Existing comment:
Neutrality:
As war began in Europe in July of 1914, Woodrow Wilson pursued the path of the neutral nation, at peace with and unmolested by both warring sides. Such a course was extremely difficult as internal and external forces sought to influence American actions. Many Irish-Americans wished to support the Fatherland. Wilson, whose mother had been born in England, personally leaned backing the British and French, but refused to let America be dragged into a European war.
On the high seas, American ships were targeted by both the British and Germans. Wilson protested numerous instances of British vessels stopping and seizing American ships, including the charge that some had illegally used the American flag to disguise themselves as neutrals.
With the British Navy restricting most of the German fleet to their home waters, the Imperial German Navy turned to submarine warfare to enforce their own blockade of the British Isles. Following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, protests from Wilson (including threats of war) forced Germany to back down and order the U-boats to avoid passenger ships, though this would prove to be only temporary.
Concern about Germany also spurred the US to purchase the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas from Denmark. Once a prosperous sugar colony, the Danish Virgin Islands had grown more and more expensive to administer following the abolition of slavery in 1848. Wilson and his cabinet saw the islands as a potential threat, should Germany ever purchase or seize them from the Danes. A German base in the Caribbean was deemed unacceptable, and toward the end of Wilson's first term, the sale of the islands was negotiated for $25,000,000. |