Reasons+for+U.S.+involvement+in+World+War+One

 ** //__Reasons for U.S. Involvement in WWI__ //   **            <span style="COLOR: rgb(173,63,222); BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(248,247,247)"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"> <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 95%; COLOR: rgb(224,82,175); FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(13,12,12)">            <span style="DISPLAY: block; FONT-SIZE: 90%; COLOR: rgb(223,48,177); FONT-FAMILY: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; TEXT-ALIGN: center">By Grecia Servalli

In the beginning of the 1900’s, the world was beginning to change in many ways. Many countries wanted to compete to get bigger armies, more land and more money. They wanted to see who was going to be the world’s greatest nation. This made all the European countries competitive to each other. These years became to be known as [|“World War I” (1914-1918)]. At the beginning in 1914, many Americans were against the entry into the war and saw it as a European conflict. At the start of World War I in 1914, for the first three years of the war, [|President Wilson] had promoted American [|neutrality]. The United States wanted to stay out of conflict because they thought that by staying neutral they would be safe. However, the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania and other German actions against the United States and its citizens made America become friends with the Allies and have Germany as its enemy. Many American civilians died in the sinking of Lusitania. Overall, the war lasted four years and the United States was into the war for a whole year. A whole year was enough to take lives of nearly ten million troops and many other catastrophes. Therefore, the United States decided to enter World War I for several reasons.

World War I caused greater destruction and involved more counties than any other war except for [|World War II]. It all started on June 28, 1914 with the assassination of [|Francis Ferdinand], the Archduke of Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo and his wife. They were both killed by Gavrilo Princip who was a member of a terrorist organization promoting Serbian nationalism. “As the royal entourage drove through the city, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip stepped from the crowd and shot the Archduke and his wife Sophie” (Danzer, Gerald A. -580). Long before the archduke was killed, Serbia wanted to have its independence from the Empire of Austria-Hungary; so Austria-Hungary believed that the government of Serbia was behind the assassination. This event gave the opportunity to Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia on July 28 and settle an old battle.



The assassination of Francis Ferdinand sparked the outbreak of World War I. But many historians believed that the war had deeper causes. Many say that it was because of the growth of extreme national pride among various European peoples, an enormous increase in European armed forces, a race for colonies, and the formation of military alliances. Soon, European nations entered the war to help and support their allies. When the fighting began, [|France], Britain, and Russia, who were known as the Allies, backed Serbia. They opposed the central Powers, made up of Austria-Hungary and Germany. Other nations later joined the Allies or the [|Central Powers]: “the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand triggered World War I. But the war had its origins in developments of the 1800’s.”(Coffman, Edward M. 452). The alliance system pulled one nation after the other into the war. The [|Great War] had begun. However, the United States, the most powerful nation in the world refused to enter the war.

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In 1914, the United States believed that it must limit its involvement in world affairs. America thought that by staying neutral and out of the war, everything would be ok for the nation; so Americans opposed United States involvement in a conflict like this in a European war. However, the [|isolationism] of the United States became a bigger problem because several events early in 1917 like the unrestricted submarine warfare, the Lusitania, and the [|Zimmermann telegram] persuaded the American government to join World War I “The events in Europe made America’s entry into World War I unavoidable”. (Pash, Sidney L. - Americans at War). The United States remained neutral at first. However, conflict was unavoidable. The United States was helping the allies by giving them supplies. The United States was actually on the Allies side even if they were neutral because many American civilians turned against the Central Powers after German [|unrestricted submarines warfare] began sinking unarmed ships and the neutrality of the United States had been seriously imperiled after many disasters Germans made.

In February 1915, Germany started using unrestricted submarine warfare because they thought that by doing this, it might bring the United States to join the war. But Germans believed that they could still win the war by stopping British supplies. The sale of these war materials to the Allies were really helpful for both nations; the allies and the United States. Although the majority of American citizens favored the victory for the Allies rather than the Central Powers, the United States did not want to join the war on the [|Allies]’ side. Britain had borrowed a lot of money from the United States to be able to win the war against Germany. But he failed on the attempt to pressure the British to cut off the lends; but president Wilson got so mad with British blockading of the American shipping that he went so far as to tell the United States’ banks that they should not lend England money anymore: “ He was so mad that at one point when he was asked what he would do if Germany was willing to seek a fair peace and France and Britain weren’t—Wilson answered: “If the allies want war with us, we would not shrink from it.”(America Entry). With President Wilson’s threat to Britain of stopping lending any more money to them and American shipping; many allies thought that they might lose the war.

Another reason why President Wilson wanted to keep the United States out of the war was because America was making a lot of money out of British shipping. American copper, cotton, wheat, and war materials crossed the [|Atlantic Ocean] for the British and French orders. Many factories in the United States worked overtime on these orders: “The British alone were spending ten million dollars a day of their war budget in the United States” (America entry). Things were starting to go well for the country in terms of economy. If the American submarines stopped this trade between Britain and the United States, a lot of money would be lost and many workers in the factories would lose their jobs. <span style="COLOR: rgb(173,63,222); BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(248,247,247)"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)">

Ever since the war started, the United States had a lot of reasons to join the first Great War. One major reason was that Germans were starting to use submarines on the seas as their weapon; they were called [|U-Boats]. Germans were afraid that the French and the British would trade weapons and other goods on the seas to help each other, so they agreed to sink anything that was helpful to the [|Allies]. This was sadly for the United States because they had a lot of shipping and [|trading] for the British. Every time German submarines sunk American ships; the United States couldn’t help it to think more and more to join the war. By sinking American shipping, the American economy was starting to weaken little by little “Americans resented with their shipping on the high seas.” (Wilmott, H.P., 121). The United States got really hurt once Germany started using these unrestricted warfare. The unrestricted warfare made many American ships sink in only one day. “When the unrestricted warfare started in February 19175 more American civilian casualties occurred on high seas. On March 18th, three American boats were sunk by U-Boats.” (Meyer, G.J., 79-82). Most of the German actions occurred on the high seas where the American shipping took place.

<span style="COLOR: rgb(173,63,222); BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(248,247,247)"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"> One main reason that the United States had to join the war was because one of the huge British ocean liners was sunk, this was the [|Lusitania]. The Lusitania was sunk without warning by the German submarine [|U-20] off Old Head of [|Kinsale, Ireland]. There were many Americans aboard in the ship: “Of the 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 perished, including 128(out of 197) Americans” (“Lusitania”). The had hidden cargo consisted of contraband and arms for the British war effort; it had entered the Admiralty fleet registered as an armed auxiliary cruiser: “The ship carried 4,200 cases of small-arms ammunition and 1,250 shrapnel cases, allowed by American law; this cargo, stored well forward, about 150 ft. from the spot where the torpedo struck, may have exploded and contributed to the rapid (18 minutes) sinking of the ship” (“Lusitania”). Many Americans died in this incident. According to the rules of the war, the liner Lusitania should have been warned before it was sunk. The Germans weren’t following the rules. Germans were trying to get America to join the war. Therefore; because of the Lusitania incident, there was a conflict developed between the United States and [|Germany].

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Another main reason why the United States had to join the Great War was because of the Zimmermann telegram which was a big mistake made by Germany. Germany wanted to defeat the Allies very easily; and they thought that by stopping the shipping from the United States to go to France and Britain by sinking the ships would make the Allies become weak and out of supplies: “Only unrestricted submarine warfare—sinking merchant ships in the war zone without warning and without picking up survivors—could stop the flow of American food and arms and force Britain to sue for [|peace].” (Gorgon, John Steele, 1). After the German unrestricted submarine warfare against the United States; Germans still wanted to weaken more the United States. Germany sent a telegram to [|Mexico]; called Zimmermann Telegram. This telegram was sent by the ambassador of Germany [|Arthur Zimmermann]. “Arthur Zimmermann sent his ambassador in Mexico a cable instructing him to offer Mexico an [|alliance] in the event of war between Germany and the United States.” (Gordon, John Steele, 1). The telegram was to make an alliance with Mexico. It explained that Germany was willing to help Mexico economically, socially, in terms of military and even more if they turned against the United States and become allies with the Central Powers. Germany promised that if they would make the united states join the war and make the central powers victories, Mexico would get back the territories that they lost against the united States which were [|New Mexico], [|Texas],, and [|Arizona]. “It promised Mexico in exchange a joint war effort, generous financial support, and help in recovering its “lost territories” in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.” (Gordon, John Steele, 1). This threat against the United States made the president of Mexico really furious and the president of US as well. It made all Americans want to join the war; even Wilson who was the first person that was avoiding to get into this European conflict and who was against all this in the first place: “Even [|Woodrow Wilson] —as stubborn a man as has ever occupied the White House—realized he had no choice.” (Gordon, John Steele, 1).The United States had tried everything to keep themselves isolated from this conflict, but the rest of Europe especially Germany were calling for war. The United States didn’t have another choice; they had to enter the Great War.

World War I involved almost every country in Europe and each country took part in its outbreak. However, the country I believe was most responsible for starting World War One was Germany. [|Germany] was the only nation that always felt like they needed to be stronger and superior to the other nations. Germany was really competitive. Although I do believe [|Germany] bears the most responsibility for the outbreak of the war. And the United States joined the war because of the events that occurred in Europe made by Germany. World War I shook and forever changed the world. World War I was a [|war] that never should have taken place yet the reasons behind it like nationalism, imperialism, militarism, the alliance system; the killing of Archduke Ferdinand transformed a small scale [|war] between Austria-Hungary and Serbia into an all out global war. Few countries remained untouched or unchanged by the war. The United States was untouched for three years but they soon had to face the facts and join the war. They didn’t have no choice. Germany’s attacks against America convinced everyone even Wilson to join the Great War. The sinking of Lusitania and the Zimmermann telegram were some of the events caused by Germany to get the United States to join the war. And finally, on April 6th 1917, the United States of America declared War. World War I which started in 1914 and ended in 1918 had a devastating effect as millions of soldiers died and civilians were killed in the war. However as history is known to repeat itself, it is evident that World War One taught the world nothing because in 1940, an even greater [|war] occurred that changed the world again forever.

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 * __Works consulted__**

“America’s Entry into WWI”. __America__ __Entry__. 08 March 2008. **http://smoter.com/america.htm.** --This website provides a strong basis of information not found in many other sources. This source contains a surprisingly large amount of useful information. It presents both as facts and also hypothetical statements which help to get a better perspective and more knowledge of America’s entry into WWI.--

Coffman, Edward M. “World War I”. __The World Book Encyclopedia.__ Vol. 22: c. 2004 World Book, Inc. p.452-463. --This source was a world book encyclopedia. It was really helpful for my research because it had a lot of details about World War I. It discusses every event that happened during the War. It gave lots of factual information regarding World War I. This source is made up of mostly statistics, including exact number of casualties and damages done. It was particularly useful when giving details, and background information for the War itself.--

Danzer, Gerald A., et al. __The Americans__. Illinois: McDougal- Litell-2003. p.578-580 --This source was our American History Book. It was really helpful for my research because the first page of the unit from WWI; it has a timeline about all the events that happened during the Great War (1914-1918). It gave me a lot of information of how the war started. It helped me understand more about World War I.--

Gordon, John Steele. “The Telegram That Plunged America Into War.” __americanheritage.com__. 1 March, 2007. 17 March, 2007. **__http://www.americanheritage.com/email/articles/web/20070301-zimmermann-t elegram-world-war-woodrow-wilson-lusitania-telconia-mexico-pancho-villa-arthur-zimmermann.shtml.__** --This source was a very good magazine article. The magazine is called __American Heritage__ and it is about the history in the United States. They have articles form the past or recent articles about the past. This source was a recent article about the Zimmermann Note in the past. It has a lot of details about the Zimmermann Note and it tells the reader why was it important and how did it affect America; as well as what the telegram said. The source was very reliable since it is a magazine (or the webpage of it) that is used for research purposes and it is used by many researchers.--

“Lusitania, Sinking of the.” Dictionary of American History. 7 vols. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. **http://galenet,galegroup.com/servlet/History/** --This article was a very good source. Along with a quick summary, it gave surrounding events, to help place it on a timeline. This source was a great place to start because I knew nothing about the Lusitania at the time, and it helped me ease my way into more detailed and elaborate research. It gave me all the essential knowledge based information, such as key players and important dates, but no evaluation information, such as suggested reasoning behind certain actions. It was a very helpful source, especially in the Lusitania event.--

Meyer, G.J. __A World Undone The Story of the Great War__. New York: Delacorte Press, 2006. --This source was very good for researching since it was a 100 plus book just about World War I. The Book is divided into many chapters, each chapter focusing in an important event in WWI. It was a bit hard to find years and dates, but if you focus on the events, not when they happened it will be easy to find information. Very reliable source since it is a formal book and the author has written many books about WWI.--

Pash, Sidney L. "Isolationism." __Americans at War__. Ed. John P. Resch. Vol. 3: 1901-1945. Detroit : Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 78-80. __Gale Virtual Reference Library__. Gale. Greenwich High School. 19 Apr. 2008 **__<[|http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GVRL&u=s0579>__.]__** __--This primarily source gave me a background about America’s neutrality at the beginning of the war. It defined isolationism and many events that happened while America was neutral.--

Wilmott, H.P.__ World War I__. New York: DK Publishers, 2005. --This source is another book that completely focuses on World War I. It has a lot of information about the important events that happened such as America’s entry into WWI. It does a really good job in giving organized information. In the table of contents it is easy to find the event since it is listed in order of year (1917, 1918, etc…). The content is a bit difficult to understand at times, but it is mostly readable. It is a very reliable source because the author is a researcher in WWI and he has written many books about the topic.—