The American Pageant
Chapter 31 Part A
The War to End War
Europe conflict
• Serb patriot killed heir to the Austria-Hungary throne
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Germany and Austria-Hungary sent message to Serbia
Serbia backed by Russia set eyes on Germany
Germany attacked France through Belgium
Great Britain joined with France
Gavrilo Princip
Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Europe Before WWI
American Neutrality
• Both central and allied powers wanted US help
• Allies – German atrocities
• Central – relied on German-Americans
• Americans anti-German
• Against Kaiser Wilhelm II
American Economy
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In recession before WWI
British and French need for product
J.P Morgan loaned 2.3 billion
Central powers complained
• Did not violate neutrality laws
• Could still trade with US
• British blockade
German Reaction
• 1915 –Germany announces submarine war area around British
isles
• U-boats
• 90 ships sunk in first few months
• “try not to sink neutral ships”
Lusitania
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Passenger ship
Sank of Ireland on May 7, 1915
1,198 killed (128 Americans)
Germans argued ship carried ammunition
Wilson’s Reaction
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Warning to Germany
Agreed in 1915 to not sink unarmed ships without warning
Violated with sinking of Sussex in 1916
Sussex ultimatum
• Germany would not attack passenger ships
• Accepted by Wilson
• U.S. would help to remove British blockade
• Not agreed upon
Election of 1916
• Wilson: “He Kept us Out of War”
• Roosevelt refused to run as a progressive
• Republican’s nominate Hughes
• Pro-business; attacked Wilson’s foreign policy
Woodrow Wilson
• January 22, 1917
• Neutral rights
• “Peace without victory”
Move to War
• January 31, 1917 – Germnay declares unrestricted submarine
warfare
• Wilson still wanted peace
• March 1, 1917 - Zimmerman note
• German-Mexican alliance
• Recovery of TX, NM, and AZ
• 4 unarmed US ships sunk in March
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War!!
• Declared on April 6th, 1917
• “to make the world safe for democracy”
Wilson’s Potent Fourteen
Points
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Jan 8, 1918
Abolish secret treaties
Freedom of the seas
Economic freedom
Reduction of arms
End of colonization
The freedom of self-determination
Formation of an international organization for collective
security
Committee on Public Information
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Created by George Creel
Gain support of America through propaganda
“four minute men” – patriotic speeches
Posters, pamphlets, and movies
Anti-German Sentiment
• 8 million German-Americans
• The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918curbed the right to free speech
• Eugene V. Debs convicted under the Espionage Act.
 Schenck v. United States (1919): freedom of speech could be
revoked when such speech posed a danger to the nation.
 The war years were tough times on civil liberties
Economy
• Overwhelmingly not ready for war
• Civilian Council of National Defense
• to study problems of economic mobilization
• increased the size of the army
• created a shipbuilding program.
• War Industries Board
• Control production, wages, and prices of goods
• disbanded after the end of the war.
Herbert Hoover and the FDA
• Wheatless Wednesdays
• Meatless Tuesdays
• Alcohol manufacturing slowed
• 18th amendment (1919)
• $21 billion raised