World War I American Participation - Admission/Application Essay Example

World War I: American Participation. The European alliance system of mutual military assistance was a major cause of World War I. The belligerents at the outbreak of the War were the Allies: Great Britain, France and Russian and the Central Powers: Germany, Austro-Hungary and Turkey. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed American neutrality, declaring that America must be “neutral in fact, as well as in name” (Mooney, 101). A British naval blockade was imposed on the Central Powers. In the attempt “to starve the whole population” (102) of Germany, Great Britain impounded food carried by neutral ships as contraband.

Despite this misinterpretation of ‘contraband,’ Wilson accepted the British blockade. American trade with, and loans to, the allies increased exponentially. American neutrality became a farce as “The USA became virtually a European warehouse, from which munitions, food and other vital raw materials flowed in an increasing stream” (103). While America provided massive economic aid to the Allies, Wilson condemned Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare. In 1915, the British passenger liner, the Lusitania, with a cargo hold filled with contraband war supplies, was sunk by a German submarine.

128 Americans died, igniting public opinion to enter the war against Germany. As Britain tightened her naval blockade, Germany reneged from her pledge to restrict submarine warfare. Wilson declared, “This means war” (106). The last straw was the Zimmerman telegram, in which Germany offered Mexico the territory lost in the Mexican-American War in return for military assistance against America in the World War. In April 1917, the USA declared war on Germany, to “make the world safe for democracy” (106).

In 1917, Russia’s Great October Revolution overthrew the Russian Provisional Government, leading to the Russian Civil War and the formation of the USSR. The Bolsheviks made a separate peace with the Central Powers. American troops fought in the Western Front in 1918 as the American Expeditionary Force AEF under General John J. Pershing. Germany sued for peace and on 11 November, 1918 the Armistice called a halt to the war. The victorious allies, the USA, Great Britain, France and Italy, met at the Versailles Peace Conference to “settle the war and divide the spoils” (110).

Wilson was keen that “American influence should play a predominant role in shaping the peace” (110) and that his idealistic Fourteen Points should form the basis of the peace accord. However, Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and his call for national self-determination, were rejected by the other Allied leaders, who debated America’s right to shape the peace settlement. Wilson was forced to compromise on his Fourteen Points, but succeeded in retaining the formation of the League of Nations to secure "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small nations alike.

" Ironically, America did not join the League.Wilson gave in to the other allies and accepted the inclusion of Article 231: the War Guilt Clause, in the Treaty of Versailles. According to this clause, Germany lost her overseas colonies, a significant part of her prewar territories and undertook “to pay enormous reparations to the allies” (112). The Germans, who had agreed to the armistice trusting in Woodrow Wilson’s assurance of “a mild, equitable settlement” (112), felt a sense of betrayal by America.

Finally, the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles became the major contributory factor for the rebirth of German nationalism and the outbreak of WW II.