Chapter 19 - Safe for Democracy: The United States and World War I

Vocabulary flashcards based on Chapter 19 covering Progressive era foreign policy, World War I mobilization, domestic civil liberties, race relations, and post-war developments.

Liberal Internationalism

Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy rationale resting on the conviction that economic and political progress go hand in hand, asserting that greater worldwide freedom follows from increased American investment and trade abroad.

Panama Canal Zone

A ten-mile-wide strip of land across the Isthmus of Panama through which the canal was constructed, over which the United States exercised sovereignty after aiding Panama's independence from Colombia in 1903.

Roosevelt Corollary

An addition to the Monroe Doctrine announced by Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, claiming the right of the United States to exercise 'an international police power' in the Western Hemisphere.

Dollar Diplomacy

Foreign policy under President William Howard Taft that emphasized economic loans and investments from American banks rather than direct military intervention to promote American interests overseas.

Moral Imperialism

Woodrow Wilson's foreign policy approach driven by the conviction that the United States had a moral responsibility to teach other nations democracy, coupling the export of manufactured goods and investments with the spread of democratic ideals.

Lusitania

A British ocean liner carrying passengers and arms that was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Ireland in May 1915, causing 1,198 deaths—including 124 Americans—and sparking outrage in the U.S.

Zimmermann Telegram

A March 1917 message from German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann intercepted by British spies, proposing that Mexico join Germany in war against the United States to recover territory lost in the Mexican War.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's January 1918 statement of war aims outlining a vision for a new international order based on self-determination, open diplomacy, free trade, freedom of the seas, and a global League of Nations.

Selective Service Act

A May 1917 law that mandated 24 million American men register with the draft, expanding the U.S. Army from 120,000 to 5 million men.

War Industries Board

A federal wartime agency headed by financier Bernard Baruch that oversaw all elements of U.S. war production, from allocating raw materials to setting standardized prices and manufacturing specifications.

Committee on Public Information (CPI)

A federal agency created in April 1917 under George Creel to whip up prowar public opinion and mobilize support for World War I through propaganda campaigns, pamphlets, posters, and Four-Minute Men speeches.

Espionage Act of 1917

A federal law prohibiting spying, draft interference, and 'false statements' that might impede military success, marking the first restriction on freedom of speech by the federal government since 1798.

Sedition Act of 1918

A federal law that made it a crime to make spoken or printed statements intending to cast contempt, scorn, or disrepute on the form of government or advocating interference with the war effort.

American Protective League (APL)

A private patriotic organization with 250,000 members that collaborated with the Justice Department during World War I to spy on neighbors, uncover radicals, and conduct 'slacker raids.'

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

A civil rights organization founded in 1909 by W. E. B. Du Bois and white reformers that pursued legal strategies enforcing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to fight racial injustice.

Great Migration

The mass movement of roughly 500,000 African Americans from the rural South to northern industrial cities between 1910 and 1920, driven by northern job opportunities, educational access, and escape from southern lynchings.

Garveyism

A movement for African independence and black self-reliance launched by Marcus Garvey, head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, emphasizing national self-determination and equal global recognition.

Red Scare of 1919–1920

A period of intense political intolerance and fear of communism in the United States following World War I and the Russian Revolution, spurred by widespread strikes and bomb explosions.

Palmer Raids

Federal raids conducted in late 1919 and early 1920 under Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and J. Edgar Hoover, resulting in the warrantless arrests of over 5,000 suspected radicals and the deportation of hundreds.

Versailles Treaty

The 1919 peace treaty ending World War I that established the League of Nations and redrew European boundaries, but placed severe military restrictions and huge financial reparations on Germany.