Transcript WWI: From Neutrality to Mobilization

WWI: FROM
NEUTRALITY TO
DECLARATION OF WAR
SWBAT: Describe how the U.S. departed from a
foreign policy of noninvolvement to defend
Wilson’s call for democracy
DO NOW
• Recall: What were the MAIN causes of WWI?
• Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism
• Who were the “Allied Powers” and the “Central
Powers”?
• Allies=Triple Entente: France, Russia, Great
Britain + Italy later
• Central Powers=Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
PRIOR TO ENTERING WWI
• From 1914-1917: US was neutral…kind of…
• By 1915:
• US had $2 billion worth of goods sold to Allies
• $3.5 billion in private foreign investments
• US allowed private banks to loan money to
Allies
• J.P. Morgan & others become wealthier
• 1916- U.S. Steel turns a $348 million profit
PRIOR TO ENTERING WWI
A. Submarine Warfare- new naval
weapon  Lusitania (128
Americans drowned) 
“unrestricted submarine warfare”
B. Economic ties to Britain &
France
C. Public Opinion- ethnic
influences, war propaganda
D. Zimmermann Telegram
• The Lusitania left New York for England on May 1, 1915.
Germany had placed a warning notice in American
newspapers, but few people took it seriously.
READ FOR UNDERSTANDING
• After reading the Zimmermann Telegram,
discuss the questions below with your group
members:
1. What was Germany’s first plan
concerning the US?
2. If that plan failed, what did Germany
propose to do in alliance with Mexico?
3. What reaction would this note have had
in the US?
WHY DID THE U.S. ENTER WWI?
• After reading excerpts of Wilson’s speeches
and Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the
United States, complete the guiding
questions that follow.
WRAP UP:
• Using all the documents and your prior
knowledge, what would you argue were the
major reasons the United States declared war
in April 1917?