The Battles: At Home and Abroad

 2 million American soldiers  Inexperienced, fresh bodies boosted Allied forces’ morale

 American Admiral William Sims proposes the use of convoys to protect ships from German U-Boats

 Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian government and Czar Nicholas II  Communist government is established  Lenin pulls Russia from the war to focus on new Communist state  Signed a treaty with Germany removing German forces but giving up Ukraine, Polish and Baltic territories, and Finland

 Germany launched a full-scale attack on the Western Front (France) in March of 1917  Fresh American troops arriving in late May helped the French push the Germans back.  September 1917 – 600,000 American troops slowly destroyed one German position after another – Battle of the Argonne Forest  Armistice – November 11, 1918 (on the 11 th hour)

 Based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points – calling for a “League of Nations”  Germany forced to pay $33 billion in reparations (war damages)  Loss of 4 empires: Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, German Empire, and Austria Hungary  9 new countries established  United States rejects treaty

 Limiting of American freedoms  Espionage Act (1917)  Spying to acquire secret government information  Penalties for people who aided the enemy  Sedition Act (1917)  Illegal to express public opposition to the war  Schenck v. the United States (1919)  An individual’s freedom of speech can be curbed when the words uttered constitute a “clear and present danger”