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You are to trace the United States' progression from neutrality to war. Using Wilson's Wilson's Declaration of Neutrality as your starting point and his Request for War as your stopping point, identify what you believe are the FIVE specific events responsible for the US entry into the war. Rank these in the order you believe they influenced Wilson's decision (most influential to least). You are to use at least 1 direct quote from both documents as evidence for your events. In conclusion, determine whether or not you agree or disagree with Wilson's request for war. Defend your position.

User Jcc
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The correct answer to this open question is the following.

You did not attach the documents you used. So we cannot use them as evidence, because we do not know what they are.

What we can do is to help you with the following concepts.

The FIVE specific events that were responsible for the US entry into the World War I were the following.

1.- The interception of the Zimmerman telegram by the US intelligence. In this telegram, the Nazis asked Mexico to help them in World War I. Mexico has always been a key allied to the US and d not accepted but this represented a major threat for the United States.

2.- The sinking of the Lusitania ship. This was a commercial ship that was attacked by the German navy.

3.- Germany resumed the maritime attacks with its U-boats. They were patrolling the shore of Britain to block any ships with supplies to the allies.

4.- Huge loans of money loaned to the European countries fighting in the war. The United States loaned big sums of money to the western European countries to fight the war. If the allies lost the war, the US would have never received its money back.

5.- The German's ruthless invasion of Belgium

My conclusion is that President Woodrow Wilson had to set aside the foreign policy of neutrality and ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany because there were many economic and political interests involved at that time.

So I agree with President Wilson, although he received much critics. In moments like this, there are advantages and disadvantages, but that is why he was the President. He had to make the toughest decisions.

User Jon Skarpeteig
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