all right and welcome back to another US History online lesson today we're going to explore from neutrality to war looking at how the United States gets involved in World War I and as always well not as always but as we've seen this unit so far we're joined by my main man Mr hovind let's start looking at the question was the US entirely neutral in this conflict in Europe before jumping ahead though I just want to mention quickly that the us at this time the population is made up of a lot of immigrants or Sons and Daughters of immigrants and because of this there are a lot of people that have different views on this conflict and how the US should be involved if at all that's true and also to note is no one's really winning the war yet the war is pretty much a stalemate which means no one's winning and at the outset of this European conflict President Wilson declared the US neutral and kind of that the war didn't concern America however there were definite reasons that we were depending on the outcome of what would happen in Europe that's for sure and most of those reasons were economic reasons so if you look at the numbers as what the US was up to and how much they were trading with other countries well in 1914 they were trading about 824.63 worth of goods to the Allied Powers versus it is but then the difference really comes when you look a couple years later wow when the US is trading about 3.2 billion worth of goods and Loans to the Allied Powers versus only 1.2 million with the Central Powers so while it's skyrockets with the Allied they actually decrease in the amount that they are trading or loaning to the central power just make sure you notice that the difference between it's $3.2 billion yeah where the amount to the central is million $1.2 million so while this is going on the British have kind of formed a blockade a naval blockade around Germany which kept kept some supplies getting to Germany and so therefore that explains somewhat a very small portion of the difference between Aid that was going to the Allied and Central Powers because of this blockade the Germans had to find a way around it or to break through it and they came up with this newer technology which were German submarines and they had an interesting name didn't they un sea boats known as uots they would use these uots to torpedo the British ships that were blockading them and would eventually sink them however the problems would come when Germany starts sinking ships containing War Goods that belong to the Allied Powers they will do this and this will cause the US to kind of get a little tense because they believe in What's called the Freedom of the Seas they ask Germany not to in Germany and what is known as the Sussex Pledge promises to stop with these yubo attacks on these ships but do they keep their promise no they do not and that's the one thing that's very interesting that us ships were still being attacked and Germans pledged that any ship entering or leaving an Allied port in Europe would be torpedoed so on May 7th 1915 Au ubo would sink a British liner known as the Lucitania without any warning whatsoever at at the time now was this a warship transporting goods anywhere ah see that's a great question it was actually a passenger ship but the Germans will insist that there are War Goods on board 1,198 people will die here's the catch 128 of them are Americans Americans and this will cause many in America to start to clamor for a war against Germany in the Central Powers but the attack on the Lucitania itself did not convince woodro Wilson to ask Congress to declare war he still wanted to stay out of this conflict he didn't think that we were ready for it well at the same time Britain really wants us to come in on their side but another thing will tip the scales of the US involvement Germany will send a telegram to Mexico in which they will basically ask the Mexicans to attack the United United States and in return Germany says that they will give the Mexicans land that they had lost in the Mexican-American war that was the Southwest portion of the United States which includes present day Texas Arizona and New Mexico that's right going back to the tree of Guadalupe hialgo so this is known as the Zimmerman Telegram and it will be sent in January of 1917 but the catches is the message is intercepted by the British and they are able to decode the message and give it to the United States and say look Germany really wants you to be attacked shouldn't you come in the war against them so because of this Zimmerman Telegram Wilson really has to begin President Wilson that is has to really begin weighing his options because after the lucania that still wasn't enough he still wanted to maintain a policy of neutrality or not getting involved directly with fighting or any of the battles however with this telegram he starts beginning to weigh the pro versus the cons some of the pros were many Americans were outraged by this submarine warfare many Americans favor Britain and France the zman telegram of course angers America and the Allies is growing the trade with the Allies that is is growing that's right Americans are making a lot of money off of that trade and Americans want to collect on loans made to France and Britain which will not happen if they lose the war but the cons there are many cons to going to war in fact the unit United States had maintained this tradition of neutrality they'd be going against that some Americans actually sympathized with the Central Powers there was a good deal of anti-english sentiment in America and Wilson opposes the alliance with the Russian Zar which if he entered the war on the side of Britain and France he would be on the side of the Russian Zar and then lastly there was a quite a significant number of pacifists who are saying we shouldn't enter the War well there are warhawks who are saying let's go let's get into this get it on so Wilson has a tough decision to make so in March 1917 after the German ubo sink more ships and break that pledge the Sussex Pledge that they had with the United States Wilson is given no other option but to declare war because there was such a growing anti-german feeling in the United States can Wilson declare war all by himself no he cannot he needs approval of Congress and that's exactly what happens on April 6th 1917 Congress will declare war on Germany and the US enters World War I we will continue that next time goodbye