World War 1 notes (American Version)

At the start of the Great War, what drove countries into this war had to do with nationalism, imperialism, militarism. We already know about the assassination of the Archduke and that the war starts in 1914, where America is yet to be involved into this catastrophic european war. America stays as neutral simply because there was no point really for the U.S. to join the war. Even though the U.S. king of supports the British and French more, because they were democratic, they still wanted neutrality. While the war was happening in Europe, the U.S. has been lucky enough to make some money off of it, or boost their economy. They would sell weaponry, food, and other supplies to the British and French during the war. Eventaully, the U.S. economy went from $824 million dollars in 1914 to $3.2 billion dollars in 1916, just from trading with the British and the French. Then after a while, the British threw a blockade on the Germans so that the majority of trade went to Allies. Skipping a bit forward, there was disagreement with the Germans of whether or not to destroy ships (British or American) that might have the possibility of having Americans on board, so one time they decide to blow up The Lusitania. The Lusitania was sunk with the loss of 1,198 people (128 were Americans) in May 7th, 1915. Even though the ship was British the Americans citizens killed caused an uproar in the U.S. Then finally, President Wilson issued an angry telegram demanding that the Germans followed the rules of submarine warfare or risk war. However, the Germans believed that the Americans were not at war but they were not neutral. Also, they believed Unrestricted Submarine Warfare could be a war winner, so on February 1, 1917 they announced they would sink any and all ships around GB. Soon the Zimmerman Note that was intercepted by British tell the U.S. after (Lusitania) ship sinks. Finally in April 6th, 1917 America was at war with the Central Powers