ww1
United States and its role in World War I.
So, all you really need to know at this point is that the war was being waged between two sets of alliances among European states. On one side, you had the central powers which included Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. And then on the other side you had the Allied powers which included Great Britain, France, Russia and then later Italy.
when the war erupted in 1914, President Woodro Wilson kept the US out of the war by proclaiming neutrality even though he privately sympathized with and supported the Allied powers.
Like Wilson had very little interest in sending Americans to get mowed down by machine guns in those nasty trenches. And that means his policy was essentially not my trench, not my problem. And what's more, he was hoping to stay out of the war so that he could serve as a mediator to broker peace and maintain freedom to trade with both sides.
But here's where I tell you that maintaining that neutrality over time became very difficult for three reasons. And I'm stoked to tell you about what those reasons were. The first reason it was hard for Wilson to maintain neutrality during World War I was because the US had much tighter economic relationships with the Allied nations.
not only did the allied countries purchase American goods at a much higher rate than central countries, US bankers had loaned allied countries billions of dollars to support the war effort, which was almost a hundred times what they had loaned to Germany, for example.
But then the second and more potent reason for the neutrality strain was Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. So German submarines, also known as Yubot, violated international laws for warfare by attacking British ships without first surfacing and allowing civilians to disembark.
Regardless, this policy of unrestricted submarine warfare became a real problem for the United States when a German yubot attacked a British passenger ship called the Lucatania in 1950. And Germans justified the attack because although it was a passenger ship, the Lucatania was loaded with ammunition bound for Great Britain. And to be fair, they had already warned Americans not to travel on British ships that carried munitions.
But anyway, the Germans sunk t, killing over a thousand people, among whom were 128 Americans. Anyway, this act outraged the American public. many of whom called for Wilson to drop the commitment to neutrality and retaliate.
However, Wilson resisted that urge and was able to secure an agreement from Germany to cease their yubot operations against passenger liners. And because Germany didn't want to risk the United States entering the war, they complied, at least, you know, for a while.
But then the third threat to US neutrality came in the form of something called the Zimmerman telegram.
They knew that sinking ships with ties to the United States was about the easiest way to get Americans involved in the war, and they very much did not want that.
But by 1917, Germany changed course and resumed their policy of unrestricted submarine warfare on the belief that they could hit the Allies hard enough and quick enough to end the war before the US could mobilize and come in and fight them. And that whole situation got Americans all kinds of hot and bothered. But
it was the Zimmerman telegram that finally made it all boil over. So in February of 1917, British intelligence intercepted a secret telegram from Germany to Mexico sent from German foreign minister Arthur Zimmerman. And in it, Germany offered to ally with Mexico. And in the event of a victory by the Central Powers, Mexico would receive back all the territory they lost to the United States after the Mexican-American War. And if there is one thing you do not do to Americans, it is threatened to take land that we took from other people.
And that development was all the more threatening since under Wilson, the US had already conducted several military operations in Mexico in an attempt to change their regimes and protect American oil interests.
And since the Mexicans were in the midst of their own revolution for independence, such foreign incursions created a heaping pile of resentment against the US. And therefore, Wilson knew that Mexico would find Germany's offer exceedingly enticing as a means of retribution.
And so that telegram combined with German yubot sinking several US merchant ships finally created the occasion for Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. And it was a move that marked a major departure from the US tradition of remaining uninvolved in European affairs.
Now, Wilson's main argument for involving the United States in the Great War was to make the world safe for democracy. In other words, if the Central Powers were to triumph, then the American way of life would face an existential threat.
And therefore, it was a matter of grave importance that they should be defeated. And like I said before, Wilson really wanted to play a significant role in shaping the post-war order that featured liberal economic and political principles.
And this idea gained even more urgency because in 1917, the Russian Revolution broke out and now the communist boleviks were in power. And by American reckoning, nothing threatened the safety of democracy like communism.
America was all up in the war now. And the truth is, you really only need to know one simple fact about it. So point your ear holes this way. The American Expeditionary Forces played a relatively limited role in combat. But even so, US entry into the war decisively tipped the balance toward an Allied victory. So let me just sus all that out a little bit more. Now, after the War Declaration, the US began mobilizing for war. And to that end, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which amassed an army of about 3 million through a compulsory draft.
However, it took time to gather and train and equip such a force, and therefore, the American Expeditionary Forces didn't make much of an impact in the war until 1918. However, once they finally did arrive, they helped bring the hammer of victory down uh real hard. Now, their main contribution came in the Muse Argon offensive in which over a million US and French soldiers spread out across the Western Front and pressed the German forces to the breaking point. Though it cost 50,000 lives, almost evenly split between the Americans and Germans. This battle was part of a larger Allied offensive known as the 100 Days Offensive, which ultimately resulted in the defeat of the Germans and the end of the war.
Wilson was already pitching his vision for a post-war peace to Congress. It was known as the 14 points and it included many idealistic goals for the world after the war such as self-determination for colonial subjects and a reduction in military spending and an international ban on secret treaties.
But by far the most important of Wilson's 14 points was the provision for a League of Nations, which would be an international council for countries to settle their differences through diplomacy rather than war and serve as Wilson's starting point for the creation of a liberal world order.
Now, as good as all that sounds on paper, the 14 points put on display that Wilson was a little too idealistic and maybe a touch naive for the tastes of Britain and France. I mean, all this let's just hug it out and never go to war again rhetoric was coming from a leader whose country was minimally involved in the conflict and suffered little damage on the home front compared to Britain and France.
And so, when it came time to sign the Treaty of Versailles, the leaders of Britain and France were in no mood for Wilson's idealism and instead wanted to make Germany pay for the damage done in the war.
To that end, the treaty included three clauses intended to punish Germany and would ultimately play a significant role in the outbreak of World War II.
First, the Germans had to agree to pay reparations to the victors to help rebuild their respective countries. And ultimately, this financial burden combined with a worldwide economic depression in the 1930s would bring Germany close to the brink of disaster.
And then second, the treaty required Germany to dismember much of its military and its colonial empire so that they would pose no future threat to peace. And in that way, Germany would forever be at the mercy of the hostile powers surrounding it.
And third, the war guilt clause required Germany to claim full responsibility for the war. You know, this had no material effect on Germany like the previous two provisions, but it was a national humiliation that would ultimately give rise to the Nazi party in the following decades.
Regardless, the European powers signed the treaty and settled in for peace and reconstruction. But in the United States, apparently Wilson forgot that constitutionally it's the Senate that ratifies treaties and not the president. You see, Wilson hadn't thought to include any senators in his treaty negotiations. And when it came to a vote, senators refused to ratify the treaty. This refusal had a lot to do with the treaty's provision for Wilson's dear baby, the League of Nations.
Like, since the Constitution granted Congress the sole power of declaring war, senators feared that joining such a body had a strong potential to drag the US into war without the approval of Congress. And therefore, because of Wilson's insistence to act as if all power belonged to him, the US did not ultimately join the League of Nations, which was a serious blow to its long-term effectiveness.
ww1 homefront
unless you're a fan of government suppression of civil liberties, then I'd say that the developments on the home front left a little to be desired.
Now, probably the biggest change on the home front during World War I was the expansion of the federal government in the lives of Americans, which in many ways was a continuity from the progressive era.
World War I is an example of what we'd call a total war, which by definition is a war that requires a state to leverage all of its resources, both at home and abroad, in order to fight. And so, in the process of waging a total war, significant sacrifices were required of Americans on the home front. And that created an environment in which the federal government gained more control over American society.
For example, President Woodrow Wilson applied his passion for progressivist efficiency to the creation of government agencies that organized the American economy and society around war production.
And I'll just give you a couple of examples. So the War Industries Board worked with private sector corporations to help them prepare to ramp up production to manufacture war supplies.
And the National War Labor Board represented labor unions and corporations and worked to make sure that businesses treated their workers fairly while also ensuring that unions would not organize strikes and slow down war production.
but the point is in order to successfully fight in World War I, the federal government became heavily involved in the country's economic affairs. And the upside to that is that it created lots of jobs and really got the economy cranking.
But as you may have guessed, there was also a downside to the government takeover of American society. for all the upsides of government intervention in the war years, the downsides were real nasty. And the nastiest of all was the restriction of American civil liberties.
And there are three categories here you're going to need to know. First, the government restricted Americans freedom of speech. You see, because conducting a war at this scale was an intense and delicate process, the government considered widespread descent as an existential threat to victory.
And so, the federal government went ahead and ordered a tall glass of shut the heck up to any American who decided they wanted to criticize the war effort.
For example, in 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act, which made participating in anti-war activities illegal, most notably interfering with the military draft.
And then in 1918, the Sedition Act prohibited Americans from expressing anti-government beliefs or displaying any kind of disloyalty to their government.
. For example, in 1918, the Socialist Party leader Eugene V. Debs was arrested after a speech in which he compared the military draft to slavery. And for thus speaking his mind, Deb spent 10 years in prison. Like 10 years for flapping his mouth hole. Insane. But I'm sure the Supreme Court's going to come in and save the day and keep the government from trampling on Americans constitutionally protected right to speech.
But here's where I tell you not so much. Yeah. In a case called Shank v. the United States, the court ruled that it is indeed permissible to restrict free speech if that speech presents a clear and present danger to national security.
And so taken altogether, these developments severely restricted Americans right to free speech. And that signaled a shift that the federal government's wartime policies prioritized national security above first amendment protections.
And then the second example of restrictions of civil liberties during the war is a series of attacks on immigrant culture. So, not surprisingly, German Americans were viewed with suspicion since they were related by heritage to the hated enemy of the war.
And so, in 1917, a group of nivists with sponsorship from the Department of Justice formed the American Protective League. And its members were tasked with spying on their German-American neighbors and reporting any disloyal behavior that they observed.
And although their methods often bordered on illegal, the group turned up little to no evidence of German spies in the American population.
And finally, the third example of restrictions on civil liberties was the Red Scare. And this whole panic started because in 1917, Russians decided to go ahead and have their Russian revolution and transform themselves into a communist state.
And apparently there was no faster way to cause American policymakers to poop their pants than to hear about communism at such a massive scale entering the world stage. But then even more alarming was the founding of the common turn, which was a group of Russian leaders whose stated goal was to start communist revolutions in capitalist countries throughout the world.
So combine both of those developments with the growing unlabor arrest and strikes in the post-war period and it created the fuel for further government repression of American civil liberties.
And since the espionage and sedition acts were still in force, the federal government made use of those lingering wartime powers to squash descent after the war.
And so the most visible representation of the Red Scare came in the Palmer raids of 1919 and 1920 which was spearheaded by US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer after a suspected radical bombed his house which was only one in a series of similar bombings. Now, Palmer along with President Wilson happened to believe that America's greatest threat came in the form of radical immigrants from Russia and other southern and eastern European nations.
And by the hammer of Thor, they intended to find them and get them out. And so, the Palmer raids began and resulted in federal agents arresting more than 6,000 immigrants with little to no legal justification. They were often jailed without being told why. And in the end, several hundred immigrants were deported.
And as you can imagine, this whole scenario sent fear into American immigrant communities because the message from the government was clear. foreigness equals danger.
And then to seal the deal on this mass hysteria of immigrant radicalism, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1921 and 1924, which led to significant reductions in immigration to the United States.
Okay. Now, the last major homeront development you need to know about is significant migrations during the war. And first, let me tell you about migration in general during this period. So, the conversion of many of Americ's industries to wartime production led to a massive rural to urban migration.
And with wartime production being coordinated with progressive efficiency by the federal government, urban factory work became much more accessible and attractive to rural Americans needing work.
And by migrating into cities, they further contributed to America's ongoing trend of urbanization. For example, industrial work in Chicago became a significant draw for many American migrants owing to its rapidly expanding steel and meatacking and railroad industries. '
And then New York City also attracted scores of migrants due to growing demand for its specialties in ship building and garment manufacturing and financial services. And so to tie it up with a nice little bow, these migrations were intimately connected to wartime federal policy.
The War Industries Board and the National Labor Board coordinated industrial production and also stabilized wages. And such developments proved very attractive to Americans since labor shortages and wild price fluctuations were destabilizing rural economies and making it hard for farmers to earn a consistent living.
Additionally, World War I cut off a lot of international immigration, which created even more of a demand for labor.
But now, let me tell you about a very specific and massive migration during this period, namely the Great Migration. Now, I mentioned this in unit 6 because it began in the 1890s, but during World War I, it accelerated like crazy. So, in case you forgot, the Great Migration describes the movement of millions of black Americans from the South into northern and western cities. And they made this trek for three distinct reasons. First, black people moved to escape segregation. Now, you'll recall that Jim Crow laws had entirely segregated southern states and led to the marginalization and oppression of black Americans. And the Supreme Court got in on this marginalization party as well. Py v. Ferguson upheld the racial segregation of public facilities as long as those separate facilities were equal in quality. However, the black facilities were never equal to the white facilities. But even more, the very fact of racial segregation humiliated black Americans since it was very clear that they were secondass citizens and so they moved. Second, black people moved to escape racial violence. So don't forget that Jim Crow laws enabled racist organizations like the Ku Klux Clan to unleash an ongoing campaign of terror against black southerners, including thousands of public lynchings. And for the most part, southern states never really intervened legally to stop such deadly violence. And then third, black people migrated because they had limited economic opportunities in the south.
For the most part, southern blacks worked as sharecroppers on white-owned farms. And the system essentially amounted to slavery by a different name. And because the sharecropping system drove black farmers into debt by design, there was little hope that they could become economically self-sufficient. And so they had to get out. And I wish I could tell you that once these black Americans left the South, they lived happily ever after in the northern and western racebelind utopias. But new.
You see, even after leaving the South and settling in places where Jim Crow was not the law of the land, black migrants still experienced plenty of racial discrimination. And one of the most significant reasons black migrants experienced racial hostility was because white workers in these crowded industrial cities saw black workers as competition for their jobs. And such resentment sometimes led to extraordinary violence, as it did in the
Tulsa massacre in 1921. And the short version goes like this. So many southern blacks migrated to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And for a variety of reasons, many of them had become so successful that the majority black Greenwood district had come to be known as Black Wall Street. And to put it mildly, Tulsa's white population, many of whom still struggled to make ends meet, began nursing a serious resentment against these prosperous black people.
And that resentment boiled over in May of 1921 when an unproven story about a black teen assaulting a white woman began to spread throughout the community. And in the following days, white mobs looted and burned the Greenwood district. and black mobs retaliated with violence. And in the end, nearly 40 people were dead and it went down as one of the most severe race riots in history. So, all in all, yes, it was rough for those Americans fighting Europeans over in the trenches, but it wasn't much of a picnic for those Americans who stayed home either.