Theme 1
President Wilson sought to keep the
United States neutral during the Great
War but violations of U.S. neutrality on
the high seas eventually led to America’s
declaration of war against Germany
I. The Great War in Europe
A. Beginning of World War I
1. Austrian heir assassinated by
a Serbian nationalist fanatic
in June, 1914
Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife,
Sofie, just moments
before the
assassination.
Gavrilo Princip
2. Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia was
backed by Germany
3. Germany declared war on Russia and
France
4. Germany invaded France through
neutral Belgium
a. In response, Britain declared war
on Germany
b. A year later, Italy
joined the Allies
c. Four years of
bloody trench
The bodies of Archduke Franz
warfare ensued
Ferdinand and his wife, Sofie,
lie in state in Sarajevo.
5. Central Powers (Triple Alliance):
Germany, Austria, (and later) the
Ottoman Empire
6. Allies (Triple Entente): France,
Britain and Russia (later, Japan, Italy
and the U.S.)
World War I
Combatants
B. U.S. policy of neutrality was tested
1. Wilson called upon Americans for
neutrality in thought and deed
2. Both sides in Europe tried to gain U.S.
support
a. British ties with U.S. were strong
b. Central Powers had ties to German
and Austrian immigrants in the U.S.
c. Many Irish-Americans, GermanAmericans and Jews favored the
Central Powers
d.Strong anti-German sentiment in U.S.
existed although Americans sought to
avoid war
C. U.S. money flows to Europe
1. Initially, the war had a disastrous effect
on the U.S. economy
2. U.S. recession was boosted by French
and British war orders
3. Britain forced U.S.
ships into British ports
a. Germany announced
submarine warfare
b. Wilson warned
Germany to respect
neutral ships
German
U-boats
awaiting
their
missions
D. Submarine warfare
1. German U-boats sunk 90 ships in the
war zone in early 1915
The dark blue
shading
represents
Germany's
declared
exclusion zone
of February
1915.
2. Sinking of the Lusitania, May 1915
a. About 1,200 dead, including 128
Americans
b. Lusitania was carrying munitions
3. Wilson warned Germany in a
measured approach
a. Secretary of State William Jennings
Bryan resigned (pacifist views)
b. Wilson: “There is such a thing as a
man being too proud to fight.”
“Here Lie the
Facts”
W.A. Rogers,
1915
Lusitania
“Booty”
John Scott
Clubb
May 11, 1915
British
propaganda
poster
illustrating the
sinking of the
'Lusitania' by
the Germans in
1915.
3. SS Arabic sunk in August, 1915
-- Germany bowed to U.S. pressure
and agreed not to sink
unarmed ships
E. Sussex Ultimatum and Pledge
1. March, 1916, Germany torpedoed a
French steamer, the Sussex
2. Wilson threatened to suspend
diplomatic relations with Germany
3. Germany pledged to stop sinking
merchant and passenger ships so long
as the U.S. convinced Britain to
suspend her blockade
F. Election of 1916
1. Republicans nominated Charles Evans
Hughes
a. Republicans and Bull Moose
Progressives met in Chicago
b. Theodore Roosevelt bowed out to
avoid splitting in party (as in 1912)
c. Republican “Old Guard” nominated
Hughes, Supreme Court justice and
ex-progressive reformer
d. Platform: higher tariffs, antiregulation, opposed to Wilson’s
handling of Mexican invasion and
the German threat during WWI
2. Wilson re-nominated by Democrats
-- Slogan: “He kept us out of war”
3. Wilson defeated Hughes 277-254
G. “Peace without victory” speech,
January 1917
-- He declared that only a
negotiated peace would prove
durable
II. U.S. entry into the Great War
A. Unrestricted submarine warfare
announced by Germany in January 1917
1. All ships would now be sunk,
including American ships
2. Used failed Sussex pledge as
justification
3. Germany believed U.S. would enter
the war too late
B. Wilson broke diplomatic relations
with Germany
-- U.S. began arming merchant ships
C. Zimmerman Note (Published March
1, 1917)
a. Secret telegram was intercepted by
Britain
b. Proposed GermanMexican alliance
c. Most Americans
were outraged
D. 4 U.S. merchant
vessels were sunk in
the first two weeks
of March
E. Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of
war against Germany on April 2, 1917
1. U.S. declared war on April 6, 1917
2. Reasons for declaring war:
a. Unrestricted submarine warfare (most
important)
b. Zimmerman Telegram
c. Russian Revolution led to a more
liberal gov’t allied with U.S.
d. U.S. thought it could end the war
quickly
e. Germans were seen as immoral for
mass killing of civilians
Wilson asks Congress for a declaration
of war, April 2, 1917
Theme 2
President Wilson led the U.S. in its
progressive crusade to “make the world
safe for democracy.”
III. Wilsonian Idealism
A. U.S. abandoned traditional isolationism
B. Wilson sought to inspire idealism so
Americans would support the war
1. Twin goals:
a. “Make the world safe
for democracy”
b. “A war to end war”
2. Contrasted U.S. altruism
with European selfishness
3. Persuaded traditionally isolationist
U.S. to fight for moral purposes
C. Fourteen Points (delivered to
Congress January 8, 1918)
1. Impact
a. Made Wilson moral leader of the
Allied cause
b. Eventually convinced Germany to end
the war
2. Provisions:
a. Abolish secret treaties
b. Freedom of the seas
c. Remove economic
barriers
d. Reduce the arms race
e. Reform colonialist
policies
f. “self-determination” to oppressed
minority groups
-- Later resulted in the creation of
Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania
g. 14th Point: Creation of an international
organization to supply collective
security and preserve peace
-- Later became the League of Nations
Theme 3
During the Great War, Americans at
home experienced a transformation
economically, socially, and
demographically.
IV. Mobilizing for war
A. Creel Committee
1. Committee on Public
Information created to sell
George Creel
America on the war
a. Headed by George Creel
b. Voluntary censorship of the press
2. Established volunteer Liberty Leagues
in every community (urged
members to spy on neighbors)
3. Aroused passion & voluntary
compliance
4. Ultimately raised expectations to a
level unattainable with the peace
Four-Minute
Men Charlie
Chaplin and
Douglas
Fairbanks whip
up support for
the war.
B. Restrictions on civil liberties
1. Most serious infringement since the
Civil War
2. Anti-German hysteria (fueled largely
by Creel Committee)
3. Espionage Act of 1917
a. Fines and imprisonment for:
• making false statements aiding
the enemy
• inciting rebellion in the military
• obstructing draft recruitment
b. Wilson sought broad censorship
powers but Congress refused him
4. Sedition Act of 1918
a. Forbade any criticism of the gov’t,
flag, or uniform
b. Expanded mail exclusion
c. Socialists and IWW were targeted
• Eugene Debs convicted under the
Espionage Act
• About 100 IWW
members convicted
Rogers, W.A.
"The Strangest
of Infatuations,"
1918
During World
War I, newspaper
cartoons like this
one made fun of
pacifists like Jane
Addams.
5. Schenck v. U.S. (1919)
a. Upheld the Espionage Act
b. Defined freedom of speech
6. Mild censorship or denial of mail
privileges were continued
7. WWI constituted an ugly chapter in the
history of U.S. civil liberties
C. Mobilizing factories
1. The U.S. economy was not yet geared
for war
2. Bernard Baruch: leader of War
Industries Board
a. Response to the lack of centralized
gov’t control of the economy
b. Sought to control raw materials,
production, prices and labor relations
c. WIB never had much power and was
dismantled soon after the war ended
d. Set a precedent for future gov’tindustry cooperation in the 1920s
and New Deal agencies of the 1930s
3. The gov’t encouraged workers to help
the war effort
a. “Labor will win the war”
b. Women were encouraged to enter
industry and agriculture
 Women’s contributions prompted
Wilson to endorse female suffrage
 Over 1 million women shifted
from the home to the factory
 After the war, fewer women
worked in 1920 than in 1910
 19th Amendment (1920)
c. The “Great Migration”
 Thousands of African
Americans migrated to the
North to work in war-related
factories (far more southern
whites migrated northward)
 Race riots occurred in 26 cities
d. Mexican workers also replaced
Americans workers who were now
on the front lines
Lynchings and racially
motivated murders in each
decade from 1865 to 1965
e. “Work or
fight” rule
4. Grievances of Labor
a. Inflation during WWI eroded wages
b. 6,000 strikes occurred during the war
(many by the IWW (“Wobblies”)
c. Taft’s National War Labor Board was
created to oversee labor disputes
 Prohibited strikes but encouraged
progressive reforms
 Gov’t formally recognized workers’
right to unionize
d. Left-wing International
Workers of the World
(IWW) used labor sabotage
to undermine the war effort
-- Many were arrested,
beaten up, or run out of
town
V. The War Economy
A. Herbert Hoover and the Food
Administration
1. Hero who helped feed the starving
people of Belgium
2. Voluntary compliance
a. Rejected rationing
b. Used propaganda to
gain support
c. “Meatless Tuesdays,”
“Wheatless
Wednesdays”
3. Congress severely restricted use of
foodstuffs for alcohol
a. Spirit of self-denial lead to prohibition
sentiment
b. 18th Amendment ratified in 1919
4. Results
a. Farm production up 25%
b. Food exports to Allies tripled
c. Hoover’s methods imitated by other
agencies
B. Bond drives, Liberty Bonds
1. Parades and slogans were used to
promote four great Liberty Loan
drives and one Victory Loan
campaign
-- Each drive was oversubscribed
resulting in inflation due to the
increased money supply
2. Coercion was used on GermanAmericans
C. Combined efforts netted about 2/3
war cost
-- Remaining revenue was raised by
income taxes (made legal by the
16th Amendment in 1913)
D. Gov’t enforcement
1. Took over the nation’s railroads
after traffic problems in late-1917
2. Seized enemy merchant vessels in
U.S. harbors
3. Major U.S. contribution to war
effort: food, money, and men
VI. Mobilizing the army
A. April and May, 1917: European Allies
claimed they were running out of
soldiers and that the Western Front
would collapse
B. Selective Service Act, 1917
1. Required men ages 18 to 45 to
register
2. No exemptions or substitutes (except
in key industries)
C. Mobilization proved effective
1. Army increased from 200,000 to over
4 million
2. Women admitted for the first time
(including 11,000 in the navy)
3. Yet, 337,000 “slackers” avoided the
draft; 4,000 were excused
-- 10,000 were prosecuted before the
end of the war
VII. “Doughboys” fight in the Great War
A. 1917, Germany sank 6.5
million tons of Allied
shipping
B. Communist Russia’s
withdrawal eased
Germany’s eastern front
1. German divisions were
redeployed to the
Western Front
2. German calculations of
U.S. late entry into the
war were inaccurate
British soldiers with machine gun & gas
masks
C. U.S. in Russia
1. Late-1917, Wilson secretly sent aid to
White Russians fighting the communist
Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil
War
2. Summer of 1918: Wilson ordered a
blockade of Russia
3. 1918, Archangel expedition: U.S.
contributed 5,000 troops to an Allied
invasion of northern Russia hoping to
keep supplies from falling into
German hands
-- Later, aided Whites until 1919
4. Wilson sent 10,000 U.S. troops to
Siberia as part of an Allied expedition
5. U.S. involvement helped prolong the
Russian Civil War
6. The Soviet Union long resented these
“capitalistic” interventions
7. Wilson saw communism as the biggest
threat to peace
D. Western Front, 1918
1. German offensive in the spring
threatened to overrun the Allies
2. American Expeditionary Force
(AEF)
a. Composed of U.S. soldiers in
France under General John J.
Pershing
b. Initially, used as replacements in
British and French divisions
3. Late 1918, Germany came within 40
miles of Paris
a. U.S. troops participated in pushing
the Germans back
b. Sept. 9, U.S. divisions joined
French divisions in pushing
Germans from St. Mihiel
Modern day remnants of trenches at St. Mihiel
4. General John J. (“Black Jack”)
Pershing
a. American dissatisfaction with
bolstering Britain and France
b. Pershing commanded a separate
U.S. army on an
85-mile front
c. Meuse-Argonne
offensive: Sept-Nov
-- German forces
driven back
-- Hitherto, largest
battle in U.S. history
U.S. Soldiers during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 1918
E. End of the War
1. Germany suffered from desertion of its
allies, food shortages, and Allied assaults
2. Germany’s surrender was spurred by
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
a. Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to
abdicate
b. Nov. 11, 1918, Germany laid down her
arms
“Now then, all
together”
F. Segregation in the U.S. Army
1. African-Americans were initially divided
on whether to support the war
-- W. E. B. Du Bois urged blacks to
support the war effort
2. Most black soldiers did labor duty
3. 400,000 black troops
excluded from the Paris
victory parade in 1919
4. Black troops were
treated better in Europe
than back home in the
U.S.
G. Casualties
1. Americans lost 112,000 soldiers:
48,000 battle deaths; 62,000 by
disease; 230,000 wounded
2. 10 million soldiers died on all sides
3. 20 million civilian casualties (mostly
in Russia)
Theme 4
After America’s critical contribution to
the Allied victory, a triumphant Wilson
attempted to construct a peace based on
his idealistic Fourteen Points. But
European and senatorial opposition, and
especially his own political errors,
doomed American ratification of the
Versailles Treaty and participation in the
League of Nations.
VIII. President Wilson loses Congress
A. His post-war popularity in the world was
unprecedented
B. Republican victory in the Congressional
election of 1918 stung Wilson
1. Wilson broke the bi-partisan truce to
campaign for Democrats
2. Wilson returned to Europe a
diminished leader
C. Wilson infuriated Republicans by going
to the Paris Peace Conference in
December, 1918
-- Republican senators were excluded
from the peace delegation
IX. Versailles Peace Conference
A. Big Four: Lloyd George, Orlando,
Clemenceau & Wilson
-- Did not endorse the Fourteen Points
B. Wilson’s goal: League of Nations
1. Wilson was forced to compromise
on colonial territories belonging to
the Central Powers
2. League Covenant established the
League of Nations
a. Chief aim: collective security
b. Article X of the Versailles Treaty
created the League
C. Versailles Treaty
1. Article 231 (“war-guilt” clause)
a. Placed sole blame of war on
Germany
b. Germany was ordered to pay
reparations to Allies
c. Germany forced to accept severe
military restrictions and loss of
territory
2. “self-determination” granted to new
nations of Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Finland, and the Baltic states of
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Ceded to
Lithuania
Ceded to
Denmark
Danzig became
an international
city
East Prussia
(Weimar Germany)
Polish
Corridor
Weimar
Germany
Ceded to Poland
Ceded to
Belgium
Saar region
Administered by
League of Nations
Alsace and Lorraine
ceded to France
Ceded to
Czechoslovakia
Germany
forbidden from
uniting with
Austria
3. The Versailles Treaty faced significant
opposition in the U.S.
a. Republicans led by Henry Cabot
Lodge threatened to kill the treaty if
Wilson did not include provisions for
protecting the Monroe Doctrine and
U.S. withdrawal from the League if
desired
b. “Irreconcilables”:
Republicans who
opposed the League
in any form
X. Defeat of the Versailles Treaty in the U.S.
A. A majority of Americans favored the
treaty
B. Republicans continued to oppose the
treaty
a. Henry Cabot Lodge hoped to amend
the treaty but had no real hope of
defeating it
b. The treaty got bogged down in the
Senate
C. Wilson goes over Congress’ head on a
national speech tour
1. Wilson feared any modifications to
the Treaty would result in its ultimate
demise
2. Wilson decided to appeal directly to
the people by going on a grueling
national speaking tour
-- Wilson collapsed in Pueblo,
Colorado and suffered a stroke
two days later
-- He would not meet his cabinet for
eight months
“Going to Talk to the Boss”, Chicago News, 1919
D. Lodge Reservations
1. 14 formal reservations were attached to
the League of Nations treaty
a. Reserved rights of Monroe Doctrine
and the Constitution
b. Focused on Article X as it morally
bound the U.S. to aid any member
country that was attacked
-- Congress sought to reserve wardeclaring power for itself
“Pilgrim
Landing in
America, 1919,
Brooklyn Eagle,
1919
E. Wilson rejected the Lodge Reservations
1. Ordered Democrats to vote against the
treaty with the Lodge Reservations
attached
2. Treaty rejected by Senate in Nov, 1919
-- Ironically, 80% of senators favored the
treaty in some form
3. Treaty again rejected in March, 1920
4. Wilson sought a “solemn referendum”
on the Treaty in the 1920 presidential
election but the Democrats lost
decisively in November
XI. International consequences of WWI
A. U.S. became the world’s economic and
political leader (isolationism
notwithstanding)
B. The Russian Revolution created the
world’s first communist society
C. Britain, France, Austria and Turkey
went into various states of decline
D. Germany was devastated by the
Versailles Treaty
-- Led to the eventual rise of Adolf
Hitler and World War II
XII. Political aftermath of WWI in the U.S.
A. Represented the end of progressivism
-- The War Industries Board was
dismantled killing progressive hopes
of more regulation of big business
B. Gov’t returned the railroads to their
owners in 1920 (Esch-Cummings
Transportation Act)
C. Race riots (“Red Summer”)
1. Spurred by black migration to the
north during the war
2. Chicago race riot, 1919
3. Other riots in Knoxville, Omaha,
Washington, D.C. and other cities
XIII. Election of 1920
A. Republicans nominated Warren G.
Harding
1. Platform was ambiguous on the
League of Nations
2. “Normalcy”
B. Democrats nominated James M.
Cox
1. Strong pro-League stance
2. His running mate was Franklin
D. Roosevelt
C. Results:
1. Harding defeated Cox 404-127
2. First time all women were eligible
to voted in a national election
3. Represented end of progressivism
4. Isolationists had mandate to kill
League of Nations
5. Two main causes for failure of peace
a. The Great Depression
b. “War psychosis”
of Europeans
Hitler's anti-Versailles
poster design: a chained
Germania beneath the
slogan "Only National
Socialism will free
Germany from the lie of
sole guilt!"
XIII.How did WWI impact American society?
A. Increased role of women
-- 19th Amendment, 1920
B. Prohibition of alcohol, 18th
Amendment
C. African American migration
northward
-- Race riots
D. Nativism
E. Infringement on civil liberties
F. Red Scare, 1919
G. Millions men in uniform: 112,000 dead
H. Volunteerism and patriotism
I. Return to isolationism after the war
J. Economic growth (especially farming)
K. End to Democratic party rule and the
progressive era
Memory Device:
Impact of WWI on Society
Revolted
Red Scare
Republicans
Return to isolationism
Voted
Volunteerism
No
Nativism
Making
Migration of blacks
Wilson’s
Women’s roles
European
Economic growth
Peace
Prohibition of Alcohol
Crumble
Civil liberties violated
Miserably
Millions fought in WWI