There were many changes in the military because of the First World War. One of the major changes was the expansion of the navy. The Naval Act of 1916 and the “preparedness” policy of 1915 made it possible to invest significant sums in the navy in order to develop it (Foner, 777). The United States Navy was not very large before World War I. Since most of the wars the United States participated in were fought on land, the United States did not need a large navy. Just before joining World War I, the United States realized that it needed a better navy if it wanted to fight against the much larger navies of European countries, particularly that of Germany.