Mobilizing the Home Front
Propaganda and the War Effort
• Recruiting soldiers
• Buying War Bonds
• Saving Food
• Contributing to the War Industry
(weapons factories)
• Joining the Red Cross
“First Call” the Poster Art of World War I
British Recruitment
Ad, 1915 following
the sinking of the
ship “Lusitania”
Civic organizations
use the media to
call for war.
Poster from the
Mayor’s Committee,
New York 1917
“Go soldiers and fulfill your
role as Christians. Oh
gentleman, complete
your duty to your
fatherland and earn your
place in Heaven.”
German recruitment
poster, 1914
“Committee on Public
Information” established as
the nations first propaganda
agency.
About two-thirds of all war
financing came from the
selling of “war bonds” to
the public.
U.S. Food Administration
poster, 1917
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Fighting in the Great War
• Trench Warfare
– Most of the fighting occurred in man-made
trenches
– Video: Gallipoli, The Trenches Scene
– gallipoli interactive map
• Christmas truce
– Christmas 1914, fighting stopped for a day
– Video: The Christmas Truce
• Machine Guns
• Chemical Warfare
– Mustard gas
Experience of Soldiers
Extreme brutality
Coping with never before seen violence
Exhaustion
Mustard gas
Trenches
Aerial bombardments
Video: Gallipoli Massacre
Soldier’s Journals
“I dove down beside that road…and recognized those
Boche helmets! In a twinkling I was passed
them…and came diving down upon them from the
rear. I just held both triggers down hard while the
fiery bullets flew streaming out of the two guns…I had
a vague confused picture of…rearing horses, falling
men, running men, general mess…I found myself
trembling with excitement and overawed at being a
cold-blooded murderer, but a sense of keen
satisfaction came too. It was only the sort of thing
our own poor doughboys have suffered so often.”
(Hamilton Coolidge)
Coping Mechanisms
• Camaraderie
• British Pals’ battalions
‘Those who joined together should serve
together’ = very popular
– Companies, businesses, towns & cities
formed their own battalions
– They trained & served together
– Over 300 battalions were formed in this
way & 250,000 men joined up
• Writing Memoirs or Poetry
• Entertainment on the Front
Soldier’s Journals
“I got within fifty feet of the German machine-gun nests when
a bullet plowed through the top of my skull…As I lay there I
could plainly see the German gunners and hear them
talking…They reloaded their gun and turned it on me. The first
three bullets went through my legs and hip and the rest
splashed up dust and dirt…That night…one of my
comrades…who later in the battle as himself killed, crawled out
and started to carry me back to the lines…The
Germans…turned their guns our way…Thinking it impossible for
him to get me to the lines alone, he piled up a half-dozen
bodies of my poor dead “buddies” and barricaded my
position. There I remained for several hours longer…the boys
piled up around me were my own camp-mates whom I
knew…Back of the lines the surgeons came out…and
exclaimed, “What, ain’t you dead yet?” (Joyce Lewis)
Wilfred Owens, English Poet
ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
September - October, 1917
Coping with Death
Video: Gallipoli :The Trenches Scene
How do the soldiers deal with the daily
occurrence of death in the
trenches?
African-American and French Comradeship
“We were fully equipped with French rifles and French helmets. Our wagons, our rations,
our machine guns and everything pertaining to the equipment of the regiment for
trench warfare was supplied by the French Army.
It was considered that it would take us at least six weeks before we would be able to
march into line and take our position on the front. Sergeants and non-commissioned
officers and different members of the machine gun companies, Stokes mortars, were
sent to the French schools for an intensive training in the handling of these implements
of warfare. Daily, the other members of the troop were taken out by the French
interpreters and instructed on trench warfare and formations for the approach and
advance in military maneuvers.
So rapidly did our boys learn the formations that in less than three weeks the time the
General in command of the 61st Division recommended that a battalion of our boys be
moved and put in the trenches alongside French soldiers for first hand instructions. This
move was hailed with great joy by our boys.
There had sprung up between them and their French buddies a great comradeship. The
French officers had taken our officers and made pals out of them. The noncommissioned officers in the French army who held a little more elevated position than
the non-commissioned officers in our army by virtue of their long military campaign,
treated our boys with all the courtesy and comradeship that could be expected.
Cheeriest of all was the good comradeship that existed between our enlisted men and the
faithful old French poilu. You could see them strolling down the road arm in arm, each
hardly able to understand the other, as our boys’ French was as bad as their English. In
their souls and in their breasts there seemed to beat the same emotion. They were for
one cause – liberty and freedom.
Stage 3: Victories of the
Allies (late 1917-1918)
• Towards Armistice
– Allied Powers take the advantage
• Italians win victory over Austria-Hungary
Oct 1918
• Gen Foch directs counter offensive in West
• Significant gain by Allies Aug 1918
– Arrival of American army
– New weapons - tanks
Stage 3: Victories of the
Allies (late 1917-1918)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Interactive Map The Western Front 1918
German desertions increase
Revolutionary groups appear
Republic is proclaimed in Berlin
William II abdicates
Germany signs armistice in Compiègne
on Nov 11, 1918
• Democratic nations victorious both
militarily and politically
Treaty of Versailles
• Article 231 punishes Germany for starting
the war (& not Austria or Serbia)
– War-guilt clause
– Helped Hitler’s rise to power
The Big four
Wilson
Clemenceau Lloyd George
Stalin
The Treaty of Versailles
League of Nations
• Article X called for members to
give assistance to others if needed
– Congress, led by Henry Cabot
Lodge, detested this stipulation
• Congress has Constitutional power to
declare war, Article X could force the US
into war without Congress’ approval
Debate in Congress
Woodrow Wilson - Need for the League
America is going to grow more and more powerful, and the more
powerful she is the more inevitable it is that she should be trustee
for the peace of the world…All Europe knew that we were doing
an American thing when we put the Covenant of the League of
Nations at the beginning of the treaty…The most cynical men I
had to deal with…before our conferences were over all admitted
that the League of Nations, which they had deemed an ideal
dream, was a demonstrable, practical necessity. This treaty
cannot be carried out without the League of Nations…
The rest of the world is necessary to us, if you want to put it on that
basis. I do not like to put it on that basis. That is not the American
basis. America does not want to feed upon the rest of the world.
She wants to feed it and serve it. America…is the only national
idealistic force in the world and idealism is going to save the
world…That is the program of civilization.”
Woodrow Wilson, Speech at helena, Montana, September 1919
Debate over the League
Henry Cabot Lodge - Danger of the League
Never forget that this league is primarily – I might say
overwhelmingly – a political organization, and I object strongly to
having the politics of the United States turn upon disputes where
deep feeling is aroused but in which we have no direct interest. It
will tend to delay the Americanization of our great population,
and it is more important not only to the United States but to the
peace of the world to make all these people good Americans
than it is to determine that some piece of territory should belong
to one European country rather than to another. For this reason I
wish to limit strictly our interference in the affairs of Europe and of
Africa. We have interests of our own in Asia and in the Pacific
which we must guard upon our own account, but the less we
undertake to play the part of umpire and thrust ourselves into
European conflicts the better for the United States and for the
world.”
Speech in the Senate, Aug 1919
league of Nations
Why did the Treaty Fail?
• Isolationists, many who were Republican
did not like the League of Nations (led by
Henry Cabot Lodge)
• Many people wanted the US to stay out
of foreign affairs (Washington’s Neutrality
Proclamation)
• The league would commit the US to
foreign affairs
– Wilson refused to budge
WAR CASUALTIES FOR ALLIED AND CENTRAL
POWERS
Country
Population
Military
Deaths
Civilian
Deaths
%
Population
Military
Wounded
France
39.6 M
1.4 M
300,000
4.29%
4.3 M
Russia
175.1 M
2M
1.5 M
2%
4M
United
Kingdom
45.4 M
887,000
109,000
2.19%
1.7 M
U.S.
92 M
117,000
757
0.13%
206,000
Italy
35.6 M
651,000
589,000
3.48%
954,000
AustriaHungary
51.4 M
1.1 M
467,000
3.05%
3.6 M
Germany
64.9 M
2M
426,000
3.82%
4.2 M
Ottoman
Empire
21.3 M
772,000
2.2M
13.7%
400,000
Effects of the War on Civilians
• 5 million civilians perished from
disease and starvation (especially in
Russia and the Ottoman Empire)
• Submarines, naval blockades &
warplanes extended suffering of the
war beyond the front lines
• Aerial bombardments killed many
civilians (British and German cities
bombed by air raids)
Making Peace
Making Peace
Overview
TERMS & NAMES
• Woodrow Wilson
• Fourteen Points
MAIN IDEA
WHY IT MATTERS NOW
• self-determination
After winning the
war, the Allies
dictated a harsh
peace settlement
that left many
nations feeling
betrayed.
Hard feelings left by
the peace settlement
helped cause World
War II.
• Treaty of Versailles
Assessment
• League of Nations
Making Peace
1. Look at the graphic to help organize your
thoughts. Explain the effects of World War I.
Millions of lives
lost
$338 billion cost
Effects of WWI
Land, towns,
and villages
destroyed
Widespread
disillusionment
1. What major changes do you see?
2. Which countries are created as a result of the
war?
3. Which countries’ borders are affected by the
outcome of the war?
Making Peace
2. Do you think the peace settlements at Versailles
were fair? Why or why not? Consider the warring
and nonwarring nations affected. THINK ABOUT
• Germany’s punishment
• the creation of new nations
• the mandate system
ANSWER
Possible
Responses:
Fair: Germany was punished for its aggression, and
numerous independence claims were addressed
through the creation of new nations.
Unfair: Germany was too harshly punished, and colonial
peoples did not get their independence.
Effects of the War in the U.S.
• US reverts to isolationism
– Harding (1920) campaigned on a return to
“normalcy”
• Red Summer
– Race riots in Northern Cities – Great Migration
• Fear of Communism
– 1st Red Scare
• Increase of Nativism
– 2 acts passed which severely reduced
immigration
– Desire to go back to the way things were
before
Reading Material World War I
•The Unfinished Nation by Alan Brinkley
Chapter 23: America and the Great War pp. 602624
•Mastering Modern World History by Norman Lowe
Part 1 War and International Relations
The world in 1914: outbreak of the First World War,
pp. 3-16
Questions, p. 16
The first World War and its aftermath, pp. 19-40
Questions, p. 41
The League of Nations, pp. 43-49
Questions, p. 49