Changes

The '''Preparedness Movement''' was an effort by Americans outside the government to prepare the military --and the American people--for entry into [[World War I]].

The '''Preparedness Movement''' was an effort by Americans outside the government to prepare the military --and the American people--for entry into [[World War I]].

see [[American enrty into World War I]]

see [[American entry into World War I]]

The World War broke out in 1914--Americans wer astonished and were officially neutral. By 1915, Americans were paying much more attention to the war. The German atrocities against civilians in belgium and especially the illegal u-boat sinking of the British passenger liner ''[[Lusitania]]'' was the eye-opener for most people regarding German brutality.<ref> International law said that in wartime it was permissible to sink a merchant or passenger ship only after the creew and passengers were give time to get into life boats. The ''Lusitania'' sank in 15 minutes and most passengers drowned.</ref> In 1915, a strong "Preparedness" movement emerged. It argued that the United States needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that America would fight sooner or later. General [[Leonard Wood]] (still on active duty after serving a term as Chief of Staff of the Army), ex-president [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and former secretaries of war [[Elihu Root]] and [[Henry Stimson]] were the driving forces behind Preparedness, along with many of the nation's most prominent bankers, industrialists, lawyers and scions of prominent families. Indeed there emerged an "Atlanticist" foreign policy establishment, a group of influential Americans drawn primarily from upper-class lawyers, bankers, academics, and politicians of the Northeast, committed to a strand of Anglophile internationalism.<ref> John P. Finnegan, ''Against the Specter of a Dragon: The Campaign for American Military Preparedness, 1914-1917'' (1975)</ref>   

The World War broke out in 1914--Americans wer astonished and were officially neutral. By 1915, Americans were paying much more attention to the war. The German atrocities against civilians in belgium and especially the illegal u-boat sinking of the British passenger liner ''[[Lusitania]]'' was the eye-opener for most people regarding German brutality.<ref> International law said that in wartime it was permissible to sink a merchant or passenger ship only after the creew and passengers were give time to get into life boats. The ''Lusitania'' sank in 15 minutes and most passengers drowned.</ref> In 1915, a strong "Preparedness" movement emerged. It argued that the United States needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that America would fight sooner or later. General [[Leonard Wood]] (still on active duty after serving a term as Chief of Staff of the Army), ex-president [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and former secretaries of war [[Elihu Root]] and [[Henry Stimson]] were the driving forces behind Preparedness, along with many of the nation's most prominent bankers, industrialists, lawyers and scions of prominent families. Indeed there emerged an "Atlanticist" foreign policy establishment, a group of influential Americans drawn primarily from upper-class lawyers, bankers, academics, and politicians of the Northeast, committed to a strand of Anglophile internationalism.<ref> John P. Finnegan, ''Against the Specter of a Dragon: The Campaign for American Military Preparedness, 1914-1917'' (1975)</ref>