U.S. and World War I1914-1918

As war broke out in Europe in 1914, the U.S. declared its neutrality, thus keeping with the tradition begun by

Washington.

World War I

• MAIN Causes• Assassination of Archduke

Franz Ferdinand• Allied Powers: Great Britain,

France and Russia• Central Powers: Germany,

Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire

U.S. + Neutrality

• Problems with belligerent powers trying to stop supplies from reaching enemy (shipping)

• Germany and Britain attempted to blockade each other’s ports

• America caught in the middle• German U-boats• Both nations sent out warnings• Wilson said this violated our

right to freedom of the seas

Lusitania

• British passenger liner torpedoed and sunk in May 1915

• Most passengers drowned, including 128 Americans

• Wilson warned Germany that they would be held to “strict accountability” if this continued

• Germany responded that warnings would be given to help save lives

Economic Links with Britain and France

• Although neutral we had close ties to the Allies

• War supplies shipped to other countries boosted the U.S. economy

• Trade with Germany dwindled• Bankers loaned millions of

dollars to Britain• These loans helped maintain

our prosperity and sustain the Allied war effort

• Wilson of Scotch-English descent, admired Britain

Public Opinion

• Allied propaganda helped sway U.S. public opinion towards the Allies

• Citizens of British, Italian and French ancestry favored the Allies

• German Americans strongly sympathized with their “homeland”

• Irish Americans sympathized with the Central Powers because of their hatred towards Britain

• Most favored Allies

Propaganda

The War Debate

• After the Lusitania a small number of Republicans (Theodore Roosevelt) called for U.S. entry into the war

• Most Americans wished to remain neutral

• Roosevelt recognized that we were unprepared for war

• “Preparedness”• At first Wilson was against the

call for preparedness, but in late 1915 he favored it

• Democrats were against

Opposition to the War

• Mostly from Americans in the West and Midwest

• Populists, Progressives and Socialists

• William Jennings Bryan and Jane Addams

• Woman suffragists actively campaigned against any military buildup

• However, when war began for U.S., women would loyally support the war effort

Election of 1916

• Woodrow Wilson ran for another 4 years under the slogan “He kept us out of the war”

• Charles Evans Hughes ran for the Republicans – REUNITED!

• Wilson’s peace sentiment, Progressive record and Hughes’ weakness as a candidate gave Wilson victory in a very close election

Decision for War

• Most important to the U.S. entering WWI was the change in German strategy (1917)

• Risked resuming unrestricted sub warfare before U.S. joined

• Wilson broke off diplomatic relations

• Zimmerman Telegram: from Germany to Mexico, intercepted by British.

• Russian Revolution – Overthrow of Czar – now chamption democracy

Declaration of WarMobilization

• In April, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war

• “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

• Could the U.S. mobilize in time to help the Allies?

• 1st step – supplying the Allies with rifles, gunpowder, food

• War Industries Board – Bernard Baruch– Production priorties and controls over raw materials and prices

• Food Administration – Herbert Hoover– Less meat & bread (overseas). Food shipments tripled

• Fuel Administration – Harry Garfield– Save coals, nonessential factories closed, daylight savings time

• National War Labor Board – W. H. Taft– Arbitrate disputes b/w labor and management. Labor’s wages

increased, 8 hour work day, union membership increased

Mobilization

Mobilization

• Paying for the war• Liberty bonds sold to raise

money – 4 drives• Raised $33 billion in 2 years• Taxes on luxury goods,

personal income, corporate taxes

• Committee on Public Information – George Creel

• Artists, writers, actors, to ‘sell’ the war – Am. Heroism and Germany villainy

• Films, posters, pamphlets, speakers

• “Do your bit”

Propaganda

Espionage and Sedition Acts

• Passed in 1917 and 1918 to fight against those who spoke out against the war

• Espionage Act: up to 20years in jail for those trying to incite rebellion in armed forces or obstruct the draft

• Sedition Act: prohibited anyone from making “disloyal” or “abusive” remarks about U.S. government

• 2,000 prosecuted, 1,000 jailed including Eugene V. Debs (Socialist leader)

Schenk v. United States

• Supreme Court upheld the constitutionalist of the Espionage Act

• Charles Schenk arrested and convicted of distributing pamphlets against the draft

• In 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes concluded that the right to free speech could be limited when it represented a “clear and present” danger to the public safety

• Yelling “fire” in a movie theatre when there is no fire

Armed Forces

• Thousands of young men volunteered to enlist

• Most were conscripted (drafted) ages 21-30 (45)

• Selective Service Act: 1917, 2.8 million called by lottery to serve

• African Americans: segregation in the armed forces, few officers, barred from Marines (400,000)

• Belief that serving would bring equality

Effects on American Society

• Women took vacated jobs as men went off to war and volunteered as nurses

• These contributions finally convinced Wilson and Congress to support the 19th Amendment - suffrage

• Job opportunities caused thousands of Mexican immigrants to journey to the U.S.

• African-Americans also migrated north looking for employment

Fighting the War

Barrage of artillery, machine-gun fire, poison gas

• Millions of Europeans had already died when U.S. troops arrived in late 1917

• Russia had withdrawn from the war and Germany concentrated on the western front and Atlantic

• U.S. Navy implemented convoy system to protect ships

• American Expeditionary Force (AEF) commanded by General John J. Pershing

• 49,000 die• flu epidemic kills more 63,000

Making the Peace

• Woodrow Wilson never lost sight of his vision for a “peace without victory”

• War Ends on 11/11/1918• Fourteen Points: freedom of

the seas, reduce arms, self-determination, no secret treaties, League of Nations

• Treaty of Versailles: first U.S. president to travel abroad for a diplomatic conference

• The Big Four: U.S., France, Great Britain and Italy

Treaty of Versailles

• Other leaders did not share Wilson’s views of “peace without victory”

• Treaty was harsh towards Germany: reparations, war guilt, territorial loss, and armed forces reduced

• League of Nations is created• U.S. never joins because

Congress never accepts treaty (check on president’s power)

• Could violate our neutrality and possibly the Monroe Doctrine

Senate Rejection

• Wilson personally campaigned for the treaty and U.S. joining the League of Nations

• Senate voted twice on treaty and both times rejected it

• Eventually in 1921, the U.S. signed a separate peace treaty with Germany

• U.S. never joined the League

Postwar Problems

• Demobilization, millions of men back in civilian life

• Women and African-Americans lost jobs

• Farmers suffered as prices fell• Business boom of wartime

went flat

Red Scare

• Fears grew fueled by Communist takeover in Russia

• Anti-German hysteria turned into anti-Communist hysteria

• Series of unexplained bombings led Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to order mass arrests of anarchists, socialists and labor agitators

• Thousands arrested• Concerns rose over loss of

civil liberties

Conflicts

• Strikes led to violence• Race riots in northern cities

(Chicago) as whites resented blacks for their competition for employment

• Racial prejudice and fears of returning African-American soldiers led a an increase of violence and lynchings in the South