What Caused the United States to Enter Into World War One

Taylor, Christopher John

Dr. Fielder, Martha History 102: Since 1877 20 June 2015

World War One began the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Another factor that caused this Great War was Austria competing with Serbia and Russia for territory and influence in Balkan’s. But if this was a war happening on the land masses of Europe and Asia, how did this effect the United States? What caused the United States to enter into World War One? The United States entered into World War One when Germany broke a pledge that was established during the war in 1916 that restricted Germany’s use of U-boats in their war effort (primarily their target selection). The German U-boat was a powerful and effective tool that Germany had at its disposal during World War One. While other nations had vast superior fleets of war ships in their navies (especially the British Royal Navy) that the Germans knew they were no match for on the surface, they would instead use their U-boats to attack these war ships from a submersed position where these other countries fleets could not effectively counter engage, giving the Germans a deadly advantage over these superior Navy fleets. The German U-boat was given birth from through an arms race between the Germans and the British. The arms race was very costly for both the Germans and the British. The ships the British built, the Dreadnoughts, were highly effective compared to those ships built by the Germans, resulting in most of their ships not