WWI: USA enters the war

1917. World War I is in its third year. In Western Europe, Germany is at war with France and Great Britain. The border between them, we call the Western Front. The countries on both sides try everything they have to break their enemy, but neither side is strong enough to beat the other one.

Great Britain tries to weaken Germany by starving them. Great Britain has the world's largest navy. They are superior on the sea, and can easily control the oceans with their war ships. With the help of their navy, they can stop all ships that transport food and other supplies to Germany. The British blockade of the seas causes a vast shortage of food in Germany -- for soldiers as well as for ordinary people.

Germany's response to this is to use submarines, or U boats. With the help of submarines they can sink as many ships as they possibly can. This way, the Germans are trying to starve Great Britain and France. But they also sink ships on route between Europe and the USA. And thousands of Americans die.

Many people in the US are upset. More and more think that they too, ought to enter the war, and help the Brits and the French to beat Germany. Great Britain and France have bought weapons and borrowed vast amounts of money from the United States to be able to fight Germany. If they were to lose the war then the Americans would lose a lot of money. Germany realises that they cannot win the war if the United States joins in.

So they figure it ought to be good if the Americans were so busy in their own backyard that they weren't able to send any soldiers to Europe. What the Germans need is a war in America! During the 19th century the United States had taken over large parts of what was previously Mexico. Now, Germany tries to get Mexico to go to war against the USA, and take back some of the land it lost. The plan is to keep the USA busy and prevent it from joining the fight against Germany.

But the German plan is exposed, and this eventually triggers the USA to join the war against Germany. The reasons for the USA to join the war are: That German submarines have killed thousands of Americans out on the Atlantic. That the United States has lent a lot of money to France and Great Britain; if Germany wins the war, then the Americans will lose all that money. That Germany tries to trigger a new war by getting Mexico to attack the United States. Already in the beginning of 1917 the exhausted German army suffers from lack of food, weapons...

and by no means least - soldiers. When the United States enters the war, Germany's enemies on the Western Front are completely superior. Germany struggles, despite its hopeless situation, for another year after the USA has joined the war. Then eventually, on the 11th of November 1918, it is forced to surrender. The opposing forces were simply too powerful for the exhausted Germany.