This Day in History: April 6, 1917

U.S. Enters World War I

On April 6, 1917, the U.S. enters World War I, two days after it was approved.

When World War I first erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged to the country that the United States would be neutral. This at first was also a position favored by most of Americans at the time. This caused some problems with America’s closest trading partners; Britain. This was because Germany had been attempting to quarantine the British Isles, and they wanted the U.S. support. When the U.S. went to attempt to support them, by sending several ships to Britain, German mines damaged or sunk the ships. This did not go over very well with the Americans.

In February 1915, Germany said that they would have unresitrcted warfare against all ships, whether or not they were neutral, if they entered the war zone area around Britain. One month later, Germany proclaimed that they had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel, just for entering in the war zone area.

This obviously got American’s upset, especially President Wilson who became outraged. The German government ended up apologizing, by calling the attack a mistake, although that did not ease all the tension. This was not the only time that Germany did this. On May 7 Germany torpedoed a British-owned ocean liner without any warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the nearly 2,000 passengers aboard, 1,201 were killed, including 128 Americans.

The German government upheld (correctly) that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to the German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships.

In August, Germany pledged to keep the passengers safe before sinking an unarmed vessel, but in November a U-boat sank an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Because of these attacks, public opinion in the United States began to turn against Germany.

In February 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany. This was the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat.

On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms-appropriations bill intended to ready the United States for war. In late March, Germany sank four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2, President Wilson went before Congress to deliver his famous “war message.” Within four days, both houses of Congress had voted in favor of a declaration of war.

The American entry into the war saved Great Britain, and by extension the rest of the Entente, from bankruptcy. The United States also crucially reinforced the strength of the Allied naval blockade of Germany, in effect from the end of 1914 and aimed at crushing Germany economically. American naval forces reached Britain on April 9, 1917, just three days after the declaration of war. Though the U.S. Army’s contributions began slowly, they would eventually mark a major turning point in the war effort and help the Allies to victory.

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Today has been a crazy one for me again. But, our Siegler mascot, Emily, will come in once I finish this blog. I am excited to show her off. There will definitely be pictures to come.
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