World War I
Financing the War
 Liberty Bonds
– $20 Billion
 Managing the Economy
– U.S. Gov’t controls production of war related goods
– New Agencies
 War Industries Board, War Trade Board, National War Labor
Board, and War Labor Policies Board
– Regulating Food and Fuel Consumption
 Lever Food and Fuel Control Act (1917)
 Food Administration
Enforcing Loyalty
 Government censored the press
 Fear of Foreigners
– National Security League
– Literacy tests for immigrants
 “Hate the Hun”
– Anti-German sentiment
– Robert Prager
 Repression of Civil Liberties
– Espionage Act (1917)
– Sedition Act (1918)
 Controlling Political Radicals
Changing People’s Lives
 Social Mobility for Minorities and Women
– Great Migration
– Women gain more jobs during the war
 Prohibition
Global Peacemaker
 Wilson’s Fourteen Points
 The Paris Peace
Conference
– Wilson forced to
compromise
 League of Nations passes
 France wants to destroy
Germany
 Russia not there
 Wilson forced to give up on
many of the 14 Points
– League of Nations
 International peace
organization
 Wilson does not get support
at home for the League
The Peace Treaty
 War Guilt and Reparations
– Germany forced into reparations
– Germany forced to pay $33 Billion
 Signing the Treaty
– Germany did not want to sign
 France threatened to invade
– Treaty of Versailles
 June 28, 1919
Wilson Back Home
 Seeking Approval at Home
– Congress does not want U.S. in
the League of Nations (Monroe
Doctrine)
– Wilson tours the country
– A Formal end to hostilities
– July 2, 1921
– U.S. signs peace agreement
with Germany
 Difficult Postwar Adjustments
– Economy boosted by war
– Postwar gloom
– African American troops at
home