Significance of US Involvement in WWI Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Significance of US Involvement in WWI - Essay Example The World War I had a significant play on the USA’s further development and growth. For corporate America, the war has started long before it began for the common citizens. Charles Schwab, the president of Bethlehem Steel, one of the world’s largest weapons merchants, within first two months of strive took a trip to London having money-making interests in mind where he received contracts from the British government for millions of weaponry shells and ten 500-ton submarines. Assembling of such foreign vessels was against the law, however Bethlehem Steel went ahead with it, and the Wilson administration did not take any action to prevent it from doing so. The company earned $61 million in 1916, which was more than its combined gross revenues for the previous eight years. (Dwyer, 2004) Another thing that the war brought was an influx in funds selling ammunition, which had a positive effect on the economy of the United States. According to Thomas Fleming in The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I, the United States was supplying Great Britain, France and Russia with 40 percent if their war material.(Fleming,71) The president Woodrow Wilson, upon being elected with the slogan â€Å"he kept us out of war† only few months later appealed to Congress to declare that a state of war between the United States and Germany. When calling for war, he was appealing to the grates American idea – fight to make the world safe for democracy. (Fleming, 1-3) By the time America officially declared war to Germany, the international banking firm of J. P. Morgan in New York already loaned Britain and France $2.1 billion (which is worth around $30 billion by 2004 measures), and had gained $30 million – around $425 million in 2004 dollars – in profit. (Fleming, 70) Perhaps the next significant fact of participating in the war is best explained by the president Woodrow Wilson’s in his own words when he said, in regards to his concept ion for American-inspired democratic after-war global peace and harmony and unity: As head of a nation participating in the war, the president of the United States would have a seat at the peace table, but . . . if he remained the representative of a neutral country, he could at best only ‘call through a crack in the door. (Fleming, 79) What Wilson really wanted to get through the war was to raise the status of the USA in the world, for the country to have more influence on an international scale. No American interest was at stake in WWI, the war never affected American territory, however a total of 120, 000 men died. The war significantly raised the authority of the US in major international issues. It allowed the United States to interfere in solving European issues, which did not even concern them. (Thomas, 137) So the most significant changes that World War I brought was a strengthened economy and bigger authority in international matters. Another significant fact about Wo rld War I is that it set the stage for War World II. The Life and Death of Sergeant York Alvin Cullum York was born the third oldest of a family of eleven children. The York family just barely managed to make a living by farming and hunting, and York became a proficient marksman at an early age. Prior to the World War I, York was employed on the railroad as a day laborer. He had virtually no experience with money managing and later suffered from chronic fiscal problems. When York had the money, he would spend it, invested it poorly, and would generously give it away to other people who he believed needed it. As York came of age he earned a reputation as a deadly accurate shot and a trouble maker. He would spend too much time drinking and gambling in borderline. He was generally considered a problem and someone who "would never amount to