That wasn’t the point, but I see the points about WWI.
Actually, Dissonance, I would say three empires-don’t forget the German Empire. And I suppose, if you really want to get technical-wasn’t it also the end of the Ottoman Empire?
Plus the creation of what would become Yugoslavia, the emergence of the US as a world power (officially, I guess), and the complete remapping of Europe, almost.
Also Guin - the end of WWI and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire also saw the creation of the French, and British Protectorates in what is now known as Palestine/Israel, Syria, and Iraq.
More than a a few people weren’t all that surprised about the end of the Ottoman Empire insofar as the Ottomans had progressively been granting greater and greater autonomy to it’s provinces I’m told. However, from what I’ve read, everyone, absolutely EVERYONE was surprised about the end of Austrian-Hungarian empire. That one caught everyone by surprise, and it left no small power vacuum too.
Hungary went from being a peaceful, fully integrated homogenous society which prided itself on it’s libertarian, enlightened ideals, to being a fractured hothouse. It teetered from Monarchy, to Communisim, then onto Nazism, and then back to Communism. An amazing story if truth be known.
I pretty much agree with pantom. WW1 is the most important event of the past 100 years.
As for the claim that film is a 100 percent American invention, anyone ever heard of Georges Melies?
Funny you should ask. I was just musing about this.
My grandfather is dying of congestive heart failure in a suburban Pittsburgh hospital as I’m typing this, at the age of 94. One of his earliest memories is being processed through Ellis Island at age 6, in May, 1915.
There aren’t many people left who remember 1915, and we’re about to lose another one.
Anyway, as a discrete event it was hardly earth shattering, but this six year old Italian immigrant was joined by millions more from Italy and the rest of Europe in the massive 1890-1920 wave of immigration to America. It helped transform the United States into an economic and cultural superpower. We bear the mark of it today.
I’ll soon be starting a thread about my grandfather. He’s led a remarkable life.
So, considering the problems and wars in the Middle East and the Balkans, would it be fair to say that WWI has never really ended?
Sorry to hear about your grandfather, Mr Moto. 
I’d have to go with “Birth of a Nation”.
Apart from what’s already been pointed out about the Lusitania sinking alone not triggering U.S. involvement in WWI, the influence of movies on modern thinking has been great. And in the U.S. alone, that movie is “credited” with the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and all the problems those bedsheet-wearers created for decades to come.