WORLD WAR I AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

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WORLD WAR I AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE
American traditions of non-involvement with
European political affairs and free access to
foreign markets came into conflict during World
War I initial American neutrality increasingly
gave way to a pro-Allied policy in an effort to
preserve and further U.S. foreign trade.
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WORLD WAR I AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE
For the United States, and especially for Woodrow
Wilson, American participation in World War I was
ultimately about reorganizing the world in a way
that was most efficient for furthering U.S.
political and economic power. Wilson cloaked that
reality in idealistic rhetoric about making the
world safe for democracy.
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The Balkans, 1914
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Gavrilo Princip
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Europe 1914
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Woodrow Wilson
Col. Edward House
William Jennings Bryan
Robert Lansing
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Lusitania
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On Bryans resignation Men have been shot and
beheaded, even hanged, drawn, and quartered, for
treason less heinous. --Louisville newspaper
editor Henry Watterson
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HOUSE-GREY MEMORANDUM, February 1916
Col. Edward House
Sir Edward Grey
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Webb-Pomerene Act Edge Act
There is a moral obligation laid up on us to
keep out of this war if possible.... By the same
token there is a moral obligation laid up on us
to keep free the courses of our commerce and our
finance. -- Woodrow Wilson
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HE KEPT US OUT OF WAR
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I am proposing as it were, that the nations
should with one accord adopt the doctrine of
President Monroe as the doctrine of the world
that no nation should seek to extend its polity
over any other nation or people. -- Woodrow
Wilsons message to Congress, 22 January 1917
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If the war is too strong for you to prevent, how
is it going to be weak enough for you to control
and mold to your liberal purposes? -- Randolph
Bourne