Download File

Name: _________________________________
Date: ______________
Directions: Read the excerpts and answer the corresponding questions after reading each part.
Document C: United States History Textbook (Excerpt)
The United States Enters World War I
Millions of Americans at this time were immigrants or children of immigrants. Many came from countries belonging to
the allied or central powers. They naturally sympathized with their former homelands. This did not change the fact that
most Americans viewed as a European conflict. They did not want American soldiers sent to the bloody battlefields of
Europe. Shortly after World War I began, President Woodrow Wilson announced that the United States would remain
neutral. Most Americans agreed that America should stay out of the war.
American Neutrality Threatened
Although the United States had a policy of neutrality, and both sides tried to prevent the United States from trading with
the enemy, its merchants continued to trade with European nations. American ships carried supplies and war materials
to the allies. U.S. banks invested $2 billion in European war bonds, nearly all of it in allied countries.
The Germans used U-boat attacks to try to stop supplies from the reaching the allies. Sometimes they attacked ships
without warning. In May 1915, a German U-boat sank the Lusitania, a British passenger liner. Nearly 1,200 people
including 128 Americans were killed. The incident fueled anti-German feeling in the United States. Throughout the
coming war, German Americans faced nativist attacks, including anti-German speeches, discrimination, and physical
attacks. Other Americans of mixed heritage also had their loyalty questioned.
Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned over President Woodrow Wilson’s handling of the affair. Bryan
thought that Wilson’s protest note to the Germans was designed to bring the United States into war.
In March 1916 a U-boat attacked the Sussex a French passenger ship. Several of the 80 casualties were Americans.
Wilson demanded that the Germans stop attacking nonmilitary ships. German leaders respond with the Sussex Pledge,
agreeing not to attack merchant ships without warning.
Congress Declares War
When Wilson ran for reelection in 1916, the promise to remain neutral helped him win the election. Nearly a year after
the Sussex Pledge, however, the Germans again began launching attacks on ships, including American vessels. In
response, Wilson broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and most Americans began supporting the entry of the
U.S. troops.
The United States stepped closer to war when Americans found out about the Zimmerman Telegram. This secret
telegram to Mexico sent by the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, was decoded and then published by
American newspapers in March 1917. In the note, Zimmerman proposed an alliance against the United States. He
proposed that Germany would help Mexico recapture areas that Mexico had lost during the Mexican American Wars.
The American public was outraged by the telegram. Wilson knew that the United States would have little influence on
the post-war peace if it remain neutral. “The world must be made safe for democracy,” he proclaimed. Congress
declared war on April 6th, 1917.
1. What are TWO reasons that the textbook gives for why the U.S. entered the war?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Based on the reasons in Wilson’s 1917 speech and in the textbook, do you think the United States had good reasons
for entering WWI?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Document D: Historian Howard Zinn (Excerpted from Original)
President Woodrow Wilson had promised that the United States would stay neutral in the war. . . . But in April of 1917,
the Germans had announced they would have their submarines sink any ship bringing supplies to their enemies; and
they had sunk a number of merchant vessels. Wilson now said he must stand by the right of Americans to travel on
merchant ships in the war zone. . . .
As Richard Hofstadter points out: “This was rationalization of the flimsiest (weakest) sort. . . . The British had also been
intruding on the rights of American citizens on the high seas, but Wilson was not suggesting we go to war with them. . . .
The United States claimed the Lusitania carried an innocent cargo, and therefore the torpedoing was a monstrous
German atrocity (massacre). Actually, the Lusitania was heavily armed: it carried 1,248 cases of 3-inch shells (bombs),
4,927 boxes of cartridges (bullets) (1,000 rounds in each box), and 2,000 more cases of small-arms ammunition. . . . The
British and American governments lied about the cargo. . . .
Prosperity (wealth) depended much on foreign markets, it was believed by the leaders of the country. In 1897, private
foreign (distant) investments of the United States amounted to $700 million dollars. By 1914, they were $3.5 billion. . . .
In 1914 a serious economic recession had begun in the United States. J. P. Morgan later stated: "The war opened during
a period of hard times. ... Business throughout the country was depressed, unemployment was serious…." But by 1915,
war supply orders for the Allies (mostly England) had stimulated the economy, and by April 1917 more than $2 billion
worth of goods had been sold to the Allies. With World War I, England became more and more a market for American
goods and for loans at interest. J.P. Morgan and Company acted as agents for the Allies and when, in 1915, Wilson lifted
the ban on private bank loans to the Allies, Morgan could now begin lending money in such great amounts as to both
make great profit and tie American finance (business) closely to the interest of a British victory in the war against
Germany.
Source: Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1980. Howard Zinn was a historian and activist who is best
known today as the author of A People’s History of the United States, a book that tells American history from the
perspective of people of color, women, and poor people. The book is very critical of the United States government.
1. Sourcing: Before reading the document, what do you predict Howard Zinn will say about the United States’ reasons
for entering WWI?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Close reading: Why does Zinn claim that Wilson made a flimsy (weak) argument?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Close reading: What does Zinn suggest are the real reasons the United States entered the war?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Close reading: What evidence does Zinn provide to support his claims that the United States was motivated by
other reasons (besides German attacks on U.S. ships)?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Discussion: Do you find Zinn’s argument convincing? Why or why not?