The Great War
America’s first taste of what it’s like
to be a “World Power”
Background
• How had U.S. made enemies in Philippines?
China? Japan?
• Wilson’s “Moral Diplomacy” vs. Taft’s “Dollar
Diplomacy”
• How did our relationship with Mexico
deteriorate during the early 1900s?
– Diaz, Madero, Huerta, Carranza, and role of
Roosevelt Corollary?
• How did WWI break out in Europe?
Hello Central, Get Me To No Man’s Land
• By Al Jolsen
• “When the gray shadows creep And the world is still asleep, In
the still of the night Baby climbs down a flight. First she looks
all around without making a sound; Then baby toddles up to
the telephone and whispers in a baby tone: “Hello Central!
Give me to No Man’s Land, My daddy’s there, my mamma
told me; she tip-toed off to bed After my prayers were said;
don’t ring when you get the number, or you’ll disturb mama’s
slumber, I’m afraid to stand here at the phone ‘cause I’m all
alone, So won’t you hurry, I want to know why mamma starts
to weep when I say, “Now I lay me down to sleep’; Hello,
Central! Give me to No Man’s Land.”
What was No Man’s Land?
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How the trenches came to be
Life in the Trenches
New Weapons
Artistic expression in the Trenches: John
McCrae, Robert Palmer
• The Christmas Truce 1914 (Bellau Woods by
Garth Brooks)
• Soldiers of WWI: statistics?
U.S. Maintains Neutrality
• In what was was the U.S. not truly neutral?
• “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier” by
Morton Harvey, released March 1915
– New York Advertisements
– Sinking of Lusitania May 7, 1915
– Sussex Pledge—May 1916
– Zimmerman Note
America Enters War, April 1917
• Various ways US mobilized for war?
• Patriotism and “Over There” by George Cohan
• Morale boosting through war songs: Pack Up
Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile,
Smile, Smile”
• Propaganda
• Evidence of Civil Liberties violations?
The Final Years of the War
• American involvement turns the tide
• Role of Women in war?
• Role of African-Americans in war?
– Great Migration
• Armistice Day 11/11/1918
• Wilson’s idealistic plan?