What important events led to U.S. involvement in World War I?

Question

What important events led to U.S. involvement in World War I?

Babybull, wrpng war lol

Answer 1

Jacqueline Diboix french maid and mistress

Answer 2

Lovely Lady 0927 has the details above - unrestricted submarine warfare was the key factor (more so than the Zimmerman telegram since few Americans were truly concerned about a Mexican invasion of the States).
Why were submarine attacks a problem? If we didn't like being attacked, we could simply not send our ships into European waters. U-boats were not crossing the Atlantic in World War I to attack us along our coastline as they would in World War II.
Think about this - we were trading with the Allies. Our ships (including the Lusitania) carried war materials to the French and British which we were selling AT A PROFIT - and ON CREDIT. By 1917, the French and British owed us billions for food and merchandise. Banks in New York and Chicago especially had made large loans to the Allies. If the Allies lost, the banks stood to lose a great deal of money. Wealth had very weighty government influence then (as now) in the United States. One could argue the US involvement was only necessary TO PROTECT THE INVESTMENTS OF WEALTHY BANKERS.
Added Note - Alex (below) is correct. The Lusitania was a BRITISH PASSENGER LINER. - - But, evidence has come to light that she did carry munitions in her hold. I'm not sure if this could be assessed this by the way she displaced water as asserted by Terrence.
Alex is also correct that the Lusitania event alone was NOT the major cause of US involvement - OR we would have become involved much sooner than we did.

Answer 3

At the outbreak of WWI the US declared her neutarlity. The two events credited with forcing the US to get involved in the war were: May 1915: The sinking of the Lusitania February 1917: Zimmerman Telegram from the German foreign minister to Mexico promising to help Mexico if she were to invade the southern states of the US to get Texas back. This was intercepted by the British and passed to the US.

Answer 4

Actually, the Lusitania was carrying weapons, which was in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans warned the U.S. that they would bomb any vessel that carried weapons on board. Basically the US was trying to smuggle weapons aboard a passenger ship but the Germans new better. what tipped them off was that the Lusitania actually sat lower in the water because of all the exrtra weight from the weapons it was transporting. Luggage would not have caused it to sit as low as it did. When the German U boats torpedoed it, the Lusitania went up like a Fourth of July display. That gave the US an easy reason to go to war along with a few other factors. Still it took to years to declare war on Germany.

Answer 5

Germany's use of unrestricted submarine warfare was probably the biggest issue. The U.S. has always had a really protective streak. So when the Lusitania was sunk, they felt morally outraged enough to join the war.

Answer 6

President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in official relations with Germany on 3 February 1917. The United States originally pursued a policy of isolationism, avoiding conflict whilst trying to broker a peace. This resulted in increased tensions with Berlin and London. When a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with 128 Americans aboard, the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson vowed that "America was too proud to fight" and demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied. Wilson unsuccessfully tried to mediate a settlement. He repeatedly warned that America would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare, in violation of international law and American ideas of human rights. Wilson was under pressure from former president Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as "piracy." Other factors contributing to the U.S. entry into the war include German sabotage of both Black Tom in Jersey City, NJ, and the Kingsland Explosion in what is now Lyndhurst, NJ.

In January 1917, after the Navy pressured the Kaiser, Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. Britain's secret "Room 40" cryptography group had decrypted the German diplomatic code, and discovered a proposal from Berlin (the famed Zimmermann Telegram) to Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally against the United States. The proposal suggested that Mexico should declare war against the United States and enlist Japan as an ally; this would prevent America from joining the Allies and deploying troops to Europe, which would give the Germans more time for their unrestricted submarine warfare program to strangle Britain's vital war supplies. In return, the Germans would promise Mexico support in reclaiming Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

After the British revealed the telegram to the Americans, Woodrow Wilson was still attached to neutrality but released the captured telegram as a way of supporting his proposed plan to arm American merchant ships. After submarines sank seven American merchant ships and the publication of the Zimmerman telegram, Wilson called for war on Germany, which the U.S. Congress declared on 6 April 1917.
The United States was never formally a member of the Allies but became a self-styled "Associated Power". America had a small army, but it drafted four million men and by summer 1918 was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day. Germany had miscalculated that it would be many more months before they would arrive or that the arrival could be stopped by U-boats.

Answer 7

The Lusitania was a BRITISH PASSENGER LINER, not a US cargo ship or warship! Geez, people, check your facts! Also, it was sunk in 1915, two years before the US declared war!

Answer 8

Go study your own history lesson, friend. Germany invented submarines and started sinking ocean liners that American citizens were on. Lusitania was one of our Warships...
We also got involved because Great Britain asked us to.

THE BOMBING OF PEARL HARBOR WAS AN ATTACK BY THE JAPANESE THAT STARTED WORLD WAR TWO

Answer 9

Zimmerman Telegram, Lusitania, etc.

Answer 10

bombing of pearl harbor