America and the

Great War

Chapter 24Lecture Outline

© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

US and WWI

Wilson and Foreign Affairs

• Idealistic Diplomacy

– Wilson has no experience in foreign affairs

– Moral idealist, believe US should spread democracy

– Sec of State William Jennings Bryan agrees

Wilson and Foreign Affairs

• Intervention in Mexico– Mexico in 3rd year of revolution

– Tampico incident, leads to “liberating” Veracruz

– 1916 Pancho Villa invades and kills Americans

– Pershing sent after Pancho into Mexico

Wilson and Foreign Affairs

• Other Problems in Latin

America

– Taft promoted dollar

diplomacy in the Caribbean

• encouraging Americans to

invest heavily in their

markets to “buy” their favor

– Countries went into default,

Taft would send troops

– Wilson forced to do the

same…

• Nicaragua 1912 – 1933

• Haiti 1915-1934

• Dominican Republic 1916-

1924

The Eruption of

World War I

• In 1914 when a Serbian

terrorist group

assassinated the crown

prince of Austria.

• Austria makes ridiculous

demands, Russia

mobilized the army to

protect a “sister” nation.

• This triggered a series of

alliances that placed the

Allies (Great Britain,

Russia, and France)

against the Central

Powers (Germany,

Austria-Hungary, and

Italy).

The Schlieffen plan

Trench Warfare• Stalemate

– Soldiers “dig-in”

• Casualties high– New technology vs. old tactics

• New weapons of war– Machine guns

– Tanks

– Airplanes

– Flame throwers

– Bayonets

– Grenades

– Pistols

– Poison Gas

FLYBOYS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ejaNRXaQzg

TRENCH WARFARE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeJkpsOqQgc

GAS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASg0H-XsQ5E

The Eruption of World War I

• It was not long before the war deteriorated into trench warfare, with

both sides in a bloody stalemate.

Verdun A landscape image from Verdun, taken immediately after the battle, shows how the firepower ravaged the land.

An Uneasy Neutrality

• Initial Reactions

– At the time the Great War erupted, 30 percent of all Americans

were no more than two generations away from their mother

countries, with 8 million being of German descent.

– Most American leaders were pro-British from the onset.

• A Strained Neutrality

– Both the Central Powers and the Allies looked to the US for food

and war material.

– To finance their needs, France and Great Britain requested loans

from the United States.

– knowing that this violated the neutrality of the United States,

Wilson approved loans to the Allies.

• Over $2 billion given to the Allies, only $27 million given to Germany.

An Uneasy Neutrality• Neutral Rights and Submarines

– Germany would declare area around the British Isles a war zone

– Lusitania, sunk on its way to London, 128 American lives were lost

– Germany ordered its subs to avoid sinking passenger ships

• The Debate over Preparedness

– December 1914, Wilson requested army & navy prepare for war

– allowed Congress to raise the income tax to 2 percent

An Uneasy Neutrality

• The Election of 1916– Roosevelt desired to be the Republican candidate in 1916, but

because of his actions in the 1912 election, the party chose

Charles Hughes.

– The Democrats nominated Wilson again. Running on the slogan

“He kept us out of war!”

An Uneasy Neutrality

• Last Efforts for Peace

– Wilson yet again tried to broker a

peace, to no avail. When

Germany broke its pledge to only

wage restricted submarine

warfare, Wilson countered by

arming merchant ships.

– In February 1917, the

Zimmerman Telegram was

revealed.

– If the Mexican government joined

with the Central Powers and

attack the United States, Mexico

would receive back all the land

that had been taken away.

America’s Entry into the War

• America’s Early Role

– In March 1917, five U.S. merchant

ships were sunk by Germany.

– Wilson asked Congress to recognize

that a state of war existed between

the two nations. Congress agreed.

– The navy’s first role was to protect

shipping convoys from the United

States to Great Britain.

– By providing loans for the Allies,

America reinvigorated the Allies.

– An early detachment of troops led by

John Pershing reached Paris in July

1917. AEF (American

Expeditionary Forces)

America’s Entry into the War

• A New Labor Force – closing off of immigration and the reallocation of 4 million men to

the war effort caused a shortage of workers

– recruiters went to the South and brought back African Americans

– Women also entered the workforce in record numbers

America’s Entry into the War

• Mobilizing a Nation– In order to mobilize the nation, it became necessary to coordinate

different industries under government bureaucracies

• raise the needed funds (war bonds)

• conserve necessary items (rations)

• promoted the growing of their own crops (victory gardens)

America’s Entry into the War

• War

Propaganda– Wilson created the

Committee on

Public Information,

which was

charged with

conveying the

Allies’ war aims to

the American

people and to the

enemy as well, in

an attempt to sap

their morale.

America’s Entry into the War

• Civil Liberties– The war effort soon turned to a witch hunt against German

Americans. Anything German was considered bad: sauerkraut

was called liberty cabbage, German measles were called liberty

measles and dachshunds were renamed liberty pups.

– The Espionage and Sedition Acts resulted in over one thousand

convictions of disloyalty to the Union.

The Home Front

• Enforcing Loyalty

– Trading with Enemy Act – censored publications

– Sedition Act – no speech disloyal to gov’t., flag,

constitution, or armed forces

– Espionage Act – punished guilty for helping the

enemy, hindering recruitment or inciting revolt

– After declaring war Congress passed law that US

mail couldn’t be used to send anything urging:

“treason, insurrection of forcible resistance to any law”

Punishable by $5000 fine and 5 years in prison

America at War

• The Western Front

– American forces did not play a major role until 1918.

– At Belleau Wood and Vaux, Americans gained limited ground, but

the effect on the morale of their fellow Allies was significant

– At the Second Battle of the Marne, a German attack was rolled

back all the way to Belgium.

– The American efforts had allowed the Allies to break the stalemate

that had existed up till then.

Belleau Wood song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy9lg0aAhlE

Great War special, Christmas truce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpqVblMPRB4

The Meuse-Argonne offensive U.S. soldiers fire an artillery gun in Argonne, France.

U.S. Goes to War Battle of Argonne Forest

– goal was capture an important railroad/train station to break German Army in France

– credited for leading to the Armistice

Alvin York– most decorated American soldier in World War I.

– taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 others

America at War

• The Bolsheviks

– At the beginning of the war, Russia was part of the Allies, but in

1917, a revolution led by Vladimir Lenin erupted and the royal

family was killed.

– Known as Bolsheviks, the revolutionaries followed the communist

teachings of Karl Marx.

– Lenin would negotiate a treaty with Germany ending the Soviets’

part in the war, and the eastern front fell silent.

Wilson’s Vision for World PeaceWilson’s 14 Points

The Points What does it mean?

1: “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, …[so that] diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.”

2: “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas…in war and peace”

3: “The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations”

4: “National armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.”

Wilson’s Vision for World PeaceWilson’s 14 Points

The Points What does it mean?

5: “Impartial adjustment of all colonial claims[;]…the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the [colonial] government.”

6-13: These points deal with the restoration of “occupied territory” to Russia, Belgium, France, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro. They also call for drawing new borders based on “historically established lines of alliance and nationality.”

(self determination)

14: “A general association of nations must be formed.”

The Fight for Peace

• Domestic Unrest

– While Wilson was in

Europe he would

lose touch with the

people.

– He would alienate

Republicans who by

openly requesting

the citizens only

vote for Dems in the

1918 election.

– When he arrived in

Paris, he found

many allies were not

interested in the

Fourteen Points.

The Fight for Peace

• The League of Nations

– The cornerstone of the Fourteen Points was the League of

Nations, a place where nations would settle their disputes by

diplomacy, not war. When the treaty approving the League was

finished, Wilson returned to a defiant Senate, which refused to

ratify it.

“The League of Nations Argument in a Nutshell”

Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s summation of the League controversy.

The Fight for Peace

• Territory and Reparations

– France demanded Germany pay reparation for the damages the

war had caused.

– Germany was divided into new nations with areas that would

serve as buffer states if they were to become aggressive again.

The Fight for Peace

• Wilson’s Loss at Home

– The Senate still would not ratify the treaty.

– Wilson decided that he would apply pressure on the senators

through their constituents, and he began a whistle-stop tour of the

nation to drum up support.

– Eventually, it would lead to a stroke, which left him paralyzed on

his left side for the rest of his life.

The Fight for Peace

Lurching from War to Peace

• The Spanish Flu

– with the returning soldiers, came a new problem: the Spanish flu.

Before the spring of 1918, 22 million would die globally from this

virulent stain of influenza.

• The Economic Transition

– Without war, workers began to strike for their demands.

– largest was the U.S. Steel strike in 1919, which resulted in

340,000 workers walking off the job.

Lurching from War to Peace

• Racial Friction– The year 1919 was a year of race riots in the United States.

Whites in Longview, Texas, invaded the black side of town to find

a black man who was accused of allegedly dating a white woman.

Washington, D.C., was mobbed by white and black gangs for four

days until soldiers and a rainstorm ended it.

• The Red Scare– The fear that what had occurred in Russia could also occur in the

United States promoted the first Red Scare. Wartime hysteria over

everything German soon found another roost in all things

communist. Militants mailed bombs to prominent members of the

government.