Who said that the reason for American entry into World War I was to make the world safe for democracy?

Words used by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to justify his call for a declaration of war on Germany. The words implied that Germany's militarism threatened democracy everywhere.

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

The world must be made safe for democracy is a quote from American President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson made this statement in 1917 during a speech before the US Congress, in support of the United States declaring war on Germany during World War I.

The world must be made safe for democracy is one of Wilson’s most famous quotes and is often mentioned in discussions of him. With this statement, Wilson was declaring that governments run by just one person (an autocracy), such as Germany’s during World War I, threatened democracy worldwide and must be stopped. Wilson’s speech and America’s entry into World War I is often remembered as a turning point in world history.

In modern times, public and historical opinion of Woodrow Wilson has severely worsened due to his white supremacist beliefs. His statement is still quoted, however, especially in discussions about the United States’ military actions.

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson gave a speech in front of both houses of Congress. Wilson argued that the United States should declare war on Germany and officially enter World War I. As part of his argument for this, Wilson stated The world must be made safe for democracy. 

In the years prior to Wilson’s speech, Americans were completely against entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. Wilson in particular did not want America to join the war, and his 1916 reelection campaign slogan proudly declared “He kept us out of the war.”

Beginning in 1915, though, Germany began sinking any and all ships in British waters in an attempt to isolate the island country. The constant killing of American sailors changed the public’s view, which would eventually lead to Wilson’s famous speech. Congress would ultimately agree with the president and America would formally declare war on Germany four days after he gave his speech.

Because it is one of his most well-known quotes, The world must be made safe for democracy is almost always mentioned alongside Woodrow Wilson.

President Woodrow Wilson stated that The world must be made safe for democracy to justify America’s involvement in which war?

A. World War II B. World War I C. The Korean War

D. The Vietnam War

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Americans were deeply divided over how to respond to the Great War and expressed a diverse range of views on the conflict. President Woodrow Wilson declared U.S. neutrality on August 4, 1914, and many Americans saw little reason to entangle themselves in what they viewed as European quarreling and intrigue. As the war persisted and the destruction spread, many Americans could not ignore the crisis. President Wilson and other leading Americans, like industrialist Henry Ford, attempted to facilitate negotiations for peace to end the conflict in Europe. Americans organized and provided humanitarian aid to war victims, particularly the monumental relief operation led by Herbert Hoover to feed German-occupied Belgium.

But other forces drew the United States toward war. Cultural ties to Britain tended to outweigh those that German Americans and other European ethnic groups had to their ancestral homelands. Although the United States did profit financially from the war as a neutral nation, Great Britain's naval domination of the seas and blockade of Germany and the other Central Powers meant that Americans primarily traded with the Allies during the war. Germany attempted to counter this imbalance with the widespread use of submarines, the first time these weapons had been extensively deployed in war. German submarines sank merchant ships engaged in what Americans viewed as peaceful trade and killed American passengers on British ocean liners, most notably the Lusitania. As the war raged on in Europe, to many, including eventually President Wilson, the conflict became a matter of principles: whether to uphold the freedom of the seas, to make the world safe for democracy in the face of autocracy, or to establish a new world order ensuring permanent peace and governed by rational law. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.