USA's entry to WW1 1: USA 1914-16

A large chunk of the USA (in green) did
not become so until after the war with
Mexico 1846-48 

At the outbreak of WW1 in 1914, the USA was a long way from being the military superpower we know today. The army and navy were small and unprepared, and had not developed much in the fifty years since the Civil War. Still a young country, the US had only acquired its large southern states after a bitter war with Mexico from 1846-48. The war was triggered when the US annexed the independent state of Texas, and ended two years later with the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. In this, the victorious USA not only confirmed the annexation of Texas, but also the territory that would become New Mexico, Arizona and a large chunk of southern California, removing more than half of Mexico’s land mass – albeit largely desert(ed). Border disputes with Mexico are clearly not a new issue. Future USA President Ulysses Grant fought as a young officer, and viewed it as a “cruel and unjust” war, and one that would contribute to the USA’s own civil war.

In the early 20^th century, the USA’s foreign policy was dominated by the Monroe Doctrine, first enunciated by President Monroe in the 1830s. It sought to keep the old and new worlds apart, and viewed as an act of war any interference by European empires in the affairs of new and emerging republics anywhere in the Americas. By this, it also sought to preserve the USA’s powerful influence over such smaller nation states. Small wonder there was no appetite for involvement in a continental war brought about by the power politics of European nations.

The Monroe Doctrine
"east is east, and west is west"

Throughout WW1 the most important and influential US individual was its 28^th President, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson was born and raised in the south, but became Governor of New Jersey en route to the top job. When he won the 1912 Presidential election, he became the first Democrat President since the Civil War – and a southerner to boot.

On assuming office in 1913, Wilson’s biggest foreign policy issue was continuing tension with Mexico, by now torn apart by revolution*^{see footnote} Revolutionary events, and the residual ill feeling between the two countries heightened this tension. In 1914, only three months before the European conflagration, Wilson sent brigades of marines to occupy the Mexican port of Veracruz in a show of force following some violence against USA sailors.

Thus, at the start of WW12, Wilson was balancing diplomatic and military tension on his southern border with a determination to keep the USA neutral, and out of the showdown between European great powers. He succeeded until 1917. By threat and persuasion, the Mexico situation was handled. A new Mexican President, Carranza, initially worked constructively with Wilson. Then, in early 1916, the President’s military chief Pancho Villa led a raid into New Mexico, killing some American citizens. Wilson authorised a punitive invasion to capture Villa.

Pancho Villa, legendary
Mexican Revolutionary 

This was led by General John Pershing (later to become the USA’s C-in-C in Europe). After another 2-3 months threatening all out war, Carranza capitulated and a joint high commission brought the issues back to the negotiating table. Wilson’s re-election campaign for a second term in November 1916 stood on the pillars of maintaining the peace with Mexico, and keeping the USA neutral in world war.

Nevertheless, his re-election was a narrow victory. Although initially the great majority of the population was strongly against war, and for neutrality, there had been a steady shift towards accepting the likelihood of war. Significant events such as the reported German atrocities in Belgium in 1914; the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, and the of the SS Sussex in 1916 inflamed neutrals sentiments towards Germany. The many European immigrant communities – across the USA but mainly in the big cities – supported their mother countries and raised the temperature of the discourse. All the belligerents put great efforts into overt and diplomatic  - but more often covert and clandestine – attempts to win favour from the USA. Perhaps most tellingly, many of the USA’s politicians and industrial leaders viewed war as inevitable and acted accordingly. Republicans, led by former President Theodore Roosevelt and Senators Cabot Lodge, Stimson and Root led a self-styled ‘Preparedness’ movement and campaign. They pointed to the weak, outdated army and navy facing inevitable war. They portrayed pacifism and idealism as mere weakness. Their opponents were  led by peace campaigners and isolationists. They argued that militarism of this sort was un-American and driven by business and financiers – not unreasonably, since it was clear that by this stage (even though still officially neutral) the USA had made fortunes by exporting loans and arms to the Allies.

Wilson’s peace note of late 1916 (see Post 19/12/16) ) was testament to his determination to avoid war, but its rejection by both parties indicated that events were culminating. The tensions concerning unrestricted U boat warfare were out in the open, and in early February Wilson ordered Pershing to evacuate any remaining troops from Mexico to stabilise that border. He was unaware at the time of how Mexico would play (unwittingly) its role in finally pushing America into the War.

* All this plays into the eventual entry of USA into WW1. In 1910, the longstanding regime of Porfirio Diaz (somewhat in the pocket of the USA) was challenged by Francesco Madero. The results of an election were rigged in favour of Diaz, and in the storm that followed a new election saw Madero elected. Within 18 months he and his deputy were assassinated. A full scale revolutionary war ensued between the forces of reaction, led by Huerta, and the forces of revolution, led by Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata)