General, Chief of Staff, United States Army. FOREWORD This is a popular narrative history of the world’s greatest war. Written frankly from the viewpoint of the United States and the Allies, it visualizes the bloodiest and most destructive conflict of all the ages from its remote causes to its glorious conclusion and beneficent results. The world-shaking rise of new democracies is set forth, and the enormous national and individual sacrifices producing that resurrection of human equality are detailed. Two ideals have been before us in the preparation of this necessary work. These are simplicity and thoroughness. It is of no avail to describe the greatest of human events if the description is so confused that the reader loses interest. Thoroughness is an historical essential beyond price. So it is that official documents prepared in many instances upon the field of battle, and others taken from the files of the governments at war, are the basis of this work. Maps and photographs of unusual clearness and high authenticity illuminate the text. All that has gone into war making, into the regeneration of the world, are herein set forth with historical particularity. The stark horrors of Belgium, the blighting terrors of chemical warfare, the governmental restrictions placed upon hundreds of millions of civilians, the war sacrifices falling upon all the civilized peoples of earth, are in these pages. It is a work that mankind can well read and treasure. CONTENTS VOLUME I INTRODUCTION BY GENERAL MARCH PAGE CHAPTER I. A WAR FOR INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM A Conflict that was Inevitable--The Flower of Manhood on the Fields of France--Germany’s Defiance to the World--Heroic Belgium--Four Autocratic Nations against Twenty-four Committed to the Principles of Liberty--America’s Titanic Effort--Four Million Men Under Arms, Two Million Overseas--France the Martyr Nation--The British Empire’s Tremendous Share in the Victory--A River of Blood Watering the Desert of Autocracy 1 CHAPTER II. THE WORLD SUDDENLY TURNED UPSIDE DOWN The War Storm Breaks--Trade and Commerce Paralyzed--Homeward Rush of Travelers--Stock Markets Closed--The Tide of Desolation Following in the Wake of War 21 CHAPTER III. WHY THE WORLD WENT TO WAR The Balkan Ferment--Russia, the Dying Giant Among Autocracies--Turkey the “Sick Man” of Europe--Scars Left by the Balkan War--Germany’s Determination to Seize a Place in the Sun 41 CHAPTER IV. THE PLOTTER BEHIND THE SCENE