AMERICAN ENTRY INTO WORLD WAR I AND ITS DOMESTIC EFFECTS
This research paper deals with the reasons which led the United States to enter World War I on the side of the Western Allies in April, 1917 and the domestic consequences of that decision. American public opinion shifted from nearly unanimous support for American neutrality at the outbreak of war in August 1914 to overwhelming approval of the declaration of war against Germany in April 1917. No one factor fully explains this shift in sentiment nor the American decision-making process involved. Economic factors (the influence of American war loans and supplies of munitions to the Allies) and ideological considerations played their part but were not decisive. The casus belli was Germany's decision of January 1917 to resume unrestricted submarine warfare against neutral shipping. The failure of President Wilson's attempt to mediate a peace settlement in the winter of 1916-1917 was another important factor leading to the American declaration of war. Amateurish efforts by German agents to commit sabotage and subversion in the United States and Mexico were an irritant. The German Zimmermann telegram of January 1917 inflamed American public opinion at a critical juncture. Important also was the growing realization by the President and his closest advisers that a German victory was not in the overall strategic interests of the United States.
The domestic effects of American entry were far-reaching, including: (1) economic prosperity and overexpansion of agriculture; (2) sharp growth in the powers and functions of the federal government in relation to the economy and society, war mobilization and welfare capitalism; (3) social changes in the role of labor, women and blacks; (4) an outburst of patriotism together with controversy over the suppression of civil liberties; and (5) the beginnings of postwar disillusionment among liberals and others.
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