Discovering the American Past in World War 1 Essay

Discovering the American Past in World War 1 - Essay Example During World War 1, Great Britain and the Germans had navigational barriers. Blockades used by Great Britain were designed to cut central powers off from the war while Americans commercial vessels bonded by the Germans were stopped (Wheeler, Becker and Glover 133). Besides, detention and searching of German ships by the British navy was quite often. The Confinement of German vessels was to stop them from participating in the war and make them a vulnerable target. However, the president of the United States by then, Wilson, protested detention of Germans vessels by the British policy many times but gained no positive results. British navy thought, giving in to the presidents’ demand, would have deprived them their principal military asset as the British army. The presence of the Germans during the war highly gained recognition and feared by the Americans. They perceived the Germans as strong and well-equipped people who would have changed everything and won the war against them . In addition, the Germans blockade was more dangerous since majority of American trade was with France and England. Therefore, the Americans did not trade with Germans, and this could have accelerated their war against the Americans. During the war, different emotions developed within the participating parties of the war. The emotions had to be controlled by the development of propaganda to enable unity of multiethnic and pluralistic society that was behind the war. Moreover, publicity attracted the sufficient number of men in the army services to elicit universal civilian support for the men. Additionally, propaganda assisted in influencing civilians to help was efforts by purchasing war bonds and other actions (Wheeler, Becker and Glover 136). Wheeler, Becker and Glover argue that, in achieving the control of emotions during the war, it entailed propaganda techniques advancement alongside extreme care (138). The propaganda had to attain two features in enabling emotion control and calmness.   First, it was to ensure the portrayal of Allied and American service members as the best and, second, the representation of enemy in the worst possible manner.