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I know a bit about WW1 but i would like to know how close America was to joining the war on Germany's side. I have heard that it was a possibility at the time. i also want to know how differently the war would have ended if America did join on Germany's side? any thoughts on this matter?
I don't think there was any serious possibility that we would join with Germany. President Wilson's wife was British for one thing and the British propaganda was very efficient in demonizing the Germans.
We had nothing in common with German war interests which as some modern scholars claim was to whip France and Russia before they could whip Germany: the Germans thought war was inevitable and wanted it sooner rather than later because they thought Russia and France would get stronger as time went on.
I recently read this theory. The US had been lending so much money to the Allies, that when things seemed their worst , Wilson decided that if Germany won, we would never get the money back and that was one consideration for entering the War.
I know a bit about WW1 but i would like to know how close America was to joining the war on Germany's side. I have heard that it was a possibility at the time. i also want to know how differently the war would have ended if America did join on Germany's side? any thoughts on this matter?
It's a fairly new theory and one without any real historical merit. World War I - known at the time as The Great War or just The War or the World War was one that America's entry into was inevitable. There is no way that the US could have ended up on the side of Germany.
There was no chance that America would enter the war as an ally of Germany. The two possibilities were: 1. We would remain neutral throughout the war; or 2. We would enter as an ally of Britain.
World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918. The USA managed to stay out of the war until April of 1917. Most American people believed the war was simply a struggle between European powers for supremacy. We believed the Atlantic Ocean was wide enough to shield us from that conflict. We had large numbers of both German and Irish immigrants who were hostile to the British Empire. We also could not imagine fighting on the side of the Russian Czar who was one of the allied powers and the quintessential autocrat.
What brought us into the war was Germany's determination to prevent us from trading or conducting commerce with Britain. The Germans began using U-boats to sink any ship that was trading or carrying passengers to the United Kingdom early on. When the Lusitania was sunk by the Germans over 100 Americans lost their lives. Their was a hue and cry at that point to join the war and fight the Germans. However, President Wilson entered into diplomatic negotiations with Germany and succeeded in getting them to agree to leave American shipping alone as long as we remained neutral. In early 1917, events took control. A revolution in Russia toppled the czar and the new Bolshevik Government under V.I. Lenin made peace with Germany. The Germans became convinced they could win the war if they acted quickly and launched a major attack on France. They saw no reason to restrict attacks on foreign shipping anymore, figuring even if America entered the war it would be too late to save France. When Germany made this announcement to President Wilson it left him with no choice. In April 1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany and he got it.
What followed only took about 20 months. The Germans attacked France with forces they didn't have to have to fight Russia. However, by this time Americans reinforced the French. The Germans met steely resistance and their attacks came to an end. The allied powers counterattacked and the German forces slowly collapsed. We pushed the Germans back. Their forces lost ground for weeks on end. A revolution against the Kaiser began in Germany. Germany's top generals (Hindenberg and Ludendorf) told the Kaiser he had no alternative, but to abdicate his throne and ask the allies for an Armistice. This finally occurred in Compiegne, France in November 1918.
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