Woodrow Wilson Essay

Submitted By thedarkhawk100
Words: 428
Pages: 2

The reasons that the United States entered World War I is mainly because of Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare sinking a British cruise ship called Lisitania and 5 US merchant ships, causing us to lose money that we were supplying to both sides of the war that we didn’t want to be in. Supplying materials to both sides of the war was one of the main reasons for us to stay out of the war and Germany was ruining that. The combination of the lost of money and Germany attacking the US caused Woodrow Wilson to flip out and state that we were going to war. These being the reason, Wilson stated that the reason that we decided to go to war was for “the world to be safe for democracy.” This seemed legitimate enough for the United States to enter World War I and stop the Germans from attacking us. Wilson saying that he wanted to make the world safe for democracy didn’t seem to be shown much throughout and after the war either. The citizens did make their own sacrifices to help the war but what Wilson did was release the Sedition and Espionage Acts. These acts were almost a complete carbon copy of the Alien and Sedition Acts that were released by John Adams. The Espionage Acts stated that it was forbidden to obstruct or refuse efforts to recruit or promote people in the military. Also the Postmaster General was able to remove any letters from the mail that were considered Leftist or against the warfare. The penalties for these crimes could be fines up to $10,000 or up to 20 years in prison. The Sedition Acts stated that it was a crime to speak or print anything against the government,