Monroe 1 Dillon Monroe Bart/Smith Junior English 7 19 January 2011 Analyzation of the great happenings of the 1910s During

the years in between 1910 and 1920 many great things happened. Many of these great things shaped the way that the rest of the 20th century would unfold. Types of things that happened in this decade range from the invention of the refrigerator, and the assembly line, to the creation of the boy scouts, and girl scouts. over all the 3 most important things that happened in this decade were the creation of the assembly line by Henry Ford, the great war, now called world war one, and the outbreak of the most devastating epidemic in world history (Billings, The Influenza Pandemic of 1918). After Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary throne and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarejevo in 1914 the European world was thrown into full blown war. This war literally tore Europe apart. None of the great powers had entered the war of 1914 with clearly defined aims. Each had taken up arms for different reasons which often changed as drastically as the volatile military situation. (Book of World War One) this quote shows the state of true turmoil that the world was in at this time. This War to End all Wars (Book of World War One) was so vociferous that in 1917 America was coerced to join in the tussle across the pond. This forever changed warfare for the entire world, this was when war started to become more artful then brutish. The start of this war saw machine guns workable by

Monroe 2 two men at the very least and chemical warfare had never been used. By the end machine guns had become efficient enough to be workable by a crew of one, mustard and tear inducing gasses had been weaponized by both the allied and opposing forces. This war was also very unique tactically, it was a war of the trenches. Both sides would dig into the ground and fight it out. This tactic saw increased use of artillery and also promoted the use of stealthy dawn and dusk attacks. Because of this battles would often last months. By this time in history transportation had already been revolutionized with the creation of the automobile. However it still took a very long time to create one automobile for each individual one was hand crafted. But in 1913 Henry Ford once again revolutionized transportation by bringing the possibility of owning an automobile within the grasp of the average American (Foner, Garraty, Ford,Henry). This he did through the creation of the assembly line. As Ford developed his production ideas, fully introducing the assembly-line principle in 1913, the price of the model T dropped steadily. In 1908 the company made 10,607 cars and sold them for $850 apeice; in 1916 it manufactured 730,041 priced at only $360. (Foner, Garraty, Ford,Henry) these numbers speak for themselves showing that the invention of the assembly line truly revolutionized the way modern mass production was gone about. It is said that on March 11, 1918 one man went to the fort riley infirmary on base reporting flu like symptoms, the another, then another then they started pouring in. (Influenza 1918) This was the start of the Spanish influenza strain of 1918, regarded worldwide as the worst influenza outbreak in history, in one year alone it killed 600,000 domestically and between 20 and 50 million worldwide. (Albrecht and Garcia-Sastre, Spanish Flu) Unfourtunately we do not know why this strain of flu was so deadly as shown in the following.

Monroe 3 Scientists have long sought to discover why the particular variety of influenza that caused the Spanish flu was so deadly and spread so quickly. In the 1990s they identified preserved lung tissue of victims of the disease which still contained the genetic information from the Spanish flu virus. They confirmed it as a variety of H1N1, one of several types of influenza viruses that can affect both people and certain animals, such as swine (Albrecht and Garcia-Sastre, Spanish Flu) this flu outbreak caused Americans to re-evaluate the status of their medical care and better protect themselves against future disease outbreaks. Three of the most important things that happened in the 1910s were the Spanish flu outbreak, the invention of the assembly line, and World War One. These three events shaped America Socially, Politically, and Economically during the 20th century. However these three were not alone in their heroic acts of century shaping, they were accompanied by many other brave soldiers who may have fallen short along the path to the greatest.

Monroe 4 Works Cited