Why Did The Us Enter Ww1

Initially, the United States declared a position of neutrality in the international conflict of World War One, however, after two years of conflict, America entered the war. Although it is well understood when the United States entered the war, the motives behind their involvement are still debated. Many explanations have been suggested, one being that Germany’s unchecked aggression and unrestricted submarine warfare threatened the United States, which gave sufficient reason to declare war on Germany. Speculation exists on whether the United States entered the war on such a noble premise, instead many suggest that the motives were economic.

In the years of America’s neutrality, Germany had angered the United States with over aggressive war tactics. Two ships carrying American passengers were sunk by German submarines, the Lusitania and the Sussex. After the Lusitania was sunk in 1915, Woodrow Wilson warned Germany that if they continued sinking Americans the United States would view it as deliberate aggression “Repetition by the commanders of German Naval vessels of acts in contravention of those rights must be regarded by the government of the United States, when they affect American citizens, as deliberately
However, when more details are exposed, the idea that the United States entered the war as a way to stand up for themselves falls apart. The first problem with the argument is the assumption that the United States was truly neutral. Neutrality implies that one nation is not preferred over another nation, this obviously was not the case in the years prior to World War One. Viewing the imports and exports of the United States from 1914 to 1918 shows that the United States economically supported the Allies (Data Set 4). Germany also was not the only nation intruding on American trade, Britain would seize American ships that they suspected of violating trade