Although America did not declare war on Germany until 1917, they had been involved in the war from the beginning supplying Britain and France with weapons and bombs.

On May 2nd 1915 the British passenger liner Lusitania was drowned by a torpedo from a German submarine. 1195 passengers, including 128 Americans, lost their lives. Americans were outraged and put pressure on the government to enter the war.

Woodrow Wilson  campaigned for a peaceful end to the war. He told both sides to try and settle the war by showing the ability to deal with other people in a sensitive way , but was unsuccessful.

In February 1917, the Germans announced an submarine warfare campaign. They planned to sink any ship that came Britain whether it was a military ship, supply ship or passenger ship.

On April 3rd 1917, Wilson made a speech declaring that America would enter the war and restore peace to Europe.

The United States declared war on Germany on April 6th 1917.The  American soldiers joined the French and British soldiers in  summer in 1918. They were strong and not weary  and determined to defeat the Germans.

The German leader Erich Ludendorff  was a brilliant military commander and had won many decisive victories.In 1918 he announced ” if Germany won the war then the allies had to be defeated on the Western Front before the arrival of American troops.”

Although his offensive was successful ,the allies eventually pushed the Germans back.

By 1918 socialists were waiting for the chance to seize Germany as they had in Russia. In October Ludendorff resigned and the orders that the English government gave were ignored by the  German navy. The end was near. Kaiser Wilhelm II was heir to the thrown on November 9th 1918 as the German emperor.

On 11th November the leaders of both sides held a meeting in Ferdinand Foch and finally the armistice (agreement)  was made at 6am and came into force five hours later(at 11am).