Question

Summarize the transformation of the United States from a position of neutrality to engagement in ww1 including the Zimmerman note, U.S. banks and the threats to international trade caused by unrestricted submarine warfare.

Answer 1

As war raged in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson argued that the United States should remain neutral in this conflict, urging Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as in action.” Given the distance between the United States and Europe, Americans readily embraced Wilson’s neutral stance.
Both Germany and Britain violated U.S. neutral maritime rights, as Wilson strictly defined them, but German submarine warfare seemed more ruthless, particularly with the sinking of the Lusitania, a British passenger liner, in 1915. American trade with the Allies tripled to $3 billion a year between 1914 and 1916 and helped economic recovery in the United States. Both Germany and Britain violated U.S. neutral maritime rights, as Wilson strictly defined them, but German submarine warfare seemed more ruthless, particularly with the sinking of the Lusitania. American trade with the Allies tripled to $3 billion a year between 1914 and 1916 and helped economic recovery in the United States. Wilson offered to mediate a peace; but both sides refused. Wilson severed diplomatic relations on 3 February. American public opinion was also inflamed by the Zimmermann note, in which Germany sought a military alliance with Mexico against the United States. When submarines sank three American merchant ships, Wilson abandoned temporary armed neutrality and decided to take the United States into the war, in part because his strict accountability policy had failed and in part because he wanted the United States to help shape a treaty for peace.