Wilson to Modern America

The push to establish the US as a world power

Woodrow Wilson• Presidential Election of 1912Wilson only 41% of the popular

vote.Wilson regarded himself as a the

personal representative of the people.

Wilson was familiar with war and he was not a supporter of conflict.

President of Princeton, 1902Campaigned on the slogan of “New

Freedom” supporting individual liberty and States’ rights.

                                                         

New Freedom

Battle on the “Triple Wall of Privilege: The tariff, the banks and the trusts”

Underwood Tariff Act

Federal Reserve Act

Federal Trade Commission Act

Clayton Antitrust Act

Unique delivery of legislation

• Wilson was the first President since Jefferson to personally deliver his message to Congress.

• Wilson’s eloquent, effective and aggressive leadership spurred the passage of his “New Freedom” Legislation.

Important New Freedom Legislation

• The Federal Farm Loan Act of 1916

• The Warehouse Act of 1916

• La Follette’s Seaman Act • Workingmen’s Compensation Act

• Child Labor Act• Adamson Act 1916

Wilsonian Foreign Policy

• Wilson was not a fan of imperialism

Situations:

Mexico – Pancho Villa

Haiti

Dominican Republic

Virgin Islands

ABC Powers

The Coming Storm

• Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie

• Tangled Web of Alliances

• The long night in Europe

America Remains Neutral

• “Neutral in thought as well as deed”

• War pulls the US economy out of recession

• Uboat as a development to fight economic warfare

• Sussex Pledge

US involvement in the War to End All Wars

• January 22, 1917 – Peace without victory address• January 31, 1917 – Unlimited/Unrestricted

submarine warfare.• Zimmerman Telegram• Red Revolution – Fall of the Tsars• April 2, 1917 – Wilson asks for a declaration of

war, declaration is granted 4 days later.

War in France

• The war exacted a heavy toll at home and abroad – Labor and preparedness

• Draft – Conscription was the only way the US was going to develop the manpower necessary to win

• Russian Revolution and Russian withdrawal as a force spurred US intervention in Europe.

• John Pershing

14 Points

• Foreign Diplomacy and idealism• Wilson was born and raised in the South

during the Civil War, he did not like conflict

• WWI represented an opportunity to increase democratic values around the world, represented in the League of Nations.

Interwar years

• Flappers• Economic Boom to

Bust• Margin buying of

equities• Women’s Suffrage• Automobile• KKK• Labor unrest

Onset of WWII

• Causes of WWII: Rise of Dictators, Economic Nationalism, Imperialist Expansion, Appeasement

• German War Reparations• World Economic Crisis – Overproduction• Crashing prices the agricultural effect and

its impact on solvency

US into WWII

• Everything short of war policy• Lend-Lease• Atlantic Charter• Arsenal for Democracy• Pearl Harbor• War in Europe – Allies and Axis• Pacific• Atomic bomb• End of the war• Holocaust