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The very weakness of US military power encouraged Berlin to start its unrestricted submarine attacks in 1917. It knew this meant war with the US, but it could discount the immediate risk because the US Army was negligible and the new warships would not be at sea until 1919, by which time it believed the war would be over, with Germany victorious.
In the end, the German Empire miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.Beginning with the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, the first major battle involving the American ...
Uncle Sam pointing his finger at the viewer in order to recruit soldiers for the American Army during World War I, 1917-1918 Sheet music cover for patriotic song, 1917. The Selective Service Act of 1917 or Selective Draft Act (Pub. L. 65–12, 40 Stat. 76, enacted May 18, 1917) authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription.
The United States campaigns in World War I began after American entry in the war in early April 1917. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) served on the Western Front, under General John J. Pershing, and engaged in 13 official military campaigns between 1917 and 1918, for which campaign streamers were designated.
The United States tried and failed to broker a peace settlement for World War I, then entered the war after Germany launched a submarine campaign against U.S. merchant ships that were supplying Germany's enemy countries. The publicly stated goals were to uphold American honor, crush German militarism, and reshape the postwar world.
However, fearing the possibility of Germany overrunning France, Britain entered the war against them on 4 August, and used the German invasion of Belgium to galvanise popular support. By early August, the ostensible reason for armed conflict—the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke—had already become a side-note to a larger ...
Although the United States entered the war in April 1917, there had been very little planning, or even recognition of the problems that Great Britain and the other Allies had to solve on their own home fronts. As a result, the level of confusion was high in the first 12 months.
The United States was a major supplier of war material to the Allies but remained neutral in 1914, in large part due to domestic opposition. [168] The most significant factor in creating the support Wilson needed was the German submarine offensive, which not only cost American lives but paralysed trade as ships were reluctant to put to sea. [169]