AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR ★^743especially Germany and Britain, as they competed for political and military
dominance at home and carved up Asia and Africa into rival empires, mankind
seemed to have moved beyond the time when disputes were settled by war.
The conflict was also a shock to European socialist and labor movements. Of
the two great ideologies that had arisen in the nineteenth century, nationalism
and socialism, the former proved more powerful. Karl Marx had called on the
“workers of the world” to unite against their oppressors. Instead, they marched
off to kill each other.
Neutrality and Preparedness
As war engulfed Europe, Americans found themselves sharply divided.
British- Americans sided with their nation of origin, as did many other Amer-
icans who associated Great Britain with liberty and democracy and Germany
with repressive government. On the other hand, German- Americans identified
with Germany. Irish- Americans bitterly opposed any aid to the British, a sen-
timent reinforced in 1916 when authorities in London suppressed the Easter
Rebellion, an uprising demanding Irish independence, and executed several
of its leaders. Immigrants from the Russian empire, especially Jews, had no
desire to see the United States aid the czar’s regime. Indeed, the presence of
Russia, the world’s largest despotic state, as an ally of Britain and France made
it difficult to see the war as a clear- cut battle between democracy and autoc-
racy. Many feminists, pacifists, and social reformers, moreover, had become
convinced that peace was essential to further efforts to enhance social justice
at home. They lobbied vigorously against American involvement. So did large
numbers of religious leaders, who viewed war as a barbaric throwback to a less
Christian era.
When war broke out in 1914, President Wilson proclaimed American neu-
trality. But as in the years preceding the War of 1812, naval warfare in Europe
reverberated in the United States. Britain declared a naval blockade of Germany
and began to stop American merchant vessels. Germany launched submarine
warfare against ships entering and leaving British ports. In May 1915, a German
submarine sank the British liner Lusitania (which was carrying a large cache
of arms) off the coast of Ireland, causing the death of 1,198 passengers, includ-
ing 124 Americans. Wilson composed a note of protest so strong that Bryan
resigned as secretary of state, fearing that the president was laying the founda-
tion for military intervention. Bryan had advocated warning Americans not to
travel on the ships of belligerents, but Wilson felt this would represent a retreat
from the principle of freedom of the seas.
The sinking of the Lusitania outraged American public opinion and
strengthened the hand of those who believed that the United States must
How did the United States get involved in World War I?