A relation of neutrals

In this thesis, I reviewed the relations between the Netherlands and the United States during the First World War. The research question is: What were the effects of neutrality on the relations between the Netherlands and the United States at the outset of the First World War, and after the entry of the U.S. into the war in April 1917. In order to answer this question, I compared two time periods. The first is 28 July to 5 October 1914; the second is 6 April to 14 July 1917. These time frames comprise the first 100 days of the First World War and the first 100 days from the entry of the United States into the conflict. By doing so, I wanted to make it clear how neutrality influenced the relations between the Netherlands and the U.S. I used three types of primary sources: the papers of Robert Lansing, secretary of state of the U.S. at the time; the diary of Ernst Heldring, ship owner and board member of the Netherlands Oversea Trust; and the archives of the Dutch embassy in Washington. My expectation was that the Netherlands profited from the neutrality of the U.S., but America’s entry into the war in April 1917 left the Netherlands vulnerable to belligerents on both sides. The Netherlands was a small nation with huge international interests. Not able to defend itself by military force, it relied heavily on international law to protect its interests. Woodrow Wilson, U.S. president at the time, saw himself as a champion of international law, but also had to deal with the economic interests of the U.S. In 1914, the relations between the Netherlands and the United States were friendly, but of relatively low importance to Washington. The U.S. was more closely tied, both politically and economically to Great Britain. The U.S. committed to isolationism during the start of the war, but joined the side of the Allies in April 1917. Although numerous treaties had been signed before the war, the U.S. declined a Dutch proposal to form a neutral alliance. As the U.S. got drawn into the conflict, the U.S.-Dutch relationship became more complicated. Without the precedent of a leading global power remaining neutral, Dutch efforts to use international law to remain neutral became more difficult. Correspondence between Washington and The Hague changed both in tone and frequency in 1917, with minimal contact marked by a considerably harder American position. Apart from main Dutch issues in the First World War, there seems not to have been much more diplomatic contact between the Netherlands and the U.S. My research was restricted by a relative scarcity of correspondence between the United States and the Netherlands. Communication from the U.S. State Department came to an end in 1917 when the U.S. committed to the war against Germany and its allies. There is a certain naivity to the Netherlands’ continuing efforts to preserve its neutrality in international courts of law.