FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2023-6 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (January 10, 2023) – In this edition of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, we recall a little World War history.             

War to End All Wars

Today is the 100th year anniversary of President Harding ending US occupation of parts of Germany.  There were 16,000 troops based at Koblenz on the Rhine River who then returned home.  Little did they know that about 20 plus years later many US soldiers would return…

Europe was primed for a war with many conflicts and opposing alliances in the early 20th century.  The spark that led to World War I was a Serbian extremist assassinating Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914. 

The US wanted to be neutral, but the sinking by the Germans of the British Liner Lusitania, with many Americans on-board, together with the fear of a German-Mexican Alliance gave the reasons for the Senate to vote 82-6 to declare War on Germany in April 1917. 

World War I ended in November 1918, and costs 14 million lives, but solved very little of the underlying issues, hence a redo starting in 1939…

Here is Black’s map of Europe from 1892 showing a much different central and southeast Europe vs. today’s Europe.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.