the weird thing about this is the entente couldn't have lost. however much you want to hype up german 'stormtroopers' they were cruising on the hopes and dreams of fumes.
i'd get even more conspiracy brained, like completely off-the-books collusion between manufacturers & the gov to secure US contracts for armaments---most the manufactured materiel never saw combat but did get paid for.
or the US wanted to gear up for taking the imperial mantle off the British and test modern warfare techniques developed through the war. fleet expansion and airforce creation being the most pertinent examples
Even if the Entente won without the help of the US (which they basically did, the US did very little in WW I), perhaps the powers in charge in the US at the time thought they would be so bankrupt by the cost of winning they wouldn't get paid back fast enough.
That in combination with the weird upper class obsession with the manliness of war at the time would be enough to push things twords joining? Like, dumb cultural things like that can cause major events if material factors don't stop them.
more i think about this today the more im leaning toward cloaked imperial project. the Wilson administration, fitting as it was headed by a virulent white supremacist, wanted to get into the imperial game, and saw an opportunity in ww1. how else do you explain the US' outsized participation in peace talks and advocacy for the League of Nations---a LON whose first task was not-coincidentally going to be taking over the administration of territories belonging to germany and the ottoman empire. the naval treaty negotiated a few years later hamstrung the royal navy without firing a shot.
That would track with the cultural forces I'm referring to as well. This "do the manly war thing" was based on how doing imperialism makes you cool. Even if you aren't doing war against native people and instead other imperial powers, if you are doing war for imperial goals, that fits in perfectly with the culture.
In 1916 the Germans were winning and the Entente were being bled white. The French army mutinied and refused to attack. Without American help (and here I don't mean soldiers on the front) the Entente very well could have been forced to end the war.
the germans were not winning. they were losing every front but Russia and stalemated in France. they were blockaded & had no way to break it. the french mutinys were not so much 'let the germans run us over' as 'we're not going to go on a suicidal charge'---not exactly a coup de grace for the germans
its a simple matter of resources: germany needed imports which were cut off & the entente not only maintained colonial extraction, they captured more. just look at the numbers of tanks & other materiel on each side by the end of the war, germany never had a chance after the first few months
Then why did the Entente come to the USA hat in hand saying they were going to lose the war? And if the Americans wanted their loans paid back, they'd better get involved? Wilson ran on "he kept us out of the war" and then immediately turned his coat and got America involved.
And it wasn't the Zimmerman telegram or the Lustitania.
the weird thing about this is the entente couldn't have lost. however much you want to hype up german 'stormtroopers' they were cruising on the hopes and dreams of fumes.
i'd get even more conspiracy brained, like completely off-the-books collusion between manufacturers & the gov to secure US contracts for armaments---most the manufactured materiel never saw combat but did get paid for.
or the US wanted to gear up for taking the imperial mantle off the British and test modern warfare techniques developed through the war. fleet expansion and airforce creation being the most pertinent examples
Even if the Entente won without the help of the US (which they basically did, the US did very little in WW I), perhaps the powers in charge in the US at the time thought they would be so bankrupt by the cost of winning they wouldn't get paid back fast enough.
That in combination with the weird upper class obsession with the manliness of war at the time would be enough to push things twords joining? Like, dumb cultural things like that can cause major events if material factors don't stop them.
more i think about this today the more im leaning toward cloaked imperial project. the Wilson administration, fitting as it was headed by a virulent white supremacist, wanted to get into the imperial game, and saw an opportunity in ww1. how else do you explain the US' outsized participation in peace talks and advocacy for the League of Nations---a LON whose first task was not-coincidentally going to be taking over the administration of territories belonging to germany and the ottoman empire. the naval treaty negotiated a few years later hamstrung the royal navy without firing a shot.
That would track with the cultural forces I'm referring to as well. This "do the manly war thing" was based on how doing imperialism makes you cool. Even if you aren't doing war against native people and instead other imperial powers, if you are doing war for imperial goals, that fits in perfectly with the culture.
In 1916 the Germans were winning and the Entente were being bled white. The French army mutinied and refused to attack. Without American help (and here I don't mean soldiers on the front) the Entente very well could have been forced to end the war.
the germans were not winning. they were losing every front but Russia and stalemated in France. they were blockaded & had no way to break it. the french mutinys were not so much 'let the germans run us over' as 'we're not going to go on a suicidal charge'---not exactly a coup de grace for the germans
its a simple matter of resources: germany needed imports which were cut off & the entente not only maintained colonial extraction, they captured more. just look at the numbers of tanks & other materiel on each side by the end of the war, germany never had a chance after the first few months
Then why did the Entente come to the USA hat in hand saying they were going to lose the war? And if the Americans wanted their loans paid back, they'd better get involved? Wilson ran on "he kept us out of the war" and then immediately turned his coat and got America involved.
And it wasn't the Zimmerman telegram or the Lustitania.