World War I and the United States 1914-1920

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World War I and the United States1914-1920
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Timeframe of WWI

• Europe 1914-1918
• US 1917-1918
• War ends on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day
  of the eleventh month.
• 11/11/1918
• Veterans Day is November 11th now celebrated in
  honor of those who fought in all wars.

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The Two sides

• Triple Entente
• Became Allied Powers
• England
• France
• Russia left war 1917 because of revolution
• Japan joined later

• Triple Alliance
• Became Central Powers
• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
• Italy switched sides 1915
• Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined later

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Isolationism Policy from 1914-17

• The US believed they could stay neutral
  couldnt clearly see the war as democracy v.
  autocracy
• Cultural ties to both sides
• Ties to British culture
• Irish-Americans
• German-Americans
• Russia sided with Britain but seen as an
  autocracy
• Feminists, pacifists and social reformers said
  the country needed to deal with other issues.

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Both sides made it difficult for the US to remain
neutral

• 8/1914 British blockaded Central Powers
• As result cut American trade with Germany
• US couldnt complain too much trade with allies
  up from 824m in 1914 to 3.2b 1916, also lent
  allies 2.5b
• In comparison trade and loans with Germany 29m
  and 27m
• Germans used U-boat (submarines) to challenge
  British control of the seas

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The Lusitania and Americas response?

• Passenger ship torpedoed May 7, 1915
• 1198 died (128 Americans)
• Was a passenger ship but had been carrying
  munitions
• American newspapers called it mass murder
• Wilson protested to German govt
• US-German tensions reduced when German govt said
  they would no longer attack non-combatants
• Not enough to cause war for US (US doesnt enter
  for two years), but does turn public opinion
  against Germany and Wilson starts preparation for
  possible war

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Wilsons attitude toward war was changing in 1915

• 1b buildup of military
• ran for re-election in 1916 with slogan He kept
  us out of war.
• Wilson had long opposed womens suffrage
• Irony was that he won a very close race with the
  support of 10 of the 12 states that had adopted
  womens suffrage
• They liked his isolationist stance

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Changes led to a decision to go to war

• Jan. 1917 Germany announced resumption of
  submarine warfare (against ships sailing to
  Britain)
• Several American merchant ships sunk
• Feb. 1917 Zimmermann telegram
• Germany urged Mexico to go to war against the US
  and recover lands lost in mid-1800s
• Feb. 1917 revolution in Russia maybe a
  democracy
• 4/2/1917 Wilson went to Congress to ask for a
  declaration of war
• No desire to conquest or make gains
• Socialists and IWW against the war
• gained more votes 20 in mayoral elections
• Jan 1918 Wilson issued 14 Points

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New Technologies and Strategies that were used in
WWI

• Machine gun
• Long range high velocity rifles
• Poison gas
• Trench Warfare stagnant front
• 25,000 miles heavily fortified trenches with no
  mans land in between
• Stalemate in many battles
• High casualties

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End of Introduction
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What contribution did the allies want from the US
and how was this accomplished?

• Men
• Draft
• Little resistance
• About 300,000 evaded the war
• 4,000 conscientious objectors
• By end of the war 4m men in armed forces
• 48,000 killed in action or from wounds
• 27,000 died from other causes
• War claimed 8m lives

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Major military accomplishments of US forces?

• Secured shipping lanes in the Atlantic
• Helped French against Germans at battles of
  Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood
• Pushed Germans back from the Marne River
• Won the Meuse-Argonne campaign near Verdun which
  broke the German defenses
• Kaiser abdicated 2 days later on Nov 11
• Nov 11, 1918 Armistice Day

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Paying for the War

• Federal Reserve System enabled govt to expand
  money supply
• 2/3 from loans Liberty Bonds
• Increased income taxes
• Excess profits tax
• Govt also worked with businesses suspended
  anti-trust laws in favor or cooperation

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Mobilization of Industry

• July 1917 War Industries Board created led by
  Bernard Baruch used personal contact to avoid
  forcing business and people to comply
• Allocated scarce resources
• controlled flow of raw materials
• Ordered conversion from peacetime to wartime
  production
• Set prices
• Coordinated purchasing

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Food Administration

• Created August 1917 led by Herbert Hoover
• Slogan food will win the war
• Convinced population for the need for self-denial
  and self-sacrifice
• Farm acre expanded from 45m to 74m acreas
• Rationing unnecessary people complied voluntarily
  with
• wheatless Mondays
• meatless Tuesdays
• porkless Thursdays and Saturdays

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Transportation and Temporary Nationalization

• Govt took over control of Railroads in Dec 1917
  to ensure easy movement of troops.
• Fulfilled their promise to return RR to their
  owners after war

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Need for Labor

• Established National War Labor Board April 1918
• Representatives of labor, management and the
  general public
• Helped labor in the long run by reforms during
  war
• 8 hour workday for war workers
• Time and a half for overtime
• Equal pay for women
• Strikes not allowed in war industries but used
  arbitration to solve disputes

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New faces in the Workforce

• Mexicans crossed the borders for industrial jobs
  in southwestern cities (100,000)
• Women joined workforce in record numbers (one
  million)
• Most people believed this would be a temporary
  change

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Progressive Reform during WWI

• Temperance movement
• Urban areas and areas with high immigrant
  populations opposed prohibition
• Many southern states already had prohibition laws
• 18th amendment ratified 1919
• Womens groups supported Wilson and the war hopes
  of winning the right to vote
• January 1918 Wilson withdrew his opposition to
  female suffrage amendment
• Took until Aug 1920 to have the amendment
  ratified
• 72 years after goal of womens suffrage declared
  at Seneca Falls in 1948

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Progressive Reform during WWI

• Temperance movement
• Urban areas and areas with high immigrant
  populations opposed prohibition
• Many southern states already had prohibition laws
• 18th amendment ratified 1919
• Birth Control
• to protect soldiers from VD gave out birth
  control info and devices
• Reversal of the treatment of Margaret Sanger and
  Emma Goldman

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Womens Suffrage

• Americas entry into the war threatened to tear
  apart the suffrage movement
• Jeannette Rankin opposed war first woman member
  of congress
• women in general supported the war
• The National Womans Party was militantly
  fighting for suffrage
• Alice Paul compared Wilson to the Kaiser denying
  democracy, chained herself to white house fence,
  force fed in prison
• The combined efforts of women during the war won
  them suffrage Wilson finally gave in
• January 1918 Wilson withdrew his opposition to
  female suffrage amendment
• Took until Aug 1920 to have the amendment
  ratified
• 72 years after goal of womens suffrage declared
  at Seneca Falls in 1948

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Propaganda During WWI

• The Wilson administration decided that patriotism
  was too important to leave to the private sector
• The Committee on Public Information (CPI) was
  created 1917 shape public opinion in later
  international conflicts prowar propaganda
• posters, pamphlets, newspaper ads, movies
• Four-Minute Men standardized talks in different
  languages
• The CPI couched its appeal in the Progressive
  language of social cooperation and expanded
  democracy
• Freedom took on new significance enlist, buy
  liberty bonds

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Patriotism v. Freedom

• Committee on Public Information encouraged ethnic
  groups to give up old world customs
• Especially aimed at German immigrants
• Espionage Act 1917 Sedition Act 1918
• Penalties for anti-war activities
• Govt could ban treasonous material
• Individuals arrested
• Eugene Debs 10 yrs jail saying that the master
  classes declared war while the subject classes
  fought battles
• Pardoned 1921
• Schenck v. US Supreme Ct upheld that Schenk
  guilty of sending pamphlets urging draft
  resistance

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Patriotism v. Freedom cont.

• The American Protective League (APL) helped the
  Justice department identify radicals and critics
  of the war spied on neightbors and conducted
  slacker raids checking on draft cards
• IWW crushed by employers and govt
• IWW leader Frank Little lynched in Butte Montana
• broadest warrant in U.S. history fed agents went
  to IWW offices and
• arrested hundreds of leaders and seized files and
  publications
• Bisbee, Arizona copper miners rounded up strikers
  and sympathizers ? took them to desert and left
  them there

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Immigrants and WWI

• The war led to further growth of the Southwests
  Mexican population
• legally classified as white thought they would
  assimilate
• public officials in SW kept them segregated
• On the eve of American entry into World War I,
  Congress terminated the status citizen of Puerto
  Rico and conferred American citizenship on
  residents of the island
• subject to draft but couldnt vote in Am
  elections
• Even more restrictive were policies toward
  Asian-Americans
• 1906 all Asian students in one school
• Gentlemens Agreement of 1907 end immigration
  to US except for wives and children
• 1913 CA banned aliens incapable of becoming
  citizens (Asians) from owning land

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African Americans and WWI

• Black leaders saw the war as an opportunity for
  advancement
• World War I did not bring significant gains
• navy barred blacks, army segregated units
  supply units
• The Great Migration
• The war opened thousands of industrial jobs to
  black laborer
• 500,000 migrated north
• increased presence and demands for change ?
  Dozens of blacks were killed during a 1917 riot
  in East St. Louis, Missouri
• Also riots and lynching up in the South
• Marcus Garvey launched a separatist movement
  African indep and black self-reliance
• Violence led to a silent march of protest on NY
  5th Ave Mr. President, Why Not Make America
  Safe for Democracy?
• deported for mail fraud

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Wilsons 14 Points v. Treaty of Versailles

• Wilson
• Permanent league of nations (1 goal)
• Open diplomacy
• Free navigation of seas
• Self-determination for nations
• Succeeded in creation of Austria, Hungary,
  Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia
• Embraced ideals of democracy and freedom
• End imperialism only Germany

• Versailles
• Established League of Nations
• Germany and Russia not invited to peace
  conference
• Allies goal punish Germany
• Demanded reparations from Germany

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Wilson v. Senate

• Wilson asked country to support his treaty in the
  congressional elections failed
• Senate against the League of Nations
• Didnt like premise of permanent US participation
  in European Affairs
• Desire to return to isolationism
• Against the call for collective security if a
  member nation was attacked
• Undermine Congresss authority to declare war
• Wanted US to pursue a unilateral foreign policy
• Wilson speaking tour to gain support but had a
  stroke
• Treaty never ratified by US

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Aftermath of WWI - Labor

• Workers thought they would retain gains after the
  war
• The strike wave began in January 1919 in Seattle
  united AFL and IWW ? for 5 days commission of
  laborers ran the city until federal troops called
  in and strike ended
• 1919 4m workers went on strike demanding
  freedom in the workplace
• portrayed management as Kaiser
• Boston police strike MA governor Calvin
  Coolidge (pres 1924) called out national guard
  cant strike against public safety
• Great Steel Strike after war tried to get rid of
  the union and reverse wartime gains
• striked for union recognition, higher wages, and
  an eight-hour day
• immigrant workers questioned why they had
  supported the war
• Steel magnates launched a concerted
  counterattack
• associated the strikers with the IWW
• became immigrant workers v. American workers
• middle class turned against the unions
• strike collapsed 1920

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Aftermath of WWI Red Scare

• Fear because of Russian Rev. and strikes
• Attorney General Palmer in November 1919 and
  January 1920 dispatched federal agents to raid
  the offices of radical and labor organizations
  throughout the country
• J. Edgar Hoover oversaw the Palmer Raids
• 5000 arrested many w/o warrants, held for months
  w/o charges
• hundreds of immigrant radicals deported Emma
  Goldman
• compiled files of thousands of suspected radicals
• Palmer criticized by Congress and the press
• Secretary of Labor Louis Post began releasing
  imprisoned immigrants and the Red Scare collapsed
• bomb outside of NY Stock Exchange didnt rekindle
  the red scare
• 40 died biggest U.S. terrorist explosion before
  Oklahoma City 1995
• in the long run Palmer raids led to protection
  of civil liberties, but in the short run it hurt
  radical and labor groups
• IWW and Socialist Party destroyed