Transcript 5-3.6 Summarize the factors that led to the involvement of the United

Industrial Revolution
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.
In the beginning..
◼ At first, the US tried to maintain a neutral role
in World War I.
Factors to enter WWI
◼
Wartime propaganda (similar to
yellow journalism during the
Spanish American War)
◼ Traditional sympathies
◼ Commercial ties with loans to
Great Britain
◼ Unrestricted submarine warfare
declared by the Germans on the
high seas waged against neutral
ships trading with Britain and
France.
Factors to enter WWI
◼ All of the previously
listed factors led to…
▪ President Woodrow
Wilson to ask the
Congress for a
declaration of war to
“make the world safe
for democracy.”
Lusitania, 1915
◼ The sinking of the Lusitania was not the
direct cause of the US declaration of war.
◼ It was only one incident in a series of sinking.
Zimmerman telegram
◼ The inception of the Zimmerman telegram
by the British and its publication by
sensationalist press in the US led the
American 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.
Zimmerman telegram
Allies v. Central Powers
◼ The Central Powers
◼ Allied Powers
▪ Germany
▪ Great Britain
▪ Austria Hungary
▪ France
▪ Ottoman Empire
▪ United States
BIG reasons why American
enters WWI
WWI (1st trench warfare)
between Germany and France
Final assaults of German troops on
the western front
◼ Trench
Warfare
Final assaults of German troops on
the western front
◼ Doughboys
*This Loony Tunes cartoon was created 15
years after WWI.
Final assaults of German troops on
the western front
◼ Final assaults of German troops on the
western front
End of the War
◼ Central Powers agreed to an armistice with
the Allies on the condition that peace
negations would be based on Woodrow
Wilson’s 14 Points.
◼ President Wilson played a significant role at
the peace negations, although many of his 14
Points were ignored by the other nations.
Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points
President Wilson and WWI
◼ Helped redraw state borders in Europe so
they better reflected:
▪ The actual nations
▪ Groups of people with the same language
▪ Religious heritage
▪ Ethnic heritage
◼ Treaty of Versailles
▪ International peace-keeping organization, the
League of Nations
Treaty of Versallies
◼Wilson hoped the Treaty of Versailles would put
an end to WWI.
◼However, the US 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 US
continued to be involved in world trade in the
1920s.
League of Nations
Neutrality Acts
◼ In the 1930s, Congress limited American
involvement in world affairs in a series of laws
called the Neutrality Acts
◼ Neutrality Acts attempted to keep the US out
of the war that was brewing in Europe by
addressing what Americans thought were the
causes of American involvement in World
War I
Neutrality Acts
In the future…
◼ When the United States finally becomes
involved in World War II, the US allied with
Great Britain, France and others.
◼ This alliance becomes 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.
United Nations