President Woodrow Wilson's International Relations & World War I

1. World War I

2. President Woodrow Wilson • Wilson strongly opposed imperialism. • Believed that the US should promote democracy in order to ensure a peaceful world free of revolution and war. • Mexican Revolution frustrated Wilson’s effort to lead the world by moral example

3. President Woodrow Wilson • 1884 – 1911 dictator Porfirio Diaz. A few wealthy landowners dominated Mexican society. Majority of the people were poor and landless. • Mexico 1911 - a revolution erupted, forcing Diaz to flee the country. Francisco Madero replaced Diaz • Soon army officers plotted against Madero and murdered him. General Victoriano Huerta seized power in Mexico and he began a brutal new government. • President Wilson refused to recognize the government. He was convinced that without support of the US, Huerta soon would be overthrown. He also permitted Americans to arm other political factions within Mexico

4. President Woodrow Wilson • April 1914 American sailors were arrested in Mexico. They were released quickly but Wilson demanded an apology. Mexico refused and Wilson used this refusal to apologize to overthrow Huerta. He sent Marines to seize the Mexican port of Veracruz. • Anti-American riots broke out and Wilson accepted international mediation to settle the dispute. Venustiano Carranza became Mexico’s president • Mexican forces opposed to Carranza were not appeased and they conducted raids into the US, hoping to force Wilson to intervene. Pancho Villa led a group of guerillas, that burned the town of Columbus, New Mexico and killed a number of Americans.

6. President Woodrow Wilson • Wilson responded by sending 6,000 US troops, under John J. Pershing, across the border to find and capture Villa. Pershing failed to capture the guerillas and Wilson recalled his troops in 1917. • Wilson’s Mexican policy damaged US foreign relations. Britain said he was trying to “shoot the Mexicans into self-government.” and Latin America called his philosophy “moral imperialism.” • During Wilson’s first term he sent marines into Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic to preserve order and to set up governments that he hoped would be more stable and democratic than the current regimes.

7. John J. Pershing

8. Outbreak of WWI • While America was fighting its own civil war Prussia had united Germany and the nation began to rapidly industrialize. It was quickly becoming one of the most powerful nations in the world. In 1870 Prussia attacked and defeated France. They forced France to give up territory and became vast enemies. • To protect itself Germany signed alliances with Italy and Austria-Hungary. This became known as the Triple Alliance. • Concerned that Germany might expand eastward into Russia, Russia and France signed the Franco-Russian Alliance.

9. Outbreak of WWI • Great Britain remained neutral. • 1898, Germans began to build a navy challenging Great Britain’s historical dominance at sea. By 1900 an arms race had begun between Germany and Great Britain, as both sides began to build up warships. This convinced the British to establish closer relations with France and Russia. • The British refused to sign a formal alliance so their new relationship became known as a friendly understanding, the Triple Entente.

10. Nationalism – a feeling of intense pride of one’s homeland, had become a powerful idea in Europe. • Nationalism was one of the reasons for the tensions among the European powers. Each nation viewed the other as competitors, and many people were willing to go to war to expand their nation at the expense of others. • Self-determination – the idea that people who belong to a nation should have their own country government. • Balkans – different national groups within these empires began to press for independence.

11. A Shot Fired • 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia. This convinced the Serbs that Austria-Hungary had no intention of letting the Slavic people in its empire become independent. • June 1914 – Heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archbishop Franz Ferdinand, visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. As they rode through the city, a Bosnian revolutionary named Gavrilo Princip rushed their open car and shot the couple to death. Princip was a member of a Serbian nationalist group nicknamed the “Black Hand.”

12. A Shot Fired • The Austria-Hungarian government blamed Serbia for the attack and decided the time had come to crush Serbia. • Knowing an attack on Serbia might trigger a war with Russia, the Austrians asked their German allies for support. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary if war erupted

15. World War • July 28, 1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. • Serbs counted on Russia to back them up, Russians counted on France to back them up. • Aug. 1, 1914 – Germany declared war on Russia. • Aug. 3, 1914 – Germany declared war on France. • WORLD WAR I HAS BEGUN!!!

16. Germany’s Plan Fails • Germany had long been preparing for war with France and Russia. Immediately launched a massive invasion of France, hoping to quickly knock them out of the war so that they could go after Russia. • One problem with Germany’s plan, it required them to go through Belgium in order to encircle the French troops. • The British guaranteed Belgium’s neutrality • When German troops crossed the Belgian frontier, Britain declared war on Germany

17. Who’s Who • Those fighting for the Triple Entente were known as the Allies. France, Russia, and Great Britain (and Italy joined them in 1915 when other Allies promised them Austro-Hungarian territory after the war). • Germany and Austria-Hungary joined with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria to form the Central Powers.

18. First Battles • German troops swept through Belgium and headed into France, driving back the French and British forces. • Russian troops invaded Germany to everyone’s surprise. The German’s had not expected the Russians to mobilize so quickly. • Germany was forced to pull some troops away from the attack on France and send them east to stop the Russians.

19. First Battles • This weakened the German forces just enough to give the Allies a chance to stop them. • The Germans drove to within 30 miles of Paris, but stubborn resistance by British and French troops at the Battle of the Marne finally stopped the German advance

20. Battle of Marne

21. First Battles • Both sides became locked in a bloody stalemate along hundreds of miles of trenches that would barely change position for the next three years. • The Central forces had greater success on the Eastern Front. German and Austrian forces stopped the Russian attack and then went on the offensive. They swept across hundreds of miles of territory and took hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Russia suffered 2 million killed, wounded or captured in 1915 alone, but it kept fighting.

23. American Neutrality • When the fighting began President Wilson declared the US to be neutral in an attempt to keep the country form being drawn into a foreign war. • Many Americans however, showed support for one side or the other. Many of the 8 million German American immigrants of course supported the Central forces. • The 4.5 million Irish Americans also sympathized with the Central forces as well

24. American Neutrality • In general though, American public opinion favored the Allied cause. • President Wilson’ cabinet was decidedly pro-British • British officials worked diligently to win American support. • The British used propaganda, information designed to influence opinion. Britain cut the transatlantic telegraph cable from Europe to the US, thus limiting news about the war mainly to British reports. Stories arrived depicting numerous German war atrocities, including the charge that Germans used corpses from the battlefield to make fertilizer and soap. Although these reports were questionable enough Americans believed them and it helped sway American support in favor of the Allies.

26. American Neutrality • American business interests also leaned toward the Allies • Companies in the US particularly on the East Coast, had strong ties with businesses in the Allied countries. • By 1917 American businesses had loaned Allied companies over $2 Billion • If the Allies won, the money would be paid back; if not, the money might be lost forever.

27. Moving Toward War • British Blockade – British deployed their navy to blockade Germany and keep it from obtaining supplies. British planted mines in the North Sea and forced neutral ships into port for inspections in case they were trying to transport valuable materials to Germany or its neutral neighbors • To get around British Blockades the Germans used U-boats, German submarines. • Feb 1915 – Germany announced that they would attempt to sink without warning any ship they found in the waters around Britain. • This caused outrage in the US and elsewhere.

28. Moving Toward War • Attacking civilian vessels without warning violated an international treaty stipulating that military vessels must reveal their intentions to merchants ships and make provisions for the safety of the target ship’s crew and passengers before sinking it. • May 7, 1915 – British passenger ship Lusitania entered the war zone. German submarine fired on the ship and killed nearly 1200 passengers, including 128 Americans.

30. Moving Toward War • President Wilson sent Germany several diplomatic notes to Germany insisting that its government safeguard the lives of noncombatants in the war zones. • March 1916 Germany torpedoed French passenger ship Sussex, injuring several Americans on board. • President Wilson chose to issue one last warning. He demanded that the German government abandon its methods of submarine warfare or risk war with the US. Germany did not want to draw US into war and promised with certain conditions to sink no more merchant ships without warning – The Sussex Pledge.

31. Moving Toward War • 1916 President Wilson wins re-election with his campaign slogan of “He kept us out of the war.” • January 1917 – German official named Arthur Zimmerman cabled the German ambassador in Mexico and told him to make an offer to the Mexican government: if Mexico would ally itself with Germany in the event of war between Germany and the US, then Mexico would regain its lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona after the war. • Germany hoped that Mexico would tie down the US forces and prevent them from being sent to Europe. • British intelligence intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram. And shortly afterwards it was leaked to American newspapers.

33. Moving Toward War • Furious, Americans now concluded war with Germany was necessary. • Feb. 1, 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. • Between Feb. 3 and March 21 German U-boats sank six American merchant ships without warning. • April 6, 1917 America declared war on Germany.

35. Building up the Military • Selective Service • 1917 the US only had 300,000 men in the Army and National Guard • Many volunteered but we still needed more • Many progressives thought that conscription, or forced military service was a violation of democratic and republican principles.

36. Building up the Military • Selective Service Act of 1917 – required all men between age of 21 – 30 to register for the draft. • A lottery randomly determined the order they were called up. • Local people served on draft boards • 2.8 million Americans were drafted • 2 million others volunteered

37. African Americans in WWI • 400,000 were drafted • 42,000 of them served overseas • All served in racially segregated units under white officers Women in Military • 1st war in which women officially served • Only in non-combat positions • Navy enlisted women for clerical needs • 11,000 women served in Navy – most performed clerical duties, while some were radio operators, torpedo assembly, electricians, pharmacists, photographers, and chemists. • Army refused to enlist women, instead they HIRED them as employees for clerical work • Army Nursing Corps – only women to be sent overseas, 20,000 nurses served in army including 10,000 that went overseas.

39. Organizing Industry • Congress created special boards to coordinate mobilization of the economy • Cooperation between big business and government • War Industries Board – July 1917 (WIB) - coordinate production of war materials - Reorganized in 1918 – headed by Bernard Baruch (a Wall Street Stockbroker) - controlled flow of raw materials, ordered the construction of new factories, occasionally set prices

40. Food and Fuel • Food Administration – run by Herbert Hoover - responsible for increasing food production while reducing civilian consumption - did not begin rationing, just urged Americans to save food on their own. - “Food Will Win the War – Don’t Waste It” - People were encouraged to “Hooverize” by serving just enough

41. Food and Fuel - Had Wheatless Mondays, Meatless Tues- days, Porkless Thursdays - Encouraged citizens to plant Victory Gardens – raising their own vegetables, leaving more for the troops • Fuel Administration – Harry Garfield - Introduced Daylight Savings Time and shortened work weeks for factories that did not make war materials - Heatless Mondays

42. Paying for the War • By the end of the war, the US was spending $44 million a day – leading to a total expenditure of $32 Billion for the entire conflict. • Congress raised income taxes. • Places new taxes on corporate taxes • Extra tax on the profits of arms factories

43. Paying for the War • Taxes did not cover whole expense • Government borrowed $20 Billion from American people by selling Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds. • Government would repay with interest in a specified number of years • Put out posters, preached “Liberty Loan Sermons” to get people to buy them.

44. Mobilizing Workforce • National War Labor Board (NWLB) – April 1918 to prevent strikes from disrupting war effort by: • - wage increases - 8 hour workday - right of union to organize and bar- gain - agreed to no strikes • Women support industry - filled industrial jobs vacated by men serving in the military - factory and manufacturing jobs - shipping and railroad industries

45. Great Migration Begins • Flow of European immigrants cut off • White workers drafted • 300,000 to 500,000 African Americans left the South to settle in Northern cities • Called it the “Great Migration”

47. Civil Liberties Curtailed • Government passed laws to fight anti-war activities and enemies at home. • Espionage or spying addressed in the Espionage Act of 1917. -It established penalties and prison terms for anyone who gave aid to the enemy. - It penalized disloyalty, giving of false reports, or interfering with the war effort • Sedition Act of 1918 made illegal any public expression of opposition to the war • US censored mail to prevent treason • 1500 prosecutions with 1000 convictions

48. Ensuring Public Support • Progressives in the government believed government should take steps to shape public opinion and build support for the war • Committee on Public Information had the duty of “selling the war” to the American people • Recruited advertising executives, commercial artists, songwriters, entertainers, public speakers and motion picture companies to help sway public opinion in favor of the war

49. Civil Liberties Curtailed • Government passed laws to fight anti-war activities and enemies at home. • Espionage or spying addressed in the Espionage Act of 1917. -It established penalties and prison terms for anyone who gave aid to the enemy. - It penalized disloyalty, giving of false reports, or interfering with the war effort • Sedition Act of 1918 made illegal any public expression of opposition to the war • US censored mail to prevent treason • 1500 prosecutions with 1000 convictions

50. A Climate of Suspicion • Mistreatment of German Americans • Changed sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage,” hamburger to “Salisbury steak” • Schools dropped German language classes • Orchestras stopped playing Beethoven • Citizens beat German-born neighbors • Mobs attacked labor activists, socialists and pacifists • Newspapers urged Americans to monitor the activities of their fellow citizens • American Protective League, Boy Spies of America