N
: _________________
P
: ________
U
5: W
W
I
10
11
12
6
7
8
9
Page Date Grade Description
1 NA “Big Ideas, Guiding Questions, Essential Questions
2
3
NA Unit Outline: World War I (1914-1918)
World War I Terms – Vocabulary “Walk” Part 1
4
5
13
World War I Terms – Part 2
Video: World War I: the War in Europe 3/2/1;
Causes of World War I
DBQ: Causes of World War I
America Intervenes: The U.S. joins the War
A New Kind of War: New Weapons and Technologies
Cornell Notes: Highlights of the War
The Home Front: Economic Effects & Policy Changes
The Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles
Rejection of the Treaty and America’s return to
Isolationism
DBQ: Treaty of Versailles
0

World War I (1914-1918)
1.
When WW I erupted in 1914 most Americans saw no reason to involve themselves in the struggle among
Europe’s imperialist powers and reaffirmed their belief in American exceptionalism as President Wilson proclaimed America’s neutrality.
2.
In response to Germany’s provocations and Allied war loans and sympathies, Wilson turned America’s participation into a crusade for democracy that transformed society.
3.
New technologies which transformed warfare and society resulted in enormous casualties and destruction and led to the defining feature of the war – trench warfare.
4.
President Wilson’s idealistic Fourteen Points clashed with European desires for security and revenge thus resulting in a harsh and punitive treatment of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles.
5.
European and Senate opposition, and especially Wilson’s own political errors, doomed American ratification of the Versailles Treaty and participation in the League of Nations.
1.
What are the background causes of WW I and what led the US to change its position from neutrality to intervention by 1917?
2.
How did the government mobilize industry, labor, natural resources, and public opinion to win the war?
3.
How did WW I impact women and racial and ethnic minorities?
4.
How did Progressivism and WW I revive the suffrage and temperance movements?
5.
How did advances in technology shape modern warfare during WW I?
6.
Why can American forces be credited with being the decisive factor in ending WW I? What roles did John J.
Pershing and Alvin York play in the battle of the Argonne Forest and why are their efforts and the Argonne
Forest significant?
7.
What were Wilson’s goals for peace, why were most of his 14 Points rejected in the Treaty of Versailles, and what impact did the treaty have on post-war Europe?
8.
To what extent was the defeat of the League of Nations a result of opposition forces in the US Senate or
Wilson’s stubbornness and mistakes?
9.
How did WW I change America?
1.
To what extent is it fair to say that progressivism shaped America’s involvement in WW I? Cite historical evidence using the following indicators and justify your answer.



Why the US entered the war
How the nation fought the war
Wilson’s plan for peace World War I (1914-1918)
1

World War I (1914-1918)

Causes of WW I – European and US Entry into WW I (1 day) o European Causes of WW I
 Alliance Systems – Triple Entente and Triple Alliance
 Imperialism
 Militarism
 Nationalism
 Immediate Cause – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand o Causes of US Entry into WW I
 Economic Involvement – loans and war bonds
 Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

Lusitania

Sussex Pledge
 Zimmerman Telegram
 Russian Revolution

The American Home Front (1 day) o Mobilizing American Troops, Resources, and Society
 Role of Propaganda – cutting the trans-Atlantic cable, German atrocity stories, Committee on Public
Information o Impact of WW I on women, ethnic and racial groups o Impact of WW I on American civil liberties – Sedition and Espionage Acts o Impact on morals and expansion of rights – 18 th and 19 th Amendments
 Fighting and Ending the War (1 day) o Fighting the War
 Impact of American forces in Europe
 Impact of New Technologies of War

Ending the War (1day) o Wilson’ Plan for Peace and Treaty of Versailles o Battle over the League of Nations and rejection of the League and Treaty
2

Name:
Period:
Part I Part II [work with a partner on both parts] DO NOT USE THE TEXTBOOK AT ALL! (40answers)
____ 1. ________________________ – developed to maintain a balance of power between rival nations in Europe.
They were defensive agreements in which each member promised to come to the aid of the others if they were attacked.
____ 2. ________________________ – When European nations competed to acquire resources for continued wealth, markets, industrialization, and military power by adding colonies to their growing empires
____ 3. ________________________ –the increased development of armed forces, & their use as a tool of diplomacy
____ 4. ________________________ - extreme devotion to the interests and culture of one’s nation over those of other countries.
____ 5. ________________________ - a biased communication used to influence people’s thoughts and actions
____ 6. ________________________ – refusal to take part in a war between other powers; to not take sides
____ 7. ________________________ – a rebellion that overthrew the czarist regime in 1917 and eventually set up a
Communist government in Russia
____ 8. ________________________ – a secret telegram from Germany to Mexico to form an alliance against USA and give back Texas, New Mexico, & Arizona to Mexico
____ 9. ________________________ – congressional law that required men to register with the government to be randomly selected for military service
____ 10. ________________________ –set production priorities & established centralized control over raw materials
& prices
____ 11. ________________________ – created by President Wilson to deal with disputes between management & labor. Workers who refused to obey their decisions could lose their draft exemptions, “Work or fight” was their motto.
____ 12. ________________________ – conflict where 300,000 American troops under the command of General
Pershing flung themselves into the German lines. Americans cut off their supply lines & when the Germans are unable to sustain the war, they sue for peace.
____13 ________________________ – digging vast networks of tunnels and ditches with no man’s land in between.
It led to devastating & inconclusive fighting over mere yards of ground
____ 14. ________________________ – a truce, to stop fighting each other
____ 15. ________________________ – President Wilson’s plan to ensure a “peace without victory” which was rejected by the Allies who wanted to make Germany “pay” for the war
____ 16. ________________________ – peace agreement that ended WWI; established 9 new nations; barred
Germany from getting an army; made Germany give Alsace-Lorrain to
France and pay $33 billion to the Allies
____ 17. ________________________ – the 14 th point of President Wilson’s peace plan. It would provide a forum for nations to discuss and settle their grievances without having to resort to war
____ 18. ________________________ – congressional laws that made it illegal to interfere with the war effort or say anything disloyal about the government
____ 19. ________________________ – the Supreme Court case that upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage
Act by concluding the right to free speech could be limited when it represented a “clear and present danger” to public safety.
____. 20. ________________________ – large-scale movement of hundreds of thousands of Southern Blacks to cities in the North
3

Part III Organize the terms into 3-6 categories and give the categories a title (2 pts each = 40 pts) Work by yourself
(use a minimum of two complete sentences per answer) [work by yourself!!] (60 pts)
1. How is militarism related to imperialism? (12pt)
2. What inference or conclusion can one make about trench warfare? (12pts)
3. What is the significance of the Zimmerman note? (12pts)
4. How could President Wilson justify the Espionage and Sedition Acts to an American during WWI?
(12pts)
5. What would be going on in the world today if the U.S. government had to activate the Selective
Service Act with a draft? (12pts)
4

Video: World War I: The War in Europe
3/2/1
3 Facts
1.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
2.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
3.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
2 Things you found Interesting
1.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
2.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
1 Question
1.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
-
__________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
5

6

When the war first broke out in Europe, President Wilson attempted to follow the traditional American policy of neutrality . In 1916, he even campaigned for re-election on the grounds that he had “kept America out of war.” Yet despite Wilson’s best efforts, the United States eventually became involved in the conflict for several reasons:
 British Blockade –
 Sinking of the Lusitania –
 Sussex Pledge –
 ****Germany Announces Unrestricted Submarine Warfare**** –
7

Description of “Trench Warfare” -
Write a description in the pie chart and create an illustration in the box for each new weapon of World War I.
What impact did these new weapons have on the nature of warfare? Which new weapon of World War I do you think was most devastating and why? _________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
8

Topic
Highlights of the War
Questions/Main Ideas:
Summary:
Name:
Teacher:
Class:
Date
9
Notes

How were soldier’s jobs filled?
Railroads -
Cost of the War -
Selective Service Act (1917) -
Schenck v. U.S. (1919) -
Espionage Act of 1917 -
Which of the above are economic effects of the war, and which are constitutional issues? Explain your answers.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_____
10

Wilson had devised a 14 point plan that he believed would bring stability to Europe.

There were to be no secret treaties between powers like the treaties that had helped to cause the First World
War. (Open Diplomacy)

Seas should be free in peace and in war to ships of all nations (Freedom of Navigation)

The barriers to trade between countries such as custom duties should be removed (free trade)

All countries should reduce their armed forces to the lowest possible levels (Multilateral disarmament.)

The national groups in Europe should, wherever possible, be given their independence. Wilson supported the idea of National Self-Determination, whereby a nation had the right to self-government.

Russia should be allowed to operate whatever government it wanted.

Territorial changes:

Germany should give up Alsace-Lorraine and any lands taken away during the war.
The Italian frontier should be readjusted.
Belgium should be evacuated.
Poland should be given an outlet to the sea.

The defeated nations should not be made to pay for the war as a whole.

A ‘League of Nations’ should be formed to protect world peace in the future.
Which of the above Fourteen Points would you consider as most essential to peace? Why? (Use COMPLETE Sentences)
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
11

President Wilson vs. Congress
Wilson argued...
Congress argued....
The U.S. Senate rejects the Treaty
Below is a speech by Henry Cabot Lodge, Senate Majority Leader in 1919, He sets forth his objections to the League of
Nations: The independence of the United States is not only more precious to ourselves but to the world than any single possession… Is there any country today on the face of the earth which can compare with this in ordered liberty, in peace, and in the largest freedom?... I will go as far as anyone in world service, but the first step to world service is the maintenance of the United States… I have always loved one flag and I cannot share that devotion [with] a mongrel banner created for a League of Nations. I have never had but one allegiance - I cannot divide it now. The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very existence.
What reasons does Lodge give for opposing membership in the League of Nations?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
12

13