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Home | Overview | Controversies | Timeline | Combatants | Biographies | Glossary | Learn More
Combatant States - Central powers | Austro - Hungary | Germany | Turkey (Ottoman Empire) | Bulgaria
Combatant States - Allies | Serbia | Russia | France | Belgium | United Kingdom | Australia | Canada | India | New Zealand | Rhodesia | Union of South Africa | United States of America| Italy | Romania | Greece | Montenegro | Portugal | Japan
Entered War : 6 April 1917 (declared war on Germany)
Political system : Republic
Leader : Woodrow Wilson : president 1912-1920
Population : 100 million (1914)
Army : 98,000 men plus 27,000 in the National Guard (1914). The army expanded to 140,000 men when the war started, and more than one million American soldiers were stationed in France by July 1918. Two hundred thousand African-Americans served in the US army, but only 42,000 were classified as combat troops. These fought with the French army due to racism in the US army.
Navy : 17 pre-dreadnought battleships, 10 modern battleships, 32 cruisers, 56 destroyers, 51 submarines, 21 torpedo boats (1914). The US navy was the third largest in the world in 1914.
Air Force : 260 aircraft (1917).
Recent Diplomacy : Before 1914, the US was strongly isolationist as regards Europe and focused its attention on the Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America. Many US citizens originated from First World War combatant states, and favouring one side over the other could have created political unrest. President Wilson therefore reaffirmed the US's policy of neutrality in August 1914.
The US was slowly sucked into the war as a consequence of Germany's submarine campaign, its orchestration of sabotage and subversion within the United States and its attempts to foment war between Mexico and the US.
In 1915 and 1916, President Wilson believed that he would be in a strong position to arbitrate between the warring powers if the United States remained neutral. However, by 1917, he believed that the United States would have to fight in order to have a voice in the creation of a new world order.
Additional information : The US had the world's largest economy in 1917, and US bankers played a crucial role in funding the Allied war effort throughout 1914-18.
Casualties by 1918 : 75,000 dead (58,480 in battle), 189,955 wounded.