Although World War I began in 1914, the United States did not join the war until 1917. The impact of the United States joining the war was significant. The additional firepower, resources, and soldiers of the U.S. helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies.
When war broke out in 1914, the United States had a policy of neutrality. Many people in the U.S. saw the war as a dispute between "old world" powers that had nothing to do with them. Also, public opinion on the war was often split as there were many immigrants who had ties to both sides.
United States recruiting poster
When the Germans sunk the Lusitania in 1915, a passenger ocean liner with 159 Americans on board, the public opinion in the United States toward the war began to change.
In January of 1917, the German leaders asked Mexico to join in the fight and in return Germany promised to return to Mexico that land that was once theirs - Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to Congress on April 2, 1917 asking for them to declare war on Germany. In his speech he said that the U.S. would go to war to "fight for the ultimate peace of the world." On April 6, 1917 the U.S. officially declared war on Germany.
The U.S. army in Europe was under the command of General John J. Pershing. At first, the U.S. had few trained troops to send over to Europe. However, the army was quickly built up through the draft and volunteers. By the end of the war around 2 million U.S. troops were in France.
U.S. troops marching through London
The U.S. troops arrived just in time to turn the tide of the war in favor of the Allies. Both sides were exhausted and running out of soldiers. The influx of fresh troops helped to boost the morale of the Allies and played a major role in the defeat of the Germans.
Watch this video on Woodrow Wilson (3.33)
Comment on the Blog:
According to the video:
What are two
reasons that America wished to stay out of WWI? (There are more than two)
What
slogan did Wilson use when he was running for President?
What did joining in the War effort do for the
USA’s reputation?
The link doesn't work...
ReplyDeleteThat's strange. :( I just clicked and it worked for me. Try clicking this:
Deletehttp://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/woodrow-wilson/videos/the-us-in-world-war-i
Mrs. Tvedt :)
The web address did not hyperlink so if you try the video once more and it still doesnt work for you then copy and paste the link I included above.
Deleteit still isn't working how do u copy and past
ReplyDeletenever mind you havet to click in "video"
ReplyDeletethe slogan he used was he kept us out of war. they wished to stay out of the war because of money. it wasn't very good to the reputation. if you have time just for fun watch the next video too
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons they don't want to join the war is that they don't want to go into a foreign country and fight foreign enemies, and because it is a nation of immigrants, so many people could be sympathetic to different causes. We didn't want our own country turning against us. Like Lauren said, his slogan was that he 'kept us out of war.' How it affected our reputation was it turned America into a world power rather than just a 'strong nation.'
ReplyDeleteWilsons slogan was that he kept you out of war, which is pointless because just a year after he was elected he declared war on Germany. I wonder if he would have been elected if his slogan was something else. Anyways, the reputation joining the war put on America was not the best.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons America did not want to join the war was because 1) millions of imigrants has just moved to America for many reasons, but a popular reason was to avoid war in Europe. And 2) America did not want to go to another country and fight there.
ReplyDelete2 reasons America didnt want to join the war was because they did not want to fight in foreign countrys and also because of all the immigrants that had come to America, fleeing war. "He kept us out of war" was Wilson's slogan when he was running for president, which didn't last for long ;), and after the America joined the war our reputation went from being a "strong young nation" to a world power.
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons America didn't want to join the war was because they didn't want to fight in foreign country's and immigrants had just moved to America and wanted to avoid war in Europe. Woodrow Wilson's slogan was that “he kept us out of war” which didn't last for long at all! The reputation was America went from being a strong nation to world power.
ReplyDeleteAmerica didn't want to fight in the war because most of the country was made up of immigrants who came here to escape war, and they didn't want to go to another country and fight there. Woodrow Wilson's slogan was "He kept us out of war." America's reputation changed from being a strong young nation to becoming a world power.
ReplyDeleteI don't like this blog as much because all of the answers are the same and there's no room for creativity!
ReplyDeleteThe war is a hard subject to find opportunities to seek creative opinion. Don't worry. There will be plenty of opportunity to share your opinion and hear the thoughts of others! :)
DeleteTotally agree!
DeleteAmerica wished to stay out of the World War because of fear of the politicians and some of the civilians are immigrants escaping the war. President Wilson when he was running for president, his campaign was "He Kept Us Out Of The War". The War changed many lives and the world, before America was considered a strong nation, after the war it became a world power.
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons America wanted to stay out of the war would be 1) because they were afraid of the politicians and 2) they would be fighting in a foreign war against the immigrants. The slogan Wilson was known for was, "He Kept Us Out of the War". :) And finally, Americas reputation changed from being known as a "Strong Nation" to being known as "World Power".
ReplyDeletePeople in the US wanted to stay out of the war because they had just emigrated to stay out of European wars and politicians were afraid of joining a foreign war.
ReplyDeleteThe slogan Wilson used was "He Kept Us Out of War".
The reputation the US had before the war was a strong, young nation which was changed to a world power.
One of the reasons the USA didn't join is because they, being a country of immigrants, came to avoid war. Another is that America didn't want to have to deal with countries on a completely different continent.
ReplyDeleteAmerica gained a position by entering WWI, America had got a title of a strong young nation, America positioned itself as one of the world powers (which is a good thing!)
Wilson's political campaign slogan was that he'd keep America out of the war, but he broke his word, which wasn't entirely a bad thing.
one of the reasons america didnt want to join the war was that they had a lot of immigrants that came to america to avoid war and another reason is that the polititians didnt want to fight in a foreign war and for s foreign contry president wilsons slogan was "i kept us out of war" and it made the US one of the world powers
ReplyDeleteTwo reasons that America wished to stay out of WWI were because a lot of them they came to America to avoid war in the first place, and secondly, they weren't fond of the idea of going to war overseas.
ReplyDeleteThe slogan Wilson use when he was running for President was that he would keep them out of war.
Joining in the War effort proved the USA as being one of the world powers, and a good, strong nation giving it a nice reputation. :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAmerica wanted to stay out of the war because the immigrants came to avoid the war and they had already declared neutrality. Woodrow Wilson used the slogan, "He Kept Us Out Of War!" And America's reputation was changed from a strong nation to a world power.
ReplyDelete