The Reasons Behind America Joining World War I

Even though it is believed that World War I was initialized by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, others believe that there were a number of issues that played into the start of the war. There are said to be four areas that played into the cause of World War I, including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the other three are imperialism, militarism, and nationalism. In this paper, we will discuss all of these areas to see how they played a part. We will also discuss what events drew the United States into World War I.

WWI started on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. At the time a man named Woodrow Wilson was president at the time. President Wilson did not want to go to war. In DBQ 16: Why Did We Enter World War I?-Historical Context by J. Weston Walch, it says “People were determined to keep out of the conflict and applaud president Wilson when he asked that his fellow citizens remain “neutral in fact as well as in name.””Then Germany started unrestricted warfare and a telegram was intercepted saying that a few of our states were going to be given to mexico if they helped germany attack the U.S. These are the main reasons why the U.S should join WWI.

In 1919, Treaty of Versailles was made after the World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary was blamed for the Great War and was imposed financial debts and territorial dismemberment on them. Germans could not afford the huge debts and during the 1920s the Great Depression which started in the USA impacted the economies of the whole world. There was high unemployment and the prices of daily necessities were high. The German government was distrusted. People chose to believe a man Adolf Hitler with his extreme ideas, and Racism that promised to make Germany stand up again. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he had secretly built up a military and

The United States government announced a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of the war in Europe because it did not want to risk what was at stake by entering the war. It was also believed that the fighting would be contained in Europe and would have no threat of violence for Americans. Since the imports and exports were so important for Americans they did not want to enter the war and complicate the trade. It was not until the threat to sink all ships did the United States government feel as though they needed to enter the war. It was very important for the United States to get involved to stop Germany from taking over Europe and creating a major threat for Americans.

During World War l, around the time July 28, 1914 throughout the years, coming to an end on November 11, 1918, issues were involved. Many alliances fostered militarism. Around the time 1914, adhesion was building upon the European nations. While the Americans were at war, the German kingdom of Prussia was launched to unite the German states all into one nation. By that time, imperialism ran through something called annexation. Something else called military conquest and dealings with economic dominations. All of that being said was how European powers built upon empires. Therefore nationalism was strong to what was going on around the time of war.

America entered World War I on April 6th, 1917. America was justified in joining the war due to German attacks on U.S. ships or ships that contained U.S. citizens. While there are counter arguments that could be made, I believe America was correct in entering the war.

“Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality”.1 These are the words of President Woodrow Wilson during his “Declaration of Neutrality” on August 19, 1914. Something crazy would happen, the United States would enter The Great War a three years later. A lot of things influenced the United States to finally get to their eventual declaration of war on Germany. The two factors I thought most significant were: the United States’ economic interests favoring Great Britain and Wilson’s insatiable need to have a voice at the peace talks in Europe.

Background - Historical Context: Some people believed that wars are worth the cost but is the

By the time President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany and its allies, the World War I had already been raging for four years (Doenecke, 2010, p. 1). Prior to this declaration of war, America had tried to remain neutral, while Germany, Autria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria waged war against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Rumania, and Japan. Many of these belligerents joined the war at various times during this four year period, so the war continued to expand during this four year period. Wilson and a significant percentage (49%) of the American public had wanted to stay out of this conflict as possible when it first started (Doenecke, 2010, p. 20), but a series of events forced America's hand.

The American decision to declare war on Germany was influenced by several factors of varying degrees. To a great extent, the aggressive German naval policy contributed to the involvement of the United States in World War I. A secondary influence on this decision derived from U.S. economic interests abroad and on the homefront. Another influence leading to America’s entrance into war was the use of Allied propaganda. Therefore, the combination of German naval policy, American economic interests, and allied propaganda influenced to the American decision

Second, another goal of American participation in the war was to ensure financial security. A great number of businessmen from the U.S loaned money out to Great Britain and France with the interest of helping the Allies succeed. Their total contribution was around three billion dollars, all of this was loans, however. The U.S realized that if the allies didn’t win the war against the axis powers, the likelihood of the loans being repaid to the businessmen was fairly slim. The ‘Preparedness Movement’ arose out of this concern, which stated that the U.S should enter the war and support the Allies in order to better ensure their victory. As long as the allies won, the loans would most likely be repaid. A final goal for American participation in the war was to stop unrestricted submarine warfare, which was damaging American ships and crippling the shipping industry. Protecting American shipping was a pretty major goal in entering the war. On January 9, 1917, Germany announced that it would start using unrestricted submarine warfare. The reason for Germany doing this was desperation. They

Another reason of why America had to participate in the war was because of America violating the “Sussex Pledge.” America supplied munitions and financial assets to the Allies, because of this Germany didn’t consider America “neutral” anymore. I believe America’s entry into the war was inevitable at this point. I believe

### appears to be part of Esssay 384218##World War 1, also known as The Great War, is the fifth-deadliest conflict in history. It was mainly a battle for independence between countries, and until April 6, 1917 the U.S. had tried to pull away from it. Only about 20% of America had actually wanted to get involved, while about 80% had voted against any American involvement. When the American passenger boat known as the Lusitania had been destroyed by German U-boats and the Germans had broken their promise of not destroying any more American ships, there truly was no choice but to fight with the Allies against the Central Powers. The pros and cons of entering this war are very debatable, yet quite factual when basing them on life in this time period. Three pro arguments that were relevant would be that the Germans needed to be stopped, that the war would actually lead to peace, and that it had certainly improved our nation. Three con arguments could be that the Great Depression was pushed with the U.S. being involved, that the Allies really didn’t need America’s assistance, and that people believed that this war would not lead to peace at all.

Many Americans have the belief that United State should not be part of any European wars. World War one had a huge affect on the United State and they don't want that to happen again. But it was unavoidable. As the Axis power began to slowly advance and surrounding North and South America, United has to get involved. They issued the Selective Service Act to help America become prepared for war. But a lot of the new recruits have not yet fired a rifle or held them. These untrained soldier put American in a stand still in their military. These inexperienced and young adults were ready to get drafted but not peek for war. I believe that United State should have been war prepared. After the event of World War one, they should have at least tried to get their military strength back to where it was before. If they had done that, that would have at least half of their troops war ready and the other half are being prepared to replace them. And they should also have seen the incoming events in Europe. One nation could not have easily taken eleven countries in less than a year. This tells us that Americans are oblivious to what was going on around them. Americans should know what is going on outside their country because if they don’t, it would have been too late. United State could have been easily taken by the Axis

Yet another factor that led to this decision of Neutrality by President Roosevelt was the American Economy. The health of the American economy could not be jeopardized, whatever was happening elsewhere. It was Roosevelt’s view that the United States would fare well (economically speaking) whether Europe went to war or not. Gold was flowing in from Europe’s capitals, orders were mounting daily for equipment and supplies of all kinds, and America was building a battleship for Stalin. For most of the 1930’s the United States traded as openly with Germany and Japan, as it did with any other country. Japan relied on fuel oil and scrap iron until 1941. Germany was one of the United States’ most important markets during the 1930’s. American investments in Germany increased by forty percent