Download Chapter 36 Summary Wilson intended to depart from the foreign

Chapter 36 Summary
Wilson intended to depart from the foreign policies of his three Republican predecessors:
McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. Wilson’s good intentions were complicated by personal assumptions and
prejudices he shared with most Americans: Wilson was a racist. And Wilson had more than a little of the
missionary in him. Both of these were in evidence in Wilson's handling of Mexico. Thanks to ignorance
and arrogance, Wilson did not have a friend in Mexico.
Most of Europe went to war in August 1914. Americans reacted to the sudden explosion with a
mixture of disbelief and disgust. Despite claims of neutrality, a majority of Americans were inclined to
favor Great Britain. There was, however, a reservoir of sympathy for the Central Powers in the country.
Both the Allies and the Central Powers expected a short war. However, by the end of 1914, the war had
bogged down into a line that would move very little for three years. In the forty years since the last war
between major powers, technology had changed the face of warfare. The machine gun made the
cavalry obsolete. Naval warfare was economic warfare, aimed at destroying the enemy’s commerce.
Because the British controlled the seas, the Germans used submarines to impose a blockade of Britain.
When 139 Americans were killed aboard the Lusitania in May 1915, Americans were furious. A year
later, the Germans promised Wilson to observe the rules of visit and search before attacking enemy
ships.
Wilson had begun to prepare for the possibility of war as early as November 1915. Still, he was
considered the peace candidate in 1916 and won reelection. Heartened by his surprising reelection,
Wilson threw himself into an attempt to mediate a peace in Europe. When the Germans resumed
unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson severed diplomatic relations with Germany. In April 1917,
Congress declared war on Germany. The American people’s turn in favor of war was a result of heavyhanded German military brutality and brilliant British propaganda. The anti-German propaganda
blockbuster was a cable sent in February 1917 by the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, to
the Mexican government. Except for the American intervention, 1917 went poorly for the Allies. By the
middle of July 1918, when the Germans attempted one last drive toward Paris, about 85,000 Americans
helped hurl them back at Belleau Wood. On November 11, 1918, the Germans capitulated. In the
trenches and back home, Americans celebrated deliriously. In fact, the infusion of American troops was
the key to the Allied advance to victory in 1918. But the joyous celebration in the United States was
possible only because the American blood sacrifice was so small.