Great War Dbq

On April 2, 1917 the United States entered WWI declaring war against Germany and its allies. The deciding factor for the U.S. to enter the war is due to one document, the Zimmerman Telegram. The document was sole proof to many Americans that Germany’s intentions were not only causing harm on European soil but bringing it across the seas to American soil. It stated that Germany had no intentions on slowing down its submarine warfare to which they hoped to keep the Americans neutral, but if they failed in doing so they offered an alliance among themselves and Mexico. The understanding was that Mexico would declare war on the United States and help the Germans and in return they would receive their land they had lost to America in years past,

     Cuba had been rebelling against Spanish rule for decades and the United States never intruded. America claimed that the reason for their involvement in 1895 was to assist Cuba against Spanish slaughter, but they hadn’t thought about involving themselves until their trade for sugar with Cuba was cut off. The Wilson-Gorman Tariff of 1894 placed high taxes on sugar, destructing Cuba’s sugar market and causing the discontinuation of trade with the United States. Cuba had acted as America’s primary sugar market. President Cleveland and successor, McKinley, desired to stay neutral, but the revealing of the Spanish De Lome letter and the sinking of the Maine in 1898 presented no other option.

The seven years’ war (French and Indian War in the Colonies) put a financial hard ship on the Europeans and the American Colonies because the war was so expensive. The reason the war transpired in America, and took place due to the British thinking the territories and trades were theirs to control because they wanted it all for themselves. This caused the French to try to put a stop to it so they too could gain wealth from the trades that occurred in the Ohio Valley. “The Ohio Valley was important because it provided fur traders access to cities and ports on the East Coast. This business was very profitable. Another desired territory was the Mississippi River Valley, the entry point to the frontier in the west.” (“The French & Indian War,”

After the deaths of 37,508,686 soldiers by the end of World War I, Europe was a mess. Countries had been dissolved and rearranged, governments had fallen and been replaced, and economies were thriving then crashing, all as a result from World War I. One of the main goals at the end of World War I was to prevent another tragedy like World War I from happening again. Clearly that did not happen, as World War II still happened, causing over 50 million deaths. The repercussions of World War I caused World War II due to radical ideology, bad economic conditions, and nationalism to the point of extremity.

The pre-independence time was hard, but also significant because of the key actions that were taken at that time. After the Seven Years’ War, the British were trying to recover from the money spent on it, so they introduced the taxes to the colonies, which gradually led to many Americans demanding a proper and redefined state of freedom. But not all Americans were pursuing this new concept of freedom. They were opposite points of view about liberty and independence: a patriotic side and a conservative side. This last and rather dogmatic group is what we now call the “loyalists”, and they became an obstacle for the ones who looked for independence, and the weak spot of the country.

     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

In the end, no one was singing. World War 1 lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Eventually, armies all across Europe were fighting and resulted in over 10 million deaths. Three underlying causes of World War 1 were alliances, militarism, and imperialism.

In 1914 World War I began, Europe got quickly involved. As we know the United States is a neutral nation because George Washington believed in neutrality for this nation. President Woodrow Wilson announced that the U.S would stay neutral during World War I. Germany kept instigating the United States to get involved with this war so their decision was made. On April 6th 1917 the United States was fully in World War I. This was a smart decision of them to make.

One may ask the question, “Why did small countries want to start wars with countries that were world powers?” Grant it, the U. S. become an independent country by starting a war with the world’s largest empire, Britain, during the 1700s. One may see it like a small boy picking a fight with the biggest boy in school, maybe the individual wanted respect or he did not want others to bully him. So, why did Japan start a war with the U. S.? Japan definitely had a large enough military, about 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 soldiers willing to die for their Emperor. Japan also welcomed any type of ground invasion, it was their homeland and obviously they knew the terrain. Japan understood that they would have the upper hand if the U.S. invaded and there would

The twentieth century was the beginning of war around the world, revolution, Great Depression, and Authoritarian and Totalitarian government. The tensions between Austria and Serbia ignited after Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Serbian terrorists. The mobilizations and threats of other nations escalated that led to the outbreak of World War I (pp. 780, and The Dogs Do Bark) between the Triple of Alliance with Ottoman Empire and Triple of Entente with Japan. World War I was called “Great War” because of the large volume of mobilization of resources and populations, where all men forced to fight for their country and women (p. 794) were able to work beyond their capacity as farm laborers, truck drivers, chimney sweeps, and factory workers in heavy industry3.

Late in the winter of 1917, tensions around the world grew in the midst of World War I. The U.S. remained neutral in the beginning; however, the U.S. severed diplomatic connections with Germany in early February after Germany announced their agenda (“Wilson's War Message to Congress.”). Germany had declared their intent to sink any sea vessel that sought to approach the ports of Great Britain, Ireland, or the ports of its enemies within the Mediterranean. Breaking its promise, Germany put aside all restraints of law or of humanity, sinking every vessel, along with passenger ships, with no warning. President Wilson, after witnessing a plethora of inhumane atrocities, spoke before an irritated and aggravated congress, asking them for a declaration of war. The congress, who had voted to abstain from entering the war, reversed their decision and overwhelmingly voted to enter World War I (“Wilson's War Message to Congress.”). President Wilson expertly used a variety of appeals and rhetorical devices to sway the congress in his favor.

As we all know, the Second World War left a huge impact on the world, and populations that suffered in the past are still healing from all the wounds caused by this destructive war. That is why the Historical Committee on Warfare is still searching for resolutions and is trying to deal with the consequences of the war.

The United States never wanted to join the war, but as time went on, the events that happened made it almost impossible not to join. The trouble for the U.S arose when the belligerent powers tried to stop supplies from reaching the enemy. Great Britain having the stronger navy was the first to declare a naval blockade against Germany, by mining the North Sea and seizing ships, including U.S ships – attempting to run the blockade. President Wilson protested British seizure of American Ships as a violation of a neutral nation’s right to freedom of the seas. But Germany’s supplies from America were getting cut off by the British warfare. And this was making Germany mad, that they were not getting supplies. Germany’s one hope for challenging British warfare at sea lay with a new naval weapon: the submarine. When Germany sank another five unarmed U.S merchant ships in March, Wilson was ready for

To the frustration of much of the President’s entourage, he still persisted that it would be a ‘crime’ for America to allow itself to be sucked into the war since it would ‘make it impossible to save Europe afterwards’. President Wilson wanted the world to be pacified, but with a piece without victory (Adam Tooze 65). Added to the now-routine, the sinking of ships by German U-boats, and with the refusal from Berlin to even deny this unprovoked aggression, it left Wilson with no other options. On April 2nd 1917, he went before the senate to demand a declaration of war (Adam Tooze 66-67).

From a global standpoint, the situation between Cuba and the United States was only increasing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. As Castro became more communist, he began to develop a strong economic and military relationship with the Soviet Union. As Castro and the Soviet Union developed this relationship, one might ask why Cuba was willing to give up some of its autonomy to the Soviets. After all, the Cubans had just broken free from United States’ control and finally had full and complete sovereignty; why after this revolution would Cuba immediately revert back to a system where a superpower had power over them? From a realist perspective, Cuba had much to gain in terms of relative power from this relationship. Not only did they become allies with one of the world’s largest superpowers, thus giving them increased security, they also received several weapons shipments from the Soviets. Hence, Cuba came to look stronger and have more relative power by this relationship with the Soviets. Realists also note that the USSR benefitted from this relationship; in a time when the US and USSR were going tit-for-tat in terms of power and arms, the USSR successfully expanded their power bases to the Western Hemisphere, bringing communism and the Soviets closer to the US and expanding their power relative to the United States. This