US+Under+ATTACK

THE BIGGEST CAUSE OF THE UNITED STATES ENTERING WW1 IS THE GERMAN ATTACKS ON AMERICA. IF GERMANY NEVER THREATENED AMERICAN LIVES AND WENT AGAINST THE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THEM THAN AMERICAN WOULD HAVE NEVER OF THOUGHT TO TAKE ACTION IN THE WAR.//**
 * //__GERMANY SEALED THEIR OWN DEFEAT__

__//**The Prize Rules of the Sea**//__ The prize rules are multiple agreements between nations that no matter the circumstance, before you fire upon any type of merchant ship, you must give far warning that you are about to attack them unless they turn around. After you give them fair warning everything that happens prior to the point is fair game. Another agreement that is embedded into the prize rules is that if you attack a merchant ship and it is sunk, the attacking ship must take aboard the crew members that are stranded and floating out in the middle of the sea. Until 1915 Germany followed these rules to the letter but once they stopped following the rules, they angered the American's because they were being killed without fair warning. This is when Unrestricted Submarine Warfare started.

__//**GERMAN U-BOATS ATTACK THE US**//__! Before World War I, a prevailing naval opinion considered the submarine an ineffective weapon for blocking an enemy country. Submarines, were filled with exposed piping and crammed with machinery, they had no space to take prisoners aboard. Also, the submarine could never carry enough sailors to provide crews to man captured ships. Therefore, the submarine was considered a useless weapon against civilian shipping. In 1915 the German government thought they had figured out the problem with unrestricted submarine warfare, they realized they didn’t need to capture the merchant ship, but they had to sink them. In 1917, the Germans had more quantity in U-boats and they attacked neutral countries ships, such as the US. On May 7th, 1915, the British liner ‘Lusitania’ was sunk. Among the dead were 128 American citizens. The sinking caused outrage in America but not to the extent that President Woodrow Wilson was prepared to declare war on Germany. In fact, in a note written on July 23rd, 1915, Wilson wrote that Germany had changed her ways of attacking ships by submarine. The chosen method post-‘Lusitania’ was for a U-boat to come to the surface and use new deck guns to sink ships. Any neutral ship not carrying contraband was allowed to go to the port it was sailing for. Any neutral ship caught with contraband was sunk – but only after the crew had got off into lifeboats. This seemed sufficient for Wilson to remain pacified in 1915. At this point the presidential hopeful, Teddy Roosevelt, demanded "immediate warfare". In 1916 President Wilson took a stronger stance toward foreign affairs by increasing the size of the military and issuing a warning to the Germans. Of the ship's 1,950 passengers and crew only 764 survived. Out of the deceased were 128 Americans citizens.

__//**ZIMMERMANN NOTE**//__

In January of 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann, from the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt, offering United States territory to Mexico in return for joining the German cause. Germany believed that if they resumed Unrestricted warfare then they could win the war. The only roblem was that doing this would most definitely make the United States join the war. The Zimmerman note was like a plan to make distraction. If Mexico agreed to the terms of this note then the U.S. could not send troups to help out Britain and would have to stay fighting on their own territory. It would be like a mini war inside a big war with Germany controlling all the pieces. Zimmermann himself dispelled initial suspicions regarding the telegram's authenticity by giving a speech in which he confirmed its existence.

"The Zimmermann Telegram." //National Archives and Records Administration//. Web. 08 Dec. 2009. . "Zimmerman Telegram." //Zimmerman Telegram//. Web. 9 Dec. 2009. . "U-boat Attack, 1916." //EyeWitness to History - history through the eyes of those who lived it//. Web. 09 Dec. 2009. . "Unrestricted Submarine Warfare in World War One@Everything2.com." //Welcome to Everything@Everything2.com//. Web. 09 Dec. 2009. . Koeller, David W. "The United States Enters World War One 1917." Web. .