During the early stage of world war I, America was in a tight tension with Germany because of the Zimmerman Telegram that Germany sent to Mexico which got intercepted by US and decoded. The telegram asked Mexico to be allies with Germany so that when they win the war, Germany promise to give back the land that US took from Mexico such as Texas and arizona, back to Mexico. US were already in favor of the Great British and France so Germany had reason to go against USA. The sinking of the Lusitania was the on of the major sparks that gave American the reason to declare war on Germany because the ship was meant to carry passengers from New York to Britain, but Germany’s U boat nevertheless decided to sunk the ship down that gave the US determination to get involved in this overseas war.
One thought on “Many Reasons to go to War”
Comments are closed.
I honestly think that the United States was looking for a reason to go to war. Wilson wanted to go to war, but because of his anti-war presidential campaign he refrained from ventured out to Europe. However, once the Lusitania was hit I think Wilson started having an excuse to go to war. Many ships were being sunken, but not many of them were American. Most were ships that happened to carry American passengers. In addition, we were given warnings to stay away. It is not as if we were attacked for no reason, but rather we were told to stay out of those waters.
Once the Zimmerman note was intercepted the thought of America being attacked started to really gain some ground. Mexico was sharing a border with the US, and it would be extremely easy to attack us. I think that Wilson got scared that the war became a reality, and he decided to send troops to Europe. Before the note was intercepted, the war felt very far away. The fighting was taking place overseas, and America was not in harm’s way. The Zimmerman note was a message to Wilson stating that the war is everywhere. The sinking of the ship alone didn’t seem to be such a big push to go to war, but when combined with the threat of Mexico entering into a war with us, Wilson decided to enter World War 1. US really helped gives the Allies the spark they needed and changed the fate of the war.