Transcript Part 3
Home Front • Wilson pushed Congress to pass Selective Service Act 24 million registered – Congress passed May 1917 2.8 million were drafted Plus volunteers, 4.8 million 258 Economic Effects •Peacetime to wartime production –Slow and frustrating •Council of National Defense –Created in 1916 –New federal agencies to oversee war effort –Food production, coal and petroleum distribution, & railway use. –Aka gov’t makes decisions •War Industries Board (WIB) –1917 –Regulated all industries in the war effort –Curtailed free enterprise •Herbert Hoover, head of Food Administration •Set prices •Asked Americans to save food Wheatless Mondays Meatless Tuesdays Porkless Thursdays & Saturdays Convincing the people •Why did we get involved? •Committee of Public Information (CPI) –Educate people about causes & nature of war –Convince to people war effort was just cause –Stress cruelty of enemy Opposition to the War •German Americans & Irish Americans opposed the Allies •Pacifists •Some upset by gov’t trespassing on individual liberties •Draft –Some court-martialed & imprisoned –12 % just didn’t respond –Conscientious objectors •Moral & religious beliefs forbid them to fight in war •Constitutional issue Fed gov’t stifles dissent •CPI discouraged open debate st –1 amendment •Aren’t the soldiers fighting for freedom? •Espionage Act –1917 –Allowed postal authorities to ban treasonable or seditious newspapers, printed material st –1 amendment??? Anyone found obstructing recruiters, aiding the enemy, interfering with the war effort could be punished with $10,000 & 20 years imprisonment Fed Gov’t Stifles Dissent Even More •Sedition Act –1918 –Limited freedom of speech further –Unlawful to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the American form of gov’t, the Constitution or military forces –Prosecuted socialists, political radicals, & pacifists • • Schenck v. United States (1919) Court ruled there are times when the need for public order is so pressing, 1st amendment protections of speech od not apply Prejudice • • • • Germany seen as primary foe Stopped teaching German in school Stopped playing music of Beethoven & Brahams Renamed German measles, liberty measles • Hamburgers, liberty steaks • Dachshunds, liberty pups • Sauerkraut, victory cabbage • Germans harassed and some killed War Changes American Society: Women • Women moved into workforce when men left for war – Munitions factories, railroads, telegraph operators, trolley conductors, farm work, etc. • Some joined Red Cross or American Women’s Hospital Service & went overseas – Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers Women could do the work of men, they deserved the voting privileges of men. 19 amendment War Changes American Society: African Americans • New opportunities • Most supported, “If this is our country, this is our war” – W.E.B. Du Bois • Thousands enlisted/drafted – Fought in segregated units under command of white officers – 367,000 served Great Migration • African Americans moved from rural South to Industrial North Push Factors Pull Factors - Jim Crow laws - Lynching - Few economic opportunities - Economic opportunities - African Americans who already moved there - Newspapers encouraged migration Chicago: Defender newspaper, Meatpacking indsutry • • 1910-1930, 1.2 million moved North One of the most dramatic demographic shifts in American history Detroit: Auto factories War Changes American Society: Mexicans • Some similar push-pull factors pulled Mexicans to America, across the boarder • Ongoing Mexican Revolution – Violence & extreme poverty – Wanted economic opportunities • Migrated first to Southwest then later North • Large population stayed in California – Set up barrios, neighborhoods End of World War I • America Joins the Fighting – World concerned with how committed American troops would be • Ethnic diversity – Doubted they could raise, train, equip, transport an army fast enough to have any real impact War Ends on the Eastern Front • November 1917, Russian Revolution • Vladimir Lenin • March 3, 1918 the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk • Allowed Central Powers to focus on Western Front John J. Pershing & AEF • 1918, Germany launched all-out offensive • John J Pershing – Commander of US forces in Europe – Forces under his control called American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) • Strong German offensive – Miles gained not yards – Failed to end war before US arrived “I pressed forward with the others to watch the US physically entering the War, so god-like, so magnificent, so splendidly unimpaired in comparison with the tired, nerve-wracked men of the British Army. So these were our deliverers at last, marching up the road to Camiers in the Spring sunshine!” – British nurse American Troops • Doughboys – Action in late spring and summer 1918 • Meuse-Argonne – Widespread attack across W. front – September 1918 – Dense trees, rocky ridges gave German advantage – But, American victory – Devastating German defeat Germany Surrenders • Allied military advantage • Fall 1918, Germany & A-H collapsing – Men deserted, mutinied, refused to fight – Leaders had little choice – November 11, 1918 Germany surrendered – 5 million Allies & 8 million Central Power troops died – 6.5 civilians died – 50,000 US troops died Wilson Wants Peace Without Victory • Lenin said war was imperialistic land-grab – Revealed Allied secret treaties to divide up empires of their enemies – Undercut morality of war – Wilson thought differently Fourteen Points • Wilson answered Lenin’s charges about nature of the conflict buy outlining US goals in Fourteen Points • Championed self-determination – Right of people to choose their own form of gov’t – Create new, independent states League of Nations • To secure “mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike” Paris Peace Conference • Allies met to discuss fate of Europe, Ottoman Empire, colonies around the world Central Powers & Russia, not invited Wilson didn’t bring any Republicans The Big 4 British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, French Premier Georges Clemenceau, and Premier Vittorio Orlando of Italy became the leaders of the conference. Paris Peace Conference • Wilson’s idealism didn’t carry over to other Allies – …they blamed Germany – Insisted Germany pay war reparations • Britain wanted to rebuild a post war country “Fit for heroes” – Costly • France wanted to weaken Germany – So it could never threaten them again • Italy wanted to honor their secret treaty to obtain A-H lands – Violated self-determination Paris Peace Conference • Wilson refused to budge on League of Nations – World organization where countries would peacefully resolve their quarrels • Treaty of Versailles – Created as many issues as it solved – Self-determination? Example: Peacemakers threw together Basra, Baghdad, & Mosul (defeated parts of O.E.) to for Iraq Basra had links to Persian Gulf & India Baghdad had links to Persia, & Mosul had links to Turkey & Syria No sense of Iraqi nationalism Not allowed to practice selfdetermination, linked to Britain as a mandate (territory overseen by another nation) Treaty of Versailles • Huge reparations – Took 92 years to pay off • Limited size of German military • Retuned Alsace-Lorraine to France • Removed 100’s of miles of German territory • Took away overseas colonies German resentment poisoned international climate for 20 years America Rejects Treaty of Versailles • Movement from war to peace was difficult – Especially so because of Spanish influenza, 1918 • About 50 million people died • Wilson faced opposition at home – Needed the treaty to pass the Republican-controlled Senate US Fails to Approve the Treaty • Moment that needed compromise, Wilson & his opponents refused to put aside their differences for good of the country