History Chapter 10 WWI

Chapter 10 Expansionism and WWI

Section 1 – Becoming a World Power

A Special Destiny-Imperialism- policy of establishing economic, political, and military dominance over weaker nations on humanitarian and moral grounds; exploitation of native peoples-Many Americans thought is was our duty to share our democracy and capitalism with the world-Some Americans thought ethnicities, races, and cultures around the world were naturally inferior to Americans-Farmers, manufacturers, and investors needed new people or overseas markets for their goods (we were making more than we consumed)-Some Americans rejected the idea of imperialism on moral and humanitarian grounds saying that we would end up controlling colonies militaristically like European countries had


Policies in the Caribbean-Colombia controlled Panama and would not cooperate with the US when we wanted to buy land to build a canal. Colombians rejected the Hay-Herran Treaty and held out for more money. Therefore the US supported Panamanian rebels in their revolution to overthrow the Colombian government. In return, the Panamanians let US buy the land.-It took 10 years to build, but the US signed control back over to the Panamanians as of Dec. 31, 1999.


Policies in the Caribbean

-The original intent of the Monroe Doctrine was to ward off European colonization, but Roosevelt changed this by adding a corollary, or proposition: “Chronic wrongdoing” or “impotence” gave the US the right to exercise “international police powers” in the Western Hemisphere. This conveniently justified the US’s action: Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson sending troops to Caribbean countries.

-Roosevelt: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He said don’t brag about US policies, but be so strong that other countries are scared. This became known as Roosevelt’s “Big Stick” policy.

-Taft was a bit milder with his “Dollar Diplomacy” which encouraged banks to lend $ to Central American countries and also encouraged investment in their economies. (bananas, coffee, railroads, mines) This would help the US gain influence and control in this area.


Policies in Eastern Asia-US stereotyped Asians in the late 1800s: they were “heathen, lawless, and yellow peril.”-Several countries tried to control parts of Asia and China – Secretary of State John Hay proposed the “Open Door Policy” which would open the area up to trade with all nations. This protected the territorial integrity of China, saying it is a whole nation not to be separated.


Policies in Eastern Asia-The US had just won the Spanish-American War and had promised Cuba complete freedom with the Teller Amendment. The US promised to support freedom for the Philippines as well. The Filipino revolutionaries had been fighting for their independence from Spain, which helped the US win the war. The Filipino rebels expected the same treatment as Cuba. Instead, the US decided to annex the Philippines because it would be a great naval stop on the way to China and other Asian markets. President McKinley said the US’s intentions were to “civilize, educate, and uplift” the people. Revolutionaries, led by Emilio Aguinaldo, waged guerilla war against the US, killing 120,000 troops, 15,000 rebels, and 200,000 civilians.


Policies in Eastern Asia- In 1904, Japan launched an attack against Russia. Roosevelt supported Japan because he thought Russia was a greater enemy and he wanted to make sure no one country had too much power in Asia. -Japan had a new confidence now by beating Russia, so they protested the segregation of Japanese children in San Francisco schools. Roosevelt signed a “Gentleman’s Agreement” which ended the segregation but also limited Japanese immigration.-Roosevelt thought he might need to show Japan our naval strength, so he sent the “Great White Fleet” around the world.


Entanglement with Europe

- The US was now beginning to turn away from the belief that we should stay isolated from Europe’s troubles. The US participated in much diplomacy that affected Europe:

1. Open Door Policy

2. Mediating the Russo-Japanese War

3. Mediating crisis between Germany and France over Morocco

4. Mediating dispute between France and Great Britain over Liberia

-Also, our economy now depended on overseas markets…

Section 2 – Watching Europe’s War

Origins of World War I-Balkan ethnic groups were struggling for independence; a Serbian terrorist group called the Black Hand sent Gavrilo Princip to assassinate the heir to throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.-Territorial and military conflict and competition had already caused alliances to form in Europe:

-Triple Entente/Allies: Britain, France, and Russia

-Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire-In the west in Belgium and France there was a deadlock, in the east in Russia and Germany, the Central Powers easily pushed back the Russian army.


Origins of World War I- WWI resulted in greater loss of life and property than any other previous war due to old-fashioned strategies and new technology: poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks, submarines at sea and dogfights in the air.-There was a revolution in Russia that caused an end to the fighting on the eastern front. This scared the Allies because now the Central Powers could focus all their attention to the Western Front. Here,

most of the fighting took place in trenches where soldier’s shot across a “no-man’s land.” European soldiers on the western front suffered from diseases, often became disillusioned, and did not fully understand why they were fighting. Some soldiers however took the war as a

personal challenge .


Struggle for Neutrality-Initially, Americans wanted to stay neutral. The US traded with both sides, but ties to the Allies were stronger.-Germany developed submarines that not only attacked enemy ships, but also any merchant ships carrying goods the Allies, including US ships.-Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan urged Wilson to keep everyone out of the submarine zone to maintain neutrality. After the Germans sunk the Lusitania in 1915, Bryan resigned.- Americans reelected Wilson in 1916 on the basis of his neutrality. He won with the slogan ”He kept us out of war!” Although Wilson was edging closer to joining the fight for 3 reasons:

-Moral commitment to the Allies-American businesses’ heavy investment in an Allied victory-Desire to shape a lasting peace


Struggle for Neutrality

-2 events finally led to the US joining the war: The British interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, a message from a German named Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico offering them part of SW US for an alliance with Germany. Germany’s declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in Jan., 1917 included the sinking of US supply ships City of Memphis, Illinois, and Vigilante.

-On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

Section 3 – WWI: Here and There

Mobilization-Wilson took a number of steps to mobilize the nation, or prepare for the war: he raised income taxes, and organized a Liberty Bonds campaign which raised $ through citizen purchases. Secretary of Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo led this campaign. Wilson also initiated conscription, or the draft. Soldiers were picked by a lottery.- Progressives supported the draft as an equalizer: men from all different backgrounds fighting for the same cause. Even many women took jobs to help.-The military was not an equalizer for African Americans, however. The NAACP pushed for African Americans to be made officers, and won some concessions. The only integrated units fought in France.


Fighting Over There-The first doughboys with the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) arrived in France in June 1917. They were lead by General John J. Pershing. The American soldiers were confident, courageous, and full of energy, but they were not well-trained or prepared for war.-Americans helped fill the heavy losses on the Western front and the loss of Russia, which now had a new Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin and had signed a peace treaty with Germany, giving up some territory.-American soldiers helped break the German offensive, winning key battles such as Chateau-Thierry, Cantigny, the Second Battle of Marne, St. Mihiel, and Argonne Forest. - US troops served just over a year and did not suffer as the Europeans did. US soldiers saw the “Great War” as an adventure.


The War Effort at Home-Unity, cooperation, and conformity: Propaganda, or information used to mold public opinion, was common to gain support for the war. McAdoo focused on Liberty Bonds, food administrator Herbert Hoover focused on conservation, and head of the Committee on Public Information, George Creel relied on emotion and peer pressure to mold opinion.-Women and children even took jobs to help in the war effort.-Businesses took advantage of this new need for supplies and equipment and profits tripled between 1914 and 1919.


The War Effort at Home-Some labor unions supported the war effort, such as Samuel Gompers’ American Federation of Labor. Women and socialists groups particularly opposed the war.-Freedom of speech and other civil liberties took a beating during the war due to the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Amendment of 1918. Intolerance was at an all-time high in the US: socialists were punished for speaking out against the war, all things German became suspect, and members of the IWW were tarred and feathered.- The American Civil Liberties Union assisted those who had been subjected to unfairness or abuse, such as Eugene Debs who was imprisoned for his opposition to the war.- Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. ruled that citizen’s freedom of speech should be curbed only if it presents a “clear and present danger.”

Section 4 – Reshaping the World

Points for Peace-The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, led by Lenin, followed the Communist ideology of Karl Marx and believed that there should be a class war between the working class and the capitalists. Lenin also revealed secret pacts that the Allies planned to control certain territories. This embarrassed the Allies, and the Allies were also worried that many war-weary workers would be attracted to this ideology.- Wilson had supported the moderate, Russian socialist named Aleksandr Kerensky, which had lost. Therefore, Wilson tried to draw attention away

from Russia with his plan for peace: The Fourteen Points. He focused on: removing economic barriers around the world, self-determination for all countries, open agreements instead of secret pacts, arms reductions, freedom of the seas, and the establishment of a League of Nations, an international mediating body.

- The British and French worried about giving up their naval dominance and they also wanted to punish

Germany.-The 1918 mid-term elections put Republican majorities in

Congress which also hurt Wilson’s plan.


A Troubling Treaty- Many of Europe’s towns had been obliterated from the

map, they had crowded hospitals and not enough food. They looked to Wilson for hope.

-The peace talks in Paris actually ended with a treaty that ignored almost all of Wilson’s 14 Points: The

Treaty of Versailles. The only countries allowed at the negotiations were the “Big Four”: Vittorio Orlando from Italy, David Lloyd George from Britain, Georges Clemenceau from France, and Wilson from the US.

-The countries were more focused on self-interest than self-determination. They wanted to retain their colonies and enjoy the spoils of victory including territorial rights, seaports, and punishing Germany. -Japan sent delegates requesting the Shandong province of China. -France wanted the territories of Alsace and Lorraine.-Italy wanted parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.- By June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles had been signed, but almost all of Wilson’s grand ideas had been left out. One plan had not been rejected though: the formation of a League of Nations, which would serve as an international mediating body. Wilson had been thoroughly disappointed and frustrated in Paris, so he came home with the hope that the American people would support this one idea.


Rejection at Home- Opposition to the League of Nations was split into two groups: the Irreconcilables, mostly Progressive Republicans who said the US should stay out of Europe’s affairs, and the Reservationists, who approved of the general idea of a League but wanted to modify Wilson’s original plan so that Congress, not the League, would control if the US had to be in an armed conflict. - One reservationist, Henry Cabot Lodge, led a group that wanted to attach their own amendments to the League proposal. (he was somewhat motivated by a strong dislike of the President)- President Wilson took his case to the American people, hoping to gain their support, but he fell violently ill. The Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles with its League of Nations. Wilson fought for his Democratic nominee, James Cox of Ohio. In the election of 1920, the American people elected Warren G. Harding with his promise of a “return to normalcy.”- The failure of the US to join the League of Nations weakened it. The League would be short-lived. Wilson died 3 years after leaving office and said he was “tired of swimming upstream.”

Chapter 10 – Expansionism and WWISummary

Section 1 – Foreign policies initiated during the progressive era led the US to become increasingly tied to global markets and to the affairs of other nations.

Section 2 – WWI forced Americans to reexamine long-standing beliefs about noninvolvement in European wars.

Section 3 – Involvement in WWI tested the resolve of Americans to work together as a nation and to confront questions of liberty and freedom at home.

Section 4 – The destruction of WWI and the rise of radical Bolshevism in Russia produced stiff resistance to Wilson’s Fourteen Points both in Europe and in the US.

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History Chapter 10 WWI