Transcript C H A P T E R 2 2

CHAPTER22
War & the American State
1914–1920
Section I:
The Great War 1914-1918
The Great War, 1914-1918
Background
• When war erupted
– Most Americans saw no reason to involve
themselves in the struggle among Europe’s
imperialist powers
– United States had a good relationship with both
sides.
• Many Americans believed in “U.S. exceptionalism,”
– = the feeling that democratic values & institutions
made their country immune from the corruption
& chaos of other nations
War in Europe
• Preparations for war began almost from the
moment the Triple Entente was formed in 1907 to
counter the Triple Alliance
• Austria’s seizure of Bosnia & Herzegovina (1908)
enraged Russia & Serbia
– Serbian terrorists recruited Bosnians to agitate
against Austrian rule
• On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian,
assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, & his wife in the town of
Sarajevo
War in Europe
• After the assassination, the complex European
alliance system drew all the major powers into war
within a few days
– The two rival blocs faced off:
• Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, & Italy =
Allied Powers
• Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, & Bulgaria
= Central Powers
• The worldwide scope of the conflict came to be
known as “the Great War,” or later, World War I.
War in Europe
• World War I was the first war in which extensive
harm was done to civilians
– New military technology, much of it from the U.S.,
made armies more deadly than before
• Trench warfare produced unprecedented numbers
of casualties
– Between February & December of 1916, the
French suffered 550,000 casualties & the
Germans 450,000
The Perils of Neutrality
• After the war began in Europe
– President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that U.S.
would remain neutral
– He believed that he could arbitrate & influence a
European settlement
• The U.S. had divided loyalties concerning the war
– Many Americans felt deep cultural ties to the
Allies
– Irish & German immigrants had strong proGerman sentiments.
The Perils of Neutrality
• Progressive leaders opposed American participation
in the European conflict:
– New pacifist groups mobilized popular opposition
– The political left condemned the war as
imperialistic
– Some industrialists, like Henry Ford, bankrolled
antiwar activities
• African American leaders saw the war as a conflict of
the white race only
Conflict on the High Seas
• The British imposed a naval blockade that in effect
prevented neutral nations, including the U.S., from
trading with Germany & its Allies
• This created a trade imbalance bringing the U.S. to
closer economic ties with the Allies (despite
America’s official posture of neutrality)
• The German navy launched a devastating new
weapon, the U-boat
– Issued a warning to civilians that all ships flying
the flags of Britain or its Allies were liable to be
destroyed
The Perils of Neutrality
• May 7, 1915: British ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a
German U-boat off the coast of Ireland
– 128 Americans were among the 1,198 people killed
• September 1915: Germany announced that its submarines
would no longer attack passenger ships without warning
• Wilson worried that the U.S. might be drawn into the conflict
– He endorsed a $1 billion buildup of the army & the navy
• Congress passed the National Defense Act
– Created the Council of National Defense=an agency
responsible for planning industrial mobilization in the
event of war
The Perils of Neutrality:
Toward War
• Public opposition to entering the war made the
election of 1916 a contest between two anti-war
candidates
– Wilson won the election but lost his hopes of
staying out of the war
• Anti-German sentiment increases in the U.S….WHY?
– The resumption of unrestricted submarine
warfare
– The Zimmermann telegram
The Perils of Neutrality
• Throughout March 1917, German U-boats attacked
& sank American ships without warning
• On April 2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration
of war
– United States formally declared war on Germany
on April 6, 1917
“Over There”: Conscription
• Many Americans assumed that their participation in
the war would be limited to military & economic aid
– Were surprised to find that American troops
would be sent to Europe
• American government conscripted almost 4 million
men & women with the passage of the Selective
Service Act in May 1917
• The Selective Service system
– Combined central direction from Washington with
local administration & civilian control
– Preserved individual freedom & local autonomy
“Over There”: Conscription
• General John J. Pershing = head of the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF)
– New recruits had to be trained before being
transported across the submarine-infested
Atlantic.
• The government countered the U-boats by sending
armed convoys across the Atlantic
– The plan worked: no American soldiers were
killed on the way to Europe.
“Over There”: The Western
Front
• Pershing didn’t want to put his men under foreign
commanders
– Thus, until May 1918, the French & the British
still bore the brunt of the fighting.
• Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
– The new Bolshevik regime under Vladimir Ilych
Lenin surrendered about 1/3 of Russia’s
territories in return for peace with the Central
Powers.
“Over There”: The Western
Front
• At the request of Allied leaders, Pershing committed
about 60,000 Americans to help the French repel
the Germans in the battles of Château-Thierry &
Belleau Wood.
• American & Allied forces brought the German
offensive to a halt in mid-July;
– The counteroffensive began with a campaign to
push the Germans back from the Marne River.
“Over There”: The Western
Front
• The Meuse-Argonne campaign
– Pushed the enemy back across the Selle River
near Verdun
– Broke the German defenses
– Cost over 26,000 American lives.
• German & Allied representatives signed an armistice
on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.
“Over There”: The Western
Front
• America’s decisive contribution shifted international
power:
– European dominance declinedUnited States
emerged as a world leader.
The American Fighting Force:
Diversity and Racism in the Armed
Forces
• The United States lost 48,000 American servicemen
in the fighting, & another 27,000 died from other
causes
– The Allies & Central Powers lost 8 million soldiers.
• Ethnic diversity of the American military worried
some observers
– Most optimistically predicted that service in the
armed forces would promote the Americanization
of immigrants.
The American Fighting Force:
Diversity and Racism in the Armed
Forces
• The Stanford-Binet intelligence test was used by the
armed forces
– Reinforced stereotypes about the supposed
intellectual inferiority of blacks & immigrants
– Lower scores stemmed from the cultural &
environmental biases of the tests.
The American Fighting Force:
Diversity and Racism in the Armed
Forces
• The Americanization of the army was imperfect at
best
– African Americans were in segregated units under
the control of white officers & were assigned to
the most menial tasks.
– The French were more egalitarian, socializing
with black troops & awarding hundreds of them
the Croix de Guerre.
The American Fighting Force:
Demobilization
• A group of former AEF soldiers formed the first
American Legion in 1919
– Purpose = to preserve the “memories &
incidents” of their association in the Great War.
“Over There”
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the word
over there,
That the Yanks are coming,
the Yanks are coming!
The drums rum-tumming
everywhere.
So prepare, say a prayer,
Send the word, send the word
to beware,
We'll be over, we're comimg
over,
And we won't come back till
it's over over there.
Probably the most famous song of WW I.
Cohan wrote this number after he had
read in the newspaper that America had
declared war on Germany. Cohan sold his
rights to the song for $25,000. By the end
of the war, "Over There" had sold over
two million copies of sheet music and
over a million records. Twenty-five years
later Franklin Delano Roosevelt
presented Cohan with the Congressional
Medal of Honor "in belated recognition of
his authorship of 'Over There' and 'You're
a Grand Old Flag.'" "Over There" was
interpolated in the motion pictures: The
Cockeyed World (Fox, 1929), For Me and
My Gal (MGM, 1942), Yankee Doodle
Dandy (Warner, 1942). and Tin Pan Alley
(20th Century-Fox, 1943).
“Over There”
• Over There
• Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run,
On the run, on the run.
Hear them calling, you and me,
Every son of liberty.
Hurry right away,
No delay, go today,
Make your daddy glad
To have had such a lad.
Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
To be proud her boy's in line.
(chorus sung twice)
• Johnnie, get your gun,
Get your gun, get your gun,
Johnnie show the Hun
Who's a son of a gun.
Hoist the flag and let her fly,
Yankee Doodle do or die.
Pack your little kit,
Show your grit, do your bit.
Yankee to the ranks,
From the towns and the tanks.
Make your mother proud of
you,
And the old Red, White and
Blue.
(chorus sung twice)
Chorus
Over there, over there,
CHAPTER22
War & the American State
1914–1920
Section II:
War on the Home Front
Mobilizing Industry & the
Economy
•
•
•
•
Before the War
Paying for the War
Wartime Economic Regulation
The Food Administration and
Volunteerism
• The Legacy of Economic Mobilization
Mobilizing American Workers
• Organized Labor
• Black & Mexican American Workers
• Women
Map 22.3 The Great Migration and Beyond (p. 650)
Wartime Opportunities (p. 651)
Wartime Reform: Woman
Suffrage and Prohibition
• NAWSA
• NWP
• Other Reform
– War Risk Insurance Act (1917)
Promoting Nnational Unity
• CPI
•
Chorus
Over there, over there,
Send the word, send the
word over there That the Yanks are coming,
The Yanks are coming,
The drums rum-tumming
Ev'rywhere.
So prepare, say a pray'r,
Send the word, send the
word to beware.
We'll be over, we're coming
over,
And we won't come back till
it's over
Over there.
America and the War Effort (p. 636)
Map 22.1 European Alliances in 1914 (p. 638)
Map 22.2 U.S Participation on the Western Front, 1918 (p. 644)
“Remember Your First Thrill of American Liberty” (p. 649)
Map 22.4 Prohibition on the Eve of the Eighteenth Amendment, 1919 (p. 654)
Map 22.5 Europe after World War I (p. 659)
CHAPTER22
War & the American State
1914–1920
Section III:
An Unsettled Peace, 1919-1920
An Unsettled Peace: The Treaty
of Versailles
• Where in the world is
Woodrow Wilson?
• The Treaty of Versailles
– League of Nations
– Negotiating the Treaty
• Fourteen Points
– Article X
• “the war to end all
wars.”
An Unsettled Peace: The Treaty
of Versailles
• Who attended the Paris
Peace Conference?
– Big Four
• It’s all Germany’s Fault!!!!
– Reparations
• Wilson’s successes
An Unsettled Peace: The Battle
for Ratification
• June 28, 1919
• The US Senate
• Defeat
– September 1919
• Lasting legacy of the war
Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and
the Red Scare
• The World War has accentuated all our differences.
It has not created those differences, but has
revealed and emphasized them
• African Americans
• Race Riots
– Chicago
• Why so much unrest?
Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and
the Red Scare
• 1919—A Year of Strikes
– Steelworkers in Seattle
– Policemen in Boston
• Red Scare and the Palmer
Raids
– Comintern
• How real was a communist
threat?
Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and
the Red Scare
•
•
•
•
•
The Bombings
The Raids
The Deportations
The Presidency?
The Downfall
Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and
the Red Scare
• Sacco-Vanzetti Case
– Vanzetti’s last words.
If it had not been for these thing, I might have lived out
my life among scorning men. I might have die,
unmarked, unknown, a failure…Never in our full life
can we hope to do such work for tolerance, for
justice, for man’s understanding of man, as now we
do by accident.
To sum up….
• With few casualties & no
physical destruction at home,
America emerged from the war
stronger than ever—a major
international power with
exceptional industrial
productivity.