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The Impact of World War I on the United States
what impact did ww1 have on the us?
impact of united states involvement in world war 1
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On April 6, 1917, the United States formally entered the First World War. When the war first started in 1914, President Wilson pledged neutrality, which was favored by the majority of Americans. However, Britain was one of America’s closest trade partners, so tension was created between Germany and the United States after the attempted quarantine of the British Isles. Several U.S. ships were damaged and sunk by German mines as they traveled to Britain. In 1915, Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or not, that entered the war zone around Britain. After Germany sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel, President Wilson was outraged. The German government apologized, calling it an unfortunate mistake. When Germany torpedoed the British ocean liner Lusitania without warning, the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. That August Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels, but about two months later, a U-boat sank an Italian liner without warning. With t...
The German’s unrestricted submarine warfare was the main reason for the U.S. to enter war. Wilson had tremendous support from Americans. The Germans had to be stopped. The attacks came without warning killing many innocent people (Winter and Baggett, 1996). The Germans sank numerous ships including our own. The most famous ship sunk was the Lusitiania. Aboard that ship 128 Americans were killed (http://www.angelfire.com/in3/wilson/wilson.html). The Lusitania was torpedoed without any notice. The Lusitania sunk in 18 minutes killing a total of 1198 people (http://www.poltechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/chart.ww1.html).
Both sides accepted the United States’ aid but they also sought to cut-off each other’s supply chain. While the Allies barricaded Germany’s ports with the British Navy, Germany began attacking merchant ships using their submarines, or U-boats. While Wilson was angered by the British tactics he was even more infuriated by the German’s. This would be the ultimate end of U.S. neutrality as Wilson would sternly address Germany’s actions and not Britain’s.
On the other side, Wilson was determined to revise the imperialist practices of earlier administrations, promising independence to the Philippines and making Puerto Ricans American citizens. But Wilson's own policies could sometimes be high-handed. His administration intervened militarily more often in Latin America than any of his predecessors. In the European war, American neutrality ended when the Germans refused to suspend submarine warfare after 120 Americans were killed aboard the British liner Lusitania and a secret German offer of a military alliance with Mexico against the United States was uncovered. In 1917, Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Germany.
Germany is desperate with no trade with the U.S., and their economy is frantically crumbling. In retaliation, Germany violated the international warfare law by attacking submarines without warning. Wilson’s response: Germany must stop the blockade or face the consequences. Wilson agrees to reach a deal with Germany after they publish a statement to negotiate, even though both France and Great Britain have proclaimed that this war would end with total victory over Germany. Wilson is trapped by his own ultimatum.
Sister Claire Evelyn Trestrail was the eldest of five being born on the 10th of December, 1877 in Clare, South Australia. Trestrail served in the First World War as a nurse following in her mother’s footsteps who was a trained nurse, Acting Matron of King Edward Hospital in Perth and also had involvement within the Red Cross and the Saint John’s Ambulance Services. Trestrail’s younger siblings also had involvement within the First World War with her two younger brothers; John Henry and Amarald Glen, serving in the royal Flying Corps and respectively, 1 Machine Battalion. Amarald was also presented with a Military Medal for Gallantry at Villaret. Sister Ella also served as a nurse, got married, but tragically returned as an amputee. It was only her youngest sister Amy who did not serve during the war.
While the naval war is usually known for only little attention in histories of World War I, the Royal Navy's blockade of Germany played a dangerous role in the War. The U.S. Navy linking with the Royal Navy played a significant role in overcoming the German U-boats in the North Atlantic. The Germany Navy while technically effective disastrously diminished the German war effort. Germany's building of a High Seas Fleet was one of the causes that public view on Britain turned against Germany and that Britain come unto the War. Yet, the small U-boat fleet, showed a key competition to the British. In the early war, U-boats drowned three British cruisers, shocking the people of both England and Germany. The U-boat campaign was a major reason that public opinion in America turned against Germany and that America entered the War. Despite the huge investment, the German Navy accomplished nothing in return to counter balance the cost for Germany.
Indeed, Hitler’s plan to defeat the Allies with U-boats was looking very good. For some unknown reason the Allied ships could not defend against the U-boats. With Hitler in control it looked like the Axis powers were going to drive the Allies out of the Atlantic and win the Battle of the Atlantic. With Hitler taking over most of England, and Great Britain trying to hold the Germans off, the United States decides to send war aid to Britain. The United States gave the British fifty old American destroyers (Von Der Porten 171).
Bruce Lee once said, “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them” (“Bruce Lee”). During World War I, the mistake of Serbia killing the archduke was neither admitted nor forgiven. A series of events brought together the European continent into a bloody and unprecedented war. WWI depicts that a small error or miscommunication leads to a bigger issue and suffering of people as portrayed through the aftereffects of the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The U.S. in 1910 was a society where racial segregation was the norm. The Jim Crow laws of segregation were enacted between 1876 and 1965 in America segregating many if not all, public places for whites and blacks. African Americans were treated inferiorly and with no respect. World War I erupted in 1914, sending millions of soldiers from America to Europe. African Americans were sent along side Caucasians to fight in World War I due to there not being enough white soldiers in the military. Many African Americans felt as if they needed to prove their loyalty, respect and earn equality in America by battling in this war. African American soldiers being sent to the war wanted to prove their worthy of citizenship to America. WWI allowed a unique and significant opportunity for African Americans.
During World War One, the role of airplanes and how they were used changed greatly. At first planes were only used for sport, but people started realize that not only could airplanes be useful but they could even influence an outcome of the war greatly. Soon the war was filled with blimps, planes, and tethered balloons. By the end of the war, planes became a symbol of fear, but they were not always treated with such respect. In the time leading up to the war, the general feeling about planes was, they were a sneaky, unfair tactic that should not be used in warfare.
In the History of the world, human race, there have been many wars between different societies, Cultures, and Countries. Massive blood shed in many of these wars did not stop the coming of new conflicts of interest, peaking to battle. World War Two, one of the biggest war of history brought several countries to battle against each other (1939-1945). The catalyst of this war was one man whom discriminated against other cultures for no reason but to exterminate the Jewish race, known as Adolf Hitler.
Being afraid and being aware that the Germans were the problem were both wins for the American community. Now that the people were afraid, the American government could step in and imply laws that had never been implied to another man. For instance, there was a case where a famous conductor by the name of Dr. Karl Much had his own experience with this American support. This man was “accused o...
Many historical events took place in the 20th century that will be remembered forever, but the one occurrence that everyone knows of and will forever be remembered was World War Two. World War Two, the greatest tragedy that has ever happened on the face of the earth, the genocide of Jewish people, a complete nightmare. When people think of WW2, many of the time the image of “those poor Jewish people” comes to mind. Many ask themselves how this could have happened. It just doesn’t make sense to them. Did people around the world at the time of WW2 have these kinds of deliberations? If they did have this kind of reflection then how did six million people perish? During the time leading up to the outbreak of World War II, the Western Press consistently carried numerous reports of the German's anti-Jewish policies and their purposeful victimization of the Jews living in Nazi Germany as well as the annexed territories. The general public cannot claim that they did not know what was going on, that they were uninformed. Whether or not they chose to believe it however, is a completely different story. The public were indeed outraged in many of the cases but the governments of the major European democracies felt that it was not for them to intervene for they felt that the Jewish problem classified as an internal affair within a sovereign state. The attempt to discover what exactly the people around the world did to save the Jewish race is not going to be an easy task but it is going to be a worthwhile one which should uncover a lot of unknown facts to many people.
On April 2nd 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America, ??went before Congress and called for a declaration of war. Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Germany.?# This was an act that led to much resistance among the American people. Not four months earlier the American people re-elected President Wilson, partly because of his success in keeping the United States out of this European war. However, a series of events, such as the Germans continuing submarine warfare and the attacks on five American ships, led President Wilson to sever diplomatic relations with Germany and send the United States into what would be labeled as World War I. As a result of the war the
World War II was one of the most deadly wars we know in history, having as many as sixty million casualties, most of whom were civilians. It impacted a lot of countries, almost all the world, which is why the name is given. This war impacted many countries in the world, and damaged almost all of the countries involved greatly. It also led to the downfall of Western European countries as world powers, leaving it to the Soviet Union, and the United States. The war started in 1939 and ended in 1945, with the invasion of Poland and the Axis surrender, respectively. It changed the economy and the growth of big countries, including Germany, Great Britain, United States, Japan, Russia and France. Aside from this, Jews were greatly influenced too. They were damaged, but then gifted.