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The United States Declares War
relations between the US and Germany although the Americans on board had disregarded
the the warnings published by Germany in the American newspapers. 4
In May, 1915, Italy broke the Triple Alliance by becoming an Allied Power. In October,
Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. Each side had induced their new partners to join by
ofering territorial concessions. Italy prevented Austria-Hungary from concentrating its
eforts on Russia, while Bulgaria prevented Russia from having connections with other Allied
Powers.
In May, 1916, one of the most significant naval battles in World War I occurred. The Royal
Navy faced a German fleet during the Battle of Jutland. The Battle proved that the Allied
naval force was still superior to that possessed by the Central Powers. The Germans grew
even more dependent on U-boats in naval battle.
In August, 1916, Romania joined the Allies. Romania invaded Transylvania, a province of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But when the Central Powers struck back, they took control
of important Romanian wheat fields.
In 1917, the liberal-democratic government of Russia that was lead by Aleksander Kerensky
was over thrown by V.I. Lenin. When Lenin took over in Russia one of the things he
promised was to change world politics. The terms by which Lenin wanted to changed world
politics challenged Woodrow Wilson's and Lenin's Bolshevik-style revolutions spreading
world wide was something that western leaders did not want. 5
23.5 The United States Declares War
Until 1917, the United States had stayed neutral. They adopted the policy of isolationism
because they felt that the events in Europe had no impact on North America. American
opinions began to change after the sinking of the Lusitania, An Irish ship carrying primarily
civilians. However, the US was calmed by the Germans, who agreed to limit submarine
warfare. In 1917, the Germans reinstated unrestricted submarine warfare in order to cripple
the British economy by destroying merchant ships, and break the sea blockade of Britain.
President Woodrow Wilson responded to the German threat by asking Congress to declare
war. Congress complied on April 6, 1917. On the evening of April 4, 1917 at 8:30 President
Wilson appeared before a joint session of congress. Asking for the declaration of war to
make the world "safe for democracy" On April 4, 1917 congress granted Wilson's request
and the United states were at war with Germany. The American ambassador received a
telegram in London from the British. It was from the German foreign Secretary, Arthur
Zimmerman. Then to the ambassador in Mexico. Zimmerman proposed that the event of
the war with the United States. Germany and Mexico would join in alliance. Germany
would fund Mexico's conflict with the US; with victory achieved. Mexico would then be
able to gain there lost territories with Arizona.
The US had to mobilize its military before it could aid the Allies by sending troops. The
cadre of the U.S. Army had experience in mobilizing and moving troops from its Mexican
expedition, but the Army needed to expand to over one million men, most of which were
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"Don't Know Much About History" by Kenneth C. Davis
A People and A Nation
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World War I and the Treaty of Versailles (1914 - 1920)
untrained. In the same way, the Navy could send a battleship division to assist the British
Grand Fleet, but needed to expand. Logistics (see the chapter on the Civil War for a
definition) also compelled the U.S. to set up its supply lines in France south of the British
and French lines, which meant the U.S. would take over the southern part of the Western
Front battle line. However, the US could and did help the Allies with monetary assistance.
Increased taxes and the sale of bonds allowed the US to raise enormous sums of money.
The U.S. commander, General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, faced immense pressure from
the British and French governments to use American forces in small units to reinforce
depleted British and French units. This was impossible politically. Pershing insisted to
General Foch, the Generalissimo of the Allied armies, that the U.S. Army would fight as a
single Army. Pershing did not want to give his men to other Allied commanders, many of
whose strategies he disagreed with. The Allies were involved in a trench warfare, especially
in France. Pershing saw this as a useless technique and believed it only achieved stalemates
and needless deaths. The trenches themselves were dug, lined with barbed wire and mines,
and were festering places for disease. Outside of the trenches, between to battle lines, rested
a virtual "no man's land" where soldiers were cast into certain death by machine gun or
gas. Pershing's views turned out to be correct. Trench warfare often ended with little
accomplished and many deceased. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, for example, Allied
troops sufered 600,000 dead and wounded to earn only 125 square miles.
23.6 Trench Warfare
The United States troops were shipped out to France to do their fighting under the American
command. General John J. Pershing, head of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF),
insisted that his "sturdy rookies" remain a separate independent army. He was not about to
turn over his "doughboys" to Allied commanders, who had become wedded to unimaginative
and deadly trench warfare, producing a military stalemate and ghastly causalities on the
western home front. Since the fall of 1914, zigzag trenches fronted by barbed wire and mines
stretched across France. Between the muddy, stinking trenches lay "no man's land," denuded
by artillery fire. When ordered out, soldiers would charge enemy trenches. If machine gun
fire did not greet them, poison gas might.
First used by the Germans in April 1915, chlorine gas stimulated overproduction of fluid
in the lungs, leading to death by drowning. One British ofcer tended to troops who had
been gassed reported that, "quite 200 men passed through my hands....Some died with me,
others on the way down....I had to argue with many of them as to whether they were dead
or not." Gas in variety of forms (mustard and phosgene, in addition chlorine) would continue
in use throughout the war, sometimes blistering, sometimes incapacitating, and often killing.
The extent of dying in the trench warfare is hard to comprehend. At the Battle of the
Somme ub 1916, the British and French sufered 600,000 dead or wounded to earn only 125
square miles; the Germans lost 400,000 men. At Verdun that same year, 336,000 Germans
perished and at Passchendaele in 1917 more than 370,000 British men died to gain about
40 miles of mud and barbed wire. Ambassador Page grew sickened by what Europe had
become "A bankrupt slaughter-house inhabited by unmated women."
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