Transcript World War I - Adair County Schools

Chapter 14
I Can Statements
 Discuss the causes and results of American
intervention in Mexico and the Caribbean.
 Explain the causes of WWI and why the United States
entered the war.
The United States
Enters World War I
In 1914, nationalism, militarism,
imperialism, and entangling alliance
combine with other factors to lead the
nations of Europe into a brutal war.
The war quickly stretched around the
globe. The United States remained
neutral at first but ended up
abandoning its long tradition of
staying out of European conflicts.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 Wilson intended to take US foreign policy in a different
direction.
 He strongly opposed imperialism.
 He promised that the US would “never again seek one
additional foot of territory by conquest,” but would
instead work to promote “human rights, national
integrity, and opportunity.”
 He called this “moral diplomacy.”
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 However, Wilson will use the military on a number of
occasions to guide Latin Americans in the direction
that he thought proper.
 1915, he sent Marines to Haiti to protect American
investments and to guard against the potential of
German or French aggression in the nation.
 He convinced the government of Haiti to sign an
agreement that essentially gave the US the rights to
control its financial and foreign affairs.
 Marines did not leave until 1934.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
Mexican Revolution
 In 1913, General Victoriano Huerta seized power and
executed Francisco Madero’s government
 Under “dollar diplomacy” Taft would have recognized
Huerta as the leader of Mexico because Huerta
pledged to protect American investments.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 But under “moral diplomacy,” Wilson refused to do so,
declaring that he could not accept a “government of
butchers.”
 Instead, Wilson favored Venustiano Carranza, another
reformer, who had organized anti-Huerta forces.
 1914—the President used the Mexican arrest of
American sailors as an opportunity to help Carranza
attain power.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 Wilson sent the Marines to occupy the port of
Veracruz.
 This caused Huerta’s government to collapse, and
Carranza to assume the presidency.
 Huerta’s fall from power was cheered by many
Mexicans and appeared to validate Wilson’s “dollar
diplomacy.”
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 However, Wilson faced more problems in Mexico.
 Carranza’s government was slow to bring about
reforms and new rebel emerged, Francisco “Pancho”
Villa.
 1916 Villa’s forces crossed into New Mexico and raided
the town of Columbus, leaving 18 Americans dead.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
 Wilson sent General John J. Pershing and 10,000
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troops on an “expedition” to Mexico.
Pershing failed to capture Villa.
Wilson eventually withdrew American troops in 1917,
over concerns about World War I raging in Europe.
Pershing took control of the American Expeditionary
Force in France.
World War I would test our global strength.
Woodrow Wilson’s Diplomacy
What Caused World War I?
 Until 1914, there hadn’t been a large-scale European
conflict for nearly 100 years.
 Bitter and deep rooted problems simmered beneath
the surface of polite diplomacy.
 Europe was sitting on a powder keg of nationalism,
regional tension, economic rivalries, imperial
ambitions, and militarism.
•Militarism-huge buildup of armed forces
•Alliances: Countries signed treaties in
which if one country is attacked, all others
would come to its defense.
•Examples:
• Triple Entente-GB, France, and
Russia
• Triple Alliance-Germany, Italy,
Austria-Hungary
•By 1914, almost no nation in Europe
could become involved in a war
without the whole continent being
dragged in to it.
•Imperialism:
•Industrial output, trade, and
possession of an overseas empire were
the measurements of wealth and
greatness.
•The leading industrial nations
competed for lands rich in raw
materials as well as places to build
military based to protect their
empires.
What Caused World War I
Nationalism
 Nationalism or devotion to one’s nation, kick-
started international and domestic tension.
 Europeans began to reject the earlier idea of a
nation as a collection of different ethnic groups.
 Instead they believed that a nation should express
nationalism of a single ethnic group.
 This evolved into an intense form of nationalism
that heightened international rivalries.

Example: France long to avenge its humiliating defeat
by a collection of German states in 1871 and regain the
lost territory of Alsace-Lorraine.
What Caused World War I
 Nationalists place primary emphasis on promoting
their homeland.
 One basic idea of nationalism is self-determination,
the idea that people who belong to a nation should
have their own country.
 This led to a crisis in the Balkans.
What Caused World War I
Crisis in the Balkans
 Historically, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-
Hungarian Empire had ruled the Balkans, which was
made up of different nations.
 As nationalism became a powerful force in the 1800s,
the different groups began pressing for independence.
 Among them were Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, Slovenes
were among them. They called themselves South Slavs.
 Serbia was the first to gain independence and they
believed it was their mission to unite the Slavs.
What Caused World War I
 Europeans felt war was inevitable; the question
remained “when.”
 In preparation, leaders increased the size of their
armies and stockpiles of weapons.
 No nation readied its war machine like Germany.
 By 1914, it had a huge standing army and the largest,
most deadly collection of guns in the world.
What Caused World War I
 It also built up its navy enough to rival Britain’s, the
world’s strongest at the time.
 So, Britain increased the size of its navy.
 A spirit of militarism, or glorification of the military,
grew in the competing countries and fueled this arms
race.
What Caused World War I
 The contest between Germany and Britain at sea and
between Germany, France, and Russia on land
guaranteed the next war would involve more troops
and more technologically advanced weapons than ever
before.
 Machine guns, mobile artillery, tanks, submarines, and
airplanes would change the nature of warfare.
What Caused World War I
What Caused World War I-The
Spark!
 On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to
the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie
journeyed to visit Sarajevo, the capital city of the
Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia.
 Within the province, there was a Serbian nationalist
group who believed Bosnia rightfully belonged to
Serbia, and saw Ferdinand as a tyrant.
 They were called the “Black Hand.”
What Caused World War I
 When the archduke’s driver made a wrong turn,
Gavrilo Princip, one of the conspirators, noticed the
couple, pulled a pistol, and fired twice.
 First Sophie and then Francis Ferdinand died.
 People around the world were shocked by the
senseless murders.
 However, no one expected that they would lead to a
great world war.
What Caused World War I
What Caused World War I
What Caused World War I
What Caused World War I
The Fighting Begins
 Everything was in place for a great conflict—
nationalistic ambitions, large armies, stockpiles of
weapons, alliances, and military plans.
 Archduke Francis Ferdinand assassination was the
incident that triggered the conflict.
 Soon after the assassination, Kaiser William II, the
German emperor, assured Austria-Hungary that
Germany would stand by its ally if war came.
The Fighting Begins
 With German support, Austria-Hungary then sent a
harsh ultimatum to Serbia demanding Serbia’s total
cooperation in an investigation into the assassination.
 Serbia did not agree to all the demands.
 Austria-Hungary declared war on July 28, 1914.
 Because of the alliance system the localized quarrel
spread quickly.
The Fighting Begins
 In August, Russia mobilized for war to help its ally
Serbia, against Austria.
 This caused Germany to declare war against Russia.
 France, Russia’s ally, promptly declared war against
Germany.
 The next day, Germany declared war against neutral
Belgium, so that it could launch an invasion of France
through that country.
The Fighting Begins
 Great Britain, which had ties with France and Belgium
immediately declared war against Germany.
 In less than 1 week, the Central Powers of Germany,
Austria-Hungary were at war against the Allied Powers
of Britain, France, Russia, and Serbia.
 The Ottoman Empire would later join the Central
Powers.
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
 Germany had long been prepared for war against
France and Russia.
 They immediately launched a massive invasion of
France, hoping to knock the French out of the war.
 German soldiers fought through Belgium and moved
southwest into France toward Paris.
The Fighting Begins
 In September, with the German advance only 30 miles
from Paris, the French and the British counterattacked
and stopped the German forces near the Marne River.
 After the Battle of the Marne, the Germans settled into
high ground, dug trenches, and fortified their
positions.
The Fighting Begins
 When the British and French attacked, the German
troops used machine guns and artillery to kill
thousands of them.
 The French and British then dug their own trenches
and used the same weapons to kill thousands of
counterattacking Germans.
 Soon 450 miles of trenches stretched like a huge scar
from the coast of Belgium to the border of
Switzerland.
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
 Although fighting went on in Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, and in other parts of the world, this
Western Front in France became the critical battle
front.
 The side that won there would win the war.
 The war dragged on for years, and it was deadly—
much more than anyone expected.
The Fighting Begins
 The primary reason for the length of the war and its
deadly nature was the simple fact that the defensive
weapons of the time were much better and more
devastating than the offensive ones.
 Generals on both sides threw their soldiers into
assaults against the enemy without fully considering
new technology.
The Fighting Begins
 Charging toward trenches that were defended by
artillery, machine guns, and rifles was useless.
 In virtually every battle on the Western Front, the
attacking force suffered terribly.
 Even the use of poison gas did nothing to benefit the
offense, despite its horrifying effects.
The Fighting Begins
 Ineffective offensives and effective defenses produced
only a deadly stalemate.
 The stalemate led to gruesome conditions for men in
the trenches of the Western Front.
 Soldiers battled the harsh conditions of life often as
fiercely as they attacked the enemy.
The Fighting Begins
 They developed “trench foot” from standing for hours
in wet, muddy trenches.
 They contracted lice from millions of rats that infested
the trenches.
 Dug into the ground, soldiers lived in constant fear,
afraid to pop their heads out of their holes and always
aware the next offensive might be their last.
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
The Fighting Begins
 Even on a quiet day soldiers could be killed by snipers
or surprise gas attacks.
 Causalities—or soldiers killed, wounded, and
missing—mounted first in the thousands, then
hundred thousands, and finally the millions.
 Almost one million French soldiers were killed or
wounded in just the first 3 months of war.
The Fighting Begins
 The Germans lost slightly fewer.
 In 2 battles in 1916– Verdun and the Somme—the
British, French, and Germans sustained more than 2
million causalities.
 The stalemate continued to drag on.
The Fighting Begins
Improved
machine
 Deadly Technology of World
War
I guns could fire 600
Machine Gun
bullets per minute.
Artillery Field Guns
These long-range cannons caused more
causalities than any other type of weapon.
Poison Gas
Gases such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard
gas could kill, blind, or burn their victim.
Submarines
German U-boats, or submarines, used torpedoes
as well as on-deck guns to sink ships.
Tanks and Armored Cars
Both sides tried to develop vehicles that could go
over the rough ground and barbed-wire
barricades of no man’s land, with limited success.
Airplanes
Planes were used for reconnaissance, bombing,
and fighting but did not prove decisive.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 As the war in Europe spreads, President Wilson called
for Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as
action.”
 In a “melting pot” nation that tried to make Americans
out of people from diverse origins, Wilson did not
want to see war set Americans against each other.
 Most Americans viewed the conflict as a distinct
European quarrel for land and influence.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 Unless the nation’s interests were directly threatened,
Americans wanted no part of it.
 They preferred to maintain what they viewed as
traditional American isolation from European
disputes.
 Still, many Americans felt the war’s effects.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 Most held a preference for one or another of the
combatant, and many businesses benefited from the
increased demand for American goods by warring
nations.
 Wilson’s plea for impartiality proved to be impossible.
 In 1914, one third of Americans were foreign-born.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 Many still thought of themselves in terms of their
former homelands— as German Americans, Irish
Americans, Polish Americans, and so on.
 With relatives in Europe, many people supported the
nation in which they were born.
 Some German Americans in the Midwest and some
Irish Americans along the East Cost felt strongly that
the Central Powers were justified in their action.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 Many Americans emigrated from Germany or Austria-
Hungary.
 Millions of Irish Americans harbored intense grudges
over the centuries of Great Britain’s domination of
their homeland.
 They hoped that Ireland would gain its independence
as Britain became entangled in the war.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 Many Jewish Americans who had fled Russia to escape
the Tsarist regimes’ murderous programs against Jews
hoped for Russia’s defeat.
 Most Americans, however, sided with Britain and
France both of which had strong historic ties with the
US.
 America’s national language was English; its cultural
heritage was largely British, as well as its leading
trading partner.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 France had aided the Americans cause during the
Revolutionary War.
 No event at the beginning of the war swayed American
opinion more than the German invasion of neutral
Belgium.
 German soldiers marching through Belgium
committed many atrocities, killing unarmed civilians,
and destroying entire towns.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 British journalist and propagandists stressed, and even
exaggerated, the brutality of the Germans’ action.
 Americans could understand the human cost of the
war for Belgium.
 Eventually three distinct positions on the war
emerged:
 1. Isolationist—believed the war was none of our
business and that the nation should isolate itself from
the hostilities.
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 2. Interventionists—felt that the war did affect
American interest and the US should intervene in the
conflict on the side of the Allies.
 3. Internationalist—believed that the US should play an
active role in world affairs and work toward achieving a
just peace, but not enter the war.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 As an internationalist, President Wilson sincerely
desired peace in his country and around the world.
 Between the start of the war in 1914 and America’s
entry into it in 1917, Wilson attempted to use his
influence to end the conflict among the warring
nations.
 He failed at this effort, and ultimately failed at keeping
the US out of the war.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Early in the war, British leaders decided to use their
navy to blockade Germany to keep essential goods
from reaching the other country.
 International law generally allowed contraband goods,
usually defined as weapons and other articles used to
fight war, to be confiscated legally by any belligerent
nation.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Noncontraband good, such as food, medical supplies,
and other nonmilitary items, could not be confiscated.
 Britain contested the definition of noncontrabanded
articles.
 As the war continued, Britain expanded its definition
of contraband until it encompassed virtually every
product, including gasoline, cotton, even food—in
spite of international law.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Germany responded by attempting to blockade
Britain— even though it lacked the conventional naval
forces to do so.
 Instead, in February 1915, Germany began using Uboats, or submarines, to enforce its blockade.
 The reality of the German blockade was felt in
America on May 7, 1915, when a U-boat sank the
British passenger liner Lusitania off the coast of
Ireland.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 The German submarine U-20 fired the torpedo that
caused it to sink in 15-20 minutes, killing nearly 1,200,
128 Americans.
 German officials correctly claimed that the ship was
carrying ammunition and other contraband.
 Americans protested that an unarmed and unresisting
ship should not be sunk without first being warned
and provided with safety for its passengers.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Wilson was stunned but still wanted peace.
 Germany promised not to sink any more passenger
ships, which kept the US out of the war a little longer.
 1916– Germany violated that promise by sinking the
unarmed French passenger ship Sussex.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Again, Germany pledged not to sink unarmed ships.
 This promise, called the Sussex Pledge, would not last
long.
 Wilson wanted to remain at peace, but even he
realized the futility of that hope.
 At the end of 1915, Wilson began to prepare for war.
 Many believed that “preparedness” was a dangerous
course that could provoke war.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 The National Defense Act expanded the size of the
Army.
 The Naval Construction Act ordered the building of
more warships.
 Still hoping to remain out of the war, Wilson ran on
the slogan, “He kept us out of the war.”
 He wins reelection.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 In 1917, two events occur that push the US into the war.
 American trade with Allies had sustained Britain and
France in the war, while the British blockade of
Germany had stopped the flow of American goods to
the Central Powers.
 For Germany, desperate times demanded desperate
measure.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 1917—Suffering severe supply shortages due to the
blockade, Germany took action.
 The German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman
sent a telegram to Mexico.
 The Zimmerman note proposed an alliance with
Mexico, stating that if the US declared war on
Germany, Mexico should declare war on the US.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 In return, after a German victory, Mexico would get
back the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona,
which it lost in 1848 after its defeat in the MexicanAmerican War.
 The telegram was intercepted by the British, who gave
it to American authorities.
 Germany once again announced unrestricted
submarine warfare against Britain.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 Although most leaders knew Mexico had no intention
of attacking the US, Americans were shocked y the
publication of the Zimmerman note.
 Even Wilson could no longer call for peace.
 April 2, 1917, he asked Congress for a declaration of
War against Germany.
 April 6, 1917, with a declaration of War. Wilson’s long
struggle to keep America at peace was over.
Neutrality Gives Way to War
Section 2
I Can Statements
 Analyze how the United States raised an army and won
support for WWI.
 Explain how the economy was controlled to support
the war.
The Home front
Before the war, the federal
government played a minor role in
the daily life of most Americans. But
during World War I, the government
assumed new powers. It regulated
industrial and agricultural
production, worked to shape public
opinion, and established a military
draft. While war required sacrifice it
brought new economic opportunities
and many Americans migrated to
other parts of the country in search of
these opportunities. The war
permanently changed Americans’
relationship with their government.
Home Front
 War affects many things, but its greatest impact is on
the lives of ordinary people. People fight, sacrifice,
and sometimes die in war. People work to produce the
food that soldier’s eat and the guns that they fire.
People shape the information that others receive about
the war. War may be the result of conflict between
nations, but it touches the lives of millions of
individuals.
Home Front
 When the US entered WWI, the US Army was only a
fraction of the size of European armies.
 To build the army, President Wilson encouraged
Americans to volunteer for service and pushed
Congress to pass the Selective Service Act.
 The Act, which passed Congress in May 1917,
authorized a draft of young men for military service in
Europe.
Home Front
 This required all men between 21-30 to register.
 On the day of its enactment, June 5, 1917, more than
9.6 million Americans registered for the draft and were
assigned numbers.
 The government held a “great national lottery” in July
to decide the order in which the first draftees would be
called into service.
Home Front
 Blindfolded, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker pulled
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number 258 out of the jar. The group of men assigned that
number became the very first draftees.
Over the course of war, more than 24 million Americans
registered for the draft.
Of those, about 2.8 million were actually drafted into the
armed forces.
Including volunteers, the total number of Americans men
in uniform during WWI reached nearly 4.8 million.
More than 4 million of these were sent to help the Allies in
France.
Home Front
Home Front
 Conscription: The World War I draft, or conscription
began when President Wilson instituted the Selective
Service Act of 1917. The draft ended when the war was
over. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt instituted
the Selective Training and Service Act, which created
the first peacetime draft in the US, as well as the
Selective Service System. The draft remained in effect
until 1973 when military service became voluntary.
Home Front
 The Selective Service System has changed significantly
since the Vietnam conflict. Prior to 1971, if any man
could demonstrate full-time student status, then he
could qualify for a student deferment. (So far, only
men have been drafted.) Today in an attempt to
ensure equality, there are fewer reasons to exempt
someone from service. Also, college students cannot
defer service for as long and lottery numbers
determine the order that people are called to serve.
Home Front
 While Selective Service Commission raised an army,
President Wilson worked to shift the national
economy from peacetime to wartime production.
 The Progressive emphasis on careful planning and
scientific management shaped the federal
government’s approach to mobilizing the American
war economy.
Home Front
 To efficiently manage the relationship between the
federal government and private companies, Congress
created special boards.
 These boards emphasized cooperation between big
business and government.
 The goal was to ensure the most efficient use of
national resources to further the war effort.
Home Front
 The process of mobilizing the economy was slow and
frustrating.
 The Council of National Defense was formed, and it
created many new federal agencies.
 Individual agencies regulated food production, coal
and petroleum distribution, and railway use.
 In practical terms, the government determined what
crops farmers grew, what products industries
produced, and how supplies moved around on the
nation’s trains.
Home Front
 Problems and administrative overlap led to the
creation of the War Industries Board (WIB).
 The WIB eventually became independent of the
Council of National Defense.
 Headed by Bernard Baruch, who was an influential
Wall Street investment broker who reported directly to
the President, the WIB regulated all industries
engaged in the war effort.
Home Front
 Baruch’s agency determined what products industries
would produce, where those products went, and how
much they would cost.
 The system of free-enterprise was curtailed to fulfill
the nation’s need for wartime materials.
 Americans realized that they had to cooperate rather
than compete in order to defeat the Central Powers.
Home Front
 What Baruch did for industry, future President
Herbert Hoover achieved in agriculture.
 As head of the Food Administration, he set prices high
for wheat and other food stuffs to encourage farmers to
increase production.
 He asked for Americans to conserve food as a patriotic
gesture.
Home Front
 If the American people ate less, then more food could
be shipped to American and Allied forces fighting
overseas.
 He asked Americans to “Hooverize” by serving just
enough and observing Wheatless Monday and
Wednesday, Meatless Tuesday, and Porkless Thursday
and Saturday.
Home Front
 Also encouraged Americans to plant victory gardens to
raise their own vegetables, leaving more for the troops.
 Fuel Administration tried to manage the nation’s use
of coal and oil.
 Daylight savings time was introduced to conserve
energy.
Home Front
Home Front
Home Front
Home Front
 By the end of the war, the US was spending $44 million
a day—leading to a total expenditure of about $32
billion for the conflict.
 Congress raised income tax rates and put into effect
new taxes.
 To raise money, the government borrowed over $20
billion from the American people by selling Liberty
Bonds and Victory Bonds.
Home Front
 Americans when buying these bonds were loaning the
government money.
 The government agreed to repay the money with
interest in a specified number of years.
Home Front
 The National War Labor Board was established to
prevent strikes from disrupting the war effort.
 Put pressure on industry to give concessions to
workers, including a wage increase, 8-hour workday,
and the right to organize, and bargain collectively.
 As a result membership in unions greatly increased.
Home Front
 Progressives in government did not think coordinating
business and labor was enough to ensure the success of
the war effort.
 They felt the government should take steps to shape
public opinion and support for the war.
 Hoover’s and others efforts would have been fruitless if
American people did not believe in supporting the war
effort.
Home Front
 Most Americans did not understand the reasons for
war in 1914, and many questioned why the US became
involved in 1917.
 The job of the Committee on Public Information (CPI)
was to educate the public about the causes and nature
of war.
 The CPI had to convince Americans the war effort was
a just cause.
Home Front
 Wilson appointed George Creel as the director of the
CPI.
 As a former journalist and admirer of American
institutions, Creel combined education and a
widespread advertising campaign to “sell America.”
 The CPI distributed 75 million pamphlets and 6,000
press releases, and it assembled an army of 75,000
speakers who gave lectures and brief speeches on
America’s war aims and the nature of the enemy.
Home Front
 They designed, printed, and distributed millions of
posters that dramatized the needs of America and its
Allies.
 The CPI also stressed the cruelty and wickedness of
the enemy, particularly Germany, which in some cases
aggravated resentment toward German Americans.
 They earned widespread support for the war effort.
Home Front
Home Front
Home Front
 The CPI’s work was important because not all
Americans favored America’s entry into the war.
 Members of two large ethnic groups, German
Americans and Irish Americans, tended to oppose the
Allies for different reasons.
 Swept up in patriotic fervor, some treated German
Americans with prejudice, or intolerance.
Home Front
 Other Americans were pacifist who opposed war for
any reason.
 To quiet dissent, or differing opinions, the government
acted in ways that trespassed on individual liberties.
 The draft created controversy.
 Some Americans believed it was an illegal intrusion of
the federal government into their private lives.
Home Front
 Some men refused to cooperate with the Selective
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Service Process.
They were often court martial and imprisoned.
Others tried to avoid the draft.
As many as 12% of men who received draft notices
never responded to them.
Another group resisted the draft by becoming
conscientious objectors, people whose moral or
religious beliefs forbid them to fight in wars.
Home Front
 In theory, the Selective Service Act exempted from
combat services member of “any well recognized
religious sect or organization...whose existing creed or
principles forbid its member to participate in war.”
 In practice, this policy was widely ignored.
Home Front
 Some conscientious objectors were treated badly by
their local draft boards, and other were humiliated in
training camps.
 As America’s participation in the war increased,
however, the government improved its treatment of
conscientious objectors.
 Some American women also opposed the war.
Home Front
 Before the war, a number of leading American
feminists, including reformer Jane Addams, formed
the Women’s Peace Party and with pacifist women
from other countries formed the Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom.
 Jeanette Rankin, the first women to serve in the US
House of Representatives, voted against the
declaration of war.
Home Front
 After America joined the Allies, some women
continued to oppose the war, but most supported the
American war effort.
 The National American Women Suffrage Association
dropped its initial peace initiative and supported
America’s war objective.
 After adopting this new policy, NAWSA doubled in
size.
Home Front
 The work of the CPI created a mood in America that
did not welcome open debate.
 Some felt the CPI stifled the free expression of
controversial opinions and worried about the impact
of a rigorous military campaign on democracy.
 They did not want the freedoms that America held
most dear to become victims of the conflict.
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 As in previous and future wars, the government
navigated a difficult path between respecting and
restricting individual rights.
 Authorities tended to treat harshly individuals who
worked against the goal of winning the war.
 In June 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act,
allowing postal authorities to ban treasonable or
seditious newspapers, magazines, or printed material
from the mail.
Home Front
 It also enacted severe penalties for anyone engaged in
disloyal or treasonable activities.
 Anyone found obstructing army recruiters, aiding the
enemy, or generally interfering with the war effort
would be punished with up to a $10,000 fine and 20
years imprisonment.
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 In 1918, Congress limited freedom of speech even
further with the passage of the Sedition Act.
 The act made it unlawful to use “disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, or abusive language” about the American
form of government, the Constitution, or the military
forces.
 The government employed the Sedition Act to
prosecute socialist, political radicals, and pacifists.
Home Front
 Eugene Debs, the leader of the Socialist Party in
America, was imprisoned under the act, for his
crime—giving a mildly antiwar speech to a convention
of socialist in Canton, Ohio—he was sentenced to 10
years in federal prison.
 The Supreme Court upheld the continuality of the
Sedition Act in the case of Schenck v. United States
(1919).
Home Front
 The Court ruled that there are times when the need for
public order is so pressing that First Amendment
protections of speech do not apply.
 Said an individual’s freedom could be curbed when the
words uttered constituted a “clear and present danger.”
 The Debs case and other like its shows that the war did
lead to some suppression of personal freedoms and
individual rights.
Home Front
 Sometimes, the war enthusiasm created by the CPI
and other groups took an ugly turn.
 Some German Americans were treated harshly during
the war.
 Americans regarded Germany—with its arrogant
Kaiser, ruthless generals, and spike-helmeted
soldiers—as the primary foe among the Central
Powers.
Home Front
 Popular movies, such as The Kaiser, The Beast of
Berlin, as well as CPI posters and speeches intensified
this feeling by portraying Germany as a cruel enemy.
 Some Americans wrongly generalized that if Germany
was cruel, then all German people were cruel.
Home Front
 As a result, Americans stopped teaching German in
public schools, and discontinued playing the music of
Beethoven and Brahms.
 They renamed German measles “liberty measles,”
cooked “liberty steaks” instead of hamburgers, and
walked their “liberty pups” instead of dachshunds.
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 German Americans were pressured to prove their
loyalty to America by condemning the German
government, giving up speaking German, and reading
German-language newspapers, and participating
enthusiastically in any patriotic drive.
 Occasionally, hatred of the German enemy boiled over
into violence against German Americans.
Home Front
 Some German Americans were harassed, other were
beaten, and few were killed for no other reason than
they were born in Germany or spoke with a German
accent.
 The war not only changed the economic and political
lives of Americans but also brought substantial social
changes.
 New opportunities opened up for women, African
Americans, and Mexican Americans.
Home Front
 Some left their homes to seek new ones where they
could take advantage of these opportunities.
 Before the war, some American women campaigned
for female suffrage.
 They won the vote in several western states and still
hoped to gain the vote nationally.
Home Front
 Many feared the war would draw attention away from
their efforts.
 In fact, the war gave women new changes and won
them the vote.
 As men entered the armed forces, many women
moved into the workforce for the first time.
 Women filled jobs that were previously open only to
men.
Home Front
 Other labored on farms.
 Some joined the Red Cross or the American Women’s
Hospital Service and went overseas.
 They worked as doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers,
and clerks.
 Thousand enlisted when the Army Corps of Nurses
was created in 1918.
Home Front
 Women proved that they could succeed in any type of
job, regardless of difficulty or risk.
 By their efforts and sacrifices during the war, women
convinced President Wilson to support suffrage
demands.
 He contended that granting the vote to women was
“vital to winning the war.”
Home Front
 If women could do the work of men, they certainly
deserved the same voting privileges as men.
 Finally in 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth
Amendment giving the vote to women.
 The states ratified the amendment in the summer of
1920, a victory more than 70 years in the making.
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 The war similarly presented new opportunities to
African Americans.
 From the outset, most African American leaders
supported the war.
 “If this is our country, then this is our war,” wrote
African American leader W.E.B Du Bois.
 He viewed the struggle as an excellent opportunity to
show all Americans the loyalty and patriotism of
African Americans.
Home Front
 Thousands were enlisted or were drafted into the army
and sailed for battlefields in France.
 On the battlefield, they fought in segregated units
under the command of white officers.
 Altogether, 376,000 African Americans served in the
military.
Home Front
 Hundreds died for their country.
 Meanwhile, a great movement of African Americans
from the rural South to the industrial North was
taking place.
 This movement to the “Land of Hope,” as many
African Americans referred to the North at that time is
called the Great Migration.
Home Front
 African Americans left their homes in the South for
many reasons.
 Some hoped to escape the violent racism of the South.
 Other desired better jobs and a chance for economic
advancement, which wartime industry in that the
North offered.
 Still others dreamed of a better future for their
children.
Home Front
 Between 1910 and 1920, more than 1.2 million African
Americans moved to the North.
 Some whites in the South tried to get blacks to stay in
the region of their birth, using methods that ranged
from persuasion to violence.
 Meanwhile, African Americans who already lived in
the North encouraged migration.
Home Front
 African Americans moved to Chicago, where they
worked in meatpacking plants.
 They migrated to Detroit, where they obtained jobs in
auto factories.
 They traveled to smaller industrial towns in the
Midwest and to the giant cities of the Northeast.
 Millions eventually made the exodus and although
they did not entirely escape discrimination many did
forge a better future.
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 The Great Migration was one of the most important
episodes in African American history.
 Some of the same reasons that led African Americans
to move caused Mexicans to cross the border into the
US.
 Many Mexicans also faced violence and desperate
poverty, and they wanted better lives for themselves
and their children.
Home Front
 Most immigrated to the American West, where they
sought work on large ranches and farms in Texas and
along the Pacific Coast.
 Increase demands for food and a decrease in American
farm workers created jobs that Mexican migrants
filled.
 Some of the Mexican migration was seasonal.
Home Front
 Many workers crossed the border to harvest fruits or
grains or to pick cotton while each crop was in season,
then crossed back to Mexico.
 But others stayed and made the US their homes.
 Some Mexican workers migrated first to the Southwest
and then to the Northern states in search of factory
jobs but a large population stayed in California.
Home Front
 They formed barrios, or Hispanic neighborhoods in
Los Angles and in smaller cities in California’s Imperial
Valley.
 California had always had a rich Hispanic heritage, but
these new immigrants added an economic dimension
to that heritage.
Home Front
Section 3
I Can Statements
 Discuss the fighting techniques used in WWI.
 Characterize the American response to the Treaty of
Versailles.
Section 3: A Bloody
Conflict
When the US entered World
War I in the spring of 1917, the
conflict had become a deadly,
bloody stalemate. The war
would be won or lost on the
Western Front in France. Since
1914, both sides had tried
desperately to break the
stalemate there—and failed.
The American entry into the
war would play a key role in the
Allied victory.
A Bloody Conflict
 By the spring of 1917, WWI had devastated Europe and
claimed millions of live.
 Terrible destruction resulted from a combination of
old-fashioned strategies and new technologies.
 Americans believed they could make a difference and
quickly bring the war to an end.
A Bloody Conflict
 The early offensives demonstrated the nature of
warfare had changed.
 Troops had dug themselves in and relied upon modern
rifles and a new weapon—the rapid fire machine
gun—could easily hold off the attacking forces.
 On the Western Front, troops dug a network of
trenches that stretched from the English Channel to
the Swiss boarder.
A Bloody Conflict
 The space between the opposing trenches was known
as “no man’s land,” a rough, barren landscape mired
with craters from artillery fire.
 To break through enemy lines, both sides began
massive artillery barrages.
 Then bayonet wielding soldiers would scramble out of
their trenches, race across no man’s land, and hurl
grenades into enemy trenches.
A Bloody Conflict
 This often ended disastrously.
 The artillery barrages rarely destroyed the enemy’s
defenses, and troops crossing no man’s land were
easily stopped by machine gun and rifle fire.
 It became clear that charging enemy trenches could
bring only limited success at a great cost.
A Bloody Conflict
A Bloody Conflict
 April 1915, the Germans first used poison gas in battle.
 The fumes caused vomiting, blindness, and
suffocation.
 Allies also began to use poison gas, and gas masks
became a necessary part of soldier’s equipment.
 1916—British introduced the tank into battle.
A Bloody Conflict
 The first tanks were very slow and cumbersome,




unreliable, and easy to destroy.
Will be more important in WWII.
WWI also saw the first use of airplanes in combat.
At first, planes were used to observe the enemy.
Soon they will be used to drop small bombs.
A Bloody Conflict
A Bloody Conflict
 As technology advances small machine guns will be
attached and aircrafts will engage in air battles known
as dog fights.
A Bloody Conflict
 To European leaders, the US was the great unknown.
 Ethnic divisions in America raised questions about
how committed American troops would be in combat.
 Some doubted the US could raise, train, equip, and
transport an army fast enough to influence the
outcome of the war.
A Bloody Conflict
 Desperate, German military leaders renewed
unrestricted submarine warfare, hoping to end the
conflict before the Americans could make a difference.
 Wave upon wave of American troops marched into the
bloody stalemate—nearly 2 million before the war’s
end.
A Bloody Conflict
 These “doughboys” a nickname for American soldiers,
were largely inexperienced, but they were fresh, so
their presence immediately boosted the morale of the
Allied forces.
 The Allies immediately felt the impact of the renewed
unrestricted submarine warfare.
A Bloody Conflict
 German U-boats sank merchant ships in alarming
numbers, faster than replacements could be built.
 As one merchant ship after another sank to the bottom
of the sea, the Allies lost critical supplies.
 Together, the Allies addressed the problem of
submarine warfare by adopting an old naval tactic:
convoying.
A Bloody Conflict
 In a convoy, groups of merchant ships sailed together,
protected by warships.
 The arrangement was designed to provide mutual
safety at sea.
 Convoys made up of British and American ships
proved to be an instant success.
 Shipping losses from U-boats attacks fell as sharply as
they had risen.
A Bloody Conflict
 Germany’s gamble had
failed.
 No American ships were
lost on the way to
Europe.
A Bloody Conflict
 Meanwhile, the situation on land began to swing in
favor of the Central Powers.
 The Allies were exhausted by years of combat.
 Russia was torn by revolution.
 In March 1917, a moderate, democratic revolution
overthrew Czar Nicolas II but kept Russia in the war.
A Bloody Conflict
 In November, 1917, a radical communists led by
Vladimir Lenin staged a revolution and gained control
over Russia.
 Russia stopped fighting in mid-December, and on
March 3, 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the
war between Russia (soon to become the Soviet
Union) and Germany.
A Bloody Conflict
A Bloody Conflict
 Russia lost substantial territory, giving up Ukraine, its
Polish, and Baltic territories, and Finland.
 The end of the war on the Eastern Front allowed
Germany to send more soldiers to the Western Front.
 In the spring of 1918, Germany launched an all-out
offensive on the Western Front.
A Bloody Conflict
 The fierce attack threatened to break through Allied
defenses and open a path to Paris.
 The hard-pressed Allies organized a joint command
under French General Ferdinand Foch.
 General John J. Pershing, the commander of American
forces in Europe, arrived in France in June 1917, with a
small American force.
A Bloody Conflict
 Early in 1918 American troops started arriving in large
numbers.
 At about the same time, the German offensive began
to stall.
 By the end of March 1918, Allied counterattacks and
German exhaustion ended the great German offensive.
 More fighting followed, and with each passing week,
American troops assumed more of the burden on the
battlefield.
A Bloody Conflict
 Germany launched several more offensives.
 Allied defenses bucked and stretched but did not
break.
 Each failed offensive weakened Germany a bit more
and raised Allied hopes.
 American troops saw significant action in the spring
and summer of 1918.
A Bloody Conflict
 Americans fought on the defensive along with the
French a the Second Battle of the Marne and on the
offensive at the Battle of Cantigny, where they
dislodged a large German force from fortified
positions.
 They battled valiantly at Château-Thierry and Belleau
Wood, Meuse-Argonne, and Saint-Mihiel.
A Bloody Conflict
 Although it took some time, American troops learned
quickly and fought bravely.
 One of America’s greatest heroes was Alvin York of
Tennessee.
 On October 8, 1918, York was one of thousands of
Americans fighting in the Meuse-Argonne region of
northeastern France.
A Bloody Conflict
 Trapped behind enemy lines, York and 16 other
Americans took cover from blistering machine-gun
fire.
 As half of the American forces fell to German bullets,
York took aim with his rifle and silenced a nearby
German machine-gun nest.
 He then dodged a flurry of bullets to attack several
other machine gunners and even charged one German
position with only a pistol.
A Bloody Conflict
 When the firefight died down, York and the surviving
Americans had taken the German position against
amazing odds.
 York’s battlefield heroics earned him a Congressional
Medal of Honor.
 Alvin York was only one of thousands of heroes, many
of whom died and most of whom were never
recognized for their deeds.
A Bloody Conflict
 They followed orders, fought bravely, and made great
sacrifices.
 Although African American soldiers often faced
discrimination in the US Army, they demonstrated their
patriotism in dozens of engagements.
 For example, an entire African American unit, the 369th
Infantry Regiment, received the Croix de Guerre, a French
award for bravery, for its members’ action in MeuseArgonne campaign. Nickname: Harlem Hellfighters
A Bloody Conflict
A Bloody Conflict
 By the end of the war, 1.3 million Americans soldiers
had served on the front, more than 50,000 lost their
lives and about 230,000 had been wounded.
 The American troops, added to those in France,
Britain, and Italy, gave the Allies a military advantage.
 By the fall of 1918, the German front was collapsing.
A Bloody Conflict
 Both German and Austro-Hungarian armies had had
enough.
 Some men deserted, others mutinied, and many
refused to fight.
 Their leaders faced little choice but to surrender.
 On November 11, 1918 Germany surrendered to the
Allied in a railway car in Compiegne, France.
(Armistice)
A Bloody Conflict
 The war was over.
 Of the millions of soldiers who mobilized to fight,
almost 5 million Allied and 8 million Central Power
troops were dead.
 Nearly 6.5 million civilians were also dead, victims of
the terrible conflict.
 It is left to the peacemakers to determine whether the
results would justify the costs.
Fragile Peace
 Vladimir Lenin, leader of the communist revolution in
Russia, maintained that the entire war was nothing
more than an imperialistic land-grab.
 Once in power, he exposed secret treaties that Russia
made with other Allies in which they agreed to divide
among themselves the empires of their enemies.
Fragile Peace
 These revelations undercut the morality of the Allied
cause in the war.
 For President Woodrow Wilson, however, the war was
not about acquisitions and imperialism—it was about
peace and freedom.
 In January 1917, Wilson had introduced the idea of a
“peace without victory” in an address to Congress.
Fragile Peace
 In another address in January 1918, Wilson answered
Lenin’s charges about the nature of conflict by
outlining America’s war aims in what became known
as the Fourteen Points.
 At the heart of the Fourteen Points was this idea of
“peace without victory.”
 Wilson proposed a peace inspired by noble ideals, not
greed and vengeance.
Fragile Peace
 The Fourteen Points sought to fundamentally change
the world by promoting openness, encouraging
independence, and supporting freedom.
 Critical of all secret treaties, Wilson called for open
diplomacy.
 He insisted on freedom of seas, free trade, a move
toward ending colonialism, and a general reduction in
armaments.
Fragile Peace
 He also championed national self-determination, or
the right of people to choose their own form of
government.
 This would lead to the creation of several new,
independent states, but also raised many questions of
which populations would achieve statehood under
what circumstances.
Fragile Peace
 Finally he asked for a League of Nations to secure
“mutual guarantees of political independence and
territorial integrity to great and small states alike.”
 In early 1919, the victorious Allies held a peace
conference in Versailles, a suburb of Paris, in the
former palace of Louis XIV.
Fragile Peace
 Wilson believed that the peace conference was too
important to be left to career diplomats, and lesser
politicians, so he crossed the Atlantic himself to
represent the US at the conference, something no
other President had ever done.
 Wilson did not invite any leading Republicans to join
him in his peace delegation.
Fragile Peace
 Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican foreign
policy expert, was left behind because Wilson disliked
him so intensely.
 Wilson’s decision angered Republicans, who had won
control of Congress in the 1918 election.
 However, when the American President arrived in
France, adoring crowds greeted him. “Never has a
king, never has an emperor received such a welcome,”
wrote one journalist.
Fragile Peace
 Wilson’s idealism did not inspire the other Allied
leaders at the peace conference.
 They blamed Germany for starting the war, reminded
Wilson they had suffered more in the war then the US,
and insisted that Germany make reparations, or
payments for war damages.
 They wanted to weaken Germany so it would never
threaten Europe again.
Fragile Peace
 British prime minister David Lloyd-George and French
premier Georges Clemenceau knew that the citizens of
their countries expected both peace and victory.
 Lloyd-George insisted on protecting the existing
colonial status quo and punishing Germany.
Fragile Peace
 Clemenceau wanted to make Germany pay dearly for
what it had done to France.
 In addition to reparations, he demanded the return of
Alsace-Lorraine and several other key German
colonies.
 Besides Britain and France, other Allies also had goals
of their own and were skeptical of Wilson's grand
vision.
Fragile Peace
 Once the Versailles Conference began, Clemenceau,
Lloyd-George, Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando, and
other Allied leaders started to chip away at Wilson’s
Fourteen Points.
 Onto the scrapheap of failed proposals they piled
freedom of the seas, free trade, the liberation of
colonial empires, a general disarmament, and several
other ideas.
Fragile Peace
 Wilson lost a number of battles but kept fighting to
salvage a League of Nations, a world organization
where countries could gather and peacefully resolve
their quarrels.
 On this point, Wilson refused to compromise.
 The other delegates finally voted to make the League
of Nations part of the treaty.
Fragile Peace
 Under the treaty, Germany was stripped of its armed
forces, made to pay $33 billion in reparations to Allies,
and most humiliating acknowledge quilt for the
outbreak of WWI and its devastation.
 In the end, the various treaties created almost as many
problems as they solved.
Fragile Peace
 Wilson returned home
to win approval for the
treaty.
Fragile Peace
Fragile Peace
 In the new map that
emerged from the
conference, national selfdetermination was
violated almost as often
as it was confirmed.
 4 Kingdoms dissolved:
 Russian
 German
 Austria-Hungary
 Ottoman
 9 New countries will
emerge:
 Yugoslavia
 Poland
 Czechoslovakia
 Estonia
 Latvia
 Finland
 Lithuania
 Austria
 Hungary
Fragile Peace
Fragile Peace
 In Europe, several populations of Germans found
themselves attached to non-German nations.
 The same is true for several Austrian populations.
 Furthermore, in the Middle East, the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire led to new states in which ethnic
groups were clustered together randomly.
Fragile Peace
 For example to form Iraq, the Versailles peacemakers
threw together 3 provinces of the defeated Ottoman
Empire—Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul.
 But Basra had natural links to the Persian Gulf and
India, Baghdad to Persia, and Mosul to Turkey and
Syria.
 The various region had no sense of Iraqi nationalism.
Fragile Peace
 In addition, Iraq, like other holdings in the Middle East,




Africa, and Asia was not allowed to practice selfdetermination.
It was attached to Britain as a mandate or territory overseen
by another nation.
These mandates were set up by the members of the Paris
Peace Conference.
Arabs had helped the Allies and had believed they would
gain independence.
However, the Allies divided the Ottoman lands, giving
France mandates in Syria and Lebanon and Britain
mandates in Palestine and Iraq.
Fragile Peace
 Arabs felt betrayed by
the west—this feeling
had endured to this day.
America Rejects the Treaty
 When Wilson left Versailles to return to the US, he
knew the treaty was not perfect.
 But he believed that over time the League could
correct its problems.
 He still thought that a lasting peace could emerge.
 Wilson did not leave his problems in France when he
boarded a ship bound for the US.
America Rejects the Treaty
 German Americans thought the treaty was too harsh
toward Germany, especially the “war quilt clause” that
suggested that Germany had caused the war.
 Irish Americans criticized the failure to create an
independent Ireland.
 Most importantly, however, the treaty would need to
be submitted to the Republican-controlled Senate
Foreign Relations Committee and then ratified, or
approved, by the Republican-controlled Senate.
America Rejects the Treaty
 In both bodies, as well as his own Democratic Party,
Wilson faced stiff opposition.
 A handful of Senators believed that the US should not
get entangled in world politics or involved in world
organizations.
 Known as the “irreconcilables,” these isolationists
Senators opposed any treaty that had a League of
Nation folded into it.
America Rejects the Treaty
 They practically disliked Article 10 of the League
covenant.
 Article 10 called for mutual defense by signers of the
treaty, a pledge that each nation would “respect and
preserve…the territorial integrity and existing political
independence for all the Members of the League.”
America Rejects the Treaty
 A larger group of Senators, led by Henry Cabot Lodge
and known as the “reservationist,” were opposed to the
treaty as it was written.
 Some wanted only small changes, while others
demanded larger ones.
 For example, many felt Article 10 would lead the US
into a war without consent of Congress which was
unconstitutional.
America Rejects the Treaty
 Reservationist believed that the language of the Article
was to vague and demanded that it not contradict the
power of Congress to declare war.
 But with some changes the Reservationist were
prepared to vote for the Treaty of Versailles.
 They knew the polls indicated that the American
people favored the League of Nations
America Rejects the Treaty
 Wilson had compromised in Versailles, but was not
ready to compromise in Washington, D.C.
 When the Senate delayed its ratification vote, Wilson
took his case directly to the people.
 The League of Nations had become his personal
crusade.
America Rejects the Treaty
 Even though he was weak and ill, he set himself the
grueling task of crossing the country and giving 32
addresses in 33 days.
 But his health failed, on September 25, 1919, in Pueblo,
Colorado.
 He was rushed back to Washington, but suffered a
debilitating stroke a few days later.
America Rejects the Treaty
 As the Senate prepared to vote on the treaty, Wilson
lay close to death, unable to speak.
 In November 1919, one year after the war ended, a
treaty revised to eliminate the complaints of the
reservationist reached the Senate for a vote.
 Wilson would not compromise and told his
Democratic supporters to vote with the irreconcilables
against it.
America Rejects the Treaty
 They did and it was defeated.
 Next, the Senate voted on the treaty without any
changes.
 The Democrats voted for it, but the combined strength
of the irreconcilables and reservationist defeated it.
 Again, Wilson told his followers to vote against it.
 Although some Democrats voted for it, the
combination of Wilson’s Democrats and
irreconcilables defeated the treaty.
America Rejects the Treaty
 The problems was not that most of the Senate was
isolationist.
 Except for the irreconcilables, most Senators wanted
the US to participate in world affairs.
 They differed slightly on what form that participation
would take.
 However, at the moment that demanded compromise,
Wilson and his opponents refused to put aside
personal and political differences for the good of the
country.
America Rejects the Treaty
 The tragedy of the failed votes was that without full
American support, the League of Nations proved
unable to maintain peace among nations.
Section 4:
I Can Statements
 Describe the effects of the postwar recession on the
United States.
 Discuss the causes of and reaction to the Red Scare.
Section 4: Effects of
the War
The end of World War I
produced an unstable
international order. The loss
of territory and the harsh
reparations imposed by Allies
encouraged a strong desire
for revenge in Germany.
Meanwhile, Lenin’s Soviet
Russia threatened revolution
throughout the industrial
world. In the United States,
the horrors of the war along
with widespread fear of
communists and radicals led
Americans to question their
political, if not their
economic, role in the world.
America Adjusts to Peace
 World War I produced significant economic, social,
political, and cultural changes in America and throughout
the world.
 This led to important, occasionally painful, adjustments.
 The movement from war to peace would have been difficult
even in the best of times.
 But in the end of 1918 and 1919 were not the best of times.
America Adjusts to Peace
 In September 1918, an unusually deadly form of the
influenza, or flu, virus appeared.
 Research in recent years shows that the 1918 influenza
virus was originally a bird flue that mutated to spread
to humans.
 Many historians now believe that the virus originated
in the US, then traveled around the world.
America Adjusts to Peace
 Once the virus began, it spread like wildfire and killed
millions worldwide like a predator feasting on its prey.
 The great influenza pandemic, coming on the heels of
the Great War, gave a sense of doom and dread to
people around the globe.
 It hit men and women in their thirties the hardest.
America Adjusts to Peace
 Killed 550,000
Americans, including
50,000 soldiers.
 Worldwide it claimed
between 50 to 100
million.
America Adjusts to Peace
America Adjusts to Peace
America Adjusts to Peace
 African Americans made great advances during the
war.
 However, the end of the war also spelled an end of
wartime economic opportunities for both women and
African Americans.
 A post war recession, or slowdown of the economy,
created a competitive job market.
America Adjusts to Peace
 By 1920, there were fewer women in the workforce than
there had been in 1910.
 In northern industrial cities, African American
workers vied with returning soldiers for jobs and
housing.
 During the hot summer of 1919, race riots erupted in
cities throughout the country.
America Adjusts to Peace
 The worst, in Chicago, was triggered by the drowning
of a young black man by whites, and went on for 13
days.
 38 dead: 15 whites and 23 blacks; 500 injured.
 Adding to this crisis atmosphere were normal postwar
adjustments.
 During the war, inflation, or rising prices, had been
held in check.
America Adjusts to Peace
 After the conflict, Americans rushed to buy consumer
goods rather than war bonds.
 The scarcity of these goods, coupled with widespread
demand caused inflation.
 During the war, the price of corn, wheat, cotton, cattle,
and other agricultural goods had risen, encouraged by
Hoover’s policies.
America Adjusts to Peace
 After the war, the prices feel sharply, making it difficult
for farmers to pay their mortgages or buy what they
needed for the next growing season.
 This began a long period of tough times for the farmer.
 Industrial workers also felt the pain of inflation when
their wages did not buy as much as they had during
the war.
America Adjusts to Peace
 In 1919, more than 4 million workers, or 2% of the
workforce went on strike at one time or another to
forcefully demand rewards for their wartime
patriotism.
 All around the country, workers struck for higher
wages and shorter workdays.
 Seattle General Strike:
 First major strike.
 35,000 shipyard workers demanded higher wages and
shorter hours.
America Adjusts to Peace
 Other unions joined to organized a general strike.
 Eventually involved 60,000 people and lasted for 5 days.
 Workers made no gains.
 Boston Police Strike
 75% of the police force walked off the job.
 Riots and looting erupted.
 Governor Calvin Coolidge sent in the National Guard.
America Adjusts to Peace
 All the strikers were fired and a new police force hired.
 The Steel Strike
 One of the largest strikes in American history.
 Around 350,000 steelworkers, went on strike for higher
pay, shorter hours, and recognition of their union.
 The company used anti-immgrant feelings to divide
workers . Called for loyal Americans to come back to
work.
America Adjusts to Peace
 Violence erupted killing
18.
 Strike collapsed and set
back the union cause
until 1937.
The Red Scare
 The reaction against labor was partly spurred by a wave
of fear of radicals and communist.
 The emergence of the Soviet Union as a communist
nation, which began in 1917 and was formalized in
1922, fed these fears.
 Communist ideology called for an international
workers’ revolution as a prelude to the death of
capitalism.
The Red Scare
 To this end, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin encouraged
and supported revolution outside his country.
 In central and eastern Europe, a series of communist
revolts did breakout, making it seem like the
worldwide revolution was starting.
The Red Scare
 This revolutionary activity abroad, coupled with
strikes across the US, prompted the first American Red
Scare, a wave of widespread fear of suspected
communist and radicals thought to be plotting
revolution within the US.
 Real revolutionary activity inside America gave
substance to the scare.
The Red Scare
 Government authorities discovered bombs mailed to
important industrialists, such as J.P. Morgan, Jr., and
government officials including Attorney General A.
Mitchell Palmer.
 Suspected anarchist, members of violent radical
political movements, also exploded bombs in cities
across America.
The Red Scare
 As the leading law-enforcement official, Palmer
mounted a broad offensive against radicals in the US
in 1919 and 1920.
 In a series of raids in early 1920, known as the Palmer
Raids, police arrested thousands of people, some who
were radicals and some who were simply immigrants
from southern and eastern Europe.
The Red Scare
 Most were never charged or tried for a crime.
 The government did deport hundreds of radicals.
 To many, these actions seemed to attack the liberties
that Americans held most dear.
 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLC) was
formed in 1920 to protect these liberties.
The Red Scare
 They tried to help by becoming involved in important
court cased.
 They became involved in one of America’s most
controversial cases: The trial of Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
 They were Italian immigrants and known anarchist.
 They were charged with killing 2 men during a holdup at a
shoe factory near Boston.
The Red Scare
 Eyewitnesses to the event said the robbers “looked
Italian.”
 Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested and charged with the
crime.
 Even with the ACLC providing defense counsel, the
two were found guilty in a swift and decisive trial,
despite the fact that there was little hard evidence
against them.
The Red Scare
 Some prominent legal scholars, intellectuals, and
liberal politicians charged that the convictions were
based on Sacco and Vanzetti’s ethnicity and political
beliefs than on the facts of the crime.
 Nevertheless, on August 23, 1927, the two men were
put to death in the electric chair.
The Red Scare
The Red Scare
 At its worst, hysteria accompanied by violence
characterized the Red Scare.
 Mobs attacked suspected radicals, abused immigrants,
and committed crimes in the name of justice.
 But eventually, the great fear ended.
 Americans saw that democracy and capitalism were
more powerful in the US than Lenin’s call for
worldwide revolution.
The Red Scare
 By the summer of 1920, the Red Scare hysteria, like the
great influenza, had run its course.
An End to Progressivism
 Economic problems, labor unrest, and racial tension, as
well as fresh memories of WWI all created a general sense
of disillusionment in the US.
 By 1920 Americans wanted an end to the upheaval.
 1920 Election
 Democrat: James Cox/Franklin D. Roosevelt
 Republican: Warren G. Harding/slogan “Return to Normalcy.”
 He wanted a return to a simpler time before the Progressive
Era reforms.