Transcript World War I and Its Aftermath

Bell Ringer
• Under what circumstances do you
believe it would be appropriate for the
U.S. to go to war?
World War I and Its Aftermath
Chapter 12
The United States Enters the War
• Wilson believed in honesty and unselfishness, he
opposed imperialism
• He believed the US should promote democracy to
ensure a peaceful world, free of revolution and
war
• During Wilson’s presidency, a revolutionary war
was occurring in Mexico
• Porfirio Diaz is overthrown after the people of
Mexico decide they are tired of the few own most
of the wealth
• Francisco Madero takes Diaz place, but proved to
be an inefficient leader, so he was murdered and
Victorian Huerta took power
• Huerta was angry with Wilson who refused to
recognize the new government; Wilson even
authorized arming the other political factions
The United States Enters the War
• American sailors visited the city of Tampico
were arrested
• Although the were released quickly the American
General demanded an apology which was refused
• Wilson used this as an opportunity to overthrow
Huerta which led to anti-American riots
• Venustiano Carranza became president of Mexico,
which led to Pancho Villa to lead guerrillas into
the US to force Wilson to intervene
• Wilson sent John J. Pershing to protect the US
border with 6,000 troops, he was not successful
in capturing them
• The US withdrew troops from the area due to the
war in Europe in 1917
The United States Enters the War
• Despite nearly 40 years of peace there were
a number of problems leading up the World
War I
• The Alliance System
• While the US was in the Civil War Prussia was
uniting to become the German Empire
• Germany attacked France and forced them to
give up part of their boarder, making them
enemies
• Germany allied with Italy and Austria-Hungry
creating the Triple Alliance
• Russians feared expansion into their territory, so
the allied with France creating the Franco-Russian
Alliance
The United States Enters the War
• The Naval Race
• Great Britain had remained neutral until
Germany began building up their navy
• Tensions between Great Britain and
Germany begin to build when the arms
race began
• Great Britain would not sign a formal
alliance but instead entered into the
“entente cordiale”—friendly understanding
• Britain, France and Russia became known
as the Triple Entente
The United States Enters the War
• The Balkan Crisis
• Nationalism had become an intense part of
Europe’s beliefs
• Many groups believed in self-determination—the
idea that people who belong to a nation should
have their own country and government
• These groups (Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and
Slovenes) from the Balkans all wanted
independence
• Serbs form Serbia between the Ottoman Empire
and Austria-Hungary and want to unite the South
Slavs
• Russia supported the Serbs, Austria-Hungary
annexed Bosnia, which the Serbs wanted, causing
clash between Russia and Austria-Hungary
The United States Enters the War
• A Continent Goes to War
• In June 1914 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand visited the
Bosnian capital of Sarajevo where he and his wife were
assassinated
• The assassination was from Serbian officials who wanted
to bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire
• The A-Hs knew that an attack on Serbia might trigger a
war with Russia so they asked for support from
Germany
• July 28th A-H declares war on Serbia, Russia mobilizes
(including the German border) and asks France for help,
August 1st, Germany declared war on Russia, and on the
3rd France
• World War I had begun
The United States Enters the War
• The German’s plan was to attack France, knock them out of
the war then head east to attack Russia
• The problem is they had to go through Belgium, a British
protectorate, to get to France
• When Germany goes through Belgium, Great Britain declares
war on Germany
• France, Russia and Great Britain are going to be called the
Allies (Italy would join in 1915); Germany, Austria-Hungary,
and now the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria form the Central
Powers
• Germany’s plan was working to drive France back, but they
didn’t expect Russia to attack, when that happened they had
to rally to attack them in the east
• The Battle of Marne will stop German advancement in France
• The area is going to be locked in a bloody stalemate for the
next three years
The United States Enters the War
• Wilson declared that “we must be neutral in
thought as well as in action” which would
prove difficult
• Most Americans supported the Allied forces,
but due to the large amount of immigrants
in the US you see groups that support the
Central Powers
• Pro-British Sentiment is going to be
furthered due to propaganda
• Both sides used propaganda, but the British
aimed theirs more towards Americans while
Germany’s was anti-Russia
The United States Enters the War
• Many businesses were pro-Britain
• Many American banks had loans tied to the allies,
leading to a necessity for the Allies to win in order
to get the money back
• Issues heat up between the US and Germany when
the Lusitania, a British passenger liner carrying
Americans was sunk
• Wilson said we were “too proud to fight” but sent diplomatic
messages to Germany
• In March 1916 Germany attacked the Sussex which harmed
Americans forcing Germany into the Sussex Pledgepromising to not sink merchant ships in exchange for the
US staying out of the war
• This helped Wilson win the election at home with the slogan
“he kept us out of the war”
The United States Enters the War
• Germany made a fateful mistake of having
Arthur Zimmerman propose that Mexico ally
with Germany and in return Mexico would
get TX, NM and AZ back
• British intelligence intercepted the
Zimmermann telegram, the news made
America realize war was immanent
• Between Feb 3rd and Mar 21st Germany had
sunk six American merchant ships
• Between these two events, Congress
declared war on April 6, 1917
The Home Front
• Progressives controlled the federal
government when the US entered the war
• They did not abandon their idea, but rather
they applied them to fighting the war
• When the war started, the Army and
National Guard had just a little more than
30,000 people
• Since Progressives were against conscription—
forced military service—they came up with a less
harsh system called selective service
• Selective Service is men age 21-30 who register
for the draft, but rather than everyone having to
go, there is a lottery to determine who is selected
• 2.8 million were drafted, 2 million volunteered
The Home Front
• African Americans are going to serve in
the war
• 400,000 were drafted; 42,000 fought
overseas as combat troops
• For the first official time, women also
served in a war—many filled positions
as clerics; the only ones to serve over
seas were the Army Nursing Corps
The Home Front
• The War Industries Board was established to
coordinate the production of war materials
• Led by Bernard Bunch the WIB controlled the flow of raw
materials, ordered the construction of new factories and
occasionally set prices
• The Food Administration, run by Hoover, encourage
reducing consumption while increasing production
• They were asked to “Hooverize” by serving just enough and
having “wheatless Mondays”, “meatless Tuesdays” and
“porkelss Thursdays”
• He asked them to plant victory gardens-raising veggies for
themselves and save farmer’s produce for soldiers
• To conserve energy, Daylight savings time was created
The Home Front
• By the end of the war the US was
spending 33 million per day—total of
$42B
• To raise money, Congress passed new
taxes
• Those taxes were not enough so the
government sold Liberty Bonds and
Victory Bonds
The Home Front
• The National War Labor Board
• Lead by William Howard Taft and Frank
Walsh; it attempted to mediate labor
disputes that might otherwise lead to
strikes
• Women will take the jobs that men left
to go to war, but when the war is over
they will stop working to let the men
have their jobs back
The Home Front
• With fewer immigrants in the states
and men being shipped off, African
Americans will find more opportunities
• The Great Migration occurred when
southern African Americans migrated to
the north to take factory work
• Mexicans will also migrate into the
southwest to take jobs that were left
by draftees
The Home Front
• The Committee on Public Information had the job of “selling”
the war to the public, trying to get support for the war
• The Espionage Act established penalties and prison terms for
anyone who aided the enemy
• The Sedition Act made it illegal to publicly express opposition
to the war
• German sounding words were dropped, changing sauerkraut to
“liberty cabbage” and hamburger to “Salisbury steak”
• Schools dropped German from their curricula and orchestra’s
stopped playing music by German composers like Beethoven
and Schubert
• In Schenck v. United States the Supreme Court ruled that free
speech could be limited when the words uttered constitute
“clear and present danger” such as saying “fire” in a crowded
theater
• This was expanded to the war efforts saying that things said in
time of war could cause danger to the soldiers
Assignment
• Should the government be allowed to restrict
your freedom of speech in times of war to
keep the country safe?
• In your response:
• Compare freedom of speech limitations to the limitations
you experience at the airport (removing shoes, x-ray
searches, etc.).
• Discuss the Espionage and Sedition Acts passed during
WWI
• Discuss Schenck v. United States (p. 380)
• Your response should be 300-400 words long
(put the word count at the bottom of the page).
• Your response should be scholarly with cited
information.
• Due Thursday.
Bell Ringer
• Who should be responsible for keeping
the world safe from dictators and other
“bad guys”?
A Bloody Conflict
• Warfare was different in this war
compared to past wars—soldiers would
hide in trenches until the artillery
barrages were complete, then they
would rush the other side, with
bayonets
• Typically the other side would use
machine guns to hold off attacks
• It was not uncommon for both sides of the
attacks to lose several hundred thousand
men
A Bloody Conflict
• It became apparent that technology was
what would help win the war
• Germans introduced poison gas
• British introduced tanks
• Planes are also going to be used, mostly to
observe enemy activity; eventually they started
using them to drop bombs too
• The “doughboys”, a nickname for American
soldiers, were inexperienced by fresh which
improved morale significantly among Allied
forces
A Bloody Conflict
• American Admiral William Sims ensured the
safety of merchant ships and soldiers by
creating the convoy system, where merchant
ships were surrounded by warships
• Russia had political crisis at home with food
and fuel shortages, which leads to Vladimir
Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks
(Communists), becoming head of Russia
• His first act was to withdraw Russia from the war
by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
Germany—the treaty gave the Ukraine, Polish
and Baltic territory to Germany, and withdrew
German troops from the remaining Russian
territory
A Bloody Conflict
• American troops forced a stall of German
advancement into France
• Gen. Pershing lead the most massive attack in US
history leading to the fall of many German
positions
• A-H and Ottoman Turks become engulfed in a
revolution, forcing them to drop from the war
which leads the citizens of Germany to demand
the Emperor step down
• On the 11th hour of 11th day of the 11th month
Germany signed an armistice ending the war
A Bloody Conflict
• In January,1919 a peace conference met in Paris
• Wilson (US), David Lloyd George (Br.) Georges Clemenceau
(Fr.) and Vittorio Orlando (It.) were called the “Big Four”
• Germany was not invited
• Wilson had presented his “Fourteen Points” to Congress the
year before which included five points free trade,
disarmament, freedom of the seas, impartial adjustment of
colonial claims, and open diplomacy instead of secret
agreements
• The next eight addressed self-determination, including Central
Powers evacuating all areas invaded during the war
• The Fourteenth Point was the establishment of the League of
Nations to prevent war by pledging to respect peace and
protect each other’s territory and political independence
A Bloody Conflict
• The Allied forces criticized Wilson’s ideas as
being too lenient toward Germany
• At the Treaty of Versailles Germany was
stripped of their armed forces and forced to
pay reparations ($33 B) to Allied forces;
Germany also had to accept responsibility
for WWI
• The war resulted in the dissolution of four
empires: Russian, Ottoman, German,
Austro-Hungarian
• Three new countries were created:
Yugoslavia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia
A Bloody Conflict
• Wilson found some hope when others agreed to a League of
Nations and the Treaty, but he had to get support at home for
the US to join
• It met opposition at home immediately, Senators said it was
the type of “entangling alliance” the Founding Fathers had
warned about
• Other Senators said they would agree if there was a clause
keeping the US free to make their own decisions regarding
war, Wilson feared this would change the purpose of the
League
• Wilson took his case to the people, but had a stroke and was
bedridden for months, the Senate would oppose the League
and Treaty twice before Wilson left office
• After he left, Congress negotiated a new treaty with the
Central Powers and the League of Nations would form without
the United States
The War’s Impact
• Make sure you read this section! I am only
giving you a few pieces of information for
the section
• The Boston Police Strike—Calvin Coolidge,
Gov. MA, had to send in National Guard
when police went on strike
• After the strike was over, the police who went on
strike were fired which Coolidge supported since
it was against public safety (Coolidge would be
asked to run for VP after this event)
The War’s Impact
• Red Scare evolves after the war
• Red Scare was the fear the Communists would
try to gain power in the country and turn it into
another Russia
• Packages with bombs were sent to business
leaders and politicians homes including one sent
to A. Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney Gen.
• The General Intelligence Division (later became
the FBI) was lead by J. Edgar Hoover
• Palmer organizes raids to search radicals property which
lead to thousands detained and some deported
The War’s Impact
• Progressivism ends in the 1920
election
• James M. Cox (OH. Gov.) runs with
Assistant Sec. of the Navy, FDR on the
platform of keeping Wilson’s ideas going
• Warren G. Harding ran on the platform
“return to normalcy” or the simpler days
before progressivism
• Harding won by a landslide