At the beginning of 1917, the USA was still neutral. Britain and France were trying to get America to join the war on their side. But the Americans were only prepared to sell weapons and lend money to the Allies. Neither America nor its president, Woodrow Wilson, wanted anything to do with the fighting.
In the end, it wasn't the Allies that made America join the fight. It was Germany. The Germans said they had the right to sink ships sailing to their enemies.
And it didn't matter if they were neutral Americans aboard. The most famous ship to be sunk was the Lusitania in 1915. 1,200 people were killed and 198 of them were US citizens. But even then, President Wilson said the USA should remain neutral.
Germany realised how dangerous it would be if America joined the war, so pulled back their submarines or U-boats. But by 1917, Germany was desperate. So they decided to cut off all supply routes to Britain by attacking any ship heading there. They gambled that Britain would be starved into surrender before the Americans joined the war. At the same time, a secret telegram sent by Germany to Mexico was intercepted.
It proposed that Mexico declare war against the United States. Their reward would be the American states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. When Woodrow Wilson read this telegram, he felt he no longer had a choice.
In April 1917, the USA joined the war on the Allied side. Wilson explained to the American people. that the USA was fighting for democracy, the right of people to choose their own government, just like in Britain, France and the USA. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for things which we have always carried nearest to our hearts. The world must be made safe for democracy. For Wilson, the war was being fought for very important reasons. But he wanted it to be the war to end all wars.
So he put together a series of guidelines that he believed would lead to a safer, democratic and peaceful world after the war. These guidelines were called the 14 points.