1. America Enters World War I
Patten & Kempton
Mepham High School
Global History
Boys and Girls! War Savings Stamps Poster by James Montgomery Flag

2. The First World War: When? What?
War involving nearly all the nations of the world
When?

3. The First World War: Why? Long term - 1. Alliance system
2. Imperialist Competition
3. Stockpiling of Weapons
Why?
Short term - Assassination of Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his Wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg one hour before their deaths, June 28, 1914

4. Prior to 1917, what nations were involved in World War I?
The First World War:
Who?
Central Powers:
Allies:
Russia
France
Great Britain
Italy
Japan
United States (1917)
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Ottoman Empire
Bulgaria
Prior to 1917, what nations were involved in World War I?

5. The First World War:
Where?

6. America’s Policy in the Beginning of WWI
America was isolationist
“Why should I get involved in someone else’s problems”

7. Should the United States enter World War I?
U.S. President Wilson

8. U.S. was under attack
The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against all mankind.... Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.. Armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.
-U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April 1917)
It would be the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare that would ultimately bring the United States into the war.
-The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

9. Democracy
Our object...is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power.... We are glad...to fight...for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included: for the right of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy....
-President Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April 1917)

10. Economics
Beginning in 1916, the Morgan negotiated a series of extremely large loans to France and to England, becoming their exclusive purchasing agent and financier in the United States.
-Notable American Volunteers of the Great War, Great War Primary Documents Archive
By 1917, American loans to the Allies had soared to $2.25 billion; loans to Germany stood at a paltry $27 million.
-The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

11. Propaganda
A large number of the great newspapers and news agencies of the country have been controlled and enlisted in the greatest propaganda that the world has ever known to manufacture sentiment in favor of war.
-Senator George W. Norris in Opposition to President Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April 4, 1917)

12. Propaganda

14. Militarism
That which has driven the masses of Europe into the trenches and to the battlefields is not their inner longing for war; it must be traced to the cutthroat competition for military equipment, for more efficient armies, for larger warships, for more powerful cannon. You cannot build up a standing army and then throw it back into a box like tin soldiers.
-Emma Goldman, from "Preparedness: The Road to Universal Slaughter"

15. Events that lead to American’s entrance into WWI
1. Blockades
Britain blockaded (stopped) all German ships going to America
Germany announced a submarine war around Britain
Y-53 German Submarine 1916

16. In May, 1915 Germany told Americans to stay off of British ships
They could/would sink them

17. Lusitania
British Passenger Ship with 1200 passengers and crew (including 128 Americans)
Lusitania torpedoed by a German U-Boat, sinking all passengers and crew
Was eventually found to be carrying 4200 cases of ammunition
German Propaganda Justifying Lusitania sinking

18. Lusitania The US sharply criticized Germany for their action
Germany agreed not to sink passenger ships without warning in the future
Note in Bottle After Lusitania Disaster

19. Submarine Warfare
1917 Germany announced “unlimited submarine warfare” in the war zone

20. Zimmerman Telegram
Britain intercepted a telegram from Germany to Mexico
Mexico was asked to enter the war and become allies with Germany, and in return was promised Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

21. U.S. Enters World War I On April 6, the US declared war on Germany.
Check out this video:

22. How was the war looking for the allies?
Not Good...
Russia left the war after its communist revolution in 1917
Made it a one front war for Germany - all its troops could concentrate on France

23. What did the US do to help?
Supplies:
US provided the food, money, and fresh troops needed to win the war
American Troops March Through London