|
Date: |
|
Description: | The factors leading up to the entry of the United States into the First World War, 1914-1917.
The declaration of war against Germany on 6th April 1917 by the United States brought new vitality to the Allies. The start of the war in August 1914 hardly touched America. It had a strong tradition of isolationism, and millions of settlers who had deliberately left behind European entanglements. Despite clashes between the poor and the emerging tycoons, the American Dream flourished at the start of the twentieth century. As the frontier vanished, the USA found itself after the Spanish-American War to be an imperial power, encouraged by Theodore Roosevelt, who was anxious to involve his country in world affairs. In 1914 the Democrats came back into power with President Woodrow Wilson, an orderly, secluded, peaceful academic intent on neutrality. Pro-British or pro-French American sentiment was balanced by Irish-American, Polish-American and German-American hostility, but the German invasion of Belgium outraged US opinion and strict neutrality proved impossible. The British blocakade of neutral shipping caused some protest, but the loss of German trade was more than offset by the Allied demand for US munitions, and through control of the Atlantic telegraph cables the Allies were able to influence the US press. On 7th May 1915 a German U-boat sank the Lusitania, drowning 1,153 people including 114 US citizens, and for the first time the question became not whether America could maintain strict neutrality but whether it would fight on the Allied side. US munitions industry prosperity was closely tied to Allied successes, and a major German sabotage ring within the USA uncovered. But in April 1916 the suppression of the Dublin Easter Rising swayed US opinion against the British. Also in that year Wilson was narrowly re-elected on a peace platform. The Germans again turned America against them by introducing, on 31st January 1917, unrestricted submarine warfare. The final straw was a proposed alliance by Germany with Mexico, in return for which Mexico would attack Texas. This was revealed in the "Zimmerman Telegram", the code for which had been broken by the British, who passed it to the US government. On 6th April the United States declared war against Germany. There were many volunteers, but a Conscription Act was passed to ensure equality, and 680,000 men taken in the first draft. Business tycoons were brought into government to organise munitions, shipping, agriculture and food. On 4th May the first US warships reached Britain. The peacetime US Army was only 80,000 men - huge camps were built to train the new massed armies. The US government was determined that these would only be committed to war as a unified American Army under an American commander, Lieutenant-General J J Pershing. While the massed armies trained a few US regular troops under Pershing were sent to Europe. They received a rapturous welcome in Britain and France. "As yet their fighting value was almost nothing; but their morale effect was everything."
16mm | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 31/3(73) | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Shaw, Sebastian | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|