1914-1919

Page 287Chapter 13

Cause of World War One

• Nationalism- also with Social Darwinism

• Imperialism

• Militarism

• Alliance System

Chain Reaction

• Franz Ferdinand and his wife murdered by Slavic nationalist • Believed Bosnia should belong to Serbia

• Why would such a small event cause a world war

• Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia• Germany supports its ally• Russian mobilizes to support Serbia• Germany declares war on Russia• France, Russia’s ally, declares war on Germany

• Germany, fearful of two front war, develops the Sleifen plan where they invade France through Belgium in an attempt to knock them out of the war before Russia mobilizes

• Great Britain, ally of Belgium, declares war on Germany

• All these countries have world allies and territories that join the fight. WWI begins

New ways of fighting

• Trenches stretched across Europe• Hundreds of thousands would die, sometimes

just for a few feet• Generals, far from the front, didn’t realize that

charging enemy positions was outdated• Tanks, planes, and poison gas would help bring

death tolls up, but not end the war

Trench Warfare

• Machine guns, barbed wire, artillery, trench foot, poison gas make lives of soldiers miserable

• Over the Top- soldiers ordered to charge opposite Trench across no man’s land

• Thousands of Casualties– Ex. Verdun and the Somme- British French and

Germans lose more than 2 million men– One day on Somme- British lose 60,000– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oabxoP_jVM – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_wqwB0_do

The war at Sea

• German submarine- U-Boat was Germany’s most deadly weapon at sea

• Used to blockade Great Britain and France• Merchant ships were sunk without warning• Unrestricted warfare at sea would help bring

the U.S. into the war

United States Goes to War

• United States had pledged neutrality in WWI• However, sold supplies and arms to Great

Britain and their allies• Germany, would ultimately sink American

ships bound for Great Britain

Neutrality

• America has divided opinions– Many German, Irish, and Polish want to side with

Central Powers• However, had more in common with France

and Great Britain- most wanted to join them- interventionists

• Pacifists- did not believe in fighting • Isolationists- should remain out of Europe

fighting

The Lusitania• Sailed from New York• Passenger ship• Secretly carrying munitions and Germans new

this• Sunk by German U-Boat• 1,198 passengers killed including 128

Americans, mostly women and children• Americans outraged• How would you respond?

The Sussex

• U.S. still stays out of the war• German submarine sinks French ship Sussex• Again, more Americans killed• Americans now want war, but Germany agrees

to the Sussex pledge- would not attack merchant ships without warning

• Buys Germany time

Final push• In February 1, 1917, Germany went back to

unrestricted submarine warfare• U.S. breaks off diplomatic relations with

Germany and prepares for war• Zimmerman note- If Mexico would join war on

side of Germany, would restore lost territory • Finally, after more sunken merchant ships, and

Russia becomes democracy, U.S. joins the war• World must be safe for Democracy

On The Home FrontSection 2

• Congress passes Selective Service Act: Required men 21 to 30 to sign up for military service

• More than 24 million sign up and 3 million were selected

• Another 2 million volunteered• 16 training camps quickly set up to train men

in 90 days

Organizing Industry

• Must organize industry to start producing war goods

• War Industries board: headed by Bernard Baruch, regulated raw materials and helped deliver finished products

• Industrial capacity grew 20% to meet war needs

• Launched 95 vessels in a single day

Labor, Conservation, Finance• Millions needed in factories including African

Americans and women• Shortage of workers lured African Americans

to Northern cities• Heatless, wheatless, and meatless days used

to help save goods for war• Financing also a serious issue• Cost 44 million a day• Sold bonds and Liberty Loans

Public Opinion

• Needed Americans so support the war• Committee on Public Information- educate

public on what war was about• 75 million pamphlets, 75,000 public speakers• Posters to change public opinion • Passed Trading with the Enemy Act• Sedition Act• Espionage Act• Schenck v. U.S• Paradox of the war:

Support for the War

• Americans Creed?• Four minute men?• Creel Committee ?• Propaganda ?• 100% Americanism?

U.S. in the WarSection 3

• American Expeditionary Force- commanded by General John J Pershing

• Thousands of fresh American troops began arriving in the summer of 1917- Doughboys

• Used convoy system as protection from German U boats

• More than a million Yanks would arrive by 1918

Last years of the War

• Russia and Vladimir Lenin would sign Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. Essentially surrendered

• Now Germany could focus on Western front• American arrived just in time to save the Allies• American troops were fresh while troops of

Europe had been fighting since 1914• Distinguished battles: Second Battle of the

Marne, Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood and others

Results

• Germans could not dislodge fresh American troops

• Blockade of Germany and exhausted German Troops could hold no longer.

• Many deserted • German coup- overthrow Kaiser Wilhelm• Signed Armistice on November 11, 1918 in

Railcar in Compiegne

• Central Powers lose 8 million troops• 5 million Allied soldiers dead• U.S. lost 50,000- miniscule by comparison• 6.5 million civilians killed • Russia suffered most casualties- 9 million• Much of France destroyed• Many wanted Germany to pay

• Without the U.S. war may have ended differently

Peacemaking, Mapmaking, Policymaking

• After War, Allies must decide how to keep the peace

• Wilson Proposes his 14 points– What were some aspects of his 14 points?– Peace without victory?– Self Determination?– League of nations?– Secret Treaties?

Paris Peace Talks• During war, republicans and democrats get

along• After war not so much• Wilson also did not realize most European

nations were out for revenge and dividing spoils of war

• Wilson also hard to get along with• Did not invite any Republicans to join him.

Henry Cabot Lodge- REP- would lead opposition to Wilson’s plans

New Nations

• Conference held in Versailles, France• In the treaty of Versailles, Russia, Austria-

Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany would lose land in the creation of new nations

• Leaders of the treaty were:– Wilson- U.S.– Vittorio Orlando- Italy– Clemenceau- France– David Lloyd George- England

• Countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and many more were created from old nations to adhere to self determination

• Mandates were also set up- lands to be supervised by allies– Syria, Palestine, Iraq

• Breakup of Ottoman Empire led to new countries in Middle

• New Countries made no sense- ex. Iraq- ethnic groups clustered randomly

German Reaction• Expected a treaty based on 14 points• Forced to sign it on June 28th 1919• Blamed Germany– Stripped of colonies– Coals fields– Provinces of Alsace-Lorraine taken– Reduced army to small police force– Forced to par reparations totaling 33 billion

Treaty in the Senate• Treaty only really kept Wilson’s League of

Nations• Senate would not accept this• Republican Henry Cabot Lodge led opposition• Did not want to commit U.S. to foreign wars• Isolationism was preferred • Trying to get treaty passed would kill him- died

in 1919 after suffering a stroke• U.S. never signs treaty, never joins league, and

signs separate treaty with Germany later

Results

• The end of WWI would leave a lot of turmoil unsolved in Europe and around the world

• Would lead to many of the problems that caused WWII

• Europe had lost millions more• End of war would launch America into period

of prosperity

Effects of the WarSection 4

• U.S. would struggle to adjust to postwar life• People had money after war• Production could not meet demand• Inflation would result• 1919 goods up 77%, up 28% more next year• Farm prices would drop• Farmers could not pay off debt

• Salaries did not keep up with inflation• Workers walk off the job

• Boston Police Strike• Steel workers walk out• President actually sent in army to run mills and

threatened to draft police and make them go back to work

• U.S. gov’t afraid of strikes. Why??• Strikes look like a communist and socialist

revolution, which is taking place around the world

Women and AA’s

• Women and AA’s wanted to hold onto the jobs they had gotten during war

• When soldiers return, most lose their jobs• Many race riots break out in 1919– examples?

Spanish Influenza

• Just as the War was ending, deadly Spanish Flu breaks out

• Mutated bird flu may have originated in U.S. • Many thought God was punishing the world• Zombie apocalypse without the Zombies• Killed millions around the world – maybe 20-

40 million

Red Scare

• Bolshevik takeover over of Russia terrified Americans

• Bolshevik’s believed in violent fall of all capitalistic societies

• Strikes feared as revolutions• Terroristic anarchists also inflamed situation

by deploying bombs

Palmer Raids

• Gov’t cracks down on radicals• Attorney General A. Mitchel Palmer orders

arrest of several thousand suspected communist across country

• Violated many civil rights• Most there was little to know evidence• Americans paranoid- Communist everywhere

Sacco and Vanzetti

• These two men accused of two different murders near Boston

• The evidence was “flimsy” • However, judge knew they were anarchists

and sentenced them to death

Return to Normalcy

• Warren G. Harding elected in 1920• Kept U.S. out of League of Nations• Traditional World Powers have fallen• U.S. is now World Power and creditor nation• What should our role in the World be??– Isolationism, or Superpower