5-3.6 Summarize the factors that led to the involvement of the United States in World War I and the role of the United States in fighting the war.
At first, the United States tried to maintain a neutral role in World War I. It is important that students understand that America became involved in the war reluctantly as a result of a multitude of factors. Wartime propaganda, similar to the yellow journalism of the Spanish American War period, traditional sympathies, and commercial ties with and loans to Great Britain strained neutrality. Most importantly, the unrestricted submarine warfare declared by the Germans on the high seas and waged against neutral ships trading with Britain and France led President Woodrow Wilson to ask the Congress for a declaration of war to “make the world safe for democracy.” The sinking of the Lusitania [1915] was not the direct cause of the United States’ declaration of war [1917]. It was only one incident in a series of sinkings. The interception of the Zimmerman telegram by the British and its publication by sensationalist press in the United States led the American public to support going to war. American troops, known as doughboys, were instrumental in repelling the final assaults of German troops on the western front and breaking the deadlock of trench warfare. The Central Powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) agreed to an armistice with the Allies (Great Britain, France, and the United States) on the condition that peace negotiations would be based on Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. President Wilson played a significant role at the peace negotiations, although many of his Fourteen Points were ignored by the other nations. Wilson helped to redraw state borders in Europe so that they better reflected nations, groups of people with the same language, religion and ethnic heritage.
America's Allies/Friends
The Treaty of Versailles included an international peace-keeping organization, the League of Nations, which Wilson hoped would put an end to war. The United States Senate refused to ratify the treaty because many Senators thought that the League of Nations would compromise Congress’s constitutional right to declare war. Despite their refusal to join the League, the United States continued to be involved in world trade in the 1920s. In the 1930s, the Congress limited American involvement in world affairs in a series of laws called the Neutrality Acts. These acts attempted to keep the United States out of the war that was brewing in Europe by addressing what Americans thought were the causes of American involvement in World War I. When the United States finally became involved in World War II, the United States allied with Great Britain, France, and others. This alliance became the basis for the creation of the United Nations after World War II, which replaced the League of Nations with a more effective peace-keeping organization.]
Sinking of the Lusitania Discussion Questions
- Read closely ReadWorks.org “World War I: The Sinking of the Lusitania and Submarine War.” They will answer Sinking of the Lusitania text discussion questions in small group and class discussions. In their small groups, they will work on discussion based text questions (DOK 1-3)
Group B-Quote It Organizer
- Use the ABDO eBook World War I and Modern America to close read the text in groups about WWI and the US involvement. (pages 21- 27 ). Use the four thinking square to analyze the US involvement in the war.
- ABDO Book