World War 1
World War 1 lasted from 1914-1918 it was the first modern war fought between all of the world powers. The immediate cause of this war was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but the long term cause is MAIN; militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. The whole point of this assassination was to end the rule that Austria-Hungary had on Serbia. During this time America's president Woodrow Wilson wanted to have a completely neutral stance. In 1914 Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare on any ship in the sea. In March of 1915 the first casualty of their unrestricted warfare the 'Falbla' was sunk by a German U-boat killing the first American by this war. Few months after that and another ship named 'Lisutania' was sunk, killing over 128 Americans. After this president Wilson warned Germany to end this, but they would not. In 1917 Germany sent the infamous 'Zimmerman' telegram to Mexico, but was intercepted by Great Britain and the telegram had basically said if Mexico would try to take over lost territory such as California, Texas, and New Mexico, Germany would fund them and help them in addition to receiving new territory from World War 1. When president Wilson first heard of this news he knew it was time to make a decision to enter world war 1.