7.5 World War I: Military and Diplomacy

neutrality, Allied powers, Central powers, submarine warfare, Luistania crisis, Sussex pledge, ethnic influences, propaganda, preparedness, Jeanette Rankin, election of 1916, peace without victory, Edward House, Zimmerman Telegram, Russian revolution, declaration of war, Bolsheviks, American Expeditionary Force, John J. Pershing, Western Front, November 11, 1918, Fourteen Points, Treaty of Versailles, Big Four, self-determination, League of Nations, Article X, Henry Cabot Lodge, irreconcilables, reservationists, rejection of the treaty

underlying causes of WWI

MAIN

• Militarism

• Alliances

• Imperialism

• Nationalism

neutrality

Washington and Jefferson’s noninvolvement tradition, attempted by President Wilson in WWI but was difficult to protect trading rights while maintaining neutrality

• Allied powers - Great Britain, France, Russia

• Central Powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire

• freedom of the sea restricted by British naval blockade and seizure of U.S. ships

• submarine warfare - Germany’s new naval weapon, answered British blockade and warned that ships in “war zone” would be sunk

• Lusitania crisis (1915) - German torpedoes sink the British passenger liner Lusitania, some American passengers drown and President Wilson sends Germany a diplomatic message/warning

• Sussex pledge - Germany promises the U.S. to not sink merchant or passenger ships without due warning

economic links with Britain and France (Allied powers)

• U.S. economy rebounded after recession due to war supply orders from Britain and France

• U.S. permitted bankers like J. Pierpont Morgan to loan money to Allies

WWI debate

• preparedness - greater defense expenditures, argued by Eastern Republicans like Theodore Roosevelt (most Democrats opposed military increases)

• National Defense Act (1916) - increased regular army force

• opposition to preparedness - Midwest, West, populists, women suffragists, socialists, progressives (William Jennings Bryan, Jane Addams, Jeannette Rankin)

election of 1916

• Democrats won - Woodrow Wilson and slogan “he kept us out of war”

• Republicans - Charles Evans Hughes

• Progressives - party declined after Roosevelt rejoined the Republicans

peace efforts

• peace without victory - Wilson’s hopes for World War I

• unsuccessful attempted peace settlements in London, Paris, and Berlin

reasons for declaration of war

• Germany’s renewed submarine warfare

• Zimmerman Telegram - intercepted secret offer proposed by German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman to Mexico - proposed Mexico’s allyship with Germany in exchange for recovering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona

• Russian revolution - Wilson wanted to support democratic (supposedly) governments

fighting the war

• American naval operations - America responded to Germany sinking ships by constructing more and employing a convoy system with armed escorts

• American Expeditionary Force assumed independent responsibility for a segment of the Western Front

• November 11, 1918 - Germans sign armistice agreeing to surrender arms, give up large parts of navy, and evacuate occupied territories

• U.S. casualties from combat and flu

Fourteen points

Wilson’s war aims designed to address causes of war and prevent another world war, including

• recognition of freedom of the seas

• end to secret treaties

• reduction of national armaments

• impartial adjustment of colonial claims

• self-determination for the various nationalities

• removal of trade barriers

• international peace association to guarantee political independence and territorial integrity

Treaty of Versailles

• punishing Germany

  • stripped of colonies

  • forced to admit guilt for war

  • monetary reparations to Britain and France

• self-determination

  • former territories of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia were taken by Allies

  • independence and new nations established

• maintaining peace - signers of treaty joined League of Nations international peace keeping organization

  • Article X of covenant of League of Nations - called each member nation to protect independence and territorial integrity of other nations

ratification (not) of Treaty of Versailles

• Republican senators feared Article X would interfere with U.S. sovereignty and the Western hemisphere

• reservationists - would accept League of Nations if reservations were added, led by Henry Cabot Lodge

• irreconcilables - opposed U.S. membership in League of Nations

• rejection of the Treaty - U.S. never ratifies the Treaty of Versailles or joins the League of Nations

rejection of the treaty

the U.S. never ratifies the Treaty of Versailles or joins the League of Nations