SSUSH15
The student will analyze the origins
and impact of U.S. involvement in
World War I.
15.a- Describe the movement from U.S. neutrality to engagement
in World War I, with reference to unrestricted submarine warfare
• When the Great War (World War I) broke out after the assassination of
Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the United States
remained neutral. Although public sentiment leaned toward support of
Great Britain and the Allied Powers to defeat Germany and the Central
Powers, the U.S. government pledged to remain neutral.
• U.S. neutrality was tested, however, by the German policy of unrestricted
submarine warfare. This policy, intended to enforce a total blockade on
British shipping, included merchant and commercial vessels, as well as
warships.
• In May 1915, a German unterseeboot (u-boat) sank a British luxury liner,
the Lusitania, killing almost 1200, 128 of which were Americans. The
incident enflamed public outrage against Germany, but the U.S. chose to
issue stern warnings to Germany rather than immediately go to war. The
Germans eventually consented to stop unrestricted submarine warfare to
keep the Americans out of the war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
campaigned and was re-elected in 1916 on a peace and neutrality
platform.
Zimmerman Note
• U.S. neutrality was finally broken early in 1917. Two events
pushed the United States into the war: One was the
interception of German diplomatic correspondence with
Mexico, known as the “Zimmerman telegram.” The
Zimmerman telegram contained a German overture toward
alliance with Mexico, suggesting that if Mexico helped
Germany defeat the United States, Germany would help
Mexico regain territories lost in the U.S.-Mexican War of
1846-8.
• The other decisive factor pushing the U.S. toward war was
the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in
February 1917. Six American merchant vessels were sunk in
the following months, and the U.S. officially declared war in
April 1917.
15.b- Explain the domestic impact of World War I, as reflected by
the origins of the Great Migration, the Espionage Act, and socialist
Eugene Debs
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As the United States engaged in the war in Europe, it brought about significant
changes on the home front as well.
Economic and social forces spurred by the war led to one of the largest internal
migrations in U.S. history, the Great Migration- as hundreds of thousands of
African Americans left the South for better opportunities in northern industrial
cities.
U.S. involvement in the war also caused a sharp rise in patriotic, nationalist, and
nativist sentiments. Of particular concern was the threat from anarchists and
political radicals who might damage the U.S./Allied effort. The federal government
responded with the Espionage Act, which outlined a host of crimes and stiff
penalties for virtually any activity that had potential to aid the enemy.
Congress followed The Espionage Act with an even broader measure passed in
1918, The Sedition Act. This law made it illegal to even speak against the war effort
or to incite action that might harm the government’s effort to prosecute the war.
These measures represented a major curtailment of free speech and civil liberties,
and led to several important Supreme Court decisions in the years to follow.
The most famous person convicted and imprisoned under the new laws was
Eugene V. Debs, long-time leader of the American Socialist Party.
15.c- Explain Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the proposed
League of Nations
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The U.S. president during WWI, Woodrow Wilson was pained by what he saw as
the unnecessary slaughter that occurred in the “war to end all wars”. In typically
“Progressive” style, Wilson believed he could engineer lasting peace for Europe
and the globe, by addressing in treaty what he believed caused the war in the first
place.
Early in 1918 Wilson presented his plan to Congress. Called “Fourteen Points,”
Wilson outlined a plan for establishing free trade and free seas, de-militarization,
impartial intervention of colonial claims, rights of national self-determination, a
ban on secret military alliances, and the settling of border disputes.
The 14th “point” was the centerpiece of Wilson’s plan. It called for the creation of
an international body of nations- The League of Nations – that would act to
preserve peace and prevent future wars by mediating disputes through diplomacy.
As Wilson joined the Allied peace delegation at Versailles a year later, he found the
European leaders much less receptive to his progressive vision. They sought to
punish Germany with total de-militarization and hefty reparations. Wilson’s idea
for the League of Nations, however, did make it into the final Treaty of Versailles,
but was rejected by the U.S. Senate. Lingering bitterness over U.S. intervention
manifested in a return to a staunchly isolationist position, and the United States
refused to join the League of Nations.
15.d- Describe passage of the Eighteenth Amendment,
establishing Prohibition, and the Nineteenth Amendment, establishing
woman suffrage
• While Wilson was unsuccessfully attempting
to apply Progressive ideals to the peace
process, two of the Progressives’ most
cherished issues-prohibition of alcohol, and
women’s suffrage- received the ultimate
sanction with constitutional amendments.
Amendment XVIII
• The Eighteenth Amendment placed a ban on the manufacture, sale,
and consumption of alcohol in any form. It was the result of
decades of grass-roots organizing and intensive lobbying at the
state at federal levels.
• Social Welfare Progressives saw the prohibition amendment as
their crowning achievement, eliminating what they saw as the
leading cause of unemployment, poverty, domestic abuse, among
other social ills.
• The amendment was ratified in January 1920, although many
individual states had already passed prohibition measures.
• By most accounts Prohibition was a complete failure. Enforcement
of the federal statutes fell to the Treasury Department, and later
the Department of Justice and the newly created FBI. Prohibition
greatly expanded the police power of the federal government.
Prohibition also led to the creation of organized crime syndicates to
distribute illegal booze in nearly every major U.S. city.
Amendment XIX
• Like Prohibition, the 19th amendment, granting women the
right to vote, was a long time in the making. Since the 1848
Seneca Falls Convention, the women’s rights movement
had suffered from factionalism and a general lack of broad
support.
• Progressive ideals of social equality and expansion of the
electorate reinvigorated the women’s movement. As more
individual states began granting women the vote through
the 1910s, Congress moved to pass an amendment
proposal.
• The House passed their version in 1918, but the Senate
vote failed twice before finally being passed in June 1918.
In late August 1920, enough states had ratified the
amendment for it to take effect.