0.2 The great war (part i)  (Page 6/14)

The immediate cause of the war was the assassination of the Austrian Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand (the number two man in Austria) at the hands of Russian-leaning separatists in Serbia. Austria demanded that Serb officials hand over the assassins. When they failed to do so, Austria threatened to invade. That threat prompted Germany to mobilize its forces. Germany had an agreement with Austria that the former would mobilize to protect the latter’s eastern flank fearing Russia might come to the aid of the Serbs.

Diplomacy failed and war came, again, to Europeans in the summer of 1914. Unlike previous wars, this one proved to be horrific in the sheer number of causalities. For example, the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) resulted in over 500,000 casualties among German, French, and British forces. Europe will eventually lose an entire generation of men before the guns fall silent on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918.

Wilsonian Neutrality

Wilson asked Americans to be extreme and impartial in their neutrality. He asked Americans to be impartial in thought, word, and action. His reasons for this extreme impartiality were many. First, Wilson was concerned about how a protracted European conflict would affect the American economy. Second, there was a pervasive fear towards German immigrants. Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and South and North Dakota saw massive increases in their German populations following the decades after the Civil War. Some wondered if those immigrants would support their newly-adopted land or their motherland. Third, why should the US pick a side? There was no reason to believe that this war would be any different from the other European conflicts that the US did not participate such as the Balkan War, Franco-Prussian War, or the Crimean War.

Finally, Woodrow Wilson dreamed about creating what he called the “New World Order.” Only be remaining neutral would the US be in the best position (economically, militarily, politically, and diplomatically) to remake the world following fourteen simple ideas. Called his “Fourteen Points Address,” Wilson announced very specific American war aims in January of 1917 only after he failed to get England and France to issue their own vision for the world.

The Unmanly Business of Submarine Warfare

Wilson will inevitably use German submarine warfare, to which he called a “cruel and unmanly business,” as one of his justifications for going to war although that pretext will be based on the idea of neutral rights. Challenges to American neutrality came predominantly from England. The Royal Navy threw up an undeclared blockade and mined the North Sea. Both of these actions flew in the face of international agreements, such as the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions. In addition, England armed merchant ships, which was strictly prohibited by international covenants. England stopped US ships and confiscated US property that appeared on England’s list of items that they would not allow to be sold or traded during war. England blacklisted American companies that traded with neutral countries suspected of trading with Germany or its allies. England routinely stopped US mail ships, confiscated letters and packages, opened the US mail, and then censured or destroyed what England decided was counter to their war efforts.