“the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth.” ernest...
TRANSCRIPT
“The most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth.”
Ernest Hemmingway “Make the world safe for
democracy.“ Woodrow Wilson
The First World War Problems of
neutrality • Submarines • Economic ties • Psychological and
ethnic ties Preparedness and
pacifism Mobilization
• Fighting the war • Financing the war • War boards • Propaganda, public
opinion, civil liberties
Wilson's Fourteen Points • Treaty of Versailles • Ratification fight
Postwar demobilization • Red scare • Labor strife
Democrat (Progressive) PHD-Professor then President of Princeton-
Political Science Governor of New Jersey Want foreign policy to shape morality in the World. Very religious Committed to Peace in the world.
Wilson, “It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.”
Hoped to change relations with Latin America- didn’t like the “Big Stick” diplomacy-
Wanted to restore Latin American Confidence in the US
American Economic Expansion with American Democracy, and Christianity, to civilize the world.
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan (Christian, Pacifist- reflected the Moral/Missionary vision)
Wilson saw American influence in the world as a moral crusade-
Wanted to help create a “New World Order” guided by fair play and cooperation
Wanted to spread democracy and hope to less fortunate lands
Pledged, “The United States would never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest.”
“Americans are meant to carry liberty and justice and the principles of humanity wherever… convert them to principles of America.”
“America must use it’s enormous moral and material power to create a new order.”
Most Americans did not want to get involved in the War
Wilson didn’t want war but didn’t want Brits to lose
Anglo-Americans pro-Allies (Brits) Irish Americans (4.5 million) were
Anti-British and pro-German (1916, Easter Rising, Irish will use German Weapons to attack British in Dublin)
German Americans pro-German (8 million)
American Industrialists- were making millions on war goods
Wilson said, A German victory would be “destructive to American ideals.”
U. S. Bankers Immediately after the War bogged down into
stalemate, the Allies sought to build their armies. They needed money and material to do it. They also needed supplies in large quantities. What they couldn't produce they bought from the United States and they bought on credit from U. S. Banks.
Trade with Germany • 1914 = $169,000,000 • 1916 = $1,158,000 • 1917 $27 million in credit
Trade with Allies• 1914 = $824,000,000 • 1916 = $3,214,000,000 • 1917 = $2.3 billion in credit
When the War looked bad for the Allies the bankers became worried that they might lose their money if the Allies lost the War and started to pressure the United States government to get more involved.
Wilson wants to maintain neutrality but also cited the necessity to maintain “freedom of the seas”
Causes Americans to become more hostile to Germans
Wilson protests and demands German apology, reparations, commitment to stop attacking passenger vessels
Germans comply for time being Americans still trade with Allies and
Germans Wilson desires “Peace and
Preparedness” begins to prepare for war with appropriations
Wilson playing both sides
Preparedness and Peace
Beats the Republican Hughes
Very close race
277-254 electoral votes
9.1 mill- 8.5 mill pop votes
January 1917 German diplomat suggests to Mexico Alliance- If US enters the war against Germany Mexico declares war on US and if
Germany wins, Mexico will receive Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico
Telegram is leaked to papers Outrages many Americans = more
support for entering war
1917 Germany is getting desperate Wants to force British negotiated
peace or victory Announces new policy of
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare= All ships going to Allied countries possible targets.
Germans thought this might cause US to enter war, but thought war would end before they could mobilize.
Wilson- Very pro-British- saw the war concerning the survival of democracy.
US Bankers and industrialists supported entrance into war
Wilson wanted to see a New World Order emerge
He cited the “Freedom of the seas” The American cause was “to vindicate
the principles of peace and justice…The world must be made safe for democracy.”
Asks Congress for a Declaration of War
Woodrow Wilson was re-elected in 1916 on the platform that •“He Kept Us Out of War!”
In 1917, however, Wilson sought a declaration of war.
Citing “Freedom of the seas.” A “War to Make the World Safe for
Democracy”
April 1917 Senate 92-6 House 473-50
US is at war against Germany
Financing the War• Raised Income Taxes• Corporate Taxes• Loans• War Bonds
$24 Billion- cost of war
$11 Billion in war loans
War boards organize production
War Industries Board (WIB)• Huge bureaucracy • Manages war time
economy Food Administration
• Herbert Hoover • Managed food supply• Controlling Wheat, Meat,
Sugar Railroad Board Fuel Administration Shipping Board
(Merchant Ships) National War Labor
Board
War industries board WIB - huge bureaucracy
Food Administration- headed by Herbert Hoover
Wanted to limit private consumption of goods that could be used for the war effort such as: wheat, grains, and sugar so that it could be used for the war .
18th Amendment proposed- outlaw the making of alcohol
Volstead Act- federal legislation that enforces the 18th amendment
In order to mobilize support for the War
Committee Public Information The American Government’s
propaganda arm Created to produce hatred for
Germans and support for the war effort
US has a history of limiting civil liberties, (liberties of free speech, suspending Habeas Corpus)
John Adams 1798- Alien Sedition Acts
Lincoln- Civil War- suspends Habeas Corpus
World War I Wilson pushes Sedition Acts (limits freedom of speech)
Espionage and Sedition Acts
Alien Act 1798- Adams government, deport enemy aliens
Espionage Act 1917 = allows for fines and prison for obstruction of war effort
Sedition Act 1918 = allows up to 20 years
A portion of the amendment to Section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917.
SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war,…,
. . .(hinder) the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . .
shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States,…
by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....
The Supreme court upholds the Espionage and Sedition acts in the Schenck vs. United States.
“War to Make the World Safe for Armaments and Munitions Manufacturers.”
People like Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams vigorously criticized the decision to enter the war.
Debs will be put in prison because of his views
Selective Service Act: All males 18-45 were ordered to register for the draft
More men who served in the war were conscripted.
Draftees were un Unmarried, 13% black
24 million registered 2.8 million drafted 2 million volunteered
Great Migration= large numbers move North
“Nothing here but money, and it is not hard to get.”
New York/Chicago Push: poor conditions, floods, race
oppression Pull: more economic opportunity,
jobs, higher pay Migration causes hostility among
other groups- immigrants Segregated in military
260,000 enlist or are drafted 50,000 were sent to France- most
worked in service/menial tasks Some Combat regiments Segregated Units White officers Suffer racial abuse
American Expeditionary Force (AEF) name of the US forces in Europe
“Doughboys” nickname for Americans in WWI
Black Jack Pershing- American Commanding General
1916 Russians loosing (weak, poor); sending troops w/out weapons to the front line; 1916 Russians pull out with the Bresk Litovsk treaty (1917)
1916 French mutiny, 300 killed for refusing to attack fighting
Trench warfare causing mass amounts of deaths; “No man’s land” and Machine Guns, high explosives, and poison gas
If Germany had taken Paris they would have won, but American reinforcements
(1 million troops) stopped the Germans and save the Allies
By early 1918 American troops arrive in France
The AEF fight in a few important engagements
Chateau-Thierry Bellau Wood The Argonne Forrest St. Mihiel
Women enter the military services
Secretaries, nurses, telephone operators
More opportunity for civilian work
1 million women in industry munitions
November 11, 1918 (11:00 AM) Germans facing invasion ask for
a negotiated end of war based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points
War is effectively over.
Wilson attempted to see his “Missionary” ideals in the settlement of the war.
His “New World Order” “We entered this war because violations of right had
occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for all against their recurrence.
What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression.
All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us. The program of the …” world's peace, therefore, is our program”
“Do unto others……”
Idealist expression of Wilson
To correct errors that created the war and to support the creation of a new world order based on Wilson’s missionary principles
Contained in Treaty of Versailles
Some of the Points Self Determination =
independence for colonies
Freedom of Seas Greater freedom of
trade No Secret Treaties Reduction of
armaments League of Nations to
solve international problems
Austria-Hungary lose empire Germany loses land, pays large war debt
Takes full blame for the war Turkey loses empire
Republican Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge
Didn’t like Wilson Wanted to change/weaken the League
of Nations Covenant- (Charter) Concerned about American
Sovereignty• Immigration• Tariffs• Ability use force (limited by the league)
Wanted to Weaken the Democratic Party
Wilson would not compromise with the Lodge and the Republicans in Senate
He goes on a speaking tour to create public pressure on the Senate
Has a massive stroke and is incapacitated
The league of Nations/internationalism is dead
American policy and popular opinion will reflect the concept of Isolationism- till World War II
World War I claimed an estimated 16 million lives.
The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed MORE THAN 20 MILLION PEOPLE
[an estimated 20 to 60 million people]. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus.
Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history
After the Communist Revolution in Russia and
establishment of the Communist International (Comintern)
Americans become frightened of Communism in the US
1918- Anarchist mail bombing campaign Mitchell Palmer, US Attorney General, was
one of the recipients- prompts hysterical reaction roundups of 6000 alleged radicals 500 deported
J. Edgar Hoover is and assistant to Palmer, (will later head the FBI)
Two victims of the Red Scare were
Saco and Vanzetti Two anarchists accused of
murder (not related to the bombs) Executed in the electric chair
(invented by Edison)