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Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I by early August. The assassin – Gavrilo Princip – was a member of a Bosnian Serb nationalist group seeking to unite territories containing ethnic Serbs under Serbia's control.
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Wilson was firmly opposed to war, and believed that the key aim was to ensure peace, not only for the United States but across the world. “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men’s souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”
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The Lusitania was a British luxury cruise ship. At one point in 1907, it held the title as the largest ship in the world. It mostly traveled across the Atlantic Ocean between Britain and the United States carrying passengers and cargo. The ship was 787 feet long and could carry 3,048 passengers and crew. The death of so many innocent civilians at the hands of the Germans galvanized American support for entering the war, which eventually turned the tide in favor of the Allies.
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Germany announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare. British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Minister to Mexico, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. Wilson decided to enter the war so that he could help design the peace settlement. Wilson viewed the war as an opportunity to destroy German militarism.
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The U.S. entered World War I because Germany embarked on a deadly gamble. Germany sank many American merchant ships around the British Isles which prompted the American entry into the war. Wilson cited Germany’s violation of its pledge to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as its attempts to entice Mexico into an alliance against the United States, as his reasons for declaring war.
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CPI established to mobilize public opinion behind World War I. In response to the U.S. entry into World War I in an attempt to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort with every available form of mass communication. One section of CPI coordinated work abroad, and another section oversaw work on the home front. In delivering its message to such groups, the CPI sought to make every American a participant in the war effort.
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Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which created a national draft. The act required all men ages 21 to 30 to register for military service at local polling stations. This was the first time the U.S. government had established a draft before entering a war. Within a few months, some 10 million men across the country had registered in response to the military draft.
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Congress enacted the Espionage Act of 1917 on June 15, two months after the United States entered World War I. Prohibited spying, interfering with the draft and statements that could aid America's enemies or interfere with its military operations. The Court held that the Espionage Act did not violate the First Amendment and was an appropriate exercise of Congress' wartime authority.
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The first American troops, who were often called "Doughboys," landed in Europe in June 1917. However the AEF did not participate at the front until October 21, 1917, when the 1st Division fired the first American shell of the war toward German lines, although they participated only on a small scale.
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The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. Wilson's attempts to gain acceptance of his Fourteen Points ultimately failed after France and Britain refused to adopt some specific points and its core principles, although they tried to appease the American president by consenting to the establishment of his League of Nations.
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Today, a century after the outbreak of World War I, the Second Battle of the Marne is considered the pivotal battle of the First World War, as Allied troops blunted the German advance and started the counteroffensive that would ultimately win the war. Dubbed the Second Battle of the Marne, the conflict ended several days later in a major victory for the Allies.
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The Paris Peace Conference was an international meeting convened in January 1919 at Versailles just outside Paris. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the terms of the peace after World War. Diplomats from more than two dozen countries gathered in Paris for a conference to discuss how to end the war permanently and the conference lasted a little over a year.
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In the face of Wilson's continued unwillingness to negotiate, the Senate on November 19, 1919, for the first time in its history, rejected a peace treaty. Senators feared that U.S. involvement in the League of Nations would mean that American troops might be sent into Europe and settle European disputes. Senate Majority Leader Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican from Massachusetts, opposed the treaty, specifically the section regarding the League of Nations.
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“All of the men knew what the silence meant, but nobody shouted or threw his hat in the air.” With the United States able to send more and more fresh troops into combat, the Germans were outmatched. As Germany’s allies crumbled around them as well, the war’s outcome seemed clear.
