Download HIS 111 Chapter 24

HIS 112
Chapter 24
World War I
Foreign Policy of Theodore
Roosevelt
Took over the building of the Panama
Canal from French; canal opened in
1914
 Believed U.S. :

Should strengthen its world role
 Protect its interests in Latin America
 Preserve the balance of power in Asia

Foreign Policy of William Howard
Taft
Became president in 1909
 Focused on advancing American
business interests abroad
 Wanted “open door” policy where trade
was concerned – no restrictions; also
called “dollar diplomacy”
 Tried and failed to advance our
commercial interests in China

Woodrow Wilson
Became president in 1913
 Did not like the expansionist policies of
either Teddy Roosevelt or Wm. Howard
Taft
 Once said it would be pure irony if his
administration had to deal chiefly with
foreign affairs
 Was devoted to domestic affairs with no
deliberate foreign policy

Wilson, the World, and Mexico
Moralist
 Pacifist
 Believed wars should be fought only in
self-defense
 His Secretary of State, Wm. Jennings
Bryan negotiated treaties with 30
countries stating that in the event of
dispute, they would talk out the problem
for a year before declaring war


Believed in the superiority of the white
race but was not aggressive about it; he
was patronizing but firm
Did not like dealing with non-white nations
like Japan and mixed race nations of Latin
America
 Did not object to a California law that
forbade Japanese from owning land
 Sent troops into Haiti and Dominican
Republic


Mexico
Interfered in Mexican affairs because of
American investments
 Americans owned $2 billion in Mexican
property: most of the railroads, 60% of oil
wells, & most of the mines at turn of century

Decade of revolution 1910-1920
The Great War, The War to End All
Wars, World War I
28 June 1914 – assassination of AustriaHungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife, Sophia, in Sarajevo, Bosnia by Gavrilo
Princip of Black Hand
 23 July 1914 – ultimatum sent from AustriaHungary to Serbia (unreasonable demands
and a time-limit for retribution)
 28 July 1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war
on Serbia (only with German backing)

30 July 1914 – Russia declared war on
both Austria-Hungary and Germany
 By 4 August 1914

Germany declared war on Russia & France
(walked through neutral Belgium)
 France declared war on Germany
 Britain declared war on Germany after it
violated Belgian neutrality

4 Main Causes of World War I
Militarism: build-up of new weapons
coming out of Industrial Revolution
 Nationalism: those of the same ethnic
background should have their own
nation-state
 Imperialism: the taking over territory that
is already occupied and organized
 Alliances: joining in a loose friendship
because of a common enemy

The war spread to 33 nations worldwide
 1914, Woodrow Wilson declared
America neutral
 U.S. had a history of not getting involved
in entangling alliances, so we wouldn’t
be dragged into some else’s war
 Difficult for Americans to remain neutral
in their hearts


The German Schlieffen Plan did not work
Germans had to split their forces
 They had to split their supplies
 No quick take-over of France
 Belgians resisted heroically
 Russians advanced more quickly than
expected into German territory


New weapons used but not efficiently
Airplane: initially used to count enemy
troops until they were fired upon; then guns
were mounted on planes
 Poisonous mustard gas: devastating; a shift
in the wind could send fumes back on those
who released gas
 Machine gun: very effectively mowed down
troops advancing in old infantry style


Ex.: Battle of the Somme in July of
1916, 60,000 British troops were
slaughtered or wounded in the first half
hour

At the end of the battle:
British losses – 400,000
 French losses – 200,000
 German losses – 500,000


Tanks:
Developed by the British
 Armored vehicles that drove right through
encampments
 Not initially used efficiently
 Sent infantry in first, then tanks
 Realized they needed to send in tanks with
infantry using them for cover

War at Sea
Directly touched American interests
 Destroyed commerce
 British set up a blockade of Germany
 During war, all enemy merchant ships
could be seized, attacked, and sunk
 Old rules of war:

Warn passengers of attack
 Then rescue them

New rules of war, especially with the use
of the submarine: use the element of
surprise and don’t rescue those on the
enemy ship
 Ships of neutral nations retained the right
to trade with any nation as long as they
weren’t carrying war materiel
 Americans could not trade with Germans

Waters around Germany were mined
 American ships were stopped and
searched by British
 Food was considered war materiel
 Germans hurt the British economy by
using their submarine called the U-boat
or unterseeboot


Modern Submarine:
Invented by 2 Americans, John Holland and
Simon Lake
 U.S. Navy rejected their plans
 They took them then to Europe and sold
them to the highest bidder, Germany
 Each sub was armed with 19 torpedoes
 Made waters around Britain very dangerous
 Struck without warning


Lusitania
Sunk off the coast of Ireland on 7 May 1915
 Was a n English luxury liner
 1,198 passengers of the 1,959 on board
were killed including 128 Americans
 Germans had taken out an Ad in a New
York paper telling people not to get on that
ship

The Lusitania did carry 4200 cases of
small arms bought in the U.S.
 When ship was hit, there was the initial
explosion followed by a secondary
explosion
 This was proof for the Germans that they
were right to sink the ship; a secondary
explosion meant to them that there were
explosives on board

Since 1915, it was discovered that the
torpedo hit right next to room containing
coal, and coal dust is highly explosive
 That could account for th secondary
explosion
 Americans became anti-German after
the sinking of the Lusitania
 Wilson sent several messages to
Germany


Germany agreed to stop attacking
passenger vessels because they did not
want the U.S. to enter the war on the
side of the British
Western Front
Became a stalemate
 Used trench warfare
 Trenches were dug in a zig-zag pattern
 Men lived in trenches with lice, rats, and
dead bodies

America Goes to War
Wilson won the election of 1916 with the
slogan, “He kept us out of war.”
 Wilson, however had been preparing for
it and knew the U.S. would have to enter
 November, 1915

Wilson enlarged the U.S. army to 400,000
men
 He also expanded the navy

Wilson did try to mediate an end to the
war soon after he was re-elected; it didn’t
work
 American factories had switched to
making materiel for war
 Women took men’s places in the
factories when they joined the military
