1. World War I
U.S. involvement

2. Before and After

3. What Caused WWI?
New nationalism from the consolidation of the German and Italian states
Russia’s “pan-slavic” union
System of European alliances

4. War in Europe Central Powers (Triple Alliance)
Austria-Hungary
Germany
Italy
(eventually Turkey and Bulgaria)
Allied Powers (Triple Entente)
Britain
France
Russia (and Serbia)
(eventually Greece, Portugal, the U.S. and Italy)

5. Series of events leading to war
1914: assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary throne
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
Russia backed the Serbs
Germany supports Austria and attacks Russia and France
Britain sides with France, declares war on Germany

6. Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian in 1914

7. German War Zone 1915

8. German U-boat

9. U-boats Threatened traditional warfare
Britain asserted that it was “uncivilized” warfare
Wilson demanded that Germany abandon unrestricted submarine warfare
Germany was viewed as seeking “world dominance”

10. Lusitania, British passenger liner sunk in 1915

11. 1,198 died, including 128 Americans

12. British Recruiting Poster WWI

13. America Claims Neutrality
Who opposes neutrality?
U.S. opposed German blockade of Britain but supported the British blockade of Germany
U.S. supplied 40% of war material to the Triple Entente by 1916

14. Wilson fears problems at home if US enters the war
Wilson believed a country of immigrants like the U.S. would fracture within
“. . . Lead this people into war, and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance . . .”

15. The Zimmerman Telegram
German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman sent a telegram to the German minister in Mexico promising that in event of U.S. entering the war, Germany would restore Texas and other territories to Mexico if it declared war on the U.S.

17. The United States Enters the War
March 1917, Germany sinks five American vessels off the coast of Britain, killing 66 Americans
April 6, 1917 U.S. Congress declares war on Germany

18. American enlistment poster

20. Military Draft Act (Selective Service), 1917
Draft of all young men
2,000,000 volunteered
2,800,000 drafted
350,000 failed to report or claimed conscientious objector

21. Draft Registration Card

22. John J. Pershing Commander of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force)

23. Trench Warfare
combatants occupy fighting lines, consisting of trenches in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery.
It has become a byword for attrition warfare or stalemate, with a slow wearing down of opposing forces

25. German soldiers in trench

26. Removing dead from trenches

27. 92nd Division
Pershing did not want to commit to trench warfare, but to appease the French and British calls for help, sent the all-Black 92nd Division.
The 92nd Division spent 191 days in battle, longer than any other American division.
Germans leafleted American troops asking why they fought for “Wall Street robbers.”

28. African-American unit WWI

29. US war transports

30. Artillery position showing guns, ammunition shells, sandbags, and lean-tos

31. Learning to use gas masks

32. Field hospital French church

33. ambulance

34. AEF at Chateau-Thierry

35. American anti-aircraft machine gun

36. Burial of French Dead

39. A British Red Cross orderly escorting a wounded, captured German soldier to a field hospital for treatment

40. soldiers

41. Woman Army Recruiter

42. Women Navy Candidates “yeomanettes”

43. War statistics More than four years 57,777,500 soldiers mobilized
21,238,000 soldiers wounded
8.5 million soldiers dead