1
Chapter 11: The First World War

Unit 1 World War I
...Restraints and Involvement in World Politics 1914-1920
 Essential Question: To what extent was "the war to make the world safe for
democracy" a success or failure?

Standard 2: 9-12 2.3: Trace Causes, course, and legacy of American
involvement in World War I at home and abroad.
o 9-12.1.1: Interpret and evaluate a variety of visual representations
(e.g. charts, graphs, time lines, graphic organizers, maps, flow charts)
of data.
Focus Questions:
1. What are the four major causes of World War I?
2. How did Europe change politically and geographically between 1914 and 1919?
3. Why did the US turn from Isolation and Neutrality and enter WWI?
4. What impact did WWI have on the US socially, politically and economically?
5. How did the Treaty of Versailles set the stage for WWII?
I Can Statements:
1. I can identify and analyze the four major causes of WWI.
2. I can compare, evaluate, and label maps of Europe of 1914 and Europe of 1919.
3. I can evaluate why the United States entered WWI. (K,R)
4. I can analyze how WWI impacted the United States home front during WWI
socially, economically, and politically.
5. I can identify and draw conclusions regarding how the Treaty of Versailles set the
stage for WWII (1919).
2
Chapter 11: The First World War
Section 1: World War I Begins
I.
Long Term Causes of World War I
A. The following long term causes of WW I are as relevant today as they
were during both great wars
1. Nationalism: a devotion to the interests and culture of one’s
nation (U.S. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine)
a. Serbian patriots dreamed of achieving the cultural and political
unification of the large ethnic group known as the Slavs,
including those living in Bosnia-Herzegovina (called PanSlavism)
b. Russia, the homeland of millions of Slavs, supported the PanSlavic cause
2. Imperialism: the policy in which stronger nations extend their
economic, political (indirect imperialism), and/or military control
(direct imperialism) over weaker territories (U.S. and the
Spanish-American War)
a. The Austrian-Hungarian Empire looked at the destruction of
the Ottoman Empire (centered in Turkey) as an opportunity for
expansion
b. In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, which
frustrated the Russia and infuriated the Serbians
3. Militarism: the development of armed forces and their use as a
tool of diplomacy (Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet sent to
Japan)
a. Military expenditures jumped by 300% b/w 1870-1914 in
anticipation of war
b. By 1890 Germany was the strongest nation on the European
continent
c. In 1897 Wilhelm II, Germany’s emperor, wanted his country to
be more competitive with Great Britain at sea (naval buildup
ensued b/w Germany and Great Britain)
4. Alliances: all the hostilities, jealousies, fears, and desires led the
nations of Europe to sign treaties of assistance that committed
them to support one another if an attack occurred (U.S. and
France in the Revolutionary War)
a. 1907 = Triple Alliance: Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary
Triple Entente: Russia, France, and Great Britain
b. 1914-1918 = Central Powers (former Triple Alliance
Allied Powers (former Triple Entente)
c. Italy switched to the Allied Powers when the Treaty of London
(1915) was secretly negotiated (Italy was promised various
parcels of land when the war ended)
3
-Italy failed militarily in the Allied effort, and was not
viewed as an equal by the Big Three at Versailles
discussions (Italian nationalists were appalled)
II.
An Assassination Leads to War
A. In 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the Austrian throne, along
with his pregnant wife, made a state visit to Bosnia and were gunned down
in the capital, Sarajevo, by a Pan-Slavic nationalist
1. “The powder keg of Europe” finally exploded causing AustriaHungary to declare war against Serbia on July 28, 1914
a. All the alliances create a global conflict WW I
III.
The Fighting Starts
A. On August 3, 1914 Germany invaded neutral Belgium, following a strategy
known as the Schlieffen Plan (developed in 1905)
1. A holding action against Russia would occur, while a quick drive through
Belgium to Paris and once Paris falls the two German armies would take
Russia
a. German ruler Wilhelm II thought the war would end “before the
leaves have fallen from the trees.” (Great War ended Nov 11, 1918)
b. Thought British forces would not be able to cross the English Channel
in time to fortify the lines
2. Belgian army fiercely resisted the Germans
a. French had time to rush troops to Belgian border
b. British had time to transport troops across the English Channel
3. Germans pushed French and British to the Marne River
a. First Battle of the Marne: French and British stop the Germans
within 30 miles of Paris
b. Leaders on both sides realized there would be no quick victory (three
years of trench warfare started)
B. No-man’s land: a barren expanse of mud pockmarked with shell craters and
filled with barbed wire
1. Trench warfare: thousands would perish in an effort to take a few yards of
land
a. First, battles started with artillery fire
b. Second, army would charge the enemy trenches
c. Lastly, the charging soldiers were cut down by bullets
2. Life in the trenches (frontline, support, and reserve trenches)
a. Rats and lice bit into soldiers
b. Rain flooded trenches (Pneumonia)
c. Shelling prevented burial of the dead
d. Shells unearthed corpses
e. Death was the only way out of the trenches
3. First Battle of the Somme (July 1, 1916 – mid November
a. British suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day of fighting
b. In 5 months more than a million men dead or wounded
C. New Weapons
1. German machine guns
4
IV.
V.
2. The allies introduced tanks to counter the machine guns
3. Poison gas (mustard gas) was the most feared weapon
a. Yellow-green chlorine gas
4. With the new weapons the war was at a stalemate until an influx of
soldiers occurred
a. Only the U.S. could end the war
Americans Question Neutrality
A. In 1914, most Americans saw no reason to join a struggle 3,000 miles
away
1. Socialists criticized the war as a capitalist and imperialist
struggle to control markets and colonies throughout the world
2. Pacifists such as William Jennings Bryan believed the war was
evil and the U.S. should set a positive example for the world
3. Think about the current problems and wars occurring in the
world right now (who cares; these wars are thousands of
miles away!
a. Is that the correct view to adopt when dealing with foreign
affairs (Iran, N Korea, Arab Spring, China, etc)?
B. Woodrow Wilson announced U.S. neutrality
1. He thought doing this would help the US negotiate a settlement
2. Americans were neutral in actions but not in thoughts
a. 30% of Americans were immigrants
3. Most Americans supported the allies
a. Ancestry tied to the British (political and legal system adapted
from the British system)
b. French helped America win its War of Independence
c. British also used powerful propaganda convincing the
American media to refer to Germany as “the bully of Europe.”
C. America’s economic ties were far stronger with the Allies compared to
the Central Powers
1. American trade with Britain and France was more than double
compared to its trade with Germany
2. The Allies flooded American manufactures with orders for war
supplies
a. The U.S. experienced a labor shortage
The War Hits Home
A. By 1917 the U.S. mobilizes for war against the Central Powers for two
reasons:
1. To ensure that the Allies repay the vast amount of money
they owe the U.S.
2. To prevent Germany from threatening U.S. shipping
B. Great Britain blockaded the German coast to prevent weapons and
other military supplies from reaching Germany
1. Even extended contraband to include food, mined the entire
North Sea, and blockaded neutral ports
5
a. American ships containing goods for Germany could not reach
their destination
b. Germany could not import food or fertilizer for crops
2. America was angry that their ships were being boarded by the
British to check cargo and mail
a. Freedom of the seas and trade was being threatened (U.S.
economy was being limited)
C. Germany established a war zone around Great Britain which would
lead to attacks on ships by German U-boats (would not always receive
a warning)
1. May 7, 1915 the British liner the Lusitania was sunk
a. Out of the 1,198 casualties, 128 were Americans
b. Germans believed ship was carrying weapons to England
c. The Germans even placed ads in the U.S. newspapers warning
Americans not to cross into the war zone
2. Results of Lusitania attack
a. Wilson demanded a pledge against unrestricted U-boat
attacks
b. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan said, “the US
could not issue ultimatums and remain neutral.”
3. August 1915 the Germans sank the British line the Arabic killing
two Americans
a. Based on President Wilson’s complaints, the Germans agreed to
not sink any more passenger ships
4. March 1916 the Germans sank an unarmed French passenger
vessel named the Sussex, killing Americans on board
a. Germany agreed, once again, to stop unrestricted U-boat
attacks if America could convince the British to lift its
blockade against food and fertilizer (1917 estimated 750,000
Germans starved to death)
b. Theodore Roosevelt called Wilson a “coward and
weakling.”
D. In the 1916 Presidential election Democrat Woodrow Wilson
campaigned on the slogan “He kept us out of the war.”
1. His Republican opponent Charles Evan Hughes promised to
uphold America’s freedom on the seas and be more forgiving
towards Germany
a. Wilson won a close race
VI. The United States Declares War
A. In January of 1917 Wilson delivered a speech before the Senate calling for “a
peace without victory…a peace b/w equals.” (Wilson wanted nations to join in
a “league for peace.”)
1. On January 31, 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted U-boat warfare
a. Believed U-boats could defeat the allies before the U.S. joined the
war
2. Wilson ordered Merchant ships to arm themselves
6
a. Germans still sunk 5 American ships
B. Zimmerman Note (Jan 16, 1917): telegram proposed an alliance b/w Mexico
and Germany and promised that if war with the U.S. broke out, Germany would
support Mexico in recovering “lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.”
1. Intercepted by the British and the contents of the note was revealed to
America in March
C. April 2, 1917 Wilson asks Congress to vote on a declaration of war
1. Wilson stated that, “The world must be made safe for democracy…”
a. Wilson said to an aid, “My message today was a message of death for
our young men. How strange it seems to applaud that.”
Section 2: American Power Tips the Balance
I.
America Mobilizes
A. The U.S. was not prepared for the war only having 200,000 men in the
service when war was declared
1. Selective Service Act (May, 1917): the act required men to
register with the gov’t in order to be randomly selected for
military service
a. By 1918 24 million men had registered (3 million were called
up from the registered group)
b. Most inductees had not attended high school and 1 in 5 was
foreign born
c. Soldiers trained for eight months using fake weapons b/c
supplies were short
2. About 400,000 African Americans served in the military
a. Assigned to segregated units and could not serve in the navy or
the marines (most had non-combat assignments-kitchen duty)
b. Black units were commanded by white officers
3. The army accepted women in the Army Corp of Nurses (denied
pay, rank, and benefits)
a. 13,000 women accepted non-combat positions
B. The gov’t had to determine how it was going to ship the mass of men
and equipment overseas (German U-boats had sunk twice as much ship
tonnage as the Allies had built in early 1917)
1. Many shipyard workers were exempt from the draft and deferred
others (Merchant Marine)
2. U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined in a public relations campaign
to emphasize the importance of shipyard workers
3. Shipyards used prefabrication techniques (standardized parts built
elsewhere and then assembled in the yard)
a. In one day July 4, 1918 the U.S. launched 95 ships
4. The gov’t took over commercial and private ships and converted
them for transatlantic war use
7
II. America Turns the Tide
A. Convoy system: a heavy guard of destroyers escorted merchant ships
back and forth across the Atlantic in groups (merchant marine)
1. By 1917 losses of merchant ships were cut in half
2. U.S. also mined a major part of the North Sea
a. By 1918 only 637 out of the 2 million Americans
serving in WW I were lost on the voyage to Europe
B. America brought one thing to the Allies that had been lacking,
enthusiasm to win the war
III.
Fighting Over There
A. The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) led by General John J.
Pershing was shocked by the truly mechanized weapons that were being
used (1st American troops arrived in late June 1917 and really didn’t
start fighting until early 1918)
1. Tanks and airplanes were created and used
a. Tanks were ineffectively used in the Battle of Somme in 1916
b. Airplanes were initially used as scouting vehicles, but were
eventually utilized as a true fighting machine once machine
guns were mounted (Germans create the interrupter gear)
c. By 1919 the British had 22,000 strategic bomber planes
2. Machine guns were refined making them even deadlier
3. Observation balloons were also being utilized
II.
The War Introduces New Hazards
A. The new weapons and tactics led to horrific injuries and hazards
1. Dysentery, lice, rats, poison gas, the smell of decay, lack of sleep
all led to battle fatigue and “shell shock”: term coined during
WW I to describe a complete emotional collapse from which
many never recover
2. Trench foot: standing in cold water would eventually lead to
gang green and the toes would be amputated
3. Trench mouth: painful infection of the gums and throat caused
by a buildup of bacteria
4. Mustard Gas was used to suffocate the enemy
a. The Red Cross carried the wounded to the hospital
III.
American Troops Go on the Offensive
A. When the Russians abandoned the war, trouble continued to brew
before America entered the war
1. The allies launched an offensive in the summer of 1917 that
failed miserably
a. In the fall of 1917 mutinies broke out amongst the
French units on all fronts
2. Bolsheviks, a branch of the Russian Communist party, seized
power (Vladimir Lenin)
a. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918): Russian treaty with Central
powers to get out of WW I
b. Central powers could now concentrate on the western front
8
A. March 21, 1918 Germans launch a due-or-die offensive
1. Big Berthas could launch shells 74 miles
2. Over 1 million German troops
3. Germans pushed allies back to Marne River, 50 miles from Paris
B. The American and other allied troops united under Marshal Ferdinand Foch
of France (Pershing allowed American troops to fight with the other allies)
1. Stopped Germans at the Chateau-Thierry
2. Stopped Germans final assault around Reims
3. Americans moved Northward capturing Sedan
C. During the Meuse-Argonne campaign one of America’s greatest war heroes,
Alvin York, along with 6 other Americans, captured 132 prisoners
1. York was a conscientious objector: a person who opposes
warfare on moral grounds
a. York pointed out that the Bible says, “Thou shall not kill.”
b. York decided it was acceptable to fight if the cause was just
c. He was promoted to sergeant and became a celebrity in the U.S.
D. Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands (socialist leader est. a German
Republic) and Austria-Hungary surrendered on November 3, 1918
1. Germans agreed to an armistice or cease-fire at Compiegne
(Allied headquarters)
a. Germans must leave invaded countries
b. Give up war materials
c. Allies had the right to occupy German territories
2. November 11, 1918 at 11 a.m. the armistice went into effect
E. WW I was the bloodiest war in history up to that time
1. 22 million deaths had occurred, with more than half being
civilian
a. 20 million were wounded, and another 10 million became
refugees
b. Costs directly related to the war equaled about $338 billion
(today’s cost = $ 4,512,635,761,589)
2. The U.S. lost 48,000 men in battle, with another 62,000 dying of
disease
a. More than 200,000 Americans were wounded
Section 3: The War at Home
I. Congress Gives Power to Wilson
A. Congress gave President Wilson the power to directly control the economy
including fixing prices, regulating (nationalizing) certain war-related industries
1. War Industries Board (1917): was the gov’ts central war agency that
controlled all the boards
a. Controlled by Bernard Baruch
b. Encouraged mass production, standardization of products, set
quotas, and allocated raw materials
c. Was not afraid to use force/threats (steel owners)
9
2. Price controls only applied at the wholesale level
a. Retail prices soared to a level almost double that prior to WW I
b. Liked to persuade business leaders to comply with his wishes
3. Railroad Administration (William McAdoo): reorganized the railroads
a. Set limits on transportation rates and workers’ wages
4. Fuel Administration (Harry Garfield)
a. Monitored coal supplies and rationed gasoline and heating oil
b. Had gasless Sundays and lightless nights
c. When ran short of coal he closed factories
d. Introduced daylight-savings time to take advantage of the longer days
of summer
B. The economy soared during WW I and the gov’t pretended to care about
workers
1. Hourly wages increased by 20%, but household income dropped b/c of the
high retail prices on staple products
2. Stock holders saw enormous profits
a. DuPont Company’s stock jumped 1600% b/w 1914-1918 ($68 million
earned annually)
b. Supplied 40% of smokeless powder used by the Allies in WW I
c. Today that would equal almost $1 billion
3. National War Labor Board (1918): created to deal with disputes b/w
labor and management (arbitration and threats – “Work or fight”)
a. Union membership soared to 4 million by 1919 (better hours,
conditions, pay, etc.)
b. Labor now had the power to make demands since there was a labor
shortage and production was increased dramatically
C. Food Administration (Herbert Hoover): increase agricultural production
and conserve existing food
1. Guaranteed farmers high prices
a. Farmers planted an additional 40 million acres and their income
increased by 30%
2. Observed wheatless and meatless days
3. Homeowners planted victory guardians
II. Selling the War
A. The U.S. spent about $35.5 billion on the war effort
1. Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds ($24 billion)
a. The gov’t is borrowing from the public with the amount returned
to the owner of the bond plus interest
b. Treasury Secretary William McAdoo stated only “a friend of
Germany” would refuse to buy war bonds
2. Increased taxes on businesses and large personal incomes ($11.5
billion)
a. Used a progressive/graduated income tax, war profit tax, and
increased sin taxes (alcohol, tobacco)
B. Committee on Public Relations (George Creel): the first U.S. gov’t
propaganda (biased info) agency used to sell/popularize the war to Americans
10
1. Patriotic organizations were formed that targeted/harassed groups calling
for peace, especially Germans
a. Printed copies on “How the War Came to America” (Boy Scouts
helped distribute written propaganda)
III. Attacks on Civil Liberties
A. Anti-Immigrant hysteria exploded and was directed at German and AustriaHungary immigrants
1. Books authored by German(s) vanished, German language classes
forbidden, and music disappeared (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven)
2. German sounding items renamed: hamburger = salisbury steak, sauerkraut
= liberty cabbage, German measles = liberty measles, (French fries = Freedom
fries)
3. Germans had to kiss the U.S. flag and sing patriotic American songs
a. Mob in Collinsville, Illinois wrapped a German around a German-born
miner and lynched him (Robert Prager)
B. Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition Act (1918): a person could be fined
up to $10,000 and sentenced to 20 years in jail for interfering with the war
effort (parts have been repealed in 1921, but it still exists today)
1. Can’t say anything disloyal, profane, or abusive about the gov’t or the war
effort
a. Newspapers and magazines lost their mailing privileges, professors
critical of the war lost their job(s)
b. The House of Rep refused to seat Victor Berger, a socialist from
Wisconsin
c. Eugene Debs = 10 years in prison for speaking out against the
draft/war, anarchist Emma Goldman = 2 years in prison and a $10,000 fine
for organizing the No Conscription League (later deported to Russia), Big
Bill Haywood leader of the IWW = long prison sentence for urging
workers to strike (fled to Russia)
2. Similar to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798: president could deport or
jail any alien considered undesirable
a. Also set fines and jail terms for anyone trying to hinder the operation of
the gov’t or expressing “false, scandalous, and malicious statements”
against the gov’t
3. Schenck v. United States (1919)
a. Does the Espionage and Sedition Act violated the 1st Amendment?
b. No: the clear and present danger of certain words during a war is
obvious
c. Only served six months (could have served 30 years)
4. In 2010, Bradley Manning, an Army private who allegedly leaked
information including the United States diplomatic cables leak to Julian
Assange founder of Wikileaks, was charged under the Espionage Act
a. Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination
(Shield Act - 2010): would amend the Espionage Act of 1917 to make
it a crime for any person knowingly and willfully to disseminate, in
any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States,
11
“any classified information . . . concerning the human intelligence
activities of the United States or . . . concerning the identity of a
classified source or informant” working with the intelligence
community of the United States (it was not enacted by Congress)
IV. The War Encourages Social Change
A. W. E. B. Du Bois believed African American support of the war would
strengthen calls for racial justice (most blacks supported the war)
1. William Monroe Trotter, founder of the Boston Guardian, believed
victims of racism should not support a racist gov’t
B. WW I accelerated the Great Migration: the large-scale movement of
hundreds of thousands of Southern blacks to cities in the North
1. Wanted to escape racial discrimination in the South that made life
miserable
2. Boll weevil (beetle) infestation ruined most of the cotton fields destroying
job opportunities
3. WW I and the decrease in immigration created many more jobs in the
North
a. Northern manufactures actually sent recruiters to the South
(incentives such as free transportation offered)
b. Although blacks were needed in the North, they were still treated
poorly
C. Women started to take over the jobs traditionally occupied by men, while
others continued working in their normal role(s)
1. President Wilson acknowledged the usefulness of women during the
war, but they still didn’t receive equal pay for equal work
a. Public support for woman suffrage increases helping ensure that the
19th Amendment would be passed in Congress and ratified by the states
in 1920
D. In the fall of 1918, a flu epidemic struck ¼ of the U.S. population and ¼ of
American soldiers
1. Cities ran short of coffins and the dead lay on the side of the street
2. The epidemic killed about 500,000 Americans by 1919
Section 4: Wilson Fights for Peace
I. Wilson Presents His Plan
A. On January 14, 1918 Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points before Congress
(war wasn’t even over)
1. The first five points were issues Wilson believed needed to be addressed to
prevent another major conflict
2. The next eight dealt with boundary issues
a. Groups that claimed distinct ethnic boundaries were to form their own
`nation-states
3. League of Nations: international organization that would provide a forum
for nations to discuss and settle their grievances without having to resort to
war
12
B. Woodrow Wilson traveled to the Paris Peace Conference, where the
Allies initially rejected his plan (no important Republican invited)
1. The Central Powers, Russians, and smaller allied nations were not
included in the Paris Peace Conference
a. Various ethnic groups liberated from the war fought over territory
b. Germany was worried about civil war
c. Allied powers were trying to overthrow the Bolsheviks
C. Problems at the peace conference (The Big Four)
1. Italy’s prime minister, Vittorio Orlando, wanted control of Austrian held
territory
2. Britain’s prime minister, David Lloyd George, won reelection on the
slogan “Make Germany Pay”
3. France’s premier, Georges Clemenceau, wanted to ensure France’s
security by crushing the Germans
4. Wilson wanted world peace = The Fourteen Points
a. Feared the spread of communism in weak European regions
(command economy = distribute goods equally)
b. Really only cared about the League of Nations (precursor to the
United Nations)
II. Debating the Treaty of Versailles
A. The official signing of the Treaty of Versailles took place on June 28, 1919
1. New nations were created such as Poland, Yugoslavia, etc.
a. Poland was created by taking a chunk of Germany and Russia
(resentment)
b. Kingdom of Poland existed from 966 - 1795
2. The German and Ottoman empires had their territory taken by the Allies
a. The Ottoman Empire was torn apart and mandates were given to
France and Great Britain to control the new territories
b. Mandate system: administer their mandates until the areas were ready
for self-rule and then independence
3. Germany was barred from maintaining an army
4. Germany had to pay war reparations: war damages amounting to $33
billion to the Allies (Germany’s economy was destroyed)
a. In today’s dollars it would equal $392 billion
b. Prior to WW I (3 marks = $1.00)
c. After WW I (1 trillion marks = $1.00)
B. The Treaty of Versailles created resentment at would lead to another world
war
1. War-guilt clause: Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting
WW I
a. Germany could not pay the reparations and it was stripped of its
colonial possessions that would have aided in making the payments
b. In the 1920s the allies were not as strict on enforcing the reparation
repayments (in 1933 Hitler refused to make any more payments)
c. Germany made its final WW I reparations payment Oct 3, 2010
13
2. Germany could maintain 100,000 man military in order maintain
order in their country (if needed)
a. Problem: Germans served a short time in the military and then placed
them in the reserves (nothing mentioned about size of reserve force in
Treaty)
b. No air force so German gov’t had pilots train abroad
c. No subs so Germans gov’t had submariners train abroad
2. Russia suffered the highest casualties and fought with the Allies for three
years, yet it was excluded from the peace conference and stripped of land
3. Self-determination was not recognized for some (Vietnamese people)
III. Lack of approval of the Treaty of Versailles in the Senate (Republicans
controlled Congress in 1919)
A. Irreconcilables: Republican senators that hated the treaty (14 Republicans)
B. Reservationists: Republican senators that would support the treaty if Article
10 was changed (needed 20 out of the 35 Republican reservationists to vote
for the Treaty)
1. Article 10: required everyone to respect and preserve the independence
and integrity of all other member nations (could use force to uphold
Article 10)
2. The Congress worried they would forfeit their Constitutional power
to declare war (Article 1 Section 8)
a. 2/3rds of Senators must approve the treaty before it is binding
(Article 2 Section 2)
C. Republican Henry Cabot Lodge:
1. Head of the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations
2. Wilson’s enemy and led reservationists
3. Since Wilson decided not to invite any Republicans to the Paris Peace
Conference, Lodge claimed Republicans needed time to review the treaty
(Wilson was impatient, angry, and didn’t want the League of Nations
altered)
D. Outcome(s) over the treaty
1. Wilson tried to gain grassroots support to get constituents to pressure their
Congressmen to approve the Treaty
a. Wilson had a horrific stroke on October 2, 1919 (weak and stubborn)
2. Lodge suggested 14 amendments to the Treaty, which Wilson urged his
fellow Democrats to not approve
a. Lodge’s amendments were rejected by the Senate, but so was the
Treaty of Versailles itself
3. Republican Warren G. Harding won the presidency in 1920 by
claiming he would restore the U.S. to a state of “normalcy” (ran
against James Cox)
a. The U.S. signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921 and simply
observed the proceedings at the League of Nations
IV. The Legacy of the War
A. America’s economy was strong, the military was powerful, social/racial issues
changed, and fear (Communists in Russia) over the unknown ran rapid
14
B. Fascists start to control Italy (Mussolini), Spain (Franco), Germany (Hitler),
and political and social change occurred in Europe
C. The Treaty of Versailles resolved absolutely nothing:
1. Adolph Hitler (veteran of WW I) commented, “It cannot be that two
million (Germans) should have fallen in vain…No, we do not pardon,
we demand-vengeance!”
2. U.S. and other allied nations borrowed money to Germany so the
country could rebuild its economy (the German gov’t was secretly
using the money to rearm itself-build factories that produce non-war
and war materials)
a. Economies of the world are globally interconnected, so it’s in the
world’s best interest to ensure Germany recovers
b. U.S. and other nations wanted Germany to produce the high
quality goods they were accustomed to buying from Germany
c. If Germany’s economy stabilizes, the reparations and loans will be
paid back with stable currency
d. Germany gradually sold bonds to their own people to help the
country rebuild itself (used for infrastructure, products, and war
materials)