1. Why the US Entered the War

2.  Submarines were new weapons that changed the rules of naval warfare  Passenger and merchant ships had no defense against the submarine, which would go unprotected in the water  Attacks depended on surprise  U-boats issued no warnings to their targets  Americans saw this as uncivilized

3.  All information about the war came from London  This helped shape public opinion against Germany

4.  May 7, 1915 – U-boat believes Lusitania, a British passenger liner, is carrying weapons for the Allies  U-boat fires on ship and within 18 minutes Lusitania sinks with 1,200 passengers, including 128 Americans on board  Wilson asks Germany to pay victims’ families, but Germany says it had the right to fire because carrying ammunition  Germany promises not to sink any more passenger ships without warning, as long as crew offered no resistance to search and seizure  U-boats continued to torpedo Allied ships

6.  Lusitania was carrying:  1,248 cases of 3 inch shells  4,927 boxes of cartridges (1,000 rounds in each box)  2,000 cases of small ammunition

7.  German government again promised that U-boats would warn ships before attacking after sinking the French passenger ship Sussex  Within a year, Germany violates the pledge by resuming unrestricted submarine warfare  They knew this could get the US involved, but they wanted to beat Great Britain before a US entry

8.  Wilson barely wins based on his slogan “He kept us out of war”  Unfortunately, for those that believed in that slogan, the US declared war against the Central Powers in 1917

9.  British revealed contents of an intercepted German telegram  Germany made a secret offer to Mexico  He tried to get Mexico in an alliance by tempting them with Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

12.  By 1917, Russia suffered 1.8 million killed, 2.4 million imprisoned, and 2.8 million sick/wounded  Germany and Austrian forces were deep in Russia  Russians poorly fed and not well equipped  Czar Nicholas II, Russia’s autocratic leader, forced to give-up power as Russian monarchy is replaced with a republican government  The US is now happy because we were too hesitant to ally with an autocratic czar  Many historians speculate that the US government was behind the revolution

13.  Socialism was growing in the US at this time and class conflict was intense – “why should we die in a war, just to make you richer?”