How Did War Cause Ww1

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On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia when he was killed by Gavrilo Princip. Princip had joined the Black Hand terrorist organization in an attempt to free his home country from Austro-Hungarian rule. Austro-Hungarians blamed Serbians for the murder of the archduke, but Russia had promised to protect Serbian Slavs and began to mobilize its army. Germany saw this as an act of war against its ally and declared war on both Russia and France, Russia’s ally. Germany proceeded to invade Belgium which lead to Great Britain declaring war on Germany. President Woodrow Wilson declared the United States neutral and observed isolationism, the policy of not being involved in the affairs of other nations. …show more content…
In February 1915, the German government instituted unrestricted submarine warfare around the shore of Great Britain. Any ship passing through this area, whether it was an enemy or neutral, would be attacked. This angered Americans because it directly violated the laws of neutrality. In response, President Wilson wrote a warning to the Germans that the United States was willing to “take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property” (G). Three months later, the United States’ patience was tried again when the Lusitania was sunk by German submarines on May 7, 1915. Along with President Wilson demanding an end to unrestricted submarine warfare, Theodore Roosevelt bemoaned that a “number of American ships had already been torpedoed… and more than a hundred [lives lost on the Lusitania] were American” (I). The Germans punctuated their war stance by the loss of innocent American blood at sea. Under international duress, the Germans agreed only to attack supply ships, but broke this agreement when they attacked the unarmed French passenger ship Sussex. President Wilson threatened to “sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German empire altogether” if Germany continued its “indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce” (L). Germany issued the Sussex pledge to keep the United States from entering the war, promising not to sink merchant vessels …show more content…
On the first of February, Germany’s intent was “to begin submarine warfare unrestricted” (Zimmermann, N). This was irrefutable evidence that the German attacks were no accident. The Germans hoped to keep the United States out of the war, but were willing to “accept all the consequences which unrestricted U-boat warfare [would] bring [as] the means of injuring [their] enemies the most” (Bethmann-Hollweg, M). If their plan failed, Germany wanted to “propose an alliance . . . with Mexico” (Zimmermann, N). However, this alliance was a direct violation of the Monroe Doctrine which “declared the Western Hemisphere off-limits to further colonization by European nations” (Ayers et al. 216). President Wilson’s patience was thin, as seen when he wrote his war message to the Germans. Not only was the German submarine war against America, but “warfare against mankind” (Wilson, O). After German submarines sank three American merchant ships in March 1917, Wilson proposed war to Congress and the United States officially entered World War I on April 6,
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