by Germany more than 40 years earlier. Further, Belgium received Eupen and Malmedy; the industrial Saar region was placed under the administration of the League of Nations for 15 years; and Denmark received Northern Schleswig. Finally, the Rhineland was demilitarized; that is, no German military forces or fortifications were permitted there.

(continued at https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_nm.php?MediaId=1620)

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It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.

(continued at https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wilson's_War_Message_to_Congress)

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11b. President's Order to the Navy is...FIRE

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11b. President's Order to the Navy is...FIRE

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Wilson realized war was inevitable but agonized over the decision for what it might do to the spirit of the nation. He feared war would change America forever, making her tougher, less humane. "Once lead these people into war, and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance ... the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life ... every man who refused to conform would have to pay the penalty."

(continued at http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/wilsonwar.htm)

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"I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

firstworldwar.com, "U.S. Declaration of War with Germany, 2 April 1917," available at http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/usawardeclaration.htm Accessed October 22, 2012

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The State Department promptly sent a copy of the Zimmermann Telegram to President Wilson, who was shocked by the note’s content and the next day proposed to Congress that the U.S. should start arming its ships against possible German attacks. Wilson also authorized the State Department to publish the telegram; it appeared on the front pages of American newspapers on March 1. Many Americans were horrified and declared the note a forgery; two days later, however, Zimmermann himself announced that it was genuine.

(continued at http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-wilson-learns-of-zimmermann-telegram)

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Between 1914 and the spring of 1917, the European nations engaged in a conflict that became known as World War I. While armies moved across the face of Europe, the United States remained neutral. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson was elected President for a second term, largely because of the slogan "He kept us out of war." Events in early 1917 would change that hope. In frustration over the effective British naval blockade, in February Germany broke its pledge to limit submarine warfare. In response to the breaking of the Sussex pledge, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany.

(continued at https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann)

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The use of unrestricted submarine warfare was announced by Germany on January 9th, 1917. The use of unrestricted submarine warfare was to have a major impact on World War One as it was one of the main reasons why America joined the war.

(continued at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/naval-warfare-and-world-war-one/unrestricted-submarine-warfare/)

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On this day in 1917, the lethal threat of the German U-boat submarine raises its head again, as Germany returns to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare it had previously suspended in response to pressure from the United States and other neutral countries.

(continued at http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-resumes-unrestricted-submarine-warfare)

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"In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and the destruction of merchant vessels, recognized by international law, such vessels, both within and without the area declared a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning and without saving human lives unless the ship attempts to escape or offer resistance."

firstworldwar.com, "Germany's Response to U.S. Ultimatum Regarding Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare, 4 May 1916," available at http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/uboat1916_jagowresponse.htm Accessed October 22, 2012

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Among those who perished on the Lusitania, were people from many countries, not just citizens of America and Britain.  The public in many different countries were furious. Riots occurred and many stores refused to serve Germans.  Americans were particularly angry because 128 Americans died on that ship.  Anti-German protests began in America. The United States government sent four protests to the German government.  This is from the first protest.
"In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of American rights on the high seas which culminated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over 100 American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable that the government of the United States and the Imperial German government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the grave situation which has resulted."

(continued at http://79372044.weebly.com/the-response-to-the-sinking-of-the-lusitania.html)

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Former President Theodore Roosevelt disagreed with Wilson’s diplomatic response to the sinking of the Lusitania. Roosevelt believed that the attack warranted a military reprisal and that the United States had little choice but to enter the war. In June 1915, Roosevelt wrote to an aquaintance criticizing Wilson’s handling of the incident, writing, “If Lincoln had acted after the firing of Sumter in the way that Wilson did about the sinking of the Lusitania, in one month the North would have been saying they were so glad he kept them out of the war.” Criticizing both the government’s response and the American peoples’ apathy over the attack, Roosevelt wrote that he was “pretty well disgusted with our government and with the way our people acquiesce in and support it.”

(continued at https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/world-war-i/resources/theodore-roosevelt-sinking-lusitania-1915)

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8. U.S. Protest Over the Sinking of the Lusitania

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8. U.S. Protest Over the Sinking of the Lusitania

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"The Government of the United States and the Imperial German Government are contending for the same great object, have long stood together in urging the very principles upon which the Government of the United States now so solemnly insists. They are both contending for the freedom of the seas.

"The Government of the United States will continue to contend for that freedom, from whatever quarter violated, without compromise and at any cost. It invites the practical cooperation of the Imperial German Government at this time, when cooperation may accomplish most and this great common object be most strikingly and effectively achieved.

"Repetition by the commanders of German naval vessels of acts in contravention of those rights must be regarded by the Government of the United States, when they affect American citizens, as deliberately unfriendly."

firstworldwar.com, "Third U.S. Protest over the Sinking of the Lusitania, July 21, 1915," available at http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/lusitania3rdprotest.htm Accessed October 22, 2012

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Sussex Incident, (March 24, 1916), torpedoing of a French cross-channel passenger steamer, the Sussex, by a German submarine, leaving 80 casualties, including two Americans wounded. The attack prompted a U.S. threat to sever diplomatic relations. The German government responded with the so-called Sussex pledge (May 4, 1916), agreeing to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships and to provide for the safety of passengers and crew.

(continued at https://www.britannica.com/event/Sussex-Incident)

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On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the more than 1,900 passengers and crew members on board, more than 1,100 perished, including more than 120 Americans. Nearly two years would pass before the United States formally entered World War I, but the sinking of the Lusitania played a significant role in turning public opinion against Germany, both in the United States and abroad.

(continued at http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/lusitania)

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6c. Ten Myths About World War One Debunked

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6c. Ten Myths About World War One Debunked

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Much of what we think we know about the 1914-18 conflict is wrong, writes historian Dan Snow.

No war in history attracts more controversy and myth than World War One.

For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse. By setting it apart as uniquely awful we are blinding ourselves to the reality of not just WW1 but war in general. We are also in danger of belittling the experience of soldiers and civilians caught up in countless other appalling conflicts throughout history and the present day.

(continued at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25776836)

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2,037,000 German soldiers were killed in World War I. These losses were a military and demographic catastrophe which had enormously important political, social, economic, and cultural consequences.

(continued at http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_losses_germany)

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The First World War brought short-term prosperity to Newfoundland and Labrador, but damaged its economy in the long run by increasing the public debt. As warring nations scaled back their involvement with the cod fisheries, market conditions and profits improved in the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery. Forestry and mining industries also benefited from wartime demand for lumber and iron ore exports. The government reported its first financial surplus for years in 1916 and continued to do so for the duration of hostilities. Employment was plentiful, wages good, and residents enjoyed a high standard of living.

(continued at http://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/first-world-war-economy.php)

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"The total cost of World War I to the United States (was) approximately $32 billion, or 52 percent of gross national product at the time."

Did World War I produce a major economic break from the past in the United States? Did the U.S. economy change in some fundamental and lasting ways as a result of that war? NBER Research Associate Hugh Rockoff addresses these questions in his recent study Until It's Over, Over There: The U.S. Economy in World War I (NBER Working Paper No. 10580). After surveying the U.S. mobilization and financing for the war, Rockoff concludes that perhaps the greatest impact of World War I was a shift in the landscape of ideas about economics and about the proper role of government in economic activities.

(continued at http://www.nber.org/digest/jan05/w10580.html)

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"Finally, if such ties of geopolitics were not enough, economics exerted an inexorable pull. Both Britain's control of the seas and its dependence on overseas trade quickly turned the United States, which had the largest industrial and agricultural economy in the world, into the Allies' supply house, especially for munitions and foodstuffs. The vast, urgent demand for American products necessitated borrowing on a huge scale by the British on behalf of themselves and the Allies, mainly through J.P. Morgan and Company. That borrowing soon turned the United States into the Allies' banker as well. By 1917, the British has exhausted their sources of collateral and faced a credit card crisis that could have crimped or possibly even cut their overseas lifeline supplies. Such fears, some have argued, were what really prompted the United States to intervene in 1917. It was to save the Allies from financial collapse or, as some left-wing critics jeered, "to save the Morgan loan."

Cooper, John Milton Jr., "The United States," In The Origins of World War I, edited by Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, 415-422, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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On May 18, 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed authorizing the President to increase temporarily the military establishment of the United States. The Selective Service System, under the office of the Provost Marshal General, was responsible for the process of selecting men for induction into the military service, from the initial registration to the actual delivery of men to military training camps.

(continued at https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww1/draft-registration)

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During World War One, propaganda was employed on a global scale. Unlike previous wars, this was the first total war in which whole nations and not just professional armies were locked in mortal combat. This and subsequent modern wars required propaganda to mobilise hatred against the enemy; to convince the population of the justness of the cause; to enlist the active support and cooperation of neutral countries; and to strengthen the support of allies.
(continued at https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/themes/propaganda)

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The majority of the propaganda in WWI tried to convince people to join the war effort in the West.

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"Individual acts of brutality treatment of civilians, rape, plunder, and the like - were very widely committed. These are more numerous and more shocking than would be expected in warfare between civilised Powers, but they differ rather in extent than in kind from what has happened in previous though not recent wars.

"In all wars many shocking and outrageous acts must be expected, for in every large army there must be a proportion of men of criminal instincts whose worst passions are unloosed by the immunity which the conditions of warfare afford.

"Drunkenness, moreover, may turn each a soldier who has no criminal habits into a brute, who may commit outrages at which he would himself be shocked in his sober moments, and there is evidence that intoxication was extremely that intoxication was extremely prevalent among the German army, both in Belgium and in France, for plenty of wine was to be found in the villages and the country houses which were pillaged. Many of the worst outrages appear to have been perpetrated by men under the influence of drink. Unfortunately little seems to have neem done to repress this source of danger.

"In the present war, however - and this is the gravest charge against the Germany army - the evidence shows that the killing of non-combatants was carried out to an extent for which no previous war between nations claiming to be civilised (for such cases as the atrocities perpetrated by the Turks on the Bulgarian Christians in 1876, and on the Armenian Christians in 1895 and 1896, do not belong to that category) furnishes any precedent."

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1c. The Press on US Involvement in the War

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1c. The Press on US Involvement in the War

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The United States had always attempted to remain neutral in the developing war in the East. In this cartoon, Germany is depicted as a bull charging into a "Neutral China Store", showing that Germany went after its enemies but also those who they saw as easy opponents ending the neutrality of America.

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1c. Why Were Journalists Threatened with Execution in WWI?

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1c. Why Were Journalists Threatened with Execution in WWI?

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From the start of the war the British government was eager to control the flow of information from the front line, passing legislation in 1914 which allowed the War Office to censor the press and raising the spectre of the death penalty for anyone convicted of assisting the enemy. Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, had crossed swords with the press in the Sudan and the Boer War and believed battle grounds were the exclusive preserve of the armed forces.
(continue at http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zs9bwmn)

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Propaganda played an important part in the politics of the war, but was only successful as part of wider political and military strategies. For each belligerent, the most effective and important forms of propaganda were aimed at its own domestic population and based on consensus. As part of this, the Allies largely managed relations with their own newspapers and other media by negotiated agreement, backed by coercive powers that were seldom used. Germany had a more coercive and directive approach to propaganda and the media, eventually dominated by its military. Post-war views of wartime propaganda misunderstood the reasons for Allied propaganda success.
(continue at http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/propaganda_media_in_war_politics

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Of the 367 replies, 105 editors report that they favor the Allies, 20 favor the Germans, and 242 are neutral. Of the pro-Ally editors 34 are in the Eastern States, 13 are in the Central, 47 in the Southern, and 11 in the Western. Only one pro-German editor hail from the Eastern States, while 10 are from the Central, 5 from the Southern, and 4 from the Western group. The neutral editors number 43 in the Easter States, 112 in the Central, 51 in the Southern and 36 in the Western.
Extract from:
"American Sympathies in the War," The Literary Digest, 49 (14 November 1914): 939-41, 974-78