P1249598115gCZwm

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World War I

• European War and U.S. Neutrality
• Fighting the War for Democracy
• The Homefront
• Promises Broken

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European Alliances, 1914
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The War in Europe

• Trench warfare
• Deadlock

• 1916 campaign 2 million dead

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The War in Europe and U.S. Neutrality
1916 Campaign He Kept Us Out of War
Wilson asks Congress to declare war, April 1917
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What were the justifications for declaring
war? Wilsons speech What were the reasons for
declaring war? Textbook discussion
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Why did the U.S. declare war?

• Neutral rights
• What about the British blockade of Germany?
• New kinds of warfare the role of the submarine
• Economic ties to Britain and France
• U.S. exports to Allied Powers four times greater
  than exports to Central Powers
• Private loans to Britain and France
• U.S. economic downturn in 1916
• The common heritage with Britain
• Making the world safe for democracy

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Who opposed the war and why?

• Socialists (Debs at Canton)
• Pacifists (Addams at Carnegie Hall)
• Immigrants

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II. Over There

• U.S. military from 120,000 to 4.8 million in two
  years
• (nearly 3 M draftees)
• 2 million troops to Europe
• with American Expeditionary
• Force
• about 20,000 women
• as nurses or clerks

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The American Expeditionary Force makes the
difference --more U.S. troops than British in
France at wars end
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U.S. Soldiers in France
Poison gas
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Poison gas causes 30 of all U.S. casualties
John Singer Sargent, Gassed
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A generation lost to Europe

• Nov. 11, 1918 peace reached in Europe
• 112,000 American troops had died (52,000 in
  battle 60,000 from disease)
• Approximately 24 million Europeans died
  (including 8.5 M soldiers)

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III. The Homefront Mobilizes for Total War
--New federal powers --Abundant jobs high farm
prices high profits --Union membership up from
2.7 to 5 M --1 M women war workers
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• The Homefront Mobilizes for Total War

The great migration (1/2 million African
Americans) Mexican immigration Prohibition
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III. The Homefront Mobilizes for Total War
--whipping up support CPI (Creel
Committee) --suppressing dissent (and all things
German or radical) Espionage Act, 1917 Sedition
Act, 1918
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Suppressing Dissent Debs in Canton

• Charged with obstructing military recruiting and
  enlistment
• Sentenced to ten years in prison
• How secure are First Amendment rights in wartime?
• if one purpose of Debs speech was to oppose
  the war and if that would be its probable effect,
  it his right to free speech would not be
  protected. Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell
  Holmes

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IV. Promises Broken Democracy at Home

• Racial violence, 76 lynchings, and attacks on
  black veterans
• Collapse of organized labor
• The Red Scare
• 6,000 radicals arrested 500 aliens deported
• Organizations destroyed

IWW office after Palmer raid, 1919
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IV. Promises Broken the Versailles Treaty
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