23.1-23.5 Key Terms

Woodrow Wilson

The U.S. president who tried to follow a more moral and less interventionist foreign policy, believing the United States should get involved in other countries only when there was a moral reason to do so

Roosevelt Corollary

President Theodore Roosevelt’s policy that allowed the United States to intervene in Latin American countries when the U.S. believed those nations needed to be "policed"

U.S./Mexico Conflict

A conflict between the United States and Mexico that began when Wilson refused to recognize Victoriano Huerta's government and sent U.S. forces to Veracruz in 1914

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

of the Austria-Hungary Empire; was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, becoming the spark that started World War I

Triple Entente

An alliance between France, Great Britain, and Russia before World War I

Triple Alliance

An alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy before World War I

Central Powers

The group of countries that fought against the Allied Powers, originally centered around Germany and Austria-Hungary, and later including the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria

Allied Powers

The group of countries that fought against the Central Powers, forming around France, Great Britain, and Russia and later including countries such as the United States, Japan, and Italy

Unterseeboot / U-boat

A German submarine used during World War I to attack merchant and military ships, often without warning

Lusitania

A British passenger ship sunk by a German U-boat in May, 1915, killing almost 1,200 civilians, including 128 Americans

Neutrality

Wilson's policy of not taking sides in the European war while keeping American markets and trade open to the countries involved in the conflict

Laconia

An American merchant ship that was sunk by a German U-boat in February 1917, killing two passengers

Zimmermann Telegram

A secret German message to Mexico asking Mexico to join Germany if the United States entered the war. Germany encouraged Mexico to attack the United States and offered to help Mexico regain territory it had lost, including Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Declaration of Independence

The formal decision by the United States to enter World War I against Germany. Wilson asked Congress to declare war in April, 1917, and Congress approved the declaration within a few days.

Selective Service Act

administrative system that allowed men to register at their local draft boards rather than directly with the federal government, It required all men aged 21 through 30 to register for the draft in the war (1917), then the act was expanded to include all men between 18 to 45 years old (1918).

Fuel Administration

run by Harry Garfield, created the concept of “fuel holidays,” encouraging civilian Americans to do their part for the war effort by rationing fuel on certain days. He had also implemented “daylight saving time” for the first time in American history, shifting the clocks to allow more productive daylight hours.

Food Administration

Herbert Hoover coordinated it and encouraged “Meatless Mondays,” “Wheatless Wednesdays,” and other similar reductions, with the hope of rationing food for military use

War Industries Board

Run by Bernard Baruch, to ensure adequate military supplies. The War Industries Board had the power to direct shipments of raw materials, as well as to control government contracts with private producers.

U.S. Railroad Administration

Congress created it to move all the personnel and supplies around the country efficiently.

Liberty bonds

The Liberty Loan Act allowed the federal government to sell liberty bonds to the American public, extolling citizens to “do their part” to help the war effort and bring the troops home.

16th Amendment

Gave congress the right to collect Income tax

“America First”

In an effort to ensure that Americans eventually supported the war, the government pro-war propaganda campaign focused on driving home that message. The posters below, shown in both English and Yiddish, prompted immigrants to remember what they owed to America

Committee of Public Information

George Creel, Goal was to encourage all Americans to make sacrifices during the war and, equally importantly, to hate all things German Creel employed artists, speakers, writers, and filmmakers to develop a propaganda machine

Sedition Act

passed in 1918, prohibited any criticism or disloyal language against the federal government and its policies, the U.S. Constitution, the military uniform, or the American flag

National Civil Liberties Bureau

In 1917, Roger Baldwin had formed this to challenge the government’s policies against wartime dissent and conscientious objection

Schenck v. United States

court ruled that during a time of war, the federal government was justified in passing such laws to quiet dissenters.

1919, U.S. supreme court decided that the government can limit the free of speech, “clear and present danger”

“Clear and present danger”

The government can limit free speech when a person’s speech causes danger or threat to national security or war effort.

National Labor War Board

April 1918, federal gov kept its promises and promoted the adoption of an eight-hour workday (a living wage for all workers and union membership)

Farmerettes

Group of women who exploited new opportunities of work, twenty thousand women of these educated college women and from larger urban areas to fight for women’s suffrage

“Hello Girls”

African women who were bilingual and stationed in combat areas, served as red-cross nurses, providing medical support for the american troops in france

Harlem Hellfighters

served as a frontline of France for six months, longer than any other American unit

18th Amendment

Prohibiting alcohol

19th amendment

Giving women the right to vote

Prohibition

anti-alcohol movement, goal for many progressives

One factor that helped their cause was the strong anti-german sentiment that gripped the country, which turned sympathy away from the largely german-descended immigrants who ran the breweries

the amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors. It did not prohibit the drinking of alcohol, as there was a widespread feeling that such language would be viewed as too intrusive on personal rights.

Volstead Act

Enforceable ban on the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and regulating the scientific & industrial uses of alcohol

Russian Revolution

Tsar Nicholas ll,

Weakened by war and internal strife, and eager to build a new Soviet Union, Russian delegates agreed to a generous peace treaty with Germany.

Argonne Forest Offensive

September, 1918 → 1 million U.S. soldier offensive, 40 days of intense fighting, German lines were broken

German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II → being advised to end the war, losing support,abdicates in November, 1918

Armistice

(Ceasefire) - Germany and allies declared an armistice, bringing the fighting to stop, beginning the start of the peace process.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson, post peace plan:

• Openness in diplomacy & trade

• Freedom of the seas

• End to secret treaties

• Self-determination of nations

League Of Nations

to promote new world order and preserve territorial integrity through open discussions in place of intimidation and war

Paris peace conference

President Wilson had attended the conference to spread his ideas about the fourteen points→ prompted other world leaders to attend, largest collection of world leaders ever. For six months, beginning in December 1918, Wilson remained in Paris to personally conduct peace negotiations.

“Peace Without Victory”

Britain, France, & Italy wanted revenge against Germany for drawing them into war, Britain & France → sought monetary reparations & territorial gains at Germany’s expense

Bolshevik Russia under Vladimir Lenin: also seen as a threat by leaders → European nations looked to expand territories & secure strategic interests rather strive towards world peace

Treaty of Versailles

a peace agreement signed on June 28, 1919, that officially ended World War I between Germany and the Allied Powers

“War guilt clause”

Germany: → responsibility for starting the war

Reparations → $33 billion to be paid to Allies

Colonial holdings in Africa & Asia → carved up by other nations

Disputed territory → given to France

Ottoman Empire → dissolved, new nations created under quasi-colonial French & British rule (Iraq & Palestine)

Article X

At a covenant agreed to at the conference, all member nations in the League would agree to defend all other member nations against military threats.

This agreement would basically render each nation equal in terms of power, as no member nation would be able to use its military might against a weaker member nation. Ironically, this article would prove to be the undoing of Wilson’s dream of a new world order.

Irreconcilables

Wilson’s greatest fight was with the Senate, where most Republicans opposed the treaty due to the clauses surrounding the creation of the League of Nations. Some Republicans, known as Irreconcilables, opposed the treaty on all grounds

Reservationists

They would support the treaty if sufficient amendments were introduced that could eliminate Article X.

“Red Summer”

1919, northern recorded twenty-five bloody race riots that killed over 250 people.

Chicago Race Riot of 1919, where a White mob stoned a young Black boy to death because he swam too close to the “White beach” on Lake Michigan.

Tulsa Massacre

A massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, Even more deadly with estimates of black fatalities ranging from fifty to three hundred. The violence arose based on a dubious allegation of assault on a white girl by a black teenager

Red Scare

erupted in the United States over fear that Communist infiltrators sought to overthrow the American government as part of an international revolution.

When investigators uncovered a collection of thirty-six letter bombs at a New York City post office, with recipients that included several federal, state, and local public officials, as well as industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, fears grew significantly.

“Palmer Raids”

November 1919, Palmer’s new assistant in charge of the Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover, organized nationwide raids on radical headquarters in twelve cities around the country. Subsequent “Palmer raids” resulted in the arrests of four thousand alleged American radicals who were detained for weeks in overcrowded cells

Election of 1920

the extent of just how tired Americans were of an interventionist government—whether in terms of Progressive reform or international involvement—became exceedingly clear. Republicans, anxious to return to the White House after eight years of Wilson idealism, capitalized on this growing American sentiment to find the candidate who would promise a return to normalcy.

Warren G. Harding

Harding offered what party handlers desired—a candidate around whom they could mold their policies of low taxes, immigration restriction, and noninterference in world affairs. He also provided Americans with what they desired: a candidate who could look and act presidential, and yet leave them alone to live their lives as they wished.