World War I
1917
U.S.
breaks diplomatic relations with Germany
On this day in 1917, President Woodrow
Wilson speaks for two hours before a historic session of Congress to announce
that the United States is breaking diplomatic relations with Germany.
Due to the reintroduction of the German
navy’s policy of unlimited submarine warfare, announced two days earlier by
Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollwegg, Wilson announced that his government
had no choice but to cut all diplomatic ties with Germany in order to uphold
the honor and dignity of the United States. Though he maintained that We do not
desire any hostile conflict with the German government, Wilson nevertheless
cautioned that war would follow if Germany followed through on its threat to
sink American ships without warning.
Later that day, Count von Bernstorff, the
German ambassador to the U.S., received a note written by Secretary of State
Robert Lansing stating that The President hasdirected me to announce to your
Excellency that all diplomatic relations between the United States and the
German empire are severed, and that the American Ambassador at Berlin will be
immediately withdrawn, and in accordance with such announcement to deliver to
your Excellency your passports. Bernstorff was guaranteed safe passage out of
the country, but was ordered to leave Washington immediately. Also in the wake
of Wilson’s speech, all German cruisers docked in the United States were seized
and the government formally demanded that all American prisoners being held in
Germany be released at once.
On the same day, a German U-boat sunk the
American cargo ship Housatonicoff the Scilly Islands, just
southwest of Britain. A British ship rescued the ship’s crew, but its entire
cargo of grain was lost.
In Berlin that night, before learning of
the president’s speech, German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann told U.S.
Ambassador James J. Gerard that Everything will be alright. America will do
nothing, for President Wilson is for peace and nothing else. Everything will go
on as before. He was proved wrong the following morning, as news arrived of the
break in relations between America and Germany, a decisive step towards U.S.
entry into the First World War.
COURTESY: HISTORY.com
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