1. TAKS Practice
What nation’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare on American ships led to the United States' entry into World War I? 
A. Mexico    
B.  France    
C.  Germany    
D.  Great Britain  

2. TEKS Objective
4(E) analyze the impact of significant technological innovations in World War I such as machine guns, airplanes, tanks, poison gas, and trench warfare that resulted in the stalemate on the Western Front;

3. World War I
US Enters the War

4. What do you think might be problems from this action by Germany?
The Blockades
The German Navy responded to the British actions with a blockade of their own.
The Germans announced they would use their U-boats to sink any ship found in British waters
What do you think might be problems from this action by Germany?

5. 128 Americans were killed when the Germans sank the Lusitania
This “passenger” ship was carrying a cargo of ammunition for British rifles.
American neutrality was put to the test in May 1915, when the German submarine U-20 sank the British luxury liner Lusitania, which was carrying 1200 passengers. The German embassy had warned Americans that Allied vessels in the war zone were fair targets. Wilson accused the Germans of brutality, demanded that they stop submarine warfare, and refused to ban American passengers from sailing on Allied vessels.

6. The Sinking of the Lusitania
German warning the Lusitania might be attacked
Bowing to US pressure, on May 4, 1916, Germany issued the Sussex pledge, which promised passenger ships would not be sunk;

7. Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats
31 January Germany announces it would resume its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare
In March 25% of all Britain-bound shipping was sunk
The campaign was initially a great success, nearly 500,000 tons of shipping being sunk in both February and March, and 860,000 tons in April, when Britain's supplies of wheat shrank to 6 weeks worth.

8. The Zimmerman Telegram
Then in February, the British revealed the contents of the "Zimmermann Telegram," proposing a German-Mexican alliance under which Mexico would recover all the territory it had lost to the U.S. in the 1840s. Wilson began arming merchant ships.
Do you believe Mexico would have considered this offer?

9. On 2 April 1917 Wilson asks Congress for a declaration of War against Germany.

10. America Mobilizes
May 1917 Congress passed the Selective Service Act which created a draft for military service. Almost 3 million men were called up to serve.

11. America Turns the Tide
Vice Admiral William Sims convinced Brits to use a Convoy System- where destroyers escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic.

12. US Navy
To speed the building of ships, the navy adopted prefabrication techniques—in one day the US launched 95 ships
The US Navy also helped contain U-Boats by laying a 230 mile barrier of mines from Scotland to Norway

13. Lafayette, We are here!
By the time the American troops arrived in substantial numbers in the spring of 1918, British and French units had endured more than three years of increasingly costly trench warfare. The American Expeditionary force began to arrive in France in large numbers by October 1917.
The commander of the AEF was John J. “Black Jack” Pershing
American infantrymen were called “Doughboys”!

14. The Spring Offensive
With the defeat of Russia in December 1917, Germany was able to move much of its Eastern forces to France.
On 21 March 1918 the Germans launched the Spring Offensive. Within a few days, the Germans moved to within 75 miles of Paris.
On 28 March US troops were committed to the front.
At Belleau Wood US Marines drove back five German Divisions as they neared Paris

15. The Hundred Days
The LAST Allied counteroffensive, known as the Battle of Argonne Forest, began on 8 August 1918
It involved 414 tanks and 120,000 men. They advanced 7 miles in one day.
Soon the Allies were pushing the Germans back all along the front.
On November 11, 1918 an
Armistice was declared.

16. Alvin York
Armed with a rifle and a revolver, York and six soldiers under his command captured 132 Germans, killed 25, and captured several guns.
For his acts of heroism he was promoted to Sergeant and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor
York had sought exemption as a conscientious objector-opposing war on moral grounds

17. African Americans
More than 350,000 African Americans served in segregated units during World War I, mostly as support troops.
369th ("Harlem's Hellfighters") saw more continuous duty than any other US unit. Two of its members, Henry Johnson and Needham Roberts received France’s Highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre

18. Germany signs an armistice.
11 a.m., November 11, 1918
Germany signs an armistice.
The War is Over!

19. The Butcher’s Bill

21. The Numbers Total military deaths numbered 12 million
Civilian deaths were over 10 million
Approximately 20 million soldiers were wounded
Almost 10 million became refugees
Economic costs for the war exceeded $338 billion

22. The Somme American Cemetery, France
includes 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 non combat deaths
116,516 Americans Died