Neutrality

Neutrality is a legal concept whereby a nation seeks to avoid military involvement in armed conflicts between belligerent states. Neutral powers are permitted to engage in all legal international trade and transactions. Laws concerning the rights and duties of neutrality are contained in the Declaration of Paris of 1856, Hague Convention V (1907) under “neutrality in land war,” and the Hague Convention XIII (1907) under “neutrality in maritime war.” Neutral parties are required to issue either a general or a special declaration when hostilities break out, although the declaration of neutrality may be repealed or modified.

Certain rights are implicit in a country’s declaration of neutrality. One of these is the right to territorial integrity. Territory may be defined as air space, water, or land. Those who are engaging in a war may not use a neutral’s territory as a base of operations or engage in hostilities on or in it. A neutral also has the right to maintain diplomatic communications with other neutrals and with the warring parties, the right to demand compliance with domestic regulations set to secure neutrality, and the right to demand warring parties not interfere with commercial endeavors of its citizens.

Early on, the American Republic had struggled with issues of neutral rights in a world rife with European conflicts that often disrupted trade. As a commercial nation, the United States embraced the concept of “free ships, free goods.” This concept held that the nationality of a ship determined the status of its cargo and that only contraband (forbidden goods) on neutral ships would be subject to capture. The issue was fought over with France in the “Quasiwar” in 1797, during the Napoleonic Wars, and finally in the War of 1812. Only in 1856 did the European powers guarantee “free ships, free goods” to neutral powers in wartime.

After World War I began in 1914, Britain greatly expanded its contraband list. It intended to enforce a “continuous voyage” doctrine. Under this doctrine, a nation at war could seize a ship en route from one neutral port to another if its cargo were destined for an enemy nation. President Woodrow Wilson immediately protested Britain’s actions as a violation of a neutral power’s rights. Germany added to the problem when it declared that the waters around Britain were a war zone in which all ships, even neutral ones, could be sunk without warning. Wilson threatened war in the eventuality that any American ship was sunk without warning or without thought for the safety of passengers and crew. Between 1914 and 1917, Wilson successfully kept the United States neutral by maintaining trading rights with Britain while not provoking Germany.

When the war dragged on into its fourth year, the Germans called Wilson’s bluff. He broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, but he refused to declare war unless

Germany were to undertake “overt” acts against American lives and property. Wilson proposed instead that American ships be armed, but a filibuster of isolationist congressmen prevented this. The ZiMMERMANN TELEGRAM, in which the German foreign secretary proposed a secret Mexican-German alliance, was published in March 1917. It produced the predictable ill will toward Germany. Even worse, the long dreaded “overt” acts directly followed the publication of the telegram when Germany sank four unarmed American merchant vessels.

German violations of American neutrality rights forced Wilson’s hand. On April 2, 1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of war. German U-boats had now pushed a wavering country to enter the war. Six senators and 50 representatives voted against overcoming neutrality and going to war, but the goal of making the world safe from the submarine was not compelling enough to inspire the country’s patriotism. In his declaration of war, Wilson transcended commerce and widened the scope of the war to include making the world safe for democracy. His idealistic vision won the support of a majority of Americans.

See also League of Nations.

Further reading: John W. Coogan, The End of Neutrality: The United States, Britain, and Maritime Rights, 1899-1915 (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981).

—Annamarie Edelen