American Neutrality In Ww1

Woodrow Wilson won the election in 1912 by only forty percent of the electoral vote, but he and the electorate were in the same mind about staying away from the European conflict. On August 1914, the war broke out in Europe, but Wilson declared the US policy of neutrality. He urged Americans to be “impartial in thoughts, as well as action” (Keane). The United States welcomed millions of immigrants from both Allied and Central power nations. On 1914, it was impossible for America to speak with one voice on any matters and the authorities knew that the class tension can turn to be deadly. The neutrality thought was strong in many ethnicities, especially in Irish, Swedish and German Americans. Women, church leaders and farmers also supported for the neutrality. The neutrality created problems in relationship with England and Germany. But some of the Wilson’s advisors openly supported allies. The problems quickly escalated and retain used its navy to establish a blockade and the blockade affected the American trade with Germany. But later Britain agreed to buy American products to offset the laws of the German market.
On May 7th, 1915, the German submarine, sunk the passenger ship ‘Lusitania”, which killed 1198 passengers, including 128 Americans, this incident provoked the government and the public. Wilson asked the congress to prepare the military, in case of a war while keeping the neutrality. Wilson ended up winning the 1916 presidential election for a second term. On January 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, Von Eckhardt which offered United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. This Zimmerman telegram, provoked both the public and the government, neutrality shifted against Germany and within a month America declared war on Germany and entered World