Americas policy of Neutrality in the First World War

This paper looks into the neutrality of the United States of America and how it ended up being one of the participants of the war. It also discusses the various issues involved in the war which have shaped the history of the country and the world in general. The United States took more than two years before joining the First World War. During this time, the public opinion favored neutrality. The United States was enjoying trading with both the warring countries. Britain and France, on the other hand, received support from the Yankees, intellectuals and the people who had relatives or families in Britain. Among the most notable persons who showed support for the British side was Samuel Insull, a leader in Chicago who was an industrialist and had been born in England.

He funded propaganda campaigns against Germany, as well as supporting young people who wished to join the war on the British side by helping them join the Canadian military (Petersons, pp. At that time, Canada was a dominion of the British Empire. Several institutions proposed the use of other pacifistic solution instead of entering the war to support a side. This pursuit revealed the lack of preparedness and the inadequacy of the American troops. This led to Wilson signing several Acts with the aim of strengthening the country’s military system. In June 1916, the president signed the National Defense. The Act was on the expansion of the army and the National Guard. He also signed several legislations in August of the same year which was geared at strengthening the Navy. However, instead of intervening in the war, he demanded that the Germans issue an apology for the act and cease attacking water vessels using submarines without announcing.

Many people did not support the action and felt that the country should have intervened in the war. Among them was the former President Theodore Roosevelt who criticized the president’s action and supported participation in the war against Germans. In March 1916 the Germans attacked another vessel, a French passenger ship, Sussex and killed dozens of people who included several Americans. The United States responded by issuing threats to sever the diplomatic ties between the two countries. Meanwhile, in January 1917, the British had intercepted and deciphered a telegram message sent by Arthur Zimmerman, the then German Foreign minister addressing Heinrich von Eckhart, the then German Minister to Mexico. In the message, the foreign minister had proposed that Mexico should form an alliance with Germany in the war if the US joined the war on the side of the allies.

In return, Germany would help the country regain its territory which it had lost to America in the Mexican-American War. The country had lost Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico. Germany also wanted the country to convince Japan to join their side in the war. The French had also volunteered to help the Americans in their wars before. For example, the Lafayette Escadrille was a unit of French soldiers who worked for the American Field Service, driving their ambulances (Hall, pp. Preparation for the war Following the public outrage sparked by German’s use of submarine warfare and the Zimmerman Telegram, United States resolved to severe its diplomatic relationship with Germany. Consequently, the United States resolved to join the war against the Germans (Wilson, pp. In preparation for the war, the president attended a special session with the Congress and the Senate and asked the legislators to declare war against Germany.

Consequently, other troops were sent to France to aid the allied party. However, the American did not participate in the war in other areas beyond Europe. They only fought within France maintain independent control over their army which remained under the command of an American general. The war ended in more than a year later in November 1918. The Allied party was a victory. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I (1997): 45-83 Hall, James Norman, Charles Nordhoff, and Edgar G. Hamilton, eds. The Lafayette Flying Corps. Vol. Houghton Mifflin, (1920): 97-115 Peterson, H.