WAR AND NEUTRAL RIGHTS
To the American public of 1914, the outbreak of war in Europe — with Germany and Austria-Hun- gary fighting Britain, France, and Russia — came as a shock . At first the encounter seemed remote, but its economic and political effects were swift and deep . By 1915 U .S . industry, which had been mildly de- pressed, was prospering again with munitions orders from the West- ern Allies . Both sides used propa- ganda to arouse the public passions of Americans — a third of whom were either foreign-born or had one or two foreign-born parents . More- over, Britain and Germany both act- ed against U .S . shipping on the high seas, bringing sharp protests from President Woodrow Wilson .
Britain, which controlled the seas, stopped and searched Ameri-
can carriers, confiscating “contra- band” bound for Germany . Germa- ny employed its major naval weapon, the submarine, to sink shipping bound for Britain or France . Presi- dent Wilson warned that the United States would not forsake its tradi- tional right as a neutral to trade with belligerent nations . He also declared that the nation would hold Germa- ny to “strict accountability” for the loss of American vessels or lives . On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sunk the British liner Lusitania, kill- ing 1,198 people, 128 of them Amer- icans . Wilson, reflecting American outrage, demanded an immediate halt to attacks on liners and mer- chant ships .
Anxious to avoid war with the United States, Germany agreed to give warning to commercial ves- sels — even if they flew the enemy flag — before firing on them . But
CHAPTER 10: WAR, PROSPERITY, AND DEPRESSION
“The chief business of the American people
is business.”
President Calvin Coolidge, 1925
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
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after two more attacks — the sink- ing of the British steamer Arabic in August 1915, and the torpedoing of the French liner Sussex in March 1916 — Wilson issued an ultimatum threatening to break diplomatic re- lations unless Germany abandoned submarine warfare . Germany agreed and refrained from further attacks through the end of the year .
Wilson won reelection in 1916, partly on the slogan: “He kept us out of war .” Feeling he had a mandate to act as a peacemaker, he delivered a speech to the Senate, January 22, 1917, urging the warring nations to accept a “peace without victory .”