America and the Great War Chapter TwentyOne America and the Great War The Big Stick America and the World 19011917 The Great War and the US From Local to Global The war started in the remote Balkans with the Austrian invasion of Serbia in August 1914 but would become a global c ID: 284418
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great WarSlide2
Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
The Great War and the U.S.
From Local to Global: The war started in the remote Balkans with the Austrian invasion of Serbia in August 1914, but would become a global conflict in a matter of weeks.
U.S. Stays Out: For two-and-a-half years the U.S. stayed out, looking with horror on what was happening and hoping to avoid involvement.
Remoteness of Foreign Affairs: In the early 1900s, most Americans felt that foreign affairs did not have much affect on the isolated U.S. Presidential Involvement: The U.S. was more involved in foreign affairs than many Americans realized. Beginning with Teddy Roosevelt, presidents exercised expanded powers in foreign affairs, with few restraints of Congress or the courts as in domestic affairs.
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
Roosevelt and “Civilization”
Justifying Intervention: Roosevelt believed that the “civilized” countries—industrial producers of manufactured goods—had the right and obligation to intervene in the affairs of “uncivilized” ones for the sake of order and stability. Roosevelt built up the U.S. navy for this purpose, making it the second largest in the world after Great Britain’s by 1906.
Race, Ethnicity, and Civilization: Roosevelt believed that Anglo-Saxons and Teutonic peoples were the most civilized, while non-whites, Latin Americans, and Slavic peoples were far less civilized. He believed that the Chinese people were once civilized, but had fallen into a state of decadence and weakness.
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
Protecting the “Open Door” in Asia
Russo-Japanese War: The Japanese surprise-attacked the Russians at Port Arthur on the Liaodong Peninsula of Manchuria. Roosevelt negotiated the peace and preserved American access to Far East markets, and won the Noble Peace Prize in 1906 for his efforts.
“Great White Fleet”: A new and powerful U.S. Navy circumnavigated across the globe from 1907-1909 to project U.S. power and remind China and Japan that the U.S. was an emerging Pacific power.
The Iron-Fisted Neighbor“Roosevelt Corollary”: TR took a particular interest in Latin America. In 1904 he announced a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine: the U.S. not only had the right to oppose European interventions in the western hemisphere, but also to interfere in the domestic affairs of Latin American countries if they could not maintain order or national sovereignty. This led to multiple interventions in the early twentieth century, first in the Dominican Republic in 1903, when the U.S. took over customs collection to recover debt.
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The United States and Latin America, 1895-1941
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
The Panama Canal
The Canal Idea: The French had started to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama in 1881, but the effort failed. Roosevelt wanted to at first build one across Nicaragua, which would be longer but all at sea level. The Panama route would require locks, but it was about 40 percent complete. Roosevelt sent his secretary of state, John Hay, to negotiate with the Colombian diplomats for a six-mile wide “Canal Zone” for an initial sum of $10 million and a annual rent of $250,000.
Panamanian Revolt: The Colombian Senate rejected the treaty angrily; they wanted at least $20 million as the initial payment. In 1903, Roosevelt helped to finance a Panamanian revolution against Colombia and landed troops there as well, leading to a declaration of Panamanian independence. The canal was completed in 1914.
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
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A ship passing through the Panama Canal soon after its opening in 1914Slide8
Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
Taft and “Dollar Diplomacy”
Taft’s Economic Focus: Taft did not share Roosevelt’s global “civilizing” mission, but he was interested in expanding the U.S.’s economic interests overseas, especially in the Caribbean..
Nicaragua Occupied: A Revolution overthrew the Nicaraguan government in 1909, and Taft sided with the insurgents and sent troops to seize the customs houses. Once peace was restored, the Taft administration offered the new government substantial loans. When that government faced an insurrection in 1911, Taft sent troops to support the regime, and the troops stayed for more than a decade.
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
Diplomacy and Morality
Wilson’s Lack of Experience: Wilson did not have much experience with foreign affairs, and largely continued most Taft-Roosevelt policies, but more differences emerged over the his first term.
Intervention in Haiti and the Dominican Republic: The U.S. had already seized control of Dominican finances in 1905, and established a military government there in 1916. In Haiti, Wilson landed troops in 1915 to stop a revolution during which a mob murdered an unpopular president, and troops remained there until 1934.
Nicaragua: Wilson signed a treaty with this country that guaranteed that no other nation would build a canal there and that the U.S. had the right to intervene if its economic interests were in jeopardy.9Slide10
Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World, 1901-1917
Diplomacy and Morality
Changes in Mexico: In 1910, the longstanding corrupt dictator, Porfirio Diaz, was overthrown by a popular leader, Francisco Madero, who promised democratic reform and who proved hostile to the massive private holdings of U.S. businessmen in the country. The Taft administration encouraged a reactionary general, Victoriano Huerta, to rebel against Madero.
Recognition Withheld: Huerta managed to take power away from Madero, and the Taft administration in its last weeks in office prepared to recognize the regime. Before it could do so, the new government murdered Madero, and the new president, Wilson, withdrew recognition, injecting a new morality into U.S. foreign policy. He said he would never recognize Huerta’s “government of butchers.”
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Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World
, 1901-1917
Diplomacy and Morality
Huerta’s Established: In October 1913, Huerta established a military dictatorship with the support of U.S. business interests.
Veracruz Incident: Huerta’s army briefly arrested U.S. sailors from the U.S.S. Dolphin who had went ashore at Tampico. Although they were quickly released, an American admiral demanded a twenty-one gun salute as a formal apology, and the Mexicans refused. Wilson used this incident as an excuse to seize the port of Veracruz. During the incident, 126 Mexicans were killed and 19 Americans. The anti-Huerta forces, led by Venustiano Carranza, took Mexico City soon thereafter. 11Slide12
Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World
, 1901-1917
Diplomacy and Morality
Pancho Villa: Carranza did not accept American guidelines to form a new government, so Wilson dropped his support and put it behind one of Carranza’s now rebellious lieutenants, Pancho Villa. By January 1916, Wilson once again put his support behind Carranza, and in retaliation, Villa killed American mining engineers, and even crossed into New Mexico and killed more Americans.
Pershing Expedition: Wilson ordered General John J. Pershing to put together an expeditionary force to pursue Villa. They never found him, but did engage Carranza’s forces, pushing Mexico and the U.S. to the brink of war. But with possible entry into the European war looming, the U.S. withdrew and finally recognized Carranza’s government in March 1917. 12Slide13
Chapter Twenty-One:
America and the Great War
The “Big Stick”: America and the World
, 1901-1917
Diplomacy and Morality
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Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing(1860 – 1948)
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, known
as “Pancho Villa” (1878 – 1923)Slide14
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
The Collapse of the European Peace
Alliances: European relations were based on a precarious system of treaty alliances: The Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) vs. The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy. A series of minor provocations set off the chain reaction.
Assassination as Trigger: On June 28, 1914, the heir to throne of Austro-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914), was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, the capital of the province of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which Serbians wanted to annex.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
The Collapse of the European Peace
Mobilization for War: The system of alliances quickly escalated a local conflict into a global one: the Serbians called upon the Russians for defense, which mobilized on July 30; by August 3, Germany had declared war on Russia and France and invaded Belgium, which triggered Great Britain declaring war on Germany on August 4.
Allies vs. Central Powers: The British, French, and Russians become known as the “Allies” and Germany and Austro-Hungary as the “Central Powers.” Italy—initially an ally of Germany and Austro-Hungary—switches to the Allies by May 1915.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
Wilson’s Neutrality
Neutrality: Wilson advocated that U.S. citizens remain “impartial in thought as well as deed,” but this proved impossible.
Sympathy with Britain: Most Americans sympathized with Great Britain, especially after British propagandists exaggerated reports of German atrocities in Belgium and France. The U.S. was not truly neutral economically as it continued to trade with Great Britain even after a British naval embargo cut off trade with Germany.
Submarine Warfare: Germans could not compete with the British Navy on the surface, so they turned to U-boats: submarines using torpedoes to sink ships. On May 7, 1915, a u-boat sunk the British ocean liner, the R.M.S.
Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. Wilson demanded the Germans stop these attacks, and they relented temporarily. They stepped up attacks again in 1916, but stopped again when Wilson threatened to take action.
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R.M.S. LusitaniaSlide17
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
Preparedness Versus Pacifism
Pacifists and Interventionists: Debates about military and economic preparations for war triggered intense debates.
Wilson’s Position: Wilson endorsed a plan for an expansion of U.S. military forces in fall 1915, but made “We didn’t go to war!” a central slogan of his reelection campaign in 1916.
1916 Election: Wilson won an election over Republican Charles Evan Hughes by fewer than 600,000 in popular vote and only 23 electoral votes.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Election of 1916
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
A War for Democracy
“Peace without Victory”: In January 1917, Wilson proposes a “league of nations” to prevent future wars, wanting to apply progressive ideals to international relations.
Germany Steps Up U-Boat Campaign: In January 1917, Germany began to practice unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic—including U.S. ships—to cut off supplies to the Great Britain.
Zimmerman Telegram: The British turned over an intercepted telegram from the German foreign minister to the Mexican government asking Mexico to join the Central Powers’ war effort if war with the U.S. broke out so that it could re-acquire its “lost territories” of 1848.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Road to War
A War for Democracy
March Revolution in Russia: In March 1917 (February in the Russian calendar), a revolution forced the tsar to abdicate and created a republican constitutional government, thereby eliminating the embarrassment of the U.S. fighting alongside a despotic monarchy.
Declaration of War: After three U.S. ships were sunk by German U-boats, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2. Opposition remained: fifty representatives voted against it in the House and six senators voted against it.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
The Military Struggle
Quick Effect of U.S. Intervention: Within weeks, U.S. destroyers were helping the Royal Navy combat the U-boat threat, which was threatening supply lines.
Bolshevik Revolution: In November 1917 (October in the Russian calendar), a Communist revolution led by V.I. Lenin overthrew the republican government in Russia. The Bolsheviks negotiated an immediate peace with the Central Powers, taking a powerful ally out of the war. The need for U.S. troops on the ground became greater.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
World War I Recruiting Poster by
James Montgomery Flagg (NARA)
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“War without Stint”
The Military Struggle
The Draft: Wilson won approval for the Selective Service Act in mid-May 1917. The draft brought in 3 million into the army, and about 2 million joined various services volunteering.
American Expeditionary Force (AEF): This force, under Gen. John J. Pershing, did not reach significant numbers in France until Spring 1918. It helped to stop a German advance by July 1918.
Argonne Forest: On Sept. 26, over one million Americans advanced on the Germans at Argonne Forest; by October they had helped pushed the Germans to their own border. Fighting was stopped on Nov. 11, 1918. Slide23
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
America in World War I: The Western Front, 1918.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
The New Technology of Warfare
Destructive Weapons: Improved machine guns and high-powered artillery were used to devastating effects.
Trench Warfare: With deadlier weapons, it was no longer possible for troops to be out in the open, so they had to dig trenches and tunnels along the front; which allowed for sporadic and inconclusive waves of fighting. Tanks, flamethrowers, and poison gas were used to overcome the protections of the trench.
Airplanes: Airplanes will still relatively crude, but by the end of the war, planes that specialized in various tasks—bombing, dog-fighting, and reconnaissance—were being built.
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British Sopwith Camel
fighter planeSlide25
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
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U.S. troops launching an attack from a trench (n.d.)
A German
u-boatSlide26
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
Naval Technology: Great battleships used new technologies like turbine propulsion, hydraulic gun controls, electric light and power, and wireless telegraphy. Submarines became significant weapons, using diesel engines, which were safer and more compact than previous submarine engines.
Appalling Casualties: The new technologies contributing to the total of 9 million people who died during World War I. Roughly 1 million men representing Great Britain died, 1.7 million Frenchmen, 2 million Germans, 1.5 from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, 1.7 million Russians, and 460,00 Italians. The U.S. had 112,000 casualties, although half that number was from influenza. U.S. involvement was short but intense: U.S. forces took a very high percentage of casualties in battles in which they participated.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
Organizing the Economy for War
Huge Cost of the War: Congress appropriated $32 billion for war expenses; the federal budget rarely exceeded $1 billion before 1915.
“Liberty Bonds”: The government solicited direct loans from the American people with “liberty bonds,” raising $23 million by 1920.
Taxes: Higher taxes on corporations on wealthy individuals through the new graduated income tax brought in $10 billion, with 70 percent taxes in some brackets.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
Organizing the Economy for War
War Industries Board (WIB): This board was created in July 1917 to centralize control over production, but it did poorly until March 1918, when Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch (1870-1965) took it over. He decided which factories would take over the production of war materiel and where scarce resources should be allocated.
“Dollar-a-Year Men”: Some businessmen took a leave from the private sector to work for the government.
National war Labor Board: This board was set up in April 1918 to mediate labor disputes. It asks workers to forgo strikes in exchange for an eight-hour day, decent wages, and equal pay for equal work for women.
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Bernard BaruchSlide29
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
Women Industrial
Workers (NARA)
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“War without Stint”
Organizing the Economy for War
Women in Industrial Jobs: Even middle-class women were hired to work in war production jobs to replace conscripted men, especially in the greatly expanded munitions and armament industries. These previously had
been all-male
workplaces. Slide30
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
The Search for Social Unity
Committee on Public Information (CPI): Opinion about the war was divided from the beginning, so the government launched a propaganda effort led by the Denver journalist, George Creel (1876-1953). It distributed over 75 million pieces of printed material, controlled access to war news, encouraged journalists to practice “self-censorship,” and even began making films.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
“War without Stint”
The Search for Social Unity
Espionage Act of 1917: This act gave broad powers to the federal government to combat spying, sabotage, and obstructing the war effort; the language of the act was purposefully vague.
The Sabotage and Sedition Acts of 1918: These acts expanded the power of the 1917 Espionage Act so that the federal government could prosecute anyone who publicly expressed opposition to the war, or criticized the president or federal government.
Suppressing Dissent: The most frequent targets of these acts were anti-capitalist groups like the Social Party and the International Workers of the World. Socialist leader Eugene Debs was sentenced to ten years in jail (although he was pardoned by President Harding in 1921), while Big Bill Haywood of the IWW fled to the Soviet Union.
Anti-German Feelings: Germans were fired from war industries, German music and books were banned, and sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage.” 31Slide32
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Search for A New World Order
The Fourteen Points
Wilson’s Idealistic Vision: On Jan. 8, 1918, Wilson gave his “Fourteen Points” speech, articulating the reasons he saw why the U.S. was fighting. They fell into three categories: adjusting boundaries and creating new nations to replace defunct empires; creating general principles of international conduct to avoid future war, including freedom of the seas, no secret treaties, and reductions of arms; and lastly, creating a “League of Nations” to resolve controversies without war. Wilson’s vision was widely lauded, applying progressive principles to global politics.
Allied Resistance: France and Britain were in no mood to let Germany off easy. Wilson did not want harsh reparations so as to avoid future resentment.
Republican Resistance: In the 1918 elections, Republicans won majorities in both houses due to domestic economic troubles, and sought to obstruct Wilson’s vision.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Search for A New
World Order
The Paris Peace Conference
Wilson Greeted As Hero: Arriving in
Paris on Dec. 13, 1918, Wilson was
greeted by a huge crowd. The rest of his stay was far more challenging.Negotiating the Peace: Wilson hoped to dominate the other key figures—Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy—but failed to do so. While he did have some success in negotiating new states’ existence, the atmosphere of vindictiveness and fear of more Communist revolutions was not conducive to the widespread acceptance of Wilson’s idealism. The League of Nations: Wilson, however, did gain the acceptance of his League of Nation idea by the Allies on Jan. 25, 1919.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
The Search for A New World Order
The Ratification Battle
Treaty of Versailles: Wilson presented this agreement to Congress on July 10, 1919, but senators had many objections, including many “irreconcilables” who believed the U.S. should remain free of “foreign entanglements.”
Henry Cabot Lodge (1854 – 1924): This powerful Republican senator from Massachusetts headed the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee and did everything he could to obstruct passage.
League Membership Rejected: With the treaty blocked by the Senate, Wilson took up an arduous 8,000-mile speaking tour by rail to drum up popular support. The trip nearly killed him, and he suffered a major stroke as a result, and was nearly an invalid for the rest of his term. Republican senators ask for fifty amendments, none of which Wilson accepted, so the effort failed.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Unstable Economy
Postwar Recession: The war ended far faster than anyone anticipated, and was the economy abruptly was forced to reconvert to peacetime conditions, creating high inflation: in 1919 and 1920, inflation rose 15 percent a year. Ultimately, a recession was triggered by decreased demand for consumer goods, which started in late 1920 and into 1921. Nearly five million Americans lost their jobs.
Labor Unrest: Inflation largely wiped out workers’ wage gains won over the course of the war. Employers exacerbated tensions by rescinding gains that laborers secured during the war, like recognition of unions. The year 1919 thus witnessed an unprecedented wave of strikes.
Anti-Labor Sentiment: As governor of Massachusetts, Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) crushed a September strike by Boston police, calling in the National Guard to secure order. He declared, “There is no right to strike against public safety.” Middle-class sentiments against strikes and unions ran high, as with a September steel strike in the Midwest involving 350,000 workers. Executives kept plants running with scab labor.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Demands of African Americans
Returning Vets: Roughly 367,000 African American soldier returned to the U.S. from Europe in 1919, and many believed this service would help to change white attitudes, which for the most part did not.
“Great Migration”: Nearly half a million African Americans migrated from the rural South to industrial cities over the course of the war. Yet many blacks were laid off at the end of the war to make room for returning whites.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
African American Migration, 1910-1950
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Demands of African Americans
Racial Violence: The racial climate became ugly in 1919, with increased lynching in the South. A terrible race riot in East St. Louis in 1917 presaged the horrible violence in 1919. In July 1919, Chicago erupted into racial violence that killed 38 people, injured 537, and left over 1,000 homeless. Nationwide, 120 people died in such riots in the summer of 1919. These riots differed from those in the past in that blacks fought back hard, often killing whites. The NAACP backed this development by arguing not only for rights, but also self-defense.
“If We Must Die”: This poem by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay (1889 - 1948) summed up this idea:
Like men we’ll face the murderous cowardly pack Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Demands of African Americans
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA): The Jamaican Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) began to attract a following with his ideology of black nationalism, anti-assimilation, and entrepreneurialism. Garvey attracted a big following in the early 1920s, creating a black-owned chain of grocery stores, a newspaper, and even a black-owned shipping line. His popularity fell off after he was indicted for business fraud in 1923.
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Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Red Scare
Popular Fear of Radicalism: Industrial militancy and racial violence in 1919 seemed like harbingers of radicalism and instability to many middle-class people in the U.S., with the specter of the Bolshevik Revolution looming in the background. In spring 1919, letter bombs being sent to leading politicians and businessmen were intercepted by the post office. Because of this and other events, almost thirty states passed peacetime sedition laws against those fomenting revolution.
A. Mitchell Palmer (1872-1936): Wilson’s Attorney General, and his young assistant, J. Edgar Hoover, orchestrated a series of raids on alleged radicals, arrested some 6,000 people on New Year’s Day 1920. Most were released, but 500 non-citizens were deported.
Wall Street Bomb: On Sept. 16, 1920, thirty-eight people died when a bomb went off on Wall Street at lunchtime. No one was ever convicted.
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Sacco and
VanzettiSlide41
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Red Scare
Sacco and Vanzetti: In May 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were charged with the crime of murdering a paymaster in South Braintree, Massachusetts, during a robbery. The evidence against them was weak, but nativist prejudices against them and the fact that they both professed anarchism stacked the deck against them. Widespread support for them both in the U.S. and around the world did not prevent them from going to the electric chair in 1927, professing their innocence.
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Sacco and
VanzettiSlide42
Chapter Twenty-One: America and the Great War
A Society in Turmoil
The Retreat from Idealism
Disillusionment and Reaction: When the Nineteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution on August 26, 1920, giving women the right to vote, it seemed for many to mark the strengthening of reform. But in fact, it marked the end of the Progressive Era: Wilson lost the 1920 election to an obscure Republican senator from Ohio, Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923), who campaigned on a “return to normalcy, winning 61 percent of the popular vote.
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Warren G. Harding