The USA and World War 1.

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In this essay I am writing about why the USA got involved with World War 1 and why they did not join the League of Nations. I am going to find what provoked the Americans to get involved with the war and who it was that provoked them to do so. I will also state what the Americans gained from World War 1.

One of the reasons that the USA got involved with the war was because the Germans sunk an American ship, which was shot by a Torpedo at about 2:15pm on the starboard side, about 1900 people died. Following this, is a brief description of what happened and how many peopled suffered from this brutal attack, and some might call it cowardly, and frankly I agree with them.

On 7 May 1915, the Lusitania was in the dangerous waters off the southern coast of Ireland. Although the Cunard Archives indicate that Captain Turner took the necessary precautions, other sources indicate the Captain failed to follow directives to sail in a zig-zagging fashion and did not travel these waters at top speed in order to conserve fuel. It should be noted, also, that no military escort was provided even though the Germans had been quite explicit in their threats against British shipping. At approximately 2:15pm a torpedo struck the Lusitania on the starboard side between the third and fourth funnels. This strike was followed by another explosion of uncertain origin. The Lusitania sank bow first, in a manner similar to the Titanic. Unlike the Titanic, however, the Lusitania's rapidity of sinking stopped people getting to the lifeboats but there were very few lifeboats on the ship anyway. Given the nature and design of the submarine, the German U-boat made no attempt to rescue anyone. Kapitanleutnant Schwieger noted in his diary that the ship would not last long, and that he could not fire another torpedo at the people trying to save themselves.
Following the sinking of the Lusitania, American public opinion began to turn against the Germans. The incident was the beginning of the end of unrestricted U-boat activity in the Atlanic.

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The Germans also planned to support Mexico so they could gain land from America and that made the Americans want to get involved in the war so the Germans could not help/make a Mexican Revolution. The Germans sent a ‘Zimmerman’ note to the Mexicans to say that they would help them if the Germans won the war, But luckily the Americans latched on to this quickly and went to help Britain against Germany.

The two other reasons that made America get involved with the war are both what we call a ‘long term cause.’ The first of those ...

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