I.
II.
Wilsonian “Moral Diplomacy”
a. Background
i. Wilson’s idealist tendencies rooted in his pious upbringing
ii. Sympathized with the South, particularly with racial purity and segregation
iii. Personality generally austere, considered cold, and intolerant
iv. Considered by many to be an academic elitist—favoring upper-class learning, rather than skill-based
learning
v. Favored individual achievement and the self-made man—scornful of federal handouts and monolithic,
impersonal business
1. Continued regulation of large business, provided backing to small business
2. Reformed banking and finance through Federal Reserve System, a federally organized
system regulating the cash flow to business, consumers, and citizens—to stymie inflation
b. Wilson and Latin America
i. Did not pursue an aggressive foreign policy
1. Repealed Panama Tolls Act, insisting that American shippers pay tolls through the Panama
Canal
2. Jones Act (1916)—granted territorial status, and promised independence to Philippines if
they could maintain stability (July 4, 1946)
3. Purchased Virgin Islands from Denmark to bring peace to Caribbean
4. Reluctantly sent U.S. marines to Haiti and Dominican Republic to quell civil unrest
ii. Wilson and Mexico
1. Following the decline of Spanish rule in Mexico, and the increased influence of American
business in the Americas, Mexico became increasingly exploited for resources
2. Due to exploitation, and a disproportionately large poor population, Mexico revolted in 1913
3. Installed Victoriano Huerta as president
a. Resulted in a massive immigration of Mexicans to U.S.
b. Civil unrest and threat to American businesses and businessmen
c. Wilson refused to intervene and refused to recognized Huerta as legitimate
d. Wilson allowed guns and ammo to Huerta’s rivals: Carranza and Villa
4. Results of Wilson’s diplomacy
a. American sailors arrested in Tampico
b. Wilson ordered navy to intervene and take-over Vera Cruz
c. Mediation by the ABC powers calmed Wilson and alienated Huerta and Carranza
d. Villa murdered 16 Americans, resulting in Gen. Pershing’s invasion of Mexico
The Road to War
a. Main protagonists—Allies
i. Great Britain
ii. France
iii. Bulgaria
iv. U.S.A.
v. Russia
b. Main antagonists—Central Powers
i. Germany
ii. Austria-Hungary
iii. Russia (by alliance, later shifted)
iv. Ottoman Empire (until civil war)
c. Long term causes of global unrest
i. Arms race—increased militarism and military preparedness
ii. Imperialism/Colonialism—race for colonial property overseas, causing tensions
iii. Nationalism/Jingoism
iv. Alliance system
d. Short term causes of global unrest
i. Unrestricted submarine activity in the Atlantic
1. Although it started with the sinking of the Lusitania, the Germans continued to sink British
passenger ships (regardless of cargo, illicit or otherwise)
2. Continued with the destruction of the Arabic,
3. Prompted the German issuance of the Sussex Pledge, a promise to not sink ships if the
British blockade was lifted
a. Germans later changed terminology—unrestricted warfare would stop, warfare
would continue only in the (broadly defined) warzone
ii. Zimmerman Note—German offer of American territory to Mexico as reward for help in WWI, showing
complicity/duplicity in German negotiations
iii. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian rebel Gavrilo Princip
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III.
The U.S. goes to War
a. Despite Wilson’s plea for “Peace without Victory,” Congress granted war declaration following Zimmerman
Telegram
b. Once war was declared, Wilson “spun” the war as an effort to “Make the world safe for democracy” and began
to formulate his 14 Points
i. End secret treaties
ii. Freedom of the seas
iii. Removal of economic barriers
iv. Arms reduction
v. Decolonization
vi. Self-determination for decolonized regions
vii. Creation of League of Nations—world council to mediate global disputes
c. Mobilizing for war/Gaining domestic support
i. Creel’s Committee of Public Information
1. Published propaganda posters, radio releases, and songs
2. Mobilized 75,000 men within communities—peer pressure and information
ii. Espionage and Sedition Acts
1. Similar to Alien and Sedition Acts following Revolutionary War and the suspension of
Habeas Corpus during Civil War
2. Criticized as an infringement on civil liberties
3. Targeted Socialists, activists, and critics, particularly within the very vocal IWW, and
Germans
4. Purpose to enforce loyalty among communities
5. Prosecuted victims were later pardoned by Warren G. Harding, the next president
iii. Production
1. Council of National Defense, War Industries Board, and National War Labor Board created
to oversee mobilization, shipbuilding, armament construction
2. Food Administration created to create support for volunteer rationing
a. Resulted in family gardens, abstinence programs, meatless days
b. Responsible for pushing 18th Amendment, ending the consumption and sale of
alcohol, also in accordance with the piety of the Wilson administration
3. Labor
a. Immigration restrictions: quotas and restrictions, because of war, on foreign
immigration resulted in a work shortage within industrial factories
b. Great Migration—Southern blacks migrated to Northern cities to be employed in
factories
i. 70,000-120,000 moved
ii. Resulted in race riots, particularly after the steel industry brought in
blacks to break a labor strike
iii. Locations: Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Harlem
4. Soldiers
a. Greatest need in the European theatre was soldiers—return to old strategy of
using men to break the stalemate
b. Draft/Conscription reluctantly passed by Congress
i. Unlike previous wars, no one could buy their way out
ii. Stiff penalties for dodging drafts
c. Draft army, by late 1917 exceeded
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