U.S. History / Unit 6: The Progressive Era and World War I
6.5 World War I and American Entry
Notes
World War I began in Europe in 1914. The U.S. stayed neutral until 1917.
- Long-term causes, remembered as MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism.
- Spark: the assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914.
- Allies: Britain, France, Russia (and later the U.S.). Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire.
- Trench warfare, machine guns and poison gas made the Western Front a deadly stalemate.
- Why the U.S. entered:
- German U-boats sank the British liner Lusitania (1915), killing 128 Americans.
- Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917.
- The Zimmermann Telegram proposed a German alliance with Mexico against the U.S.
- Strong trade and cultural ties to Britain.
- Congress declared war in April 1917. Wilson said the world "must be made safe for democracy."
Practice
Which event most directly led the U.S. to enter World War I in 1917?
Attacks on American ships and Germany's offer to Mexico pushed Congress to declare war.
In the Zimmermann Telegram, Germany proposed that:
British intelligence decoded the message and passed it to the U.S. in 1917.
The "A" in the MAIN causes of World War I stands for:
Alliance systems turned a regional conflict into a world war.
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