Isolation v. Globalization in World War I

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Isolation v. Globalization in World War I
Section 2

• SSUSH15a-c, SSUSH16a

2

• SSUSH15 The student will analyze the origins and
  impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.
• a. Describe the movement from U.S. neutrality to
  engagement in World War I, with reference to
  unrestricted submarine warfare.
• b. Explain the domestic impact of World War I, as
  reflected by the origins of the Great Migration,
  the Espionage Act, and socialist Eugene Debs.
• c. Explain Wilsons Fourteen Points and the
  proposed League of Nations.
• SSUSH16 The student will identify key
  developments in the aftermath of WW I.
• a. Explain how rising communism and socialism in
  the United States led to the Red Scare and
  immigrant restriction.

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Origins of World War I

• Causes
• Balkan nationalism
• Militarism
• Entangling alliances
• Early war in Europe
• Assassination of Archduke (June 28, 1914)
• Mobilization
• Invasion of France, development of trench lines

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Origins of World War I

• U.S. Neutrality
• Wilsons Declaration of Neutrality
• August 19, 1914

The effect of the war upon the United States will
depend upon what American citizens say and do.
Every man who really loves America will act and
speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is
the spirit of impartiality and fairness and
friendliness to all concerned The United States
must be neutral in fact, as well as in name,
during these days that are to try men's souls. We
must be impartial in thought, as well as action
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World War I

• Submarine warfare
• February 5th, 1915 Germany announces submarine
  blockade of Britain
• Why?
• May 7th, 1915 Lusitania sunk
• 1,198 civilians, includes 128 Americans killed
• Takes 18 minutes to sink

German warning to American passengers
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The Lusitania

• British ocean liner
• Carried articles of war (up to 1/2 of cargo)
• 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells 18 cases of
  fuses 4,200 cases of Remington rifle cartridges
  (1,000 to a box) 50 cases of explosive powder

• U.S. Response
• Wilson issues demand to stop sub attacks
• William Jennings Bryan resigns in protest

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Aftermath of the Lusitania

• Sussex Pledge
• Germany promises not to attack any more ships
• National Defense Act
• June 1916
• Basically doubles size of army, spends 313
  million to improve the navy

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1916 Presidential Election

• Woodrow Wilson
• He kept us out of war - Slogan
• Supported U.S. neutrality officially, while
  building up the army navy and loaning money to
  the Allied powers
• Argued for a peace without victory
• Central Question of the time

Should the U.S. remain neutral?
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Isolationism v. Globalization

• Isolationism
• William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State,
  argued for neutrality
• No loans to powers that were fighting, U.S.
  should stay out of the war
• Globalization
• Theodore Roosevelt and others argued that the
  U.S. should intervene on the side of the Allies
• Germany attacked the U.S. by attacking British
  ships

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Road to War

• Submarine Attacks
• In desperation, unrestricted submarine warfare
  began again on February 1, 1917
• Germans hoped to defeat Allied before U.S. could
  impact the war
• Zimmerman Telegram (1917)
• German foreign secretary Zimmerman sent telegram
  to Mexico asking them join war in return for New
  Mexico, Texas and Arizona
• Intercepted by British and leaked to American
  newspapers

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Zimmerman Telegram
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Declaration of War

• April 2, 1917

"The world must be made safe for democracy. Its
peace must be planted upon the tested foundations
of political liberty It is a fearful thing to
lead this great peaceful people into war, into
the most terrible and disastrous of all wars,
civilization itself seeming to be in, the
balance.  But the right is more precious than
peace, and we shall fight for the things which we
have always carried nearest our hearts--for
democracy, for the right of those who submit to
authority to have a voice in their own
governments, for the rights and liberties of
small nations, for a universal dominion of right
by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring
peace and safety to all nations and make the
world itself at last free"
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U.S. in World War I

• Soldiers called doughboys
• Major battles
• 2nd Battle of the Marne
• St. Mihiel
• Meuse-Argonne Offensive

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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Domestic Impact How the war impacted Americans
  at home
• Ways the war impacted America
• Great Migration
• Espionage Act Privacy
• Eugene Debs Socialism
• Changing Workforce Demographics

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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Great Migration (1890s-1920s)
• Mass movement of African Americans to northern
  cities
• Why?
• Escape negative
  aspects of Southern
  life
• Economic
  opportunities

Black Population Trends Black Population Trends Black Population Trends Black Population Trends
  1890s 1960s 1960s
Southern 90.3 90.3 10
Rural 90 90 5
Northern 9.7 9.7 90
Urban 10 10 95
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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Great Migration (1890s-1920s)
• African-Americans created separate communities
  within northern cities
• Best example Harlem in New York City
• Helps lead to the Harlem Renaissance
• Race relations deteriorate
• Northern resistance
  (residential segregation)
• Marcus Garvey racial pride
  and self-help
• Rise of the 2nd Ku Klux Klan

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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Eugene Debs and socialism
• Eugene Debs (1855-1926)
• Helped establish Socialist Party of America
• Ran for President in 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920
• Served 5 years in prison for violating the
  Espionage Act

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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Espionage Act and Privacy
• Espionage Act of 1917
• Made it illegal to interfere with military
  recruitment or operations, or to openly support
  Americas enemies
• Most famous violator Eugene V. Debs
• Schenck v. United States (1919) Constitutional,
  not a violation of 1st Amendment freedom of
  speech
• Still in effect today
• Some want Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks,
  charged under the Espionage Act for his actions
  in releasing classified military documents from
  the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Debs was a pacifist. He, along with many other
socialists, argued that the United States should
not enter World War I
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Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

• Red Scare
• Nationwide fear of communists
• Why?
• Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (1917)
• Goal Worldwide Communism Comintern
• Anarchist bombings throughout U.S.
• Rise of labor unions/workers rights advocates

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Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

• Red Scare
• Palmer Raids (1919-21)
• Series of attacks on American communists
• Began after series of bombings targeting
  important Americans
• Led by A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General
• Many arrested / deported
• Most poor immigrants

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Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

• Red Scare
• Sacco and Vanzetti
• Two anarchist immigrants charged
  with murder in 1920
• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti
• Little evidence, but sentenced to death anyway
• Executed August 23, 1927

Judge Webster Taylor, speaking about Vanzetti
although he may not actually have committed the
crime attributed to him, is nevertheless morally
culpable guilty, because he is an enemy of our
existing institutionsThe defendants ideals are
cognate associated with crime. as quoted in
The Year the World Went Mad, by Allen Churchill
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Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

• Immigration Restriction
• Immigration problem
• Solution? Quotas
• First limits
• 350,000 persons/yr., no more than 3 of current
  population
• National Origins Act of 1924
• Quota reduced to 2 and 150,000 total
• Banned Asian immigration

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Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Changing workforce demographics
• Great Migration more African-American
  industrial workers
• World War I more women employed

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Wilsons Fourteen Points

• January 8, 1918
• Speech to Congress made by President Woodrow
  Wilson
• Set out U.S. war goals
• Idealistic
• War was moral and continual peace was the main
  goal

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League of Nations

• Extra-national organization
  founded after World War I
• Purpose
• Eliminate future wars by settling disputes
  between nations by negotiation and arbitration
• U.S. fails to join
• Does not ratify Treaty of Versailles

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Return to Isolationism

• U.S. does not join League of Nations
• Returns to isolationism