Although Russia’s withdrawal proved a significant blow, the USA’s entry to WW1 on the 6th April 1917 contributed not only a mass of fresh troops and artillery but a monumental rise in previously fading allied morale.
Following the outbreak of WW1 in July 1914 Woodrow Wilson, US President, announced the nations neutrality from involvement in European conflict, but in January 1915 Germany declared its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare to counter the British naval blockade. On the 7th May, the Lusitania, a British liner carrying approximately 173 tons of British war munitions was torpedoed by a German U-Boat killing 1201 civilians, 128 of which were American. The following day the New York Times wrote “In the history of war, no…show more content…
After the dawn of the Russian Revolution in March 1917 the countries politics entered a state of extreme turmoil. FAfter failing to seize power from the provisional government in the July Days uprising Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik Party finally attained seized power in the 1917 October Revolution creating a communist government.. In order to retain leadership Lenin planned to implement his April theses which contained 3 fundamental promises to the Russian people; peace, land and bread and on the 3 March 1918 the . In the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, formally ending Russian involvement in the war. The terms were initially deemed too harsh and fighting resumed momentarily along the Eastern Front until Lenin realised Russia, in its weakened state, would be forced to submit to enemy conditions. Such terms included the loss of approximately one million square miles of Russian territory, a third of Russia's population, the majority of its coal, oil and iron and much of its industries. Lenin bitterly coined the settlement “that abyss of defeat, dismemberment, enslavement and humiliation.” With Russia now withdrawn from the war, the central powers were provided with a ‘window of opportunity’ as they no longer faced a ‘war on two fronts’. This allowed them to relocate a mass of troops to the Western Front to support a mass offensive in hopes they could end the war before the US arrived in sufficient strength to ensure allied victory.
After the dawn of the Russian Revolution in March 1917 the countries politics entered a state of extreme turmoil. FAfter failing to seize power from the provisional government in the July Days uprising Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik Party finally attained seized power in the 1917 October Revolution creating a communist government.. In order to retain leadership Lenin planned to implement his April theses which contained 3 fundamental promises to the Russian people; peace, land and bread and on the 3 March 1918 the . In the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, formally ending Russian involvement in the war. The terms were initially deemed too harsh and fighting resumed momentarily along the Eastern Front until Lenin realised Russia, in its weakened state, would be forced to submit to enemy conditions. Such terms included the loss of approximately one million square miles of Russian territory, a third of Russia's population, the majority of its coal, oil and iron and much of its industries. Lenin bitterly coined the settlement “that abyss of defeat, dismemberment, enslavement and humiliation.” With Russia now withdrawn from the war, the central powers were provided with a ‘window of opportunity’ as they no longer faced a ‘war on two fronts’. This allowed them to relocate a mass of troops to the Western Front to support a mass offensive in hopes they could end the war before the US arrived in sufficient strength to ensure allied victory.
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