Why did Wilson take America into the Great War?.
As with most historical questions there are a variety of contributing factors to answer this question. One of the main arguments used is that America was acting "to make the world safe for democracy" (Hugh Brogan). This argument leads one to believe that Wilson was performing in a purely democratic way by helping the more democratic governments in Europe defeat the autocratic governments, such as Germany, Austria and Turkey. At the beginning of the Great War Wilson approached the notion of America joining the war as incomprehensible, partly because of his strong feelings to resolve things by peace and partly because like many other Americans" he felt that the war was a European affair. Up until the Pless conference it appeared that America.
would therefore keep out of the war as far as fighting was concerned, however, America had helped the allies from the start by providing loans in excess of $2 billion to Britain and France whilst only supplying just under $27 million to Germany. This money lending was more of an economical manoeuvre to enable Britain and France to pay for the goods they were buying from the U.S. The ties of language, culture and history also made American citizens befall more support for the allies than for the "militaristic Germans", encouraged by British propaganda. Some American citizens felt that they should defend democracy and some people formed groups, such as the National Security League. Wilson was personally appalled by the German attack on neutral Belgium, which was bound to add to the persuasive factors urging him to enter into the war. .
The contributing factors to the reason as to why Wilson took the U.S into the Great War include both long and short term effects. The long term effects mainly evolve around the disagreements between America and Germany over the "freedom of the sea's". Although seen in a provincial light, the sinking of the Lusitania (a British passenger liner) by the Germans" in 1915 was a large underlying event.
