Why did America enter the war?
On 2 April 1917 US President Woodrow Wilson explained why he wanted Congress to declare war on Germany:
Source A
On the third of February... I officially laid before you the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German Government that after the first day of February it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law and humanity and use its submarines to sink every vessel that sought to approach [any Allied port]... American ships have been sunk, American lives taken....
Our motive will not be revenge, but only the vindication of right, of human
right….
With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking ...
I advise that [the U.S.] formally accept the status of belligerent that has thus
been thrust upon it....
One of the things that has served to convince us that the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our friends is that from the very outset of the present war it has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our offices of government with spies and set criminal intrigues everywhere against our national unity.... That it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors the intercepted note to the German Minister in Mexico City
[i.e. the
Zimmermann telegram] is eloquent evidence.
In such a government... there can be no assured security for the democratic governments of the world and we are glad ... to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples.
The world must be made safe for democracy....
We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts for democracy, for the right [of people] to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a
concert of free peoples
as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have.Extract from Woodrow Wilson,
an
Speech to Congress (2 April 1917)
There were additional reasons for America to go to war which
Wilson did not mention:
The autocratic nature of the Russian government
had prevented America joining the Entente; but in March 1917 that
government fell and the Tsar abdicated. In America a growing ‘Preparedness Movement’ had
been campaigning and training for war since 1915; it was not interested
in the moral argument for war – it was nationalistic, wanted to see a
militarily and commercially powerful United States, and thought that a
trained workforce would be a better workforce. American had been supplying loans, weapons and
supplies to the war since it began;
US foreign trade DOUBLED 1914-16 (the production of gunpowder increased
sixty-fold, all of it exported) and the economy - which had been in
recession in 1914 - boomed. Joining the war meant more business opportunities
for armaments companies like Bethlehem Steel and Remington Arms - American military exports jumped from $40 million in 1914 to $1.3 billion in 1916 and $2.3 billion in the
197-18. A vigorous propaganda campaign had turned American public opinion against Germany.
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Going Deeper
The following links will help you widen your knowledge:
Basic accounts from
BBC
News
 Voices of WWI: Arrival of US troops (plus transcript) - IWM
YouTube
The USWW100 short videos are a must-watch:
Declaration of War
America in 1917
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Zimmermann Telegram
Building an American Military
American propaganda
Source B
The Zimmermann Telegram
We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine
warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United State of
America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a
proposal or alliance on the following basis: make war together, make
peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on
our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.... Signed, ZIMMERMANN”
Coded message sent 16 January 1917.
On 29 March, Zimmermann gave a speech to the German
Reichstag confirming he sent the telegram,
Consider:
Study Source A and pull out all the different reasons Wilson
gives for accepting 'the status of belligerent' (declaring war).
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What did America contribute to the war effort?
[ANSWER]
Army: Nearly 5 million men served the US military during World War I, half of whom were drafted (conscripted). 2 million service personnel went with the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to France, of whom more than half actually fought on the Western front, sustaining more than 320,000 casualties,
including more than 53,000 killed in action. US forces were crucial in the battles of 1918. Navy: sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, and submarines to help guard convoys. Supplies: a huge logistics operation supplied arms, tanks, fuel and other supplies to the AEF and the Allies. To France alone, America sent 2,000 tons of materials per day, including: 700,000 tons of steel, 30,000 tons of iron,
55,000 tons of brass & copper, and 34,500,000 feet of wood. Wheat: supplies in Europe were hit by the war, especilly by the exit of Russia from the war, and a poor harvest in 1917 threatened a crisis. The US Food Administration was set up in 1917 to increase harvests and
mounted a 'Wheat Will Win the War' propaganda campaign which encouraged Americans to reduce consumption so that wheat could be exported to Europe; as a
result, in the UK in 1917, wheat consumption per person actually rose. Enormous Loans: America made loans to the Allies worth $7 billion between 1917 and the end of the war. This was financed by government bonds, by an increase in Income Tax, and
by extra taxes on: beer & wines; admissions to theaters, circuses, bowling alleys & billiard parlors; telegrams & telephone calls; and overseas steamship tickets. Reactions: just the knowledge that the Americans were coming bolstered the morale of the Allies, and forced Germany to risk its ill-prepared 1918 gamble.
Consider:
Was America a 'war-winning-weapon'?
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- AQA-style Questions
3.
Write an account of how the entry of America had an impact on the First World War.
4. ‘The arrival of American forces was the main reason for the defeat of Germany in the First World War.’ How far do you agree with this statement?
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