America
and
WWI
Review of
European
History
M.A.I.N
Militarism=
the development of armed forces & their use as a
tool of diplomacy
Alliance System=
countries form alliances with one another
to help provide international security
Imperialism=
building of empires by extending their economic
& political control over various peoples around
the world
Nationalism=
the devotion to the interests & culture of one’s
nation
Two Armed Camps!
Allied Powers:
Central Powers:
The Major Players: 1914-17
Allied Powers:
Central Powers:
Nicholas II
[Rus]
Wilhelm II [Ger]
George V [Br]
Victor Emmanuel
II [It]
Enver Pasha
[Turkey]
Pres. Poincare [Fr]
Franz Josef [A-H]
The Balkans
The
“Powder Keg”
of Europe
Archduke Franz Ferdinand & His
Family
Heir to the Austrian throne
The Assassination: Sarajevo
June 1914 shot and killed while visiting Bosnian capital Sarajevo
Who’s To Blame?
The Schlieffen Plan
-Germany invades Belgium Aug. 3, 1914
-Invade Belgium, then onto Paris, France, then Russia
Mobilization
 Home by Christmas!
 No major war
in 50 years!
 Nationalism!
It's a long way to Tipperary,
It's a long way to go;
It's a long way to Tipperary,
To the sweetest girl I know!
Goodbye, Piccadilly,
Farewell, Leicester Square,
It's a long, long way to Tipperary,
But my heart's right there!
A Multi-Front War
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
“No Man’s
Land”
America
Joins
the
Allies
Americans View of the War:
Socialists- criticize war as capitalist & imperialist
Pacifists- belief that war was evil & America needs to set an example
of peace to rest of world
Home Country Ties- many sympathized with the country in
which they had emigrated from
Economic Ties- most tied to Allied Powers, less to Germany
Outcome:
U.S. Remains NEUTRAL!
War Hits Home
Cause: British blockade German coast
Effect: German U-Boats wage “unrestricted submarine warfare”
Outcome: American ships & civilians caught in middle
May 1915 British liner Lusitania sunk (128 Americans die)
August 1915 British liner Arabic sunk (2 American die)
March 1916 French liner Sussex sunk (5 Americans die)
At Home………
-
Woodrow Wilson is re-elected in 1916
-
January 1917 Wilson calls for:
“a peace without victory…..a peace
between equals”
-Germany ignores Wilson’s call for peace
-January 31…. Kaiser Wilhelm declares
Germany will resume “Unrestricted
Submarine Warfare” in British waters
The Zimmerman Telegram
January 16, 1917
-German foreign minister
sends telegram to
German ambassador in
Mexico
-Suggested Mexico
declare war with U.S.
and Germany would
support them in alliance
Americans are “outraged”
April 1917
U.S. enters WWI
“The Yanks
Are Coming!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9XZB6O26w
The American War Effort:
 U.S. had to shift the economy from a peacetime to
wartime production
– War Industries Board (WIB)  determined
what products industries would make, where those
products went, and how much they would cost
– Food would also be conserved
The American War Effort:
 Committee on Public Information (CPI) 
educated the public about the causes and nature of the
war, the CPI had to convince Americans that the war
effort was a just cause
• Most important tool  Propaganda to make
Germans look bad
The American War Effort:
 U.S. not prepared for war
 Need to build a large and
modern army
How?
 Selective Service Act:
passed by Congress in
1917 which required men
to register with govt. to
be randomly selected for
military service
Public Opposition
 Resistance to the Draft
– Draft created controversy,
– some believed the federal government did not have
the right to tell you to go fight
• What happens if you refuse the draft?
– Some would use religion or their beliefs to not
accept the draft
– What do you think? Does a draft violate our U.S.
rights?
 The Government Cracks Down on Dissent
– The work of the CPI created a mood in America
that did not welcome open debate
– Espionage Act  allowed the federal gov’t to
ban treasonable or seditious newspapers,
magazines, or printed materials from the mail
• Violators would suffer severe penalties of a $10,000
fine and 20 years of imprisonment
– Sedition Act  violated freedom of speech
• Led to the arrest of Eugene V. Debs and in the Supreme
court case Schenck vs. U.S., the government upheld the
Sedition act
– When the need for public order is so pressing First Amendment
protections of speech do not apply
 Sent to Europe is the:
American Expeditionary
Force (Doughboys)
 Commander of U.S. war
effort in Europe was:
General John J. Pershing
“America Turns the Tide”
 U.S. troops offer “freshness
& enthusiasm” to the fight
 U.S. convince British to use
Convoy System (destroyers
escort merchant ships across
Atlantic)
 U.S. lay mines along North
Sea
America Supplies the War
 New technology and industrialization
= “a new type of war”
 American factories produce much
of the war effort for the allies
Changes in American Society
 Result of WWI: New opportunities for women, African
Americans, and Mexican Americans
Women:
– Many women moved into the workforce for first time
• munitions factories, on the railroads, as telegraph operators
– Proved that they could succeed in any type of job,
regardless of difficulty or risk
African Americans:
– African Americans will serve in WWI
– Great Migration: African-Americans began
moving from rural South to industrial North
• Escape violate racism
• Better jobs and economic advancement
Mexican
Americans:
- Moved North
(same reasons)
• Migrate to
California for
factory jobs
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
 Fourteen Points: Speech made
by Wilson on Jan. 8, 1918 for his
vision of a peace treaty
– Called for a “Peace without
Victory”
– Wilson proposed a peace inspired
by noble ideals, not greed and
vengeance
– Encouraged independence and
freedom
Fourteen Points:







Open Diplomacy (1)
Freedom of the Seas (2)
Free Trade (3)
Multilateral disarmament (4)
Self-Determination & Colonies (5)
Land Issues in Europe (6-13)
League of Nations (14)
WWI
Ends!
11 a.m., November 11, 1918
The Armistice is Signed!
9,000,000 Dead
The Somme American
Cemetery, France
116,516 Americans Died
World War I Casualties
10,000,000
9,000,000
8,000,000
7,000,000
6,000,000
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
0
Russia
Germany
Austria-Hungary
France
Great Britain
Italy
Turkey
US
Why did the U.S. suffer less casualties?
Peace Conference
(1919)
 Paris Peace Conference:
The Big Four
• U.S. Delegation: Woodrow Wilson
• French Delegation: Georges Clemenceau( “The Tiger”)
“God gave us the Ten Commandments and we broke them.
Wilson gives us the Fourteen Points. We shall see.”
• Britain Delegation: Lloyd George (Slogan: “Make Germany Pay”)
• Italian Delegation: Vittorio Orlando
BACK
 Allied Leaders Response to Wilson’s Ideas:
– REJECT  the citizens of England and France
wanted gain from this conflict
– The Paris Peace Conference only kept a few of
Wilson’s Fourteen Points:
• Freedom of seas,
• Free trade
• Liberation of colonial empires
• General Disarmament
• The League of Nations
U.S. Response to Treaty
 U.S. Senate Rejects the Versailles Treaty
– Irish Catholics & German Americans against treaty
– U.S. does not join the League of Nations
 Congress passes Knox-Porter Resolution in July 1921
– Ends war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary