World War I: America's Involvement In The United States

Reasons for United States' Involvement in World War I At first the public opinion of Americans was firmly set on neutrality. The majority of people had little or no concerns of the affairs of the rest of the world - why should America interfere with the conflicts of other nations? Americans supported a policy of isolationism, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 on the grounds that he had kept them out of the war.

The main reason why the United States should have entered World War I is because they needed to defend their people. According to Source 1, President Woodrow Wilson claimed that the U.S. should join the war in response to the sinking of the Lusitania ship. In his speech to Congress on April 2, 1917, he claimed, “American ships have been sunk, American lives taken...the lives of peaceful and innocent people cannot be.” He confirmed that the U.S. was being attacked and many American lives lost. Therefore, fighting for the tranquility of U.S. citizens, by joining the war, was in the best interest.

Sam Bauer Ms.Rice/Mr.Howe Honors American Studies, 5/10 13 November 2015 United States Entering in World War I World War I, according to the internet article, "WW1 Casualty and Death Tables," published by PBS, was one of the bloodiest and deadliest wars ever fought with about 22 million casualties ("WW1"). The war was sparked through the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria an quickly grew into a war between the Allies against the Central Powers. However, the United States did not join the Allies until 1917 which helped break the ongoing stalemate of destruction. Although the United States did not enter the war until after three years of fighting, the United States contributed to the fight against the Central Powers by

The First World War was once one of the most harmful and deadliest wars of all time. A few countries participated within the battle together with Russia, Great Britain, Germany, and France. When the European nations went to war, Americans wanted nothing to do with the war. The twenty-eighth U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, led America through World War I. Wilson was a college professor, university president and Democratic governor of New Jersey before winning the White House in 1912. Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war to make the world “safe for democracy.” President Wilson could not prevent getting America involved in WWI, because the Germans attacked and threatened American ships holding civilians hostage the allies would have lost (The White House).

Throughout human history, there has always been a nation that has stood head and shoulders above the rest. From the Roman Empire of the ancient world, to the British Empire of the modern era, empires have risen and fallen. The United States of America, it seems, is the modern day equivalent of these empires—being the most powerful and influential nation on Earth—but how did America compare internationally during the Second World War to now? Prior to the Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. had an army that ranked 19th in the world: an army smaller than that of Portugal! (3) Today the U.S. has an army that is by far the greatest in the world. This, however, is only the tip of the iceberg when investigating how the U.S. was seen, and how it competed differently and similarly, in the early days of World War Two and 2016.

1939 is when World War 2 started, and everything In the United States started to change. The American government started to recognize the new immigrants, and the government saw their children as loyal Americans. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. One day after the attack President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan. This has opened a lot of up doors of opportunity for change for American minorities, as American Indians who were exposed for the first time to urban life, African Americans reserved more freedom, women who started to have the ability to work, and Asian Americans who were the most glaring example of the failure to be adequately pluralistic.

Before America stepped into World War I and II, nations around the world were not getting along. The fear of radical change and the fear of not having peace and freedom lingered in the air, meanwhile, America did not want to be in any part of both wars. It wasn’t until the U.S. came under attack that they stepped in to help fight off the enemies. America entered both wars in order to bring back peace as well as promote democracy and ideas of freedom, which led them to being a world power.

While Europe was being attacked from almost every side, America was keeping its head buried in the sands of isolationism. After World War I, America was a little less than enthusiastic about getting involved in any foreign affairs, therefore isolationism seemed like the best possible policy to follow. Despite this policy, people will pick sides. Due to the alliance America had in the last World War, the sympathies of most Americans were with the besieged Allies. Although, this favoritism America showed was clear Americas still wanted no part in the war.

World War 1 was an extremely deadly war with approximately 38 million deaths that included military and surrounding civilians. On July 28, 1914 Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia after the Archduke of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian Nationalist. America remained neutral for 3 years until they started to get triggered by the surrounding countries, especially Germany. America had enough when Germany sunk the Lusitania and violated the Sussex pledge.

What? From the beginning, US President Woodrow Wilson declared the US to be strictly neutral besides giving away materials to the Allies. In May 1915, even when a German submarine sunk Lusitania, a British ocean liner that had 128 US citizens out of 1,200 passengers, the US stayed neutral despite the commotion it caused. Then, in January 1917, Germany declared that its restrictions on warfare for submarines would change starting February 1st. This meant that German U-boat commanders would all be allowed to sink any ship they considered to be supporting the Allies in any way. Also, it was found that Germany sent something known as the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico proposing an alliance if the US were to participate in World War I. However, this was intercepted by the British and shown to the US. Because of the unconstrained warfare of submarines, the Zimmerman telegram, and pressure lead the US to join the war and abandon its state of neutrality. Although there was a notable amount of disagreement with this decision, the position officially was that the US couldn’t allow their rights to be blocked like that as a sovereign nation.

When you think about it WWI impacted the US in so many ways. The war made the US a major powerhouse in the world. If the war didn’t happen the US wouldn’t be as big as it is now.

Leading up to the United States’ participation in World War I, propaganda by the American government was the main force in convincing the people that US involvement in the war was necessary. Buzzwords like “freedom” and “democracy” were used to incite patriotism among the people, but anti-war activists pointed out the hypocrisy of the American government using those words, when millions of marginalized Americans faced discrimination in their day-to-day lives. Many Socialists, black people, feminist women, and other groups had trouble fighting for a country who would not fight for their rights, or simply were pacifists who saw American involvement in the war unnecessary.

The First World War in American memory is none too prominent in present imaginations, overshadowed by its sibling in size, scale, and devastation, leading some to believe that the First World War had little to no impact on American history or impressed a vision of American involvement aside from government and business leaders. Aside from the obvious fault in such thinking, and how that view is rapidly being supplanted in academic circles as one of the first instances of American interventionism and expansion of liberal thinking outside the western hemisphere (this interpretation being developed by analyzing the United States’ government previous to its entry in Justus Doenecke’s Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America’s Entry into

US Actions in World War I A point that has been studied by many is for what reason were the U-2s flown over Russian territory in the first place. Eisenhower claimed to want to “get a better handle on Soviet capabilities.” (Judge and Langdon, 135). Meaning that he wanted to know if the Russians were producing more weapons, such as IBMs. The American people were also worried that there was a ‘missile gap’ favoring Russia. Eisenhower also

World War One was a highly destructive and brutal war that lasted longer than it was expected to and caused the economic deterioration of several influential nations. The so-called “war to end all wars” compelled thousands of American mothers to surrender their sons to the heap of corpses. Nevertheless, the United States of America did not intrude into the eastern conflict until American involvement was found imperative by credible reasoning. Growing economic interests and violations of sea rights and the Monroe Doctrine accelerated the ongoing war to a conclusion by introducing the involvement of the United States of America.