American Neutrality
Dec 27, 2015
American Neutrality
Thinking about the notes from yesterday, what does this cartoon
mean?
Why no war for the U.S.?
• Europe 3,000 miles away
• Did not threaten American lives
• Did not threaten American property
• Did not appear to be a national concern
• Public opinion divided
Opposition to War
• Many still had ties to nations like German
• From countries that had grudges against nations like Britain
• Socialists thought it was imperialist competition
• Pacifists thought war was evil
• Didn’t want children to experience horrors of war
Dead soldierWWI
Sympathy for Allies
• Felt close ties to Britain-common language, common ancestry, common literature, similar democratic institutions and legal systems
• German aggression turned off Americans
• Louvain, Belgium• Economic ties
stronger with Allies
Louvain Belgium
British Blockade
• Britain began to use its naval strength
• Nothing got in or out of Germany
• Mined North Sea
Results of Blockade
• American goods rarely made it to Germany
• Germany began running out of food
• 750,000 Germans starved to death due to blockade
German U-Boat Response
• Germans blockade Britain with U-Boats as a response
• Would sink anything headed for Britain
• May not be possible to warn crews before attack
German U-Boat Response
• German blockade kills about 75,000 people– Far more visible
• British let no news of German starvation out of Europe– No one knows
Germans are starving to death
– America judges Germany more harshly
Lusitania
• British Cruise Ship• Sunk by German U-
Boat May 7, 1915• 1,198 people killed• 128 Americans killed
Little Known Lusitania Facts
• It was carrying American weapons to Britain
• AMERICA WAS SUPPOSED TO BE NEUTRAL!
• Germans warned Americans not to get on that ship
1916 Election
• President Wilson up for re-election
• Campaign slogan- “He kept us out of war”
• Wins• gets us into the war in
1918
Neutrality collapses
• Wilson calls for “Peace without victory” in 1917
• Germany feels close to victory
• Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare
Neutrality Collapses
• Zimmerman note discovered
• Germany to Mexico
• Germany would help Mexico recover Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico
Neutrality Collapses
• Germany then sinks four unarmed American merchant ships
• Russia drops out of war– Only non-democratic
nation in allies
• Wilson could now say U.S. needs to join war to make world “safe for democracy”
• Wilson asks for war April 2, 1917
• Congress declares war