World War I and Beyond
1914-1920
Chapter 10
Section 1: From Neutrality to War
What Caused World War I:
Nationalism and Competition
Heighten Tension
 Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, and entangling alliances
combined with other factors to lead the nations of Europe into
war
 Alsace-Lorraine – French territory
lost to a collection of German states
Militarism Produces an Arms
Race
 Militarism – glorification of the military, grew in the
competing countries and fueled the arms race
 The contest between Germany and Britain at sea and
Germany, France and Russia on land guaranteed a major
war
 Militarism Produces an arms race and European
leaders are sure a war would erupt in time.
Alliances Make Nations
Overconfident and Reckless
 Leaders prepared for war by forming alliances. Germany,
Austria – Hungary, and Italy joined together in the Triple
Alliance, though Italy never fought with it
 Alliances emboldened leaders,
they knew if they went to war
their allies were obligated to fight
along with them
Assassination Hurtles Europe
Toward World War
 Archduke Francis Ferdinand – heir to the throne of AustriaHungary, was assassinated by Serbs who saw Ferdinand as
a tyrant (video)
The Fighting Begins: Alliances
Cause a Chain Reaction
 Kaiser William II – German
emperor, assured Austria
Hungary Germany would stand
by its ally if war came.
 A-H declared war on Serbia July
28, 1914, because of their
unwillingness to help in the
investigation
 Because of the alliance system,
what should have been a
localized quarrel spread
Deadly Technology Leads to
Stalemate
 Western Front – 450 miles of trenches that became the
critical battle front.
The Reality of Trench Warfare
 Stalemate in the trenches led to horrid conditions; lice from
rats, “trench foot,” snipers, gas, and enemy attacks
 Between the lines was “no man’s land”
 Soldiers went “over the top” to launch an offensive and there
were thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of
casualties
 Casualties – soldiers killed, wounded, and missing
Wilson Urges Neutrality
 President Wilson urged Americans “to be impartial
in thought as well as action,” as war spread across
Europe
 We tried to adhere to the “melting pot,” ideals
 Many businesses benefited from the increased
demand by warring nations for American goods
Americans Have Divided
Loyalties
 One third of Americans were foreign-born in 1914,
many of them felt loyalty to their homelands
 Most Americans sided with Britain and France,
Britain because of cultural heritage and France
because of their aid in the Revolution
American Opinion Crystallizes
 German invasion of neutral Belgium swayed
American opinion, fueled by British journalists and
propagandists that showed and often exaggerated
the brutality of the Germans
Neutrality Gives Way to War
 1914 the start of World War I
 1917 U.S. entry into World War I
Britain Blockades Germany
 British leaders decided to use their navy to
blockade Germany, and prevent most supplies
from reaching Germany
 Contraband – supplies captured from an enemy
during wartime
German Sub marines Violate
Neutral Rights
 Germany began to blockade Britain, sinking Allied
ships using its U-boats
 On May 7, 1915 the British passenger liner
Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat, Wilson
was stunned but still wanted peace “ There is such
a thing as a nation being so right that it does not
need to convince others by force that it is right”
(Sussex Pledge)
Wilson Prepares for War
 By the end of 1915 Wilson began to prepare the
Nation for War
 The National Defense Act expanded the size of the
army
 Naval Construction Act ordered the building of
more warships
 Wilson ran for his second
term on the slogan,
“ He kept us out of war”
America Enters the War
 Zimmerman Note – proposed an alliance with
German and Mexico
 April 2, 1917 Wilson asked Congress for a
declaration of war against Germany
Section 2: The Home Front
America Mobilizes for War
 During World War I the U.S. government assumed
new powers regulating industrial and agricultural
production while also establishing a draft
 The war was among nations but touched the lives
of their citizens
Building and Army
 When the U.S. entered into WWI the army was
small compared to those of European Nations
 Selective Service Act – Congress passed it May
1917 which authorized the draft
 24 million registered and 2.8 million served
Constructing a War Economy
 Bernard Baruch – head of the War Industries
Board (WIB), an investment banker that reported
directly to the president /who, what, where, when,
cost/
 Future President Herbert Hoover did the same for
food production / wheatless Mondays and
Wednesday, meatless Tuesdays, porkless
Thursdays and Saturdays
Shaping Public Opinion
 Committee on Public Information (CPI) - to
educate the public about the causes and nature of
the war
 George Creel – director of the CPI, combined
education and widespread advertising to “sell
America”
Opposition and Its
Consequences
 German Americans and Irish Americans, tended to
oppose the Allies for different reasons. Some
people treated German Americans with prejudice,
or intolerance. Some Americans opposed the war
for many reasons and the government acted in
ways that sometimes trespassed on individual
liberties
Resistance to the Draft
 The draft created controversy
 Conscientious objectors – people whose moral
or religious beliefs forbid them to fight in wars (
what if no one would fight?) (individual rights) (is
freedom free?)
Women Work for Peace
 Some American women also opposed the war.
 Jane Addams formed the Women’s Peace Party
 Jeannette Rankin was the first women to serve in
he U.S. House of Representatives
The Government Cracks Down
on Dissent
 As in previous and future wars, the government
navigated a difficult path between respecting and
restring individual rights
 Espionage Act – allowed postal authorities to ban
treasonable or seditious newspapers, magazines,
or printed materials from the mail
Cont.
 1918 Congress passed the Sedition Act, which
made it unlawful to use “disloyal, profane,
scurrilous, and abusive language”
 Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the
Sedition Act, stating there are times when the need
for public order is so pressing that the First
Amendment protections of speech do not apply
Prejudice Against German
Americans
 The CPI intensified the anti-German feelings by
portraying Germany as a cruel enemy
 Americans stopped teaching German in public
schools and stopped playing Beethoven and
Brahms, renamed German measles “liberty
measles”
 Some German Americans were harassed,
beaten, and even a few were killed
The War Changes American
Society
 The war changed the lives for women, African
Americans, and Mexican Americans
Women Embrace New
Opportunities
 As men entered the armed forces, many women
moved into the workforce for the first time
 Munitions factories
 Railroads
 Telegraph operators
 Trolley conductors
 Farms
 Red Cross as drivers and clerks
African Americans Follow
Opportunity North
 W.E.B. Du Boies viewed the war as an excellent
opportunity to show all Americans the loyalty and
patriotism of African Americans
 Great Migration – blacks left the south for
economic advancement in the North’s wartime
industries (Primary Source pg. 299)
Mexican Americans Move
North
 Many Mexican migrants crossed the border to
harvest fruits or grains or pick cotton, they filled a
demand for labor as blacks migrated north
Section 3: Wilson, War, and
Peace
Why It Matters
 By the spring of 1917 when the U.S. entered into
WWI the Western Front in France had become a
deadly, bloody stalemate. The U.S. would play a
key role in the Allied victory.
America Gives the Allies the
Edge
 Many European leaders cast doubt the U.S. could
raise, train, equip, and transport an army fast
enough to influence the outcome of the war
Allied Convoys Protect
Shipping
 Germany U-boats were sinking merchant ships
faster than they could be replaced
 The problems solution came in the form of an old
naval tactic called “convoy”
 Convoy – groups of merchant ships sailed
together protected by warships (pg. 303)
The Allies Struggle
 Central Powers were gaining ground after years of
fighting
 In March 1917 a revolution overthrew Czar
Nicholas II though they remained committed to the
war
 Radical communists led by Vladimir Lenin staged
a revolution and gained control of Russia
 The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war between
the Soviet Union and Germany
American Troops Join the Fight
 John J. Pershing – the commander of American
forces in Europe
 As weeks followed American troops began to
assume more of the wars burden, at the same time
German offensive began to stall
American Troops Distinguish
Themselves
 American troops called “doughboys”, began to
break German lines
 U.S. war hero Alvin York distinguish himself by
silencing German machinegun nest, and dodged
other attacks using only a pistol. He would later
earn the Congressional Medal of Honor
The War Ends
 By the end of 1918 the German front was
collapsing, the armies of Germany and AustriaHungary had had enough
 On November 11th 1918 Germany surrendered to
the Allies
 5 million Allied, 8 million Central Power, and 6.5
million civilians were dead
Wilson Promotes Peace
Without Victory
 Vladimir Lenin, leader of the communist revolution
said the entire war was an imperialistic land-grab
 President Wilson pushed the idea “peace without
victory” (Primary Source pg. 305)
 Fourteen Points – Wilson’s outline for what
America wants, peace by noble ideals, not greed
and vengeance
Cont…
 Wilson’s Fourteen Points sought to fundamentally
change the world, openness, independence, and
freedom
 No secrets, diplomacy, free trade, open seas
 Self –Determination – the right of people to
choose their own form of government
Cont…
 League of Nations – to secure “mutual guarantees
of political independence and territorial integrity to
great and small states alike
 1919 Allied peace conference in Versailles, Wilson
went, something no other U.S. President had done
Cont…
 Henry Cabot Lodge – a Republican foreign policy
expert was left behind because Wilson disliked him
 Many in American politics were angered but Wilson
was greeted in Europe with much fanfare
Wilson at the Paris Peace
Conference
 Wilson’s idealism did not inspire other Allied
leaders
 They blamed Germany for starting the war and
wanted to weaken them so to never have the
ability to start another war
 Reparations – payment for war damages
Allied Leaders Reject Wilson’s
Ideas
 The leaders of both France and Britain wanted
Germany to pay for the war not only through
reparations but also with the return of Alsace
Lorraine and other key German colonies
Allies Create a League of
Nations
 Leaders of Italy, France and Britain began to scrap
many aspects of Wilson’s Fourteen Points plan,
freedom of the seas, free trade, and liberation of
colonial empires, and general disarmament
 Wilson lost many ideas but continued to fight for
the League of Nations were countries could gather
and peacefully resolve their quarrels
Problems With the Peace
 The various peace treaties crated almost as many
problems as they solved (read pg. 307)
America Rejects the Treaty
 Wilson left Versailles knowing the treaty was not
perfect but believed over time the League of
Nations could fix the problems and peace would
emerge
Wilson Faces Troubles at
Home
 German Americans thought the “war guilt clause”
saying Germany started the war was to harsh
 Irish Americans criticized the failure to create an
independent Ireland
 Some senators though the U.S. should not get
entangled in world politics / organizations they
were called “irreconcilables”
Cont…
 Reservationists – opposed the treaty some
Senators wanted minor changes while others
wanted many
 Article 10 – war without Congress /
unconstitutional
 Unable to sway Congress Wilson went to the
people working himself to the brink of death
The Senate Rejects the
Versailles Treaty
 The treaty was voted on three times and three
times it was defeated
 The tragedy was that without full American support
the League of Nations would be ineffective