3. The absence of European intervention.
Finally, the traditional policy of isolation was made possible by the good fortune which prevented European interference at critical times, notably during the American Civil War, when there was serious danger that Great Britain and France might combine to aid the South. If that had actually happened, it is not unlikely that Russia would have come to the aid of the North, and the Civil War would then have developed into a world conflict. In that case American isolation would have ended more than a half century ago. But good fortune, aided by competent diplomacy, enabled the United States to settle its own troubles without foreign interference and to continue the traditional policy of incurring no obligations to any other country. In a word there was the will to keep aloof and, what is quite as important, the opportunity to do it.[[297]] From the War of Independence down to the year 1917 the United States entered into no military alliance or association with any other country; when the American armies fought, they fought alone.
America’s Entry into the World War.—The World War created a situation which the United States had never faced before. |The old policy of isolation comes to an end.| All Western Europe burst ablaze; one country after another was drawn in; and hostilities soon spread beyond the borders of the Old Continent. From the outset the United States endeavored to maintain a strict neutrality; but American commerce was subjected to interference by the belligerents on both sides. Particularly offensive to the United States, however, was the German practice of sinking without warning passenger vessels upon which American citizens were traveling. The torpedoing of the British liner Lusitania, and the consequent loss of many American lives, stirred public opinion throughout the United States. This and other offences against the law of nations moved President Wilson to demand from the German government a pledge that the practice of sinking vessels without warning should cease, and this pledge was conditionally given. Early in 1917, however, the German government decided to inaugurate, as a desperate stroke, a campaign of “unrestricted submarine warfare”, and the government of the United States was informed that even neutral vessels, unless they observed certain strict precautions, would be torpedoed without warning.
This action settled the matter of America’s continued neutrality. |The declaration of war in 1917.| Diplomatic relations with Germany were broken off and in April, 1917, Congress passed a declaration of war. The events of the next eighteen months are still fresh in everyone’s mind. America entered the struggle with a determination to turn the scale, and on November 11, 1918, the German military authorities were brought to terms. By signing an armistice they acknowledged defeat and agreed to terms dictated by the Allied and Associated Powers.
The Fourteen Points.—Some months before the signing of this armistice President Wilson, in an address to Congress, set forth the principal aims of the United States in the war. These aims were grouped under fourteen heads and soon came to be known as the Fourteen Points. Every one of them had to do with matters which, prior to the war, would have been deemed of no immediate concern to the United States. Taken as a whole, however, they outlined the principles upon which, in President Wilson’s opinion, a durable peace could be erected and the future security of the world maintained. The German government, in asking for an armistice, declared its acceptance of these principles.
The Treaty of Versailles.—After the armistice had been signed on behalf of the various belligerents a conference was convened at Versailles to draw up a definite treaty of peace. This conference included delegates from the countries which had shared in the winning of the war. Germany and her allies, the vanquished, were not represented. For several months the conference wrestled with the problems involved in the making of a treaty—the rearrangement of boundaries, the recognition of new states, the disposal of German colonies, the payment of reparations, and, most difficult of all, the forming of a league of nations to prevent future wars. When the work was finished the German representatives were called in and were required to sign the treaty substantially without any changes. The treaty was then communicated to the various countries to be ratified and in due course it was ratified by all the important countries except the United States.
Why isolation is no longer possible:
The New World Order.—The war and the changes which accompanied it served to alter the whole world environment. America was brought into more intimate contact with Europe than ever before. Even before the war, however, it had become apparent that the traditional policy of isolation could not be permanently maintained. To all intents and purposes the world has become much smaller in these latter days. In point of miles America is just as far away from Europe as ever, but a thousand miles count for less nowadays than did a hundred in our great-grandfathers’ time. During the summer of 1918 the United States transported to Europe in less than four months a million men. Fifty years ago that would have been deemed to be an utterly impossible achievement. |1. The annihilation of distance.| The fast steamship of today can cross the ocean in a hundred hours; in Washington’s time the fleetest sailing-ships could not skim the Atlantic in less than three weeks on the average. The time is soon coming, in all probability, when men can be in London one day and in New York the next. This is not a mere dream; it is well within the range of possibilities. So we can no longer talk of geographical isolation. The progress of mankind has virtually annihilated distance.
2. The acquisition of overseas possessions.
Again, the United States is no longer, as in the old days, devoid of tangible interests in distant parts of the earth. Beginning in 1898, Porto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam were acquired from Spain, and Hawaii was annexed. Later the Panama Canal was built and a zone of territory on both sides of it acquired. More recently, the Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark. All this has involved a departure from the traditional policy of acquiring local interests only. It has given America, in the case of the Philippines, an outpost several thousand miles away. Whatever, therefore, concerns the Malay Archipelago or, indeed, any part of the Far East, concerns the interests of the United States. Isolation is no longer possible because the United States has surrendered, in this case at any rate, the geographical advantage of isolation.