United States Enters the War
On 6 April 1917, the United States Congress declared war on Germany following President Woodrow Wilson's address citing Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram offering Mexico an alliance to recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Wilson had won re-election in 1916 on a platform of keeping America out of the war, but the sinking of neutral and American shipping by German U-boats made continued neutrality untenable. American entry transformed the economic and manpower balance decisively against the Central Powers, even though the first significant American combat formations did not arrive in France until mid-1918. The eventual arrival of nearly two million 'doughboys' under General Pershing, combined with the Allied offensives of 1918, broke German resistance. Wilson also reshaped the war's moral purpose, reframing it as a crusade for democracy and self-determination, articulated in his Fourteen Points in January 1918.
- Year: 1917 CE
- Category: Political
