22.2: The Great War

A. The Guns of August 1.Competition between Britain and Germany had led to competing camps of alliances. a.The Triple Alliance (Central Powers): Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary b.The Triple Entente (Allied Powers): England, France, and Russia 2.The alliances prevented small problems but threatened to entangle many nations in any war that erupted. 3.The assassination of the Archduke of Austria by a Serbian nationalist in 1914 escalated into a general war. a.Germany had pushed Austria to retaliate against Serbia. b.Serbia was under the protection of Russia. c.If Serbia was attacked, Russia would enter the conflict, bringing England and France as well.

B. American Neutrality 1.Wilson and most Americans wanted to stay neutral. 2.Many Americans had Old World ties. 3.The English and Germans bombarded Americans with propaganda. 4.Economic ties hurt American neutrality. a.Wilson opposed the British blockade of Germany but did not trade with the Germans. b.Trade with the Allies increased dramatically.

The New York Times printed a special Extra edition announcing that a German submarine had torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915, off the Irish coast. The ship’s manifest later revealed that the Lusitania carried a shipment of arms along with its passengers. The 1,198 lives lost included 128 Americans and the incident helped push the United States toward “preparedness” for war. SOURCE:© Bettmann//CORBIS (PG3064A).

C. Preparedness and Peace 1.Germany declared the waters around Britain to be a war zone and began submarine attacks. 2.In May 1915 Germans sank the Lusitania, a British passenger ship secretly loaded with armaments, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. 3.In March 1916, Germany changed its submarine policy, but Wilson pushed for greater war preparation. Opponents mobilized on the streets and in Congress. 4.In 1916, Wilson won re-election with the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.”

D. Safe for Democracy 1.Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917 gambling that they could destroy the Allies before America intervened. Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany. 2.The White House publicized a note from the German foreign secretary to Mexico which proposed an alliance with Mexico if the United States entered the war. 3.The Zimmerman note provoked an outpouring of anti- German feeling. a.Wilson issued an executive order authorizing the arming of merchant ships and allowing them to shoot at submarines. b.In one month German U-boats sank seven merchant ships. 4.On April 6, 1917, Congress declared war.

Halt the Hun. This 1918 Liberty Loan poster used anti-German sentiment to encourage the purchase of war bonds. Its depiction of an American soldier as the protector of an innocent mother and child implied that the Germans were guilty of unspeakable war crimes. SOURCE:Howard Chandler Christy,Halt the Hun!Fight or Buy Bonds, poster,1917.Museum of the City of New York,gift of John Campbell. The Granger Collection (4E695.09).