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The Great War: America’s First International Crusade. 1912-1920. Woodrow Wilson.
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The Great War:America’s First International Crusade 1912-1920
Woodrow Wilson Elected in 1912 (because the Republican Party had been split by the Roosevelt-Taft feud) Woodrow Wilson was only the second Democratic President since Lincoln. Wilson was a southerner by birth, a former college professor of history and government, and, as governor of New Jersey, a moderate reformer. He was also unwilling to admit he could ever be mistaken.
The Money Issue and Taxation • Wilson put his support behind a number of issues that would raise more revenue for the government, prevent major financial panics in the future, and help consumers: • The Underwood Tariff lowered rates on many imported items. • The Federal Reserve System created a group of Federal banks that would handle the flow of currency, regulate other banks through loans, and try to maintain a steady economy. • A Federal Trade Commission that could use a tougher anti-trust process to encourage competition in business. • The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which permitted the Federal government to collect income taxes.
Civil Rights Wilson also did not have any interests in civil rights (as a child in Virginia in the 1860s he resented the defeat of the Confederacy by Lincoln’s armies). While Roosevelt and Taft had invited African-Americans like George Washington Carver to dinner at the White House, Wilson ended the practice and refused to meet with any civil rights leaders.
Trouble Abroad War in Europe in 1914 threatened to interfere with American trade. The U.S. declared it would be neutral in the war, and Wilson promised that Americans would not get involved.
War and Propaganda • Every nation had secret treaties for obtaining territory from the losers • Every nation sought to convince world opinion that the war was the fault of someone else • US neutrality (until 1917) based of view that all were at fault • US businesses were selling arms to Britain and France
US Sympathy for Victims U.S. groups organized aid for Serbia, Belgium, and other smaller nations caught up in the Great War.
Profits US Loans: to Allies -- $2.3 billion; to Germany, $27 million
Wartime Propaganda Actress Geraldine Farrar strikes a pose as Joan of Arc in “Joan the Woman,” Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 film. Critics charged that the French lily and the actress’s raised arms suggested that France was being crucified by German invaders. In 1916, Woodrow Wilson won re-election on the slogan that he had “kept us out of war.” But even then Wilson knew that America might have to fight to keep Germany from dominating European trade and the Atlantic sea lanes over which American products were shipped.
American Entry into War, 1917 • U.S. public increasingly angry over German atrocities in Belgium, France • Zimmerman telegram proposes German alliance with Mexico against U.S. • German’s decide to again unleash “unrestricted” submarine warfare
The Fourteen Points When the US entered the war, Wilson made the main American war aim a “world safe for democracy.”
The Fourteen Points • No secret treaties • Freedom of the seas • Free trade • Armament reductions • Self determination of peoples, based on cultural values of nationality (including an independent Poland, breakup of Turkish empire, adjustment of Austrian empire, restoration of Belgium, and replacement of European colonies by “territories” to be given independence). • An international organization for maintaining peace and preventing future wars by negotiations – Wilson called it a “League of nations.”
The CPI George Creel explains the war to America
Enlisting the Movie Stars Actress Mary Pickford give a pep talk to the “troops” in her 1918 summer hit “Johanna Enlists.”
The Hun When a German officer makes improper advances to civilian Mary Pickford, another German officer intervenes. “The Little American” (1917) like so many films of the time, depicted many of the German soldiers as beasts who would kill and rape at the slightest provocation. In truth, German soldiers did execute Belgian civilians in order to enforce obedience.
Hate the Hun Utilizing the style of political cartoonists, William Fox had this marquee poster designed to promote his 1918 action film, “The Prussian Cur,” directed by Raoul Walsh. The Espionage Act of 1917 complemented the wartime propaganda by suppressing the speech of dissidents. Socialists, labor leaders and pacifists, who spoke out against the war, were arrested and jailed.
To Hell With the Kaiser After the U.S. entered the war, this feature literally showed German Emperor Wilhelm and the emperor of Austria enter into a pact with the devil to “rule the world.”
Command Arguments Foch vs. Pershing
U.S. in France Because they entered the war 3 years after it began, US casualties were far less that those of other nations.
Hoover and Food As the head of the War Food Administration Board, Herbert Hoover became an international figure for his efficiency in sending food to war-torn Europe. Hoover, a millionaire-engineer, promised to be part of a new breed of political leaders, skilled in administration and progressive in outlook.
Victory After 4 years of war and economic blockade, Germany asked for an armistice. By then, the Russian empire had collapsed in revolution, Germany’s allies were ruined, and Britain and France were exhausted. This left America the richest and most powerful nature on earth. Wilson wanted a peace that would prevent future wars and counter the attractions of the Communist revolution in Russia. But the Treaty of Versailles did little to promote peace in the future.
Revolution at Home The 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave the right to vote to all American women aged 21 and older. Not every woman accepted that this would provide full equality. Alice Paul, a suffragette, called for an “equal rights amendment” to prevent any discrimination against women in business or society. Throughout the 1920s, women would enter business in a number of “new” professions – law, journalism, medicine. But the majority still worked in nursing, clerical jobs or teaching (and teachers who married were fired in most states).
Treaty Rejected After Wilson (left, with the French and English leaders) returned to the U.S., the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. never joined the League of Nations as Wilson had intended.
U.S. Regrets Role in War In 1920, American voters elected Warren Harding as President. Because Harding had opposed the Treaty of Versailles, this vote was taken as a rejection of America’s role in the Great War. By the mid-1920s, U.S. history books called American entry in the war “a mistake.” He said it was time to return to “normalcy.”
