SSUSH15 The student will analyze the origins and impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.

15. a- Describe the movement from U. S 15.a- Describe the movement from U.S. neutrality to engagement in World War I, with reference to unrestricted submarine warfare When the Great War (World War I) broke out after the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the United States remained neutral. Although public sentiment leaned toward support of Great Britain and the Allied Powers to defeat Germany and the Central Powers, the U.S. government pledged to remain neutral. U.S. neutrality was tested, however, by the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This policy, intended to enforce a total blockade on British shipping, included merchant and commercial vessels, as well as warships. In May 1915, a German unterseeboot (u-boat) sank a British luxury liner, the Lusitania, killing almost 1200, 128 of which were Americans. The incident enflamed public outrage against Germany, but the U.S. chose to issue stern warnings to Germany rather than immediately go to war. The Germans eventually consented to stop unrestricted submarine warfare to keep the Americans out of the war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson campaigned and was re-elected in 1916 on a peace and neutrality platform.

Zimmerman Note U.S. neutrality was finally broken early in 1917. Two events pushed the United States into the war: One was the interception of German diplomatic correspondence with Mexico, known as the “Zimmerman telegram.” The Zimmerman telegram contained a German overture toward alliance with Mexico, suggesting that if Mexico helped Germany defeat the United States, Germany would help Mexico regain territories lost in the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-8. The other decisive factor pushing the U.S. toward war was the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917. Six American merchant vessels were sunk in the following months, and the U.S. officially declared war in April 1917.

15.b- Explain the domestic impact of World War I, as reflected by the origins of the Great Migration, the Espionage Act, and socialist Eugene Debs As the United States engaged in the war in Europe, it brought about significant changes on the home front as well. Economic and social forces spurred by the war led to one of the largest internal migrations in U.S. history, the Great Migration- as hundreds of thousands of African Americans left the South for better opportunities in northern industrial cities. U.S. involvement in the war also caused a sharp rise in patriotic, nationalist, and nativist sentiments. Of particular concern was the threat from anarchists and political radicals who might damage the U.S./Allied effort. The federal government responded with the Espionage Act, which outlined a host of crimes and stiff penalties for virtually any activity that had potential to aid the enemy. Congress followed The Espionage Act with an even broader measure passed in 1918, The Sedition Act. This law made it illegal to even speak against the war effort or to incite action that might harm the government’s effort to prosecute the war. These measures represented a major curtailment of free speech and civil liberties, and led to several important Supreme Court decisions in the years to follow. The most famous person convicted and imprisoned under the new laws was Eugene V. Debs, long-time leader of the American Socialist Party.

15.c- Explain Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the proposed League of Nations The U.S. president during WWI, Woodrow Wilson was pained by what he saw as the unnecessary slaughter that occurred in the “war to end all wars”. In typically “Progressive” style, Wilson believed he could engineer lasting peace for Europe and the globe, by addressing in treaty what he believed caused the war in the first place. Early in 1918 Wilson presented his plan to Congress. Called “Fourteen Points,” Wilson outlined a plan for establishing free trade and free seas, de-militarization, impartial intervention of colonial claims, rights of national self-determination, a ban on secret military alliances, and the settling of border disputes. The 14th “point” was the centerpiece of Wilson’s plan. It called for the creation of an international body of nations- The League of Nations – that would act to preserve peace and prevent future wars by mediating disputes through diplomacy. As Wilson joined the Allied peace delegation at Versailles a year later, he found the European leaders much less receptive to his progressive vision. They sought to punish Germany with total de-militarization and hefty reparations. Wilson’s idea for the League of Nations, however, did make it into the final Treaty of Versailles, but was rejected by the U.S. Senate. Lingering bitterness over U.S. intervention manifested in a return to a staunchly isolationist position, and the United States refused to join the League of Nations.

15.d- Describe passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, establishing Prohibition, and the Nineteenth Amendment, establishing woman suffrage While Wilson was unsuccessfully attempting to apply Progressive ideals to the peace process, two of the Progressives’ most cherished issues-prohibition of alcohol, and women’s suffrage- received the ultimate sanction with constitutional amendments.

Amendment XVIII The Eighteenth Amendment placed a ban on the manufacture, sale, and consumption of alcohol in any form. It was the result of decades of grass-roots organizing and intensive lobbying at the state at federal levels. Social Welfare Progressives saw the prohibition amendment as their crowning achievement, eliminating what they saw as the leading cause of unemployment, poverty, domestic abuse, among other social ills. The amendment was ratified in January 1920, although many individual states had already passed prohibition measures. By most accounts Prohibition was a complete failure. Enforcement of the federal statutes fell to the Treasury Department, and later the Department of Justice and the newly created FBI. Prohibition greatly expanded the police power of the federal government. Prohibition also led to the creation of organized crime syndicates to distribute illegal booze in nearly every major U.S. city.

Amendment XIX Like Prohibition, the 19th amendment, granting women the right to vote, was a long time in the making. Since the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the women’s rights movement had suffered from factionalism and a general lack of broad support. Progressive ideals of social equality and expansion of the electorate reinvigorated the women’s movement. As more individual states began granting women the vote through the 1910s, Congress moved to pass an amendment proposal. The House passed their version in 1918, but the Senate vote failed twice before finally being passed in June 1918. In late August 1920, enough states had ratified the amendment for it to take effect.