The German Question, Part Seventy-Six

"Kaiser Wilhelm & World War I" Part Two/F "The Germans At War"
"A New Enemy & A Peace Treaty"

Both Britain and Germany relied heavily upon foreign trade to maintain their war industries and food supplies. When war broke out, the highly regarded British Royal Navy imposed a naval blockade of Germany, declaring all sorts of items as "contraband," including food products. Vessels of neutral foreign countries were boarded and searched for any items listed as contraband. The Royal Navy mined a large area along the route needed for ships to reach German harbors. There were protests about this policy from various countries, including the United States, as many American companies were dependent upon trade deals with Germany. The Germans protested that Britain was trying to starve the German civilian population into surrender, which was true. There were international agreements spanning decades, and even a couple of centuries, that were certainly being tested by the tight British blockade.*

The Germans, partially in a "tit-for-tat" policy, partially for military strategy, tried to blockade Britain, more so by using submarines ("U-Boats") and "raiders." The British policy was highly successful in restricting goods flowing into Germany. The German policy was never as successful, and in the end, worked against Germany, as the U-Boats sank all sorts of ships, the passenger liner "Lusitania" being the most famous, in 1915, with many Americans aboard, which only served to inflame American public opinion against Germany. President Woodrow Wilson demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships, and the Germans agreed... for awhile. The Germans suspected that America was supplying Britain with war goods by putting such goods on passenger ships. The Germans declared the resumption of attacks on any ships heading for Britain (early 1917).** Further, explosions at American munitions factories were thought to be sabotage by the Germans.*** The German leaders were convinced that America would enter the war against Germany because of the announcement of "unrestricted submarine warfare" by Germany. This prompted the German leaders to try to get Mexico (unsuccessfully) into the war against America by offering the Mexicans American lands previously part of Mexico, like Texas. The communication was intercepted by the British who later gleefully (who can blame them?) passed on the info to the American government.**** The content of the message was given to the newspapers and radio, thus fueling more anti-German sentiment.^ Then more Americans died in the sinking of British passenger ships as a result of the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, and President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany, which came on April 6, 1917. Germany had a new foe.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, Vladimir Lenin and the German embassy made arrangements for Lenin to return to Russia. The Germans believed that Lenin would stir more public feelings against the "Provisional Government" of Alexander Kerensky, and that could only be good for Germany, as it might even take Russia out of the war. Lenin, on the other hand, felt that the revolution that deposed the Tsar was only the first stage of a larger revolution that could possibly bring him and the Bolsheviks to power, and even spread to other European countries. Public unhappiness with the Kerensky government, the continued war, and the control of much of the capital by workers and pro-worker soldiers, brought the Bolsheviks to power in a relatively mild revolution (November 1917).^^ It would take them several years to get true control of the entire country, and in the meantime, civil war broke out. With the Bolshevik government clinging to power and fighting pro-monarchist and other elements of Russian society, the Bolsheviks moved to secure peace with Germany to be able to concentrate their efforts on securing total power. On March 3, 1918, the Central Powers and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (say that three times real fast!) signed a peace treaty. For the first time since early in the war, a German and Central Powers' victory became a possibility. The trains began rolling westward from Russia carrying German troops to the Western Front and carrying Austro-Hungarian troops to the Italian Front. (A Word History is below the notes)

* The attempts by humans to rein in warfare practices are very deep. Let me put it this way; if country "A" is at war with country "B," does that make neutral country "C" fair game if it tries to trade with either, or both, A and B? How about if country "C" is supplying a vital resource, like oil, for example, to an enemy country? Is a policy of trying to starve civilians of enemy countries right? Some argue, if you are a civilian in a country at war, then making you as "uncomfortable" as possible is a part of war, as your discomfort will make you put pressure on your government to make peace. To be honest, countries (in a collective sense), just as individuals, tend to drift back and forth on questions, depending upon the "self interest" of the moment. I know that sounds cynical, but that's just how we humans are.

** The policy was termed "unrestricted submarine warfare."

*** To my knowledge, conclusive evidence was uncovered in some, but not all, cases, although in those cases a good deal of circumstantial evidence was pieced together. Interestingly, one of the "German" saboteurs had been, not in the German army, but in the Austro-Hungarian army. Here we come back to that connection between Germany and Austria. The circumstantial evidence does seem to indicate sabotage, but whether instigated by Germany or Austria-Hungary (or both!), I don't know.

**** Very briefly here, the British had cut German trans-Atlantic cables, so that Germany had to use American cables to contact its diplomatic personnel in North America. British intelligence "tapped" the American cable and intercepted the message. The British, unknown to the Germans, also had broken much of the German code used to transmit messages. This all provided the British with a dilemma; if they told the American government about the intercepted message, they would be admitting that they had tapped American cables, and once the Americans announced that, the Germans would know that their code had been broken. The problems were solved by bribing a Mexican official for the message, and by declaring that they had stolen a decoded text from the Mexicans, which of course, was untrue.

^ On the other hand, some German-Americans and many Irish-Americans were more pro-German, and anti-British in sentiment.

^^ Russians call it the "October Revolution," due to Russia using the old style "Julian" calendar back then.

WORD HISTORY:
Hamburger-Give me the name of any American over about two years old who doesn't know this word! The word apparently was borrowed into American English (in England too?) from German, perhaps in the late 1700s, initially as the term "Hamburg steak," either from German immigrants or from American (English?) sailors who had visited Hamburg, Germany, a major port. It seems to have meant some type of finely chopped meat, but details are sketchy. Hamburg, the city, was founded by "Karl der Grosse" ("Karl" or "Charles the Great"), known in English as "Charlemagne" (the French rendering of his name), who had a fortress built in the area in 808 A.D. The fortress or castle, a "burg" in German, was called "Hammaburg," but no one seems to know just why, although the modern German city of "Hamm" (somewhat southwest of Hamburg) supposedly derives its name from the old Low German word "ham," which meant "corner, bent" and would seem to be related to English "ham," the meat, as the "ham" was from the part of leg behind the knee; that is, the part that "angles, bends." Another possibility for both Hamm and Hamburg is the old relative of modern English "home" and modern German "Heim." I want to emphasize, these are only possibilities, however.