To be succinct, America’s involvement in World War 1 was nearly exclusively based upon the country’s financial interest.  By the time World War 1 started, The United States economy relied heavily on exports ranging over $1.3 billion dollars annually. Imports had increased to over $613 million dollars annually at the same time period. The U.S had an invested itself in foreign affairs substantially, American banks  had given loans in excess of $500 million dollars to Great Britain, who was the United States’ most important trade partner, and supplying the Allied war effort had become a $3 billion dollar a year enterprise. This made the break from isolationism and entrance into the war a necessity rather than a choice. The Americans may have come late to the war, but its contributions are incalculable. With the country’s clever calculated risk, militarily and economically, it strategically placed itself as a world leader. America unquestionably came out of World War 1 as the world’s largest superpower. It had established its worldly military might and spread its moral imperative as it willed. Careful positioning of itself and a dedication to capitalism had won the day. Directly after the war the U.S experienced unseen financial growth. The economy ballooned and the country doubled its wealth in the decade following the war.  This was all from choices made prior to and during World War 1.  In hindsight, we know that just a few short years later the Great Depression would rock the world, and yes the United States suffered as well. Nonetheless, the U.S had finally broken out of its initial isolationism and firmly cemented itself as a world power. 
The history books on the aforementioned events have been strongly written. Surely, there will be many more. This is one of those topics, if learned as a young American student, that you are taught one way and later in life realize the truth was far from what you were taught. The propaganda machine continues to roll, so to speak.  A simple cursory view of the information available to a person leaves no question as to the American motives that controlled, and still control, the United States. The only question that remains is determining if those motives are nefarious. The U.S did not appear to set out to become a super-power, in fact it seems that the American people wanted nothing to do with even the thought of being a world leader. The country chased profits and financial security from simple crop fields all the way into an industrialized war. Money was America’s only real goal and passion. The American people may have resisted slightly at first, but with just a bit of gentle prodding of patriotism and few warm feelings of moral superiority and they were willing to go anywhere, do anything, to help the country build its empire and secure its financial holdings. A byproduct of which was actively participating in the evolution of America into not only “a” super-power, but “THE” super-power. There is a subset of historians and the population as a whole that view war as evil. That may be true. The fact is humans are a warring species. Have been since the beginning. For thousands of years, cultures have fought over land and whatever they deem valuable at the time. As an individual, it is easy to criticize and poke holes in the methods of the nation as a whole during these time periods. As a historian, it is amazing to recognize that it took an upstart country with no starting military less than one-hundred and fifty years to become the most powerful empire and military force in the world. Genghis Kahn would be proud.  It truly is “American” that being capitalist and chasing the almighty dollar led the country to accidently fall into the role of a world leader. Another hundred years have passed since World War 1, the world, whether it likes to admit it or not, still looks to the United States as a financial and military leader. America still chases profits all over the world and protects them at all cost. That in itself shows how successful the evolution of America was in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It also shows how powerful money is. Cause and effect, action and reaction, win or lose, America lives and dies by the dollar. It is the American way.

