On April 1, 1917 the American steamer Aztec was torpedoed and 28 of the crew drowned. The following day, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. On the 4th, the Senate voted 82-6 to go to war, and on the 6th, the House of Representatives voted 373-50 to go to war and the United States of America was now officially in a state of war with the German Empire. That day, 91 German ships were seized in American ports.
The US fleet was mobilised and the Naval reserve was called to colours. Congress voted an emergency war fund of $100,000,000 (equal $3,700,000,000 in 2017). Getting men and material to Europe was going to take a lot of time and organisation, but the wheels were now in motion, although many American were in fact already fighting and dying in the war. Some had joined the British or Canadian armies; some flew for the French in the Lafayette Escadrille or had enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.
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