Unit 7: The Great War

Chapter 8: World War I

• the war started in 1914

• causes of WWI: MANIA

  • militarism

  • alliances

  • nationalism

  • imperialism

  • assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (assassinated by the Black Hand)

• central powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire (Turkey), and Italy

• allies: Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the USA

• the U.S. has a long history of staying out of the war because we saw it as a European problem and continuing Washington’s Neutrality Act

• Moral Diplomacy

  • Wilson’s form policy plan

  • 2 ideas

    • make the country the world’s greatest democracy ever

    • if they do that, the rest of the world will want to follow their example

  • 2 reasons why Americans were involved:

    • U-Boat attacks

      • sinking of Lusitania

    • Zimmerman Telegram

      • meant to go from Germany to Mexico

      • Germany tells Mexico if they are willing to attack the U.S., Germany will help Mexico get the Southwest states back

      • the telegraph was sent through London and London warned the U.S. about this

        • the U.S. declared war on April 4, 1917

    • Germans were practicing unrestricted submarine warfare

      • they would sink boats that they thought were helping other countries

      • Americans were getting more and more irritated, but still do not say it as their problem

• Changes to U.S. Homefront

  • the Great Migration

    • see a mass movement of African Americans leaving the South and moving to Northern cities

    • they moved there for more factory jobs and paid a lot more

  • the Committee of Public Information (CPI)

    • created by President Wilson

    • their job is to produce propaganda for the U.S.

  • Liberty Bonds

    • this is where the government can sell liberty bonds to citizens

      • when citizens purchase this, they are buying a loan

      • the government has to pay them back

      • this was meant to put cash out at the moment

  • Selective Service Act

    • create a military draft for men between the ages of 21-30

  • War Industries Board (WIB)

    • created by Wilson and his job is to create manufacturing

    • tells factory workers how and when to produce and at what time

  • Food Administration (FA)

    • tell American farmers what to grow and how much

    • the same process as WIB, but for food

  • The Espionage and Sedition Acts

    • espionage → enemy spies

    • the law criticizing war efforts is illegal

    • sedition → undermining the government

    • this law was a violation of the First Amendment

  • Influenza Pandemic

    • infected 1/3 of the world's population

    • known as the Spanish flu

    • this will affect 28% of the U.S. population and many people will not make it through this flu

  • 18th and 19th Amendment

    • Wilson needed these two amendments to be ratified to win the war

    • increases food supply if they get rid of alcohol

• War Front

  • new technology: airplanes, tanks, submarines, machine guns, and mustard gas

  • trench warfare: “No man’s land”

• Russian Revolution

  • Czars of Russia will be overthrown because the war goes so badly

  • Vladimir Lenin set up a communist dictatorship in Russia known as totalitarianism → meaning they have total control of one’s life

    • communist dictatorship → Everyone’s an employee of the government

• Wilson was known as “the” progressive

• Fourteen Points

  • in Wilson’s speech, he gave out 14 ideas that he believed would not only end this war but would not bring any other war and there would be peace forever

  • 4 points: freedom of the oceans (no more U-boats), free trade among countries, no secret treaties, and national self-determination (government should be controlled by a local population)

  • because of the 14 points, Germans agreed to an armistice

    • this ends cease-fire

• Paris Peace Conference

  • 4 rulers were known as the Big 4: Great Britain, France, the USA, and Italy

  • these 4 are the authors of the peace treaty

  • Germany was not invited and they did not want any German input

  • America’s goal: peace forever

  • England and France’s goal was to create a punishment for Germany

  • European countries will publicly refuse and call it “Wilson interference”

  • the American people came to regret ever getting involved getting into war

  • Treaty of Versailles

    • Guilt Clause

      • everything about WWI is all Germany’s fault

    • reparations

      • Germany had to pay the entire cost of the allies and for all of WWI

    • League of Nations

      • an international assembly

      • goal: maintain world peace and talk about the war among different countries

    • Article X

      • if a country of the League of Nations is at war, then everyone in that league is at war

        • because of this and the Republicans, the U.S. rejects the Treaty of Versailles and does not join the League of Nations

  • Consequences of War

    • League is forever crippled because the U.S. did not join

    • Normalcy Isolationism

      • the progressive era is over

      • Americans want a smaller and weaker government

      • want their form policy to be isolationism