When the Great War broke out, most Americans didn’t want to get into a European conflict.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson was up for reelection. His campaign slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Five months after he was reelected, the U.S. joined the Allies. One reason was that by 1917, U.S. businesses had loaned the Allies billions of dollars. They needed the Allies to win to get their money back. Another was that German U-boat attacks on merchant ships were killing Americans. Also, Germany asked Mexico to declare war on the U.S. Germany promised that after the war, Mexico could get back the land it had lost to the U.S. in 1848. This included New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. So, on April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war.
