Download The United States and the Outbreak of WWI

The United States
and the Outbreak
of WWI
1914-1917
• “It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to
deal chiefly with foreign affairs.”
- Woodrow Wilson
Key Quote
• Upon the outbreak of
WWI, Wilson tried to be
an honest broker
between both Great
Britain and Germany.
• It was the intention of
the United States to
remain neutral in the
conflict.
• The fighting was between European imperialist powers.
• There were no vital U.S. interests at stake.
• Many industries benefitted from providing war material
• Many Americans placed their faith in the notion of “U.S.
exceptionalism” – their belief that the superior
democratic values and institutions set their country apart
from other nations and make it immune from the
corruption and chaos of international struggles.
• The “shining city upon a hill” all over again.
Why not enter the war?
• Wilson asked Americans to be “neutral in fact as well as
in name, impartial in thought as well as in action.”
• There were many Americans with cultural ties to both Britain and
France.
BUT
• Many Irish-Americans resented Great Britain for having occupied
their country for hundreds of years.
IN ADDITION
• The U.S. was home to over 10 million German/Austro-Hungarian
immigrants.
Weak support for the war.
• America stood to profit handsomely from the war. New technology such as
the machine gun, invented by American ex-pat Hiram Maxim while living in
Britain, changed the way the war would be fought.
• The Browning Rifle, of which over 50 000 were in use in the war by the time
it ended. Gun technology had improved to where they had an effective range
of 1000 yards – far greater than the 300-yard range found in the best Civil
War guns.
• And LOTS of ammunition was sent overseas.
• The hope on the part of America was that they could
remain out of the war, then find a way to arbitrate and
influence its ultimate settlement.
• By early 1914, Great Britain
had established a naval
blockade on all shipments to
the Central Powers
• The U.S. complained, but saw a
significant increase in trade
with the allies, leading to
incredible increases in
revenues.
• In 1914, American trade with
France and Britain totalled
roughly $824 million; by 1916,
it was $3.2 billion.
• In contrast, by 1917, the U.S.
only traded $29 with Germany.
The cost of neutrality
• The British blockades forced the Germans to both
respond in kind, and to help shipments meant for them to
get through.
• The Unterseeboat was a submarine used in economic
warfare - The primary targets of the U-boat campaigns
were the merchant convoys bringing supplies from
Canada, the British Empire and the United States to the
islands of Great Britain.
Enter the U-Boat
• How would the U-Boats affect America?
• On May 7, 1915, the British passenger ship “Lusitania”
was sunk by a German U-boat. 128 Americans died.
• Americans were incensed.
• In September of 1915, Germany vowed that they would
no longer sink passenger ships without warning.
The Lusitania
• Anti-war sentiment in the United States still rang strong.
• Theodore Roosevelt sought the Republican nomination,
but largely due to his pro-war stance, he lost the nom to
Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
• Democrats re-nominated Woodrow Wilson.
Election of 1916
• Wilson would win a narrow victory over Hughes,
campaigning with the slogan, “He kept us out of war.”
• On 16 January, 1917, a telegram from Arthur
Zimmerman, Germany’s foreign minister to the German
minister in Mexico City was intercepted.
• The telegram was an effort on the part of Germany to
convince Mexico to join the Central Powers.
• In return, Germany promised to help Mexico regain the
“lost” territory of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
• Publication of the contents of the telegram changes the
opinion of both congress and the public toward the war.
The Zimmerman Telegram
• Mexico had recently undergone
a revolution.
• The U.S. supported
constitutionalist Venustiano
Carranza.
• Rebel Pancho Villa (pictured)
led raids on U.S. border towns
in early 1916.
• Wilson sent troops to capture
Villa
• Carranza demanded that U.S.
troops leave Mexico.
• In early 1917, the American
troops left.
• In early 1917, the Germans, needing to end the stalemate
in Europe, opt to re-instate unrestricted submarine
warfare.
• Many American ships were lost – three on March 18,
1917 alone.
• Woodrow Wilson asks congress for a declaration of war.
• Wins additional public support with his explanation, that
“America had no selfish aims: we desire no conquest, no
dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no
material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely
make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of
mankind.”
• U.S. participation in the war would make the world “Safe
for democracy.”
• On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany
and her allies.
• The American decision to enter the conflict confirmed one of
the most important shifts of power in the 20th century.
• Prior to the war, the world was dominated by European
powers. By the time the war was over, and certainly since then,
it has been increasingly dominated by the United States.