Holly Keating Prompt: Assess the role of the United States in World War I.

It is human nature to be involved in conflict, an impulse to smooth and fix as well as escalate the situation; World War 1 can reasonably be considered the first most major conflict of humanity. The involvement of the United States in WWI, though internally rebuked, was inevitable as it advanced from isolationism to full on trench-war fare, and its progressive addition to the war more than tipped the scales in favor of the Allied Powers. For the past hundred years or so, the U.S had maintained an isolationism concept through the Monroe Doctrine, it stayed out of Europes affairs unless they were engaged in the western hemisphere (which WWI was not) so when the war began, it was only natural the U.S continued its policy. President Wilson was a strong advocate of noninvolvement; his campaign basis for second term was that He kept us out of the war. The public was spurred. They were also pressured by fear, they had a lot to lose for the United States was thriving and the major concern was economic - Europe would dominate the U.S economy and the victor of the war would dominate the globe, colonizing and controlling the seas. The refusal of a strong power participation in WWI allowed for a seemingly equal playing field but in the beginning the Allied powers were more than struggling. As politics progressed, they more and more began to affect the mindset of the Americans and the U.S began to get more and more involved. Soon enough the idea of United States isolationists turned into passive involvement. They sent ammunition and food supplies during the war of attrition, as well as monetary contributions, and occasionally aided in medicinally. Then events turned treacherous, such as the sinking of the Lusitania and the German defiling of the Sussex pledge, which encouraged full U.S involvement. With fresh reinforcements on the battlefield and the waters, things turned around of the Allies. Not to mention the change in alliance of Italy. The central powers were out numbered and began diminishing. German forces were demoralized at the thought of more years fighting the same battle ground against new and more numerous foes. And though they made final pushes toward the Anglo-French soldiers who had been

baring the brunt of the war, the German forces sputtered and the American forces began creating in astronomical casualties. By now the war had been won. Evenly matched in the western theater, the Germans and Anglo-French forces were in a stale mate. But in the east, in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the chaos allowed for Germany to wage war in two theaters. This was the deciding point. Had the United States not gotten involved (more so then passively), the Germans very well could have merely sat in their perpetual stalemate trenches with the French and English, and the lead in the eastern front against Russia would have won them the war.