Statement and Purpose
The first world war took place at the start of the 21st century and marked the most tragic event in human history. The world war started and took place in Europe but the United States had active participation in it. The geographical location of the United States could have made it ignore it. However, there were several reasons why the United States had to become one of the critical parties that participated in the war. The United States had remained neutral under President Woodrow for the first three years before it decided to participate in the war in the year 1917. The rapid rising of the German aggression made it impossible for the United States to continually remain neutral in the war. This paper examines some of the reasons why the United States entered into World War I and seeks to examine the impact that the war had on the United States domestic politics, the economy, and the culture as a whole.
Analysis and Argument
World War I started on June 28, 1914, when Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The assassination resulted in a series of events which ultimately led to a declaration of war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. All European powers were drawn into the war as a result of the European alliance system and the war quickly spread across the globe to become the first world war. At the start of World War I, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson had declared the neutrality in the War. The decision was supported by a large number of Americans.
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The efforts of the president of the United States to be neutral in the war became undermined because of German aggression. The first instance of German aggression took place on May 7, 1915, when Germans sunk British civil ship “Luistania” which was traveling by the Irish shores. The event was a horrible tragedy and there were more than 1,000 civilians that were killed in cold blood while 128 Americans lost their lives (Woodward, 2017). This resulted in a public outcry and this put a lot of pressure on the United States to do something. Additionally, Germans had acted brutally and had violated the international law which restricted submarine warfare. The Germans had not warned civilians in the ship that they were intending to sink the ship. Germany later promised that it would stop such kind of warfare. However, in less than a year, German forces sunk another civilian ship called “Sussex” (Woodward, 2017). This was not the last time that a passenger ship had been destroyed.
In the years that followed, Germany tried to lure the Mexican government into coalition by promising that if Mexico had joined the war on the side of Germany, in the event of a Germany victory, the territories of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona would be stripped away from the United States and would be returned to Mexico. The message was sent through a telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram. However, British intelligence obtained a copy of the telegram in 1917 which was had been sent by Arthur Zimmerman, the German Minister of foreign affairs to the German ambassador that was situated in Mexico City. The escalation of the German Submarine attacks on the United States and publication and finding of the Zimmerman Telegram left no option for the United States Congress but to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
The reasons for the United States entering the war was also analyzed by Rosecrance and Miller (2014). He noted that there were two small factors that were critical for causing the outbreak of WWI. The first factor was that the leaders of key nations such as France, Russia, Britain, and Germany listened to the advice of lesser-known figures leading to the outbreak of the war. The second reason was the failure to contain small incidents and allowing them to quickly escalate. The small incidents that quickly escalated can be stated to be one of the reasons the United States chose to enter the war. German aggression had been slowly evolving and this resulted in a greater degree of conflict between the United States and Germany when it was not contained.
The United States also decided to enter the war because it wanted to show its strength and power to the world. According to Rothbard (2017), the United States was facing an increasing amount of threat from Germany that was trying to undermine the powers of the United States. Germany had taken part in initiatives such as the sinking of the submarine and promising Mexico a part of the territories of the United States. In case the US had not responded adequately, it would have shown that they were inadequate and they were too weak to defend their territories by participating in the war.
After World War I broke, it had a significant amount of impact on the politics, culture, and economy of the United States. There were more than 1.3 million men and twenty thousand women that were listed in the armed forces of the United States (Woodward, 2017). The war also led to some divisions in the United States as some opposed entry into the war while many believed that they had a civic duty to support the war efforts of the United States. The United States government set up propaganda that would mobilize American citizenry through the use of civic duty and patriotism. The war was also linked to the United States democracy and reinstated the need to support the democracies in Europe.
One of the political effects of the war was that it led to women being given a chance to vote. Most of the advocates of the female voting rights attributed that one of the reasons was their patriotic efforts in the war. Women that had participated in the war had shown a greater degree of patriotic efforts and the only way to reward them was through giving them voting rights. The strategy became quite effective and in the year 1920, the Congress of the United States made changes to the nineteenth amendment. The changes guaranteed women a right to vote.
The experience of the war had an effect on the culture of the United States due to the traumatizing effects of the war. Many individuals had plunged themselves into deadly conflict and they had an unsatisfying outcome. Many individuals thus were lost and disillusioned regarding the ideals and values of the United States. The war had a short term positive impacts on the United States economy as it gave loans to the UK to help in the war effort. However, after the war, the long term effects were the Great Depression after the German economy went to inflation and die (Nisbet, 2017). The result was that there was an uncertainty in the economy leading to the crash of the stock market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be seen that there were several reasons why the United States decided to join the war. One of the major reasons was the increased level of aggression from Germany. Although the United had tried to remain neutral in the war, the constant harassment of Germany on its civilian ships and the alliance with Mexicans forced the United States into the war. The war had an effect on the politics, culture, and economy of the United States. While the economy thrived in the short-term, it led to an overall negative impact through the Great Depression.
References
Nisbet, R. (2017). Teachers and scholars: A Memoir of Berkeley in depression and war . Routledge.
Rothbard, M. N. (2017). World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the intellectuals. In The Costs of War (pp. 249-299). Routledge.
Rosecrance, R. N., & Miller, S. E. (Eds.). (2014). The Next Great War?: The Roots of World War I and the Risk of US-China Conflict . MIT Press.
Woodward, L. (2017). Great Britain and the War of 1914-1918 (RLE the First World War) . Routledge.
