Why Did the US Enter WW1: 10 Reasons to Explain History’s Most Important Military Intervention

Why Did the US Enter WW1: 10 Reasons to Explain History’s Most Important Military Intervention

 

The First World War, to put it bluntly, was an absolute waste. It resulted from the unworkable entanglement of a barbed web of European alliances, a series of catastrophic diplomatic disasters, and a chauvinistic and utterly vacuous display of the ‘my dreadnought battle cruiser’s much better than yours’ ilk from two of the world’s leading superpowers. Most disheartening of all, though, was that the war was as inevitable as it was pointless.

 

The war began on 28 July 1914, yet it would not

be until 6 April 1917 that the US came to the aid of the Allies. This historical curiosity requires some explaining. Firstly, the incumbent president Woodrow Wilson seemed to be taking George Washington’s ‘why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground’ mantra as gospel. The son of a Presbyterian, and a man whose academic background shaped his personal philosophy of pacifism, Wilson advocated a position of isolationism and neutrality ‘in thought and deed’. Secondly, there was little appetite for war among America’s immigrant population; Irish, German and Swedish Americans had little to gain from getting involved in the struggles of their ancestral countrymen and far less to gain from creating new frictions in the new largely world.

 

Lack of volition, therefore, explains why the US took so long to join the war. But it does not explain why, after so many years of staunch adherence to a policy of neutrality or, at best, preparedness, the US finally entered. This articles has compiled a thematically complete list of reasons to explain the US’ intervention. It can’t claim to be comprehensive, but hopefully it will provide the lay reader with a solid overview, and the specialist with some interesting and previously unknown information.