The United States in World War I and its aftermath

When World War I began in 1914, the United States declared neutrality, but German submarine attacks, including the sinking of the British liner Lusitania in 1915 with 128 Americans aboard, and the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico, helped lead Congress to declare war in April 1917. At home, the government drafted millions of men, sold Liberty Bonds, and ran a vast propaganda campaign, while the Espionage and Sedition Acts were used to prosecute critics of the war. Women and African Americans filled wartime jobs, and the Great Migration accelerated. American troops helped the Allies win in 1918. President Woodrow Wilson proposed his Fourteen Points and a League of Nations, but the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, and the United States never joined the League. After the war came turmoil: the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic killed about 675,000 Americans, labor strikes and bombings fed the first Red Scare with its mass arrests of suspected radicals, and in 1919 white mobs attacked Black communities in many cities.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report