Topic 2: US Neutrality and WWI

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Video 2

Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire (Turkey today)

VERSUS

Allied Powers: Britain, France, Russia

In 1914, Woodrow Wilson’s wife dies at the same time that Franz Ferdinand is assassinated. Soon Wilson releases a statement that the US will not be fighting in the war.

US floats a bunch of loans to the Allies, supplying them with munitions, food, and materials.

From 1914 to 1917, the US is watching and involved. American ships were sometimes sunk by German U-boats. The US then demands a pledge to not sink US ships. To win, Germany knew they needed to keep US ships from reaching Britain and France, so they keep sinking American ships even though they know that will drag America into war. They took a risky gamble that they could win the war before America got through to Britain and France, but they ended up losing. When they kept sinking US ships, Wilson went to Congress in 1917 to ask for a declaration of war.

On August 4th, 1914, Woodrow Wilson declared their neutrality in the war. He wanted to continue non-involvement in foreign affairs. 

However, individuals mostly favored one side or the other. Irish Americans favored Britain’s opponents because they believed that defeating the British would lead to Ireland gaining independence, while America itself shared British language so they favored Britain. 

The general sentiment shifted in favor of the Allies by 1915, especially after Germany sunk a large American ship and killed many Americans.

In May 1917, Woodrow Wilson declared war.

Time: Neutral

Time: Not neutral

Category: Neutral

Category: Not neutral

1914: Mostly neutral. Woodrow Wilson declares US neutrality in the war and US does not take any action. Citizens are explicitly asked to remain impartial when viewing the war. However, some cultural biases still exist; for example, Irish Americans feel favor towards the Central Powers while Americans feel favor towards the Allied powers along with Britain. They do not act on their biases, though.

By 1915: Not neutral. The sentiment had shifted in favor of the Allies since Germany kept sinking American ships with their U-boats; the hatred of Germany also shifted significantly after they sunk the Lusitania, a massive American boat with many people on-board.

By 1917: US clearly ends their neutrality. Woodrow Wilson declares war and joins on the Allies’ side.

Economic:

N/A

Political:

The US were politically neutral, generally adhering to their declaration of neutrality until they finally declared war in 1917.

Ideological:

N/A

Economic:

US supported the Allies economically, supplying them with munitions, food, and materials.

Political:

N/A

Ideological:

Ideologically, the majority of the US supported the Allies due to anti-German sentiment.

Claim:

The US was neutral from 1914 to 1915, but this changed in 1915 when the US became not neutral due to Germany’s attack on America’s massive ship, the Lusitania.

Claim:

The US was politically neutral, but economically and ideologically not neutral, as they showed support for the Allies both in theory and behind the scenes.

Time: Neutral

1914: Trade on case by case basis

Source 1: 

By 1914, the USA was one of the world’s major trading nations. In that year it exported $549 million worth of goods to Britain and showed a trading surplus of over $300 million. It also sold over $344 million worth of goods to Germany, with a trading surplus of $154 million. 

Some Americans favored the prevention of trade with any of the countries at war because of the complications it could cause. Others argued its continuation would bring prosperity to the USA as all sides needed to buy US goods because of the demands of war.  The Government wanted to maintain trade if only because it received 40 per cent of its revenues from foreign commerce and loss of trade could see a $60 to $100 million deficit in government spending over income. 

At first, commerce was looked at with a case-by-case approach. However, Wilson realized that by using case-by-case considerations the US could be accused of bias. He turned, therefore, to the rules of international law, which ultimately said neutrals could sell to countries at war. Indeed, three international lawyers asserted that any embargo would in fact be illegal, and in December 1914 Germany admitted that traffic in arms was legal. Wilson agreed that it would be wrong to stop selling arms to those who most needed them – in October 1915 for example he didn’t stand in the way of France obtaining a $10 million loan from National City Bank to buy weapons from US interests.  Trade favored the Allies much more than the Germans, in part because of the effectiveness of the British blockade of Germany. Trade with the Allies, much of which was in munitions, stood at $3.2 billion by 1916. This was ten times that of trade with the Central Powers. By 1916 US trade with Germany was only 1% of what it had been in 1914. In its trade policies therefore the USA could hardly be seen to be neutral – it was selling far more to the Allies than to the Central Powers.

Categories: Neutral

Political: Wilson attempted to implement non-biased terms regarding trade and followed the rules of international law for neutral countries.

Time: Not Neutral

1916: Trade only 1% w/Germany, trade favored the Allies over Germany because the British blockaded Germany.

Trade with the Allies $3.2 billion, which was 10x trade with Central Powers

Categories: Not neutral

Economic: $549 mil. of goods to Britain, $344 mil. to Germany

Time: Neutral

1912 - 1914: US exports to Great Britain, France, and Germany stay at a flat rate. Britain still receives more exports, but the amount neither increases nor decreases.

Source 2:

Categories: Neutral

Political: On paper, the US declared political neutrality until 1917.

Time: Not Neutral

1915 - 1916: Britain and France see a significant spike in US exports, while US exports to Germany drop to nearly zero.

Categories: Not neutral

Economic: From 1915 to 1916, US exports to Britain and France increase significantly, while exports to Germany decrease significantly.

Time: Neutral

N/A

Source 3: 

Borrowing: The Allies had by the end of hostilities in 1918 borrowed nearly $7 billion from the USA, which after the war they would need to repay. By the time of the peace settlement, Allied war debts to the USA amounted to $10.5 billion.

Categories: Neutral

N/A

Time: Not Neutral

1918: The US was lending money to the Allies, and continued to do so until the time of the peace settlement.

Categories: Not neutral

Economic: The US were allowing the Allies to borrow money from them.

Political: By 1918, the US had declared war against the Central powers.

Time: Neutral

1914: Woodrow Wilson officially declares neutrality regarding the war.

Source 4: 

President Wilson’s declaration of neutrality August 19, 1914:

“I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against the deepest, most subtle, most essential branch of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men’s souls. We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, and must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”

Categories: Neutral

Political: Wilson declares political neutrality as shown in his speech.

Economic: Wilson vows to keep the US impartial in its transactions.

Ideological: Wilson asks Americans to be impartial in thought as well as in action.

Time: Not Neutral

N/A

Categories: Not neutral

N/A

Time: Neutral

N/A

Source 5: 

Freedom of the seas 

The laws of the sea allowed countries at war to blockade enemy ports, as the British were doing to German ports, and seize cargo classified as ‘contraband’, which could loosely be defined as anything useful to the enemy. At first this caused conflict between Britain and the US because, during the early stages of the war, Britain began seizing US ships and confiscating their cargoes destined for neutral ports, even when they only carried foodstuffs. Britain declared many commodities including food and textiles as contraband and blacklisted foreign firms who traded with the Central Powers. The situation seemed similar to the British blockade during the Napoleonic wars, which had led to the 1812 war between Britain and the USA.

Wilson could justifiably have made far more of a protest because the British seizure of neutral ships verged on illegality. However, Wilson faced the dilemma that, while the British actions might have been unfair on neutral nations, he nevertheless wanted the Allies to win the war. It was also true that American crews were treated with courtesy, and there were no deaths. This was in contrast with the German development of submarine warfare in which vessels might be attacked without warning and loss of life was considerable.

Categories: Neutral

Political: The US was technically politically neutral until 1917.

Time: Not Neutral

1914 onwards: The US allowed Britain to seize their neutral ships without punishment.

Categories: Not neutral

Economic: The US did not protest against British seizure of their neutral ships even when they were only delivering supplies, such as food.

Ideological: Wilson secretly wanted the Allies to win the war and liked that they treated American crews with courtesy.

Time: Neutral

N/A

Source 6: 

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

In February 1915, Germany declared British waters a war zone and reserved the right to sink any ships traveling to Britain – including those flying the flags of neutral countries. They would deploy their new submarine fleet to destroy merchant ships containing essential supplies as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 

Wilson immediately responded by warning Germany he would hold them responsible for the loss of any American lives on ships sunk by Germany. Nevertheless, at the time, some Americans felt unrestricted submarine warfare was a reasonable tactic, and the answer to it was to ensure US ships and civilians weren’t headed to Britain. Wilson’s Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, actually said that merchant ships carrying war supplies couldn’t rely on the presence of women and children to protect them from attack – ships were vulnerable to attack whoever might be among their passengers. 

The German Embassy took out advertising campaigns in the USA to warn Americans not to travel to Britain. It might be argued that if the USA had banned its citizens from traveling to Britain, the issue of unrestricted submarine warfare would not have been a major issue there. In March 1916 the anti-war Texas Representative Jeff McLemore introduced a resolution, which the Senate tabled, to ban American citizens from traveling on any neutral or belligerent ship carrying contraband cargo; Wilson insisted it be rejected. Some historians have argued his personal pride was at stake – the president should be able to protect his citizens wherever they traveled.

Categories: Neutral

N/A

Time: Not Neutral

February 1915: The US engaged in political rivalry with Germany by disregarding their warning that American ships travelling to Britain would be subject to attack and continuing to send American ships.

Categories: Not neutral

Political: The US disregarded Germany’s law warning that they would attack US ships travelling to Britain. Wilson himself rejected the idea for a ban on US citizens travelling to Britain.

Ideological: Because of WIlson’s personal pride, he opposed Germany’s laws and continued sending merchant ships to Britain.