Read the excerpt from a speech to Congress by Woodrow Wilson, 1917. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind. . . . American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of. . . . Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right. . . . The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. . . . We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind.

The initial cause of conflict, as described by President Wilson in the excerpt, had the most in common with which of the following events?

the violation of principle of freedom of the seas leading to the War of 1812
boundary disputes in Mexico leading to the Mexican-American War
the explosion of the battleship Maine leading to the Spanish-American War
the bombing of Pearl Harbor leading to war with Japan