![]() The Germans felt they had to use submarines because their surface fleet was too small to defeat the British navy let alone establish an effective counter-blockade. To many Americans this was a brutal violation of the laws of war. German submarines attacked without warning, and passengers had little chance of to save themselves. ![]() The situation was very different when the Germans turned to submarine warfare. When the British (who provided most of the blockading ships) intercepted an American ship, the ship was escorted into a British port, the crew was well treated, and there was a chance of damage payments if it turned out that the interception was a mistake. ![]() Ultimately, however, it was not the conventional surface vessels used by Britain and France to enforce its blockade that enraged American opinion, but rather submarines used by Germany. The situation was similar to the difficulties the United States experienced during the Napoleonic wars, which drove the United States into a quasi-war against France, and to war against Britain. Britain and France responded by extending the blockade to include the Baltic neutrals. Surely, the Americans argued, international law protected the right of one neutral to trade with another. firms took to using European neutrals, such as Sweden, as intermediaries. The Wilson Administration complained bitterly that the blockade violated international law. Soon after the war began Britain, France, and their allies set up a naval blockade of Germany and Austria. The insistence of the United States on her trading rights was also important. By 1917 it was clear that Britain and France were nearing exhaustion, and there was considerable sentiment in the United States for saving our traditional allies. What, then, impelled the United States to enter? What role did economic forces play? One factor was simply that Americans generally – some ethnic minorities were exceptions – felt stronger ties to Britain and France than to Germany and Austria. By the time the United States entered the war Americans knew that the price of victory would be high. Once the war began, however, it became clear that Churchill was right. “I have frequently been astonished to hear with what composure and how glibly Members, and even Ministers, talk of a European War.” He went on to point out that in the past European wars had been fought by small professional armies, but in the future huge populations would be involved, and he predicted that a European war would end “in the ruin of the vanquished and the scarcely less fatal commercial dislocation and exhaustion of the conquerors.” Reasons for U.S. Few had the understanding shown by a 26 year-old conservative Member of Parliament, Winston Churchill, in 1901. Many Europeans entered the war thinking that victory would come easily. ![]() ![]() A few months later the great powers of Europe were at war. On Jin Sarajevo Gavrilo Princip, a young Serbian revolutionary, shot and killed Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. The war in Europe, of course, began long before the United States entered. economy turned out a vast supply of raw materials and munitions. Over four million Americans served in the armed forces, and the U.S. (See the chronology at the end for key dates). Although the United States was actively involved in World War I for only nineteen months, from April 1917 to November 1918, the mobilization of the economy was extraordinary. ![]()
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