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 soldierWWI

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 about 75,000 people– Far more visible

• British let no news of German starvation out of Europe– No one knows

Germans are starving to death

– America judges Germany more harshly

Lusitania

• British Cruise Ship• Sunk by German U-

Boat 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