How Did America Join World War I?

World War I started on July 28th, 1914. The war started because on June 28th, 1914, a young Siberian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Austria-Hungary needed to prove its authority after such a horrendous crime in order to maintain its credibility as a great power and a force in the Balkan region. With Russian threat of intervention looming and an unprepared army, Germany was required to help back them up. Kaiser Wilhelm received a personal letter from Emperor Franz Josef requesting his support. On July 6th, German Chancellor Theobald Bethmann Hollweg said that Vienna had Germany’s full support. Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Serbia delivered
The czar’s government began mobilizing its army on the belief that Germany was using this current crisis to launch a war in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28th. Upon hearing the news of Russia’s mobilization, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1st. The German army launched its attack on France, Russia’s ally, through Belgium. This violated Belgian neutrality, bringing Great Britain into the war too. In the United States, Woodrow Wilson pledged that we would keep our neutrality, which was good as most Americans favored that. The United States abandoned its neutrality and joined World War I because Germany was attacking us without good reason, then Germany promised to take land from us for Mexico, and there was a good deal of money
The message consisted of Zimmermann proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the war between the United States and Germany. The telegram was intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in January of 1917. Count Johann von Bernstorff, the ambassador, was told by Zimmermann “in the event [that the United States is drawn into the war] we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: we make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona” (Doc 4). President Wilson was informed on the contents of the telegram on February 26th. He proposed to Congress the next day that the U.S. should start arming its ships against German attacks. He authorized the State Department to make the Zimmermann Telegram public. The news broke on March 1st. Germany was already hated by America, however some U.S. citizens tried to maintain neutrality and insisted the contents of the telegram were fabricated. They were soon proved wrong, as Zimmermann came forth to confirm the authenticity of the document. This aided in the decision for the U.S. to join the