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NAME: __________________________________________________________________________________________PERIOD:____________ POWER:___________________________________________ GENERAL:____________________________________________________ WAR!! Throughout the next two weeks we will be discussing WWI. Each class will be divided into the CENTRAL POWERS and ALLIED POWERS. You and your group will work to uncover information about your specific POWER and discuss their involvement within WWI. We know within the actual war, the ALLIED POWERS won, however for this activity the quest for victory is up in the air. Both sides are to work along with the other classes in their POWER, and as in war different POWERS can win small battles, but to win the war, one POWER must design and draft up the best argument for the war and present their findings. Each Class period will be divided into two separate POWERS, yet ALL the POWERS of the same name are acting as one. For instance, ALL the ALLIES from periods (2,3,4,8) will work together VS. ur ALL the CENTRAL from periods (2,3,4,8), and for each class period their will be a specific leaders lined out as officers. You will be given 3 full class days with your groups to gather your information and lay it all out accordingly, the three days will be organized in finding your information as followed: Day 1-­‐ Causes of the War for your specific POWERS and countries involved, include (M.A.I.N.A-­‐
Militarisms, Alliances, Imperialism, nationalism, assassination). Day 2-­‐ During War, include KEY battles, Technology brought into war that was used, Trench warfare, Eastern and western fronts, lives of the people back home….exc…. Day 3-­‐ Results of the war, and how each country and specific powers received the better end of the need and what were the negotiations. By the end of this project each group should have the following: DAY 1-­‐ Group work: • Poster of ALL of the causes that brought them into war, including specific countries and key reasons, more vocabulary the better. • Colored in MAP referencing the Powers they are working with • List of what led up to the outbreak of war Individual Work • Fill out packet with information and write a 5 sentence paragraph talking about the different causes that led to war for your specific power. DAY 2-­‐ • Detailed description of the trench life and picture • List and information on the advances of technology in the war, and who came up with what and used what as specific as possible. • Key battles and Events during war, if you can add in ways they could have worked specific battles differently to win include for added points. What it was like on the home front for the countries (if you have the US please include propaganda, changing of workers, and the great migration) • The economy for the Powers at home • Life on the fronts and a colored map of where the fronts borders lie. Individual Work • Make a collage (mix of words and pictures) describing your POWERS life during war. DAY 3-­‐ Group Work • Write out on the poster paper the Treaty of Versailles, which was the peace treaty to end the war. • On that poster in a different color underline in BLUE the things that benefited your POWER • On that poster in a different color circle in RED the things that hurt your power or were not fair. • On that poster in a different color briefly describe in GREEN why those things either helped or hurt your POWER. • On a different poster paper title the page “The War’s Impact” and bullet point at least 3 different issues that came up in one of the counties of your POWER after the war and their lasting impact on their own country and one on the opposite side. EX: Red Scare or Racial Unrest Individual Work • Describe either what aided your POWER to win the war OR what could have changed for them to win the war, knowing what we know now. BELOW IS THE PACKET FOR THE PROJECT, WHICH INCLUDES BOTH INDIVIDUAL WORK AND GROUP WORK THAT WILL DETERMIN YOUR GRADE POWER:______________________________________________________________________ Countries Involved in that power: __________________________________________ _________________________________________ __________________________________________ _________________________________________ GENERAL: _____________________________________________________________________ SCRIBE:________________________________________________________________________ PRESENTER #1:______________________________________________________________ PRESENTER #2:______________________________________________________________ PRESENTER #3:______________________________________________________________ ORGANIZER:__________________________________________________________________ **ALL OTHER MEMBERS WILL WORK AS A GROUP IN RESEARCHING INFORMATION FOR THE PROJECT, AS THE OFFICERS WORK ON THEIR SPECIFIC JOB. •
DAY 1: CAUSES OF THE WAR: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ REASONS FOR AN OUTBREAK (PRIOR CONFLICT): ______________________________________________________________ Individual work: write 1 paragraph about the “Causes” for _______________________ INDIVIDUAL WORK-­‐ Explain and describe the causes of entering into the war for your specific POWER and how major countries got involved as well, and why they chose the POWER they were with. DAY 2: GROUP WORK: Life in the Trenches: Advances in technology: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Key Battles: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Life on the Home front: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Individual Work • Make a collage (mix of words and pictures) describing your POWERS life during war. DAY 3-­‐ Group Work Treaty of Versailles outline of circumstances: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What was the wars impact on the POWER and its countries? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Individual Work • Describe either what aided your POWER to win the war OR what could have changed for them to win the war, knowing what we know now. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CAUSESAlliances
An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help if it is needed. When an
alliance is signed, those countries become known as Allies. A number of alliances had been signed by countries
between the years 1879 and 1914. These were important because they meant that some countries had no option
but to declare war if one of their allies. declared war first. (the table below reads clockwise from the top left picture)
1879
The Dual Alliance
1881
Austro-Serbian Alliance
1882
The Triple Alliance
Germany and Austria-Hungary made an
alliance to protect themselves from
Russia
Austria-Hungary made an alliance with
Serbia to stop Russia gaining control of
Serbia
Germany and Austria- Hungary made
an alliance with Italy to stop Italy from
taking sides with Russia
1894
Franco-Russian Alliance
1914
Triple Entente (no separate peace)
Russia formed an alliance with France
to protect herself against Germany and
Austria-Hungary
Britain, Russia and France agreed not to
sign for peace separately.
1907
Triple Entente
This was made between Russia, France
and Britain to counter the increasing
threat from Germany.
Imperialism
1907
Anglo-Russian Entente
1904
Entente Cordiale
This was an agreement between Britain and
Russia
This was an agreement, but not a forma
alliance, between France and Britain.
Imperialism is when a country takes over new lands or countries and makes them subject to their rule. By 1900 the
British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. With the rise of
industrialism countries needed new markets. The amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France increased the
rivalry with Germany who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of
Africa. Note the contrast in the map below.
Militarism
Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing
European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany
had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for
mastery of the seas. The British had introduced the 'Dreadnought', an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans
soon followed suit introducing their own battleships. The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that
involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map below shows how the
plan was to work
Nationalism
Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one's country. The Congress of Vienna,
held after Napoleon's exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in Europe. Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia
and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states.
Strong nationalist elements led to the re-unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The settlement at the
end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain
their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of
whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.
MAP of the POWERS WWI FACTS-­‐ World War I Begins (1914)
Though tensions had been brewing in Europe--and especially in the troubled Balkan region--for years
before conflict actually broke out, the spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia,
where Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, was shot to death along with his wife by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28,
1914. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie set off a rapid chain of events: AustriaHungary, like many in countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and
hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Slavic nationalism once and for
all. As Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received
assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the
event of a Russian intervention, which would likely involve Russia's ally, France, and possibly Great
Britain as well. On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a socalled carte blanche or "blank check" assurance of Germany's backing in the case of war. The Dual
Monarchy then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to
accept. Convinced that Vienna was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian
army to mobilize, and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war
on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia,
Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and
World War I had begun.
World War I's Western Front (1914-17)
According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind,
German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts,
invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting mighty Russia in the east. On
August 4, 1914, German troops under Erich Ludendorff crossed the border into Belgium, in violation
of that country's neutrality. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily
fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal--enormous siege cannons--to
capture the city by August 15. Leaving death and destruction in their wake, including the shooting of
civilians and the deliberate execution of Belgian priest, whom they accused of inciting civilian
resistance, the Germans advanced through Belgium towards France. In the First Battle of the
Marne, fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading Germany
army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. Under
the French commander Joseph Joffre, the Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a
successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to north of the Aisne River. The defeat meant the
end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches, and began the
bloody war of attrition that would characterize the next three years on World War I’s Western Front.
Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December
1916) and the Somme (July-November 1916); German and French troops suffered close to a million
casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.
World War I's Eastern Front and Revolution in Russia (1914-17)
On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded East Prussia and German Poland, but
were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.
Despite that victory, the Red Army assault had forced Germany to move two corps from the Western
Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne. Combined with the
fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia's huge war machine to mobilize relatively
quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had
hoped to win with the Schlieffen Plan. Over the next two years, the Russian army mounted several
offensives on the Eastern Front but were unable to break through German lines. Defeat on the
battlefield fed the growing discontent among the bulk of Russia's population, especially the poverty-
stricken workers and peasants, and its hostility towards the imperial regime. This discontent
culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
One of Lenin's first actions as leader was to call a halt to Russian participation in World War I. Russia
reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face
the other Allies on the Western Front. allipoli Campaign (1915-16) and Battles of the Isonzo (1915-17)
With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a
victory against the Ottoman Empire, which had entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers
in late 1914. After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the
Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli
Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces
were forced to stage a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula, after suffering 250,000 casualties.
British-led forces also combated the Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia, while in northern Italy
Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the
border between the two nations. The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915,
soon after Italy's entrance into the war on the Allied side; in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, or the
Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive
victory. After Caporetto, Italy's allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French--and
later American--troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the initiative on the
Italian Front.
World War I at Sea (1914-17)
After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, the German navy chose not to confront Britain's
mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its strategy at
sea on its lethal U-boat submarines. The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of
Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no
further attempts to break the Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war. It was Germany's
policy of unchecked submarine aggression against shipping interests headed to Great Britain that
helped bring the United States into World War I in 1917. Widespread protest over the sinking by Uboat of the British ocean liner Lusitania in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion
steadfastly against Germany, and in February 1917 Congress passed a $250 million arms
appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. Germany sunk four more U.S.
merchant ships the following month and on April 2 President Woodrow Wilson appeared before
Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.
Toward an Armistice (1917-18)
With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied
troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United
States were able to arrive. On July 15, 1918, German troops under Erich von Ludendorff launched
what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000
American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the
Marne. Thanks in part to the strategic leadership of the French commander-in-chief, Philippe Petain,
the Allies put back the German offensive, and launched their own counteroffensive just three days
later. After suffering massive casualties, Ludendorff was forced to call off a planned German offensive
further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which he had
envisioned as Germany's best hope of victory. The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of
war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months
that followed. By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts. Despite the
Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt had combined to
destroy the Ottoman economy and devastate its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in
late October 1918. Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements
among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on
the battlefield, discontent on the home front and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced
to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.
World War I's Legacy
World War I took the life of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian
casualties caused indirectly by the war numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected
were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between
the ages of 15 and 49 into battle. The war also marked the fall of four imperial dynasties--Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey. At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would
state their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such
devastating scale. The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve this objective.
Saddled with war guilt and heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations,
Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a "peace without
victory" as put forward by Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918. As the
years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in
Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II.
The Trench System
After the Battle of the Marne in September, 1914, the Germans were forced to retreat to the
River Aisne. The German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops
must at all costs hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied.
Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the
advancing French and British troops. The Allies soon realised that they could not break
through this line and they also began to dig trenches.
After a few months these trenches had spread from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier. As
the Germans were the first to decide where to stand fast and dig, they had been able to
choose the best places to build their trenches. The possession of the higher ground not only
gave the Germans a tactical advantage, but it forced the British and French to live in the worst
conditions. Most of this area was rarely a few feet above sea level. As soon as soldiers began
to dig down they would invariably find water two or three
get below the surface. Water-logged trenches were a constant problem for olders on the
Western Front.
Frontline trenches were usually about seven feet deep and six feet wide. The front of the
trench was known as the parapet. The top two or three feet of the parapet and the parados
(the rear side of the trench) would consist of a thick line of sandbags to absorb any bullets or
shell fragments.
In a trench of this depth it was impossible to see over the top, so a two or three-foot ledge
known as a fire-step, was added. Trenches were not dug in straight lines. Otherwise, if the
enemy had a successive offensive, and got into your trenches, they could shoot straight along
the line. Each trench was dug with alternate fire-bays and traverses.
Duck-boards were also placed at the bottom of the trenches to protect soldiers from problems
such as trench foot. Soldiers also made dugouts and funk holes in the side of the trenches to
give them some protection from the weather and enemy fire.
The front-line trenches were also protected by barbed-wire entanglements and machine-gun
posts. Short trenches called saps were dug from the front-trench into No-Man's Land. The
sap-head, usually about 30 yards forward of the front-line, were then used as listening posts.
Behind the front-line trenches were support and reserve trenches. The three rows of trenches
covered between 200 and 500 yards of ground. Communication trenches, were dug at an
angle to the frontline trench and was used to transport men, equipment and food supplies.
Timeline of World War One
1914
June 28th
Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo
July 5th
Kaiser William II promised German support for
Austria against Serbia
July 28th
Austria declared war on Serbia
August 1st
Germany declared war on Russia
August 3rd
Germany declared war on France and invaded
Belgium. Germany had to implement the Schlieffen
Plan.
August 4th
Britain declared war on Germany
August 23rd
The BEF started its retreat from Mons. Germany
invaded France.
August 26th
Russian army defeated at Tannenburg and
Masurian Lakes.
September 6th
Battle of the Marne started
October 18th
First Battle of Ypres
October 29th
Turkey entered the war on Germany’s side. Trench
warfare started to dominate the Western Front.
January 19th
The first Zeppelin raid on Britain took place
February 19th
Britain bombarded Turkish forts in the Dardanelles
April 25th
Allied troops landed in Gallipoli
May 7th
The “Lusitania” was sunk by a German U-boat
May 23rd
Italy declared war on Germany and Austria
August 5th
The Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians
September 25th
December 19th
Start of the Battle of Loos
The Allies started the evacuation of Gallipoli
January 27th
Conscription introduced in Britain
February 21st
Start of the Battle of Verdun
April 29th
British forces surrendered to Turkish forces at Kut
in Mesopotamia
May 31st
Battle of Jutland
June 4th
July 1st
Start of the Brusilov Offensive
Start of the Battle of the Somme
August 10th
September 15th
End of the Brusilov Offensive
First use en masse of tanks at the Somme
December 7th
Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister
February 1st
Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare
campaign started
1915
1916
1917
April 6th
USA declared war on Germany
April 16th
France launched an unsuccessful offensive on the
Western Front
July 31st
Start of the Third Battle at Ypres
October 24th
Battle of Caporetto – the Italian Army was heavily
defeated
November 6th
Britain launched a major offensive on the Western
Front
November 20th
British tanks won a victory at Cambrai
December 5th
Armistice between Germany and Russia signed
December 9th
Britain captured Jerusalem from the Turks
March 3rd
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between
Russia and Germany.
March 21st
Germany broke through on the Somme
March 29th
Marshall Foch was appointed Allied Commander
on the Western Front
April 9th
Germany started an offensive in Flanders
July 15th
Second Battle of the Marne started. The start of the
collapse of the German army
August 8th
The advance of the Allies was successful
September 19th
Turkish forces collapsed at Megiddo
October 4th
Germany asked the Allies for an armistice
October 29th
Germany’s navy mutinied
October 30th
Turkey made peace
November 3rd
Austria made peace
November 9th
Kaiser William II abdicated
November 11th
Germany signed an armistice with the Allies – the
1918
official date of the end of World War One.
Post-war – 1919
January 4th
Peace conference met at Paris
June 21st
The surrendered German naval fleet at Scapa Flow
was scuttled.
June 28th
The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the
Germans.
EFFECTS OF WWI-­‐ "Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."
- Abraham Lincoln
The century following Lincoln’s assassination proved the truth of his words. The
effects of World War I were a harsh reality check for Europe and other major
nations of the world.
Decline of the Empires
The political changes effected by World War I were reflected best in the decline of
the empires. While the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary completely
collapsed, the Great War also sounded the death knell for monarchies in
Germany and Russia, which became republics. World War I was also the cause
for a rise in nationalistic tendencies leading to the demand for independence in
many British colonies of outside Europe.
Changing Economies and Societies
The economic strain caused by World War I resounded through Europe and the
rest of the world. Inflation skyrocketed in many countries. The burden of
reparations drastically affected the German economy. The value of the deutsche
mark dipped to an all-time low. European nations owed their allies over $10
billion in the postwar years. Much changed on the social front too. With the men
having joined the war, the women of most countries took over businesses and
establishments. Mechanization and mass production paved the way for labor
laws. The disillusionment caused by war led to a revolution in many societies.
People chose republics over monarchies and the desire for better standards of
living were openly vented.
Need for the League of Nations
“A general association of nations must be formed under specific
covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of
political independence and territorial integrity to great and small
states alike.” - President Woodrow Wilson World War I exposed the need
for an association of nations – a body to promote international peace and
security. The necessity of an organization to prevent a global conflict of the
nature of World War I was initially pointed out by President Woodrow Wilson in
his Congressional Speech in 1918. The emergence of the League of Nations was
a natural corollary to the catastrophic consequences of the Great War. On June
25, 1919, the plan to create the League of Nations was sanctioned at the Paris
Peace Conference. The initial council meeting of the League of Nations was held
in Paris on January 16, 1920. The League of Nations headquarters was moved to
Geneva in November 1920. The League's inaugural General Assembly was
attended by forty-one nations on November 15, 1920. Despite being the
brainchild of President Woodrow Wilson, the United States did not join the
League of Nations, as it was not ratified by the U.S. Congress.
Technological Growth
The one distinct positive outcome of World War I was the boost received by
research and technology. Rail and automobile transport, radio and wireless
communications, research and development of weapons and arms, including
nuclear research, boomed. The years following World War I saw unprecedented
armament and chemical research. The atomic bombs used in World War II were
developed in the period following the Great War. Aviation technology, quite
literally, took off. Machines of mass production, developed during the war,
revolutionized industries in the postwar years.
Did World War I cause World War II?
"This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years." - Ferdinand Foch,
Maréchal de France As Foch rightly remarked, the Treaty of Versailles was
the cause of much dissent in Europe. While Germany had based the armistice on
President Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the Treaty of Versailles had none of the
idealism he had envisioned. The harsh terms of the treaty placed all responsibility
of the Great War on Germany. The financial reparations paid by the Central
Powers caused much resentment. Although, World War I was by no means the
only reason for the outbreak of World War II, the settlement of territories,
responsibility, and finances only led to more strife which eventually translated
into World War II.
MUST READ!!!
The Impact of World War I on the United States
Generalization
Wars change things, and big wars change things a lot. World War I changed
America, or at least hastened the pace of change. Some of these changes might
have been good, but there was a sinister side to some of what was going on as well.
[In class I spend quite a bit of time discussing the origins of WW I in Europe. You
do not need to talk about this on the exam. Concentrate instead on the way
American involvement in WWI directly or indirectly changed things like American
foreign policy, American politics, social relationships, etc.]
Over there after all....
Now, what did all this have to do with the United States? Nothing at all, some
would have heoped. George Washington had warned the US against becoming
entangled in European wars, and for 150 years the US had followed Washington’s
advice. Wilson and his Secretary of State Bryan were committed to this “nonentanglement” tradition, trying to keep us from getting involved.
But it wasn’t easy. As the war raged in Europe, tremendous trade opportunities
were available to American businesses, and American businessmen took advantage
of this.
Germany had resorted to U-boat warfare to try to block supplies from getting to
Britain. They warned us that anyone sailing on a British ship was subject to attack,
but Americans continued to travel on British ships anyway.
In 1915, the Germans sunk the Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128
Americans. This didn’t play well with the American public. On top of that, the
British-controlled transatlantic cable was transmitting information designed to make
us sympathize with their side and be outraged by German atrocities.
Still, Wilson held the line, and, when he ran for reelection in 1916, he made that a
key point in his campaign. His Republican opponent Charles Evans Hughes (called
Charles Evasive Hughes by his detractors) didn’t make clear where he stood on US
entry into the war. The Wilson campaign, however, made much of Wilson’s
success in avoiding American involvement. “He kept us out of war” was a featured
slogan. One campaign ad: “You are working, not fighting; alive and happy, not
cannon fodder; Wilson and peace with honor, or Hughes with Roosevelt and war?”
Well, Wilson won reelection, but in a close vote: 277 to 254 in the electoral
college. The American people had chosen Wilson, at least partly on the implied
promise we were *not* going to enter the war.
But there were soon problems with this policy. The papers played up the
Zimmerman Note, an intercepted German message to Mexico that said that, in the
event of American entry into the war, Mexico should attack the United States. At
the end of the war, the Germans would repay them by getting back for them Texas,
New Mexico, and Arizona.
On top of that, the Germans were sinking American ships taking supplies to
Britain. Anti-German sentiment increased, and Wilson decided we had to go to
war.
The American war effort as "progressive" reform
But if he was going to break his implied campaign promise, Wilson better give the
American people good reasons for doing so. He did.
1. This would be a “war to end all wars.”
2. This would be a war to “make the world safe for democracy.”
Good goals—but more than goals. Wilson was determined that the war would be a
“progressive” war, one that did in fact lead to a more peaceful world and that did in
fact lead to free and democratic societies.
Wilson suggested a way of settling the war that might have done just that, his
“Fourteen Points,” Wilson’s plan for resolving European (and world-wide)
problems after the fighting was done.
Wilson’s points included:
1. Open covenants (no secret diplomacy)
2. Freedom of the seas
3. The removal of economic barriers
4. The reduction of national armaments “to the lowest point consistent with safety”
5. The impartial adjustment of colonial claims
6. The evacuation of Russia by foreign armies
7. Belgian independence
8. The Alsace-Lorraine area restored to France
9. Adjustment of the Italian frontier
10. Autonomy for the peoples of Austria-Hungary
11. The restoration of Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro
12. Autonomy for Turkey
13. An independent Poland
14. The creation of a League of Nations
Now these ideas reflect a pretty solid understanding of the causes of WWI and a
pretty sound recipe for an amicable peace. American entry into the war *did* turn
the tables in Europe leading to the defeat of Germany, and our contributions
*should* have meant that we would have an important voice in how the war was
actually settled, *especially* since the Germans surrendered under the belief they
would be treated in accord with the generous terms promised by Wilson.
But what actually happened is that, after the war was over, the British, and even
more the French, insisted on much harsher terms for Germany—and Wilson gave
in. Why? He sacrificed most of his goals to achieve the one goal he thought most
important, the creation of the League of Nations. The Versailles Treaty that actually
ended the war (June 28, 1919) stripped Germany of the Saar Basin and the Danzig
region, reduced the German army to 100,000 men, forbid German fortifications on
their border with France—and imposed on German an indemnity of more than $30
billion to pay for the war. But Wilson had got his League of Nations—sort of. And
World War I was a victory overall for the good guys—sort of.
Impact of WWI on America and on the progressive movement
Unfortunately, American involvement in WWI had some worrisome indirect effects
on the country. Wilson had warned that if Americans went to war they would
“forget the very meaning of the word tolerance,” and intolerance did increase as a
result of our involvement in WWI.
During the war, it seemed necessary to stir up anti-German sentiment to induce men
to volunteer or to accept the draft, and to induce Americans in general to make the
sacrifices necessary for the war effort. The job of stirring up anti-German
sentiment fell to George Creel and his Committee of Public Information.
Creel’s group printed all sorts of anti-German posters. One featured an ape-like
German carrying of a helpless young lady. The caption? Destroy this made
brute. Another showed a German dragging off a girl by the hair. The caption?
Remember Belgium.
Very, very effective. Men hate rapists—and the thought of innocent young girls
being raped by German soldiers made American men angry enough to want to fight.
Hollywood jumped on the anti-German bandwagon, producing movies like, “The
Kaiser,” “To Hell with the Kaiser,” and “The Beast of Berlin.”
It worked! Americans hated Germans—hated them enough to want to kill
them. And that (of course) is what war is all about. But there was a problem.
What about the Germans among us? If Germans are so awful, shouldn’t we hate
them too? Americans burned German books, forced and end to German-language
church services, banned the playing of German music. “German” was a dirty
word. German measles were renamed…and no one was allowed to study German
in college. And, if you were German yourself, you better prove your loyalty to the
US by buying liberty bonds—bonds whose revenues could be used to destroy those
nasty countrymen of yours.
Not just the Germans became the subject of hate campaigns. Anti-black sentiment
had been increasing even before the war. D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” fed
into a resurgence of the Klu Klux Klan. By 1925, there were 5 million Klan
members! KKK= “Kill the Kikes the Koons and the Katholics” said some. AntiJewish, Anti-Catholic, Anti-black sentiment all increased with Klan growth.
Likewise, the country became intolerant of foreigners. Anti-immigration laws
slowed immigration to a trickle of what it had been.
Feeding both anti-black and anti-immigrant sentiment was the growth of the
eugenics movement. Darwinian ideas on “natural” selection led to an increased
desire to improve the American genetic heritage through artificial means. Forced
sterilization and anti miscegenation laws (precursors of the policies the Nazis would
adopt in Germany) were drawn up in many states—laws that, in some cases, stayed
on the books until the 1960’s.
[The Wikipedia article on eugenics is really a must-read for anyone who wants to
understand the dark side of the progressive movement. Teddy Roosevelt, Luther
Burbank, Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Sanger, and many other prominent
Americans bought into a movement that for a time pushed us well down the road
that Nazi Germany would take to its logical and horrible conclusion.]
World War I also increased other types of intolerance. Socialist leader Eugene
Debs was thrown into prison for conspiracy: he had spoken against the
constitutionality of the draft. Duly elected New York lawmakers were excluded
from holding office by their colleagues on the charge that they were socialists.
World War I led also to a changed status for women. The 19th Amendment
(adopted in 1920) guaranteed women the right to vote. Wilson had championed it
as “a necessary war measure.” But it seems to me that the real reason men dropped
their opposition to the 19th Amendment was the 18th Amendment.
Men had opposed women’s suffrage in part because they were afraid women would
make prohibition their number one priority. In 1920, men were no longer afraid
giving the women the right to vote would lead to prohibition. Why? Because, by
then, we already had prohibition!
The 18th Amendment authorized Congress to ban the sale and transport of
intoxicating beverages. Why adopted? Well, American servicemen had not been
allowed to drink in WWI. They had been more effective than any other soldiers. It
looked, then, that WWI was proof positive that getting rid of booze was a good
idea. The national experiment with Prohibition, then, was another consequence of
WWI.
But despite the fact that World War I had led to some changes progressive wanted,
WWI really ended up killing the progressive movement. In 1920, Wilson decided
that the Democrats should make the election a “solemn referendum” on the League
of Nations. Up to this point, Republicans in the Senate had blocked US
entry. Wilson said: ok, let’s show them at the polls. Although Wilson himself was
not on the ballot anywhere, he did succeed in making the American people think
that the big issue in both the presidential and congressional contests was American
commitment to the League of Nations. Result? The American people said no to the
league—electing a conservative Republican, Warren G. Harding rather than the
progressive Democratic nominee, Cox. It wasn’t even close—Harding won by the
largest margin of any candidate in American history. Progressivism was dead—at
least for the moment.