World War I

           World War I was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until the start of World War II in 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). Before the United States formally joined the conflict, many intellectuals in the nation’s major universities, including Columbia’s president Nicholas Murray Butler, were opposed to U.S. intervention. Once Congress declared war in 1917, any previous ambivalence about the war was replaced by a commitment to national service.