America's Difficult Neutrality (WWI p. 2)

​America's Difficult Neutrality

• President Wilson stated that Americans should remain neutral. 

  • Maintaining neutrality was difficult for several reasons.

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Favoring the Allied Cause

Reasons for Favoring the Allies

• First, American attitudes favored the Allied cause

• Second, although American businesses sold goods and loaned money to both the Allied and Central Powers, the vast majority of trade and loans was with Allied countries, especially Britain 

  • Many Americans were more sympathetic to Allied interests

Reasons for Favoring the Allies

• Third, Americans were influenced by Allied propaganda. 

  • Information spread to advance a cause or damage an opponent's cause

• Fourth, Germany’s treatment of other countries harmed its relationship
  with America.

• Fifth, the biggest difficulty in maintaining neutrality was that Britain and Germany were violating America's neutral rights at sea

Violations of America's Neutrality Rights

• Britain placed mines at the entrances of the North Sea to prevent nations from trading with Germany

• Goods intended for Germany were sent by way of such neutral countries as the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden

  • Those nations then sold the items to
    the Germans

  • This angered the British

  • Britain began to stop all shipping (including banning American ships) bound for those neutral nations.

Violations of America's Neutrality Rights

• According to international law, warships could not sink a merchant or passenger ship until two conditions were met. 

  • Rules by which countries agree to abide

• First, the presence of war materials aboard the vessels had to be confirmed

• Second, the crew and passengers on the ships had to be evacuated

• In February 1915, Germany announced that it intended to follow unrestricted submarine warfare

  • This meant all ships entering a designated war zone around Britain would be subject to attack without warning

Violations of America's Neutrality Rights

• The British passenger ship Lusitania left New York City on May 1, 1915

• When it entered the war zone near Ireland on May 7, the commander of a German submarine spotted the ship and fired a torpedo

  • Within eighteen minutes, the large ship sank and 1,198 passengers and crewmen, including 128 Americans, died

  • President Wilson was deeply moved by the tragedy

Violations of America's Neutrality Rights

• The Germans sank other ships over the next few months

  • Wilson warned the Germans that another attack on a passenger or merchant ship would likely lead to war

  • In May 1916 Germany promised to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare

  • It announced on January 31, 1917 that it would resume it

• Wilson began his second term as president on March 4, 1917

• He learned of a secret German plot

  • The German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, sought to gain Mexico’s support in case America joined the Allies

The Zimmerman Telegram

Zimmerman Telegram

• He sent a telegram to the Mexican government offering to help it reconquer Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

  • Germany hoped that Mexico’s involvement would prevent the US from sending any soldiers to Europe

• The British intercepted and decoded the telegram and forwarded it to the US. 

• When the details of the Zimmermann telegram were first revealed, some Americans believed it was a British hoax. 

• When the message was verified, the Americans were outraged.

Violations of America's Neutrality Rights

• German submarines sank four unarmed American merchant vessels

• April 2, 1917

  • the president requested the House and Senate to formally recognize that Germany had “thrust” a state of war upon the US

  • Within days, the Senate and House agreed to declare war on Germany. 

• April 6

  • the president signed the declaration—America entered World
    War I, joining the Allies.