WW1 Map Activity

WW1 Student Journal United States

United States 7 1913

Today we got word of the assissination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. A Serbian nationalist was sent to murder him. Terrible thing that happened. This will probably result in a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. All I know is that the United States is staying out of it! Hopefully everyone else will be smart and stay out of it too. I would hate for a world war to break out! 

United States 7 1914

A lot of people were making alliances today. That could end up bad for some countries because they allied with countries outside of their expected alliances. The Ottoman Empire almost tried to make an alliance with us but we were quick to stay out of this whole mess. A lot of countries mobilized their troops. That means they are expecting to be attacked and be involved in this war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. I don’t understand why they can’t just leave it alone. Germany declared war on Russia today and won! This caused Russia to lose some land. I’m scared for what’s going to happen next. More and more people are getting involved. Austria-Hungary lost one man and everyone goes crazy! I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but the United States will continue to be neutral! No way are we getting involved in this war that’s not even in our contitant!

United States 7 1915

The British ship the Lusitania was sunk by German torpedoes today. 128 American lives were lost during this tragic event. Everyone is mourning the loss of the 128 American lives that were lost on the Lusitania. This raised some opinions in the United States about going to war. Some people think that we need to call war on Germany. I think that because it was a British ship that the Germans didn’t intend on attacking us. We are still going to stay out of it because I think it is in our best interest to just observe what’s happening from a safe distance.

United States 7 1916

There was a lot of war today. The day started with Germany attacking Russia and losing. Then Bulgaria tried to attack Greece but they also failed. That didn’t stop them from helping out Austria-Hungary in attacking Serbia and winning that war. The Central Powers also won against Romania. All of this war is too much to keep track of. So many people are fighting! I do not enjoy hearing about all of this. The United States is secretly rooting for the Allied Powers. We are planning on still staying out of the warzone, but I don’t know what will happen, especially if the Central Powers continue to conquer more countries…

United States 7 1917

There was a letter discovered called the Zimmerman Note between Germany and Mexico today. This note brought the United States into war. We were planning on staying out of this war completely, but after all of the events that happened, it led us to join the Allied Powers. Too much has happened and we are joining to put an end to all this commotion. We decided to make secret alliances with France and Great Britain to make sure we had backup in case anyone decided to try to pull something on us. Along with most of the other Allied Powers, we sent some troops over to France with one goal in mind– take out Germany. Germany is the brains of this operation, if we can take them out everything else will fall into place. With the US having the strongest military in the Allied Powers and Great Britain and France having poisonous gas, we’re hoping that our plan will succeed. Germany has less troops in their own country right now because they were over invading some of Russia. That should help us even more in the long run. I’m anxious to see what happens. 

United States 7 1918

A lot went down today. The Central Powers have taken over much of Europe. Great Britain and France agreed to help us to attack Germany, but we didn’t get there in time. We were hoping to take out the source of all this war and hopefully win all of this. In the end, the Central Powers were successful in taking out most of Europe. Honestly, I’m just very grateful that nobody tried to take us out. It would have caused so many people in our to freak out. We already have strong opinions in our country on us going to war, we don’t need and more chaos. Although I’m happy that this war is over, I’m sad that we were not able to go through with our plan. Maybe we would’ve been able to win. I hope all the fighting is done!