American entry into the First World War

It is unknown to many, but Germans were one of the founding stocks of the American people. Even before America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, many Germans found a home in the British colonies, particularly in Pennsylvania, where a large chunk of the “Pennsylvania Dutch” were not even Dutch; they were South German Palatines. Through my fraternal grandmother’s lineage, I descend from these Pennsylvania Dutch Palatines.

Germans would also increasingly become a large immigrant group within the United States throughout the decades, with German Americans in fact being the largest ethnic group within the entirety of the United States. Many presidents, past and present, have at least partial German ancestry.

A united German Empire was formed in 1870; the United States gave the new empire its utmost approval, and the two nations would have friendly relations in the coming years, though our relationship had more than a few hiccups.

These hiccups were due to Germany’s growing influence within Latin America, and it is important to note that, while Germany never attempted any conquest or colonization of the Latin American republics, they did attempt to form strong economic links between these nations. Many American business owners saw this as a threat to their monopoly within the region. (1)

The first major clash of interests happened during the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902, where Venezuela, following a series of civil wars, refused to pay off their debt to various European powers. In retaliation, Britain, Italy, and Germany blockaded Venezuela, demanding that their debt be paid, rousing the ire of the Roosevelt administration, which wanted to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. (2)

So the conflict came to a diplomatic conclusion. With all things considered, just before the outbreak of the First World War, America and Germany had generally good relations, with recently defeated President William Howard Taft saying of Germany and the Kaiser in 1913:

The truth of history acquires the verdict that considered the centrally important place which has been his among the nations, the German Emperor has been for the last quarter of a century the greatest single individual force in the practical maintenance of the peace of the world.(3)

This stands in contrast to the modern pop culture interpretation of the Kaiser, which depicts him as a war-hungry tyrant, and his people as inherently evil, barbarous warmongers. The Kaiser did not desire war; he had no ambitions that could not be fulfilled through diplomatic means, such as strong economic relations with Latin America and China, and a railway from Berlin to Baghdad, the latter of which caught the ire of the British, who feared German dominance in the Middle East and a close relationship with the Ottoman Empire.

This very well might have been one of the primary reasons why Britain allied with the imperialistic, expansionist powers of France and Russia against Germany in the crisis of 1914.

The Beginning of War and Woodrow Wilson’s Less than Neutral Actions

When the war broke out, the average American on both sides of the political spectrum throughout the country believed America had no right to get involved in the war, and it was a view shared by Woodrow Wilson, at least in public. Many Americans, or I should say hyphenated Americans, shared sympathy with one side or another during the war, with there being a large German American community, many of whom were born and raised in Germany and celebrated Germany’s entry into the First World War.

Things would heat up when Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare against all ships within enemy waters, which Woodrow Wilson saw as a violation of international law. Wilson did not seem to have a problem with the British blockade, a violation of international law, when they blockaded Germany, stopping all imports and exports from the country, which led to the famine that killed hundreds of thousands of German women and children.

Wilson did not put pressure on or condemn the British, something that he very much had the ability to do, as the British were not in any shape to form hostilities against the United States after the outbreak of the world war.

The reason for this is quite simple: Wilson, as well as many of his closest advisers, political allies, and cabinet members, were staunch Anglophiles, with Wilson from a young age having an aberration for the English. This stands in stark contrast to almost every American president prior to Wilson, who held outright hostility towards the English and more often than not threatened war with them over some dispute in Canada or the Caribbean.

Wilson’s Secretary of State, three-time presidential nominee William J. Bryan, noted the president’s less than even-handed approach with the violation of international law and the ongoing war in Europe. In a letter to the president dated April 23, 1915, Bryan said:

My dear Mr. President,

In a note to you this afternoon, I stated that Mr. Lansing would take your instructions to Old Point Comfort and prepare a tentative note in the Thatcher case during his stay here. As I have not been able to reach the same conclusion to which you have arrived in this case, I feel it is my duty to set forth the situation as I see it. The note which you propose will, I fear, very much inflame already hostile feeling against us in Germany, not entirely preserved protest against German action in this case,

but in part because of its contrast with our attitude towards the allies. If we oppose the use of submarines against merchantmen, we will lay down a law for ourselves as well as for Germany. If we omit the right of the submarine to attack merchantmen, but condemn their particular act or class of acts as inhuman, we will be embarrassed by the fact that we have not protested against Great Britain’s defense of the right to prevent food reaching non-combatant enemies We suggested the admission of food and the abandonment of submarine attacks upon merchant vessels, but Great Britain refused to consider the proposal.

I fear denunciation on one side and silence on the other will be construed by some as partiality. You do not make allowance for the fact that we were notified of the intent to use the submarine, or the fact that the deceased knowingly took the risk of traveling on an enemy ship. I cannot see that there are difficulties situated from those who, by remaining in a belligerent country, assume the risk of injury. Our people will, I believe, be slow to omit the right of a citizen to involve his country in a war when exercising ordinary care he could have avoided danger.The fact that we have not contested Great Britain’s assertion of the right to use our flag has still further aggravated Germany, and we can’t overlook the fact that the sale of arms and ammunition, while it could not be forbidden under neutrality, has worked so entirely for the benefit of one side as to give Germany not justification but an excuse for charging that we are favoring the allies.

I have mentioned these things to show the atmosphere through which the Thatcher case note will be received by Germany.I believe that such a note as you propose, under conditions that now exist, is likely to bring on a crisis. I venture to suggest an alternative, namely an appeal to the nations at war to consider terms of peace. We cannot justify waiting until both sides, or even one side, asks for mediation as a neutral. We cannot have in mind the wishes of one side more than the wishes of the other side, with assurances, etc

I am, my dear President, very truly yours, W.J. Bryan.”

Bryan’s wise words fell on deaf ears, and later that year he resigned his post as Secretary of State out of protest to Wilson’s less than neutral actions in regards to the sinking of the Lusitania.

Speaking of which, the Lusitania and the 100-something American lives lost that fateful day of May 7th, 1915, led to increased animosity between the German Empire and the United States, with former President Theodore Roosevelt advocating for war with Germany following the incident.

But what they didn’t tell you in history class was that the passengers of the Lusitania were warned beforehand that they might very well be sunk by the German Empire if they boarded the ship. The reason it would have been sunk was that it was carrying a large amount of ammunition and other war materials.

United States Senator Robert La Follette gave a speech in Saint Paul two years after the incident, on September 20th, 1917, where he said:

Four days before the Lusitania sailed, President Wilson was warned in person by Secretary of State Bryan that the Lusitania had 6,000,000 lbs of ammunition aboard, besides explosives, and that the passengers who proposed to sail on that vessel were staying in violation of a statute of this country that no passenger shall travel upon a railroad train or sail upon a vessel that carries dangerous explosives. And Mr. Bryan appealed to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania.

Upon hearing of this speech, the Senate attempted to impeach Mr. La Follette, though the Collector of the Port of New York confirmed the truth of the statements of the senator concerning the cargo of the Lusitania, and the matter was swiftly dropped. (4)

Now, following the explosion of the Lusitania, there were a few notable instances that inflamed tensions between Germany and America that go oft unreported in disgust, such as the May 1915 Harbour Island bombing, where German agents associated with the imperial government blew up a bridge in Seattle carrying several tons of ammunition that would have been used in the war. (5)

There was also the attempt on J.P. Morgan Jr.’s life by Erich Muenter, a German American activist and spy for the imperial government.

if any of these incidents were ordered by the imperial government or had the approval of the Kaiser or any of the Chancellors of Germany is lost to history, but none of these incidents certainly helped German-American relations. Not that the public view of Germany really mattered all that much, because President Woodrow Wilson was already dead set on war as early as 1915, a year before his campaign of “he kept us out of war.”

The Sunrise Conference and American Entry into the First World War

Early in April 1916, more than six months before that year’s election, which Woodrow Wilson won by a very narrow margin, a conference of the main leaders of the Democratic Party was held. The meeting was meant to be confidential, to be very hush-hush and kept secret at all costs. Though eventually, like all political secrets, it came to light. This conference would be known as the Sunrise Conference, with Gilson Gardner describing it as follows:

As the story was told to me, this early morning conference at the White House was attended by Representatives Clark, Flood, and Kitchin. It was at this conference that President Wilson announced his intention to put the United States into war and to do so immediately. Clark, Flood, and Kitchin were shocked at Wilson’s announcement and declared that it was impossible; the people did not want this country put into war and that any effort on Wilson’s part to force such a result would be met by them with a very bitter fight. Wilson threatened and said that any man standing in the way would be politically destroyed if he started to carry out his purpose. These were heated words, and the conference broke up with a declaration by these leaders that they would resist the president to the utmost in any such effort. (6)

Words that these men would be politically destroyed were the most foolish and ignorant of political exertions. If Wilson had entered the United States into a war in April of 1916, he would have very well been ousted as the party’s candidate for the 1916 election. Any entry into war at that point being the most politically moronic decision for a nation that wanted nothing to do with the war in Europe.

Wilson saw which way the wind was blowing and decided to go with the slogan for his 1916 re-election campaign: “He kept us out of war,” though he himself did not come up with the slogan.

Wilson’s rival was the far more militaristic, or at least openly militaristic, Charles Evans Hughes, a man who almost certainly would have gotten America involved in the war immediately upon election. Wilson, victorious, and not long after the re-election in January 1917, the British intercepted the Zimmerman telegram and had his excuse for American intervention in Europe. Though it should be noted that the Zimmerman telegram only stated that in the event of a war started by the US, Germany would financially support Mexico. It did not support an outright Mexican conquest of the United States. And in all sincerity, that would have been impossible through all timelines and all periods of time, but particularly in 1917, when Mexico was in the midst of a brutal civil war and was in absolutely no position to go to war over the reconquest of their lost states such as Texas or California.

In reality, the American people suffered no real threat from the German Empire or their allies. The reasons for the war were simple:

1. Wilson and many of his cabinet were Anglophiles, believing that the British were in a fight for civilization itself. It should be noted and has been noted by many historians that with Wilson and much of his cabinet being Southerners, they held strong anti-German sentiment due to many Germans taking part in the North’s war of aggression against the South, suppressing Southern independence. It’s even theorized by some historians, including Wilson biographer Arthur S. Link, that Wilson and his cabinet saw American entry into the war against Germany as “revenge for Appomattox.”
2. Many of the business interests of the United States wanted war. They profited immensely from the United States selling weapons to the Allied powers and wished to increase their sales by getting America involved in the conflict directly. As stated by Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, “War is a racket.” (7)

Cultural and Political Legacy of America’s Involvement in the First World War

When the armistice was called on November 11th, 1918, 117,000 young American men lay dead within the fields of Europe for a war in which America itself was not threatened—a war started by the ambitions of Imperial Russia and France. A war for which America saw no real benefits for their participation. The Allied’s powers showed little if any gratitude for American participation. The Allied’s powers showed little if any gratitude for American participation. with the French having a quite hostile attitude towards Americans in the coming years after the war and Britain having plans for a possible invasion of America throughout the 1920s.

Wilson himself, after his fall from grace, Resented the ignorant attitude of the French in regard to both American involvement and his 14 points.

Wilson would say to his good friend James Kerney on June 7th, 1923, in regards to the French policy towards Germany:

I should like to see Germany clean up France, and I should like to see Jusserand (Ambassador to the United States) tell him this to his face.

Wilson’s Democratic Party, which got America involved in the First World War (though with a large faction of pro-peace Democrats such as Champ Clark), was utterly annihilated in the 1920 general election, with their candidate James Cox, governor of Ohio, receiving a pitiful 34% of the popular vote and being relegated to the party’s ancestral stronghold of the South.

The Democrats would also lose the 1924 and 1928 general elections by substantial margins as well, only being revitalized in 1932 due to the disastrous policies of Herbert Hoover.

Americans had a sour taste in their mouth after the First World War, rightfully so, I must add. Though their attitude towards the war would change drastically in the coming decades, with widespread propaganda spread by Wilson’s political acolytes like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a Hollywood Version of history post-Second World War, with World War I being seen as a stepping stone for American interventionalism and their crusading spirit in the decades to come, whether in the Second World War or in the subsequent Cold War.

American entry into World War I has been, for the longest time, mythologized. Though hopefully, I have today played a part in demythologizing this atrocious period of American history.

Anyway, this was Dark Age Sage. See you in the next one.

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