US President Woodrow Wilson announces the break in official relations with the German Empire in an address to the US Congress on February 3, 1917
The United States entered into World War I in April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe.
Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British and an anti-tsarist element sympathizing with Germany's war against Russia, American public opinion had generally reflected a desire to stay out of the war. The sentiment for neutrality was particularly strong among Irish Americans, German Americans, and Scandinavian Americans,[1] as well as among church leaders and women in general. On the other hand, even before World War I had broken out, American opinion had been overall more negative toward the German Empire than toward any other country in Europe.[2] Over time, especially after reports of German atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and after the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, Americans increasingly came to see Germany as the aggressor in Europe.
While the country was at peace, American banks made huge loans to the Entente powers, which were used mainly to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic. Although US President Woodrow Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war before 1917, he did authorize a shipbuilding program for the United States Navy. Wilson was narrowly re-elected in 1916 on an anti-war platform.
By 1917, with Belgium and Northern France occupied, with Russia experiencing political upheaval, and with the remaining Entente nations low on credit, Germany appeared to have the upper hand in Europe.[3] However, a British economic embargo and naval blockade were causing severe shortages of fuel and food in Germany. Berlin then decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. The aim was to break the transatlantic supply chain to Britain from other nations, although the German high command realized that sinking American-flagged ships would almost certainly bring the United States into the war.
Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British intelligence. Publication of that communique outraged Americans just as German submarines started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson then asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.[4] US troops began major combat operations on the Western Front under General John J. Pershing in the summer of 1918.
^Jeanette Keith (2004). Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Fight: Race, Class, and Power in the Rural South during the First World War. U. of North Carolina Press. pp. 1–5. ISBN 978-0-8078-7589-6.
^Barnes, Harry Elmer. The Genesis of the World War (1926) pp. 590–591
^"World War One". BBC History.
^Link, Arthur S. (1972). Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910–1917. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 252–282.
and 27 Related for: American entry into World War I information
The United States entered intoWorldWarI in April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element...
The Russian Empire's entryintoWorldWarI unfolded gradually in the days leading up to July 28, 1914. The sequence of events began with Austria-Hungary's...
The Ottoman Empire's entryintoWorldWarI began when two recently purchased ships of its navy, which were still crewed by German sailors and commanded...
opposition to Russian expansion. The alliance facilitated Japanese entryintoWorldWarI, but did not require Japan to do so. William Howard Taft in August...
Pancho Villa punitive expedition, just over a year before American involvement in WorldWarI began. The star was painted only on the vertical tail, in...
general. This trend began at least fifty years prior to WorldWarI during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, and continued through many smaller conflicts...
America at War: Public Opinion During Wartime, from WorldWar II to Iraq. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226043586. AmericanEntryintoWorld War...
submarine U-27 off Crete; 59 Japanese sailors died. With the AmericanentryintoWorldWarI on 6 April 1917, the United States and Japan found themselves...
Observer's badge. There were 29 enlisted pilots before the AmericanentryintoWorldWarI. The second enlisted aviator, William A. Lamkey, got a discharge...
WorldWarI or the First WorldWar (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting...
WorldWar (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) who lived to 1999 or later, along with the last known veterans for countries that participated in the war...
United States federal government to raise a national army for service in WorldWarI through conscription. It was envisioned in December 1916 and brought...
During WorldWarI (1914–1918), belligerents from both the Allied Powers and Central Powers violated international criminal law, committing numerous war crimes...
the AmericanentryintoWorldWarI Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, enacted September 16, 1940, in preparation for the Americanentryinto World...
Global Information