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The Wilson Administration backed plans to significantly expand the Navy. No measures were made to expand the Army was a different matter. There were several reasons for this. America was now the world's largest industrial power with extensive foreign trade. The British Royal Navy blockade of Germany restricted the rights of neutral shipping to which the United states objected (1914). The German sinking of the Luisitania shocked Americans (1915). And the Japanese declartion of 21 Demands were a direct challenge to America's Open Door Policy (1915). The U.S. Navy had 17 dreadnought and 23 pre-dreadnought battleships. These capital ships were the way the strength of national navies were measured at the time. The Naval Construction Act of 1916 provided for a massive expansion of the Navy. It authorized the construction of 156 new ships. This included 16 capital ships (10 battleships and 6 battle cruisers). There were also to be numerous new cruisers. All of these new vessels were to be laid down (construction began) by mid-1919. The actual numberous are less significant than the fact that these would be modern vessels. This would have meant that by the early-20s that the United States would have the most modern navy in the world. The British even if they won the War would not be able to afford such a massive building program. As the United States became involved in the War, American naval planning ficused on a war in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. Less attention would be given to destroyers--only 50 were to be built despie all the futor about U-boats. This was a very small fraction in GRT terms of the construction effort. And it bwould be the desroyers that would play the major American naval role in the War.
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