By The Numbers

WWI had started in 1914 with actual combat between Germany and Allied Nations which engulfed Europe. Early on in August of 1914 the United States declared its neutrality. Staying out of the European conflict and remaining impartial was a major campaign premise when Woodrow Wilson ran for the presidency. Unfortunately, over the next three years, the neutrality of the United States would come under pressure from the impact of events in Europe.

In early 1915 Germany started unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. On May 7, 1915 German U-boats sank the ocean liner RMS Lusitania off the coast of Ireland with many Americans onboard. After Germany invaded neutral Belgium in 1914, stories of atrocities against Belgium civilians began to circulate. At that point public opinion in the United States was beginning to shift. The U.S. had a vested interest in the final outcome of the war since many American businesses and banks had made huge loans to the Allies. An Allied defeat would mean they were unlikely to get their money back.

By 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted submarine