To what extent was the US intervention responsible for the defeat of Germany in the First World War

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To what extent was the US intervention responsible for the defeat of Germany in the First World War

When war erupted in 1914, the United States decided to remain neutral , this was the case in the early years of the war where the US played no physical role in the war, but in 1917 America did finally join the ‘Great War’ and in doing so played a major role in the Allies becoming victorious while Germany was defeated with even more catastrophic losses than the Allies. The title is the question we are asking ourselves here, ‘Did the Allies emerge victorious, solely because of America’s intervention in WWI, or were there other factors to consider?’ Some points to consider are,- Germany was already beginning to weaken in 1915; The U-boat campaigns and the demoralising effect they had on soldier morale; Why America got involved; Exactly what did America’s intervention meant to the Germans and Germany’s defeat

Less than a year after the war had started, Germany already began to find itself in trouble. Plans made by German generals for a quick war were evaporated with the failure of the Schlieffen Plan which threw Germany into trench warfare and began the long road to what was ultimately failure.
By the beginning of 1915, the situation was definitely not in Germany’s favour. Statistics show that Germany had 90 divisions against the 108.5 Allied on the Western front and 78.5 German divisions against 93.5 Russian on the Eastern Front.
Falkenhayn and his troops seemed too busy helping Austria while the Allies had helped liberate France and thus began the problems – with the Germans in effect taking a step BACK with the French now free again!
Soon after the Battle of Verdun, the Allies launched their own offensive with 52 divisions at Somme. After two months of fighting, Germany’s line had only backed up six miles. With the offensives of Verdun and Somme, the casualties for both sides were over 600,000 with both sides losing almost the same number of people. The offensive was renewed in September on 1916. The Germans began to worry about the increasing number of Allied soldiers as well as the invention of the first tanks, a technology which the Germans had not pursued up until then. The somewhat loose grip Germany had on the war began to loosen even further.

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As well as fighting on land, naval battles ensued throughout the war, but not the way we are thinking. The naval race prior to the war had been a long exercise for naval supremacy with Britain leading the world with Germany snapping at its heels.
Because Britain was a small island that was pretty much isolated from other countries such as France etc, it had to have most of its food imported from abroad. The same couldn’t be said for Germany whom could afford to grow most of its own food at home but still needed foods sugar from abroad. ...

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