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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
After the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, countries across Europe were shocked with the news. Shortly after, Austria-Hungary declared war of Serbia but since Russia had an alliance with Serbia they decided to get involved in the war also. On the other hand, Germany was allied to Austria-Hungary, so they declared war against Russia. And to entangle this even more, Russia was allied with Britain and France, so they were also brought into the war. While this was happening, -
WW1 begins and the United State's reaction
After WW1 began, President Wilson made a neutrality speech stating that the U.S. would stay away from any entanglements from the war by not choosing a side. By doing this, the U.S. knew that they could sell supplies to both sides that would leave them a big profit. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
The British passenger liner Lusitania was torpedoed by the Germans where 1,198 lives were lost, 128 being American. Americans were outraged, some more than others, that they called the event a “mass murder” and a “piracy”. Eastern Americans were the most enraged with the tragic event that they were willing to go to war, but the rest of the country didn’t want to go into a war that was on the complete opposite side of the world. -
Arabic Pledge
After the Lusitania was sunk by the Germans, Berlin agreed to no longer sink any unarmed and unresisting passenger ships without warning. -
Pancho Villa's raids in Mexico
Some people considered Pancho Villa the Robin Hood of Mexico, while others considered him a bandit. Villa had a rivalry with the President of Mexico, Venustiano Carranza that he decided to challenge him and punish the Americans at the same time. To do so, he killed sixteen young American mining engineers in Mexico. As if this wasn’t enough, Villa wanted to provoke a war between Carranza and Wilson, so he crossed the border over to New Mexico and killed nineteen innocent Americans. -
Sussex Pledge
After the Germans torpedoed the French passenger steamer the Sussex, leaving two Americans dead, Wilson decided to sign a document with the Germans where they would pledge that they wouldn’t sink any merchant ships without warning. Germany agreed, but with many strings the U.S. wasn’t aware of. Wilson came to an agreement with them but without the strings. Germany was able to pull the strings whenever they wanted, and this is what eventually pushed the U.S. into war. -
"He kept us out of war"
When Wilson was running for his second term as the President of the U.S., he used the slogan “he kept us out of war” because for the past four years the U.S. had stayed out of the World War and if they were to elect Hughes, they would be electing war. -
Resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
After Wilson made his speech declaring the United State’s neutrality, the Germans announced that they were going back to unrestricted submarine warfare which meant they were going to sink all ships, including American ships. Though Germany wasn’t fighting with the U.S. the Germans were tired of fighting and wanted the war to end. So the easiest way to end it was if they just attacked everybody evenly. -
Zimmermann Note
The German foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, proposed a secret German-Mexican alliance that would help the Mexicans get Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back. The message ended up in the wrong hands and the Americans became furious once they found out. Not only Mexico was going to try to take back what used to be their lands but also Germany was going to get involved. -
Russian Revolution
When the Russians began having their revolution they were able to overthrow the Russian tsar. After this, the Allies could fight evenly against the Central Power’s emperors with democracy since all of the Allies had democracy in their country.
