The Germans started by invading Belgium, giving the Belgium's only a few hours to stand aside or fight. Their goal was to drive hard through Belgium, capturing the Belgium's rail lines for resupply. Then make a hard left turn into France, bypassing all the French forts like Verdun By attacking a neutral country, the Germans brought the British into the war, along with the British fleet. It also enraged the American government, so Wilson looked the other way when Springfield and Remington shipped 500,000 en-field rifles to Britain. Britain used the riffles to build a two million man army, which allowed the Allies to match the Germans, division for division. The French paid a horrible price keeping the Germans down to a slow walk. Maybe 500,000 french died in the first year of the war. After 6 months, the Germans ran low on ammunition, dug in and focused on fighting in the east. If the Germans had waited for the French to attack them first, then Britain would have stayed out of the war. The German Navy would have sailed out and beat the snot out of the French. It turned out by going through Belgium, the Germans only gained a few weeks. If the Germans had attacked France directly, the French forts would have held them up only a few weeks, and then Verdun would have fallen to the Germans in 1914
United States train travel had changed dramatically by this time, since the transcontinental railroad had been completed, which stretched all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
As more people moved to the cities to find work, the
population increased dramatically. This
put demands on the police and healthcare personnel as disease and crime was on
the rise. Many were forced to live in
poor conditions that resulted to illness.
Others took to crime since they were now desperate. Police and medical personnel had to deal with
the health and peace and order situation brought about by the increase of
population.
