Why Did America Join World War I?

World War I was the first globally encompassing war. To many Americans with a general knowledge of history, the entrance of the United States into World War I was merely about one thing and one thing only: the sinking of the Lusitania. Though it is a viable reason and provides a moral rationale for American entrance into the war, numerous other reasons for American entry are often lost in history. The American government led by Woodrow Wilson and Progressives had both economic and socio-political reasons for entering World War I.
At the time of World War I, almost all of Europe’s most powerful nations had governments that were either monarchies or totalitarian-like. Although, the Entente’s governments demonstrated more democratic principles
This was largely because of Great Britain and France’s massive demand for resources, including items for war and even basic necessities. With Germany, a major economic competitor of the U.S at the time (In 1913, the two nations had the highest share of the world’s economy) no longer trading with France or Britain, the U.S was the only place the two nations could turn to for large-scale trade. The aforementioned drastic level of demand France and Britain had for war supplies and goods also meant they had to spend gratuitously. The spending got to the point that Britain needed to take out loans in excess of two billion dollars (around $50,000,000,000 in today’s age when factoring in inflation) for U.S based banks (734 GML). With the U.S having heavily invested in the entente’s war effort, a loss in the war for them would have had crippling effects on the U.S economy as Britain likely would not have been able to pay back their loans. It is also plausible in that with a paradoxical result of World War I, that Germany could have emerged as the world’s greater economic power rather than the United States. With the Central Powers “on the ropes” and knowing U.S intervention would in all likelihood lead to a victory for the Entente, President Wilson consciously knew for the sake of America’s economy and economic advancement that American
It seems rather apparent that American historical understanding of the United States entry into the war is simplified to that of the Lusitania’s sinking for several reasons. It serves as a valid moral argument for going to war and it helps to support the fallacy that the United States contributed to war effort just as much as the British and French. When in reality, the U.S concerning actual casualties and infrastructural damage (they had essentially no damage) suffered nowhere near the level of the French and British. The false notion of the U.S believing they had equally contributed to the war effort and the demanding of the U.S for equal reparation from Germany (they received $33 billion dollars, which equates to $814 billion today in the Treaty Versailles) on a similar level as that of Britain and France, led to the complete collapse of the German economy. This breakdown, of course, set the stage for the rise of the infamous Adolf Hitler, so frankly the U.S had some role in the rise of Hitler. The U.S of course did not intend for this, and obviously did not want to have any association with Hitler’s rise. Similarly, with the initial post era of slavery when the injustices of slavery