On December 7, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany marking their entry into the Great War. As the United States was entering the war, Russia’s internal political revolutions led them to withdraw from the war. At this point the Allies were receiving shipments of supplies from the U.S.; however, the Allies were also desperate for reinforcements. During WWI, the French army suffered around 6 million casualties, including 1.4 million dead and 4.2 million wounded, roughly 71% of those who fought. Out of the one million French infantrymen who died in the war, more than half died between the outbreak of war and November 1915.
In 1914, a schoolteacher in Montmarte district of Paris asked his students, boys ages 8-13, to write essays and express in drawings how the war would affect their daily lives. In this lesson, students will analyze the drawings that his students created when the U.S. entered the war.
More background information can be found at Vive L’Amerique! French Children welcome their American Ally.
