Enter of World war 1

 The German Empire (also called as the Kingdom of Prussia) had always wanted to dominate the seas. They felt that Great Britain had dominated all the sea routes and hence had an undue advantage in establishing their empire all over the world. There had been a race for naval supremacy between the German Empire and Great Britain just before the start of the War. As expected, Great Britain won this race. 

When the First World War began Germany wanted to makes its presence felt in the seas and built submarines called “U-Boot” in the German Language and started sinking allied ships. One attack on a passenger ship which turned the world’s attention towards the horrors of the war at sea was the sinking of the passenger ship Lusitania. The Germans asserted that the ship was carrying ammunition for the allied war effort. However, it could not justify the killing of innocent American and British citizens who were passengers on that ship. 

The United States did not want to enter the First World War but continued attacks by the Germans at sea and Germany asking Mexico for help against America meant that Germany had provoked America. The US entered the First World War on December 7 1917. This changed the fortunes of both sides since now the allied numbers would increase rapidly. This would mean a sure defeat for Germany and its allies. Germany did not know that an action by Britain had swayed US opinion to join the war. 

The British had intercepted a telegram from Germany which later came to be know as the “Zimmerman Telegram”. This code in this telegram was broken by British code breakers. The telegram tried to persuade Mexico to ally with Germany against the US. American soldiers starting arriving in Europe at the rate of ten thousand a day from the summer of 1918. The US mobilized more than four million personnel. Germany’s numbers had been substantially reduced due to the battles at Somme and Verdun. The US troops were fresh and enthusiastic compared to the loss of morale among the German troops. So, the German morale finally collapsed and they surrendered on 11th November 1918. They knew that the US had given them the final blow.