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Global Causes
Though you don’t need to know the global causes of World War I for the exam, it helps to know them just to give the U.S. entry into the war some context. The long-term causes were militarism, or the glorification of war and the buildup of weapons; alliances among European countries; imperialism, or competition over colonies; and nationalism, which involved ethnic groups living in multinational empires wanting to have their own sovereign nations. World War I began officially with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne. This quickly led to the alliance systems being implemented, quickly pulling all the major countries of Europe into the war once it began in 1914; the Allies (England, France, and Russia) fought the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) on two fronts. On the Western front, French and English allies fought Germans and Austro-Hungarians, and on the Eastern front, Russians fought Germans and Austro-Hungarians. The United States declared itself neutral.
Causes for U.S. Involvement
Though World War I began in 1914, the United States didn’t become officially involved until 1917 due to its tradition of isolationism, or staying out of other countries’ business. Eventually, however, three major developments wore the United States down. The first was unrestricted submarine warfare. Germans were sinking ships in British waters. While America thought it wouldn’t be impacted because it wasn’t involved in the war, the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger ship that carried 128 Americans, made it clear that Americans weren’t safe.
The second cause for U.S. involvement in the war was the Zimmermann Telegram. This telegram was from the German foreign minister to the German ambassador in Mexico and was intercepted by British agents who presented the information to the United States in February 1917. It proposed an alliance between Mexico and Germany and promised that if war broke out with the United States, Germany would give Mexico territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. When the American press published the news in March 1917, it enraged Americans as it implied that Germany might use Mexico as a base for provoking an attack on the United States.
The third cause for U.S. involvement was President Wilson’s desire to “make the world safe for democracy,” which he spoke about in his war resolution. The Central Powers were all monarchies or empires, so defeating them would allow for the spread of democracy. Congress declared war on April 6, 1917.
U.S. Involvement in the War
About a month after Congress had declared war, it passed the Selective Service Act, which authorized the President to temporarily increase the military by requiring men to register with the government to be randomly selected for military service (a draft). The first American soldiers landed in France in June 1917, commanded by General John J. Pershing, but they needed training before being sent to war. In early 1918, Germany launched an offensive on the Western front, and, in September, the American Expeditionary Forces were sent to the front to reinforce Allied troops. Their principal engagement in the fighting was the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which included the Battle of Argonne Forest in France. As a result of this battle and the influx of American troops and weapons, the Allies won as Austria-Hungary surrendered and Germany agreed to a ceasefire in early November 1918.
Postwar Negotiations
President Wilson was actively involved in the postwar negotiations. Even before the war was over, he had presented his plan to achieve world peace after the war in a speech called the Fourteen Points. He asserted that the treaty to end the war should be a “peace without victors,” meaning that it should address the causes of the war, not punishments for the defeated. Some of the main points included: no secret treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, and a general reduction of arms. Most notably, the Fourteen Points called for self-determination, meaning that groups who claimed distinct ethnic identities were to form their own nation-states or decide for themselves to which nations they would belong. Also notable was the creation of an international organization to address diplomatic crises, called the League of Nations.
Unfortunately, the other Allied leaders involved in the peace negotiations had their own ideas, and Wilson’s idealistic plans weren’t included in the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which was focused on punishing Germany. In contrast to Britain and France, the United States hadn’t really lost much: no battles were fought on U.S. soil, U.S. troops were involved in combat for only about six months, and Americans didn’t feel the need to protect themselves from Germany, as the Atlantic Ocean separated it from Europe.
The British and French had lost much more due to four years of involvement in the war, fought mostly on French soil. As a result, they wanted a punitive (punishing) treaty that would blame Germany for everything. The Treaty included a war guilt clause, proclaiming that Germany was responsible for the war; barred Germany from maintaining an army; and imposed reparations (fines for war damages) for Germany, which had to pay $33 billion to the Allies. Other provisions were the creation of nine new countries, and the gift of mandates to France and Great Britain (temporary colonies taken from the Ottoman Empire). The Treaty did, however, include one idea from the Fourteen Points by creating a League of Nations.
The United States neither ratified the Treaty of Versailles nor joined the League of Nations. The Senate’s main concern was with the charter for the League of Nations. Article X of the charter provided for joint economic and military action against any aggressor, and this might violate Congress’s ability to choose whether to enter a war.
