Unit 8—Chapters 22 – 23WWI and the Roaring Twenties (1914 – 1929)

CSS 11.3, 11.4, 11.5

2

Big Stick Diplomacy

Russo-Japanese War, 1905• Japan and Russia wanted Manchuria• Russia built Trans-Siberian Railroad• Japan destroyed Russian navy at

Port Arthur• 1st major loss of European power to

non-European power since the Turks in the 16th Century

Portsmouth Conference, 1905• TR got the Nobel Peace Prize for

negotiating end to the war• Japan’s supplies were low and

Russia was humiliated

Roosevelt Corollary, 1903• Venezuela defaulted on payments

to Britain and Germany• T.R. said U.S. would intervene in

Americas so Europe wouldn’t need to

Root-Takahira Agreement, 1908• US and Japan avoided war by

respecting territories in the Pacific and upholding the Open Door Policy

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 1901• Britain released U.S. from Clayton-

Bulwer Treaty which gave the US a free hand to build a canal

Hay-Banua-Varilla Treaty, 1901• Banua-Varilla hired Colombian

troops and led a revolt to “liberate” Panama

• U.S. navy barred Colombia from sending troops to stop revolt

• 15 days later Panama signed a treaty with the U.S. to build a canal

Panama Canal, 1914• eight-year $720 million project• $25 million given to Colombia years

later

“Speak softly and carry a big stick, [and] you will go far.”--Theodore Roosevelt

3

US and Mexico

Dollar Diplomacy (Taft)• US investment in Central America rose

from $41 million in 1908 to $93 million in 1914

• US influenced election of pro-American leaders

• used military to back business interests

Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911)• by 1910, US businesses owned 130

million acres of Mexico’s land (1/4 of land)

• Diaz was a tyrant but protected US business interests

Mexican Revolution, 1911• over 900,000 killed and over 1 million

Mexicans came to the US• Francisco Madero (Berkeley alum)

became president after being imprisoned by Diaz

• revolution also supported by Pascual Orozco and Emiliano Zapata

Gen. Victoriano Huerta• led coup to depose and execute

Madero, 1913• established ejidos, communal

farming plots• PRI established• Wilson pressured Huerta to step

aside for democratic elections

Vera Cruz, 1914• minor incident involving US sailors

on leave in Tampico escalated• the US bombarded and then seized

Vera Cruz to stop arms shipments• 19 American and 126 Mexican

troops died in fighting• ABC powers (Argentina, Brazil,

Chile) stepped in to arbitrate to avoid war

“I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men.”—Woodrow Wilson

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Zimmerman Note

Moral Diplomacy (Wilson)• encouraged economic expansion

coupled with the spread of democratic principles

• loans to help nations rather than exploit

• criticized both dollar and “Big Stick” diplomacy

• Wilson opened access to Panama Canal

Venustiano Carranza• ardent Mexican nationalist opposed

Huerta and refused US diplomatic intervention

• helped overthrew Huerta in 1914• oversaw writing of current Mexican

constitution• had Emiliano Zapata assassinated

Francisco “Pancho” Villa• Wilson back his bid to be president

and then switched support to Carranza in 1915

• in 1916, Villa killed 16 Americans in Mexico and another 19 Americans in New Mexico

• US sent John “Black Cat” Pershing and 15,000 troops into Mexico

• Villa eluded Pershing for months• left lasting bad relations between

the nations but they avoided war

Zimmerman Note, 1917• British intercept note from Germany

to Mexico• Germany promises to give Mexico

American Southwest if Mexico enters the war

• led to arming of US merchant ships

5

The War to End All Wars

Triple Alliance (Central Powers), 1882• Germany—Kaiser Wilhelm III• Austria-Hungary—Emperor Franz

Josef• Ottoman Empire—Abdul Hamid II• Italy (switched sides in 1915)

Triple Entente (Allied Powers), 1907• Great Britain—King George V• France—Raymond Poincare• Russia—Tsar Nicholas II

Franz Ferdinand• Austrian nobleman assassinated by

Gavrilo Princip, Serbian terrorist (Black Hand), in Sarajevo in June 1914

• Austria-Hungary demanded custody of Princip, Serbia refused and Austria declared war

American Neutrality• Wilson said Americans must be

“impartial of thought”• both sides of war wanted to trade

with US and cut the enemy off from US trade

• 35% of Americans had direct ties to European nations

German U-Boats• British sealed Germany off from

Atlantic• barred “contraband” goods from

reaching Germany• cut Trans-Atlantic cable• Germany retaliated with U-Boat

attacks

6

America Enters the War

Lusitania, 1915• British passenger steamer sunk

near Ireland (in war zone)• ship carried 4200 rounds of small-

arms ammo• 1,198 passengers killed (200

Americans)• Germany apologized

Arabic, 1915• 2 Americans killed on a British ship• Germany promised no more attacks

on passenger ships

Sussex Ultimatum, 1916• Germany promised not to attack

merchant ships w/o warning

Bolshevik Revolution, 1917• Tsar Nicholas abdicated in March• Lenin led communist Bolsheviks to

seize government• Germany helped Lenin get to Russia

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1917• Russia wanted out of war• Germany demanded land

America Declares War• Germany restarted unrestricted

submarine warfare• Wilson declared war “without

victory”• Wilson opted for conscription• took a year before doughboys

reached Europe• U-Boats focused on merchant ships

rather than troop carriers

“The world must be made safe for democracy.” --Woodrow Wilson

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Mobilizing for War

National Defense Act, 1916• doubled army to 220,000 troops• Selective Service Act reinstated the

draft for the first time since the Civil War

• 24 million registered during the war

War Industries Board, 1918• Bernard Baruch encouraged

companies to increase efficiency and eliminate waste by adopting mass production

• the WIB set prices, standardized production, and rationed resources (coal, gasoline, heating oil)

• American businesses resisted government control

• the government took control of the railroads

• introduced daylight-savings time

Committee for Public Information, 1917• George Creel made propaganda for war

(posters, songs and movies)• 75,000 four-minute men made patriotic

speeches• encouraged purchase of Liberty Bonds• German phrases and terms were

abandoned for American ones• hamburger--victory steak• sauerkraut—liberty cabbage

Food Administration, • Herbert Hoover decreased consumption

and increased production of foodstuffs• meatless Tuesdays, wheatless

Wednesdays• homeowners planted “victory gardens”• agricultural output increased 25%• food exports to US allies tripled• thousands of Hispanics moved to the

US to fill farming jobs

8

The American Homefront

Espionage Act, 1917• banned criticism of the war or

attempts to discourage support for the war

• $10,000 fine and 20 yrs. prison• used to incarcerate socialists like

Debs

Sedition Act, 1918• outlawed disloyal language to the

government, Constitution, or flag

Schenck v. United States, 1919• socialists handed out anti-war

pamphlets to draftees and Schenck was their leader

• Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said speech is sometimes a “clear and present danger”

Great Migration, 1914-1920• 300,000-500,000 left the South

for jobs in Detroit, Chicago, New York

• caused new wave of black culture

• several massive race riots

National War Labor Board• dealt with disputes between

labor and management (work or fight)

• pushed for the 8 hour work day• factory safety inspections• pressured manufacturers to

eliminate child labor• most unions agreed to not

strike during the war

9

The War in Europe

American Expeditionary Force, 1917• Gen. Pershing led first US troops in

Europe• fresh US troops raised the allies’

morale• helped protect Paris in battle at

Chatieau-Thierry in 1917• over 4 million Americans served in

Europe• 350,000+ black soldiers served in

the war in separate units

Trench Warfare• quick victory eluded the warring

nations because of new technology• machine guns, mechanized cannons,

and poison gas • the “front line” hardly moved fro

m1914 to 1918

Verdun, 1916• No tactical or strategic advantage had

been gained by either side.• 550,000 French casualties • 434,000 German casualties (200,000+

dead)

The Somme, 1916• the British and French gained 12

kilometers• 420,000 British casualties

• 58,000 British died (one third of them killed) on the first day of the battle

• 200,000 French casualties• 500,000 German casualties

Spanish Flu Epidemic, 1918• one in four Americans got sick• public places were closed and people

wore masks when they did go out• 500,000 Americans died• more than died in the war• effect on the economy was devastating

10

Fourteen Points

Fourteen Points• Wilson’s plan for peace called for

“Peace without Victory”1. end of secret treaties2. elimination of large armies3. open access to the ocean4. free trade5. return of lands to allies6. creation of new nations to reduce

power of Germany7. free elections8. a League of Nations• Germany surrendered because the

plan did not call for harsh punishment of the losers

League of Nations, 1919• Wilson’s idea for world parliament• peaceful solutions rather than

militant ones for international conflicts

• Wilson sacrificed 14 Points to save the League

Henry Cabot Lodge• Wilson's arch-nemesis from MA led

the Republican irreconcilables• Wilson didn’t take a single

Republican to Europe for the peace talks

Lodge Reservations• Lodge made 14 amendments to the

treaty• Lodge disliked U.S. obligation to go

to war for any other nation (isolationist)

Treaty of Versailles, 1919• allies rejected 14 Points• stripped Germany of its territory,

forced to pay $32 billion• new countries created as buffer

states• German agitation at this treaty led to

the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s

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Harding Administration1921-1923

Election of 1920• pro-business Hoover defeated Cox

who supported Wilson’s League of Nations

• large number of new women voters• Harding let his “Ohio gang” run DC

Depression of 1921• caused by demobilization,

privatization, and lost European and wartime contracts

• 5 million unemployed• even larger agricultural depression

Supply-Side Economics (Mellon)• “The rich get richer, and the poor get

richer as well.”• cut taxes on wealthy which

stimulates business investment which creates jobs which increases total taxable income of the nation

• trickle down theory

Teapot Dome Scandal, 1921• Albert Fall (Interior) asked for

control of navy’s oil reserves• leased reserves to Sinclair Oil

More Scandals• Attorney General sold liquor

licenses during Prohibition• Daugherty threatened to link

Harding to scandal• when Harding died, dropped the

charges• Veterans Bureau chief resigned over

bribery/corruption charges

R Warren G. Harding 16,143,407 404

D James M. Cox 9,130,328 127

S Eugene V. Debs 919,799 --

“He kept us out of peace”

1920

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A Return to Normalcy

Normalcy• pro-business (laissez-faire) economics

and isolationism• retraction of progressive reforms

Esch-Cummins Transportation Act, 19201. privatized railroads 2. strengthened the ICC3. created the Railway Labor Board

• ordered 12% wage cut• caused strikes• union membership dropped

Hawley-Smoot Tariff, 1920• tariff rose to 60%• highest peacetime tariff in American

history• hurt Europe weakened by WWI• caused unemployment in America

Fordney-McCumber Tariff, 1922• gave President the authority to raise the

tariff

Veteran’s Bureau, 1921• provided hospitals and jobs• American Legion founded

Five Power Treaty, 1922• established tonnage of navies in

Pacific for UK, France, Italy, US and Japan

• US and Britain got more ships

Dawes Plan, 1924• Germany owed $33 million in

reparations• paid reparations with US loans• Britain and France paid back US loans• stabilized German economy• Dawes won the Nobel Prize

Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928• 62 nations ratified French-American

pact to outlaw offensive war

“America’s present need is not heroics But healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; . . . not surgery but serenity.”

—Warren G. Harding

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Coolidge Administration1924-1929

• Harding died of heart attack • Silent Cal took over• “The business of America is business”

Year of Strikes, 1919• millions went on strike when the war

ended • Boston Police Strike: State militia put it

down under Gov. Coolidge

Election of 1924• Gov. La Follette supported government-

owned railroads• Democrats failed to pass a resolution to

condemn KKK failed

McNary-Haugen Bill, 1924• Coolidge vetoed a bill in which the

government would buy crop surplus

Adjusted Compensation Act, 1924• granted WWI vets a 20-year endowment• could be used as capital for loans

Modernism• belief in science• figurative reading of the Bible• Freud-psychoanalysis

Fundamentalism• belief in divine inspiration of the

Bible• Billy Sunday believed Prohibition

would end all sin• Bryan attacked the teaching of

evolution

R Calvin Coolidge 15,718,211 382

D John W. Davis 8,385,283 136

P Robert M. LaFollette 4,831,289 13

“Silent Cal”1924

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“Americanization of America”

Palmer Raids, 1919-1920• A. Mitchell Palmer looked for

communists• created the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover• arrested 6,000+ in Red Scare• sent “Reds” on Ark to the Soviet

Union• ACLU formed to protect civil rights

Sacco and Vanzetti, 1921• two Italians accused of murder • shoemaker and a peddler• judge declared their guilt before the

trial began• electrocuted in 1928

KKK 2.0• defenders of WASP values• blamed Jews, blacks, Catholics,

immigrants• 5 million+ members by 1924• fell apart as a pyramid scheme

Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925• showdown between religion and

science • Scopes illegally taught evolution in TN• William Jennings Bryan represented

religious groups and Clarence Darrow represented the ACLU

• Scopes lost the case but never paid his $100 fine

Emergency Quota Act, 1921• limited immigration to 3% of 1910

census• no limits on Canada or Latin America

Immigration Act, 1929• limited immigration to 2% of 1910

census• no Japanese

15

Social Changes

Radio and Television• advertising encouraged material

consumption• credit allowed installment buying• created national culture• Walter Winchell promoted infatuation

with lives of the stars

Great Train Robbery, 1903• the first real movie played at the

Nickelodeon

Birth of a Nation, 1915• new filming techniques changed• Wilson screened film at the White

House• showed KKK saving America from

blacks• widely protested by NAACP

Jazz Singer, 1927• first of the “talkies” starred Al Jolson in

black face

National Pastime• America idolize sports

• Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb• Ruth paid more than the President• Black Sox scandal bigger than Tea

Pot Dome

Charles Lindbergh• “Lucky Lindy” finished the first solo

flight across the Atlantic• baby kidnapped led to more

authority for FBI

Henry Ford• revolutionized the assembly line• could make a care in 90 minutes• made cars affordable to the

common man• made a more uniform society• the car change everything about

America

“I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces.”

16

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance• Great Migration brought thousands of

blacks to urban North during WWI• new appreciation for black art and

literature

Langston Hughes• The Weary Blues (1926) • demanded social justice

Zora Neale Hurston• Their Eyes were Watching God (1937)

Jazz• artists like Louis Armstrong • Ella Fitzgerald• Duke Ellington • helped break down racial barriers in

society

Marcus Garvey• founded Universal Negro

Improvement Association in 1914• had 4 million members by 1920• “Back to Africa” movement• blacks should appreciate black

culture• blacks should shop only at black

stores

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me, "Eat in the kitchen,“Then.

Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

17

Flappers

Flappers• 1920s women who challenged

gender roles and norms• short hair, boyish looks and makeup• smoked, drank, and drove cars • ended with the stock market crash

19th Amendment, 1920• finally granted women’s suffrage• Harding won by 7 million votes• many women voted Republican

Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 1923• reversed Muller v. Oregon decision • women do NOT need special

protection under the law because they can protect themselves with their votes

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), 1924, • attempted to add equality under

Constitution• failed in the 1970s

Margaret Sanger• est. first birth control clinic• attacked Comstock Laws• illegal to distribute medicine or

information about birth control• barred doctors and nurses from

talking about STDs • any “deviant act” was a felony

18

Prohibition

18th Amendment, 1919• banned sale, transportation, and

manufacture of alcohol• superseded state law• some states were wet and some

were dry before this• WWI food stuffs could not be spared• drinking associated with foreigners

Volstead Act, 1919• spelled out rules and punishments

under Prohibition• allowed less than 3% alcohol

content• religious exception

“Scarface” Al Capone• most famous mafia leader• controlled Chicago and bootlegging

from Canada to Mexico• incarcerated in 1925 for tax evasion• died after serving his term

St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1929• 7 unarmed men shot to death in the

middle of the day• mafia dressed up like the police• blatant example of power of the

mafia

Speakeasies• secret places to drink like the

Cotton Club in Harlem became swanky settings for gambling and jazz music

Prohibition’s Legacy1. heavier drinking2. more women drank in public3. corruption in office

office holders and police were bribed

Attorney General sold liquor licenses

Harding drank at parties in the White House

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The Lost Generation

T.S. Eliot• The Wasteland, 1922--disillusioned

culture

F. Scott Fitzgerald• The Great Gatsby, 1925--cruelty of

material society• he and wife, Zelda, epitomized the

party culture of the nouveau riche

Sinclair Lewis• Main Street, 1920• Babbitt, 1922 -- hypocrisy of society• It Can't Happen Here, 1935 --

dangers of fascism.• critic of laissez-faire, isolationism ,

shallow culture

Ernest Hemingway• A Farewell to Arms, 1929• For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940 --

senselessness of war (Spanish Civil War)

William Faulkner• The Sound and the Fury, 1929• The Reivers• southerner who wrote in stream of

consciousness

Bruce Barton• The Man Nobody Knows, 1926• Jesus the greatest ad man and

should be used as a model

Robert Frost• “The Road Less Traveled”

ee cummings• used unconventional writing

techniques

H.L. Mencken• editor of The American Mercury• critic of 1920s society as a betrayal

of Progressive reforms