![]() ![]() Even as the nation grappled with the enormous challenge of mobilizing for war and sending troops to the Western Front, Wilson began articulating the specific points of his ambitious vision to mold this conflict into "the war to end all wars." Most of all, the United States could "bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at least free." For almost three years, Wilson had struggled to safeguard American neutrality, but now the mission was far greater. By entering the conflict, predicted Wilson, the United States could use its share of victory to spread democracy, eradicate authoritarian rule, and sweep away the entangling, selfish military alliances that had engulfed Europe in war. The President duly noted German provocations, yet, as he stated in eloquent if abstract language, this was no mere retaliation against an aggressor. On April 2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Revelation the next month that Germany had sought a military alliance with Mexico (the infamous Zimmermann telegram) added to American outrage. Desperate to cut off Britain's access to food and munitions, Germany rescinded the Sussex pledge and commenced unrestricted submarine warfare in February. Embroiled in a conflict that had inflicted horrifying casualties, the belligerents ignored the proposal. In January 1917, Wilson delivered his "Peace without Victory" speech, which called for an end to the war and the creation of an international organization that would ensure peace through arms reductions, freedom on the seas, and the promotion of democratic rule. In November, Wilson won re-election, but the margin of victory was slim. Wilson now faced an acute dilemma: the more he tried to preserve neutrality, the closer the nation came to war. Not only did Britain refuse, it also began blacklisting American companies trading with Germany. ![]() In return, Germany expected the United States to pressure Britain to end its naval blockade. In May 1916, Wilson secured a German promise, known as the Sussex pledge, to not attack merchant ships without warning. German sinking of passenger ships, most notably the Lusitania in May 1915, further strained the U.S. Wilson and the Department of State strongly protested British infractions of American neutrality but did not retaliate. banks to warring nations to be a violation of neutrality, such lending was legal, and, in 1915, loans and credits began flowing to Europe, with most of the money going to the Allied side. Although Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan declared loans from U.S. Britain's expansive definition of contraband-prohibited items-provided an excuse to interdict American merchant vessels and seize almost anything headed to Germany. While exports to the Central Powers totaled $169 million in 1914, the United States shipped goods worth $825 million to their opponents. trade practices already favored the Allied nations. Such trade was, of course, an internationally recognized right of a neutral nation, but U.S. With an economic recession underway, American manufacturers, munitions makers, and agricultural producers were eager to capitalize on the belligerents' need for their goods. However, neutrality quickly proved easier to declare than practice. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized, calling the attack an unfortunate mistake.Americans welcomed their President's statement of neutrality in August 1914, believing that the European conflict was none of their business. Frye, a private American merchant vessel that was transporting grain to England when it disappeared. One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines and, in February 1915, Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. Britain, however, was one of America’s closest trading partners and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter’s attempted blockade of the British isles. ![]() When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. On January 31, 1917, Germany announces the renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic as German torpedo-armed submarines prepare to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sighted in war-zone waters. ![]()
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