
Name two of the four causes of World War I
 (define and give an example)
Assignment #7

Balkan Peninsula known as the
“Powder Keg of Europe”
 Ethnic rivalries among Balkan
peoples
 European countries had interest
there
▪ Russia- access to Mediterranean
▪ Germany- rail link to Ottoman Empire

June 1914- Assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
 Heir to Austrian throne
 Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip
shot Ferdinand and his wife
 Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia
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Allies: Britain, France, and Russia
Central Powers: Germany and
Austro-Hungarian Empire

Woodrow Wilson states:
 “…a war with which we have nothing to do,
whose causes cannot touch us”
 Asked the public to be, “neutral in fact as
well as in name” and “impartial in thought
as well as action.”


Is the U.S. actually neutral?
Ties to Ethnicity
 Anglo-Protestant (British)
 German-Americans
 Eastern European Immigrants

Due to war, the U.S. industrial and agricultural
products increased enormously and boosted
trade with the allies
 $825 million in 1914 to $3.2 billion in 1916
 Germany: $300 million in 1917

Private financiers invested in the war by giving
large loans to European countries
 Banks offered short-term credit
 1915: Wilson allowed lenders to extend loans
 Federal Reserve: guaranteed the loans to protect
foreign trade.
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Republicans pressed Wilson to initiate a program
for military preparedness
Wilson hoped to remain neutral and fought for
peace in a diplomatic sense.
 Focused on the terrible costs of the war on the
countries involved
 Wilson waited for opportunities to initiate peaceful
negotiations
▪ By 1916, both sides had lost too much to back out of the war.

Election of 1916
 Wilson- “He kept us out of war”

British Naval Blockade of German Ports
 Prevent weapons and military supplies from getting through
▪ Included food as contraband
▪ Blocked neutral ports and mined the entire North Sea
▪ American ships didn’t challenge the British blockade
▪ Prevented farming supplies to enter Germany leading to starvation and famine

German U-Boat Blockade
 All British and Allied ships would be sunk without possibility of
warning
 May 7, 1915- Sinking of the Lusitania
▪ 1,198 lives lost (128 Americans)
▪ Germany argued that the liner carried ammunition
 Sinking of the Arabic and Sussex
▪ Germany agreed to not sink any more non-military ships
 Threatened to renew unrestricted submarine warfare if British
Blockade wasn’t taken down

National Defense Act of 1916
 $500 million go to ROTC Program
 Expansionism of National Guard
 Officers and Enlisted Reserve Corp
 Revenue Act of 1916- financed instead of relying
on bonds


Selective Service Act
American Propaganda

What was President Wilson’s stand on the
war in Europe and why did he take that
stand?

What is the Selective Service Act and the
purpose of it?

Congress Gives Power to President Wilson
 Direct control over the economy
 War Industries Board (WIB)- encouraged large
companies to use mass-production techniques

War Economy
 Wages rose during the war
 Stockholders in large corporations saw enormous
profits
 Food Administration- food reserves during war
▪ Victory Gardens

How did the U.S. Government impact the
economy during WWI?

What two types of blockades were used
during WWI in the Atlantic Ocean? Describe
both.

$35.5 billion spent on the war effort
 1/3 raised through taxes
▪ Progressive income tax- raised taxes for higher income
▪ War-profit tax
▪ Higher taxes on tobacco, alcohol, luxury goods, etc.
 “Liberty Loan” and “Victory Loan” bonds- financed
the rest of the costs
▪ “Only a friend of Germany would refuse to buy war bonds”Secretary William G. McAdoo

Propaganda
 Committee of Public Information (CPI)
▪ Influenced people’s thoughts and actions

Anti-Immigration
 German-Americans
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
2 million American’s who immigrated from Germany
Lost jobs
Towns changed their names
Refusal to play music from Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven
Schools stopped teaching German
▪ Books from German authors were removed
 Espionage and Seditions Act
▪ $10,000 or sentenced to 20 years in prison for interfering with
the war or showing signs of disloyalty
▪ Half of the cases brought to trail were convicted
▪ Targeted socialists and labor leaders

African Americans
 W.E.B. Du Bois believed blacks should support the war.
▪ Felt that African American support would strengthen racial justice
 William Monroe Trotter believed blacks should not support
the war.
▪ Shouldn’t support a racist government
 The Great Migration
▪ Large migration of Southern Blacks to cities in the North
▪ 1) Escape racial discrimination of the South
▪ 2) Due to floods and droughts, many fields were ruined
▪ 3) More job opportunities
 Less immigration during the war
 Less men to work in factories

Women move into jobs once held by men
 Railroad workers, cooks, dockworkers, and
bricklayers.
 Nurses, clerks, and teachers
 Red Cross
▪ Women volunteers who encouraged the sale of bonds
and supporting the war through victory gardens

Public support for Women’s Suffrage
 1919 Congress passed the 19th Amendment
▪ Granting women the right to vote

Trench Warfare
 “No Man’s Land”
▪ The land in-between
trenches with mud,
barbed-wire, and shell
craters
 Sides fought for mere
yards- devastating and
inconclusive
 Trench Warfare Lifestyle
▪ Molded food, trench foot,
rats/mice, etc

Machine Guns
 Changed the nature of warfare

Airships and Airplanes
 At first limited their use to scouting
 Planes began carrying machine guns
▪ Interrupter gear that allowed bullets to travel without
being hit by the propellers

Tanks
 Were built of steel so that bullets bounced off

WWI was the bloodiest war in history
 22 million deaths
▪ Half were civilians
 20 million wounded
 10 million became refugees
 U.S. lost 48,000 men and 68,000 due to disease


Direct Economic Cost- $338 billion
Armistice on November 11, 1918
 Ended WWI between Germany and the Allied
Powers

Wilson’s plan for world peace (before the war ended)
 Famous “Fourteen Points” speech on January 18, 1918
 Divided into THREE main groups
▪ 1) Prevention of another war (5 points)
▪ 2) Boundary changes (8 points)
▪ 3) League of Nations (1 point)

Allies reject Wilson’s plan in Paris
 Seen as naïve and did not accurately capture the anger of
the allies towards the Central Powers (primarily Germany)
▪ David Lloyd George- “Make Germany Pay”
▪ Georges Clemenceau- Lived through two German invasions

“Big Four”- Great Britain, France, U.S., and Italy
 Met together and created the Treaty of Versailles
▪ Established 9 new nations
▪ Shifted existing boundaries
▪ No Germany military
▪ Forced Germany to accept responsibility of the war
▪ War Guilt Clause
 “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany
accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all
the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated
Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a
consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of
Germany and her allies.”
▪ Territorial Concessions
▪ Reparations ($31.4 billion)

Treaty of Versailles maintained the provision
 Reservationists- people who would accept the
treaty if they could make some changes
▪ Henry Cabot Lodge- Republican who fought a treaty
reservation, especially article X (declaring war).
▪ President Wilson- voted against Lodge’s Reservations
 Irreconcilables- Opposed because the league of
nations would lead the U.S. into public affairs

Treaty was never ratified