Transcript File - Coach English

SSUSH15
SSUSH15 The student will analyze the origins and
impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.
a. Describe the movement from U.S. neutrality to
engagement in World War I, with reference to
unrestricted submarine warfare.
b. Explain the domestic impact of World War I, as
reflected by the origins of the Great Migration, the
Espionage Act, and socialist Eugene Debs.
c. Explain Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the
proposed League of Nations.
d. Describe passage of the Eighteenth Amendment,
establishing Prohibition, and the Nineteenth
Amendment, establishing women’s suffrage.

Causes




Balkan nationalism
Militarism
Entangling alliances
Early war in Europe
Assassination of Archduke (June 28, 1914)
 Mobilization
 Invasion of France, development of trench lines


U.S. Neutrality

Wilson’s Declaration of Neutrality
 August 19, 1914
The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what
American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America
will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of
impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned…
…The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name,
during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in
thought, as well as action…

Submarine warfare

February 5th, 1915 – Germany
announces submarine blockade
of Britain
 Why?

May 7th, 1915 – Lusitania
sunk to
German warning
 1,198 civilians,American
includespassengers
128
Americans killed
 Takes 18 minutes to sink

British ocean liner

Carried articles of war
(up to 1/2 of cargo)
 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells; 18 cases of fuses; 4,200
cases of Remington rifle cartridges (1,000 to a box); 50
cases of explosive powder
• U.S. Response:
– Wilson issues demand
to stop sub attacks
– William Jennings
Bryan resigns in
protest

Sussex Pledge


Germany promises not to attack any more ships
National Defense Act


June 1916
Basically doubles size of army, spends $313 million
to improve the navy

Woodrow Wilson




“He kept us out of war” - Slogan
Supported U.S. neutrality officially, while building
up the army & navy and loaning money to the Allied
powers
Argued for a “peace without victory”
Central Question of the time:

Isolationism

William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State, argued for
neutrality
 No loans to powers that were fighting, U.S. should stay out
of the war

Globalization

Theodore Roosevelt and others argued that the U.S.
should intervene on the side of the Allies
 Germany attacked the U.S. by attacking British ships

Submarine Attacks

In desperation, unrestricted submarine warfare began
again on February 1, 1917
 Germans hoped to defeat Allied before U.S. could impact
the war

Zimmerman Telegram


(1917)
German foreign secretary Zimmerman sent telegram to
Mexico asking them join war in return for New Mexico,
Texas and Arizona
Intercepted by British and leaked to American
newspapers

April 2, 1917
"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace
must be planted upon the tested foundations of political
liberty… It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful
people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of
all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in, the
balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and
we shall fight for the things which we have always
carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of
those who submit to authority to have a voice in their
own governments, for the rights and liberties of small
nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a
concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety
to all nations and make the world itself at last free…"

Soldiers called “doughboys”

Major battles:



2nd Battle of the Marne
St. Mihiel
Meuse-Argonne Offensive


Domestic Impact: How the war impacted
Americans at home
Ways the war impacted America:




“Great Migration”
Espionage Act & Privacy
Eugene Debs & Socialism
Changing Workforce Demographics
“Great Migration”
(1890’s-1920’s)
 Mass movement of African Americans to
northern cities
Black Population Trends

Why?


Escape negative
of Southern
Economic
opportunities
1890s 1960s
aspects
life
Southern 90.3%
10%
Rural
5%
90%
Northern 9.7%
90%
Urban
95%
10%
“Great Migration”
(1890’s-1920’s)
 African-Americans created separate communities
within northern cities



Best example: Harlem in New York City
Helps lead to the Harlem Renaissance
Race relations deteriorate
Northern resistance
segregation)
 Marcus Garvey: racial pride
help
 Rise of the 2nd Ku Klux Klan

(residential
and self-
Eugene Debs and socialism
 Eugene Debs (1855-1926)
Helped establish Socialist Party of
America
 Ran for President in 1904, 1908,
1912 and 1920
 Served 5 years in prison for
violating the Espionage Act

Socialism: system of government that argues the workers
should control the government and that government should own
industry, ex. Communism
Espionage Act and Privacy
 Espionage Act of 1917

Made it illegal to interfere with military recruitment or
operations, or to openly support America’s enemies
 Most famous violator: Eugene V. Debs
Debs was a pacifist. He, along with many other socialists, argued that the
United States should not enter World War I


Schenck v. United States (1919) – Constitutional, not a
violation of 1st Amendment [freedom of speech]
Still in effect today
 Some want Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, charged under
the Espionage Act for his actions in releasing classified military
documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Changing workforce demographics

Great Migration = more African-American industrial
workers

World War I = more women employed
1. Open Treaties
2. Freedom of the seas
3. Equality of trade

January 8, 1918

Speech to Congress made by
President Woodrow Wilson
4. Reduction in armaments
5. Self-determination
6. Reestablishing Russia
7. Restoration of Belgium

Set out U.S. war goals


Idealistic
War was moral and
continual peace was the
main goal
8. Alsace-Lorraine to France
9. Adjustment of Italy’s
boundaries
10.Breakup of Austria-Hungary
11.Freedom for Balkan states
12.Breakup of Ottoman Empire
13.Freedom for Poland
14.League of Nations


Extra-national organization
founded after World War I
Purpose:


Eliminate future wars by settling disputes between
nations by negotiation and arbitration
U.S. fails to join

Does not ratify Treaty of Versailles

U.S. does not join League of Nations

Returns to isolationism

Temperance Movement:



Sought to reduce/eliminate alcohol consumption in
the United States
Typical members were evangelical Protestants, many
were women
Important temperance organizations:


Women’s Christian Temperance Organization
Anti-Saloon League of America

Prohibition in Georgia:


1885: GA General Assembly gives counties the right
to declare themselves ‘dry’
1907: GA General Assembly enacts mandatory
statewide Prohibition
 Implemented between 1908-1915

1919: 18th Amendment ratified


Provides women the right to vote
Linked w/ movement to provide African
Americas with suffrage
suffrage:
right to vote

Women’s suffrage in Georgia
July 24, 1919: GA rejects the 19th Amendment
 1920: 19th Amendment ratified
 1922: Georgia women first given right to vote
 1970: Georgia officially ratifies the 19th Amendment
