America's Road to the Great War: From Neutrality to Intervention

1. Unit 5: World War I Road to America's Entrance

2. America and the Great War • At the beginning of the war Wilson in conjunction with most of the American population chose to be a neutral nation (chose neither side). • The diversity of America’s population made the Great War a major issue, because native Americans and new immigrants came from both sides of the battle lines. (“Hyphenated- Americans”) • Many Americans saw the Great War as Europe’s problem; not directly effecting America and if so not enough to risk the lives of our citizens. • Individual citizens though felt an obligation to their home country leading many to go and fight in the war; others thought it would be a great adventure.

3. Americans Before Declaration The Escadrille Lafayette – American pilot squad who fought for the French before America entered the war.

4. A “Neutral” Nation • The American people could not follow their President’s lead in being “impartial in thought as well as action” due to many factors: • America had been in competition with the British (Anglophobia) and 5 million Irish hated them, but many people had strong ethnic and cultural ties to the British. • Hundreds of thousands of Jewish Russians and the American Jewish population despised the Anti-Semitic Russian tsar. • Many Americans supported the French due to the Revolution and the Statue of Liberty. (close ties) • The German population in America was small. • American businesses and banks were connected to Britain through gold standard and loans. (House of Morgan + Rothschild banks) • Allied Powers were seen as more democratic and Central powers more autocratic (government by one person with total power).

5. A “Neutral” Nation • Americans at the start of the war wanted the freedom to travel where they pleased and to trade with whom they pleased, which led to issues over what could be traded, to whom could America trade with, and the safety of American people and goods abroad. • During the early parts of the war both sides used propaganda (the spreading of ideas or information to damage or improve opinion about a group) to try and sway American opinion. (British cut trans-Atlantic cable) • The most noted propaganda was the Bryce Report of German atrocities in Belgium; seen as fact but were mostly rumors and lies.

6. Move toward the Allies • America’s first action toward the war was to finance it through short term loans and credit, but the Allies (1.5 billion) were favored more heavily than the Central Powers (8 million). • The war will make America a major creditor nation. • America’s next action was to supply the war first with food and supplies, but later war material. • As the war progressed what was seen as contraband (prohibited trade goods) constantly changed. • To keep supplies from reaching the other belligerents: • Britain blockaded and mined the North Sea and boarded vessels (broke international precedent/law of neutral nations) • Germany used a new type of naval warfare, the submarine.

7. Move toward the Allies

8. Move toward the Allies • America protested both the British naval blockade of the North Sea and the German use of submarine warfare creating a war zone completely around England. • The issue of submarine warfare started to cause friction with Americans over the torpedoing of merchant and/or passenger vessels. • The first problem developed from the sinking of the Lusitania on 7 May 1915 off the coast of Ireland killing 1,200 people, 128 Americans.

9. Lusitania Crisis The Germans did issue a warning about the war zone, and the Lusitania was carrying war material, but that was not known to the American public.

10. Lusitania Crisis • American public opinion demanded a response: • Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan wanted to use diplomacy, blaming both sides and demanding international rights, also limited travel of Americans. (resigns after German notes) • Wilson chose to take a more pro-British stance by issuing three notes to the German government to affirm right of travel and abandonment of submarine warfare. (an ultimatum). • American public opinion turned more against Germany and a move toward preparedness.

11. Move toward the Allies • German submarine warfare continued with two more major incidents: • The Arabic incident (19 August 1915) where a British ship was torpedoed killing two Americas, Germany apologized and agreed to abandon unannounced attacks. (Arabic Pledge) • The Sussex incident (24 May 1916) was when a French steamer was sunk killing two Americans leading Wilson to release an ultimatum to the German government or American intervention. • The Germans agreed to the Sussex pledge to stop unrestricted submarine warfare and to search and release nonparticipating vessels.

12. Difference of Opinion • As soon as the “guns of August” opened the Great War people in America became torn between the options of Peace or Preparedness. (worse as the war went on) • The Peace movement was led by many prominent Americans such as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, William Howard Taft, and Jane Addams, and had a large following in the Western states. (keep America out of war) • Groups such as the League to Limit Armaments, Women’s Peace Party, and League to Enforce Peace held peace rallies, peace parades in major cities, and protested against the war in Washington D.C.; Henry Ford even funded a “Peace Ship” of pacifists to negotiate peace in Europe (failed).

13. Difference of Opinion • The Preparedness Movement was also led by many influential Americans such as Theodore Roosevelt, Leonard Wood, and Henry Stimson who started a group called the “Atlanticist” made up of prominent and wealthy Eastern families and also the National Defense League. • The Preparedness Movement wanted to create a draft for domestic security and spawned the “Plattsburg” Movement to train people from the upper class in summer camps for military service. • The Preparedness movement also gave speeches and staged parades forcing the issue on Wilson.

14. Difference of Opinion Ford’s Peace Boat Bombing of a Preparednes Parade

15. Move to Prepare • The push for preparedness, events dealing with American shipping, the awful outcome of the Battle of the Somme, and the German sabotage of an American Port (Black Tom Explosion) led to the passage of the National Defense Act (larger army and National Guard) and the Naval Appropriations Act (more battleships built). • The Council of National Defense was also organized to better coordinate resources. "T he Country is best prepared for war when thoroughly prepared for peace.“

16. Election of 1916 • The issues between the Peace and Preparedness movements became the main issues of the Election of 1916. • The Democrats ran Woodrow Wilson with the slogan “He kept us out of the war” with a slate of Progressive issues. • The Republicans ran Charles Evans Hughes (Supreme Court Justice) on the Preparedness issue. • Wilson won a tight race due to his first term record and the poorly run Republican campaign.

17. Election of 1916

18. Wilson’s “War Aims”? • In early January 1917 Wilson called for a brokered peace conference between the two combatants calling for an end to the war, but was rejected by both the Allies and Central Powers. • Wilson then went before the American Congress to state his stance on the war delivering his “Peace without Victory”speech. (prequel to his “Fourteen Points”)

19. Unrestricted Subs!! • The Germans tried to abide by the Sussex Pledge, but due to the British arming merchant ships, the continuation of the harsh British naval blocked, and the inaction of America to rebuke British policies the Germans reassumed unrestricted submarine warfare. • The Germans then started to attack any vessels including American shipping in the Naval War zone. Effects of British Blockade Allied view of the use of Un-restricted Sub Warfare

20. Zimmermann Telegram • As the issues of war in Europe intensified, Wilson received a dispatch from London called the Zimmermann Telegram. • The Telegram was a secret “cable” from the German Foreign Secretary Alfred Zimmermann to the Mexican Government asking them to open war with America and invite Japan to join them; in return Germany would give Mexico all land taken by America after the war. • Even though Wilson did not take it seriously the American people did after it was printed in the Newspapers, Wilson did ask Congress for the ability to arm merchant vessels, “Armed Neutrality”.

21. Russian Revolution • The last issue holding back America’s entrance into the Great War was the fact that the autocratic Tsarist Russian government was not a democracy. • In Feb. 1917 the Russian Revolution led to the overthrow of the Tsar and the foundation of a Russian Provisional Government. (Democratic) • The cost of the war in money and people led many Russians to back the Bolsheviks (Reds) led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the October Revolution to establish the United Soviet Socialistic Republic (U.S.S.R) and the exit of Russia from the Great War with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

22. Russian Revolution • The actions of the October Revolution plunged Russia into a Civil War between the Bolsheviks (Red Army) and the old Aristocracy/Tsar (White Army). • The Allies helped the White Army, placing American soldiers in Siberia.

23. Declaration of War • One day after subs sank seven U.S ships and the Zimmerman Telegram had filtered to the public, Wilson went before Congress to ask for a declaration of war on Germany on April 2nd , 1917, officially entering America into the Great War.

24. Mr. Wilson’s War