Download American Involvement in WW1

American Involvement in WW1
Neutrality
•
•
•
Shortly after the war broke out, U.S.
president Woodrow Wilson issued a
proclamation of neutrality on August
4, 1914.
The neutrality of the United States
proved difficult to maintain, however,
especially when it came to trade.
Germany used newly invented
submarines to attack shipping
traveling between North America
and Europe, but the British blockade
of the Central Powers was much
more effective in choking off trade.
While U.S. commerce with the Allies
increased threefold between 1914
and 1916, during the same two years,
trade with Germany plunged to less
than 1% of its original worth.
Lusitania
• A U-boat is a torpedoequipped submarine
developed by the Germans
during World War I.
• On May 7, 1915, a German Uboat sank the British ocean
liner Lusitania.
– Some 1,198 people drowned,
including 128 U.S. citizens,
arousing a wave of indignation
in the United States.
• The incident indirectly
contributed to the United
States' entry into World War I
in 1917.
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
• Germany hoped to avoid
direct American intervention
on the side of the Allies.
• By January 1917, however,
the German High Command
decided to resume
unrestricted submarine
warfare, as it believed that
Germany could win the war
against the exhausted Allies
before the United States could
bring its full force to bear in
the conflict.
Zimmermann Note
• In late February, 1917, the
British government revealed
that it had intercepted a
telegram from German
foreign minister Arthur
Zimmermann to the German
ambassador in Mexico
proposing a German-Mexican
alliance against the United
States.
• When word of the telegram
leaked, the U.S. public turned
decisively against Germany,
and Wilson finally asked for a
declaration of war.
To Arms
• On April 6, 1917, the
United States entered
the war on the side of
the Allied Powers.
• American support
brought huge numbers of
fresh troops
• 4 million in all.
• Furthermore, the U.S.
economy turned to
wartime production. The
result was fatal for the
German cause.
Armistice
• With its Western Front collapsing
and wartime shortages crippling
both its military and civilian
populations, Germany signed an
armistice with the Allied Powers
on November 11, 1918;
– it took effect at the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month of
the year.
• The war had wrought
unimaginable death and
destruction—40 million casualties
and 9 million dead—and virtually
wiped out an entire generation of
young men in Europe.
Versailles
• The Treaty of Versailles,
signed on June 28, 1919,
changed the map of Europe.
– Germany had to concede
several territories and give up
all its overseas colonies to the
Allied Powers, as well as pay
extensive reparations for war
damage.
• The severity of the treaty led
to huge resentment in
Germany and contributed to
Adolf Hitler's rise to power in
the 1930s, which ultimately
led to World War II.
Aftermath
• During the course of the war,
many of the involved countries
went through radical change.
– Russia came under the control of
the communists in the Russian
Revolution
– Austria-Hungary disintegrated into
several small, disunited states.
– Monarchies toppled in several
countries, including:
• Russia,
• Germany,
• Austria-Hungary.
• The United States, meanwhile,
emerged from the war as a
global military and economic
power.