World War I

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World War I

• Chapter 31

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Stagnation in Europe

• The war in Europe had quickly ground into a
  stagnant mass slaughter on both sides.
• Trenches
• Stagnant lines.
• Casualties on both sides were extraordinarily
  high. Reasons.
• By early 1917 both sides were running out of
  steam.
• Germans couldnt go on much longer simply
  throwing new bodies into the war.
• Britain was highly dependent on foreign shipping
  for keeping its war effort going.
• Germany needed to end the war soon or lose.

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WWI Western Front Trench Line
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Unlimited Sub Warfare

• Peace without Victory address.
• Germanys response
• January 1917 Germans announce unlimited sub
  warfare
• Is a repeal of the Sussex Pledge.
• What is the German gamble?
• What about the state of the US military seemed to
  justify this gamble?
• Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations, but
  refuses to enter the war absent some overt act of
  aggression against US.
• What happens when he tries to arm merchant ships
  for self-defense?

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Wilson Asks for War

• March, 1917, Zimmerman Note is publicized.
• What is it?
• Germanys overt act.
• Revolution overthrows Czar in Russia and Russia
  withdraws from war. Consequences?
• Now all Allies democracies
• Allies are in even more desperate straits.
• April, 1917 Wilson asks congress for a
  declaration of war.

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Wilsonian Idealism Enthroned

• Isolationism ran deeply in the American psyche.
• Washingtons farewell address
• While most favored the Allies, the fever to go to
  war was relatively mild.
• Fifty US reps, including Jeanette Rankin vote
  against the war
• Wilson has to glorify the war aims

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Wilsons 14 Points

• The Fourteen Points was a speech delivered by
  United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint
  session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The
  address was intended to assure the country that
  the Great War was being fought for a moral cause
  and for postwar peace in Europe. Fourteen points
  include
• Abolish secret treaties
• No territorial gains return to pre-war borders
• freedom of the seas
• removal of economic barriers among nations
• Arms reduction
• adjustment of colonial claims in the interest of
  both natives and colonizers
• self-determination for minority groups such as
  Poles
• international organization to provide for
  collective security and dispute resolution.

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Creel Manipulates Minds

• Committee on Public Information. Purpose?
• George Creel.
• Creel is very successful.
• Super-Patriotism.
• Dehumanizing the enemy
• Problem Wilson and Creel convince the country
  that the war will create a new international
  utopia.

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Enforcing Loyalty

• Anti-German hysteria and discrimination.
• German-American schools and newspapers by the
  thousands were forced to permanently close. In
  cities and towns across the nation, libraries
  burned their German-language books in public
  burnings.
• City streets in Chicago with German names were
  changed
• Liberty Cabbage, and Dachshunds became "liberty
  pups".
• New Orleans, Berlin St. was renamed for General
  Pershing
• In June 1918 a bill was introduced in the with
  the aim to wipe out German names from the map of
  the United States.17

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Enforcing Loyalty

• Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918
• It prohibited any attempt to interfere with
  military operations, to support U.S. enemies
  during wartime, to promote insubordination in the
  military, or to interfere with military
  recruitment. In 1919, the U.S. Supreme Court
  unanimously ruled in Schenck v. United States
  that the act did not violate the freedom of
  speech of those convicted under its provisions.
• In United States v. Motion Picture Film (1917), a
  federal court upheld the government's seizure of
  a film called "The Spirit of '76
• Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party presidential
  candidate in 1904, 1908, and 1912 was arrested
  and sentenced to 10 years in prison for making a
  speech that "obstructed recruiting." He ran for
  president again in 1920 from prison.

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The Nations Factories Go To War

• Country unprepared when war started.
• Army ranked 15th in the world in size.
• Up-hill battle to mobilize the economy onto a war
  footing
• Government never had a very effective central
  control over war production. Laissez-fare
  economics wins out

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Labor

• Mostly, Feds were able to keep labor in line with
  a combination of strategies.
• Work or fight rule.
• National War Labor Board chaired by Former
  President Taft. Its purpose was to arbitrate
  disputes between workers and employers in order
  to ensure labor reliability and productivity.
• Samuel Gompers (AfofL) supports the war
• Membership in mainstream labor booms

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Strikers get Squashed

• Smaller and more radical organizations,
  especially the Wobblies (IWW), organized strikes
  and industrial sabotage. These groups were
  harassed unmercifully.
• 1919 largest strike in American history hits the
  Steel industry.
• Industry reacted mercilessly to strikers demands
  that union be recognized and that they be allowed
  collective bargaining.
• Strike collapses after black strike-breakers
  brought in.

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Black Migration

• War was beginning of a mass migration of blacks
  from the south to the industrial north.
• Reasons
• Chicago Race Riot of 1919 was a major racial
  conflict that began in Chicago, Illinois on July
  27, 1919 and ended on August 3.1 During the
  riot, dozens died and hundreds were injured.2
  It is considered the worst of the approximately
  25 riots during the Red Summer of 1919, so named
  because of the violence and fatalities across the
  nation.
• Migration continues after the war.
• Beginning of the large black populations in
  industrial northern cities.

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Women Go to Work

• Women also entered the workforce
• Helped convince Wilson to support the 19th
  Amendment, giving women the vote ratified in
  1920.
• Most women gave up their jobs after the war.
• Boost to womens activism

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Hoover Sets the Table

• Food production and availability was a key issue
• Herbert Hoover chosen to lead Food
  Administration.
• Volunteerism vs. enforced restrictions.
• Wheatless Wednesdays meatless Tuesdays
• Victory gardens.

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Hoover, Cont.

• Congress restricted use of crops for making
  alcohol
• Helped advance the cause of prohibition.
• Many brewers were of German extraction and were
  subject to war-prejudices.
• 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale of alcohol
  passed in 1919 and began prohibition.
• Hoovers voluntary approach worked. Farm
  production increased by a quarter and food
  exports to the allies tripled.

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Appeal to Conserve Food
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Bond Drives

• Hoovers methods were emulated in other agencies
• Great bond drives.
• Went overboard those who refused to purchase
  bonds were branded unpatriotic
• Intimidation and threats.

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Making Plowboys Into Doughboys

• At the beginning, most Americans assumed that US
  contribution to war would be naval
• Allies made it clear that they were running out
  of men to throw into the war.
• The war had been extraordinarily bloody.
• Allies need America to supply fresh troops.

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Draft

• Many volunteered for war, but not enough.
• conscription.
• Some in congress predicted that a draft would
  cause riots.
• Compared by some to Slave labor.
• Had not been a draft in US since the Civil War.
• Legislation starting draft was passed six weeks
  after war declared.
• Terms
• Workers in key industries exempted.

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Doughboys

• Within a few months, army grows to over 4 Mill.
• How to get these guys ready to fight?
• Training timetable had to be accelerated.
• Nearly a year after US declared war before US
  troops in any force could fight in Europe.

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Fighting In France

• The need to hurry US troops into action was
  magnified by events in Russia.
• With Russian out of war, Germany able the send
  battle-tested troops from the Eastern front to
  the Western front.
• Germany suddenly has a dangerous manpower
  advantage in that theater.
• America is having shipping problems and is taking
  a long time to get army together and trained.
• American soldiers began to trickle into France in
  1918, but were not a separate army.
• Were used to reinforce the Allied armies on a
  unit by unit basis. America is not a separate
  fighting force.

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America Helps Hammer The Hun

• Spring 1918 the Germans unleash a massive
  offensive that rolled the Allies back with
  frightening momentum.
• May 1918 Germans within 40 miles of Paris
• US troops see their first real action as an
  independent unit at Chateau-Thierry.
• Americans brought a fresh spirit of optimism
• July 1918 Allies begin to role back Germans.
• Black Jack Pershing.
• Muess-Argonne offensive, involving 1.2 Mill. US
  troops.
• 10 US casualties.
• Germany getting worn down. Reverses on the
  battle field, and British blockade is taking its
  toll.

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The Fourteen Points Disarm Germany

• October 1918 Germans turn to Wilson seeking a
  peace based on his fourteen points.
• Wilson says that no negotiations before the
  Kaiser is out of power.
• The Germans promptly send him packing.
• Armistace11/11/1918. America rejoices.

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US Contribution to Victory

• Americas primary contribution.
• The potential numbers US could throw into battle
  made it clear to the Germans that they could not
  win.
• US was forced to rely heavily on European
  equipment
• Battlefield casualties compared

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Losses in World War I
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Wilson Steps Down From Olympus

• At the end of the war Wilson was extraordinarily
  popular both at home and in Europe.
• Moral leader of the world with most powerful
  economy behind him.
• That popularity was not destined to last.
• Impossible to satisfy expectations
• Wilsons mistakes
• Biggest and most fatal mistake was mid-term
  election
• Republicans upset by his delegation to peace
  negotiations. Why?

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An Idealist Battles The Imperialists

• People of Europe welcome Wilson with thundering
  acclaim
• Leaders of the Allied countries were wary. Why?
• Peace conference was dominated by the Big Four,
  leaders of US, France, England and Italy. Wilson
  in the drivers seat.

The Big Four
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Wilsons Goal

• Europe was a mess.
• Wilsons ultimate goal was League of Nations
• First priority to keep the winners from dividing
  up the colonies of the beaten countries.
• Wilson had to compromise.
• What did the treaty say regarding Colonies?

"The Rabbit. 'My offensive equipment being
practically nil, it remains for me to fascinate
him with the power of my eye.'"
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Republicans Carve up the Treaty

• Henry Cabot Lodge and other isolationist
  Republicans raise objections to the LON treaty
  and insisted on modifications.
• Enough Senators said would not pass without the
  changes to defeat the treaty.

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Treaty That Bred A New War

• Wilson forced into a series of compromises
• Treaty presented to Germans in June, 1919. They
  cried foul.
• Why?
• Planted seeds of resentment.
• Wilson was forced to compromise many of his
  ideals
• Wilsons popularity is tarnished
• Treaty did, though, liberate a number of people.

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New Nations
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The Domestic Parade Of Prejudice

• Wilson returned to political storm.
• Isolationists hated the LON.
• Rabid anti-Germans
• Liberals.
• Recent immigrants from Axis countries
• Irish

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Wilsons Tour And Collapse

• Majority of Americans favored the treaty and
  senate Republicans had no real hope of defeating
  it.
• What is Republican strategy? Is it successful?
• Delay causing Americans to become increasingly
  apathetic and confused
• Wilson decided to go over the heads of congress
  to the people.
• Went on a barnstorming speaking tour.
• Collapses and suffers a stroke. One side
  paralyzed.
• With Wilson incapacitated, Republicans in
  congress have control of the debate.

Wilson on his whirl-wind tour tosell the nation
on a League of Nations
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Wilson Rejects The Lodge Reservations

• Senator Lodge able to tack on 14 reservations so
  that LON would not bind the US to act.
• Wilson, who hated Lodge, flatly rejected the
  reservations.
• What does Wilson order Democrats to do? Why?
  What is the result?

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Defeat Through Deadlock

• Public pressure forced another vote.
• 4/5 of senators favored the treaty in some form,
  but the necessary 2/3 majority could not agree on
  a version of it.
• In 1920 comes up again for a vote with the Lodge
  amendments tacked on again.
• What does Wilson do? What happens to the treaty?

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Election of 1920

• Wilsons plan make the election of 1920 a
  referendum on the League
• Theodore Roosevelt had been the frontrunner for
  the Republican nomination, but his health
  collapsed in 1918 and he died in January 1919,
  leaving no obvious heir to his Progressive
  legacy.

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Election of 1920

• Both major parties turned to dark horse
  candidates from the electoral vote-rich state of
  Ohio. The Democrats nominated newspaper publisher
  and Governor James M. Cox, in turn the
  Republicans chose Senator Warren G. Harding,
• Republicans win overwhelmingly. Big business,
  laize faire Republicans back in power.
• Women voting for the first time.
• Debs gets nearly a million votes despite being in
  prison.

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Consequences of US Rejection of LON

• LON left without the vital American international
  support
• America retreated behind isolationism and let
  Europe find its own way.
• France feels compelled to rearm, so Germany does,
  too. Without America, the LON was toothless.