World War I and its Aftermath (1914-1920)

Main Underlying Causes of WWI:

m: military

a: alliances

i: imperialism

n: nationalism

US DECLARES NEUTRALITY

Freedom of the Seas: The principle that ships flying neutral flags should be able to pass through war zones without interference, which became a significant point of contention during the war.

  • great britain first to declare a naval blockade against germany by mining the north sea and seizing shops (including the u.s.)

    • Woodrow Wilson protested british seizure of ships as it was a violation of a neutral right to freedom of the seas

Submarine Warfare

  • germany new naval weapon: submarine

    • made a blockade in response to britain saying any ship trying to enter warzone would be sunk onsight

Lusitainia Crisis

  • german torpedos hit and sank a british passenger liner (lusitania)

    • most passengers drowned + 128 americans

    • woodrow wilson sent strongly worded diplomatic letter

      • due to this letter, william jennings resigned from the presidential cabinet

Sussex Pledge

  • august 1915, two more americans lost their lives at sea as a result of a german submarine attack on the passenger ship, the Arabic

    • w. wilson’s note of protest prevailed upon the german government to pledge that no unarmed passenger ships would be sunk without warning, allowing time for passenges to get into lifeboats

      • germany kept their word until march 1916 when a german torpedo struck an unarmed merchant ship, the Sussex; injured several americans

        • wilson threatened to cut off u.s. diplomatic relations with germany (a preparatory step to war)

          • to not risk u.s entry into war on british side, germany backed down

    • sussex pledge: promise to not sink merchant or passenger ships without giving due warning

Allied Powers: Great Britain, Russia and France

Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empires of Turkey

ECONOMIC LINKS WITH BRITAIN AND FRANCE

War Supplies

  • before the war, the united states had been in a business recession

  • after the outbreak, the economy rebounded in part because of orders for war supplies fro the british and french

    • by 1915, us businesses had never been so prosperous

  • in theory, the united states could have shipped supplies to germany as well, but the british blockade effectively prevented trade

  • wilsons policy did not deliberately support allied powers

    • more or less tolerated britains blockade; restricted germany’s submarine blockade

    • u.s. economic support was going to one side (britain + france) and not the other

LOANS

  • when the allies could not dinance the purchase of everything they needed, the united states goverment permitted J.P. Morgan and other bankers to extend as much as $3B in secured credit to Britain and France

    • promoted u.s. prosperity as they sustained the allies’ war effort

PUBLIC OPINION

  • If Wilson’s policies favored Britain, so did the attitude of most Americans

Americans Perception of Germany

  • august 1914: as americans read in their newspapers about german armies marching ruthlessly through belgium, they perceived germany as a cruel bully whose armies were commanded by a mean-spirited autocrat, Kaiser Wilhelm

    • sinking of the lusitania reinforced this negative view of germany

Ethnic Influences

  • 1914: first and second generation immigrants made up over 30% of the u.s. population

    • glad to be out of the fighting and strongly supported neutrality

  • sympathies reflected their homeland

    • germans strongly identified with the struggles of their homeland; many irish americans hated britain because of its oppressive rule of ireland

  • overall, majority of native-born americans wanted the allies to win

    • positive us relations wiwth france since revoltionary war

    • symmpathized with britain and france because of their democratic goverments

    • woodrow wilson, of scotch-english descent, had long admired the british political system

British War Propaganda

  • britain commanded the war news that was cabled daily to u.s. newspapers and magazines

    • recognizing the importance of influencing u.s. public opinion, brit goverment made sure american press was supplied with german soldiers commiting atrocities in belgium and the german-occupied part of eastern France

THE WAR DEBATE

Debate Viewpoints

  • a small but vocal minority of influential republicans from the east -including Theodore Roosevelt- argued for U.S. entry into the ware against germany

  • foreign policy realists believed that a german victory would change the balance of power and the United States needed a strong british navy to protect the status-quo

  • majority of americans remained thankful for a booming economy and peace

Preparedness

  • eastern republicans (like Roosevelt) were the first to recognize the u.s. military was hopelessly unprepared for a major war

    • clamored for ‘preparedness’

  • at first, wilson opposed the call for preparedness

    • late 1915: changed his policy

  • wilson urged congress to approve an ambitious expansion of the armed forces

    • provoked a storm of controversy, especially among democrats

      • democrats until then wer largely opposed to military increases

    • national defense act (june 1916): increased the regular army to a force of nearly 175,000

      • month later, congress approved the construction of more than 50 warships in just one year

        • battleships, cruisers, detroyers, and submarines

Opposition to War

  • many americans (especially in the midwest and west) were adamantly opposed to preparedness

    • feared it would soon lead to u.s. involvement in the war

    • Antiwar activists: populists, progressives, and socialists

    • women sufragists actively compaigned against any military buildup

      • after u.s. declaration of war in 1917, they supported the war effort

Election of 1916

  • president wilson aware that, as a democrt, he only won in 1912 due to the split in republican ranks between Taft conservatives and roosevelt progressives

    • despite progressive record, reelection for wilson did not seem strong after roosevelt declined the progressive party’s nomination for president in 1916 + rejoined the republicans

      • basically killed the progressive party

    • evan hughes: supreme court justice and former governor of new york

      • became presidential candidate of a reunited republican party

    • “he kept us out of war”

      • democratic campaign

      • wilson’s record of progressive leadership, and hughes’ weakness as a candidate combined to give wilson vicoty in an extremely close election

      • democratic strengh in the south and west overcame republican power in the east

Peace Efforts

  • wilson wanted to keep true to his campaign to keep out of the war

    • before the election, sent his chief foreign policy advisor (coloner edward house of texas) to london, paris, and berlin to negotiate a peace settlement

      • unsuccessful

    • other mediation effors turned aside by both allied and central powers

    • january 1917: wilson’s speech to senate: u.s commitment to idealistic hope for “peace without victory”

DECISIONS FOR WAR

Wilson & Declaration of War

  • april 1917: one month into second term, wilson went before congress to ask for a declaration of war against germany

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare

  • reason for american declaration of war + policy change

    • sudden change in german military strategy

      • german high command had decided in early 1917 ti resume unrestricted submarine warfare

        • understood the risk of us anger, but they thought that by cutting of supplies to the allies, they could win the war before americans could react

      • germany notified the u.s. gov’t on january 31st

        • days later, wilson broke off u.s diplomatic relations with germany

Immeadiate Causes

Zimmerman Telegram

  • telegram intercepted by british intelligence

    • germany proposed that mexico make itself an ally in return for its lost territories of texas, new mexico, and arizona

      • angered americans

      • convince wilson that germany wanted war

Russian Revolution

  • wilson wanted war to be fought for a worthy purpose

    • triumph of democracy

  • it bothered wilson that that russia was governed by an autocractic czar

    • this barrier to u.s. participation was removed on march 15th when Russian revolutionaries overthrew the czar’s government and proclaimed a republic

      • the revolutionary goverment would be taken over by communists later that november

Renewed Submarine Attacks

  • in the first weeks of march, german submarines sank five unarmed u.s. merchant ships

    • wilson was ready for war

FIGHTING THE WAR

Naval Operations

  • germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was having its intended effect

    • merchant ships bound for britain were sunk at staggering rates

  • us response to allied emergency: undertake a record-setting program of ship construction

    • u.s. navy implemented a convoy system of armed escorts for groups of merchant ships

    • system was working well enough to ensure that britain and france would not be starved into submission

American Expeditionary Force

  • unable to imagine the grim realities of trench warfare, u.s. toops were eager for action

  • AEF

    • commanded by john j pershing

  • first u.s. troops to see action were used to plug weaknesses in the french and british lines

  • 1918

    • aef assumed independent responsibility for one segment of the western front

Last German Offensive

  • us troops in place to hold the line against the last ferocious assault by german forces

  • chateua-thierry on the marne river

    • americans stopped the german advance (june 1918) and stuck back with a successful counterattack at belleau wood

Drive to Victory

  • august, september, and october

    • allied offensive along the meuse river and through the argonne forest

      • succeeded in driving an exhausted german army backward toward the german border

      • us troops participated in this drive

    • november 11, 1918

      • the germans signed an armistice in which they agreed to surrender their arims, give up much of their nacy, and evacuate occupied territory

U.S. Casualities

  • u.s. combat deaths totaled nearly 49000

  • many more thousands died of disease (including flu epidemic in training camps)

  • total u.s fatalities in World War I: 112,432

MAKING THE PEACE

Peace without victory

  • wilson never lost sigt of this ambition to shape the peace settle ment when the war ended

    • presented to congress a detailed list of war aims

      • fourteen points: designed to address the causes of world war I and prevent another world war

Fourteen Points

  • Wilson’s principles for securing a lasting peace

    • recognition of freedom of the seas

    • an end to the practice of making secret treaties

    • reduction of national armaments

    • an ‘impartial adjustment of all colonial claims’

    • self-determination for the various nationalities

    • removal of trade barriers

    • ‘general association of nations…for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike’

      • last point valued by wilson the most

Treaty of Versailles

  • peace conference following the armistice took place in the palace of versailles outside paris (jan 1919)

    • every nation that had fought on the allied side in the war was represented

  • no us president had ever traveled abroad to attend a diplomatic conference

    • wilson decided his personal participation was vital to defending his 14 points

      • republicans criticized him

        • accompanied to paris by several democrats and on republican whose advice was never sought

The Big Four

  • other heads of state made it clear their nations wanted both revenge against germany and compensation in the form of indemnities and territory

    • did not share wilson’s idealism

  • after months of argument, the president reluctantly agreed to compromise on most of his fourteen points

    • insisted on league of nations

Peace Terms

  1. germany was disarmed and stripped of its colonies in asia and africa

    1. forced to admit guilt for the war

    2. accept french occupation of rhineland for 15 years

    3. pay a huge sum of money in reparations to great britain and france

  2. territories once controled by germany, austria-hungary, and russia were taken by the allies

    1. independence was granted to estonia, latvia, lituania, finland, and poland

    2. new nations of czechoslovakia and yugoslavia were established

  3. signers of the treaty would join an international peacekeeping organization, the league of nations

    1. league called on each memeber nation to stand ready to protect the independence and territorial integrity of other nations

BATTLE FOR RATIFICATION

Increased Partianship After the War

  • wilson made winning senate ratification difficult

    • had asked voters to support democrats in the midterm elections as an act of patriotic loyalty

    • needed republican votes in the senate to ratify the treaty of versailles

      • faced the determined hostility of a leading senate republican, henry cabot lodge

Irreconciable faction: could not accept us memebership in the league, no matter how the covenant was worded

Reservationist faction: could accept the league if certain reservations were added to the covenant

Wilson’s Western Tour & Breakdown

  • wilson went on an arduous speaking tour to the west to make speeches for the league of nations

    • collapsed after delivering a speech in colorado

    • suffered a massive stroke from which he never fully recovered

Rejection of the Treaty

  • senate defeated the treaty without reservations

    • when it came up with reservations, wilson directed his senate allies to reject the compromise

      • joined with the irreconcilables ind efeating the treaty a second time

  • after wilson left office, us officially made peace with germany

    • never ratified the versailles treaty nor joined the league of nations

POSTWAR PROBLEMS

Demobilization

  • 4 million american men had been taken from civilian life and the domestic economy

    • not all the returning soldiers could find jobs right away

      • many who did took employment from the women and african americans who had thrived on war work

      • business boom of wartime also went flat

      • prices fell

      • hurt us farmers

    • consumers went on a buying spree, leading to inflation and a short boom in 1920

      • spree did not last

      • business plunged into a recession

RED SCARE

  • 1919

    • country suffered from a volatile combination of unhappiness with the peace process, fears of communism fueled by the communist takeover in russia, and worries about labor unrest at home

    • anti-german hysteria

      • turned quickly into anti-communist hysteria

        • “red scare”

      • fueled xenophobia

        • resulted in restrictions on immigration in the 1920s

PALMER RAIDS

  • series of unexplained bombings caused by attorney general a. mitchell palmers to establish a special office under j. edgar hoover to gather information on radials

    • ordered mass arrests of anarchists, socialists, and labor agitators

  • novermber 1919 through january 1920

    • over 6000 people were arrested

    • most suspects foreign born

      • 500 of them (including outspoken radical emma goldman) were deported

  • scare faded almost as quickly as it arose

  • palmer warned of huge riots on may day, 1920

    • never took place

    • loss of credibility, coupled with rising converns about civil liverities, caused the hysteria to recede

Labor Conflict

  • large part of the american public regarded unitions with distrust

    • antiunion attitude softended during the progressive era

  • factory workers and their unions were offered a ‘square deal’ under roosevelt and protection from lawsuits under the clayuton antitrust act of 1914

  • series of strikes in 1919 as well as feat of revolution turned public opinion against unions

Strikes of 1919

  • first major strike of 1919 was in seattle in february

    • 60,000 unionists joined shipyard workers in a peacful strikes for higher pay

      • troops called; no violence

  • September

    • boston

      • police went on a strike to protest the firing of a few police officers who tried to unionize

        • massuchusetts governor calvin coolidge sent in the national guard to break the strike

    • workers for the us steel corporation

      • state and federal troops called out

        • after considerable violence, the strike was broken in january 1920

Race Riots and Violence

  • migration of african americans to northern cities during the war increased racial tensions

    • whites resented the increased competition for jobs and housing

  • during the war, race riots had erupted

    • largest in east st. louis, illinois, in 1917

  • 1919

    • racial tenstions led to violence in many cities

    • worst riot in chicago

    • 40 killed; 500 injured

  • conditions were no better in the south

    • racial prejudice and fears of returning african american soldiers led to an increase in racial violence and lynchings by whitesb