By the turn of the century, US military strength and political dominance had reached a level of prestige which many nations hesitated to challenge. Referring to a statement from chapter one, the geographic isolation of the United States allowed the nation to remain relatively separate from the immediate effects of European power politics and reach the aforementioned level of prestige. With this being said, public opinion and the depart from isolationism placed the United States in a unique position.
On June 28, 1914, the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip cleaved the fragile european balance of power. Within a matter of weeks, the two conflicting nations and their respective international alliances were launched into war. The conflict, which managed to include France, Britain, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, Japan, Italy, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, evidently shook the world.
At home, president Woodrow Wilson, who had shown very little interest in foreign affairs prior to his first term in the White House, made the decision to remain neutral in the conflict while seeking to broker a peace. This idea was widely supported throughout the US. Irrespective of their motive, support included Irish-Americans and German-Americans, both men and women alike. The consensus in public opinion remained relatively consistent for the first few years of the war, even in spite of a Gearman U-boat attack on the RMS Lusitania, killing one hundred twenty-eight American civilians and sinking the vessel in twenty minutes. This feat, which was a direct violation of the laws of war that prohibited the sinking of a passenger ship without allowing the individuals to reach life boats, unsettled the American public and caused a change in the opinion on Germany, who was now seen as a “bloodthirsty threat to civilization.” Despite this, president Wilson chose to denounce the violations and continue to pursue neutrality.
Things changed however when Germany, after apologizing for the incident and promising to stop attacks by U-boats, saw the opportunity to gain leverage on Britain via unrestricted submarine warfare and made overtures in Mexico as discovered in the Zimmermann Telegram, with the hope of diverting US militaristic attention to its southern border. This decision, which was not approved by the government in Berlin, rather by military commanders and the Kaiser, along with the repeated sinking of US merchant ships in 1917, called for Wilson to take action.
Upon obtaining a declaration of war in April 1917, the United States was jus ad bellum. The goal? Ending aggressive militarism and ending all wars; a clear mark in the new direction of United States foreign policy.
The International Review 