CHAPTER 22World War I: The Progressive Crusade

at Home and Abroad, 1914–1920

Woodrow Wilson and the World

• Taming the Americas– William Jennings Bryan, a pacifist, secretary of state.– Monroe Doctrine to justify U.S. action in Nicaragua,

Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.– General Victoriano Huerta’s seizure of power in Mexico.– United States forced Huerta into exile - rebellion among

desperately poor farmers who believed that the new Mexican government, aided by American business interests, had betrayed the revolution’s promise to help the common people.

– Francisco “Pancho” Villa, attacked Americans and American interests – Wilson sent 12,000 troops - withdrew to prepare for the possibility of fighting in World War I.

• The European Crisis– Before 1914, Europe enjoyed decades of peace –

potentially destructive forces of nationalism and imperialism.

– European nations created a complicated web of military and diplomatic alliances - possibility of large-scale conflict.

– Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the

heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Bosnian Serb terrorist - elaborate alliance system made local conflict an international one - war broke out in Europe.

– The conflict escalated to a world war when Japan joined the cause against Germany.

• The Ordeal of American Neutrality– Woodrow Wilson – war a European matter - United

States would remain neutral - normal relations with the warring nations.

– American sympathies with Great Britain and France.– Great Britain set up economic blockade of

Germany. – Germany - submarine blockade of British ports -

May 7, 1915 – torpedoed British passenger liner Lusitania - 1,000 passengers killed, 128 U.S. citizens.

– Mixed reaction from Americans - some demanded war - others pointed out the Lusitania was carrying munitions as well as passengers and was therefore a legitimate target.

– Wilson’s response stay neutral - peace without condoning German attacks on passenger ships – Secretary of State Bryan resigns in protest of Wilson’s lack of action

– Germany apologized for civilian deaths on Lusitania - tensions subsided for a while.

– Wilson’s middle-of-the-road strategy between aggressiveness and pacifism proved helpful in his bid for reelection in 1916.

• The United States Enters the War– From “absolute neutrality” to more forthrightly pro-

Allies, supplying Britain with 40 percent of their war material and floating loans to Britain and France.

– In January 1917, German government resentful of neutral ships’ access to Great Britain and Britain’s blockade starved Germany—resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.

– Zimmerman telegram - Germany’s attempt to ally with Mexico.

– In March, German submarines sank five American vessels off Britain, killing sixtysix Americans and prompting Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war.

– April 5, 1917 - Congress voted to declare war.

“Over There”• The Call to Arms

– America enters war - Britain and France exhausted after almost three years of conflict.

– May 18, 1917 - Wilson signed Selective Service Act, authorizing draft of all young men into the armed forces - tiny volunteer armed force to a vast army and navy.

– 4.8 million men under arms - 370,000 African Americans put aside skepticism about war to serve - suffered discrimination and prejudice.

– Progressives in government determined training camps that transformed raw recruits into fighting men would have the highest moral and civic purposes.

• The War in France– American Expeditionary Force (AEF) discovered three

year- old war a stalemate; British and French forces

in trenches – both sides suffered tremendous casualties.– American troops saw almost no combat in 1917; instead, they

continued to train and explore places most of them otherwise could never have hoped to see.

– Brest-Litovsk treaty in March 1918 – (Germans and the Bolsheviks) Russia out of the war - Germans launched massive offensive aimed at French ports on the Atlantic - 250,000 casualties on each side.

– General Pershing and separate American command in the central sector.

– Americans checked German advance with a series of dashing assaults.

– Summer of 1918, the Allies launched massive counteroffensive - end of the war - routing German forces along the Marne River.

– November 11, 1918 armistice signed and the adventure of the AEF ended.

The Crusade for Democracy at Home • The Progressive Stake in the War

– War as an agent of social improvement - agencies charged with managing the war effort.

– Activists cheered the war - promoting progressive reform - industrial leaders - tripling of corporate profits - production and efficiency.

– Wartime agencies enacted eight-hour workday, living minimum wage, and collective bargaining rights in some industries.

– Prohibitionists - succeeded in securing the passage of a constitutional ban on alcohol -January 1, 1920.

• Women, War, and the Battle for Suffrage– Women served in France as nurses, ambulance

drivers, canteen managers, and war correspondents.– End of long-standing barriers against hiring women.– Suffragists led by Alice Paul, picketed the White

House - more mainstream NAWSA, under Carrie Chapman Catt - 2 million.

– In 1918, Wilson supports suffrage - “vital to the winning of the war” - August 1920, states ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, granting woman suffrage.

• Rally around the Flag—or Else – Peace advocates rallied around the flag - Only

handful of reformers resisted the tide of conversion from pacifism to support of the war.

– Committee on Public Information (CPI) under muckraking journalist George Creel - cheered on America’s war effort - anti-German passion swept the nation - hysteria increased -campaign reached absurd levels.

– Zeal to suppress dissent - Espionage Act, Trading with the Enemy Act, and the Sedition Act -

government got sweeping powers to punish opinions or activities “disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive,” and contrasted sharply with the war’s aim of defending democracy.

– Republican rivals used the war as a weapon against the Democrats.

– Elections of 1918, Republicans won a narrow victory in both houses of Congress, ending Democratic control and possibility for further

– domestic reform, and dividing the leadership as U.S. forces advanced toward military victory.

A Compromised Peace • Wilson’s Fourteen Points

– On January 8, 1918, President Wilson delivered a speech to Congress - his vision of a generous peace - Fourteen Points - blueprint for new democratic world order.

– 2. The right to self determination of peoples who had been dominated by Germany - League of Nations - roused popular enthusiasm in the United States and every Allied country.

• The Paris Peace Conference – Wilson attended the Paris peace conference as head of

the American delegation – no prominent Republicans.– Wilson encountered stiff resistance from European leaders

- seen as impractical moralist.

– Wilson forced to make compromises - agreed to assigning war guilt to Germany - Germans betrayed.

– Wilson had success in establishing principle of self-determination - redrew the map of Europe and parts of the rest of the world.

– Wilson’s hope of self-determination in colonies unsuccessful - League of Nations a mandate to administer them.

– Peace conference refused to endorse Japan’s proposal for a clause proclaiming the principle of racial equality.

– Wilson proposed a League of Nations that would provide collective security and order.

– To many Europeans and Americans whose hopes had been stirred by Wilson’s lofty aims, the Versailles treaty came as a bitter disappointment.

• The Fight for the Treaty

– The tumultuous reception Wilson received at home – probably American people supported the treaty.

– Wilson faced stiff opposition in the Senate from “irreconcilables,” - entangling the United States in world affairs - Republicans feared that membership in the League of Nations would jeopardize the nation’s independence.

– Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – chief opponent – Wilson refused to accept any amendments.

– Wilson to the people - embarked on an ambitious speaking tour - collapsed and had to return to Washington - suffered a massive stroke and died.

– When the treaty came before the full Senate in March 1920,it lost with six votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

– The nations of Europe went about organizing the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland - the United States never became a member.

Democracy at Risk • Economic Hardship and Labor Upheaval

– United States to a peacetime economy – no government wartime controls on the economy.

– More than three million soldiers raising unemployment rate - spending spree - inflation.

– Gains workers made during the war evaporated - in 1919 3,600 strikes involving 4 million workers.

– Sharp decline in the fortunes of the labor movement - trend continues for almost twenty years.

• The Red Scare – The “Red Scare” that began in 1919 -outstripped the

assault on civil liberties during the war - homegrown causes - postwar recession, labor unrest, difficulties in reintegrating millions of returning veterans.

– Success of the Russian Bolsheviks’ revolution contributed to Americans’ anxiety.

– Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer - assault on alleged subversives - ideas that could lead to violence.

– In January 1920 - series of raids that netted 6,000 alleged subversives.

– Effort to rid country of alien radicals matched by efforts to crush troublesome citizens - ordered 500 noncitizen suspects, including Emma Goldman, deported.

– Law enforcement officials and vigilante groups joined hands in several cities and towns to rid themselves of so-called Reds.

– Public institutions, including schools, libraries, and state legislatures, joined attack on civil liberties.

– The Supreme Court acted to restrict free speech with their decision on Schenck v. United States.

– Red scare lost credibility and collapsed in its excesses.

• The Great Migrations of African Americans and Mexicans – In 1900, nine out ten blacks still lived in the South -

disfranchisement, segregation, and violence dominated their lives.

– World War I - opportunity to escape the South’s cotton fields and kitchens.

– As number of European immigrants fell, between 1915 and 1920, half a million blacks boarded trains for the industrial cities in the North - Opportunities varied from city to city - North not the promised land - many including those who had fought in the war, suffered from job discrimination and racially motivated violence.

– Still, most migrants who traveled to the North stayed and encouraged family and friends to follow.

– At almost the same time African Americans were streaming into northern cities, another migration was underway in the American Southwest.

– Between 1910 and 1920, the Mexican-born population in the United States more than doubled - Americans’ racial stereotypes made Mexican immigrants excellent prospects for manual labor but not for citizenship.

– Mexican immigrants dreamed of a better life in America - found both opportunity and disappointment.

– Despite friction, large-scale immigration into the Southwest meant a resurgence of the Mexican cultural presence - greater solidarity and political action for ethnic Mexican population.

• Postwar Politics and the Election of 1920– Wilson insisted 1920 election would be a “solemn

referendum” on the League of Nations.– Republican Party candidate, Ohio senator Warren G.

Harding - little political aptitude but great facility for connecting with common people - won the election - campaign promise to return the country to “normalcy.”

The Election of 1920