Unrestricted Submarine Warfare In World War I

When World War I erupted in 1914 due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the United States remained a neutral country. However, due to the sinking of The Lusitania, the Zimmerman Note, and the economic investments of the U.S., the U.S. entered WWI in 1917 abandoning its neutrality.
In early 1915, unrestricted submarine warfare was introduced when Germany declared the area around the British Isles a war zone. This meant that all ships in the area would be attacked by the German navy. On May 7th, 1915, the German navy attacked the British passenger ship, The Lusitania, killing 120 Americans. This caused American citizens along with President Wilson to be enraged by Germany’s actions, thus threaten Germany to go to war.
This is important to consider because two years prior, this warfare type had resulted in U.S. casualties. By intending to resume this warfare, even after the U.S. threatens to go to war, Germany fundamentally challenges the U.S.’ diplomacy. With the U.S. against Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare and having already threatened Germany to go to war two years ago, it’s evident that the U.S. entered WWI after receiving the telegram in order to prevent any more U.S.
had with Germany, while remaining neutral the few years prior to 1917, the U.S. had economic investments with Europe. These economic investments the U.S. had during the war is easily a reason for the U.S. to enter WWI. Document two, “U.S. Exports to Europe”, compares the U.S. export rates to UK, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary from the years 1910 to 1915 which are the years before and during WWI. The data shows that the U.S. had the most exports to UK and France with the U.S. export rates to Europe for those two countries increasing by the year well into WWI. This is important to consider because with the U.S. being heavily economically invested in UK and France, if UK and France were to lose WWI, then the U.S.’ economy would have collapsed since the Allies wouldn’t be able to pay the debt back to them. The U.S. had to take the possibility of the Allies losing the war into consideration while making these economic investments, however, ended up entering WWI to ensure the U.S.’ economy wouldn’t