What led America to join World War One

In MEHAP and World Studies when we studied the overall causes of World War One we focused largely on how each European country got involved, putting less attention on what drew America into the War.  While we studied important events such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the Zimmerman note affair, we did not go much farther than that.  Today’s class lecture got me very interested in finding out more details on why the U.S. joined the war and what U.S. politics and public opinions were like at the time.

President Woodrow Wilson had managed to keep the United States out of the war until 1917 largely because the general public was not interested in fighting.  Wilson and the Americans felt that it was in their best interest to remain neutral, desiring to conduct foreign policy as they had before the War had started.

Despite the United States’ intention to remain entirely neutral, they had more in common with the Triple Entente/Allied Powers.   For one, they spoke the same language as the British.  In addition, America shared a democratic republic form of government with Britain and France.  Germans began to realize that the U.S. was siding with the Allied Powers as the U.S. chose not to challenge the British blockade and yet violated the German Blockade.  As the war progressed and America upheld its claim of neutrality, they supported the Allied Powers with provisions such as food, clothing, and weaponry.  In essence they were informally playing an influential one-sided role in the war. 

After the Lusitania incident occurred, Wilson notified Germany that if such an incident happened again, the U.S. would consider it “deliberately unfriendly” and Americans would respond.  Germany, already fighting a two front war with France and Russia, realized that they were in no position to take on another enemy, so they put an end to their unrestricted submarine warfare. 

With the election of 1916 coming up, it was especially important for Wilson to pay special attention to what he said and the way he said it if he wanted to maintain public support.  The general public interest was still anti-war.  Wilson had to respond to incidents like the sinking of the Lusitania boldly enough as to not seem passive and week, yet not overly aggressively as to assail public interest.  Once the election was over, he could speak more freely regarding foreign politics, and did so, urging Americans to be prepared.  He believed that if America went to war, its intentions should be motivated by progressive ideals.

At this time, nearly all foreign war news and information reaching the United States came through British controlled communication wires the stretched through the Atlantic Ocean.  As a result, it was very pro-Allied Powers.  This ultimately led Americans to side with the Allies.

In 1917 Germany announced that it was returning to its policy of unrestricted warfare, resulting with more incidents with America, as the latter felt this was unjust.  Compiled with the Zimmerman Note affaire and overall rising tension the United States could no longer avoid battle.  On April 6^th, 1917, the United States proclaimed war, believing it was their moral obligation to bring democracy and peace to the World.  The American slogan of the time was that they would be fighting in a “war to end all wars.” 

With the existing political circumstance on both a domestic as well as international level, were these reasonable intentions and beliefs for the Americans to have as they entered the war?

Sources:  American Pageant Textbook

                   Lecture Notes