More than 100,000 American lives have perished in the Great War, but even more lives other than Americans have perished. If it weren’t for the sacrifices of the American soldiers’ who knows what would have been the outcome of the Great War. When war broke out with the assassination of an heir in Austria-Hungary, Europe plunged into chaos but the United States decided to stay in the sidelines and be neutral among the fight. The public’s opinion on the War remained silent, but most Americans opposed the war.
Until events that eventually led them to the path that had them fight side to side with the Ally forces. As soon as the American forces landed on the European soil they made a huge difference in turning the tides of the battle, but it was not only the American soldiers that made an impact in the war. Although the war was not inevitable when the time came, America was prepared to fight.
To stand up against the forces that attack the American way of life.
When the news of war breaking out in Europe reached the United States, President Wilson declared neutrality and pursued a policy of non-intervention trying to avoid any conflict and to settle peace among the European nations. The public, until early 1917, opposed to any American intervention with the war. Even political parties opposed the war and only saw it as an act of stupidity. Especially the Democratic party along President Wilson stated that if the Republican party were to be selected for the house then war with Mexico and Germany would be unavoidable.
The Secretary of State decided to resign when the United States got involved in the war. The working class of the American citizens remained quiet when the war had started, due to them being hands full of trying to feed their families. The poor whites in the rural southern region spread among themselves that the rich man’s war meant a poor man’s fight and wanted nothing to do with it.
They defined the war as unholy and barbaric, but due to Germany’s blockade, Britain and this would affect the prices of the cotton market they would soon turn their faces of siding toward the intervention of the war. The majority of the mixed-race communities including German-American, Scandinavian-American and Irish-American, feared that the United States involvement in the war will bring a negative impact on them. The Irish community was strongly against in support of Britain after the uprising of Eastern Ireland in 1916. Though they stated they will remain loyal to the United States if they were to enter the war. Peace groups, mainly the religious groups, condemn the war and favored pacifistic solutions where the United States could broker a peace agreement without the need of picking up a weapon. Public figures and Pacifistic members started movements to see that the United States stay out of the war. Induristalist Henry Ford organized a group of antiwar members to travel to Europe to talk to diplomats in need of peace and to stop the war. He had hoped to gather up the European nations to a peace conference and to talk about stopping the war, but it was mocked by the press and never made it to Europe.
Even though it seemed like all was against in intervening the war, they eventually sought to land on European soil to fight in the war. The British Royal Navy had stopped most supply chain from reaching Germany. American Ships that traded with Germany at that time of war were intercepted and turned away by the British Royal Navy in regard to conflict with the Ally forces war efforts. This plan had seemed to work against Germany and soon they were running out of supplies to feed the soldiers. Eventually, the front line German soldiers were on the verge of starvation and were running out of essential supply. Germany had to come with something to fight against the plan of the British and they used the same tactics against them. But they were no match up against the powerful Royal Navy upfront. So they had come up with a plan to go unseen under the Royal Navy, which they came up with the U-Boats and they had torpedoed many ships without warning causing numerous casualties and among those casualties were the US personnel. The most famous sinking of a ship, the Lusitania, eventually led the US to speak up against German to respect the agreement of the freedom of the seas and they would hold them accountable if more ships with US passengers were shot down. But German saw this the only way to achieve victory against the British and to weaken the Ally forces, ignored the warnings.
By 1915 the United States had started preparing to see intervention in the war after the sightings of the sinking ships by German forces and this had a strong effect on the public as to seeing the deaths of Americans from the sinking of the ships. The United States had started to gather up resources to build a strong naval force to build up the Army in size. In 1917 to build up the Army the congress had passed the Selective Service Act and drafted 4 million men. Upon the grasp on victory German forces sought to end the fight by recruit Mexico. Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, sent a telegram to Mexico. Seeing that the United States would soon enter the fight against them. The German forces planned to use Mexico in an attempt to slow the exports of goods to the Ally forces in Europe and had promised Mexico to fund the costs to fight against the United States to help them recover the territory that was taken by the United States. Mexico considered the alliance with Germany, but they were in a Civil War at that time and even if they were to unite all the Mexcian forces they knew they were no match against the United States forces. Eventually, they backed out once the US knew of the telegram. The Zimmermann telegram was intercepted by the British Intelligence and presented this to the White House. President Wilson enraged by this decided to present this to the public and the public and the United States as a whole saw this as an act of war.
The United States eventually declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917. By the summer of 1918 the United States forces had finally landed in European soil. The war weary allied forces saw the arrival of the American forces as a ray of hope. Sending 10,000 soldiers by the day, they were welcomed by the allied forces. Although the United States commanders were outmatched by the experienced superior German command they overcome this by sheer number of force. This led to high number of casualties, but fresh and new US forces boosted the morale of the allied forces which led to numerous victories. The American forces played a huge role in securing the means of ending the war in the Allied final offensive which lasted almost a hundred days. The Allied forces finally reached the end of the fight where the German forces collapsed at their home soil and decided to throw in the white towel on November 11, 1918. The fight was not only fought by men in the battleground but by women as well. During the course of the war, US Army nurses were stationed near the battlefields and attended millions of wounded soldiers from combat. Many women served at home grounds as well, acting as switchboard operators. They were formally known as the Signal Corps Female Operators Unit and were sworn into the Signal Corps. Most of these women were former employees at telecommunications companies and they were required to be bilingual in English and French. Jobs that were vacated by men who had left to fight in the war were also filled by women. The high demand for weapons meant more jobs for women at munitions factories. The war resulted in need of labor women were not only working in the industry but took in jobs that were traditionally meant for men. The war had affected the children much as the women did. Many men who were fathers had left to go to the war and some were killed in the battlefield resulting in the child to grow up fatherless and raised by single mothers. Eventually leading these children to grow up into the adults of the upcoming World War II.
The Great War seemed to have destroyed countless innocent lives as a sacrifice for the nations to seek control over power and the United States played a huge role in fighting for the greater good for the future of mankind. Without the presence of the American forces in the Great War, the freedom we have may not be the same. The events that took place during the war led to the United States’ intervention that could not be avoided. Although they were met with opposition from the public, they too saw that war was not inevitable. But the people of the United States came together to fight for the world’s freedom and prevailed.
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