AP US History February 13-17-2017

Your next Unit Test will be approximately Friday February 22 and will be both MC and Essay style (more on this later).

We will now be in history Period 7 (1890-1945) for quite a while Just as a heads up for future events, we will be handling the 1920s-1930s together in

a combined unit where you’ll be answering some text/research questions on the 1920s while we move together in class toward the Depression.

MONDAY Discuss Foreign Policy ideas of Theodore Roosevelt 1900 – 1908 and William Howard Taft 1908-1912

(WOR-3,4,6,7) (POL-6)

Materials Strategy/FormatPpt and video Lecture-discussion

Student Skill TypesChronologic Reasoning (1,3)Comp/Context (5)Historical Arguments (7)Interpretation/Synthesis (8, 9)

Introduction We have discussed several “accidental Presidents” this year. These were men who were Vice Presidents

who were never really meant to be leaders. Usually, they are not successful Presidents. This cannot be said for Theodore Roosevelt. Place on the ticket to assure New York electoral votes, this war hero was also a problem for the party bosses in the state. As Governor of New York TR was downright “un-Republican” sometimes because he supported so many liberal reforms. They hoped to see the “death of the cowboy” by relegating him to the do-nothing post of VP. But then….

In 1901 President William McKinley, a popular president who had just started his second term in office and the people seemed clearly glad to get a chance to meet him. However, at 4:07 p.m. Leon Czolgosz had made it into the building and it was his turn to greet the President.

In Czolgosz's right hand, he held a .32 caliber revolver, which he had covered by wrapping a handkerchief around the gun and his hand. Although Czolgosz's swaddled hand was noticed before he reached the President, many thought it looked like it covered an injury and not that it was hiding a gun. Also, since the day had been hot, many of the visitors to see the President had been carrying handkerchiefs in their hands so that they could wipe the sweat off their faces. As Czolgosz reached the President, McKinley reached out to shake his left hand (thinking Czolgosz's right hand was injured) while Czolgosz brought up his right hand to President McKinley's chest and then fired two shots.

One of the bullets didn't enter the president - some say it bounced off of a button or off the president's sternum and then got tucked into his clothing. The other bullet, however, entered the president's abdomen, tearing through his stomach, pancreas, and kidney. Shocked at being shot, President McKinley began to sag as blood stained his white shirt. He then told those around him, "Be careful how you tell my wife.” or several days, President McKinley seemed to be getting better. After the shock of the shooting, the nation was excited to hear some good news. However, what the doctors did not realize was that without drainage, an infection had built up inside the President. By September 13 it was obvious the President was dying. At 2:15 a.m. on September 14, 1901, President William McKinley died of gangrene. That afternoon, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as President of the United States. Party Boss Mark Hanna exclaimed, “now that damn cowboy is President of the United States.

Today we will look at TR and his foreign policy and then next week look at his domestic Presidency as we move toward the Progressive Period. Also, we will look briefly at the Taft Administration and his much shorter foreign policy idea known in the media as “Dollar Diplomacy.”

The Open Door Policy Technically the U.S. policy toward China goes back before TR and Taft but it continued through their

administrations for many years. China was in political and economic disarray as the end of the 19th century approached. Though once a major power in this era China was not recognized as a sovereign nation by the major powers, who were busy elbowing one another for trading privileges and plotting how the country could be partitioned. These were known as spheres of influence. The major powers had even extracted concessions that allowed foreign powers to act with impunity (extraterritoriality: foreigners were not subject to Chinese law and thus could literally get away with murder).

During the McKinley Administration Secretary of State John Hay proposed a policy known as the Open Door Policy called for the establishment of equal trading rights to all nations in all parts of China and for recognition of Chinese territorial integrity (meaning that the country should not be carved up). The impact of such an Open Door Policy would be to put all of the imperial nations on an equal footing and minimize the power of those nations with existing spheres of influence. No nation formally agreed to Hay’s policy; each used the other nations' reluctance to endorse the Open Door as an excuse for their own inaction. An undeterred Hay simply announced that agreement had been reached. Only Russia and Japan voiced displeasure.

On the surface, it appeared that the United States had advanced a reform viewpoint, but the truth was otherwise. The U.S. had no sphere of influence in China, but had long maintained an active trade there. If other nations were to partition China, the United States would likely be excluded from future commercial activities. In short, Hay was simply trying to protect the prospects of American businessmen and investors.

Challenges to the Open Door policy would be mounted frequently in the ensuing years, including the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in which Chinese nationalists resorted to armed opposition in an attempt to end foreign occupation of their country; Japanese incursions into Manchuria following the Russo-Japanese War (see below).

Building the Panama Canal TR believed that one of his most important accomplishments was the construction of the Panama Canal.

Why he could claim this victory is a great example of imperialism. In the minds of many military strategists, America's 1898 war with Spain made a canal seem essential.

During the Spanish American War, the only way for U.S. battleships to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean was to make an 8,000-mile journey around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. The canal was completed in the face of seemingly insurmountable political, medical, and technological obstacles. The

Isthmus of Panama was controlled by Colombia, which had rejected a U.S. proposal to build a canal. "You could no more make an agreement with them than you could nail jelly to a wall," President Theodore Roosevelt said in response to the rejection. But that did not mean that TR was ready to quit.

A French adventurer, Philippe Bunau-Varilla, and an American lawyer, Nelson Cromwell, conceived of the idea of creating the Republic of Panama. They persuaded Roosevelt to support a Panama. Bunau-Varilla engineered a revolution and U.S. warships prevented Colombia from stopping Panama's attempt to break away (In 1921, the U.S. paid an indemnity to Colombia in recognition of the U.S. role in the Panamanian revolution). Bunau-Varilla repaid the United States for its assistance by signing a treaty on behalf of the Panamanians, which gave the United States a zone stretching five miles from each bank of the canal in perpetuity. Within the zone, U.S. laws, police, and courts ruled.

Years later, President Roosevelt said that the people of Panama rebelled against Colombia "literally as one man." A senator quipped, "Yes, and the one man was Roosevelt." In 1911, Roosevelt said bluntly, "I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal but to debate me." In 1906, eager to see the greatest accomplishment of his presidency, he became the first president to travel overseas. He went to Panama at the height of the rainy season and took the controls of a 95-ton steam shovel.

Built at a cost of $387 million over a period of 10 years, the Panama Canal was a declaration of America's coming of age in the world. Its completion date was also timely, 1914 and the commencement of WWI

The Roosevelt Corollary The new shift in foreign policy that we discussed last week occurred just after an interesting event. In 1904,

Germany demanded a port in Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic) as compensation for an unpaid loan. This was a common situation as major powers continually threatened to do this in Latin American states. Theodore Roosevelt, who had become president after William McKinley's assassination, told Germany to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and said that the United States would take care of the problem saying,

“Chronic wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the western hemisphere, the adherence of the U.S. to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of international police power.” This was known as the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine and it became the centerpiece of TR’s foreign policy.

The enforcement of this order, forestall foreign intervention, and protect U.S. economic interests, the United States intervened in the Caribbean and Central America some 20 times over the next quarter century--namely, in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Each intervention followed a common pattern: after intervening to restore order, U.S. forces became embroiled in the countries' internal political disputes.

The World’s Policeman TR’s intent to police the world extended beyond the Caribbean and Latin America. In 1905 the negotiations

to end the Russo-Japanese war began at Sagamore Hill when President Theodore Roosevelt invited diplomats on both sides, Russia and Japan, to his home in Oyster Bay. After meeting with all of them, he sent the diplomats out on board the presidential yacht Mayflower*. TR never personally owned a yacht although he did have a rowboat or two.

Negotiations continued at and near a naval base in Portsmouth, because it was federal property and cool in the summer. Delegates also went back and forth to Oyster Bay to confer with TR. TR set up the final settlement, and the treaty was signed at the US Navy base in Portsmouth. Thus the accord is called the "Treaty of Portsmouth". For his actions TR was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907.

The end of the war may have earned TR a Noel Prize but it also earned the U.S. a level of hatred among many Japanese military and political leaders. The Japanese were already angry about the treatment of immigrants to the U.S (especially in California where Japanese children were sent to segregated schools and not allowed to own property in some areas). The so called “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between the US and Japan was supposed to slow down Japanese immigration in exchange for TR’s pledge to force reforms in Japanese treatment. Neither the Emperor nor President abided by the agreement mostly because there were limits to each man’s true power.

“Dollar Diplomacy”

As has been the case many times before, the media has given us an expression that has become a key term. Taft used America’s growing economic power as a diplomatic tool. He urged Wall Street investors to invest money in foreign markets in order to increase American influence abroad. Investors were especially encouraged to invest their money in foreign markets in which the U.S. had strategic interests, such as the Far East and the Panama Canal region. Many people were critical of Taft’s plan and his critics denounced this strategy as “dollar diplomacy.” In fact, the senate refused to sign several treaties, but the president encouraged private banks and Wall Street investors to act independently.

Another key goal of dollar diplomacy was to preempt foreign powers from gaining or enlarging an investment foothold in key markets (Latin America and Manchuria were of particular concern. Many European countries had been imperial powers for decades and held a significant advantage over the U.S. in several global markets. The administration believed that if American investors were firmly situated in these markets economic rivals such as Britain and Germany would be unable to continue their dominance. Taft believed that the increased investment would not only benefit the U.S. but its trade partners as well, creating better foreign relations. Taft also assumed that the expenditure of money in foreign markets would increase American influence abroad and would help further its foreign policies. Of course, the overriding belief was that foreign investments would enhance American businesses, which in turn would grow the economy and enrich the government. In short “dollar diplomacy” became a key example of economic imperialism and some form of it still exists.

The Insular Cases 1901 Another key foreign policy issue with domestic overtones was the question of native peoples living in areas

acquired during the Spanish-American War (and before). In a series of Supreme Court rulings the basic question addressed was whether or not the “rights follow the flag.” In other words, do colonial peoples have the rights as native born citizens?

The general trend of the rulings in this series of cases was the Supreme Court came to the decision that not all areas under American control would automatically have full constitutional rights. For example, a person even if a US citizen living in Puerto Rico they may have no rights. Over time the rulings were tempered (especially following WWII) and nowadays people living in these regions have all of the same constitutional though not really political rights

ConclusionFollowing his Presidency his successor William Howard Taft would also be imperialistic but used a less direct known as “dollar diplomacy.” The foreign policy created by U.S. president William Howard Taft (served 1909–13) and his Secretary of State, Philander C. Knox to ensure the financial stability of a region while protecting and extending American commercial and financial interests there. It grew out of President Theodore Roosevelt’s peaceful intervention in the Dominican Republic, where U.S. loans had been exchanged for the right to choose the Dominican head of customs (the country’s major revenue source).

HomeworkRead the following section from the University of Houston website “digital history” about the Filipino Insurrection and study notes for a quiz on the Spanish-American Warfor bell-work tomorrow and bring your textbook

The 20th century began with the United States engaged in a bloody, but largely forgotten, war in the Philippines that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. The Philippine American War, fought from February 1899 to July 1902, claimed 250,000 lives and helped establish the United States as a power in the Pacific.

Today, few Americans are aware of the Philippine American War. The conflict was a sequel to the Spanish American War of 1898, which had been waged, in part, in support of Cubans fighting for independence from Spain. But it was also fueled by American desire to become a world power.

The Philippine American War prompted Mark Twain and other writers and artists to speak out against those who advocated American expansion. It fueled a bitter national debate over U.S. involvement overseas, a precursor to the outcry over the Vietnam War a half-century later. Some who opposed the occupation were motivated by racism, fearful that annexation of the Philippines

would lead to an influx of non-white immigrants. One U.S. senator warned of the coming of "tens of millions of Malays and other unspeakable Asiatics." Many, who considered the occupation immoral and inconsistent with American traditions and values, joined the Anti-Imperialist League.

The conflict helped popularize the concept of the "white man's burden," the notion that the United States and Western European societies had a duty to civilize and uplift the "benighted" races of the world. A U.S. senator from Indiana declared: "We must never forget that in dealing with the Filipinos, we deal with children."

The Philippine American War also paved the way for migration from the Philippines. Shortly after the war, Filipino immigrants began arriving in the United States as students, U.S. military personnel, or farm and cannery workers. Today, there are more than two million Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the United States, making them one of the nation's largest Asian communities.

On May 1, 1898, Commodore George Dewey had entered Manila Bay and destroyed the decrepit Spanish fleet. In December, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. Mark Twain called the $20 million payment an "entrance fee into society--the Society of Scepter Thieves." "We do not intend to free but to subjugate the people of the Philippines," he wrote. "We have pacified some thousands of the islanders and buried them, destroyed their fields, burned their villages, and turned their widows and orphans out of doors."

On June 12, 1898, a young Filipino, General Emilio Aguinaldo, had proclaimed Philippine independence and established Asia's first republic. He had hoped that the Philippines would become a U.S. protectorate. But pressure on President William McKinley to annex the Philippines was intense. After originally declaring that it would "be criminal aggression" for the United States to annex the archipelago, he reversed his stance, partly out of fear that another power would seize the Philippines. Six weeks after Dewey defeated the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, a German fleet sought to set up a naval base there. The British, French, and Japanese also sought bases in the Philippines. Unaware that the Philippines were the only predominantly Catholic nation in Asia, President McKinley said that American occupation was necessary to "uplift and Christianize" the Filipinos.

On February 4, 1899, fighting erupted between American and Filipino soldiers, leaving 59 Americans and approximately 3,000 Filipinos dead. With the vice president casting a tie-breaking vote, a congressional resolution declaring the Philippines independent was defeated. American commanders hoped for a short conflict, but in the end, more than 70,000 would fight in the archipelago. Unable to defeat the United States in conventional warfare, the Filipinos adopted guerrilla tactics. To suppress the insurgency, villages were forcibly relocated or burned. Non-combatant civilians were imprisoned or killed. Vicious torture techniques were used on suspected insurrects, such as the water cure, in which a suspect was made to lie face up while water was poured onto his face. One general declared:

“It may be necessary to kill half of the Filipinos in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher plane of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords.”

The most notorious incident of the war took place on Samar Island. In retaliation for a Filipino raid on an American garrison, in which American troops had been massacred, General Jacob W. Smith told his men to turn the island into a "howling wilderness" so that "even birds could not live there." He directed a marine major to kill "all persons...capable of bearing arms." He meant everyone over the age of 10. Smith was court-martialed and "admonished" for violating military discipline.

Aguinaldo was captured by a raid on the Filipino leader's hideout in March 1901. The war was officially declared over in July 1902, but fighting continued for several years. The Philippine war convinced the United States not to seize further overseas territory.

More than 4,000 American soldiers and about 20,000 Filipino fighters died. An estimated 200,000 Filipino civilians died during the war, mainly of disease or hunger. Reports of American atrocities led the United States to turn internal control over to the Philippines to Filipinos in 1907 and pledged to grant the archipelago independence in 1916.

U.S. leaders tried to transform the country into a showcase of American-style democracy in Asia. But there was a strong undercurrent of condescension. U.S. President William Howard Taft, who had served as governor-general of the Philippines, called the Filipinos "our little brown brothers." The Philippines were granted independence in 1946.

TUESDAY (Textbook Needed) Analyze primary and secondary sources on the problems of American Empire: The Philippines and the

status of the “protectorates” IOT complete docs analysis (POL-2) (NAT-4) (CUL-4)

Materials Strategy/FormatText and docs Analysis and close text reading

(R.CCR.1) (W.CCR.1)

Student skillsContextArgumentationEvaluationChronological Reasoning

Today we will integrate the bell work reading in with a set of primary sources related to the problems and issues of Empire. You will complete the bell work and docs analysis on the same sheet and submit before the end of class.

Homework Complete the following Review Due Thursday 7amThe Jacksonian Period Testhttp://www.quia.com/quiz/5491979.html

Examine foreign policy issues during the Wilson Administration (First Term 1912 – 1916) (POL-6), (WOR-7)

Materials Strategy/FormatPpt and video Lecture-discussion L.CCR.4

Student Activities1. Chronological Reasoning (1,3)3. Critical Thinking (6,7)4. Interpretation and Synthesis (8)

Introduction As a candidate in 1912 Wilson constantly berated the foreign policy of both TR and Taft. He pointed to the

blatant disregard for the sovereignty of Caribbean nations by the Roosevelt Corollary and the military interventions of by Taft. He also chided Taft on his “dollar diplomacy” approach to foreign policy.

Last week we saw Wilson as one of the most Progressive Presidents in American History. His policies revolutionized American economics and culture. However, we also saw a failure in that he was even less interested in race relations than many of his predecessors. Today we will begin a discussion of another issue that Wilson was less than effective, foreign policy.

Wilson called for what he termed a “moral diplomacy” where the U.S. would treat with foreign powers on equal terms. He promised that unlike his predecessors, he would not commit U.S. troops abroad and promised this during the 1916 election. However, as often happens with campaign promises, they should perhaps be called “campaign hopes.”

Wilson and Foreign Policy Woodrow Wilson numbers among the most influential Presidents in the history of U.S. foreign policy.

Elected in 1912 as a Progressive reformer, the former college professor and governor of New Jersey expected to devote his time and talents to fulfilling an ambitious domestic reform agenda. Foreign policy, Wilson assumed, would be a secondary concern. As he remarked, "[i]t would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs."

That irony was soon realized. In 1913, Wilson repudiated his predecessors' Dollar Diplomacy. (Dollar Diplomacy called for the U.S. government to promote stability, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to yield investment opportunities for American companies, with the hope that the development would also result in prosperity for the affected nations.) Certainly Wilson supported private American investment in Latin America and elsewhere, but the promotion of democracy was a higher priority.

In 1914, disturbed by the violence of Mexico's revolution the installation of the Venustiano Carranza regime in Mexico City did not result in lasting tranquility with the United States. Events became so chaotic that the State Department issued a warning to U.S. citizens living in Mexico to leave the country. Thousands took the advice.

One of Carranza’s allies, Francisco “Pancho” Villa, turned against the new president, claiming with some justification that Carranza was not making good on his reform pledges. Villa himself was a rascal, an enormous self-promoter and an occasional champion of the underprivileged. Villa was initially engaged in a struggle on behalf of the government against rival forces. Villa understood how to use the media as evidenced from the fact that filmmakers and U.S. newspapermen by granting open access to his campaigns. Some claimed that he actually staged battles for the cameras and publicity.

Villa's horizons broadened considerably when he began to seek control of the Mexican government for himself. His method was to weaken Carranza by provoking problems with the United States. On January 10, 1916, his forces attacked a group of American mining engineers at Santa Ysabel, killing 18. The Americans had been invited into the area by Carranza for the purpose of reviving a number of abandoned mines

Pancho Villa’s men struck next on March 9, by crossing the border to attack Columbus, New Mexico, the home of a small garrison. The town was burned and 17 Americans were killed in the raid. War fever broke out across the United States. Senator Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona suggested that “more grape shot and less grape juice.” This was a shot at the pacifist policies of Secretary of state William Jennings Bryan. President Wilson abandoned "watchful waiting" and appointed General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (famous from the Spanish-American War) to head a punitive force of 12,000 soldiers to locate Villa — dead or alive. Carranza was not enthusiastic about the incursion of an American army onto Mexican soil, and became even less so the farther south the soldiers marched. Despite several close calls, Villa always managed to escape the larger and better-equipped invaders. An exasperated Pershing cabled Washington: “Villa is everywhere, but Villa is nowhere.”

The chase lasted nine months and finally ended in February 1917, when Wilson summoned the soldiers home in anticipation of imminent hostilities with Germany. A new Mexican constitution had been adopted in January 1917. Carranza was formally elected president by a democratic vote and was recognized by the United States. Poncho Villa was a popular hero in many quarters in Mexico, but had also made many enemies over the years. He was ambushed and killed several years later.

The intervention and sending of troops across the border could be seen as an act of war and it certainly worsened US relations. But also against his earlier campaign ideas, he was also forced to send troops to Haiti and the Dominican Republic to protect American interests.

ConclusionIn what ways does the attack on Americans and U.S. reaction resemble the September 11 attacks ordered by Osama bin Laden? There was an attack by terrorists angry at U.S. intervention in their region. The U.S. invaded a foreign land to bring the perpetrator to justice. One of the main reasons that the "perp" was not fund was that the local population supported the attackers. While bin Laden was finally located, Poncho Villa eluded justice at the hands of Americans but was killed by rivals in 1923.

HomeworkStudy for quiz on THURSDAY covering all Imperialism materials

Origins of Imperialism Spanish-American War Filipino Insurrection Foreign Policy issues of TR, Taft, Wilson

THURSDAY Short Answer style quiz on Imperialism (Document Based)

Materials Strategy/FormatQuiz forms Assessment-Review

Student Skill TypesChronologic Reasoning (1,3)Comp/Context (5)Historical Arguments (7)Interpretation/Synthesis (8, 9)

Instructions Today’s quiz is document based covering materials that went back to the previous week on the origins of

imperialism. However, most of the quiz is on the TR, Taft, and Wilson foreign policy issues This is due today

HomeworkComplete the quia review if you have not already done so.

FRIDAY (probably part of Monday) Examine the factors that brought the U.S. into WWI April 1917(POL-6), (WOR-7) Analyze text/document information on the impact upon the home front (WOR-8) (POL-6)(CUL-2)

Materials Strategy/FormatPpt and text/docs Lecture-discussion L.CCR.2,3

Close Text Reading R.CCR.1and 3Student Activities

1. Chronological Reasoning (1,3)3. Critical Thinking (6,7)4. Interpretation and Synthesis (8)

Introduction: World War One Erupts in Europe August 1914

One of the great tragedies of World War One was that it caught people off guard. World War I caught most people by surprise. Lulled by a century of peace--Europeans had not seen a large-scale war since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815--many observers had come to regard armed conflict as a relic of the past, rendered unthinkable by human progress. World War I shattered these dreams. The war demonstrated that death and destruction had not yet been banished from human affairs.

One of the greatest wars in human history was commenced by an act of terrorism. On June 28, 1914, a car carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the imperial Hapsburg throne, made a wrong turn. As the car came to a halt and tried to turn around, a nervous teenager approached from a coffee house, pulled out a revolver, and shot twice. Within an hour, the Archduke and his wife were dead.

Gavrilo Princip, the 19-year-old assassin, was a Bosnian nationalist who opposed the domination of the Balkans by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He had received his weapon from a secret society known as the

"Black Hand," which was clandestinely controlled by the government of Serbia. Princip died of mistreatment in an Austrian prison in 1918.

The assassination provoked outrage in Austria-Hungary. The dual monarchy wanted to punish Serbia for the assassination and to intimidate other minority groups whose struggles for independence threatened the empire's stability. The assassination of the archduke triggered a series of events that would lead, five weeks later, to the outbreak of World War I. When the conflict was over, 11 million people had been killed, four powerful European empires had been overthrown, and the seeds of World War II and the Cold War had been planted.

A complicated system of military alliances transformed the Balkan crisis into a full-scale European war. Recognizing that any action it took against Serbia would create an international incident, Austria asked for Germany's diplomatic and military support. Meanwhile, Russia, fearful of Austrian and German expansion into the Balkans, strongly supported the Serbs and began to mobilize its army.

This move made Germany's leadership fear encirclement by Russia and France. Germany sent an ultimatum to France asking it to declare its neutrality in the event of a conflict between Russia and Germany. The French refused. They were obligated by treaty to support Russia and were still bitter over their defeat by Prussia in 1871. When Russia failed to mobilized its forces, the German Kaiser agreed to war. The Germans hoped that a lightning quick strike at France would catch them before they were fully mobilized. The invasion route through Belgium and Holland would bring Britain into the conflict as they were allies with those states. In essence, a gentlemen’s agreement of mutual support with France became a military alliance as they now had a common enemy in Germany.

The German assault nearly worked. The French and British stopped Germany's massive offensive through France and Belgium at the Marne River only miles from Paris, the Great War bogged down into trench warfare and a ghastly stalemate ensued. Lines of men, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss border, formed an unmovable battle front across northern France. Four million troops burrowed into trenches that were 6-to-8 feet deep and wide enough for two men to pass each other. The trenches stretched for 450 miles. The soldiers were ravaged by tuberculosis and plagued with lice and rats. They stared at each other across barren expanses called "no-man's land" and fought pitched battles over narrow strips of blood-soaked earth.

To end the stalemate, Germany introduced several military innovations in 1915. But none proved decisive. Germany dispatched submarines to prevent merchant ships from reaching Britain; it added poison chlorine gas to its military arsenal at the second battle of Ypres in northern France; and it dropped incendiary bombs over London from a zeppelin. Airplanes, tanks, and hand grenades were other innovations that distinguished World War I from previous conflicts. But the machine gun did most of the killing, firing eight bullets per second.

In the east the war was more mobile. The Ottoman Empire allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary which brought war into the Middle East. Many of the modern day issues in this region commenced in 1915-1918 as British troops inspired Arab uprisings against Turkey and, at the same time, promised to sponsor a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

The battles that erupted in Europe were unlike any seen before. In an attempt to break the deadlock, German forces adopted a new objective in 1916: to kill so many French soldiers that France would be forced to sue for peace. The German plan was to attack the French city of Verdun, a psychologically important town in northeastern France, and to bleed the French dry. The battle--the war's longest--lasted from February 21, 1916 through July. The battle also engaged two million soldiers. When it ended, Verdun had become a symbol of wartime futility. France had suffered 315,000 casualties, Germany 280,000. The town was destroyed; however, the front had not moved. At the Battle of the Somme, a hundred miles northwest of Verdun, the British launched an assault in July 1916. When it was over in October, one million men on both sides had died.

In 1917, after two-and-a-half years of fighting, 5 million troops were dead and the western front remained deadlocked. This was the grim situation that awaited the United States

The U.S. is drawn into the Conflict

It was once taught that the U.S. was an innocent victim of German aggression and only went to war when we were forced into the situation. But an objective look at the situation reveals that the U.S. was also

steering a path toward war as we examine evidence mounting by 1916. Germany was desperate to break the stalemate and to end the war of attrition. In January 1917, they launched unrestricted submarine warfare, hoping to cripple the British economy. German subs sank a half million tons of Allied shipping each month, leaving Britain with only a six week supply of grain. But these German U-boats risked bringing the United States into the war. Despite Wilson’s statements of neutrality, we were selling goods to Britain almost exclusively by 1916. So, were we neutral? One should be reminded that this was one of the major factors leading to the War of 1812! So, the first major facto involving the U.S. going to war was violations of American Neutrality. But even before this, American public opinion was turning against Germany

On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania, a cruise ship was sunk by a torpedo from a German submarine. The ship sank off the Irish coast in under 20 minutes. A total of 1,198 passengers and crew members lost their lives; only 861 people survived. Over 200 hundred Americans were also on board. The German Embassy had issued a warning that appeared in New York newspapers: “Travelers intended to embark for an Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies.... Vessels flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her allies are liable to destruction.” The Lusitania had previously made a half dozen Atlantic round trips without incident. Few believed that a civilian passenger ship would be deliberately targeted. The problem was that Germany believed that this vessel and other passenger ships were secretly ferrying weapons to Britain. Following the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, Germany would institute a moratorium on unrestricted submarine warfare. However, pressure on the German high command to resume unrestricted submarine warfare was great. It was viewed as the only way to starve Britain and France into submission. This resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare would ultimately bring the United States into the war.

President Wilson once had called on Americans to be "neutral in thought as well as deed." The United States, however, quickly began to lean toward Britain and France. Convinced that wartime trade was necessary to fuel the growth of American trade, President Wilson refused to impose an embargo on trade with the belligerents. During the early years of the war, trade with the allies tripled.

This volume of trade quickly exhausted the allies' cash reserves, forcing them to ask the United States for credit. In October 1915, President Wilson permitted loans to belligerents, a decision that greatly favored Britain and France. By 1917, American loans to the allies had soared to $2.25 billion; loans to Germany stood at $27 million. So once again we have to ask ourselves, in the face of potential lost revenues from a German victory, were we truly neutral? By n January 1917, Germany announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare. This announcement helped precipitate American entry into the conflict. Germany hoped to win the war within five months. Additionally, they were willing to risk antagonizing Wilson on the assumption that, even if the United States declared war, it could not mobilize quickly enough to change the course of the conflict.

The final act in leading the U.S. into the war was something that sounds a little like the De-Lome Letter of the Spanish-American War. Then a fresh insult led Wilson to demand a declaration of war. In March 1917, newspapers published the Zimmerman Note, an intercepted telegram from the German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German ambassador to Mexico. The telegram said that if Germany went to war with the United States, Germany promised to help Mexico recover the territory it had lost during the 1840s, including Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. The Zimmerman telegram and German attacks on three U.S. ships in mid-March led Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war.

A final event that also might have pushed Wilson’s hand was the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia that took them out of the war. This occurred one month before the American declaration of war. This would mean a huge shift as German troops could now be reallocated to the Western Front.

War is DeclaredPresident Wilson viewed the war as an opportunity to destroy German militarism. "The world must be made safe for democracy," he told a joint session of Congress. Only six Senators and 50 Representatives voted against the war declaration. Among them was Jeanette Rankin the first female Senator. Secretary of State Bryan had already resigned believing that Wilson was intent upon going to war and not seeking peaceful solutions.

The U.S. Prepares for War When Wilson got the war declaration The U.S. Army at the time had only 107,641 men. Within a year,

however, the United States raised a five million-man army. By the war's end, the American armed forces were a decisive factor in blunting a German offensive and ending the bloody stalemate.

The German had believed that with Russia out of the war, they could now win. They expected the U.S. would take a long time to mobilize. The U.S. Navy would strike the first blow. American ships relieved the British of responsibility for patrolling the Western Hemisphere, while another portion of the U.S. fleet steamed to the north Atlantic to combat German submarines.

General John Pershing was placed in command of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) but most Europeans called our soldiers “doughboys.” To raise troops, President Wilson insisted on a military draft. Though drafting may not have been necessary as millions of men volunteered. Just like any other product, the war was sold with advertising. The appeal to mom, apple pie, and democracy worked very well (see below). More than 23 million men registered during World War I, and 2,810,296 draftees served in the armed forces. To select officers, the army launched an ambitious program of psychological testing which came to be the Stanford I.Q. test. All told, 1.5 million American troops arrived in Europe during the last six months of the war.

The U.S. Mobilization and the Home Front

As we recently discussed, all U.S. wars must rely upon the support of the people and so public opinion becomes critical to all war efforts. Wilson administration was convinced that it had to mobilize public opinion in support of the war. To influence public opinion, the federal government embarked on its first ever domestic propaganda campaign. Wilson chose muckraking journalist George Creel to head the government agency, the Committee on Public Information (CPI). The CPI placed pro-war advertisements in magazines and distributed 75 million copies of pamphlets defending America's role in the war. Creel also launched a massive advertising campaign for war bonds and sent some 75,000 "Four-Minute Men" to whip up enthusiasm for the war by rallying audiences in theaters. The CPI also encouraged filmmakers to produce movies, like The Kaiser: the Beast of Berlin, that played up alleged German atrocities. Of course some of these were simply made up and any Allied atrocities completely hidden. For the first time, the federal government had demonstrated the power of propaganda.

The propaganda effort was perhaps too successful. Once the United States entered the war, a search for spies and saboteurs escalated into efforts to suppress German culture. Many German-language newspapers were closed down. Public schools stopped teaching German. Lutheran churches dropped services that were spoken in German.

Germans were called "Huns." In the name of patriotism, musicians no longer played Bach and Beethoven, and schools stopped teaching the German language. Americans renamed sauerkraut "liberty cabbage"; dachshunds "liberty hounds"; and German measles "liberty measles." Cincinnati, with its large German American population, even removed pretzels from the free lunch counters in saloons. More alarming, vigilante groups attacked anyone suspected of being unpatriotic. Workers who refused to buy war bonds often suffered harsh retribution, and attacks on labor protesters were nothing short of brutal. The legal system backed the suppression. Juries routinely released defendants accused of violence against individuals or groups critical of the war. A St. Louis newspaper campaigned to "wipe out everything. In our own neighborhood, Germantown Tennessee was renamed Neshoba.

Perhaps the most horrendous anti-German act was the lynching in April 1918 of 29-year-old Robert Paul Prager, a German-born bakery employee, who was accused of making "disloyal utterances." A mob took him from the basement of the Collinsville, Illinois jail, dragged him outside of town, and hanged him from a tree. Before the lynching, he was allowed to write a last note to his parents in Dresden, Germany (source digitalhistory.com)

The Espionage 1917 and Sedition Acts 1918 Do you remember the Alien and Sedition Acts? What about the suspension of habeas corpus by Lincoln

during the Civil War? Ever look the details of the more recent Patriot Act passed with bi-partisan support during the months after the September 11th attacks in 2001? All of these share the commonality that during wartime, civil rights and civil liberties are often constrained.

June 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The piece of legislation gave postal officials the authority to ban newspapers and magazines from the mails and threatened individuals convicted of obstructing the draft with $10,000 fines and 20 years in jail. Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a federal offense to use "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the Constitution, the government, the American uniform, or the flag. The government prosecuted over 2,100 people under these acts.

In general organized labor unions like the AFL pledged to not strike during the war. However, the more radical labor organization, the International Workers of the World (IWW) also called the “Wobblies”, never recovered from government attacks during World War I. In September 1917, the Justice Department staged massive raids on IWW officers, arresting 169 of its veteran leaders. The administration's purpose was, as one attorney put it, "very largely to put the IWW out of business." Many observers thought the judicial system would protect dissenters, but the courts handed down stiff prison sentences to the radical labor organization's leaders

Political dissenters bore the brunt of the repression. Eugene V. Debs, who urged socialists to resist militarism, went to prison for nearly three years. One of the most important civil rights cases in the period came as a result of the constitutional challenge. In the case Schenk v. U.S. (1919) the Court's unanimous (9-0) decision was written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In it, the Court upheld Schenck's conviction, declaring the Espionage Act a reasonable and acceptable limitation on speech in time of war. Holmes wrote, “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing panic.” Holmes argued that “The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent.”

In short, the Court held that reasonable limits can be imposed on the 1st Amendment's guarantee of free speech. No person may use free speech to place others in danger. “Protected political speech” was diminished in time of war. The Schenck case stands as the first significant exploration of the limits of 1st Amendment free speech provisions by the Supreme Court.

Funding the War Effort The war was funded through several vehicles. Income tax rates were expanded but the most popular

method was selling war bonds. To ramp up production, the War Industries Board was created and led by Bernard Beruch, a Wall Street broker. Generally, this allowed a small measure of monopolies to form as they are inherently more efficient at production. The problem after the war was getting them to stop being monopolistic. The 1920s Republicans generally ignored the problem.

Another important part of the war effort was recycling! Led by future President Herbert Hoover, the government sponsored recycling programs and encouraged Americans to plant “liberty gardens” so that food could be rationed for the war effort.

ConclusionThough the US was only in the war for about 14 months, the death toll was horrendous. Over 116,000 soldiers died as a direct result of combat. In financial figures the war cost about $32 billion. But to some degree the war made the U.S. a superpower as we were the only real winner. Unfortunately, the Versailles Treaty and its punitive measures, coupled with the economic crisis of the 1930s would practically guarantee an even more dangerous war.

Weekend HomeworkComplete the following The Colonial Period Review Quizhttp://www.quia.com/quiz/4341215.html