Chapter 24: World War I

Outline the causes of World War I.

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand triggered the start of the war

M.A.I.N long-term causes

M-Militarism

A- Alliances

I- Imperialism

N- Nationalism

List the groups working to keep America from entering World War I and their reasons.

• Activists such as Jane Addams (Women’s Peace Party; against intervention) and Henry Ford (“Peace Ship”;tried to put an overall end to the war)

• Many Politicians voted against American intervention in the war because it posed ‘no vital threat to the US or its territories’.

Explain Woodrow Wilson’s thinking in keeping America out of the war.

1. To protect domestic unity

2. Wanted the domestic progressive reforms to remain prioritized

3. Wanted the US to be the “peacemaker”

Describe the problems America experienced trying to remain neutral in the first years of the war.

1. America had economic ties to the allies

2. Some Americans believed war was good, dividing Americans

3. U-boats; Lusitania

Name the decisive events that brought America into World War I

1. Germans sunk all kinds of American ships

2. The Zimmerman Telegram

3. Shifting public opinion

Describe a U-boat and its role in World War I

• German underwater boat (submarine)

• Used as a strategic blockade of Britain

List the main groups that made up the American Expeditionary Force.

1. The Army

2. The National Guard

3. The National Army

Outline the general battle strategies of the war on both sides

The Central Powers

1. The Schlieffen Plan

2. afflict unsustainable casualties to lower Allies morale

Describe the battle conditions and lives of ordinary soldiers during the war.

1. Trench warfare - constant bombardment

2. No man’s land

3. modern weapons

4. diseases/low morale

List the ways the United States financed its participation in the war.

1/3 taxation

2/3 public borrowing

Explain the reasons the Allies won World War 1

1. economic & industrial superiority

2. British Royal Navy

3. American injection

4. failure of the German Spring Offensive

5. Collapse of the Central Powers

List the wartime powers Congress granted to President Wilson, especially the Espionage, Sedition, and Alien Acts.

• Espionage Act (1917): Banned interfering with the draft or military operations; allowed mail censorship.

• Sedition Act (1918): Outlawed "disloyal" or "abusive" language about the U.S. government, flag, or military.

• Alien Enemies Act (1798): Invoked to intern and deport citizens of enemy nations.

• Economic Control: Congress granted power to draft soldiers, fix food/fuel prices, nationalize railroads, and dictate factory production.

Define the “Red Scare“, identify its targets, and describe its long-term effects on American society.

• A period of extreme paranoia and hysteria over the perceived threat of Communism and Socialism.

• Public figures targeted communists, leftists, anarchists, and labor radicals. Immigrants were attacked.

Long term effects:

1. Surveillance & Loyalty Tests

2. Dennis vs. United States

Identify Sacco and Vanzetti and explain the importance of their legal case.

2 Italian immigrant that were unjustly tried for robbery & murder. A sign that the paranoia of the time causes the government to often act wrong.

Explain the role of the War Industries Board and the term “arsenal of democracy“.

• Coordinated US industrial production and resource allocation during WW1.

• Arsenal of Democracy: A nation using its massive industrial power to supply its allies.

List the main items in Wilson’s 14 Points.

1. Open diplomacy (no secret treaties)

2. Freedom of the Seas (Navigational freedom for all)

3. Freed Trade (Removal of economic trade barriers)

4. Disarmament (Reductions of weapons worldwide)

5. Colonial Claims (Fair adjustment favoring local populations)

Describe the problems the Treaty of Versailles settled and the problems it created.

Settled:

1. Ended World War I

2. Germany- financial reparations, military/land restrictions

3. Created League of Nations

Problems Created:

1. Economic hardship - G

2. Political instability/Rise of extremism - G

3. Territorial conflicts - G

4. Senate rejected the treaty, leaving the allies divided

Explain why the League of Nations was not successful.

1. Lacked enforcement power

2. Major global powers didn’t join

3. Requirements of unanimous decision paralyzed action.

Explain how women finally got the right to vote in 1920.

Through activism, protests, organizing, and political lobbying.

Define the “Great Migration“ and explain the reasons African-Americans moved north.

• The migration of over 6 million black Americans in the 1910s from the rural south to Urban areas in the north.

• They did this because of Jim Crow oppression & sharecropping kept them in debt.

Describe the movement of Mexican-Americans into and out of America during these years.

IN: Push: Mexican revolution violence.Pull. Southwest agricultural, railroad, and mining boom. Border was unregulated, and Mexican workers were exempted from 1924 immigration quotas.

OUT: Great Depression job scarcity and racial scapegoating led to mass forced/voluntary deportations.

60% of the estimated 1-2 million deported were US born citizen children

Explain the benefits or positive effects America gained from World War I.

Transformed the United States from a debtor nation to a dominant global economic and political superpower.