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Americans debated for two and a half years about joining the war. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson said the United States would stay neutral, because many Americans were immigrants from countries of both the Central Powers and the Allies. They disagreed over which countries had started the war and which countries should be supported by America, so Wilson urged Americans not to take sides.
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In June of 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was shot and killed by assassins in order to gain land. This led to Germany attacking Belgium and France in August 1914.
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Russia mobilizes its vast army to intervene against Austria-Hungary in favor of its ally, Serbia. This move starts a chain reaction that leads to the mobilization of the rest of the European Great Powers, and inevitably to the outbreak of hostilities.
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The Germans fire shells filled with chlorine gas at Allied lines. This is the first time that large amounts of gas are used in battle, and the result is the near-collapse of the French lines. However, the Germans are unable to take advantage of the breach.
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German U-boats, or submarines, sunk ships going between England and America. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat sank the Lusitania, a British passenger ship sailing off the coast of Ireland. More than 100 Americans were killed. The Germans said they had put warnings in American newspapers telling passengers to stay off ships heading to the war zone. Germany also said the Lusitania had been carrying war supplies for England.
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Reacting to international outrage at the sinking of the Lusitania and other neutral passenger lines, Kaiser Wilhelm suspends unrestricted submarine warfare. This is an attempt to keep the United States out of the war, but it severely hampers German efforts to prevent American supplies from reaching France and Britain.
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The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood. Although they are useful at breaking through barbed wire and clearing a path for the infantry, tanks are still primitive and they fail to be the decisive weapon, as their designers thought they would be.
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In January of 1917, Germany didn't think the United States was prepared to join the war.
German leader, sent a telegram to Mexico asking the country to start a border war with the United States. In return, Germany would get back Mexican land that had become Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The English got a copy of the telegram, broke the secret code and sent the information to Wilson.
The telegram was put in the U.S. newspapers, showing that Germany was America's enemy. -
After the Zimmermann Telegram, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917. Wilson said the United States must go to war because the world “must be made safe for democracy.” War was officially declared against Germany on April 6, 1917.
World War I involved all Americans. The government set goals for manufacturing, farming, transportation and selecting men for the military. -
Congress passes the Selective Service Act authorizing the draft. Although criticized for destroying democracy at home while fighting for it abroad, President Wilson claims he sees no other option and signs the bill into law.
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The Germans sign a peace treaty with the new Bolshevik government of Russia. The terms of the treaty give Germany huge tracts of land that had been the Ukraine and Poland, and peace on the Eastern Front allows Germany to shift soldiers to the Western Front, causing serious problems for the French, British, and Americans.
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The Battle of Cantigny is the first major American offensive of the war. Though small in scale, the Americans fight bravely and soon go on to larger attacks against German positions.
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The Americans attack the Germans at Chateau-Thierry. This battle would morph into the larger Battle of Belleau Wood.
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The Battle of Belleau Wood begins as the U.S. Marine Corps attacks the Germans across an open field of wheat, suffering huge casualties.The Battle of Belleau Wood ends with the final expulsion of the Germans from the wood, which marks the farthest German advance on Paris. The area has changed hands six times during the three-week battle, which has caused nearly 10,000 American casualties.
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The Battle of St. Mihiel begins when 300,000 American troops under the direct command of General Pershing fling themselves into the German lines.
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Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates, ending all German hope for a victory. He and his retinue quietly slip over the border into the Netherlands where he lives out the remainder of his life in relative peace and writes a self-promoting memoir defending his actions in the war.
