power in Europe and the wider world. It belongs
with the wars of international insanity of the first
half of the twentieth century. When that contest
was decided, it was widely believed, it would
inevitably bring about also the ruin of the imper-
ial world ambitions of the defeated and provide
new imperial prospects of conquest and influence
for the victors. The illusion was fostered that this
contest would settle the power struggle for ever.
Hence the phrase ‘the war to end wars’.
For two small nations there was no choice.
Serbia was guilty of provoking Austria-Hungary
and then in 1914, when faced with the Austrian
ultimatum, fought for its independence. The
Belgians were guilty of nothing. Their misfortune
was their strategic position between France and
Germany. Both French and German military plan-
ners wanted to march through Belgian territory,
but Britain had prevented France from taking the
initiative. Belgium wished to preserve its neutral-
ity. The king of the Belgians, even after the inva-
sion of his country, remained suspicious of both
sides. He claimed he was defending the little bit
of Belgium still free from German occupation as
a neutral and not as an ally of Britain and France.
In the Balkans another small nation, Greece,
was finally brought into the war in 1917 by
France and Britain against the wishes of the
king of Greece. Britain and France sent a military
expedition to Salonika in October 1915 and then
attempted to coerce the pro-German King
Constantine into war on the Allied side. Although
not as blatant as German aggression in Belgium,
it was another violation of the rights of a small
nation.
A number of European countries chose and
were able to remain neutral throughout the war:
the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Switzerland and Spain. Their sympathies between
the contestants were divided.
Some industries in neutral countries experi-
enced a great boom. The Spanish coal mines in
Asturias and textile mills in Catalonia supplied the
French. Dutch industry developed; the Swiss
found a ready market for clocks, machines and
textiles. The shortage of food made farming
highly profitable. But in the last two years of the
war, while the farmers and some industrialists
continued to do well, the standard of living of the
mass of the workers in the neutral countries of
Europe fell due to soaring food prices.The US was by far the most important and pow-
erful of the neutrals from 1914 to 1917, the only
great power in the world not at war. The feeling
of most Americans was that the war in Europe
was but one further chapter in the history of the
folly of European nations; it reinforced in their
view the wisdom of the Founding Fathers in
establishing the American republic and separat-
ing its destiny from the rivalries of Europe. In
Europe, the French, the English, Italians and
Russians were fighting the Germans, Austrians
and Hungarians. During the Easter rising in
Dublin in 1916 some Irish were fighting the
English too; in the US their descendants lived at
peace with each other. Americans were convinced
that they were building a higher civilisation and
from this stemmed a genuine desire to help its
neighbours on the American continent and in
the world to attain the blessings of liberty. This,
too, was the faith of President Wilson. It helps
to explain the missionary style of American
diplomacy.
Wilson’s moralising certainly led to some
decidedly contradictory behaviour. The US inter-
vened on its own continent, sending troops to
the countries of weaker neighbours in Mexico,
Haiti, Santo Domingo and Nicaragua to establish
American supremacy and naval bases in the
Caribbean. But this was not seen as anything at
all like European ‘imperialism’. The purpose of
the US was ‘pure’: to teach its badly governed
neighbours the benefits of American democracy.
If people were enlightened and were given a free
choice then Americans believed they would
choose the American way.
In August 1914 Wilson issued a neutrality
proclamation. Both Allied and German propa-
ganda sought to persuade the American people
that right and justice were on their side. The
Germans emphasised that they were fighting a
despotic and cruel regime in Russia, whose per-
secution of the Jews had already led to a great
exodus of immigrants to the US. The British
dwelt on the rights of small nations and the