, a third of the people in the United States were either born or had parents who were born in the countries that were fighting and nearly 10 million came from Germany and Austria-Hungary. Americans didn't want to be involved with the war and Woodrow Wilson declared that the U.S. was neutral. When the British ship Lusitania was sunk, 128 Americans on board were killed. And, the war hurt American shipping when U-boats attacked ships headed for Britain. The last straw came when a telegram from the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to Mexico was discovered. The telegram asked Mexico to join forces with Germany against the United States. On April 6, 1917, America declared war on Germany.World War I caused a lot of changes in America. The government passed the Selective Service Act in 1917. This gave U.S. government the power to draft men to serve in the armed forces and even today, we have to register for the draft. During the war about 1 million women went to work outside the home while the men were overseas. This helped change politics because, after the war, women gained the right to vote. Another change in America caused by labor shortages during the war was that hundreds of thousands of African-Americans moved from the South to cities in the north to work in factories. When so many blacks moved to cities like Chicago, New York and St. Louis, racial distrust became a problem. Some of these problems still continue today.I have learned that World War I was a very important event that changed the world forever. It made us a part of the world powers and strengthened our army, making us ready for things to come. Little did we know that in just about twenty years we would be fighting in Europe again. It's interesting that even today there are still conflicts in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the world hasn't learned its lesson from World War I....
