When the Great War began, most people in the U.S. didn’t want to be drawn into a European conflict.
President Woodrow Wilson urged Americans to be impartial in thought and deed. In 1916, Wilson campaigned for reelection with the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” But five months after the election, the U.S. entered the war on the Allied side. One reason was that by 1917, American businesses had loaned billions of dollars to the Allies and were heavily invested in an Allied victory. Another was that German U-boat attacks on merchant ships were killing American citizens. Also, Germany asked Mexico to declare war on the U.S. Germany promised that after the war, Mexico could reclaim land it had lost to the U.S. in 1848 (including New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas). So, on April 2, 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war.
