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The Importance Of US Participation In World War I

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What? From the beginning, US President Woodrow Wilson declared the US to be strictly neutral besides giving away materials to the Allies. In May 1915, even when a German submarine sunk Lusitania, a British ocean liner that had 128 US citizens out of 1,200 passengers, the US stayed neutral despite the commotion it caused. Then, in January 1917, Germany declared that its restrictions on warfare for submarines would change starting February 1st. This meant that German U-boat commanders would all be allowed to sink any ship they considered to be supporting the Allies in any way. Also, it was found that Germany sent something known as the Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico proposing an alliance if the US were to participate in World War I. However, this was intercepted by the British and shown to the US. Because of the unconstrained warfare of submarines, the Zimmerman telegram, and pressure lead the US to join the war and abandon its state of neutrality. Although there was a notable amount of disagreement with this decision, the position officially was that the US couldn’t allow their rights to be blocked like that as a sovereign nation. …show more content…

This involved the entire world as this was a world war, and it would affect the entire world based on if the US joined in or not. However, the major players involved were Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, the USA, Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Citizens of these countries, as well as others, were affected by the

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