ahh okay thank you! i will probably learn about this, this year! 
It's been a few weeks since I was on here last, I was on a vacation.
My advice to your comment is don't wait to learn, seek the information at once. In this day and age we have the internet. The good and bad of the internet is that the good part is it's quick, you can gather key words and main ideas on subjects, the bad is it hardly goes into the depth and detail the printed text does and often, to this day, there are errors, omissions, and too many opinons influencing the historical and factual records vis a vis the instant publishing on the internet. However, take those keywords and ideas and use the library to further the research.
A word on Cause vs. Catalyst
cat·a·lyst/ˈkatl-ist/Noun
1. A substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.
2. A person or thing that precipitates an event.It's always important to define terms. This helps to eliminate confusion and it lets everyone know exactly what is meant. To stay on topic of WWI, the causes of this war were many, such as the build up alliances to one side or the other of the European powers. You had the Triple Entente, allying Great Britain, France, and Russia. And then there was the Triple Alliance where Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The catalysts are probably better know as "the last straw" the final event to "tip the scales" or begin the biggerbiggest event.
According to the text "The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People" 2nd Ed. By Alan Brinkley (1997) pg. 634, there was an Anglo-German rivalry which "...may have been the most important underlying source of the tensions that led to World War I, but it was not the immediate cause of the outbreak."
Enter the catalyst: June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian Empire, is assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, while there on an official state visit. Within two months Europe was at war, or at least the two alliances were at war with each other. Germany wants to punish Serbia, Serbia calls on help from Russia, and it all snowballs from there.
US Involvement and Lusitania
President Wilson was committed to staying neutral. In the beginning of the war the US logic was trade should still be possibly between the US and Germany and the US and Britain, because of the neutrality position. But Britain had established at naval blockade against Germany and the US quickly realized they could do without trade with the Germans but not with the British so therefore that's were the economic trade gravitated toward. Germany's retaliation to the naval blockade was a new instrument of warfare: submarines. Their objective was to sink all enemy vessels on sight: military and merchant. May 7, 1915 was the sinking of the Lusitanian. 1198 souls lost, 128 of them Americans. According to the Brinkley text (pg635-36) the ship was carrying munitions. Despite this incident, it was not the cause, nor the sole reason, for America sending troops to Europe for WWI, it was only the beginning of a series of events, mostly naval related, that would ultimately lead to US war involvement.
Germany's Policy
Germany continued it's unrestricted submarine warfare sinking any enemy ship as fair game. A French vessel, the Sussex, was hit weeks later, also involving American citizens. Again, Wilson insisted Germany stop, yet no other action was taken. Throughout 1916, a re-election year for Wilson, the president campaigned on passivism and not going to war, despite continued antagonism by Germany. Wilson wins re-election, but begins almost immediately on preparing for war. His idea was that the US had no material gains in going to war. The only objective was to establish a new world. "Peace without victory" - the aim of his idea of the league of nations. However, the American catalyst to get involved in the fighting was soon to come.
Zimmerman Telegram
January 1917: Germany begins a major ground offensive on France. At the same time they ramp up their unrestrictive submarine warfare to include any and all American vessels. February 25: British intercept a message from Germany to Mexico promising to help reclaim lost territories, like Texas, if they help join to fight against the US. In March, the Russian czar was toppled and replaced by a republican form of government, which pleased President Wilson because he did not want to ally with a monarchy. Also that month, 3 American ships were torpedoed by Germany submarines. This was the final straw for Wilson, who took his appeal to Congress to ask for a declaration of war against Germany. It took from April 2nd to the 6th for Congress to pass a resolution under a hot debate. In the end it passed, but 50 representatives and 6 senators voted against it.
Stalemate
By now both sides of Europe were at an awful standstill. The German ground offensive had ended the conflict like they wanted, but their subs were sinking 1 in 4 ships at sea. America initially got involved through navy only, but it was quickly realized that a land war was necessary. A draft was passed thus the US involvement was fully realized.
All of the above was taken from the Brinkley text mentioned, from Ch. 23: "America and the Great War," pgs 633-640. It's too bad this is the only book I could find in my collection that goes into even this much detail about WWI. Paying a visit to my parents house and pouring over the many, many Time-Life and other history books my dad collected over the decades (he's been a history teach since well before I was born) I come to find that most of his collections center around WWII. Even the "This Fabulous Century" collection, by Time-Life, was very limited in it's particulars on WWI, although it illustrates the personal life both on the home front and soldiers very well. Now my interest is piqued and I'm going to have to find a book exclusive on the topic of WWI.
I'm glad I held onto most of my college texts. It seems I get more use out of them now than back then. So there’s today’s impromptu history lesson. Hopefully you’ll be ahead of the class now.
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