America Declares War

When the war began between the European countries, President Wilson had declared the neutrality of the United States of America. President Wilson said,” We must be impartial in thought as well as in action.” This was very difficult for the countries citizens though, considering all the immigration that had occurred prior to the outbreak of war. The different citizens residing in the U.S. supported their land of birth. The United States was able to remain neutral for more than 2 years. Both the British and German used propaganda to appeal to the United States. The most convincing propaganda came from the British, slightly swaying the U.S. towards them. Many government officials, such as Robert Lansing (chief advisor of the Secretary of State Jennings Bryan who had chosen neutrality), supported Britain. Britain also cut off the new feed between the U.S. and themselves; by doing so, Americans only knew what the Britain’s wanted them to know.

Tensions began to stir between the U.S. and Germany due to the fact that Germans where attacking U.S. cruise ships, specifically the Lusitania. This occurred on May 7^th, 1915; the German submarine killed almost 1,200 passengers, this action made the U.S. angry but not enough to declare war on them. Germany made the Sussex Pledge, which was the agreement of Germany to the U.S. to not sink anymore merchant ships without warning. Despite the peace efforts, on January 1917 the “Zimmerman telegram” was intercepted and reported to the U.S. It stated that Germany promised Mexico to give back the land the U.S. had taken from them. This made the United States angry but did not declare war at that moment. Germany continued to sink U.S. ships until Wilson requested that Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2^nd, 1917.