T he
G reat W ar

War by Act of Germany
 January 1917 -
Wilson appears before Congress
- asks for “Peace without Victory”

 Germany declares it will resume unrestricted submarine warfare.

 Wilson breaks diplomatic relations with
Germany .

 British secret service agents intercept telegram from German
Foreign Minister
Zimmerman to ambassador in
Mexico

 The Note tells
Mexico if it enters war on the side of the Central
Powers it will gain
Texas, New
Mexico and
Arizona back from conquered US.

•
•
February 1917 - Wilson asks
Congress for power to arm merchant ships - pacifist
Senator LaFollette leads filibuster
Wilson’s Attorney General says the power is inherent in the
Presidency.

 March 1917 -
Russian Tsar
Nicholas II forced to abdicate - democratic government government of
Aleksander Kerensky established.

•
April 1917 -
Wilson asks
Congress to declare war on
Germany.

“The world must be made safe for democracy.”

Wilsonian Idealism

Called for “a war to end war.”

Crusade to “make the world safe for democracy.”
 Peace without victory lost in the cry to “hang the kaiser”

Wilson’s 14 Points
 End secret treaties
 Freedom of the seas.
 Remove economic barriers.
 Reduce armaments.
 Adjusts colonial claims.


Promote “self determination”
 Evacuation of occupied land
 European boundaries drawn along national lines.
 Creation of an
International peace organization - the League of Nations.

War Propaganda

George Creel’s
Committee on
Public
Information used propaganda to support war.

“Hang the Kaiser ”

George M. Cohan’s
“Over There
Johnnie, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun,
Take it on the run, on the run, on the run,
Hear them calling you and me, ev'ry son of liberty
Hurry right away, no delay, go today
Make your Daddy glad to have had such a lad,
Tell your sweetheart not to pine, to be proud her boy's in line

Enforcing Loyalty
 Anti-German fever swept the country.

 Espionage Act of
1917 and the
Sedition Act of
1918
 Socialists and
Wobblies jailed -
Debs and
Haywood.

Economic Mobilization
 Bernard Baruch led the War
Industries Board it had very feeble powers.

 Belief in
Laissez-Faire kept the government control over business at a minimum.

 Women were encouraged to work in factories and farms.


Women’s roles in the war effort led to the 19th
Amendment -
1920.

 Labor shortages encouraged southern blacks to move north to cities.

 Labor leader
Samuel
Gompers and the AFL backed the war effort.

 While wages doubled during the war, prices also doubled.

 Labor disputes led to
6000 strikes - many were violent.
 The IWW sought to expand into the east and there often violent strikes led to arrests and deportation.

 Mobilization relied on patriotism not coercion.
 Herbert Hoover was put in charge of food production and rationing.
 Used volunteerism.

 Propaganda encouraged rationing and “victory gardens.”

 Curtailment of the use of grain for alcohol leads to the 18th amendment in
1919 prohibition.

 The Fuel
Administration called for fuel conservation.

 The Treasury
Department issued Liberty
Bonds - raising the majority of the money needed for war.

 The Federal govt. took over the railroads.

 America increased its ship building but was too late to make difference in the war.

 America provided mostly food, money and men.

America’s Fighting Force.
 Most
Americans did not believe a major force would be needed -the
Navy would be enough.

 Allies convinced the US that
American forces were needed to stop the German advance.

 Conscription was needed to raise an army against much criticism in
Congress.

 All men between 18 and 45 had to register
- no exemptions or substitutes.
 Only men in key industries could be exempted - work or fight.

 Women were admitted to the armed forces for the first time.

Europe at War

Americans in France
 Germany had gambled with the
Russians out of the war
 And the Americans slow to get going.
 They could move all their strength to the west and crush the French and British.

 One year after
America declared war the first major US force made it to
France.

 Most ended up as replacements in quiet areas.
 Allied forces put all troops under
Supreme Commander Marshal Foch.

 May 1918 - 1st major US engagement at Chateau -Thierry -
30,000 US troops.

 July 1918 - Counteroffensive at the
Second Battle of the Marne marked the beginning of German retreat.

 September 1918 - 240,000
Americans pushed back the
German St. Mihiel salient.

 American
General John J.
“Black Jack”
Pershing was given his own front.

 Sept. - Nov. 1918 - 1.2 million US forces led the Meuse-Argonne offensive. 120,000 casualties in the
Argonne Forest.

The Argonne Forest

 American
Alvin C. York singlehandedly killed
20 Germans and captured
132 more.

Armistice and Peace
 October 1918 -
Germans begin to sue for peace based on
Wilson’s 14 points.
 Kaiser Wilhelm forced to flee to
Holland.

 November 11,
1918 armistice declared at 11 o’clock.

Wilson’s Role
 Woodrow Wilson had become the most powerful and prestigious
President since
Abraham Lincoln.

 He was the moral leader of the world and the head of the mightiest nation on earth.

But He Stumbled.........

October Appeal
 Wilson broke the political truce of the war - asking for a
Democratic Victory in the 1918 elections.
 Voters turned against him and returned a
Republican Congress to Washington.

Wilson goes to Paris.
 Against Republican wishes Wilson decides to go in person to Paris.
 His loss in the elections weakened his position at the bargaining table.

 Wilson further upset the Republicans by not asking any
Republican Senators to go to Paris.
 Henry Cabot Lodge chair of the Foreign
Relations Committee becomes Wilson’s worst enemy.

 Wilson is given a heroes welcome in Europe, but upset the plans of the Imperialists.

 Wilson joined the leaders of the other allied countries called the Big
Four

The Big Four
 Woodrow Wilson of the US.
 Vittorio Orlando of Italy
 David Lloyd George of Britain
 George Clemenceau of France

The Big Four
David Lloyd George Georges Clemenceau Vittorio Orlando

Business as Usual.
 European
Imperialists agreed to a
League of Nations
- but divided up imperial control under League
Mandates.

 February 1919 -
European powers signed the League
Covenant - to make the League of
Nations a part of the Treaty of
Versailles.

Isolationists at Home
 Henry Cabot
Lodge, William
Borah, and Hiram
Johnson (the irreconcilables) led the Senate effort to defeat the Treaty.

 39 Senators proclaimed they would not support the League of Nations without safeguards for the Monroe Doctrine.

 The Big Four pressed for a treaty that would punish Germany and give territories to the victors.
 France got a Security Treaty that would ensure aid in case Germany ever invaded again.

 Italy got the port of Fiume over Wilson’s wishes.
 Japan gained the Shandong
Peninsula and islands in the
Pacific.

 The Treaty of Versailles signed
- June 1919.

Only included four of Wilson’s
14 Points.
 Blamed Germany and forced reparations and the occupation of German territory.

http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome03/

 Wilson was hurt by the results but had gotten the
League of Nations.
 But would the American
Senate ratify the treaty?

Outcry against the Treaty of
Versailles
 Isolations were against the
League of Nations,
 Anti-Germans thought they were not punished.

 Liberals thought the treaty betrayed the ideals of the 14
Points.
 Italian, German and Irish
American felt their homelands had been hurt.

 Still a majority of
Americans seemed to favor the treaty and the
League of
Nations.

 Senator Lodge, unable to defeat the
Treaty, sought to stall long enough to amend it.

 Wilson decide to go over the head of the Senate one more time.
 He went on a speaking tour to bring his case directly to the people.


Wilson’s tour started poorly and he was dogged by the irreconcilables Borah and
Johnson.
 On September 25, 1919
Wilson collapsed in Pueblo,
Colorado.

 Four days later he suffered a stroke in
Washington, D.C.
 His wife and nurse practically ran the
White House.
 He did not meet with his cabinet for
7.5 months.

The Lodge Reservations
 Senator Lodge developed 14 reservations against the treaty.
 To protect American sovereignty, the
Monroe Doctrine and
Congress’s power to wage war.

Wilson kills the Treaty.
 Wilson asked all
Democrats to vote against the
Treaty with the
Lodge reservations.


Wilson’s stubbornness and unwillingness to compromise killed the treaty and
America’s involvement in the
League of Nations.

Election of 1920

Wilson calls for a “solemn referendum” in the election to settle the matter of the League.

 Republicans
(both Old
Guard and
Bull Moosers) meet in
Chicago.

 Warren G.
Harding is chosen in “the smoke filled room” - Calvin
Coolidge is his running mate.

 Democrats nominate James
M. Cox of Ohio his running mate is Franklin
Delano
Roosevelt.

 Democrats are unable to get
Harding to take a clear stand on the League.

 In the first presidential election in which women could vote - Harding wins by over 7 million votes.
 Electoral count was 404 to
127.

In Harding’s words the election was a call for a return to “Normalcy.”