The 1917 United States declaration of war on Austria-Hungary, officially House Joint Resolution 169, was a resolution adopted by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

declaring that a

state of war A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the signing of a document) by an authorized party of a national government, in ...

existed between the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

and the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. It occurred eight months after the earlier declaration of war against Germany that had brought the United States into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Enacted on December 7, 1917 and coming into effect the same day, it was officially terminated in 1921, three years after the effective capitulation of Austria-Hungary.

Background

On April 6, 1917 the United States declared war against Germany. The declaration of war was enacted at the request of

US President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

by a vote of both chambers of the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

, with the

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

voting 373 to 50 (nine not voting) in favor of war and the

US Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

voting 82 to six. In his speech to Congress requesting for war to be declared against Germany, Wilson addressed the question of Austria-Hungary, an ally of Germany: Two days later, Austria-Hungary terminated

diplomatic relations Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...

with the United States and requested, in a diplomatic note that was delivered to the

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassado ...

of the US embassy in Vienna, for American diplomats to depart the country.

Declaration of war

Request

On December 4, 1917, Wilson appeared before Congress to deliver the

1917 State of the Union Address The 1917 State of the Union Address was given by Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States on Tuesday, December 4, 1917, during his turbulent second term. He spoke in the United States House of Representatives chamber, in the Unite ...

. In it, he requested a declaration of war against Austria-Hungary and stated such a declaration to be necessary to "clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success." Wilson went on to charge that Austria-Hungary was "the vassal of the German government" and was acting as the "instrument of another nation." However, Wilson's real impetus for seeking a declaration of war against was the situation in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. American military planners believed that it might soon be necessary to deploy American forces to shore up Italian defenses against robust Austrian gains. In response to Wilson's address,

Henry D. Flood Henry De La Warr Flood (September 2, 1865 – December 8, 1921) was a representative from the Commonwealth of Virginia to the United States House of Representatives, brother of U.S. Representative Joel West Flood and uncle of U.S. Senator Har ...

introduced House Joint Resolution 169, a declaration of war, which was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for consideration. The committee issued a report stating that the "state of war which this declaration declares to exist actually has been a fact for many months" and unanimously recommended adoption of the resolution. The report went on to charge that in September 1915,

Konstantin Dumba Konstantin Theodor (from 1917 to 1919, Graf von) Dumba (17 June 1856 – 6 January 1947), was an Austro-Hungarian diplomat serving as its last accredited Ambassador to the United States and famous for having been expelled during World War I foll ...

, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States, had masterminded a scheme of industrial sabotage aimed at American manufacturing and that on April 4, 1917 the crew of an unflagged

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

boarded and then sank the American schooner SV ''Marguerite'' in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

and that the nationality of the submarine was suspected Austrian since "Austrian was the language spoken by the officer of the submarine ." The report was incorrect; the Marguerite had actually been sunk by the German submarine U-35.

Enactment

On December 7 House Joint Resolution 169 was adopted by the House of Representatives in a vote of 365-1, and by the Senate in a vote of 74-0. The president signed the declaration later that day.

Debate

Jeannette Rankin Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) was an American politician and women's rights advocate who became the first woman to hold federal office in the United States in 1917. She was elected to the U.S. House of Represent ...

, who had earlier voted against the declaration of war against Germany, voted in favor of the declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, stating that "the vote we are now to cast is not a vote on a declaration of war. If it were, I should vote against it. This is a vote on a mere technicality in the prosecution of a war already declared." The sole vote of opposition in the House came from Meyer London, a

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

representative from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. On the floor of the House, London declared that he hated "professions of loyalty" but that he believed "I am as deeply in love with the United States as any man who can trace his ancestry to the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, ...

''." However, London said that his constituents opposed war and that he preferred the United States to adopt an arms embargo against Europe, the same rationale that he had given for opposing the declaration of war against Germany. He was roundly denounced on the floor of the House. In the Senate, Robert M. La Follette did not vote on the resolution since he had departed the chamber to return to his office and to prepare an amendment to the declaration that would guarantee that the United States would not participate in the postwar dismemberment of Austria. While La Follette was out of the chamber, the vote was called. La Follette later said that he would have voted against the resolution in the form that it was passed. Washington_Herald_8DEC

Text of declaration

International reactions

: the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, Count Ottokar Czernin, remarked that the declaration of war "will be bad for Austro-Hungarians in America, but will not influence the results of the war."
: in Italy, the newspaper ''

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...

'', in a staff editorial, stated, "Austria-Hungary has today a powerful enemy, and this enemy is for us a friend whose friendship must serve in war and peace "
: in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the official ''Army Journal'', in a staff editorial, declared, "Peace by means of war. This is the mark under which the American imperialists are posing. America declares herself the implacable enemy of Austria-Hungary without any evident reason, without any justifying motives save covetousness and greed. American capitalists talking with hypocrisy about the horrors of war are striving to lengthen the bloody terror."

Aftermath

In autumn 1918, the imperial government collapsed, and on October 18, Stephan Burián von Rajecz, acting on behalf of the remnants of the state organs, sued for peace. The US Senate declined to ratify the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It forma ...

, which established peace between the Allied powers and Austria-Hungary and resulted in the formal dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, the state of war between the United States and a nonexistent Austria-Hungary continued, albeit without active hostilities, until it was officially terminated by the

U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty (1921) The U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty is a peace treaty between the United States and Austria, signed in Vienna on August 24, 1921, in the aftermath of the First World War. This separate peace treaty was required because the United States Senate refu ...

and the U.S.–Hungarian Peace Treaty (1921), which were signed by Austria-Hungary's

successor states Succession of states is a concept in international relations regarding a successor state that has become a sovereign state over a territory (and populace) that was previously under the sovereignty of another state. The theory has its roots in 19th- ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

. The sinking of the SV ''Marguerite'' has been credited to the SM ''U-35'', a German

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

References

{{reflist, 2 1917 in international relations 1917 in Austria-Hungary 1917 in the United States

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Foreign relations of Austria-Hungary United States in World War I Austria-Hungary–United States relations December 1917 events 1917 documents Declarations of war during World War I