U.S. declared war on Germany in April, 1917

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• U.S. declared war on Germany in April, 1917
• With more and better-prepared troops plus war
  materiel, we were able to help break the
  stalemate
• England and France were in great need of help
  because Russia pulled out of the war in 1917

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• The Russian Revolution had started in Russia and
  the people wanted out of World War I
• Vladimir Lenin had made a deal with Germany that
  said if Lenin came to power in Russia, he would
  pull Russia out of the fighting

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• In return, Germany would help transport Lenin
  back into Russia Lenin had been in Europe
• Lenin also had to sign the Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk with Germany
• This gave Germany a good third of western Russia
  where the population was great, resources were
  plentiful, and factories were concentrated

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• Russian people wanted peace and bread
• Lenin promised them this and got into power
• The Tsar had abdicated would soon be killed along
  with his family

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• The final great battle of the war was along a
  24-mile line in the Argonne Forest near the
  French German border
• Over 1 million American doughboys, as they were
  called, were there on 11 November 1918 when
  Germany surrendered
• That day became known as Armistice Day

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• Germany surrendered because their Kaiser fled,
  her people were starving, and sailors were
  mutinying
• After the armistice was signed, Germany was
  placed in the hands of democratic leaders who
  formed the Weimar Republic

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• The winners of the war generally wanted revenge
• They wanted to destroy Germanys military and
  economic strength
• They wished to totally blame Germany for the war

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Peace Talks

• Began in January 1919
• They were held at Versailles
• The three main leaders at the conference were
  Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George
  of Great Britain, and Woodrow Wilson of the
  United States

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• Clemenceau and George wanted revenge
• Wilson wanted a just peace he felt if Germany
  was backed into a corner, that at a future date,
  she would lash out again
• Wilson wanted his 14 Points for how to conduct
  world affairs accepted

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• However, the only point of the 14 Points that
  Wilson got into the treaty was the one promoting
  a League of Nations (precursor to the United
  Nations)
• Generally, the treaty was out for revenge and was
  harsh

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Terms of the Treaty of Versailles

• German army was limited to 100,000 men who would
  serve long stints in the army
• Germany could not have an air force or submarines
• Austria could not merge with Germany
• Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire
  were broken up and new boundaries were set
  Czechoslovakia, Poland etc.

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• Germany had to pay reparations pay for the
  entire cost of the war - 33 billion or 132
  billion gold marks
• Germany was blamed totally for the war
• Germany was humiliated
• Germany felt forced to sign her people were
  starving

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• All nations that took part in the peace
  conference with the exception of the U.S. signed
  the treaty
• The U.S. did not sign primarily because it did
  not like the idea of a League of Nations U.S.
  didnt want to join an alliance and this seemed
  like an alliance

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• Wilson went on a whistle stop tour of the United
  States urging the people to write Congress and
  tell them to sign the treaty
• The stress proved too great and Wilson suffered a
  massive stroke he then returned to Washington
  debilitated

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Results of World War I

• Weakened League of Nations because U.S. was not
  in it
• Communist Russia
• Shaky S.E. Europe the newly formed nations were
  unstable
• U.S. isolationism
• Britain refused to help France in future
  conflicts
• France was alone sharing a border with Germany
  no support

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• Germany was disarmed and humiliated
• Germans did not like the Weimar Republic that had
  formed upon the signing of the armistice

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U.S. Home Front

• Some were for going to war others were against
  it
• Teddy Roosevelt wanted to fight and lead men into
  battle
• Republican Progressives wanted neutrality
• After war was declared, most supported it even if
  they thought it was a mistake

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• Government grew new agencies were created to
  conduct the business of the war
• 5,000 new agencies were set up over a 20-month
  period some were effective and some were useless

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• Aircraft Production Board failure because it
  could not produce the 22,000 planes ordered in
  one year it did produce 1500
• Shipping Board successfully produced vessels
  twice as fast as the Germans could sink them
• U.S. Railway Administration Wilsons son-in-law
  efficiently reorganized the railroads

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• War Industries Board
• Headed by Wall St. millionaire, Bernard Baruch
• Many production boards were housed under this
  agency

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• Food Administration
• Headed by millionaire, Herbert Hoover
• Successful agency
• Organized food production, distribution, and
  consumption
• American farms were to feed the U.S., Allied
  Armies, and European civilians
• Hooverized

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• No rationing took place in U.S.
• Hoover established Wheatless Mondays, Meatless
  Tuesdays, Porkless Wednesdays
• The savings were sent overseas
• He promoted ways of fixing leftovers
• He asked Americans to plant Victory Gardens
• Farmers bought and cultivated more land
• Foodstuffs greatly increased

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• Selective Service Act was passed in May of 1917
• Registration was compulsory for all men between
  21 and 45 (age lowered to 18 in 1918)
• 2 million volunteers and 3 million drafted
• 21,000 draftees claimed conscientious objectors
  status on religious grounds

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• 4,000 of those were assigned to non-combatant
  duty
• 500 were imprisoned for refusing any service
  they were treated poorly and some remained in
  jail until1933

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• Labor
• Samuel Gompers, head of the AFL, was given a seat
  on the War Industries Board
• He agreed to a no-strike policy during the war
• Business boomed and wages rose
• There was a rise in union membership

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African-Americans

• Wartime jobs in the north prompted a massive
  migration of Southern Blacks to northern cities
• Race riots resulted in some northern cities
• Red Summer of 1919 race riots in 2 dozen
  cities and towns in the U.S.

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• African-Americans also served in the army
• in segregated units
• Some with Black leaders saw combat
• Most dug trenches and loaded trucks

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Women

• Armed forces inducted woman as nurses and
  clerical workers
• They also worked in factories in jobs formerly
  closed to them
• They worked as trolley operators, delivery truck
  drivers, street cleaners, directors of traffic,
• Built planes etc.

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• Was controversial for some men who remained at
  home
• Women worked faster
• Women produced more
• This made the men look bad
• When the war was over, women were expected to
  return to the home, their proper sphere

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• Womens war efforts resulted in the passage of
  womens suffrage, the 19th Amendment it was
  presented on 4 June 1919 and ratified in 1920
• Carrie Chapman Catt said that war had liberated
  women

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Prohibition

• Gained strength during the war
• Liquor used needed grain
• Many Germans ran U.S. breweries
• Germans wished to show they were 100 American,
  so they voluntarily cut back on grain used or
  stopped brewing beer during war

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• Hooverizing, moralism, and insistence on being
  100 American resulted in the passage of the 18th
  Amendment in December of 1917 -- Prohibition

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Attack on Civil Liberties

• Committee on Public Information
• Propaganda agency created by Wilson
• Used to shape and mobilize public opinion
• Wrote anti-German tracts
• Promoted self-censorship of press
• Encouraged spying on a persons neighbors

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• Espionage and Sedition Acts
• Loosely worded laws that gave the government wide
  authority to prosecute critics of the war (
  walked on our freedom of speech)
• There were numerous arrests, mainly newspaper
  editors

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• There was also vigilantism people were
  intimidated into silence
• During the war, the Wilson Administration
  concentrated on suppressing the IWW and the
  Socialist Party
• The Supreme Court upheld the Espionage and
  Sedition Acts

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Red Scare

• After the Bolshevik Revolution in late 1917,
  American hatred for Germany was transferred to
  the Communists of Russia
• Many applied the term Red to all radicals, war
  critics, union leaders, and reformers
• After the war, a wave of labor strikes stimulated
  the Red Scare

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• Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, created the
  F.B.I. to fight it
• Inspired more vigilantism
• Palmer Raids, January of 1920 showed blatant
  disregard for civil liberties in raids without
  search warrants
• Palmer soon lost credibility with his exaggerated
  tactics

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Experience of the War

• Exposed the differences of the American people
  and deep divisions among them
• The government intervened in the economy and
  influenced peoples lives as never before
• Left the U.S. the worlds leading economic power
  and largest trading nation

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• The military became more professional
• The international system that took hold was
  unstable
• It undercut progressivism and reform

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Election of 1920

• Warren G. Harding ran against James M. Cox
• Harding won with his Return to Normalcy