Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan for the election of 1916 was “He kept us out of war.” After two and a half years of isolationism, President Woodrow Wilson finally gave up trying to keep America out of World War One and the United States entered World War One on April 6, 1917. President Wilson realized that America could not just sit back and watch as World War One played out. There were several reasons that caused America to declare war on Germany, three of which were: Germany’s submarine warfare policy, American economic interests and Allied propaganda.
One of the reasons that caused America to declare war on Germany was Germany’s use of unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany’s inability to achieve success on land and on the sea versus Britain caused them to resort to unrestricted submarine warfare (Murphy132). On February 18, 1915, Germany’s announcement of attacking any commerce ships that were trading with Britain enraged America (Murphy140). This act from Germany became the starting point of provoking America to enter into World War One. America feared for the safety of their commerce ships that were trading with Britain. On May 7, 1915, began a series of events that provokes the United States to enter World War One; the British liner Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat, killing more than one hundred Americans (Murphy148). This event outraged America, but not to the extent of declaring war on Germany until the channel streamer Sussex was torpedoed