There were many changes in the army due to the First World War. One of the major changes was the expansion of the navy. The Naval Act of 1916 and the “preparation” policy of 1915 allowed large sums of money to be invested in the navy to expand it (Foner, 777). The United States Navy was not very large before World War I. Since most of the wars America fought were land-based, the United States had no need for a large Navy. Just before entering World War I, the United States realized that it needed a better navy if it wanted to fight against the significantly larger navies of European countries, especially the German one.