USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
Which best reflects the U.S. position at the start of WWI?

(A) Neutral

(B) Fight with the Allied Powers

(C) ** Neutral, but maintained the right to trade with nations at war

(D) Fight with the Central Powers

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -Beginning July 28, 1914 with Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia in retaliation for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a complicated web of alliances plunges the nations of Europe into war within a month. The United States stays politically neutral.

Concept note-2: -When war broke out in Europe in 1914 President Wilson declared that the United States would follow a strict policy of neutrality. This was a product of a longstanding idea at the heart of American foreign policy that the United States would not entangle itself with alliances with other nations.

Concept note-3: -The United States enters World War I US President Woodrow Wilson sought to maintain US neutrality but was ultimately unable to keep the United States out of the war, largely because of escalating German aggression.

Concept note-4: -As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914.