World War 1 was started by many disagreements, but the one act that pushed it to its limits and now named the Great War, was when the Archduke, Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting Bosnia's capital when him and his wife were gunned down by a Bosnian Serb. This caused Austria to declare war on Serbia, where Russia and Serbia allied and then Germany who was allied with Austria, declared war on Russia and France, and then Great Britain who had to be allied with Russia and France via a treaty, declared war on Germany. Great Britain, Russia, and France were called the "Triple Entente", where as Germany and Austria were called the "Central Powers." America, in all of this decided to remain neutral until 1917, where they, too, went to war. This happened because President Wilsons plan for the United States, was contradictory to staying neutral in the war. Wilson believed "To shape the peace, America must fight in the war." (pg.672) …show more content…
Wilson still firmly believed to stay neutral and out of the war, but Americans were ready to fight. Congressmen designed a bill to keep Americans' from selling on foreign ships, but Wilson opposed. Things were fine for a while, Germany basically said sorry for the American casualties on the Lusitania and strayed from passenger ships. This was until March 1916, a U-boat sank another ship containing Americans, this threw Wilson into a mad house, he threatened to cut off relations with Germany which meant he was ready for war, so Germany agreed to not attack "without warning." Germany eventually went back to unrestricted submarine warfare, thus the US declared