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The First
World
War
World War I Begins
Chapter 19, Section 1
Long-Term
Causes of
WWI
Nationalism
• The term nationalism refers to the
strong feelings people have for
their own country.
• It may also refer to the desire of
people ruled by others to throw off
this foreign rule and create their
own nation.
Imperialism
• The quest for new territories led to
intense competition among the
countries of Europe.
• France, Great Britain, AustriaHungary, Germany, and Russia all
competed for influence in Europe.
Militarism
• Militarism is the policy of
maintaining a strong fighting force in
readiness for war.
• As Germany began to expand her
army and navy in the late 1890s, other
European nations, especially Great
Britain, tried to stay ahead of this
military expansion (arms race).
System of Alliances
• The nations of Europe entered into a
series of alliances to maintain a balance
of power if war erupted.
• These alliances helped maintain a balance
of power, but they also meant that a
minor incident could provoke a war.
• The prewar alliances, with a few
exceptions, became the belligerents, or
warring nations.
The Triple Alliance
• Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy
belonged to the Triple Alliance, later
known as the Central Powers.
• The Ottoman Empire, an empire of
mostly Middle Eastern lands controlled
by the Turks, later joined the alliance.
• In 1915, Italy would join the Allies in
return for promised territorial gain.
The Triple Entente
• The Triple Entente, later known as
the Allied Powers or the Allies,
consisted of France, Russia, and Great
Britain.
• Russia would withdraw in 1917 (we’ll
talk more of this later).
• Eventually, some 30 nations would
take sides in the Great War.
The Spark
• Many feared that an incident that would
lead to war could take place in the
Balkans, a region so unstable that some
called it the “powder keg of Europe.”
• On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, the heir to the AustroHungarian throne, and his wife were
gunned down during a visit to Sarajevo,
the capital of Bosnia, a province within
the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
• The teenage gunman turned out to be
a member of a secret society called
the Black Hand, with aims to unite all
Serbs under one gov’t.
• Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for
the assassination, and declared war on
Serbia one month after the
assassination.
• The alliance system pulled one nation
after another into the conflict.
The Fighting Begins
• Fighting started on the western front
when Germany invaded Belgium on Aug.
4, 1914.
• The German plan was to defeat France
quickly and then turn its attention to
Russia (Schlieffen Plan).
• However, Belgium and France were able
to resist long enough for Great Britain to
come to the aid of France.
• In spite of heavy losses by the Allies,
the French finally stopped the German
advance at the Battle of the Marne.
• At the same time, the Russians were
fighting the Germans on the eastern
front.
• By the end of 1914 troops from both
sides along the western front had dug
trenches that stretched from the North
Sea to Switzerland.
• The war on the western front
eventually settled into a stalemate,
where neither side could win a
decisive victory.
• From July to Oct. 1916, the Allies
gained 2.5 miles of land at a cost
of 1 million lives at the Battle of
the Somme River.
The Trial of Neutrality
• At the outset of the war in 1914,
President Wilson issued a
Proclamation of Neutrality and urged
Americans to remain “neutral in fact
as well as in name.”
• As the war progressed, the US tended
to favor the Allies due to a cultural,
ancestral, and language ties to Britain.
• America’s freedom of the seas (right to
trade with any country) was again
challenged.
• The British stopped American ships
and forced them into port for
inspection. Goods headed for Germany
were seized.
• German u-boats sank any ship it
suspected of carrying cargo for the
Allies.
• The British blockade of the North Sea
was brutal and successful.
• US trade with Germany/Austria-Hungary
fell from $169,289,775 in 1914 to
$1,159,653 in 1916.
• In the same time period, US trade with
the Allies rose from $824,800,327 to
$3.2billion.
• An estimated 750,000 Germans starved to
death at the hands of the blockade.
• German u-boats were responsible for
75,000 deaths.
• Wilson and the American people
could stomach the loss of property
more than they could the loss of life.
• On May 7, 1915, a German sub
torpedoed the British cruise ship the
Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers
(128 Americans).
• In March 1916 a German sub sunk the
French ship, the Sussex.
• The US threatened to sever diplomatic
relations.
• Germany responded by issuing the
Sussex Pledge, promising to sink no
more merchant vessels without warning,
provided the US also compelled the
British to observe international law
regarding blockade practices.
• America remained neutral, but began
expanding its army and navy in
preparation for entering the war.
• While neutral, it was clear that the US
favored the Allies.
• In addition to increased trading with the
Allies, private loans were also extended
to the Allies.
• By the time the US entered the war, the
Allies had borrowed $2.25 billion.
The Election of 1916
• Wilson narrowly won reelection in 1916
with the slogan, “He Kept Us Out Of
The War.”
• In Jan. of 1917, Wilson gave a speech
that expressed his hope that the war
could end with a “peace without
victory.”
• That was not the intentions of the
belligerents in Europe.
• Believing that they now
possessed enough u-boats to
starve Britain into
submission, the German
leaders took the risk of war
with the US and renewed
their unrestricted submarine
warfare.
The Zimmerman Note
• A few weeks later, British agents
intercepted a note, written by German
Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman,
suggesting to Mexico that a GermanMexican alliance might be arranged
which would enable Mexico to recover
TX, NM, and AZ.
• It was hinted that Japan might also join in
an attack on the US.
The US Enters the War
• More American ships were sunk by
the Germans.
• On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked
Congress to declare war, stating that,
“The world must be made safe for
democracy.”
• Congress declared war on Germany
on April 6, 1917.
American Power Tips
the Balance
Chapter 19, Section 2
Military Expansion
• The US’s armed forces was small
when the US declared war.
• There were about 200,000 men in the
army when the US entered the war.
• The Selective Service Act of 1917
required all men 21-30 to register
with draft boards (later extended to
18-45).
• By the end of the war more than 2 million
men had gone overseas, of whom some
1.4 million engaged in active fighting.
• Women could not serve in the army, but
the navy allowed them to serve as nurses,
secretaries, and telephone operators.
• Most of the 200,000 black Americans
sent to Europe served in noncombatant
roles and were met with discrimination.
• By the end of the war the navy
consisted of 500,000 men and 2,000
ships.
• The US navy was instrumental in
aiding in the British blockade,
attacking German u-boats, and
participating in the convoy system (a
group of vessels sailing under the
protection of an armed escort).
America in France
• 12 weeks after war had been declared,
the 1st US troops landed in France.
• Leading the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF) was
General John J. Pershing.
• American soldiers were called
“Yanks” or “doughboys” by their
allies.
The Eastern Front
• After the Russian people overthrew the
czar in March, 1917, political turmoil
continued until Nov., when the
Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin,
seized power.
• The Bolsheviks opposed the war and
signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with
the Central Powers in march 1918,
ending the fighting on the eastern front.
Chateau-Thierry
• With the eastern front collapsed, the
Germans could focus attention on the
western front.
• In May 1918, the Germans reached
Chateau-Thierry, 40 miles from Paris.
• American forces, aided by French
troops, stopped the Germans at this
point.
The Marne Revisited
• The turning point in the war occurred
in July-Aug. 1918, with the Second
Battle of the Marne, in which the
last great German offensive was
repulsed decisively by the Allied
armies.
• Roughly 85,000 American troops took
part in this fighting.
The St. Mihiel Salient
• Since the 1st year of the war the Germans
held the town of St. Mihiel and its
surrounding region, called the St. Mihiel
salient because the Germans controlled a
projection into the Allied trench system.
• In Sept. 1918, about 500,000 US troops,
in their 1st independent action, engaged
in 4 days of bloody fighting that flattened
the bulge.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive
• Sept. 1918: US forces totaling 1.2
million began a major offensive in the
Argonne forest along the Meuse River,
breaking the German lines.
• The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was an
important part of an overall advance of
Allied forces.
• It started the Germans on their final
retreat.
• It was during this fighting that
America’s greatest war hero
became famous.
• On Oct. 8, 1918, Corporal Alvin
York, armed only with a rifle and
a revolver, killed 25 Germans and
-- with 6 other doughboys -captured 132 prisoners.
• As it became evident that the
Allies were headed for German
territory, resistance collapsed
and representatives of a newly
established republican gov’t in
Germany signed an armistice
on the 11th hour of November
11, 1918.
Casualties of the War
• Roughly 110,000 Americans
died during WWI, half of
which were killed by Spanish
influenza.
• Approximately 8.5 million
people died during the Great
War.
New Weapons
• New weapons made fighting in WWI
very destructive.
• The Germans developed a cannon
called Big Bertha that could fire a
shell 75 miles.
• Zeppelins, gas-filled airships, were
used to drop bombs on English cities.
• Machine guns could spray 600 rounds
of ammo per minute.
• The 2 most important new weapons
were the tank and the airplane.
• Dogfights were air battles between 2
airplanes. Aces were pilots who shot
down 5 or more enemy planes.
• Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was the
leading American ace (26 downed
planes).
• WWI saw the 1st modern use of
chemical warfare.
• Both sides made use of chlorine, or
mustard gas, as a weapon.
Mustard gas burns the skin and
attacks the nervous system.
• By 1918, between 20 and 30% of
all deaths were caused by this
chemical warfare.
The War at Home
Chapter 19, Section 3
• To fight the war, the US needed the
help of industry.
• The economy had to change from
making consumer goods to making
weapons and war supplies.
• Congress gave Wilson direct control
over much of the economy, with the
power to fix prices and regulate warrelated industries.
Coordinating the Economy
• Wilson named Bernard Baruch to
head the War Industries Board,
which had the power to determine
which materials could and could
not be used by manufacturers.
• The WIB set priorities and prices,
and increased industrial production
20%.
• Other federal agencies also
regulated the economy.
• The Railroad Administration
controlled the nation’s
railroads.
• The Fuel Administration
watched over the use of coal,
gasoline, and heating oil.
• Another new agency, the Food
Administration, headed by Herbert
Hoover, was established to help produce
and conserve food supplies.
• Hoover encouraged Americans to clean
their plates, eat less (“meatless Mondays”
and “wheatless Tuesdays”), and grow
their own food (“victory gardens”).
• As a result, more food could be sent to the
Allies.
Selling the War
• The gov’t raised money to finance the
war by raising taxes (1/3) and by selling
war bonds (2/3).
• All told, the gov’t ran four great
“Liberty Loan” drives and one “Victory
Loan” drive raising about $21 billion.
• Women were very influential in the
success of these drives.
• To popularize the war, the gov’t created
the Committee on Public Information
-- the nation’s 1st propaganda agency.
• The agency was headed by the
muckraking journalist George Creel.
• He used artists and advertising to create
thousands of posters, paintings,
cartoons, and pamphlets to promote the
war.
Attack on Civil Liberties
• The war brought out anti-immigrant
feelings, especially against all things
German.
• Americans with German-sounding
names lost their jobs.
• Orchestras refused to play German
music.
• “liberty measles”, “Salisbury steak”,
“liberty cabbage”
• The Espionage Act made it a crime to
aid enemy nations or to interfere with
the recruiting of soldiers.
• The Sedition Act made it a crime to
speak or write anything critical of the
government’s war effort.
• Penalties for breaking either law were
severe, and there was little war
opposition.
• Creel organized Loyalty Leagues,
which encouraged Americans to spy on
their neighbors and report those who
might be “disloyal.”
• Thousands were imprisoned for opinions
expressed in private conversations.
• Eugene Debs was arrested and
sentenced to 10 years in prison for
telling an audience to “resist militarism
wherever found.”
• Members of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW), also known as the
Wobblies, were arrested for staging a
strike in 1917.
• After the war, the Supreme Court agreed
in Schenk v. United States (1919) that
the gov’t could censor speech or writing
during wartime only if there was a “clear
and present danger” that the war effort
might be harmed.
Social Changes During the War
• The war sped up the Great
Migration, the movement of
thousands of African Americans
from the South to cities of the
North.
• They wanted to escape racial
discrimination and to find jobs in
northern industries.
Women’s Roles Expand
• American women played new roles
during the war.
• They worked as truck drivers, cooks,
dock workers, and builders.
• They were not paid the same as men, but
their expanded roles made them more
visible, and Congress passed a women’s
suffrage amendment shortly after the
war.
Wilson Fights for
Peace
Chapter 19, Section 4
The Fourteen Points
• In Jan. 1918, Wilson went before
Congress with his Fourteen Points to
present his goals and objectives for a
lasting peace.
• Wilson hoped to establish a new
world order with his plan which was
based on “the principle of justice to
all peoples and nationalities.”
• The President proposed to
eliminate the general causes of
war through disarmament,
freedom of the seas, and open
diplomacy instead of secret
agreements.
• Wilson also addressed the rights
of people to live under a gov’t of
their own choosing.
• In the 14th point, Wilson proposed an
international peacekeeping
organization called the League of
Nations.
• Although Wilson’s plan appealed to a
world weary of war, the other Allied
leaders did not support the League.
• They wanted German territory and to
see Germany punished.
• On June 28, 1919, the leaders
of the Allies (the Big Four:
Great Britain, France, Italy,
and the US) and the Central
Powers met at the Palace of
Versailles outside of Paris,
France to sign the Treaty of
Versailles.
The Treaty
• The treaty created new national
boundaries by:
•
1) establishing 9 new nations including
Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia
•
2) shifting boundaries of other nations
•
3) carving out parts of the Ottoman
Empire to create colonies (mandates)
in the Middle East for Great Britain
and France
• The treaty also took away Germany’s
army and navy.
• It forced Germany to pay
reparations, or war damages, to the
winners.
• In addition, the treaty contained a
war-guilt clause -- Germany had to
admit that it was responsible for
causing the war.
• Wilson brought the treaty back to
the US for approval and found
several groups who opposed it.
• Some thought it was too harsh or
that it favored the imperialists;
other ethnic groups objected to the
way the treaty treated their
homelands.
• The main opposition to the treaty was
over the League of Nations.
• Conservative senators, headed by
Henry Cabot Lodge, did not like the
idea of working with other countries
to take economic and military action
against aggression.
• They wanted the treaty to include the
constitutional right of Congress to
declare war.
• Wilson refused to compromise on the
League, and wouldn’t accept
amendments proposed by Republican
leaders.
• As a result, the Senate failed to ratify
the treaty and the US never entered the
League of Nations.
• The US finally signed a separate treaty
with Germany in 1921, when Wilson
was no longer President.