American Neutrality

Chapter 23, entitled "War and Society 1914-1920", was based on events during World War I. An interesting theme in this chapter was America's neutrality during the war. Woodrow Wilson, the president at that time, worked hard to keep America out of what he called a "European War". Many Americans disagreed with this view, and found that they sided with Britain. America’s neutrality actually hurt ties with the Allies, which were countries that many corporations traded with. Even though Germany had been using submarines to check the flow U.S. goods to the Allies, Wilson would not go to war. Woodrow Wilson believed that problems between countries should be dealt with through negotiations. During the war, Wilson tried to establish the League of Nations, which would give peace, security, and justice to all countries. It wasn’t until the Zimmermann telegram, which had instructed the Mexican government to attack the U.S. in the event of war between Germany and the U.S., had been decoded that Wilson was ready to go to war with the Triple Alliance.