America on the World’s Stage: WWI

1. America on the World’s Stage: WWI

2. A. THE ROAD TO WAR WAR IN EUROPE AND PROBLEMS OF NEUTRALITY

3. Alliances engage and the dominos fall

4. WWI: The Early Stages Review • Remember MAIN! • June 28, 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated • Aug. 4, 1914: WWI “began” • Sept. 15, 1914: First trenches on Western Front are dug • 1914—1916: Fronts remained deadlocked, death tolls • mounted…

5. European Alliances & Battlefronts, 1914-1917

6. Trench Warfare Poison Gas Machine Guns Airplanes Tanks Modern Warfare & Weapons:

7. War Drags On • Seeking to gain an advantage, Germany turned its attentions to the seas—declared unrestricted submarine warfare around Britain.

8. America’s Early Response • “neutral in both thought & action” • Wilson calls for neutrality . . . U.S. leans towards the allies (transatlantic cable, culture, $$--some say J.P. Morgan essentially financing war!) • German U-Boat terror • Freedom of the Seas threatened – German & British blockade • Unrestricted Submarine Warfare • Arabic (August 1915) & Sussex (March 1916) • Lusitania (May 1915) • Preparing for War – Just in case • National Defense Act expanded army & national guard • Build-up of arms—Congress approved 50 warships • How long can we stay out of this? Buying us some time

9. Why is Wilson so interested in staying out of war???

10. President Wilson declared he would keep America out of this conflict and ran for re-election in 1916 on the slogan… “ …”He Kept US Out Of WAR!” …Woodrow Wilson benefited from a “Solid South”…

11. America Enters the War • Jan 1917: Germany resumed unlimited submarine warfare • U.S. broke off diplomatic ties • March 1917: Zimmerman Note published: Germany promised to help Mexico regain the Southwest U.S. if they attacked the U.S.! • April 2, 1917: Wilson asked for war declaration to “make the world safe for democracy” • May 2, 1917: Selective Service Act requires all men 21—30 to register for draft—although most volunteer . . .

12. B. THE US AT WAR THE FIRST WORLD WAR AT HOME AND ABROAD

13. FIGHTING THE WAR Selective Service Act (1917) • 24,000,000 men registered for the draft by the end of 1918. • 400,000 African-Americans served in segregated units. Troops leaving for camp, 1917

14. Uncle Sam—He the Man!

15. The United States Government rushed to enter the WAR… …conscripting men in a DRAFT for a WAR for the first time since the Civil War… …leading to dissent and over 300,000 “slackers” or “draft dodgers”… …the Supreme Court approved censorship of wartime dissent and backed the “Sedition Act” meant to ward off chaos in the war effort. Dissent

16. Government Excess & Threats to the Civil Liberties of Americans Espionage Act– 1917 • forbade actions that obstructed recruitment or efforts to promote insubordination in the military. • fines of up to $10,000 and/or up to 20 years in prison. Sedition Act– 1918 • it was a crime to speak against the purchase of war bonds or willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive languageabout this form of US Govt., the US Constitution, or the US armed forces.

17. America’s #1 Socialist … • IWW labor leader would find himself in prison for his dissent during WWI. • He still received almost a million votes for the US Presidency, campaigning from behind bars in 1920!

18. FINANCING THE WAR • “Liberty Bonds”

19. Expansion of the Federal Government

20. Economy: Production • “war boards” • War Industries Board Barnard Baruch • Food Administration Herbert Hoover • National War Labor Board W.H. Taft & Frank P. Walsh (Ohio Historical Society)

21. U. S. Food Administration

22. National War Garden Commission U. S. School Garden Army

23. U. S. Fuel Administration

24. Results of New Organization of Economy • Unemployment virtually disappeared • Expansion of “big government” • Excessive government regulations in economy • Close cooperation between public and private sectors • Unprecedented opportunities for women & minorities

25. The Girls They Left Behind Do Their Bit!

26. Women Used In Recruitment

27. The Red Cross - Greatest Mother in the World

28. Economy & Society: African-Americans “Great Migration” African American family just arrived in Chicago, 1912 (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library) African American Migration Northward, 1910-1920

29. African-Americans on a Troop Ship Headed for France

30. Wartime Propaganda

31. The Committee of Public Information (George Creel) • America’s “Propaganda Minister?” • Anti-Germanism. • Selling American Culture.

33. American Involvement in the War in Europe • By the time we got there in Spring 1918, Russia & Germany had signed an armistice  Germany focused on Western Front. • The war would be over in 8 months—1 million U.S. troops turned tide of war.

34. C. TREATY OF VERSAILLES WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS AND THE RATIFICATION FIGHT  Read 14 Points

35. Wilson’s idealist dream for lasting peace at the conclusion of the WAR… …creating a peaceful League of Nations

36. The Treaty of Versailles:The Foundations of Peace?? The Fourteen Points Wilson’s Plan for peace • Wilson called for: • Points #’s 1-4 • open diplomacy • freedom of the seas • Removal of trade barriers • arms reduction • Points #’s 5-13 • end to colonialism • An international commitment to national self-determination • POINT # 14: League of Nations became Wilson’s obsession • Designed to curb aggressor countries through collective military action and mediate disputes to prevent future conflict

37. TREATY OF VERSAILLESParis 1919: Six Months that Changed the World • The Big Four • Woodrow Willson • David Lloyd George • Georges Clemenceau • Vittorio Orlando Orlando, Lord George, Clemenceau, and Wilson in Wilson’s study in Paris

38. Nope—See final treaty!

39. TREATY OF VERSAILLES • “irreconciliables” • “reservationists” • Henry Cabot Lodge Wilson after his stroke, October 1919 (Library of Congress) Henry Cabot Lodge, 1909

40. Wilson’s Versailles Treaty would fail to be ratified by the US Senate… …objections to the League of Nations by Senator Lodge and Republicans over Constitutional issues …and Wilson’s defiant stubbornness…doomed the Treaty to rejection.

41. D. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS

42. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARSRacial Tensions • East St. Louis Riots • 9 whites/40 blacks killed in riots over jobs • Sharp increase in lynchings

43. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARSPost-war Labor Unrest • Coal Miners Strike of 1919 • Steel Strike of 1919 • Boston Police Strike of 1919 Labor Union Membership1900-1920 “If capital and labor don’t pull together” Chicago Tribune, 1919

44. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARSPost-war Labor Unrest Rather than become a world leader for international peace and cooperation… …the USA would experience its 1st “RED SCARE”

45. America’s isolationist tendencies were growing stronger as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia which brought Communists to power… …fear of spreading radicalism caused alarm in America

46. Fear of foreigners and radicals would lead the USA to pass further restrictions and quotas to limit Immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe in the 1920’s.

47. US Attorney General Palmer would conduct his “Palmer Raids”… …to capture and deport suspected radicals… …before they could cause harm in America.

48. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS “Return to Normalcy” • Warren G. Harding-Return to Republican control • “Return to Normalcy” • “fundamentalists”/emphasis on traditional values • Sacco & Vanzetti--Nativism