1914-1918: The World at War

Causes of the War Militarism Alliances Imperialism Nationalism

The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

Trench Warfare “No Man’s Land”

Airplane Grenade Launcher Flamethrower

Poison Gas Machine Gun

Washington’s Neutrality Proclamation + Farewell Address "steer clear of permanent alliances" Jefferson’s First Inaugural: “honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none”

The Sinking of the Lusitania -1915

Wilson Re-elected in 1916

Sussex Pledge In 1916, Germany pledged not to attack passenger or merchant ships. Rescinded pledge in 1917.

Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats

The Zimmerman Telegram

The Russian Revolution

American Expeditionary Force led by John Pershing

Focus Question How does the United States government maintain support for the war?

“Great Migration.” 1916 – 1919  1.6 million Enlistment in segregated units.

1917 – Selective Service Act 24 million registered 4,800,000 served

Restricting Civil Liberties Espionage Act – 1917 - forbade obstructing recruitment - ordered the removal of antiwar materials from the mail. - fines of up to $10,000 and/or up to 20 years in prison.

2. Sedition Act – 1918 - it was a crime to speak against the purchase of war bonds or “willfully utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about this form of US Govt., the US Constitution, or the US armed forces or to “willfully urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production of things essential to the prosecution of the war…with intent to cripple or hinder, the US in the prosecution of the war.”

3. Schenck v. US – 1919 -The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. [Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes] - If an act of speech posed a clear and present danger, then Congress had the power to restrain such speech.

4. Eugene V. Debs – 1918 -Arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for giving a speech that opposed the war. Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means.... I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul. Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own… Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

The Armistice is Signed! 11 a.m., November 11, 1918 The Armistice is Signed!

9,000,000 Dead

World War I Casualties

Spanish Flu 625,000 Americans. 22 million worldwide.

Wilson’s 14 Points End of alliances Freedom on the seas Free trade End to militarism Self determination League of Nations

Treaty of Versailles Germany responsible for WWI (War Guilt Clause), gives up land and much of military. Also must pay reparations. League of Nations Many Senators wanted to stay isolationist. Treaty never ratified by U.S.

“We have learned during the war that the Constitution is a very elastic instrument and that the Federal Government can do anything it wants to do which it considers for the good of the country. That it can say how much sugar we may put in our coffee, how much coal we may put in our fires, when we must go to bed and when we must get up. Then it is absurd to think that if the Federal Government really wanted to put a stop to the shooting and hanging and burning alive of citizens of the United States by mobs that it could not find sufficient authority in the Constitution to do it.” - James Weldon Johnson