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It was Germany which started the Blockade first. In February 1915 they announced they would sink all allied merchant vessels around Britain. Britain responded i

It was Germany which started the Blockade first. In February 1915 they announced they would sink all allied merchant vessels around Britain. Britain responded in kind a month later. If you don't want other countries doing something to you, it is a good idea to not do the exact same thing to them first. Finally, I'm not even sure it was against the law at the time. Both participants seemed to regard it as legal.

LAC-Tech 4y ago
It was Germany which started the Blockade first. In February 1915 they announced they would sink all allied merchant vessels around Britain. Britain responded in kind a month later. The timeline all the sources I can access with a simple internet search tell me this: - the UK blockade of Germany began in August 1914 - the UK declared the entire North Sea to be a warzone in November 1914, and expanded their contraband list to include all food - Germany declared the areas around the UK a warzone in February 1915, which is what you're referring to
- JetSetWilly 4y ago
  It seems like it was gradually escalated on both sides to me. > When Britain joined the war on August 4, 1914, they did not immediately execute the entire plan to blockade all German imports. It was not until nearly four months into the war that Britain labeled the North Sea a war zone, and also began directing limited forces in the Mediterranean as well to restrict all German trade routes. > The final shift to establishing the full blockade came on November 11, 1914, after several German light cruisers were observed attempting to lay mines off the coast of southern England. This act of aggression gave British leaders the impetus they needed to declare the full blockade without U.S. resistance because during the first four months of the war, Britain had confined itself to blocking only war materials from reaching German ports. World opinion of Germany during this time began to deteriorate because of repeated reports of brutality directed against Belgian and French civilians. These things have a way of "tit for tat" escalating. If your opponent is doing things like executing whole villages of Belgian civilians as at louvain (August 1914), then the blockade starts to seem like a moral imperative. As well as that - if Germany is laying mines in layers off the British coast, that is a pretty effective way of stopping merchant traffic to Britain and is sure to elicit a response in kind. If a country started laying mines off the coast of New York how do you think the US would respond? http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/899/2/the-british-blockade-during-world-war-i-the-weapon-of-deprivation http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/899/2/the-british-b...
  - LAC-Tech 4y ago
    You keep shifting goal posts and I'm having real trouble keeping track of what your point is here. If you're looking for a strawman who will defend everything Germany did in WWI you'll have to look somewhere else - I'm not nearly as partisan about a 104 year old war as you are.
adastra22 4y ago
I think you are conflating a blockade (search and seizure) with blatant attacks on neutral and civilian shipping. The British almost immediately (August 1914) started performing search and seizure of neutral-flagged ships sailing to unaligned port cities, on the doctrine that these supplies would be sold to Germany. Which was true of course, but nevertheless a direct violation of existing conventions regarding free use of the high seas. That was the start of the naval blockade.

LAC-Tech 4y ago

It was Germany which started the Blockade first. In February 1915 they announced they would sink all allied merchant vessels around Britain. Britain responded in kind a month later. The timeline all the sources I can access with a simple internet search tell me this: - the UK blockade of Germany began in August 1914 - the UK declared the entire North Sea to be a warzone in November 1914, and expanded their contraband list to include all food - Germany declared the areas around the UK a warzone in February 1915, which is what you're referring to

JetSetWilly 4y ago
It seems like it was gradually escalated on both sides to me. > When Britain joined the war on August 4, 1914, they did not immediately execute the entire plan to blockade all German imports. It was not until nearly four months into the war that Britain labeled the North Sea a war zone, and also began directing limited forces in the Mediterranean as well to restrict all German trade routes. > The final shift to establishing the full blockade came on November 11, 1914, after several German light cruisers were observed attempting to lay mines off the coast of southern England. This act of aggression gave British leaders the impetus they needed to declare the full blockade without U.S. resistance because during the first four months of the war, Britain had confined itself to blocking only war materials from reaching German ports. World opinion of Germany during this time began to deteriorate because of repeated reports of brutality directed against Belgian and French civilians. These things have a way of "tit for tat" escalating. If your opponent is doing things like executing whole villages of Belgian civilians as at louvain (August 1914), then the blockade starts to seem like a moral imperative. As well as that - if Germany is laying mines in layers off the British coast, that is a pretty effective way of stopping merchant traffic to Britain and is sure to elicit a response in kind. If a country started laying mines off the coast of New York how do you think the US would respond? http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/899/2/the-british-blockade-during-world-war-i-the-weapon-of-deprivation http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/899/2/the-british-b...
- LAC-Tech 4y ago
  You keep shifting goal posts and I'm having real trouble keeping track of what your point is here. If you're looking for a strawman who will defend everything Germany did in WWI you'll have to look somewhere else - I'm not nearly as partisan about a 104 year old war as you are.

adastra22 4y ago

I think you are conflating a blockade (search and seizure) with blatant attacks on neutral and civilian shipping. The British almost immediately (August 1914) started performing search and seizure of neutral-flagged ships sailing to unaligned port cities, on the doctrine that these supplies would be sold to Germany. Which was true of course, but nevertheless a direct violation of existing conventions regarding free use of the high seas. That was the start of the naval blockade.