American Neutrality
Thinking about the notes from
yesterday, what does this cartoon
mean?
Why no war for the U.S.?
• Europe 3,000 miles
away
• Did not threaten
American lives
• Did not threaten
American property
• Did not appear to be
a national concern
• Public opinion
divided
Opposition to War
• Many still had ties to
nations like German
• From countries that
had grudges against
nations like Britain
• Socialists thought it
was imperialist
competition
• Pacifists thought war
was evil
• Didn’t want children to
experience horrors of
war
Dead soldier
WWI
Sympathy for Allies
• Felt close ties to
Britain-common
language, common
ancestry, common
literature, similar
democratic
institutions and legal
systems
• German aggression
turned off Americans
• Louvain, Belgium
• Economic ties
stronger with Allies
Louvain Belgium
British Blockade
• Britain began to use
its naval strength
• Nothing got in or out
of Germany
• Mined North Sea
Results of Blockade
• American goods
rarely made it to
Germany
• Germany began
running out of food
• 750,000 Germans
starved to death due
to blockade
German U-Boat Response
• Germans blockade
Britain with U-Boats
as a response
• Would sink anything
headed for Britain
• May not be possible
to warn crews before
attack
German U-Boat Response
• German blockade kills • British let no news of
about 75,000 people
German starvation
out of Europe
– Far more visible
– No one knows
Germans are starving
to death
– America judges
Germany more harshly
Lusitania
• British Cruise Ship
• Sunk by German UBoat May 7, 1915
• 1,198 people killed
• 128 Americans killed
Little Known Lusitania Facts
• It was carrying
American weapons to
Britain
• AMERICA WAS
SUPPOSED TO BE
NEUTRAL!
• Germans warned
Americans not to get
on that ship
1916 Election
• President Wilson up
for re-election
• Campaign slogan“He kept us out of
war”
• Wins
• gets us into the war in
1918
Neutrality collapses
• Wilson calls for
“Peace without
victory” in 1917
• Germany feels close
to victory
• Germany resumes
unrestricted
submarine warfare
Neutrality Collapses
• Zimmerman note
discovered
• Germany to Mexico
• Germany would help
Mexico recover
Texas, Arizona, and
New Mexico
Neutrality Collapses
• Germany then sinks
four unarmed
American merchant
ships
• Russia drops out of
war
– Only non-democratic
nation in allies
• Wilson could now say
U.S. needs to join war
to make world “safe
for democracy”
• Wilson asks for war
April 2, 1917
• Congress declares
war