America Enters World War I

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America Enters World War I
Patten Kempton Mepham High School Global History

• Boys and Girls! War Savings Stamps Poster by
  James Montgomery Flag 1917-18

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The First World War
What?

• War involving nearly all the nations of the world

• When?

• 1914-1918

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The First World War
Long term - 1. Alliance system 2. Imperialist
Competition 3. Stockpiling of Weapons

• Why?

Short term - Assassination of Franz Ferdinand of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his Wife
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg one hour before
their deaths, June 28, 1914
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The First World War

• Who?

Central Powers
Allies
Russia France Great Britain Italy Japan United
States (1917)
Germany Austria-Hungary Ottoman Empire Bulgaria
Prior to 1917, what nations were involved in
World War I?
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The First World War

• Where?

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Americas Policy in the Beginning of WWI

• America was isolationist
• Why should I get involved in someone elses
  problems

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• Should the United States enter World War I?

U.S. President Wilson
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U.S. was under attack

• The present German submarine warfare against
  commerce is a warfare against all mankind.... Our
  motive will not be revenge or the victorious
  assertion of the physical might of the nation,
  but only the vindication of right, of human
  right, of which we are only a single champion..
  Armed neutrality, it now appears, is
  impracticable.
• -U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's War Message
  (April 1917)
• It would be the resumption of unrestricted
  submarine warfare that would ultimately bring the
  United States into the war.
• -The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
  History

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Democracy

• Our object...is to vindicate the principles of
  peace and justice in the life of the world as
  against selfish and autocratic power.... We are
  glad...to fight...for the ultimate peace of the
  world and for the liberation of its peoples, the
  German peoples included for the right of nations
  great and small and the privilege of men
  everywhere to choose their way of life and of
  obedience. The world must be made safe for
  democracy....
• -President Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April
  1917)

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Economics

• Beginning in 1916, the Morgan negotiated a series
  of extremely large loans to France and to
  England, becoming their exclusive purchasing
  agent and financier in the United States.
• -Notable American Volunteers of the Great War,
  Great War Primary Documents Archive
• By 1917, American loans to the Allies had soared
  to 2.25 billion loans to Germany stood at a
  paltry 27 million.
• -The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
  History

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Propaganda

• A large number of the great newspapers and news
  agencies of the country have been controlled and
  enlisted in the greatest propaganda that the
  world has ever known to manufacture sentiment in
  favor of war.
• -Senator George W. Norris in Opposition to
  President Woodrow Wilson's War Message (April
  4, 1917)

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Propaganda
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(No Transcript)
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Militarism

• That which has driven the masses of Europe into
  the trenches and to the battlefields is not their
  inner longing for war it must be traced to the
  cutthroat competition for military equipment, for
  more efficient armies, for larger warships, for
  more powerful cannon. You cannot build up a
  standing army and then throw it back into a box
  like tin soldiers.
• -Emma Goldman, from "Preparedness The Road to
  Universal Slaughter"

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Events that lead to Americans entrance into WWI
1. Blockades

• Britain blockaded (stopped) all German ships
  going to America

• Germany announced a submarine war around Britain

Y-53 German Submarine 1916
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• In May, 1915 Germany told Americans to stay off
  of British ships
• They could/would sink them

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Lusitania

• British Passenger Ship with 1200 passengers and
  crew (including 128 Americans)

• Lusitania torpedoed by a German U-Boat, sinking
  all passengers and crew

• Was eventually found to be carrying 4200 cases of
  ammunition

German Propaganda Justifying Lusitania sinking
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Lusitania

• The US sharply criticized Germany for their action

• Germany agreed not to sink passenger ships
  without warning in the future

Note in Bottle After Lusitania Disaster
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Submarine Warfare

• 1917 Germany announced unlimited submarine
  warfare in the war zone

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Zimmerman Telegram

• Britain intercepted a telegram from Germany to
  Mexico

• Mexico was asked to enter the war and become
  allies with Germany, and in return was promised
  Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

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U.S. Enters World War I
On April 6, the US declared war on Germany.
Check out this video
http//videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30141-as
signment-discovery-america-enters-world-war-i-vide
o.htm
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How was the war looking for the allies?
Not Good...

• Russia left the war after its communist
  revolution in 1917

• Made it a one front war for Germany - all its
  troops could concentrate on France

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What did the US do to help?
Supplies

• US provided the food, money, and fresh troops
  needed to win the war

American Troops March Through London