Daniel James 11/8/12 American History Essay There were many reasons that led to America joining the war. Wilson did his best to stay out of the war and reap the benefits from trading with both Germany and Great Britain, but it was inevitable that the United States would eventually have to join the war. Wilson knew that when he would be forced to join the war that he would have to get the public behind him in the war effort. This essay is going to be about what led up to the United States joining the war and how Wilson got the United States’ public’s support for the war after being forced to join it by the actions of the Germans. There were many things that led up to the United States joining the war. When German U-boats sunk the Lusitania which killed over 100 Americans, the United States was on the brink of joining the war. The Germans agreed to not sink merchant ships without warning in the Sussex Pledge, but that didn’t last. After a while, the Germans started back up their U-boat campaign and started sinking any ship in sight like they had been doing before.
After the sinking of the Lusitania it fired up the American people and many were determined to join the war. Wilson continued to do his best to keep the United States neutral. Wilson’s attempt would end up being futile when the Germans attacked innocent Americans, once again. The Germans sank multiple American merchant ships when they jump started their U-boat campaign again. This was the last straw for the American people, and Wilson was forced to join the war.
After Wilson was forced to join the Great War, he had to find a way to get all of the American public behind the war effort. He would do this many different ways throughout the rest of the war. Because of Russia’s recent overthrow of their czar and creation of a new democratic government, he now had an excuse to join the war. Wilson claimed that the war was to “make the world safe for democracy.” Wilson said that if we did not join that democracy would be crushed in the west, but if we joined we could restore democracy and continue to spread the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Wilson’s second claim that this was “the war to end all wars.” He thought that this should be the final international conflict. Finally, Wilson set up the Committee of Public Information which was designed for the single purpose of distributing propaganda throughout the United States. He could not get the