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welcome back to another jos productions video today we're going to be taking a look at world war one we're going to try to help you score five on that a.push exam in May and if you're reading any a.push textbook and you're studying World War one this video is going to

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help you out and one important point to keep in mind is remember US entry into World War one was a slow process in the beginning of the war we are neutral but continued violations of US neutrality is going to put Woodrow Wilson in a difficult position remember we had

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learned about events such as the sinking of the British ship the Lusitania the French ship the Sussex and Germany does apologize for the sinking of some of those ships and there is a temporary pause in German sinking of ships after the Sussex they issue the Sussex pledge

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where they promise not to sink any more ships without warning however Germany proceeds to commit other acts which angers many people in America there is the Zimmerman note you should know about where the British intercept a German proposal to Mexico calling for a joint

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alliance and basically in the Zimmerman note they're asking Germany's asking Mexico to attack the United States to form an alliance and they would be allowed to recover the lost territory of that territory in the light-green this obviously causes a lot of anger in the

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United States and in spring of 1917 Germany returns to unrestricted submarine warfare they just start sinking ships and they knew that this would cause the u.s. to enter into World War one but they were hoping they would win the war before US troops could get to Europe well enough was enough and in

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April of 1917 Congress declares war against Germany the United States enters World War one in fact when Wilson asked Congress to declare war he says one of the things that he was hoping for was to make the world safe for democracy Wilson really believed that this would be the

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war to end all wars but make sure you know that the key factors for our involvement in World War one one german attacks on American shipping - the Zimmerman telegram proposing an alliance with Mexico but don't forget that Wilson has a desire to be involved in the post-war settlement now when the

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war starts the United States is completely unprepared for war we have a lack of fighting men factories are not prepared for war production and the country has to mobilize for war in fact one of the first things they do is they pass the Selective Service Act which

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basically starts conscription or a draft it organizes a draft for soldiers to fight in the war all men between a certain age have to register and the big fighting force under General Pershing will be known as the American Expeditionary Force and they will do a lot of the heavy fighting over in Europe

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near the end of the war this is a total war effort which basically means all aspects of the country mobilized for the war effort so not just on the battlefield but also on the homefront in fact one of the big things that they needed to do was pay for the war and the war will be financed

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by war bonds sometimes referred to as Liberty loans and income taxes which were allowed to be taken by the government as a result of the 16th amendment an important point you definitely need to keep in mind is that all these different agencies where the federal government and business working

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together will be created during World War one this is a huge mobilization so for example you have the national war labor board which was intended to help mediate labor disputes and prevent strikes so the federal government working with organized labor and business to try to keep the war

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production going unions had different opinions about World War one the American Federation of Labor supported the war effort whereas the IWW oftentimes opposed the war and called for strikes during war production another government agency working with business was the war industries board

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they would set production priorities for the war so allocating scarce resources centralizing control over raw materials and prices so that the war could be won with efficient production the one you should know about is the US Food Administration headed by a future President Herbert Hoover which

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encouraged Americans to conserve food for the war effort so that there would be enough meat sugar and other supplies for soldiers over on the battlefield and an interesting thing happens as a result of this war effort is world war one boost its support for temperates or

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rather prohibition in fact support for the 18th amendment increases and the 18th amendment prohibited the sale consumption manufacture or transport of alcohol and there's a couple of different reasons why the war will do this one you want to conserve resources which we need food resources for the war

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effort but also there's a lot of anti-german sentiment in the United States and if you don't know much about beer beer is very much a German tradition another aspect of the war that's important to know about is the effort to silence dissent or to stop people from opposing the war and there

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were organizations run by the federal government such as the committee of public information this one was headed by George creel very important guy who promoted the US war effort with propaganda and their job was to create films and posters and speeches to get people to buy Liberty loans and war

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bonds and to get people to support World War one for those people that tried to oppose it different laws were put in place Espionage Act is won in 1917 it prohibited interference with the draft or the war effort you could actually be put in jail the Sedition Act was passed

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in 1918 this is much more broad than the Espionage Act it bend anybody from criticizing the government so you cannot speak ill of Congress the president the military the American flag and nearly around 2,000 people are arrested many put in jail such as Eugene Debs for

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violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts in fact one of the things that happens as a result of the war is a huge increase in anti-german sentiment in fact nativists anti-immigrant individuals attack all things german their reefer - as the huns in popular posters like

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the one you see right there now I know what you're wondering what about the First Amendment and the Supreme Court of the United States did here a case one of the first cases the first case about the First Amendment Schank versus the United States and what happens is there's a guy named Charles

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shank who was arrested he's a socialist he's arrested under the Espionage Act for mailing leaflets pamphlets to men eligible for the draft and he basically is telling them don't go and fight in this war he's arrested under the Espionage Act and he sues the government

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on the grounds that they are violating his First Amendment rights and what happens in an unanimous decision the Supreme Court supports the argument that freedom of speech could be restricted and they basically say Congress has the power to restrain speech to ban speech

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if it posed a clear and present danger and they use this example that you're not allowed to go into a crowded theater and yell fire and claimed First Amendment rights and they say freedom of speech can be restricted and it's really important that you understand there was

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a very restrictive atmosphere for civil liberties in America during World War one and this is not the first time we've seen this delicate balance between security being safe and Liberty our freedoms in a time of crisis so World War one we see things like the Espionage

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Act the Sedition Act and recall during the French Revolution Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts basically taking away rights from people at a time of alleged crisis and once again during the Civil War you see Lincoln using his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus

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to try to keep the border states in the Union and we're going to see this again and again World War one is not the first time over what is going to have a huge impact on the homefront a lot of different groups are going to be impacted by the war in fact African Americans we're already

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before the war even started kind of roughly in 1910 large migration of African Americans to northern cities like Chicago and this is called the great migration and you can see that in this painting right here there's a lot of reasons why african-americans are moving north one

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crappy racial relations Jim Crow laws in the south and so you want to get out but what changes during World War one is the opening of new economic opportunities jobs in northern factories as white men were drafted and sent off to war during this time you also see an increase in

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Mexican immigration into the u.s. to work in agriculture primarily in the southwest to take over jobs that were needed during the war effort nearly 400,000 African Americans served in the US Armed Forces they do unfortunately serve in segregated units but civil rights leaders like W EBD boy

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felt that if African Americans fought for the United States during the war that this would lead to greater equality when they returned this unfortunately was not a reality as race riots break out in 1919 there's a lot of racial tension as a result of these demographic

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changes such as the great migration and you have race riots break out in cities such as Chicago women will play a key role in the war as well and will experience their own set of social changes women are going to take over jobs in factories as men leave jobs that

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were normally not open to women suddenly become available because the country needs them in fact because of the sacrifices of women on the homefront during World War one you will see finally the two-thirds needed majority in Congress finally supporting the 19th amendment which grants women's suffrage

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the right to vote and great image right there of women protesting in front of the White House demanding for the basic rights such as voting as the war is winding down Wilson has a vision for the post-war world which is known as the 14 points this is his proposal and in it he really

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wants to prevent another world war from happening he wants to address the causes of the first world war and try to make sure that those things never take place there are 14 points in this document but we're only going to break down some of the important ones so house Wilson

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thinking he's going to accomplish the well he's going to address some of those causes of the first world war he wants to guarantee freedom of the Seas eliminate economic trade barriers military reductions no huge arms race is taking place he wants to get rid of colonies in fact allow

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self-determination for nations to have self-government no more colonization he wants no more secret treaties and the big thing he really wants is he calls for the formation of a League of Nations to help prevent another war the problem for Wilson is he does not get to dictate

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the terms of the post-war settlement he has to work with the big four includes Wilson over there on the right you have England Italy and France and these allies are not really idealistic as Wilson was here he is in the political cartoon kind of asking for everlasting peace but for nations such

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as France and England they want to punish Germany gain territory and use the war as an opportunity to benefit their country so while Wilson wants peace without victory the other allies are not really interested in his idealistic ideas so the Treaty of Versailles very much reflects this

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rejection of much of Wilson's fourteen points they're rejected by the other Allied powers and you can see in the political cartoon kind of some of the things that they want Wilson does get the League of Nations included he really kind of is hopeful that this will be a

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worldwide organization that will prevent future Wars but he has to get it approved by the republican-controlled Congress and many Republicans in Congress hated the idea of the u.s. joining the League of Nations and one of the big opponents of the treaty was Henry Cabot Lodge and he belonged to a

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group called the reservationist and he believed that he would accept the League of Nations he would accept the treaty if certain changes were made and Wilson was reluctant to compromise there was another group of Republican known as the irreconcilable zand they were against the treaty no matter what

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Wilson was willing to do there's substantial debate over the League of Nations between Wilson and the Senate and it comes down to a couple of things one there's a tradition of isolationist policies we try to avoid European affairs if you recall George Washington had warned about the dangers

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of permanent foreign alliances another problem with the League of Nations amongst Republicans was the opposition over article 10 and under article 10 it said that member nations of the League of Nations would have to help other nations out in the event of external

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aggression and there was a fear as you could see in the political cartoon that the league would force the u.s. to deal with foreign issues around Europe that we get dragged into Europeans mess and there also was the fear that Europe would meddle in the Western Hemisphere

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which under the Monroe Doctrine we did not want them to do another kind of factor amongst Republicans and others was the desire amongst many to be isolationist following World War one we fought this brutal horrible war and there was a feeling we just kind of wanted to focus on us and ultimately

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Congress rejects the treaty the League of Nations is formed and without the United States a super important point to keep in mind there's an Old World War one tank many mark the u.s. rejection of the League of Nations as a withdrawal of the u.s. from international affairs in

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the 1920s and as we're going to see in the next video this is a little bit more complicated than that but until next time thank you for watching another jos productions video if you haven't done so subscribe help me spread the word all over the internets and tell your classmates if the video