America and the Great War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

America and the Great War - Essay Example In discussing the participation of United States, the paper pays particular attention to the reasons of America’s neutrality between 1914 and 1917 and eventually examines the specific events that led to US joining of war. Finally, the paper evaluates the contributions of USA to the war and to the extent; their entry resulted to the end of the war. I will briefly analyze the events that resulted that to the defeat of the Versailles treaty with particular attention to the role of President Woodrow Wilson during and after the war. Introduction When historians deeply analyze the cause of World War 1, we find that it was more complicated. The eruption of the war was not only caused by immediate chain of events but also some deep root causes (John, 2010). The paper tends to analyze the major events that led to the cause of World War 1. Emergence of Defense Alliances An alliance is a formal agreement negotiated between countries to assist each other in event of need. The signatories in an alliance are called Allies. Pre World War 1 saw the signing of many alliance agreements between countries. It was noted that the years preceding the World War 1, European countries made defense agreements which were mutual (Ross, 2008). This drew them closer to battles. According to Martin (2012), in these alliances, the agreements were that if one of the countries were attacked, the countries, which were allied to them in the alliances, were to come to their defense. Some of the notable alliances formed before the World War 1 according to Michael (2009) include the following: 1) The Dual Alliance of 1879 between Germany and Austria Hungary. 2) The Austro-Serbian Alliance of 1881 between Serbia and austral Hungary. 3) The Triple Alliance of 1882 between Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy. 4) The Triple Entete of 1914 between Britain, Russia and France. 5) The Franco -Russian alliance of 1894 between Russian and France. 6) The Anglo-Russian of 1907 between Britain and Russia. 7 ) Entente Cordiale of 1904 between France and Britain. In their article, History of the world wars, BBC (2013) states that the commitment to the alliances was seen Russia went to defend Serbia, her alley when Austria- Hungary attacked Serbia. When Germany saw Russia mobilizing her war artillery in a bid to come to the assistance of Serbia, the Germans declared war to Russia. This drew France to the war against the Germany and Austria Hungary. The unfolding events saw the Germans attacking the French through Belgium. This drew Britain also into the war. The entry of Japan into the war was seen at this moment in a bid to assist her ally, the Great Britain. United States and Italy later joined the war on different sides of the existing allies. Imperialism Imperialism can be defined as the state where a particular country multiplies their wealth and powers by colonizing many territories and bringing them under her control. Before the emergence of World War 1, imperialism was rampant amo ng many European countries. Some parts of Asia and Africa were the main centers up for grabs among the European countries. This was so because of the availability of the raw materials in these regions (John, 2010).