In Wilson's “War Message” he seems to be trying to pull at the hearts of the men of Congress and bring to light the intensity of the situation. He also seems to focus on the idea that entering the war would not be in revenge, but rather an attempt to bring the world back to a neutral state. When reading the document by W. W. Norton, you realize all the problems that Germany caused for American trading and even problems within the country itself. The document talks about how Germany had conspired with Mexico and told them that they would help in taking back Texas, New Mexico,and Arizona if Mexico agreed to take arms against the United States with Germany. Reading this you can see how entering the war was more than just a peace keeping mission as expressed by Wilson in his message to Congress.
Germany proposed an alliance by saying, "That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost terrority in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona..." According to Arthur Zimmerman, their alliance with Mexico would be beneficial to Mexico and themselves. Germany wanted America to stay neutral, but Great Britain interfered.A final reason why the United States changed their position regarding involvement in World War One was President
The Defeat of the Treaty of Versailles It was not the power of the opposition forces, liberal or conservative, of the U.S. that led to the final defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, but rather the political ignorance, inability and inflexibility of the President, Woodrow Wilson. With the surrender of Germany after WW1, it presented many different ways to create peace. Wilson in 1918 offered his plans for peace in the "Fourteen Points", the most important of which he believed was Article X, the League of Nations. One year later, Wilson led the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles to reach an international pact that included the points. However, the U.S. was never to sign the treaty or join the League of Nations Woodrow Wilson's ideas for peace were well rooted in thought, but in politically applying his ideas, he made unchangeable mistakes.
The last straw for the United States in there step to go to war was the sinking of the British passenger ship,Lusitania, by a German submarine in 1915, which resulted in the deaths of 128 Americans. Also Propagandistic imitations of German atrocities in motion pictures added to the want for war. Finally, when it was
In 1919 Germany was handed a diktat by the ‘Big Four’, a treaty that they had no option but to sign. Germany originally signed the Treaty of Versailles with the belief that it would be based around President Wilson’s fourteen points, however it soon became clear to them that this was not in fact the case. Germany felt that the Treaty had cheated them and there was much outrage across Germany. The principle complaint Germany had was that they felt the War Guilt Clause, referring to article 231 of the Treaty, was totally unjust. Germany was forced to take all the blame for damages received by the allies.
An example of this was the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936. Britain and France allowed him to do this and the British released a statement saying Hitler was simply, ‘marching into his back yard.’ This policy taught Hitler that aggression paid off. More importantly, Appeasement scared Stalin. Stalin was the dictator in the U.S.S.R. His army were not advanced enough to stand a chance against even a small German army and he feared Britain and France would not help the Soviets if the Germans invaded them. This therefore led to him signing the Nazi-Soviet pact.
In the Confederate States, the hope was that the incident would lead to a permanent rupture in Anglo-American relations and even diplomatic recognition by Britain of the Confederacy. Confederates realized their independence potentially depended on a war between Britain and the U.S. In Britain, the public expressed outrage at this violation of neutral rights and insult to their national honor. The British government demanded an apology and the release of the prisoners while it took steps to strengthen its military forces in Canada and the Atlantic. After several weeks of tension and loose talk of war, the crisis was resolved when the Lincoln administration released the envoys and disavowed Captain Wilkes's actions.
Additionally, USA never joined due to the fact that when the war ended in 1918, even though Woodrow Wilson pushed USA to join the League of Nations, his plans were confounded by Congress. USA was the leading power of the time, and its absence was a significant setback to the League, as now they had to rely on Britain and France who had been left weaker after WWI. Finally, the League ran on unanimous voting, meaning everyone had to agree for the action to be taken, and the permanent countries; Britain, France, Italy and Japan (who all joined in 1919), had a veto. This was a huge disadvantage because only in a situation where everyone agreed with each other, which was very rare, could an action be taken. In this way we can see that the League of Nations was a failure.
President Roosevelt used Pathos and Logos to attract the nation to the idea that if we did not act swiftly with force we would get attacked again and many more innocent lives would be taken. Roosevelt used the fact that Japan attacked not only Midway, but also Hong Kong, Guam, Philippine Islands and Wake Island along with attacks on American ships between San Francisco and Honolulu. The attack of this nature is the showing of unethical behavior that had to be stopped. This speech was given by Franklin D. Roosevelt on 8 December 1941 to the Senate, House and the citizens of America. This speech was given to the people by Roosevelt to show that he had declared a state of war, due to the actions of the Empire of Japan.
Why did Adolf Hitler pursue a path to War? Germany’s loss in the Great War had a monumental effect on Adolf Hitler and was the reason he pursued a life of politics. Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, involving its many clauses undermining the stability of Germany, and causing irreparable damage to the German public’s psyche, the population needed something to boost morale. With unemployment at 6 million in 1933 Hitler’s specific ideals of Lebensraum, racial purity and the uniting of the German people because of these, gave Germany a clear vision that the public could support. Following the defeat of Imperial Germany in World War I, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in order to impose restrictions on Germany and help prevent the country from causing another outbreak of war.