1. Aim: Did the US make the right choice to intervene in WW1?

2. The US and Isolationism
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”
George Washington, 1796 Farewell Address

3. So what happened? Why wait three years?
July Crisis – July 1914
Stalemate by Fall 1914
Woodrow Wilson elected US president, 1912, 1916: “He kept us out of war!”
US enters the war on the side of the Allies, April 1917

4. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare: Germany’s Unterseeboot

5. The Sinking of the Lusitania: May, 1915

6. Moving Closer: The Sussex Case
“...I have deemed it my duty, therefore, to say to the Imperial German Government, that if it is still its purpose to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines, notwithstanding the now demonstrated impossibility of conducting that warfare in accordance with what the Government of the United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue; and that unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether.”
Woodrow Wilson, May 1916
What Was the Sussex Pledge?:
The Sussex Pledge was a promise given by the German Government to the United States of America on May 4th 1916 in response to US demands relating to the conduct of the First World War.
What Did It Pledge?:
Germany promised to alter their naval and submarine policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships. Instead, Merchant Ships would be searched and sunk only if they contained contraband, and then only after safe passage had been provided for the crew and passengers.
Why Was The Sussex Pledge Issued?:
On March 24th 1916 a German submarine in the English Channel attacked what it thought was a minelaying ship. It was actually a French passenger steamer called 'The Sussex' and, although it didn't sink and limped into port, fifty people were killed. Several Americans were injured and, on April 19th, the US President (Woodrow Wilson) addressed Congress on the issue. He gave an ultimatum: Germany should end attacks on passenger vessels, or face America 'breaking off' diplomatic relation

7. The final straw: The Zimmerman Telegram
"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in a few months to make peace."
Signed, ZIMMERMANN
Foreign Secretary of the German Government (Arthur Zimmer)

8. Did Wilson make the right choice?
$185,533,637,000 (equivalent to $3,900,473,000,000 today)
4,350,000 soldiers drafted
Approximately 100,000 American soldiers dead, 200,000 wounded, 4500 missing
Unpopular on the Home Front
The Central Powers lose
US becomes a major world power for the first time
US lends lots of money out to foreign powers so it becomes an international creditor