Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit VIII: Waves of Reform: 1880s to 1921
Lesson 2
SITUATIONS IN BRIEF
Europe
The "powder keg" of Europe seemed at first to have little direct relevance to American interests, as the United States was still seemingly insulated from European crises by the Atlantic Ocean. In August 1914, war broke out in Europe; the specific cause was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Serbia. Russia, aided by France, demanded that Austria not punish Serbia for the assassination; Germany joined Austria, and Britain and Italy joined Russia and France. Within weeks, the entire continent was at war.
The overwhelming majority of Americans favored neutrality; most Americans argued that the United States had no vital interests at stake, Irish-Americans eagerly hoped for British military failure, and German-Americans warmly supported the interests of their mother country. President Woodrow Wilson was aware of these divisions, and had reasons of his own for backing neutrality. He distrusted the European powers and the clandestine self-interest of European foreign policy; he disdained the network of secret treaties and alliances that had been instrumental in escalating a modest crisis into a world war. Wilson also believed that the United States should occupy a special place in world affairs -- as a beacon of democracy, freedom, honesty, and justice. In 1914, Wilson based his neutrality policy on his conception of the American role in the world.
The problem was that the United States, as a neutral country, still traded with the nations of Europe, and American shipping thus became a target for the navies of the warring nations, each of which sought to interfere with the naval trade of the other side. New technologies that gave rise to speedy ocean-going naval vessels and the torpedo-firing submarine transformed the nature of naval war, and the plight faced by neutral American vessels. Americans now begin to wonder whether they will be drawn into the conflict; at the same time, news reports of the horrors of war -- poison gas, machine guns, trench warfare, and tanks among them -- appall the American people, who more than ever want to avoid the conflict.