Germany established a submarine war zone around the British Isles and said they would sink any enemy war ships that entered that proximity. Innocent American trading and merchant ships were being shot down and sunk by ruthless German warfare at sea. Germany refused to let the neutral America trade goods with their enemy countries. This dramatically impacted America because much of the American economy was controlled by trade with Britain and France, and moving forward America knew it would be impossible to keep an expanding economy without GB and France. America, despite its efforts, could not remain neutral and was forced to enter World War 1.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain truly believed that they had made peace with Germany so once more France and Britain appeased Germany (Dr. Seuss). Later, he held a press conference saying “We have made peace in our time.” In addition to this false hope of peace, the British and the French refused to risk war with Germany by giving aid to Poland after Germany attacked its port of Danzig. Horrible memories of hundreds of thousands of men from multiple nations who lost their lives in World War 1 in addition to severe global economic problems were both large deterrents of war in the eyes of France and Britain. However, these nations were not the only culprits in this act of idleness towards obvious growing issues of totalitarian and
On the other hand, the anguished effects of WWI were still enduring in the Germanic collective memory. Many Germans perceived The Versailles Treaty, signed by the Allies in 1919, as a humiliation. The treaty contained a number of heavy impositions to Germany which were socio-economically unbearable to a once great and powerfu l nation. The amount that had to be paid to the Allies as war damage 2 made the Mark lost all its value, causing a hyperinflation so severe that the prices increased by over 100 times in just one year (Bresciani -Turroni, 1968.). The hyperinflation crisis, which was only solved in 1924, lasted enough time to ruin thousands of Germanic families, thus worsening the general feeling of rage against the treaty.
Within months another British liner, the Arabic, was sunk by a U-boat torpedo. Wilson again demanded the Germans to scale down the submarine attacks, and again the German government gave only a half-hearted acknowledgment. Then, in early 1916, Germany announced that it would begin attacking all merchant ships without warning in the waters around Europe, including neutral merchants. Wilson notified Berlin that this policy was illegal according to the international rules of war and were therefore unacceptable. Germany responded only with the destruction of the steamer Sussex in March.
A cargo ship disguised as a cruise ship sunk because the Germans torpedoed it. It carried weapons and the passengers had access to one or more warnings by the Germans concerning sea travel around Great Britain. The British wanted America to join the war to support the Allies. Though this event did not immediately trigger the reaction the British wanted, the Lusitania event, in combination with others, caused the Americans to join the war, allowing the Allies to win. They needed the Americans, and they used an ingenious tactic to cause the Americans to join the war: the death of its own civilians.
Source A is about removing opposition and the use of propaganda to control what the population thought and did this is challenging the question as the consent is not given but actually forced out of the none Arian people of Germany. The source suggests that the Nazis removed the peoples basic rights like freedom of speech because they feared that the people would speak out against the laws that had been created to keep them under control. This is a strong argument against the Germans giving support towards the regime because it suggests that the Germans. Source A also suggests that after the war Germany still wasn’t ready politically so Hitler had an easy task in taking power the
Considering that Realpolitik focused on preventing a war within Europe and Weltpolitik aggressively asserted German dominance, it can be validly argued that this direct change in German foreign policy played a major role in bringing about the First World War. Another reason that German foreign policy was so greatly scrutinized was because of the Anglo-German naval rivalry which was creating tension within Europe. As long as Germany built, Britain would be a German enemy. The German government dramatically increased the development of German Ships. [i] This arms race and change in German foreign policy, believing they needed to control the seas was seen as a definite and direct cause
Wilson was steadfast and stayed neutral during a 3 year period by not choosing positions on either sides, but he did help the British “secretly or out of public view” with economic and military support. With his morals of support, Wilson drove America into a war that would, and has changed everything that Americans knew. “The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against all mankind...Armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.” President Wilson states in his War Message that due to the events and attacks on America from the Germans, we
German U-boats sank British passenger liners killing Americans. This was condemned by the U. S. but remained neutral after Germany apologized and vowed to not attack anymore ships without warning first. The British then intercepted the Zimmerman telegram which made Germany more of a threat since it said if Mexico declared war on the U. S. then Germany would return U. S. land back to Mexico. This convinced the president that, “the war was, indeed, a defense of democracy against German aggression.” (Roark, 692) The final incident that led us to enter the war was when German subs sank five American ships off Britain. No longer could the U. S. stand by and watch as Germany attacked and killed our people.
He wanted to cripple Germany so France would never feel threatened again. Adolf Hitler promised that if he became the leader of Germany then he would abolish the Treaty of Versailles, not just because it was unfair but because it was a constant reminder to them that they were defeated in the First World War. In 1933, Hitler broke one of the Terms of the Treaty by increasing Germany’s armed forces. By doing this reduced unemployment and helped to protect Germany from future attacks. Hitler got away with this because Britain had sympathy for Germany and in 1935 signed a naval agreement with them.