World War 1 Dbq

For a long time, after the World War 1 had started in 1914, the United States wanted to stay neutral towards the first World War. The war did not really interest Americans, because it did not involve them directly. But as the war continued, many significant events happened that affected people to change their opinions. Germany’s attack towards small Belgium, sinking of passenger liners like Lusitania, economical causes and the Zimmermann note from Germany to Mexico were the reasons that got the United States to join the war.
President of that time, Woodrow Wilson, wanted the United States to stay neutral and out of the war. He was afraid that getting involved with the war would get people, from different nations in USA, go against each other. In many of his speeches, President Woodrow Wilson told people, that the choice of
The German attack was made “in violation of American rights”(Document 3) and it got the United States and Germany into a bad situation against each other. At the end of the year 1915, President Woodrow Wilson realized, that staying neutral wasn’t going to be an option for too long anymore and the United States started their preparations in case of a war. The sinking of Lusitania didn’t stay as the only sinking of a passenger ship, even though Germany had agreed to let it stay as one.
One thing that also affected United States’ involvement was their economical causes. As seen from many charts, like from document number two, the Great Britain was United States’ biggest export and during the war, their trading grew even bigger. After 1915 USA didn’t trade anything with Germany anymore. These might be some reasons that caused the USA to join the Allieds’ side at the end of the war. The Allied powers consisted the Great Britain, Russia, France and Italy, when the Central powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman