America Joins the War
Why America Got Involved
In Europe, the so-called ‘Great War’ had been raging for three bitterly long years, transforming the continent's cities and farms into trenches and graveyards. Meanwhile, sitting safely behind three thousand miles of ocean, The United States was quick to say that European wars weren’t its problem by promptly proclaiming its neutrality.
But, where many saw death American Big Business saw a huge money-making opportunity. Even though they were claiming neutrality, American industries had been supplying Britain and France with war materiel since 1914, while American banks floated loans to the tune of two billion dollars to the Allied Powers for the purchase of war supplies. American industries stood to make fat profits. The only hurdle was in figuring out how to sneak past the German submarines who were busy playing Duck Hunt with Allied warships.
Germany cried “foul” on the United States’ so-called neutrality and issued a response: if American merchants were stupid enough to sail into U-boat infested waters they best be prepared to have their ships dominated by German torpedoes. And this is precisely what happened in the spring of 1915 when a German U-boat sank the British luxury liner, Lusitania, killing nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans. Former President Teddy Roosevelt called on America to defend her honor, but President Woodrow Wilson, aided by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, remained steadfast in America staying out of it. It was the turn-of-the-century’s version of 9/11. The American people, however, remained divided over the war.
Each nationality having its own agenda. German-Americans sided with the Fatherland, and Irish-Americans looked at the war as a way to end British domination of the Emerald Isle. Those Americans of British descent were sympathetic to the mother country, and millions of Americans felt bad for Belgium thanks to British propaganda which made German soldiers out to be the muggle-version of Voldemort. But, despite their divided loyalties, Americans weren’t all that geeked about sending their sons to get a bullet in the eye on some distant battlefield. But then Germany crossed the line...twice.
The Sinking of the Lusitania
When war erupted across Europe in August 1914, the United States was quick to declare its neutrality. President Woodrow Wilson, in a speech to the American public, pledged that the United States would remain “…“impartial in thought as well as in action.”. However, this was clearly not the case. War was good business for neutral America who did brisk business in exporting foods, ammunition, clothing, fuel and other needed supplies across the Atlantic Ocean. The trouble, at least as far as the Germans saw it, was that the Americans were doing far more trade with the British and French. Whenever the Americans attempted to deliver supplies to one side the other side would protest about “helping the enemy”. America was eager to keep its close friendship with Britain and began to back off doing trade with the Germans. The British strategy- with its superior naval power- was attempting to starve the Germans into submission by preventing any goods from reaching its ports.
The United States government was outraged when it found out that 124 of the dead were Americans who technically were not at war, many were calling for war against Germany. Diplomacy won out at the last minute, as the Germans promised to end their practice of unrestricted warfare (but not for long). The Germans would break their promise a year later when it again began attack passenger ships. It claimed that these ships were being used to smuggle weapons into Britain. Of course, the Americans denied this. But later investigations would uncover the truth that the Lusitania was carrying 4200 cases of rifle cartridges hidden in its haul.
In response, the Germans announced that they would be using unrestricted submarine warfare against any ship, commercial or military, that dared enter the waters around Great Britain. On May 7, 1915, a British ocean liner carrying 1,257 passengers was making its way from New York to Liverpool, England. Ignoring warnings that the waters off the coast of Ireland were infested with German U-Boats Captain William Thomas Turner ordered a course across the Atlantic. Captain Turner was confident in the Lusitania’s ability to outrun any U-Boat that he scoffed saying “Do you think all these people would be booking passage on board the Lusitania if they thought she could be caught by a German submarine…”
Zimmerman Note
Then, Early in 1917, the British intercepted a telegram from German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German diplomat based in Mexico that had a pretty enticing offer. Germany would support a Mexican invasion of the United States to regain its lost territories of California, New Mexico, and Arizona. Britain's espionage paid massive dividends because once released, the Zimmerman Note proved the final straw.
Germany may have been thinking ahead to prevent America's entry into the war by keeping them busy with their southern neighbor but they played their hand wrong and now America was looking for revenge. But like with most wars, it’s the politicians who get all fired up and end up having to convince the people that it is a good thing for them to die for their country in a war that had little to do with them. To motivate the masses, Congress passes the Selective Service Act. Millions of men between the ages of 21-45 were required (and still are) to register with the Selective Service. Four million were drafted and of those only about two million men saw service by the time the war was over in November 1918.
Zimmerman Telegram
How the War Changed America
World War I didn't just change America's role in global politics - it fundamentally transformed American society from the inside out. When Wilson threw America's hat into the ring, he needed more than just soldiers and weapons - he needed to reshape the American mind.
The Office of Public Information became a propaganda powerhouse, churning out posters, pamphlets, and newsreels that turned support for the war into the ultimate test of patriotism. They weren't subtle about it either. Propaganda posters showed German soldiers as monsters threatening American women and children. Movie theaters played government-approved newsreels showing brave American boys fighting for freedom. Even Hollywood got drafted into the cause, producing war films that portrayed Germans as mustache-twirling villains.
The Liberty Bond drives were a masterclass in emotional manipulation. The government needed cash - lots of it - and they knew exactly which buttons to push. Posters showed mothers sending their sons to war with the message "She's done her part, now do yours!" Other campaigns featured cute kids asking "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?" The guilt trip worked - Americans bought $33 billion in bonds, funding nearly two-thirds of the war effort.
The war hysteria unleashed a wave of xenophobia that would make McCarthy blush. Americans went absolutely bonkers trying to purge anything German from daily life. Symphony orchestras dropped Wagner from their programs. German dachshund dogs got rebranded as "liberty pups." Sauerkraut became "liberty cabbage" and frankfurters turned into "hot dogs." One bill proposed by a Michigan congressman would have even changed the name German Measles to "Liberty Measles". Thankfully, that bill failed.
People with German-sounding names faced harassment, lost their jobs, and sometimes got tarred and feathered by angry mobs.
The Espionage and Sedition Acts took this paranoia and gave it legal teeth. These laws didn't just restrict free speech - they basically put the First Amendment in solitary confinement. Socialist leader Eugene Debs got tossed in prison for giving an anti-war speech. The government shut down newspapers that criticized the war effort. Even writing a letter questioning the draft could land you in hot water. The Supreme Court upheld these restrictions, setting precedents that would influence civil liberties debates for decades to come.
Propaganda posters went up encouraging people to buy war bonds to support the troops.
African-Americans and Women
World War I cracked open doors that had been firmly shut for generations. For African Americans, the war created an escape route from the suffocating racism of the Jim Crow South. Northern factories needed workers to replace the men heading to Europe, and they needed them badly. The result? The Great Migration kicked into high gear.
Between 1916 and 1919, nearly half a million African Americans packed up their lives and headed North. Cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New York saw their Black populations explode practically overnight. The migration wasn't just about jobs - it was about dignity. In the North, African Americans could vote without fear of violence, send their kids to better schools, and walk down the street without stepping off the sidewalk when white folks passed by.
But the North wasn't exactly the promised land. White workers often resented Black competition for jobs. Housing discrimination crammed African American families into overcrowded neighborhoods. Race riots erupted in East St. Louis in 1917 and Chicago in 1919, where white mobs attacked Black neighborhoods.
Meanwhile, nearly 400,000 African Americans served in the military, though most were relegated to labor battalions. The 369th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters," fought with distinction under French command (because many white American officers refused to lead Black troops). They spent 191 days in combat, never lost a foot of ground, and earned France's Croix de Guerre for bravery. But when they came home? They faced the same old racism, now seasoned with fear of Black veterans who'd learned about equality in France and weren't afraid to demand it at home.
For American women, the war created unprecedented opportunities. As men shipped out, women stepped into jobs previously considered "men's work." They became streetcar conductors, factory workers, and government clerks. Nearly 25,000 women served as nurses in the military, braving German submarines to reach the Western Front. The Women's Land Army recruited thousands to work on farms, keeping America's food production going when male farmers went to war.
The National Women's Party saw their opening and seized it. They positioned their protests brilliantly - how could Wilson claim to fight for democracy abroad while denying it to half of Americans at home? Their peaceful protests outside the White House embarrassed Wilson internationally. When authorities started arresting suffragists and force-feeding them in jail, public opinion shifted. The suffragists' sacrifice, combined with women's vital role in the war effort, finally pushed Wilson to support women's voting rights. The 19th Amendment passed in 1920, though it would primarily benefit white women - African American women in the South still faced barriers to voting that would last for decades.
Women workers in ordnance shops, Midvale Steel and Ordnance Co., Nicetown, Pa
The ‘Hellfighters’ - Soldiers of the 369th (15th N.Y.), 1919. They were awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery in action.
Americans in the Trenches
When American troops finally reached the Western Front in 1918, they faced a brutal reality that no amount of training could have prepared them for. The Western Front wasn't just a battlefield - it was an industrial meat grinder where modern technology met ancient human savagery. American soldiers, fresh-faced and eager, found themselves thrust into a war unlike anything in human history.
Machine guns turned No Man's Land into killing fields where waves of soldiers would vanish in seconds. Massive artillery pieces, hidden miles behind the lines, rained down shells that could vaporize entire squads. The Germans had perfected the art of poison gas warfare - chlorine gas that burned your lungs, mustard gas that burned through clothing and blistered skin. The Americans learned fast or died trying.
These "doughboys," as they were nicknamed, brought something crucial to the Allied cause - fresh energy and determination after years of grinding warfare. The French and British soldiers, exhausted from four years of endless combat, initially saw the Americans as naive greenhorns. But that changed quickly when the Americans proved their mettle in battles like Belleau Wood, where U.S. Marines fought through machine gun fire and poison gas to stop the German advance toward Paris.
General Pershing fought his own battles with Allied leadership, who wanted to use American troops as replacements in their depleted units. Pershing insisted on keeping American forces together as their own army - a decision that probably saved thousands of American lives by preventing them from being used as casual reinforcements in deadly battles of attrition.
History Channel - The US in WW1
Why it Matters
By the time the guns fell silent on November 11, 1918, over 116,000 Americans had died in just over a year and a half of fighting. Those who survived came home forever changed, carrying mental and physical scars that would shape American society for decades. They brought back stories of horror and heroism, of technological terror and human resilience. The war showed Americans that their geographic isolation couldn't protect them from global conflicts, and that modern warfare had become something far more terrible than anyone could have imagined.
The men who returned helped transform America from an isolationist nation into a global superpower, though many questioned whether the cost in blood and treasure had been worth it. The war left Americans deeply ambivalent about future European entanglements - a hesitancy that would have profound consequences when another world war loomed just two decades later.
Test Page