topped in their march toward Paris, but
"knocked out." The furious and fast fighting of the Marines proved their
superiority. The Hun was badly beaten. The soldier applying the bayonet
is an American Negro.]

[Illustration: AFRICAN TROOPS IN FRANCE. THEY FOUGHT FOR THE ALLIES.

A war dance, relieving the monotony and for the benefit of British and
French troops. These colored soldiers gave a good account of
themselves.]

[Illustration: KAMERAD! KAMERAD!

Three colored Canadians imitating the Germans, whom they captured in
this dugout near the Canal du Nord, as they put up their hands and
shouted "Kamerad"!]

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE--THE GERMAN EMPIRE--CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II--THE
GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO
HUNDRED FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC
CLOSE OF THE WAR.

The World War, terminated by the signing of the armistice November 11,
1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war known to
history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civilization that we
see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat similar wars in the past
were the campaigns of Alexander; the wars that overthrew the Roman
Empire and the Napoleonic wars of a previous century; but this one war
surpasses them all, measured by any scale that can be applied to
military operations. It was truly a World War, thus in a class by
itself. Beginning in Central Europe, twenty-eight nations--nearly all of
the important nations of the world--with a total population of about
1,600,000,000--or eleven-twelfths of the human race--became involved. It
cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000 more suffered bodily injury; the
money cost was about $200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in
untold suffering caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that attended
it? Or who can measure the property loss, considering that the fairest
provinces of Europe were swept with the bezom of destruction?

Rightly to judge the real significance of such a world struggle, we must
consider conditions that made it possible; study the issue involved
stripped of all misleading statements; review its course and weigh the
nature of the profound changes--geographical, political and
economic--that resulted. We shall find that this war was the
culmination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of
government--impossible to longer co-exist--met in deadly