1. America on the World’s Stage: WWI

2. WAR IN EUROPE AND PROBLEMS OF NEUTRALITY
A. THE ROAD TO WAR
WAR IN EUROPE AND PROBLEMS OF NEUTRALITY

3. Alliances engage and the dominos fall

4. WWI: The Early Stages Review
Remember MAIN!
June 28, 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated
Aug. 4, 1914: WWI “began”
Sept. 15, 1914: First trenches on Western Front are dug
1914—1916: Fronts remained deadlocked, death tolls
mounted…

5. European Alliances & Battlefronts, 1914-1917
Divine America Past and Present Revised 7th Ed.

6. Modern Warfare & Weapons:
Trench Warfare
Poison Gas
Machine Guns
Airplanes
Tanks

7. War Drags On
Seeking to gain an advantage, Germany turned its attentions to the seas—declared unrestricted submarine warfare around Britain.

8. America’s Early Response
“neutral in both thought & action”
Wilson calls for neutrality U.S. leans towards the allies (transatlantic cable, culture, $$--some say J.P. Morgan essentially financing war!)
German U-Boat terror
Freedom of the Seas threatened – German & British blockade
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
Arabic (August 1915) & Sussex (March 1916)
Lusitania (May 1915)
Preparing for War – Just in case
National Defense Act expanded army & national guard
Build-up of arms—Congress approved 50 warships
How long can we stay out of this? Buying us some time

9. Why is Wilson so interested in staying out of war???

10. …Woodrow Wilson benefited from a “Solid South”…
President Wilson declared he would keep America out
of this conflict and ran for re-election in 1916 on the
slogan… “
…”He Kept US Out Of WAR!”
…Woodrow Wilson
benefited from a
“Solid South”…

11. America Enters the War
Jan 1917: Germany resumed unlimited submarine warfare
U.S. broke off diplomatic ties
March 1917: Zimmerman Note published: Germany promised to help Mexico regain the Southwest U.S. if they attacked the U.S.!
April 2, 1917: Wilson asked for war declaration to “make the world safe for democracy”
May 2, 1917: Selective Service Act requires all men 21—30 to register for draft—although most volunteer . . .

12. THE FIRST WORLD WAR AT HOME AND ABROAD
B. THE US AT WAR
THE FIRST WORLD WAR AT HOME AND ABROAD

13. FIGHTING THE WAR Selective Service Act (1917)
24,000,000 men registered for the draft by the end of 1918.
400,000 African-Americans served in segregated units.
Pershing: Wadsworth; Troops leaving for camp, 1917 (Wadsworth)
Troops leaving for camp, 1917

14. Uncle Sam—He the Man!

15. Dissent The United States Government rushed to enter the WAR…
…conscripting men
in a DRAFT for a
WAR for the first time
since the Civil War…
…leading to dissent
and over 300,000
“slackers” or
“draft dodgers”…
…the Supreme Court
approved censorship
of wartime dissent
and backed the
“Sedition Act” meant
to ward off chaos
in the war effort.
Dissent

16. Government Excess & Threats to the Civil Liberties of Americans
Espionage Act – 1917
forbade actions that obstructed recruitment or efforts to promote insubordination in the military.
fines of up to $10,000 and/or up to 20 years in prison.
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.

17. America’s #1
Socialist …
IWW
labor leader would find himself in prison for his dissent
during WWI.
He still received
almost a million votes for the US Presidency, campaigning from behind bars in 1920!

18. FINANCING THE WAR
“Liberty Bonds”
Brinkley (Remember! Flag of Liberty)

19. Expansion of the
Federal Government

20. Economy: Production “war boards” War Industries Board
Barnard Baruch
Food Administration Herbert Hoover
National War Labor Board W.H. Taft & Frank P. Walsh
WWI poster: "Sow the Seeds of Victory“; In 1918, this poster by James Montgomery Flagg appealed to American women to contribute to victory by conserving food through raising and preserving food for their families. The woman is shown sowing seeds (in the way that grain was planted before the development of agricultural machinery for that task), garbed in a dress made from an American flag, and wearing a red Liberty cap, a symbol that originated in the French Revolution. (Ohio Historical Society) [Pageant 13e]
(Ohio Historical Society)

21. U. S. Food Administration

22. National War Garden Commission
U. S. School Garden Army

23. U. S. Fuel Administration

24. Results of New Organization of Economy
Unemployment virtually disappeared
Expansion of “big government”
Excessive government regulations in economy
Close cooperation between public and private sectors
Unprecedented opportunities for women & minorities
From Pojer

25. The Girls They Left Behind Do Their Bit!

26. Women Used In Recruitment

27. The Red Cross - Greatest Mother in the World

28. Economy & Society: African-Americans
“Great Migration”
Divine America Past and Present Revised 7th Ed.; Pageant 13e
African American family just arrived in Chicago, 1912
(Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library)
African American Migration Northward,

29. African-Americans on a Troop Ship Headed for France

30. Wartime
Propaganda

31. The Committee of Public Information (George Creel)
America’s “Propaganda Minister?”
Anti-Germanism.
Selling American Culture.

33. American Involvement in the War in Europe
By the time we got there in Spring 1918, Russia & Germany had signed an armistice  Germany focused on Western Front.
The war would be over in 8 months—1 million U.S. troops turned tide of war.

34. WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS AND THE RATIFICATION FIGHT  Read 14 Points
C. TREATY OF VERSAILLES
WILSON'S FOURTEEN POINTS AND THE RATIFICATION FIGHT
 Read 14 Points

35. Wilson’s idealist dream for lasting peace at the conclusion of the
WAR…
…creating a peaceful League of Nations

36. The Treaty of Versailles: The Foundations of Peace??
The Fourteen Points
Wilson’s Plan for peace
Wilson called for:
Points #’s 1-4
open diplomacy
freedom of the seas
Removal of trade barriers
arms reduction
Points #’s 5-13
end to colonialism
An international commitment to national self-determination
POINT # 14: League of Nations became Wilson’s obsession
Designed to curb aggressor countries through collective military action and mediate disputes to prevent future conflict

37. TREATY OF VERSAILLES Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World
The Big Four
Woodrow Willson
David Lloyd George
Georges Clemenceau
Vittorio Orlando
WADSWORTH
Orlando, Lord George, Clemenceau, and Wilson in Wilson’s study in Paris

38. Nope—See final treaty!

39. TREATY OF VERSAILLES “irreconciliables” “reservationists”
Henry Cabot Lodge
Lodge –Wadsworth
Wilson after his stroke, October 1919
In October 1919 President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) receives assistance after his massive stroke, which made it difficult for him to maintain his train of thought and manage government affairs. Historians continue to debate the influence of Wilson's poor health on the president's losing battle for U.S. membership in the League of Nations. (Library of Congress)
Pageant 13e
Wilson after his stroke, October 1919
(Library of Congress)
Henry Cabot Lodge, 1909

40. Wilson’s Versailles
Treaty would fail to be ratified by the
US Senate…
…objections to the
League of Nations
by Senator Lodge
and Republicans over
Constitutional issues
…and Wilson’s defiant stubbornness…doomed
the Treaty to rejection.

41. D. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS

42. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS Racial Tensions
East St. Louis Riots
9 whites/40 blacks killed in riots over jobs
Sharp increase in lynchings
Brinkley

43. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS Post-war Labor Unrest
Coal Miners Strike of 1919
Steel Strike of 1919
Boston Police Strike of 1919
Labor Union Membership
Pojer (text); Brinkley 13e
“If capital and labor don’t pull together” Chicago Tribune, 1919

44. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS Post-war Labor Unrest
Rather than become
a world leader for
international peace
and cooperation…
…the USA would
experience its 1st
“RED SCARE”

45. America’s isolationist
tendencies were
growing stronger
as a result of the
Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia which
brought Communists
to power…
…fear of spreading
radicalism caused
alarm in America

46. Fear of foreigners and radicals would lead the USA to pass further restrictions and quotas to limit
Immigration from
Eastern and Southern Europe
in the 1920’s.

47. US Attorney General Palmer would conduct his “Palmer Raids”…
…to capture and
deport suspected
radicals…
…before they
could cause
harm in
America.

48. SOCIETY & ECONOMY IN THE POSTWAR YEARS “Return to Normalcy”
Warren G. Harding-Return to Republican control
“Return to Normalcy”
“fundamentalists”/emphasis on traditional values
Sacco & Vanzetti--Nativism