Not mean inactivity as the u. S. Sold to both the ally and central powers. See also talked houseboat how the u. S. , it faced criticism how it treated its own decenters and minorities. This is just over an hour. Good morning, everyone. So this morning were going to be talking about or rather we will begin our conversation about neutrality. That conversation will last over the course of several lectures. So well wrap up other countries neutralities, but this morning were going to really focus on what neutrality looked like and meant for americans especially in the first half of the war. So the thing i want you to understand the most, and this is really vital because its a very different understanding of neutrality than we have today. Neutrality at the beginning of the war did not mean inactivity. It did not mean passivity. And it most certainly did not mean impartiality. So if it doesnt mean those things then what on earth does neutrality mean . The definition of neutrality differs with each country. Some like belgium will say they never gave up their neutrality. They were invaded, right, but they always remained officially neutral. So they were aggrieved against as a neutral country. Others like switzerland will say were neutral and to prove it, dylan, im going to hold your wallet, and kia, im going to hold your wallet and thats how im neutral. In the case of the United States neutrality will for the most part mean that they will do business with whoever and the very willingness to do business with both germans or rather the central powers and the allies is proof of their neutrality. So a lot of people are surprised to learn at the beginning of the war the u. S. Traded with and maintained diplomatic relations with all of the belligerent nations. Now, some of those relationships were strained to be sure. One of my favorite examples is the one of both the first and last Ottoman Empire ambassador appointed to the United States, alfred doblinski, a polish turk and he is appointed to d. C. And hes given one instruction from his departure from const constantinople. They tell him go to the states and all you have to do is be charming, have fabulous parties, be a fabulous guest and by all means avoid any social or political tensions. Doblinski who was never very good at heeding simple instructions of course gets to d. C. Right about the time that news of crisis is happening in the Ottoman Empire. Armenians and other christians are being attacked. And so the American Press is really pointing out that this is a problem. Well, doblinski and certainly the ottomans felt that wasnt very neutral, that was pretty judgy. And he so irritates Woodrow Wilson that Woodrow Wilson has his privileges an a ambassador revoked. How timely with our current news. Right . You dont behave you lose your office. But on his way out doblinski knew exactly how to annoy americans. What the africanAmerican Press said that doblinski pressed on americas cancer spot and that was he said how dare you americans who claim to be neutral judge we ottomans about how we treat our minorities given how you treat your own minorities, nativeamericans, africanamericans. So until you stop segregation you have no business telling us about being violent or how to control our minorities. And in order to ensure having lost his ambassadorship that he left Woodrow Wilson on the brink of a complete conniption doblinski was photographed in black churches in d. C. Praying and singing with africanamericans and talking about how their flight and their suffering really helped him understand who americans truly were despite their browbeating all over the world as purported neutrals who were also morally superior. So what we see in the case of the United States is that the question of race will already be part of this diplomatic tugofwar. The germans will do the same, right . Itll return so in the United States what we get from the very beginning of the war are a lot of the same kinds of concerns that had been weighing heavily on european empires we had been talking about, right . So what were some of those concerns . That there would be that their own countries were full of dissidents who could set the place ablaze by pointing out the fissures in american society, so hence our first picture here. So what are we looking at . Women. Women protesting in front of the white house, demanding the right to vote. Pointing out how american democracy is not perfect, and then therefore who are they more so as a neutral state going around the world and telling people whats right and whats wrong . What are some other dissident groups that we have in the country . Well, just like in europe we have workers who are galvanizing around their right to a safe working space, a fair living wage, safe reasonable working hours, right . This is still a time where we work 6 1 2 days a week, and on the half day were off our boss is supervising us at church and in our various halls, our ethnic halls. So workers are a problem. Women are a problem. Can anyone hazard a guess at other groups who might be jenny. Specifically what kind of minorities. So African Americans are a problem. How . For one thing, they continue to say we want our rights. We want the right to vote. We are americans, we pay taxes, we own land, we want the right to go to school wherever we actually qualify. African american women are also wanting to have the vote. We have the most pressing problem for African Americans is bridging, and bias. So African Americans will say we want this to end. Indeed it must end immediately, every incidents of racialized violence and there were many, every one of those incidents brings us too precariously close to how kaiser and other places treat their colonial populations. So these various groups, we have prohibitionists pointing out that immigrants are problematic populations. There are too many of them we have to have walls, medical screening in order to keep these undesirables pouring in from europe to continue to coming with their drinking habits and their weird religions. Catholics. Italians. Irish. Forgetting that plenty of germans and french are also that. But this idea that the colder and that is the United States is having its own bubbling of problems, native americans that are demanding citizenship and dont have it at this time right these are worrisome enough that americans should focus on themselves in order to control that population, what happens over there will also at a perfect over here. Will democracy be enough to prevent what happened over there from also happening over here. One of the things that youre also taught in high school that is just plain wrong is that americans are isolationist. They are not. The period between at least the 1890s and certainly still through the 19 forties, that is a window within which americans actually spread out in the United States, in pretty spectacular ways. So some talked about eight american imperialism being born. And certainly a imperial vision is not yet its full manifestation. So from the nineties the u. S. Has not reached into hawaii, canada, puerto rico. Most importantly reached into the philippines so all the way into asia. Americans are not isolationists. They want to get into your house but they dont want to come into theirs. That is not isolationism. You want to change other people, we just dont want them to have any say. So, in that period, in those early years of the war, we talked about this a few weeks ago, americans have their attention completely trained on the americas. So what is happening . Whats happening on the Canadian Border what canadians are getting ready to celebrate the war of 1810 and 1814. The activity is happening on the or borders. Will they go toe to toe with quebecois. Who will show that they are the place that matters more . Then 1812, 1814, again 1819. Americans attention has been trained on the mexican border. Why there . Since at least 1910, truly earlier, but since at least 1910 mexico had been undergoing several revolutions, and those revolutions had intensified in nature and move them closer to the border. The source of the tension in many instances were americans who mexicans felt were too much of a precedence in mexico, control too much of the land and capital, and controlled too much of the industry in mexico. Its a complicated set of revolutions, not just one, but none the less that internal set of conflicts in mexico is working its way closer to the american border. Hence once again being very concerned about american safety, american protectionism with respect to what comes through that southern border. What we know is that people also came through the southern border. So her idea that Central American migration pattern is really contemporary, this is what was happening hundred plus years ago. The border was quite porous. Its certainly like a valve opened and closed depending on American Labor needs. So people are very surprised to find out that at around this time a quarter of the workforce are mexicans. If you went skiing in colorado at this time the ski patrol was mexican. So we have continued the myth that its a new wave, when in fact there has been a very constant stream. One that americas have welcomed and vilified depending on economic and political interests. But the border was eight tremendous concern in 1914. Concern there is also framed around the social darwinism language we talked about. So immigrants bring the disease. And a disease is as much political in your mind, communism. Talk russi. Socialism. Pathologize am. But they also bring maladies. And so part of the way that we make ourselves feel safer is to scream these maladies. To tell ourselves that its more inherent to one set of people and not another. That is the way that we are spending our energy. Why is that southern border in the caribbean so important . I want to take a slight step back here and talk about the problem constituencies. Women in the polity, women in public spaces, this was such a incendiary act to put on your full support hurdle, and leave the house to protest. Its an embarrassment to you and your family. Possibly lent you in jail. You will note that the language at the top of the banner kaiser wilson. Wilson who spent much of his career curating the notion that he function from a very high moral stance, more so than his country could meet. My favorite quote comes from josh, the french Prime Minister at the end of the war. He goes through all of his points for the vision of world peace. He says even god only had ten. This is the picture of African Americans marching down fifth avenue in new york. Their banner reads the first blood for american independence is by christmas. So reminding the nation that African Americans have been militarily part of defending this country at every turn. So how can we continue to have laws that limit their citizenship rights, laws that limit where they can, go who they marry, etc. That is not independence. So for much of the world, europeans in particular this political question really captures it right. Here is uncle sam selling stuff. There is a long Shopping List and they are asking how much can i borrow from you in order to continue on. If you were to ask a german, a british person, what are the americans doing in 1914 they would say fattening their pockets. Do not ever forget affection of those pockets comes at the cost of european lives. That american greed and their willingness to sell to anyone could openly result in the collapse of european empires. More so than europeans killing themselves. So to come back to the question that trump asked many many weeks ago, how is it that the germans are always pinned as the bad guys, we can see that even as early as 1914 we are starting to vilify the rules of some neutrals. In this case the u. S. In this political cartoon we see that there is an image of food, apples in that barrel. Its important to remember that 1914 was a real boom time for the american economy. Like most countries when the war first began there is a retraction, we are concerned, they spend less, we dont have access to all of the sources we would normally want to purchase. Right . The Stock Exchange was closed in new york just like it had closed in vienna, paris, and berlin. But once by december people start coming out of their keeps again, the americans realize that this war is an amazing boom for their economy. Because if nothing else, while the europeans are fighting each other they cant produce things. The country that produces the best and most things germany, is especially unable to do so because they are fighting on to, soon to be three fronts. We talked about the example of harmonicas under christmas of 1914. The holidays are coming, we need things, those things are chocolates, toys for children. Clothing. Remember a lot of the armies had not prepared for the war coming in to winter. So now the americans are the ones who can sell all of their crop. So all of their meat. Selling their corn. And sell one of the first ways americans make money has to do with horses and mules. There is a robust trade in american horses, from the upper northwest through the midwest, so kansas for example its economy goes through the roof, because it has huge stock years were all of these greens bringing in courses couldnt be sorted, screened for illness, and then put on fast moving trains to chicago across to philadelphia, new york, and boston. Why are we moving so many horses . They need them at the front. Who needs them at the front . The british in particular. You will recall that i told you that the average lifespan of a horse is about two weeks. And that is a lucky horse. So they are dying almost more quickly than we can get them over their. Germans will say they will have a robust Propaganda Campaign saying that you are responsible for killing my son. The horse that you are standing over, and that you are making scores of money on, that horse is being used to pull artillery, move cavalry, even the cavalry wasnt doing very much. So horses are vital. They are vital in terms of how the armies imagine themselves, but they are also vital for all the Different Things that they can do in the war zone, and the people that are shipping the most number of courses and at the same time saying that they are neutral are the americans. Because americans have a healthy transportation system, railways, ports people are sending the horses up from argentina and brazil, and uruguay. They are coming down from canada. We are selling to germany on occasion, but those horses have to make it past the british channel. We are selling to germans absolutely. When germans float the sub that spends two weeks in philly, that will go back completely full of american products, and germans will see that the successful nature of the trip is part of the commerce. Why would the germans think that the u. S. Would be a potential good partner . For one thing there were a lot of germans here. About 25 of the population, in some instances still, first, second, or Third Generation germans. The first highest amount of germans outside of berlin is in new york. Most cities in the east coast will have some city version of a germantown. So germany at the very least would say well my cousin will not them go nuts and so quickly. We have a chance. We just have to convince them that we are on their side. Besides, the irish dont care about fish. The irish will also join us. French canadians hit the british, we can get it started up there to. So we have a very good chance of winning a media war if you will. Public sentiment. And for a time, that seemed to work. It worked because in part the germans were winning. But the moment the war starts, it becomes at the very least a little bit more dangerous being german in america. You see in iowa for example an attempt to pass a english only bill. Making english the official language by law when the u. S. Has no official language, u. S. Does it have english as the official language. In se parts of the United States like pennsylvania they couldve made german the official language, given how much it was spoken. Some parts of eastern ohio, very czech. So all of a sudden you are seen singing german, speaking in german, those become suspect behaviors. Now remember this suspicions that we have four people that are not like us, genetically defective, racially defective, that muscle could easily be rerouted to a new cause. So what we see in 1914, certainly 1915 is that it becomes downright dangerous being german, being suspected of being german, and doing, consuming, celebrating things however broadly german. My favorite example of this is actually this set of images. So we get reports in the United States and moscow of people going out on the street with their baseball bats, now they represent the kaiser. It had to homicidal, i dont know how they could kill that many animals but they did. That tiny thing comes as the emblem for the germans. Even their animals are cruel and murderous. So in your way of proving your position on that patriotism, club it. Its no longer sauerkraut you are having cabbage. Americans love rebranding food. Its not french fries its liberty fries. So, americans having a stein thats what theyre called, you are publicly crashing. That if you are german those steins who mean a lot, they represent your military background, your russian background, so this declaration of germanys is important. Note here, the little boy is pointing a gun at a dog, note the shadow. In so doing, its animal cruelty, it is patriotism that goes all the way back. This german was found to be suspect because he was allegedly german in public, and he had responded entirely too slowly to the call to the list. And worst of all, had raised the derelict question of why are we doing this again. His peers lost their minds, beat him up, tied and tethered him, and then lynched him. Now lynching is not a practice uniquely reserved for African Americans. Its a practice that is also being seen against latinos in the u. S. , union workers, people who are gay or suspected of being gay. Non conforming in any way its suspect behavior. But now we see that g