Why Did America Become Involved in Wwi Essay Example

Why did America become involved in WWI? How did President Wilson justify his decision to enter the war in 1917? Was the war in the national interest? At the start of 1917, the United States and its president was not interested in fighting in the war. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to remain neutral. Even though 2 years earlier in 1915, a Germen u-boat destroyed the R.M.S Lusitania, in which 128 Americans were lost. The United States was interested in selling weapons and help with funding the allies in the war. There were several factors that propelled the United States into the war. One of the factors that contributed in the President’s design in entering the war was a message intercepted by the United States government from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the Mexican government. This proposed a German-Mexican alliance, if Mexico declared war on the United States. If this happened, it would return Texas and other territories to Mexico. On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies--Britain, France, and Russia to fight in World War I. World War I was also know as the great war or the war to end all war’s. This Great War cost the United States $33 billion dollars, and 116,708 were killed, along with 204,002 were wounded from the United States. The Great War cost over 37 million lives from both sides. As Woodrow Wilson would describe this war,
"The Americans who went to Europe to die are a unique breed.... (They) crossed the seas to a foreign land to fight for a cause which they did not pretend was peculiarly their own, which they knew was the cause of humanity and mankind. These Americans gave the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life and the gift of