The American History II students have been studying World War I.  World War I was the first big war of the 20th century. It started with an assassination and involved more countries than any war before it. Many European countries made agreements with each other and fought for four years. Nine million soldiers and 6 million civilians lost their lives in the war.

The United States tried to stay out of the war.  When Germany used the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare forced America to declare war.  In France the war had been a stalemate for three years so with the entry of the United States it enabled the Allies to win the war.  One of Nebraska’s links to the war was John Pershing. He taught at the University of Nebraska for many years before the war. Pershing was the leader of the American Forces. Many of the students did not know that Pershing Elementary School was named after him.  The students did many different activities studying the war. A few of these were completing timelines, note taking outlines, and videos of WWI.  We didn’t know at the time but this was just the beginning of the World Wars.