Earliest date the US could join ww1?

With a PoD no earlier than the outbreak of ww1, what would realisitically be the earliest the USA could join the war? On either side but probably the entente.

How would the war be affected if the US joined very early like 1914 or 1915?
 
Shooting from the hip, I’d say May/June 1915, if Germany continues with Unrestricted Submarine Warfare after sinking the Lusitania. Especially, if Germany responds to US demands that they stop undiplomatic (i.e. threats and bellicose language).
 
If Theodore Roosevelt was elected in 1912 there would be a very high chance of Roosevelt forcing the US into war even at the cost of his Presidency, in order to get revenge for the Lusitania.
 
I'd agree that the Lusitania sinking could lead to a US entry if Germany continued to act badly. So by the summer of 1915 the US could enter the war. This is almost two years ahead of real life, so the effects could be significant. The US had ten dreadnought battleships by then with others soon to be completed. If the US sent some of them to join the Grand Fleet (as they did) the naval balance which was already well in Britain's favor now tips pretty decisively. Germany might not even try to set up an engagement in the North Sea. With the addition in naval strength, perhaps the Allies make a renewed push against the Dardanelles. A victory there would be huge. Even without that, American troops start showing up on the Western Front in significant numbers by mid 1916 forcing the Germans to send their reserves there. This becomes a major boost for the Russians, perhaps enough to stave off the disaster in 1917. I could see the war ending by late 1917 or early 1918.
 
If Theodore Roosevelt was elected in 1912 there would be a very high chance of Roosevelt forcing the US into war even at the cost of his Presidency, in order to get revenge for the Lusitania.

TR could do absolutely nothing unless/until the Germans forced the issue be declaring USW against American shipping. Until then, support for intervention was too wealk to have any chance of success, regardless of who was POTUS. If he advocated war Congress would just ignore him.

Assuming no change in German policy, the earliest realistic date would be Feb 1917, a couple of months earlier than OTL.
 

DougM

Donor
Are you changing anything or just wanting the war to go as it did but with the US getting in sooner.
Because a simple POD of a German Sub mistaking a US ship for an English ship could very well get the US involved almost from the start
 

Kaze

Banned
1914 - treaty with England or France could draw the US in like everyone else, but the US ignored the treaty rather selling arms to both sides until the Lusitania.
 
Are you changing anything or just wanting the war to go as it did but with the US getting in sooner.
Because a simple POD of a German Sub mistaking a US ship for an English ship could very well get the US involved almost from the start

No it couldn't.

The Germans would just apologise and claim mistaken identity, as they did OTL after torpedoing the US tanker Gulflight in May 1915.

It would require full-blown USW to produce war and in 1915 the Germans weren't in a bad enough position to make that worth the risk.
 
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