Transcript The US Joins WWI

The US Joins WWI
Divided Opinions, Step 1
• Originally the US declared itself neutral in WWI
• Different groups had different opinions about what
the US should do
• Your group will be assigned a question about
American views on WWI. Use page 583 to research
and answer the question
1. How did German and Irish immigrants view the war in
Europe?
2. Which groups of Americans were most likely to want to
support the allies?
3. What were the main arguments people gave to support
neutrality?
4. How did trade affect the U.S. attitude about the war?
Divided Opinions, Step 2
• In your second group, each person should go
over the question and answer from the
previous group
• Everybody should take notes
The US Enters the War
• Three events helped lead to US involvement in WWI
– The sinking of the Lusitania
• Britain blockaded Germany, preventing any supplies from
reaching them
• Germany responded by using submarines to sink any ships
bringing supplies to the allies
• The British ship Lusitania was sunk, killing 128 Americans
– The Zimmermann Note
• Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the US,
angering Americans
– The Russian Monarchy is overthrown
• This allows Americans supportive of the war to argue that it was
a conflict of democracies against oppressive monarchies
• The US joined the war on the side of the allies in
April of 1917, 2 ½ years after the start of the war