World War I
Causes of WWI
Militarism
Alliance
system
Imperialism
Nationalism
Militarism

Empires were expensive to build and
defend. The growth of nationalism and
imperialism led to increased military
spending. Because each nation wanted to
be stronger than a potential enemy, these
imperial powers followed the policy of
militarism- the development of armed
forces and their use as a tool of
diplomacy.

By the end of the 19th century Germany
had become the strongest nation in
Europe. They had a large standing army,
and a large army reserve system. Britain,
at that time, was the largest empire in the
world and it also had the largest navy.
Their navy was so big and strong because
they needed to protect their empire and
maintain the sea routes between the
different colonies.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, of Germany, hated and
envied Britain for having a stronger navy
than his. He increased the German navy
and built many warships. Britain
responded with building more ships and
increasing its navy too. This started a race
for building more and better warships and
it created tension and competition
between those two countries.

The competition between Germany and
Great Britain also brought France, Italy,
Japan, and the U.S. into the naval arms
race. The major symbol of this arms race
was the “Dreadnought”. These British
ships caused a revolution, by making the
battleships of all other navies obsolete.
Soon every nation was trying to build
bigger, more heavily armed ships.
Alliance System
 Because
every country was trying to
get an advantage over their enemies,
they started to form military alliances
with other countries. By 1907 there
were two major defense alliances in
Europe. The Triple Entente (the
Allies) consisted of France, Great
Britain, and Russia.

The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Later,
Germany, Austria-Hungary and the
Ottoman Empire became the Central
Powers. These alliances were supposed
to provide protection from other countries,
and peace within Europe. As it turned
out, these alliances helped turn a small
incident into a major conflict.
Imperialism

As we have talked about before,
imperialism is a policy in which stronger
nations extend their economic, political, or
military control over weaker territories.
European countries had been establishing
colonies for centuries. In the late 19th
century Africa and Asia were prime targets
for European expansionism.

Colonies supplied the European powers
with raw materials, and provided markets,
for manufactured goods. As Germany
industrialized, it competed with France
and Britain in the contest for colonies.
Nationalism

Throughout the 19th Century western
politics were deeply influenced by the
devotion to the interests and culture of
one’s nation. Often nationalism led to
competitive and antagonistic rivalries
among nations. In this atmosphere many
feared Germany’s growing power in
Europe.

More importantly, various ethnic groups
resented domination by others and longed
for their own independence. Many ethnic
groups looked at larger nations for
protection. Russia was regarded as the
“protector of the Slavs”, no matter what
government they lived under. Among
these Slavic people were the Serbs, who
were under the rule of the AustriaHungary.

As a result, Russia and Austria-Hungary
were rivals for influence over Serbia.
Serbia!
Franz Ferdinand

The Balkans have long been known as the
“powder keg of Europe”. Ethnic rivalries
and the interests of the major powers put
all of these different groups at odds.
Russia wanted access to the
Mediterranean Sea. Germany wanted a
rail link to the Ottoman Empire. AustriaHungary accused Serbia of undermining
their authority in Bosnia. The ‘powder
keg” was ready to explode.

In June of 1914 the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne,
was visiting the Bosnian capital of
Sarajevo. During this visit the Black Hand,
a secret nationalist group, decided to
assassinate him. With their first attempt a
thrown bomb glanced off Franz
Ferdinand's arm, bounced off the folded
car top and into the street behind them.
The explosion injured about a dozen
spectators.

The failed bomber swallowed cyanide and
jumped into the river. The trouble was,
the poison was old -- it only made him
vomit -- and the river was only a few
inches deep. He was quickly seized by the
crowd and arrested. The motorcade
continued on. Later, as the royals drove
through the city Gavrilo Princip, another
member of the Black Hand, stepped from
the crowd and shot the Archduke and his
wife.

The murders of Franz Ferdinand and his
wife brought Austro-Serbian tensions to a
head. Austria-Hungary declared what was
supposed to be a short war against
Serbia. The alliance system pulled one
nation after another into the conflict.
Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary,
Germany declared war on Russia. On
August 3rd Germany declared war on
Russia’s ally, France.
The Schlieffen Plan

On August 3, 1914 Germany started to
execute the grand strategy known as the
Schlieffen Plan. This plan called for a
holding action against Russia combined
with a quick drive through Belgium to
Paris. After France had fallen the two
German armies would turn to defeat
Russia.

As German troops swept across Belgium
thousands of civilians fled in terror.
Unable to save Belgium, the Allies
retreated to the Marne River, in France,
where they were able to halt the German
advance. Both sides spent the next few
weeks trying to outflank each other’s
armies, but were unsuccessful so they dug
in for a long siege.

Most trenches were only a few feet above
sea level. As soon as soldiers began to dig
down they would invariably find water two
or three feet below the surface. Waterlogged trenches were a constant problem
for soldiers on the Western Front.
Frontline trenches were usually about
seven feet deep and six feet wide. This
made it impossible to see over the top so
a ledge known as a fire-step was added.
Trench Warfare

By the spring of 1915 these armies had
built parallel systems of trenches from the
Belgian coast to the Swiss Alps. As the
Germans were the first to decide where to
stand fast and dig, they had been able to
choose the best places to build their
trenches. The possession of the higher
ground not only gave the Germans a
tactical advantage, but it forced the British
and French to live in the worst conditions.

Trenches were not dug in straight lines.
Otherwise, if the enemy had a successive
offensive, and got into your trenches, they
could shoot straight along the line. The
front-line trenches were also protected by
barbed-wire entanglements and machinegun posts. Land between opposing
trenches was called “No-Man's Land”.

The scale of the slaughter was horrific.
During the first Battle of the Somme,
which lasted for almost five months, the
British suffered 60,000 casualties the
first day alone! Final casualties for the
battle totaled 1.2 million men, but the
lines only changed about seven miles.
This type of warfare continued for three
more years. Elsewhere the fighting was
just as devastating and inconclusive.
U.S. Neutrality

In 1914 most Americans saw no reason to
join the slaughter that was going on in
Europe, especially since it did not threaten
American lives or property. Americans,
though, were divided in their opinions on
the war. Socialists criticized the war
because of its origins in imperialism.

Pacifists, like William Jennings Bryan,
believed war was evil, and that the U.S.
should not get involved and set an
example of peace. Most of all, Americans
didn’t want their sons going to Europe to
die. Depending on their heritage,
Americans sympathized with opposing
sides. Most Americans, however felt
closer to Britain because of a common
language, democratic institutions and
legal system.

The most important tie to the Allies was
economic. Before the war American trade
with Britain and France doubled U.S. trade
with Germany. During the war’s first two
years this became even more lopsided, as
the Allies flooded American manufacturers
with orders for war supplies. The U.S.
shipped millions of dollars of war supplies
to the Allies, and requests kept coming.
by 1915 the U.S. was experiencing a labor
shortage.
The war hits home

As the war continued Britain began to use
its navy to blockade Germany, to keep
weapons and food from getting through.
They even blockaded neutral ports and
mined the entire North Sea. Americans
stopped shipments to Germany, and they
started to starve. By 1917 as many as
750,000 Germans had starved to death.

Germany’s response to this blockade was
a counter blockade with submarines (Uboats). Any ship found in the waters
around Britain would be sunk, and no
guarantee was made that the crews of
those ships would be warned before an
attack. One of the worst of these attacks
came in May 1915, when a U-boat sank
the British passenger liner Lusitania off
the coast of Ireland.

Of the 1,198 people that died, 128 were
Americans. The Germans defended the
sinking, claiming that it was carrying
ammunition to the Allies. Despite this
explanation Americans were outraged with
Germany, and public opinion turned
against Germany and the Central Powers.
Despite this President Wilson ruled out a
military response, in favor of a strong
official protest.
Reaction to the Lusitania and
other U-boat attacks in America

Other attacks against passenger liners,
with Americans aboard, included the
Arabic and the Sussex. Again the U.S.
warned that it would break off diplomatic
relations with Germany, unless it changed
its tactics. Germany countered that the
unrestricted submarine warfare would
continue until the U.S. persuaded Britain
to allow food and fertilizers through to
Germany.
The Election of 1916

This election was between Woodrow
Wilson (D) and Supreme Court Justice
Charles Evans Hughes (R). Wilson
campaigned on the slogan “He Kept Us
Out Of War”, while Hughes pledged to
uphold America’s right to the freedom of
the seas. This election was very close,
with Wilson squeaking out a victory.
Declaration
of War

After the election Wilson tried to work out
an agreement between the warring
nations, of course this failed. Wilson had
hoped that both sides would stop fighting
and work to extend democracy, maintain
the freedom of the seas, and reduce the
militarism in Europe. The Germans
ignored the call for peace.

On January 31, 1917 Germany resumed
their unrestricted submarine warfare, after
stopping for less than a year. All ships,
hostile or neutral, would be sunk on sight.
Wilson was stunned, and America was
afraid this would bring us into the war.
Wilson held back, waiting for “actual overt
acts” before declaring war. Those acts
came soon.

The first of these was the Zimmermann
Note, a telegram from the German
foreign minister to the German
ambassador in Mexico (which was
intercepted by the British). It proposed
an alliance between Germany and Mexico,
and promised that if war broke Germany
would assist them in recovering “lost
territory in Texas, New Mexico, and
Arizona.”

Soon afterward came the sinking of four
unarmed American merchant ships.
Finally, in March of 1917 the Russian Tsar
was overthrown and replaced with a
representative form of government. Now
Americans could support the war on the
premise that the war was now a war of
democracies versus brutal monarchies.
On April 4, 1917 the U.S. declared war on
Germany.

With the idea of U.S. neutrality shattered
the U.S. started to mobilize for war. U.S.
troops would now follow the stream of
money and munitions across the Atlantic.
Wilson’s plea to make the world “safe for
democracy” wasn’t an idle promise.
Wilson really believed that the U.S. had to
join this war to pave the way for future
peace and freedom.
U.S. Mobilization

Even though war had been declared the
U.S. was not immediately prepared.
There were only 200,000 men in service
and very few of the officers had combat
experience. Drastic measures were
needed to create an army large and
modern enough to make an impact in
Europe.

Congress passed the Selective Service Act,
in May 1917, to meet the need for more
soldiers. This law required men to
register with the government in order for
them to be randomly selected for military
service. By the end of 1918 24 million
men had registered and almost 3 million
had been drafted. Most of these draftees
had not attended high school and about
20% were foreign-born.

An eight-week training period took place
before these men were ready for combat.
During this time they spent 17 hour days
doing target practice, combat drills,
kitchen duty, and cleaning their camps.
Since weapons were in short-supply they
often used fake weapons for their training.

Of these recruits almost 400,000 were
African-American. More than half served
in France, although in segregated units.
Most were assigned to non-combat units.
Women were also allowed to serve in the
army, but only as nurses. They were
denied rank, pay, and benefits. Almost
13,000 women served in the navy and
marines, with full military rank, as nurses,
secretaries, and telephone operators.

Factories also needed to mobilize for war.
They needed to supply the army with
transportation, food, and equipment and
get it across the Atlantic. This was an
immense task, which was made even
more difficult because of the success of
Germany’s submarine warfare. The
Germans were sinking twice as much
tonnage, every year, as the Allies could
build.

To expand the U.S. fleet the government
exempted most shipyard workers from the
draft and delayed drafting others until
later. These shipyard workers were given
many of the benefits that soldiers were.
There was also a change in the way ships
were built. The assembly line idea was
transferred to ships. Ship parts were
being built in many factories, and then
assembled in the shipyards.

This method greatly reduced the time and
space it took to build ships, and
production increased greatly. As a result
on just one day, July 4 1918, the U.S.
launched 95 ships. Also, many private
ships were taken over by the government,
and were converted for use in the war.
Still, these ships had to deal with the UBoats as they crossed the Atlantic, and
took serious losses.
The Convoy System

To reduce the effectiveness of the U-boats
the navy came up with a new system in
which a heavy guard of destroyers would
escort merchant ships back and forth
across the Atlantic. By the fall of 1917
Allied naval losses had been cut in half.
The U.S. Navy also started to mine the
North Sea to keep U-boats out of the
Atlantic.

By 1918 the Germans found it increasingly
difficult to replace their losses and to staff
their fleet with trained submariners. Of
the 2 million Americans who sailed for
Europe only 637 were lost to U-boat
attacks.
The American Expeditionary Force

After 2 ½ years of fighting the Allied
forces were exhausted and demoralized.
One of the greatest contributions that the
U.S. made to the war effort was to supply
troops that were fresh and full of
enthusiasm. The AEF was led by General
John J. “Blackjack” Pershing. He had to
transform the Army as rapidly as possible
and to learn the techniques of modern
warfare at the same time.

His force included men from every state
and economic background. Most had
never been far from home. These men
were awed by the sights and sounds of
Paris, and shocked by the horrors of the
battlefield. These “doughboys” were now
exposed to a type of warfare that the
world had never seen, especially on this
scale.

The Allies expected to use the AEF as
replacements for their depleted armies,
and also hoped that this would lessen the
effects of their inexperience. Pershing,
however, envisioned a different role for his
force. He felt that the solution to the
stalemate that had developed was to
reestablish maneuver on the battlefield.

This meant that the AEF would avoid the
trench warfare mentality that the Allies
had accepted and instead train and fight
using what he termed “open warfare.”
This also meant that he would need the
AEF to operate as an independent fighting
force, under American command.
Although the Allied leaders were skeptical
they had to agree.
The “New Warfare”

The battlefields of WWI saw the first
large-scale use of weapons that would
define modern warfare. Some of these
weapons were new while others had been
refined to the point of being so effective
that they changed the battlefield forever.
The machinegun, tank, airplanes, heavy
artillery and poison gas were mainstays of
this new battlefield and helped contribute
to a horrible number of casualties.

The machine gun, which so came to
dominate and even to personify the
battlefields of WWI, was a fairly primitive
weapon when the war began. They were
heavy and ill-suited for rapidly advancing
infantry troops. When established to cover
potential enemy attack routes, the
machine gun proved a fearsome defensive
weapon. Infantry assaults upon such
positions proved very costly.

The British found the futility of massed
infantry attacks against entrenched
positions protected by machine guns. The
first day of the Somme Offensive amply
illustrated this, although the lesson was
lost on the British high command. On the
opening day of the offensive the British
suffered a record number of single day
casualties, 60,000, the great majority lost
because of machine gun fire.

Artillery, in the First World War was
used to defend against attacks, prepare
for assaults, destroy trenches, and protect
soldiers as they advanced toward enemy
trenches. At the outset of the war, artillery
was used as a mobile weapon but, as the
war progressed and both sides became
entrenched, it was increasingly used as a
means of bombarding enemy trenches
from fixed positions.

As the war continued, different types of
artillery were quickly developed. Larger
guns were built that could fire great
distances and shells that carried high
explosives were used to destroy defenses
that were carefully constructed and
defended. Immense guns mounted on
train cars were also used as a means of
having heavy portable weaponry. They
were often nicknamed "Big Bertha",
"Mother", and "Granny“.

A photo of a French Naval gun used by the
American Army. This looks to be like that of the
400mm railway gun type.

Gas was invented (and used very
successfully) as a terror weapon meant to
instill confusion and panic among the
enemy prior to an offensive. They ranged
form the non-lethal tearing agents to the
dreaded mustard gas. Unlike the other
gases which attack the respiratory system,
mustard gas acts on any exposed, moist
skin.

This includes the eyes, lungs, armpits and
groin. A gas mask could offer very little
protection. The oily agent would produce
large burn-like blisters wherever it came
in contact with skin. It also had a nasty
way of hanging about in low areas for
hours, even days, after being dispersed. A
soldier jumping into a shell crater could
find himself blinded, with skin blistering
and lungs bleeding.
The total number of casualties
from gas attacks was over 1.2
million wounded and 91,000
deaths.

Airplanes were used, throughout the
war, in various roles. Initially airplanes
were so flimsy that they were only used
for scouting. After a while the two sides
used them for bombing the enemy or
attacking each other’s planes. These early
“dogfights” (individual air combat) were
very non-lethal, often ending when one
plane ran out of gas or crashed.

As airplanes began to be able to fly faster,
further, and were more maneuverable
(eventually machine guns were mounted
on the airplanes) flying became a
dangerous business. The best fighter
pilots became famous and sometimes, like
Germany’s Baron von Richthofen, racked
up over 80 victories over their enemy.

Tanks were a new idea developed to
provide a moving platform for machine
guns so that they could support infantry
attacks. They were replacing armored
cars which could not drive over trenches
or roll over barbed wire. The earliest
tanks were very slow, broke down often,
and were very clumsy. Although tanks
were never used in large numbers they
signaled a new era in modern warfare.
The U.S. goes on the Offensive

When Russia pulled out of the war in 1917
(because of the Russian Revolution) the
Germans shifted their armies from the
eastern front to the front in France. By
May they were within 50 miles of Paris.
The Americans arrived just in time to stop
the German advance at Cantigny in
France.

In that battle 4,000 men from the U.S. 1st
Division captured the village of Cantigny,
held by the Germans. In taking the village
the Americans expanded their front by
approximately a mile. Most importantly,
the Americans proved that they could be
effective against the best the enemy had
to offer. This success was followed by
attacks at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau
Wood in the first half of June.

In July and August the U.S. troops helped
the Allies win the Second Battle of the
Marne. Because of American enthusiasm,
freshness, and lack of experience with the
horrors of war the tide had turned against
the Central Powers. In September U.S.
troops began to mount offensives against
the Germans, especially in the Argonne
Forest area.
American War heroes

During the fighting in the Argonne forest
one of America’s greatest war heroes was
made. A backwoodsman and blacksmith
from Tennessee, York had initially tried to
be exempt from the draft as a
conscientious objector (a person who
opposed war on moral grounds). York
changed his mind, believing that killing
was alright if it was for a just cause.

On October 8, 1918 York, armed only with
his rifle and a pistol, killed 25 Germans
and with the help of six other soldiers
captured 132 Germans. For his heroic
acts he was promoted to the rank of
sergeant and became a celebrity in
America.

Eddie Rickenbacker was the greatest
American flying Ace. He had proposed to
form a flying squadron made up entirely
of racing drivers. He later transferred to
the famous "Hat in the Ring" squadron, so
called because of their insignia. Eddie
finished the war with 26 victories, the
Congressional Medal of Honor, the
Distinguished Service Cross, and the
French Croix de Guerre.

The "Harlem Hellfighters", the American
369th Regiment, fought with the French
16th Division. The longest fighting
American unit in World War I, they
received a total of 171 Croix de Guerre
decorations.

On November 2, 1918 Austria-Hungary
surrendered to the Allies. That same day
German sailors mutinied against the
government. The mutiny quickly spread.
German soldiers and workers formed
revolutionary councils. On November 9
socialist leaders established a republic in
Berlin. The Kaiser abdicated the throne.

Although no Allied troops were on German
territory, and no decisive battle had been
fought, the Germans were too exhausted
to continue. Finally, on the 11th hour of
the 11th day, of the 11th month Germany
agreed to an armistice (cease-fire). In the
end the war cost about 22 million deaths,
half of them civilians. 20 million more
were wounded and 10 million were
refugees.

The U.S., despite being involved in the
actual fighting for only six months, lost
48,000 men in battle, 200,000 wounded
and another 62,000 died from disease.
Combined the world spent $180 billion,
with the U.S. spending $22.6 Billion. With
the war over Americans expected to
return back to normal life in America.
Many found their lives at home had
changed almost as much as those who
had fought in Europe.

Hollywood's first generation of horror films
were a direct descendant of World War I.
Americans saw the newsreels and
photographs of damaged bodies, read
tales of shell-shocked soldiers, and faced
the trauma of war in a way no national
audience had ever done. Prior to World
War I, casualties were hidden away from
the public, locked in the attic and ignored.
Tales of glory and heroism could
whitewash the horror.

The Hunchback and the Phantom were
men who, like many WWI veterans, had
to live with disfigurements. Many other
films, especially Frankenstein, recalled the
war’s bleak landscapes. Many in this
generation were profoundly disturbed by
the horrors that the war had unleashed.
Two of the 20,000 WWI “facial
casualties” with prostheses
Between 1914 and 1921 over 41,000 men
lost at least one limb as a result of their
injuries, and this was in the British armed
forces alone.
Trench Foot
The Home Front
Watershed in US History
 US
steps out of Isolationism
 Expansion of central government
 America optimistic it could “fix” the
world’s problems

Because WWI was such an immense
conflict the entire economy had to be
refocused on the war effort. The shift
from producing consumer goods to war
supplies was too complicated and
important a job to let big business handle
it on their own. Big business and the
government had to work together to make
this work right. In the process the power
of the government was expanded greatly.
War Industries Board

Congress gave Wilson the power to direct
much of the economy, including the power
to fix prices and to regulate certain warrelated industries. Bernard Baruch, a
prosperous businessman, was put in
charge. The 6 member board had
representatives of Army, Navy, War
Materials, Finished Products…
The board encouraged companies to
adopt mass-production techniques to
increase efficiency and to eliminate waste.
The WIB also set production quotas and
allocated raw materials throughout the
U.S. Under the WIB production
throughout the U.S. increased by 20%.
 The WIB had very little real power,
though. It could intimidate, urge,
negotiate…

U.S. artillery being produced at
Bethlehem Steel
In reality the WIB could only control
prices on the wholesale level. Retail
prices soared, and many prices soon
doubled from pre-war levels. Corporate
profits, especially in the chemical,
meatpacking, oil, and steel industries.
 The Railroad and Fuel Administrations also
were given regulatory power. Many
people adopted “gasless Sundays”, and
“lightless nights” to conserve fuel.

The War Economy

Wages in the U.S. rose during the war
years. Hourly wages for blue-collar
workers rose by 20%. These incomes
were largely undercut by rising food prices
and housing costs. In contrast, many
government contractors saw huge profits.
The DuPont Company saw its stock
multiply 1600%between 1914 and 1918.
DuPont was earning $68 million/year.

The pay gap between labor and
management increased greatly. Work
hours, child labor, and “sped-up” working
conditions also grew greatly. So did labor
unions. Union membership doubled to 4
million members, and they held 6,000
strikes during the war. To deal with these
disputed the National War Labor Board
was formed, their chief threat was that
strikers could lose their draft exemptions.
Food Administration

The Food Admin. was set up to help
conserve and produce food. Herbert
Hoover was made its leader. It gets the
US in a position to feed the war industry,
not by rationing but by a great coercion of
the public. Hoover called for “Meatless”,
“Sweetless”, “Porkless” and “Wheatless”
days.

Homeowners were convinced to plant
“Victory Gardens” in their yards.
Schoolchildren spent their time, after
school, growing vegetables in public
parks. Farmers put an additional 40
million acres into production, especially
growing wheat and other staples. As a
result of these efforts, food shipments to
the Allies tripled.
Financing the War
US starts out selling to all nations, and
businessmen start to get rich
 British blockade limits sales to Allies only
 By early 1917 American companies had
loaned $1.5 Billion to Allies
 US economy geared up for producing war
goods


The U.S. spent about $35.5 billion on the
war effort, the government raised about
1/3 of this through taxes. It raised the
rest through public borrowing by selling
“Liberty Loans” and “Victory Loan” bonds
to Americans. The government sold these
through tens of thousands of volunteers,
including movie stars. Patriotic pressure
was used to sell these loans, saying only
unpatriotic people wouldn’t buy them.
Secretary of Treasury-William Gibbs
McAdoo (Wilson’s son-in-law) was put in
charge of this effort. The plan was to
borrow from public to pay for war, and
keep inflation down!
 The expansion of currency causes
spending & inflation in the U.S. In many
cases inflation causes prices to raise to 5x
prewar levels.


George Creel was put in charge of
“popularizing” the war. He was the leader
of the Committee on Public Information.
He was a former muckraker, and his
propaganda campaigns have been seen
throughout this presentation. Creel
persuaded artists and advertising agents
to create thousands of paintings, posters,
and cartoons to promote the war. These
campaigns often used characters of
different races and inflamed hatred.
Attacks on Civil Liberties

Both official and unofficial attacks on Civil
Liberties appeared during the war. The
main targets of these attacks were
Americans who had emigrated from other
countries, especially Germany and AustriaHungary. Many Americans with German
sounding names lost their jobs.
Orchestras refused to play music by
Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.
Finally, in a burst of patriotic fervor,
Americans changed the names of German
measles to “liberty measles”, and
hamburgers to “Liberty sandwiches”.
 In June 1917 Congress passed the
Espionage and Sedition Acts. Under these
laws it was illegal to interfere with the war
effort or say anything disloyal about the
government or the war effort.


Violating these laws could bring fines up
to $10,000 and up to 20 years in jail.
These laws clearly violated the spirit of
the First Amendment, but prosecutions
still occurred. Socialists and labor leaders,
like Eugene Debs and “Big Bill” Haywood,
were targeted. Debs was convicted and
was sentenced to 10 years in prison while
Haywood got 30 years, for speaking out
against the war.
Although Debs was sentenced to 10 years
in prison, he only ended up serving 2 ½
years. President Harding commuted his
sentence on Christmas Day in 1921.
While in prison he had run for president
(1920 election) and received about
919,000 votes!
 Big Bill Haywood never served his
sentence because he fled the country,
during an appeal, and wound up in the
Soviet Union working with Lenin.

The Great Migration

The greatest effect of WWI on AfricanAmericans’ lives was the large-scale
movement of hundreds of thousands of
Southern blacks to cities in the North.
This population shift had begun before the
war, when blacks were trying to escape
the conditions of Jim Crow. Several
factors contributed to the tremendous
increase in black migration.
Many blacks were escaping racial
discrimination in the South, which made it
hard to make a living and threatened their
lives.
 Economic opportunities in the South were
shrinking while opportunities in the North
were increasing. Boll weevil infestations,
floods, and droughts hurt Southern
agriculture. At the same time Henry Ford
was now hiring black workers.


During the war job opportunities in steel
mills, munitions plants, and stockyards.
Northern manufacturers were so in need
of labor that they distributed free railroad
passes through the south. Once they got
to the north they realized they still had to
deal with discrimination. In addition to
this they had to deal with housing
shortages and increased racial tensions.
Race riots broke out in several cities.

Women’s Efforts
During the war women were also moving
into jobs that were previously denied
them. They became RR workers, cooks,
dockworkers, mined coal, worked in
shipyards and were bricklayers. They also
served in the military, served with the Red
Cross, and planted victory gardens.
President Wilson acknowledged their
service, although they didn’t ever get
equal pay.
Female ship riveters
The Influenza Epidemic

In the fall of 1918 the U.S. suffered a
health epidemic that affected about ¼ of
the U.S. population. This was part of a
larger, world-wide influenza epidemic.
The effect of this on the economy was
devastating. Mines shut down, telephone
service is cut in half, factories, schools and
offices all shut down to stop contagion.
Cities ran out of coffins and bodies often
lay unburied for weeks.

This mysterious illness seemed to strike
completely healthy people and death
could occur in days. Doctors didn’t know
what to do and could only recommend
cleanliness and quarantine effected
people. The army was affected even
more. Almost ¼ of all soldiers caught this
disease. In total 500,000 Americans died
from the flu. (Maybe 30 million died
worldwide)
The Fourteen Points

In January 1918 the representatives of
the Allies met at the Palace of Versailles.
President Wilson was there to persuade
the Allies to construct a plan to bring a
lasting peace and to establish a League of
Nations. Rejection was the last thing
Wilson expected when he arrived in
Europe. Wilson’s plan was developed
even before the war was over.

The key to his plan was called the
Fourteen Points. These points were
divided into three groups. The first five
points were supposed to prevent another
war: 1) There should be no secret treaties
among nations. 2) Freedom of the seas
should be maintained for all. 3) Tariffs
should be lowered in order to foster free
trade. 4) Arms should be reduced. 5)
Colonial policies should also consider the
interests of both colonial peoples.

The next eight dealt with boundary
changes, based on self-determination.
Historical boundaries and ethnic groups
should be used to decide where new
nations should be formed. The fourteenth
point called for a League of Nations to
provide a forum for nations to discuss and
settle their grievances without having to
resort to war. Wilson didn’t understand
the anger of the Allied leaders.
Treaty of Versailles

The Allies were more worried about
punishing the defeated nations and
getting reparations (payments for war
debts incurred) from Germany and
Austria-Hungary. The Big-Four worked
out the treaty’s details, with Wilson having
little say in the results. In the end the
treaty was structured to punish Germany,
rather than create peace.

The treaty established nine new nations
including Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania,
and Latvia. It shifted the boarders of
many nations and carved five areas out of
the Ottoman Empire and gave them to
Britain and France. They were to rule
them until they were ready for self-rule
and independence. The treaty also barred
Germany from maintaining an army.

It also required Germany to return the
region of Alsace-Lorraine to France and to
pay reparations totaling $33 billion to the
Allies. Finally, it required Germany to
accept full responsibility for the war. In
total, Germany was humiliated, stripped of
some of their most valuable lands
including colonies, and required to pay
huge reparations without any way of
making that happen.

Many countries, including the U.S.,
opposed the treaty, but were forced to live
with its conditions. When Wilson returned
home he faced strong opposition to the
treaty. Many believed its terms were too
harsh. Others thought it was simply
helping the Allies continue with their
imperialism. In the end the U.S. refuses
to sign the treaty. Because of his support
of it Wilson loses his political support.
League of Nations

Because of U.S. opposition to the Treaty
of Versailles the U.S. also opposed the
League of Nations. Many conservative
senators, headed by Henry Cabot Lodge,
push against both the Treaty and the
League. In Wilson’s fight to get the treaty
accepted he suffered a stroke. With his
voice gone the Republicans carry the
argument. The U.S. refused to join the
league of nations.
Effects of the War

After the was the U.S. calls for a return to,
what Warren Harding called “normalcy”.
The U.S. wanted to fade back into political
obscurity, despite the fact that we had
become one of the most powerful nations
in the world. Now the government and
army were much stronger. AfricanAmericans and women were dissatisfied
with how they were being treated at
home.

The U.S. economy was booming, but
producing only war goods. They needed
to change back to consumer goods, but
that would take time. At the same time
millions of soldiers are returning home to
no jobs, and our economy falters. Europe
is in ruins, both politically and socially,
which leads to instability and eventually
conditions that will cause WWII.