There exists a certain number of factors that contributed to the U.S.’s entry into World War I. Despite much debate about the necessity of this action, the concomitant factors make it unavoidable. Any bad consequences of the decision to take part in the war are justified and compensated by some reasonable geopolitical evidence.
In order to assess this historical fact as objectively as possible, it is necessary to examine in more detail the main causes and their impact on the public. One of the main ones was the large number of loans that U.S. banks and businesses made to the Allies (Bamford, 2020). Thus, the assumption becomes evident that if the Allies lost, the U.S. would have had significant problems with further and final repayment. For this reason, entering the war to secure victory was incredibly important. Without participation in the conflict at the time, a victory for the Allied parties was not entirely apparent, and all concerned worried about the fate of their loans.
Moreover, there were several events that provoked civil outrage was the facts about atrocities. One of it was originally obtained after the German invasion of neutral Belgium in 1914 (Whalan, 2019). After this episode, U.S. citizens also demanded government action against these cruel actions. Despite the fact that there were many legends about the behavior of the enemy troops in addition to the facts that existed, the final result was quite radical.
In addition to public opinion, there was the problem of submarine privateering in the Atlantic Ocean. For example, the sinking of The Lusitania (Wollney & Sternadori, 2019) was a major public outcry that led to the rejection of the other side. Some of the passengers of this merchant ship were U.S. citizens, which contributed to public resentment and approval of the country’s entry into the war.
Just as important, however, are opinions about the pointlessness of the U.S. entering the conflict. These are borne out by the aversion of victims, men and women, among those opposed to sending troops to a foreign continent (Wollney & Sternadori, 2019). Undoubtedly, the loss of life is reason enough to accuse the government of going to war.
Thus, the need to participate in shaping world security and helping allies cannot be ignored. Economic and security risks were unprecedentedly high. Hence, there was no choice for the government to maintain neutrality. The historical and geopolitical analysis shows that the reasons for participating in the war far outweighed the opinions of the adversaries, with the consequence that world history has taken its current shape.
References
Bamford, T. R. (2020). U.S. and allied military relations in World War I. Army History, 116, 28–49. Web.
Whalan, M. (2019). The culture of fear in World War One. Reviews in American History, 47(4), 613–621. Web.
Wollney, E., & Sternadori, M. (2019). Feminine, competent, submissive: A multimodal analysis of depictions of women in U.S. wartime persuasive messages during World War I and World War II. Visual Communication Quarterly, 26(1), 3–21. Web.