World War I

President Woodrow Wilson

• Wilson strongly opposed imperialism.

• Believed that the US should promote democracy in order to ensure a peaceful world free of revolution and war.

• Mexican Revolution frustrated Wilson’s effort to lead the world by moral example

President Woodrow Wilson• 1884 – 1911 dictator Porfirio Diaz. A few wealthy

landowners dominated Mexican society. Majority of the people were poor and landless.

• Mexico 1911 - a revolution erupted, forcing Diaz to flee the country. Francisco Madero replaced Diaz

• Soon army officers plotted against Madero and murdered him. General Victoriano Huerta seized power in Mexico and he began a brutal new government.

• President Wilson refused to recognize the government. He was convinced that without support of the US, Huerta soon would be overthrown. He also permitted Americans to arm other political factions within Mexico

President Woodrow Wilson• April 1914 American sailors were arrested in

Mexico. They were released quickly but Wilson demanded an apology. Mexico refused and Wilson used this refusal to apologize to overthrow Huerta. He sent Marines to seize the Mexican port of Veracruz.

• Anti-American riots broke out and Wilson accepted international mediation to settle the dispute. Venustiano Carranza became Mexico’s president

• Mexican forces opposed to Carranza were not appeased and they conducted raids into the US, hoping to force Wilson to intervene. Pancho Villa led a group of guerillas, that burned the town of Columbus, New Mexico and killed a number of Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson• Wilson responded by sending 6,000 US troops,

under John J. Pershing, across the border to find and capture Villa. Pershing failed to capture the guerillas and Wilson recalled his troops in 1917.

• Wilson’s Mexican policy damaged US foreign relations. Britain said he was trying to “shoot the Mexicans into self-government.” and Latin America called his philosophy “moral imperialism.”

• During Wilson’s first term he sent marines into Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic to preserve order and to set up governments that he hoped would be more stable and democratic than the current regimes.

• John J. Pershing

Outbreak of WWI• While America was fighting its own civil war Prussia

had united Germany and the nation began to rapidly industrialize. It was quickly becoming one of the most powerful nations in the world. In 1870 Prussia attacked and defeated France. They forced France to give up territory and became vast enemies.

• To protect itself Germany signed alliances with Italy and Austria-Hungary. This became known as the Triple Alliance.

• Concerned that Germany might expand eastward into Russia, Russia and France signed the Franco-Russian Alliance.

Outbreak of WWI• Great Britain remained neutral.

• 1898, Germans began to build a navy challenging Great Britain’s historical dominance at sea. By 1900 an arms race had begun between Germany and Great Britain, as both sides began to build up warships. This convinced the British to establish closer relations with France and Russia.

• The British refused to sign a formal alliance so their new relationship became known as a friendly understanding, the Triple Entente.

• Nationalism – a feeling of intense pride of one’s homeland, had become a powerful idea in Europe.

• Nationalism was one of the reasons for the tensions among the European powers. Each nation viewed the other as competitors, and many people were willing to go to war to expand their nation at the expense of others.

• Self-determination – the idea that people who belong to a nation should have their own country government.

• Balkans – different national groups within these empires began to press for independence.

A Shot Fired • 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia. This

convinced the Serbs that Austria-Hungary had no intention of letting the Slavic people in its empire become independent.

• June 1914 – Heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, the Archbishop Franz Ferdinand, visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. As they rode through the city, a Bosnian revolutionary named Gavrilo Princip rushed their open car and shot the couple to death. Princip was a member of a Serbian nationalist group nicknamed the “Black Hand.”

A Shot Fired • The Austria-Hungarian government blamed

Serbia for the attack and decided the time had come to crush Serbia.

• Knowing an attack on Serbia might trigger a war with Russia, the Austrians asked their German allies for support. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary if war erupted

World War • July 28, 1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war

on Serbia.

• Serbs counted on Russia to back them up, Russians counted on France to back them up.

• Aug. 1, 1914 – Germany declared war on Russia.

• Aug. 3, 1914 – Germany declared war on France.

• WORLD WAR I HAS BEGUN!!!

Germany’s Plan Fails• Germany had long been preparing for war

with France and Russia. Immediately launched a massive invasion of France, hoping to quickly knock them out of the war so that they could go after Russia.

• One problem with Germany’s plan, it required them to go through Belgium in order to encircle the French troops.

• The British guaranteed Belgium’s neutrality

• When German troops crossed the Belgian frontier, Britain declared war on Germany

Who’s Who• Those fighting for the Triple Entente were

known as the Allies. France, Russia, and Great Britain (and Italy joined them in 1915 when other Allies promised them Austro-Hungarian territory after the war).

• Germany and Austria-Hungary joined with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria to form the Central Powers.

First Battles • German troops swept through Belgium and

headed into France, driving back the French and British forces.

• Russian troops invaded Germany to everyone’s surprise. The German’s had not expected the Russians to mobilize so quickly.

• Germany was forced to pull some troops away from the attack on France and send them east to stop the Russians.

First Battles • This weakened the German forces just

enough to give the Allies a chance to stop them.

• The Germans drove to within 30 miles of Paris, but stubborn resistance by British and French troops at the Battle of the Marne finally stopped the German advance

Battle of Marne

First Battles • Both sides became locked in a bloody

stalemate along hundreds of miles of trenches that would barely change position for the next three years.

• The Central forces had greater success on the Eastern Front. German and Austrian forces stopped the Russian attack and then went on the offensive. They swept across hundreds of miles of territory and took hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Russia suffered 2 million killed, wounded or captured in 1915 alone, but it kept fighting.

American Neutrality• When the fighting began President Wilson

declared the US to be neutral in an attempt to keep the country form being drawn into a foreign war.

• Many Americans however, showed support for one side or the other. Many of the 8 million German American immigrants of course supported the Central forces.

• The 4.5 million Irish Americans also sympathized with the Central forces as well

American Neutrality• In general though, American public opinion favored

the Allied cause. • President Wilson’ cabinet was decidedly pro-British• British officials worked diligently to win American

support. • The British used propaganda, information designed

to influence opinion. Britain cut the transatlantic telegraph cable from Europe to the US, thus limiting news about the war mainly to British reports. Stories arrived depicting numerous German war atrocities, including the charge that Germans used corpses from the battlefield to make fertilizer and soap. Although these reports were questionable enough Americans believed them and it helped sway American support in favor of the Allies.

American Neutrality• American business interests also leaned

toward the Allies

• Companies in the US particularly on the East Coast, had strong ties with businesses in the Allied countries.

• By 1917 American businesses had loaned Allied companies over $2 Billion

• If the Allies won, the money would be paid back; if not, the money might be lost forever.

Moving Toward War • British Blockade – British deployed their navy to

blockade Germany and keep it from obtaining supplies. British planted mines in the North Sea and forced neutral ships into port for inspections in case they were trying to transport valuable materials to Germany or its neutral neighbors

• To get around British Blockades the Germans used U-boats, German submarines.

• Feb 1915 – Germany announced that they would attempt to sink without warning any ship they found in the waters around Britain.

• This caused outrage in the US and elsewhere.

Moving Toward War • Attacking civilian vessels without warning

violated an international treaty stipulating that military vessels must reveal their intentions to merchants ships and make provisions for the safety of the target ship’s crew and passengers before sinking it.

• May 7, 1915 – British passenger ship Lusitania entered the war zone. German submarine fired on the ship and killed nearly 1200 passengers, including 128 Americans.

Moving Toward War • President Wilson sent Germany several diplomatic

notes to Germany insisting that its government safeguard the lives of noncombatants in the war zones.

• March 1916 Germany torpedoed French passenger ship Sussex, injuring several Americans on board.

• President Wilson chose to issue one last warning. He demanded that the German government abandon its methods of submarine warfare or risk war with the US. Germany did not want to draw US into war and promised with certain conditions to sink no more merchant ships without warning – The Sussex Pledge.

Moving Toward War • 1916 President Wilson wins re-election with his

campaign slogan of “He kept us out of the war.”• January 1917 – German official named Arthur

Zimmerman cabled the German ambassador in Mexico and told him to make an offer to the Mexican government: if Mexico would ally itself with Germany in the event of war between Germany and the US, then Mexico would regain its lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona after the war.

• Germany hoped that Mexico would tie down the US forces and prevent them from being sent to Europe.

• British intelligence intercepted the Zimmerman Telegram. And shortly afterwards it was leaked to American newspapers.

Moving Toward War • Furious, Americans now concluded war with

Germany was necessary.

• Feb. 1, 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.

• Between Feb. 3 and March 21 German U-boats sank six American merchant ships without warning.

• April 6, 1917 America declared war on Germany.

Building up the Military• Selective Service

• 1917 the US only had 300,000 men in the Army and National Guard

• Many volunteered but we still needed more

• Many progressives thought that conscription, or forced military service was a violation of democratic and republican principles.

Building up the Military• Selective Service Act of 1917 – required all

men between age of 21 – 30 to register for the draft.

• A lottery randomly determined the order they were called up.

• Local people served on draft boards

• 2.8 million Americans were drafted

• 2 million others volunteered

African Americans in WWI• 400,000 were drafted• 42,000 of them served overseas• All served in racially segregated units under white officers

Women in Military • 1st war in which women officially served• Only in non-combat positions• Navy enlisted women for clerical needs• 11,000 women served in Navy – most performed clerical

duties, while some were radio operators, torpedo assembly, electricians, pharmacists, photographers, and chemists.

• Army refused to enlist women, instead they HIRED them as employees for clerical work

• Army Nursing Corps – only women to be sent overseas, 20,000 nurses served in army including 10,000 that went overseas.

Organizing Industry• Congress created special boards to

coordinate mobilization of the economy• Cooperation between big business and

government• War Industries Board – July 1917 (WIB) - coordinate production of war materials - Reorganized in 1918 – headed by Bernard Baruch (a Wall Street Stockbroker) - controlled flow of raw materials, ordered the construction of new factories, occasionally set prices

Food and Fuel• Food Administration – run by Herbert Hoover

- responsible for increasing food production

while reducing civilian consumption

- did not begin rationing, just urged Americans

to save food on their own.

- “Food Will Win the War – Don’t Waste It”

- People were encouraged to “Hooverize” by

serving just enough

Food and Fuel - Had Wheatless Mondays, Meatless Tues-

days, Porkless Thursdays

- Encouraged citizens to plant Victory Gardens –

raising their own vegetables, leaving more for the

troops• Fuel Administration – Harry Garfield

- Introduced Daylight Savings Time and shortened work weeks for factories that did not make war materials

- Heatless Mondays

Paying for the War• By the end of the war, the US was spending

$44 million a day – leading to a total expenditure of $32 Billion for the entire conflict.

• Congress raised income taxes.

• Places new taxes on corporate taxes

• Extra tax on the profits of arms factories

Paying for the War• Taxes did not cover whole expense

• Government borrowed $20 Billion from American people by selling Liberty Bonds and Victory Bonds.

• Government would repay with interest in a specified number of years

• Put out posters, preached “Liberty Loan Sermons” to get people to buy them.

Mobilizing Workforce• National War Labor Board (NWLB) – April 1918 to

prevent strikes from disrupting war effort by: • - wage increases - 8 hour workday - right of union to organize and bar- gain - agreed to no strikes• Women support industry - filled industrial jobs vacated by men serving in the military - factory and manufacturing jobs - shipping and railroad industries

Great Migration Begins• Flow of European immigrants cut off

• White workers drafted

• 300,000 to 500,000 African Americans left the South to settle in Northern cities

• Called it the “Great Migration”

Civil Liberties Curtailed• Government passed laws to fight anti-war activities

and enemies at home.• Espionage or spying addressed in the Espionage Act

of 1917.

-It established penalties and prison terms for anyone who gave aid to the enemy.

- It penalized disloyalty, giving of false reports, or interfering with the war effort

• Sedition Act of 1918 made illegal any public expression of opposition to the war

• US censored mail to prevent treason • 1500 prosecutions with 1000 convictions

Ensuring Public Support• Progressives in the government believed

government should take steps to shape public opinion and build support for the war

• Committee on Public Information had the duty of “selling the war” to the American people

• Recruited advertising executives, commercial artists, songwriters, entertainers, public speakers and motion picture companies to help sway public opinion in favor of the war

Civil Liberties Curtailed• Government passed laws to fight anti-war activities

and enemies at home.• Espionage or spying addressed in the Espionage Act

of 1917.

-It established penalties and prison terms for anyone who gave aid to the enemy.

- It penalized disloyalty, giving of false reports, or interfering with the war effort

• Sedition Act of 1918 made illegal any public expression of opposition to the war

• US censored mail to prevent treason • 1500 prosecutions with 1000 convictions

A Climate of Suspicion• Mistreatment of German Americans• Changed sauerkraut to “liberty cabbage,”

hamburger to “Salisbury steak”• Schools dropped German language classes• Orchestras stopped playing Beethoven• Citizens beat German-born neighbors• Mobs attacked labor activists, socialists and

pacifists• Newspapers urged Americans to monitor the

activities of their fellow citizens• American Protective League, Boy Spies of America

Supreme Court Limits Free Speech

• Schenck v. the United States (1919) Supreme Court ruled that an individual’s freedom of speech could be curbed when the words uttered constitute a “clear and present danger.”

• The Supreme Court said “when a nation is at war, many things that might be said in times of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as (soldiers) fight…”

• US entered the war on April 6, 1917• Already millions of deaths from both old fashioned

strategies and new technologies• Will America make a difference?• Trench warfare – dug trenches that extended from

the English Channel to the Swiss border• The space between the opposing trenches was

known as “no man’s land” – a rough barren landscape pockmarked with craters from artillery fire. Sometimes lined with barbed wire and metal obstacles

• Relied upon modern rifles and a new weapon, the rapid fire machine gun with which they could hold off attacking forces.

New Technology• April 1915 Germans first to use poison gas in the

second battle of Ypres – fumes caused vomiting, blindness and suffocation

• Allies retaliated by using it as well.• Now all soldiers had to carry gas masks• 1916 British introduced the tank into battle.• First tanks were very slow and cumbersome,

mechanically unreliable and fairly easy to destroy• Were useful in that they could roll over barbed wire

barriers and some trenches. But did not make a big enough impact to make a difference

• First airplanes to be used in combat

• First used to observe enemy activities

• Secondly used to drop small bombs

• Then attached machine guns and engaged in deadly air battles known as dogfights

• The armament in WW1 was limited to 1 or 2 machine guns that fired at 150 to 250 rounds per minute. During the peak of WW2, the fighters were armed with 6 to 8 machine guns that were larger caliber and fired much faster.

Winning the War at Sea• No American ships were sunk on their way

over to Europe to join in the fight – due largely to Admiral William S. Sims. With all of the damage the U-Boats had inflicted on British ships, Admiral Sims proposed grouping the warships and merchant ships together and forming a convoy

Russia Leaves the War• March 1917 riots broke out in Russia over the

government’s handling of the war and the scarcity of food and fuel

• March 15, 1917 Czar Nicholas II – leader, abdicated his throne.

• A temporary government was set up that was pro war but it could not deal with the food shortage or other problems effectively

• Nov. 1917 the Bolsheviks, a group of Communists lead by Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government and established a Communistic government.

• Military forces pulled out of the war so they could concentrate on establishing a Communist state.

• Lenin agreed to a Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany on March 3, 1918.

• Russia lost substantial territory – gave up the Ukraine, its Polish and Baltic territories & Finland.

• But Germans had to vacate any remaining Russian lands

• Now Germany was able to concentrate on the western front

• Battle of Argonne Forest – French Marshal Ferdinand Foch ordered massive counter attacks along the front while German troops are stalled outside of Paris.

• Sept. 26, 1918 – General Pershing amassed over 600,000 American troops, 40,000 tons of supplies, and 4,000 artillery pieces.

• Slowly one German position after another fell to the advancing American troops. Americans suffered heavy casualties but by early November, they had shattered the German defensives and opened a hole in the German lines. Broke RR lines supporting German troops.

The War Ends• While fighting was going on at the Western

Front, revolution engulfed Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turks surrendered.

• Faced with surrender of their allies and a naval mutiny at Kiel, the people of Berlin rose in rebellion on Nov. 9 and forced the Germans to step down.

• At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, the fighting stopped

• Germany signed an armistice - a cease fire that ended the war.

A Flawed Peace• Jan. 1919, Peace Conference in Paris

• Resolve many complicated issues

• The “Big Four” the leaders of the victorious Allied Nations

1. President Woodrow Wilson – US

2. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George

3. French Premier Georges Clemenceau

4. Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando

* Germany was not invited to participate

• Wilson had presented his plan “The Fourteen Points” to Congress Jan. 1918

• Based on “the principal of justice to all peoples and nationalities.”

• The first five points - eliminate the general causes of war through free trade, disarmament, freedom of the seas, impartial adjustment of colonial claims, and open diplomacy instead of secret agreements.

• Next 8 points – addressed the right to self-determination (belief that people in a territory should have the ability to choose their own government)

• Required Central Powers to evacuate all of the countries involved during the war, including France, Belgium, and Russia.

League of Nations• The 14th point of Wilson’s plan called for the

creation of a general association of nations, “The League of Nations.”

• Leagues member nations would help preserve peace and prevent future wars by pledging to respect and protect each others territory and political independence.

Treaty of Versailles• As peace talks progressed in the Palace of

Versailles, it became clear that Wilson’s ideas did not coincide with the interests of the other Allied governments.

• The other countries thought that Wilson’s ideas were too lenient on Germany.

• The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany on June 28, 1919, weakened or discarded many of Wilson’s proposals

Treaty of Versailles• Germany was stripped of its armed forces

• Germany was made to pay $33 Billion in war reparations to the Allies

• And the most humiliating, Germany had to acknowledge guilt for the outbreak of World War I and the devastation caused by the war.

• The war itself dissolved four empires: the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, which was split into separate countries.

• Furthermore, nine new countries were established in Europe, including Yugoslavia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

US Senate Rejects Treaty• A key group of Senators called “the

irreconcilables,” feared that the League of Nations might supersede the power of Congress to declare war and thus force the US to fight in numerous foreign conflicts

• A larger group of Senators known as the “reservationists,” led by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, Henry Cabot Lodge;

• Supported the L of N but would ratify the treaty only with amendments that would preserve the nation’s freedom to act independently.

• Wilson insisted that they pass it without changes• Convinced that he could defeat his opposition by

winning public support, Wilson took his case directly to the American people. In three weeks he made over 30 speeches and traveled over 8,000 miles. Wilson collapsed in Colorado on Sept. 25 and returned to the White House. There he suffered a stroke and was bedridden for months.

• The Senate voted in November 1919 and again in 1920 but it refused to ratify the treaty. After Wilson left office in 1921, the US negotiated separate peace treaties with each of the Central powers. The L of N, the foundation of President Wilson’s plan for lasting peace, took shape without the US

• Country Men Killed Wounded POW’s Total Casualties % of men mobilized + missing casualties mobilized

• Russia 12 million 1.7mill 4.9mill 2.5mill 9.15mill 76.3• France 8.4 mill 1.3mill 4.2mill 537,000 6.1mill 73.3• GB + Empire 8.9mill 908,000 2mill 191,000 3.1mill 35.8• Italy 5.5mill 650,000 947,000 600,000 2.1mill 39• USA 4.3mill 126,000 234,000 4,500 350,000 8• Japan 800,000 300 900 3 1210 0.2• Romania 750,000 335,000 120,000 80,000 535,000 71• Serbia 700,000 45,000 133,000 153,000 331,000 47• Belgium 267,000 13,800 45,000 34,500 93,000 35• Greece 230,000 5000 21,000 1000 27,000 12• Portugal 100,000 7222 13,700 12,000 33,000 33• Total Allies 42million 5 million 13million 4 million 22million 52%•              • Germany 11million 1.7million 4.2million 1.1million 7.1million 65• Austria 7.8million 1.2million 3.6million 2.2million 7 million 90• Turkey 2.8million 325,000 400,000 250,000 975,000 34• Bulgaria 1.2million 87,000 152,000 27,000 266,000 22• Total Central Power 22.8mill 3.3million 8.3million 3.6million 15 million 67•              • Grand Total 65 million 8.5mill 21million 7.7mill 37million 57%

War Deaths

Impact of War

An Economy in Turmoil• When the war ended – gov’t agencies

removed their controls from the American economy

• People raced to buy goods that had been limited

• Businesses rapidly raised prices that they had been forced to keep low during the war.

• Resulted in rapid inflation• 1919 prices rose at an average of more than

15%, this greatly increased the cost of living (food, clothing, shelter and other essentials needed to survive).

Inflation Leads to Strikes • Many companies were forced to raise wages

during the war (NWLB) but inflation threatened to wipe out all of the gains that the workers had made

• Workers were better organized now and more capable of organizing strikes

• Enormous wave of strikes in 1919 – more than 36,000 strikes involving 4 million workers

Seattle General Strike• 35,000 shipyard workers walked off the job• Demanded higher wages and shorter hours• Soon other unions in Seattle joined the shipyard

workers and organized a general strike ( a strike that involves all workers living in a certain location, not just workers in a particular industry)

• Involved more than 60,000 workers and lasted 5 days

• Went back to work without making any gains, but their actions worried many Americans as the general strike was a tactic used in Europe by communists and other radical groups

Boston Police Strike

• 75% of police workforce walked off job

• Riots and looting throughout the city

• Calvin Coolidge – Governor of Mass. sent in the National Guard to restore peace

• When police tried to go back to work the Commissioner fired them all and hired new police

The Steel Strike• 350,000 American workers went on strike for higher

pay, shorter hours, and recognition of their union• Head of US Steel – Elbert H. Gary refused to talk to

union leaders • Tried to break the union by using anti-immigrant

feelings to divide the workers• Meanwhile the company hired African American and

Mexican workers. • Gary, Indiana – riot left 18 strikers dead.• Early Jan. 1920 the strike collapsed • Steel workers remained unorganized until 1937

Racial Unrest• Most soldiers coming home needed jobs

• African Americans had filled their jobs while gone

• So now they were competing for the same jobs and housing

• Summer of 1919 – over 20 race riots broke out across the nation

The Red Scare • Waves of strikes made America fear that

communists were conspiring to start a revolution

• Americans were shocked when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized power and withdrew Russia from the war

• Americans were very anti-German and thought Russians were helping Germans when they pulled out. So now Americans were angry at Germans and communists.

The Red Scare • Americans began associating communism

with being unpatriotic and disloyal

• Suspicious of communist ideas

• 1919 Soviet Union formed the Communist International – an organization for coordinating the activities of communist parties in other countries

Red Scare • As strikes erupted across the US the fear that

communism or “reds” as they were called, might seize power, led to a nationwide panic known as the Red Scare

• Seattle Mayor made things worse when he said strikers were revolutionists who wanted to “take possession of our American government and try to duplicate the anarchy of Russia.”

• April 1919 – US Post intercepted over 30 parcels that were addressed to leading business people – triggered to explode when open.

• June – 8 bombs in 8 cities exploded – suggesting a nationwide conspiracy

Palmer Raids • US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer

established a special division headed by J. Edgar Hoover called Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI

• Made a series of raids on headquarters of various radical organizations

• Deported (expelled from the country) over 500 people because of the scare

Palmer Raids • Did not regard civil liberties of suspects

• Officers entered homes without warrants, mistreated treated people and jailed indefinitely without attorneys

• Red Scare greatly influenced America in the 1920s. Often linked radicalism with immigrants, which led to a call for Congress to limit immigration

An End to Progressivism• Ohio Governor James Cox and FDR ran for

President with pretense of keeping Woodrow Wilson’s progressive ideas alive.

• Warren G. Harding called for a “return to normalcy.” He said the US needed healing, not heroics, normalcy, not revolution.

• Harding won the presidency by a landslide margin of 7 million votes