Unit 8.2

After the sinking of the Lusitania, a small,
vocal minority of Americans were calling for
U.S. entry into WWI against Germany

Many Republicans argued that the U.S. Army
and Navy were hopelessly unprepared for war

Preparedness = greater defense
expenditures

The National Security
League- organized by a
group of business
leaders to promote
preparedness and to
extend direct U.S. aid to
the Allies if needed

At first, Wilson
disagreed, but in late
1915, changed his mind
and urged for an
ambitious expansion of
the Armed forces

Democrats were upset
with Wilson and largely
opposed to military
increases

June 1916: Wilson
finally persuaded
Congress to pass the
National Defense Act
 Increased the regular
Army and Navy

Think about the strength of our Armed Forces
today. If preparedness had never been
adopted as a policy, how would this have
affected the U.S. military effort in WWI?

Midwesterners and
Western Americans were
highly opposed to
preparedness

Socialists, Progressives,
and Populists were all
antiwar

William Jennings Bryan,
Jane Addams, and
Jeanette Rankin were all
highly against the war
 Women suffragettes also
campaigned against military
buildup

Woodrow Wilson was well aware he won in
1912 because of a split in the Republican
party

Theodore Roosevelt declined the new
Progressive Party’s nomination for president
and rejoined the Republicans
 Republicans nominate NY governor Charles Evan
Hughes

“He kept us out of war.”– the Democratic
campaign slogan

Wilson claimed he won the election because he
was a peaceful leader and Progressive in his own
right

Democrats won the close election with most of
their strength in the South and West overcoming
Republican dominance in the East

What would’ve been different had the
Republican party NOT been split in 1912?

Wilson made repeated efforts to fulfill his party’s
campaign promise to stay out of war

Before the 1915 election sent chief foreign adviser
to London, Paris, and Berlin to negotiate a peace
settlement

Other efforts at mediation turned aside by both Allied
and Central Powers

January 1917 Wilson gives a speech to the U.S.
Senate, declaring U.S. commitment to the idea of
“peace without victory.”

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare:
 Most important in the U.S. decision for war
 Germany decided in 1917 to resume unrestricted
submarine warfare
 Germany recognized the risk of the U.S. entering
the war, but believed that by cutting off supplies
to the Allied forces, they could win the war before
the U.S. could get involved

If Germany and the Central Powers had
effectively won the war before the U.S. got
involved, how would this affect our trade
policies with France and Great Britain?

Other Immediate Causes:
 Zimmerman Telegram: On March 1, 1917, U.S.
newspapers reported that British intelligence had
intercepted a message from Germany to Mexico
 It proposed Mexico ally itself with Germany and in return,
Germany would pledge to help Mexico recover lost
territories (Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona) from the
Mexican-American War
 This aroused nationalist anger among Americans and
convinced Wilson that Germany fully expected a war with
the U.S.

If Mexico had not lost its former territories to
the U.S. in the Mexican-American War (18461848), how would this have impacted our
involvement in WWI?

Other Immediate Causes:
 Russian Revolution: Wilson hesitated getting involved in
the war because one of the Allies was Russia, a nation
governed by a autocratic czar
 This barrier to U.S. participation was suddenly removed
when Russian revolutionaries overthrew the czar’s
government and established a republic (at least until
November of that year)
 Renewed submarine attacks: In the first weeks of March
1917, German submarines sank five unarmed U.S.
merchant ships

If Russian revolutionaries were unsuccessful in
overthrowing the czarist government, how
would this have impacted U.S. involvement in
WWI?

April 2, 1917:
 Wilson asks that Congress
recognize a state of war
existed between Germany
and the U.S.
 His speech condemned
Germany’s submarine policy
as “warfare against mankind”
and declared: “The world
must be made safe for
democracy.”
 April 6: An overwhelming
majority vote for war, but
some pacifists like Robert La
Follette and Jeanette Rankin
defiantly voted no

Germany was preparing a knockout blow on land
and at sea

Could the U.S. mobilize its vast economic
resources fast enough to make a difference in
the war?

Since training troops would take many months,
the first American contribution to the Allies was
shipping needed supplies
 Wilson created a number of war agencies staffed by
volunteers

War Industries Board 
led by Wall Street broker
Bernard Baruch
 Established centralized
control over raw materials
and prices

Food Administration 
led by Herbert Hoover
 Encouraged American
households to eat less
meat and bread so more
food could be shipped
abroad for the Allied
troops

Fuel Administration 
led by Harry Garfield
 Led efforts to save coal
and daylight savings went
into effect for the first time

National War Labor
Board  led by William
Howard Taft
 Arbitrated disputes
between workers and
employers ; laborers won
concessions during the war
that had previously been
denied

Finance: Wilson’s war
program raised $33 billion
in 2 years by a combination
of loans and taxes

Four massive drives to
convince Americans to put
their savings into federal
Liberty Bonds

Congress increased both
personal income and
corporate taxes; placed an
excise tax on luxury goods

Think about if our economy and our amount of
resources were such that the American public
and business sector would still be required to
rationalize our resources and savings in wartime
(i.e. Iraq, Afghanistan).

Would this policy be widely accepted today as
our Patriotic duty or considered too much
government intervention? Why do you think so?