World War I started for several reasons. MANIA – Militarism, Alliance, Nationalism, Imperialism, and Assassination. Militarism is when a leader

World War I started for several reasons. MANIA – Militarism, Alliance, Nationalism, Imperialism, and Assassination. Militarism is when a leader

starts to build the countries military to make it more powerful than others. Alliance is when countries promise to go to war with other countries.

Imperialism is when a country expands its influence and power into a large empire, for example annexing Alaska and Hawaii. The steady rise of

Nationalism was another cause of WWI. The assassination of an Austrian leader by Serbian Nationalists is the “spark” that led to the explosion of

World War I. Because of the assassination, Austria-Hungary was the first nation to declare war in WWI.

When the Germans sank the Lusitania in 1915, a passenger ocean liner with 159 Americans on board, the public opinion in the United States toward

the war began to change. This act killed 1,198 innocent passengers, and it contributed to the United States entry into WWI.

The United States finally entered the war two years later directly after the Zimmerman Telegram was intercepted. In January of 1917, the British

intercepted and decoded a secret telegram sent from Germany to Mexico. Mexico wanted to become allies with Germany against the United States. The

Zimmerman telegram exposed the German plan to help Mexico regain territory lost the U.S. The territories were Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

The Zimmerman Telegram was the final straw. President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech to Congress on April 2, 1917 asking for them to declare war

on Germany. In his speech, he said that the U.S. would go to war to "fight for the ultimate peace of the world." On April 6, 1917 the U.S. officially

declared war on Germany.