I was told in my history class that the reason the USA went into WWI was because while our government wanted to remain neutral, while we were selling stuff to both sides of the war (he didn't say whether it was the government or private business doing this), we kept getting bombed, or hi-jacked by the other side because the cargo could act as supplies.
After a deal with Germany sinking an Amercian Ship or one with American people on it, or something like that, the Germany Gov't said they would not do unrestrained submarine warfare, they tried to get Mexico's gov't to attack us, and after the message of that was found to be true, and of Germany trying to attack another American ship, our gov't declared war on them.
And you know what?
Judging by past reliability in this class, I'd say that's a bunch of nonsense...
Either the person telling this story is not telling the whole story, is lying, or is just wrong...
So what happened, exactly?
Didn't that dumb Zeitgesit movie mention something like this, but about WWI?
The Germans sank the Lusitania because it was transporting weapons and other war supplies. Britain shamelessly let it operate as a passenger liner as well to try to goad an attack. The German government published warnings in major newspapers:
(http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci1/notice.jpg)
Which makes me wonder at my professor's claims that US ships were just doing free trade with the countries...
Why, in a free market, would a cargo ship sail in waters with that kind of liability?
It sounded more like armament sales from one gov't to another if you ask me.
He tends to conflate the state with the citizens of a nation (e.g. Germans with their government and vise versa).
In short, it sounds like Britain was trying to goad the USA into war or something.
Anyways, here's what I got in my notes about it, with the red part being something that I still would like to hear your thoughts on:
"April 1917; Entry o the U.S. -actions leading to:
The U.S. tried to remain neutral
Sinking of the Lusitania, May 3(?), 1915
Germany returns to unrestricted submarine warfare Jan. 1917
Loyalties to one side or the other by Americans depending on their ancestry, until the Zimmerman telegram was released to the U.S."
QuoteI was told in my history class that the reason the USA went into WWI was because while our government wanted to remain neutral, while we were selling stuff to both sides of the war (he didn't say whether it was the government or private business doing this), we kept getting bombed, or hi-jacked by the other side because the cargo could act as supplies.
I didn't see it right, so I thought you were talking about WWII *facepalm*
So it is that dumb Zeitgeist thing after all...
Quote from: VectorM on November 06, 2010, 05:53:01 PM
I didn't see it right, so I thought you were talking about WWII *facepalm*
So it is that dumb Zeitgeist thing after all...
I've never seen Zeitgeist before.
What exactly did they say happened with World War One?
We entered the war because we wanted to enter the war. Wilson played at being a pacifist but once he entered the war he immediately used it as an excuse to clamp down on dissidents, nationalize the economy and jail his opponents under sedition laws. Everyone at the state department knew that the Zimmerman Telegram represented a pipe dream of a particular German politician, not official German policy. We were shipping weapons to the British on the Lusitania, and by our own laws that made us belligerents in the war. Not only that, but we continued shipping weapons to the British after the Germans pledged to stop unrestricted submarine warfare.
Quote from: AHPMB on November 07, 2010, 04:41:44 PM
We entered the war because we wanted to enter the war. Wilson played at being a pacifist but once he entered the war he immediately used it as an excuse to clamp down on dissidents, nationalize the economy and jail his opponents under sedition laws. Everyone at the state department knew that the Zimmerman Telegram represented a pipe dream of a particular German politician, not official German policy. We were shipping weapons to the British on the Lusitania, and by our own laws that made us belligerents in the war. Not only that, but we continued shipping weapons to the British after the Germans pledged to stop unrestricted submarine warfare.
And by "we" I assume you mean the U.S. Federal Government?
If so, that explains a lot.
Basically yes. Wilson wanted to show-up the isolationists and pacifists. He saw the war as a chance to impose his league of nations idea on the victors and defeated. Of course, what the U.S. actually succeeded in doing was spreading the Spanish Flu into Europe from the troopships coming over the Atlantic, killing far more people than even the war itself accounted for before it finally burned out. Wilson was ultimately powerless against the vengeful French and the English who wanted to cement their overseas Empire. This was a colonial war that the U.S. had absolutely no business being in.