Most Americans didn’t want the U.S. to join the Great War.
They saw it as a European problem. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson was reelected. His campaign slogan was “He kept us out of war.” But five months later, the U.S. joined the Allies. There were several reasons for that. One was that by 1917, U.S. businesses had loaned the Allies billions of dollars. If the Allies lost, they wouldn’t be able to repay those loans. Also, German U-boat attacks on civilian ships were killing Americans. And Germany asked Mexico to declare war on the U.S. Germany said that after the war, Mexico could reclaim 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.
