“There will be no war,” President Wilson uttered his compatriots on January 4, 1917. "It would be a crime against civilization for us to intervene. However, Wilson found, following a conversation between his ambassador in Berlin and the chancellor, which took place two days later, that the peace offer made by the Kaiser the previous month was not what it seemed.
While Germany was willing to "withdraw from Belgium", the "guarantees" he had mentioned in general terms were clearly unacceptable, when explained in detail: according to the Chancellor, Germany would demand the permanent occupation of Liege and Namur and "other forts and garlands throughout Belgium", the "possession" of the rail lines and Belgian ports and a German military presence, denying Belgium the possibility of having its own army.
Ambassador Gerard told the Chancellor: "I think they don't leave too much to the Belgians, unless King Albert will have the right to reside in Brussels with a guard of honour," to which the Chancellor replied: "We cannot allow Belgium to be a British advance." “Every debate about the future of Belgium was on the verge of becoming theoretical.”
The Kaiser was in a hurry to take the step that would send the United States to war. On January 9, he presided over a Crown Council in which the much-debated question of unrestricted submarine warfare would be resolved. First to speak was the Chief of the Navy Staff Admiral Henning von Holtzendorf, who assured the Kaiser that if unrestricted submarine warfare was approved, England would ask for peace in six months. The Kaiser asked the admiral what consequences the collapse would have for the United States.
“I give His Majesty my official word that no American will land on the continent,” Holtzendorf’s response. Hindenburg, who spoke next, cited as a primary advantage that the allies would receive less ammunition. Bethmann-Hollweg, always against the measure, warned it could result in US intervention in the war, but seeing that military and naval chiefs were against him, he requested the withdrawal of his opposition.
Kaiser no longer hesitated. An unrestricted German submarines war against any ship, regardless of their flag and the cargo it carries, would begin “at maximum energy” starting on February 1. The chief of German submarines, Commodore Bauer, explained to his commanders that the purpose of the decision “is to force England to sign peace and thus decide the whole war.”
In January 1917, the last month restrictions were in effect, German submarines had sunk fifty-one British ships, sixty-three other allied countries and sixty-six neutral, totaling more than three hundred thousand tons, a third of which were British. With U.S. merchant ships as acceptable targets, those numbers could increase considerably.
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