World War I

Neutrality, War and Peace

                                                                                                                 

1914: A member of the Black Hand gang is arrested in Sarajevo on the day Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated                                      

President Wilson's Declaration of Neutrality

• I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.

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Wilson breaks Neutrality• “It is a fearful thing to lead this

great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.”

WILSON’S 14 POINTS• 1. An end to all secret diplomacy • 2. Freedom of the seas in peace and war • 3. The reduction of trade barriers among nations • 4. The general reduction of armaments • 5. The adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of

the inhabitants as well as of the colonial powers • 6. The evacuation of Russian territory and a welcome for

its government to the society of nations • 7. The restoration of Belgium • 8. The evacuation of all French territory, including

Alsace-Lorraine • 9. The readjustment of Italian boundaries along clearly

recognizable lines of nationality 10. Independence for various national groups in Austria-Hungary

• 11. The restoration of the Balkan nations and free access to the sea for Serbia

• 12. Protection for minorities in Turkey and the free passage of the ships of all nations through the Dardanelles

• 13. Independence for Poland, including access to the sea

• 14. A league of nations to protect "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small nations alike."