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Chapter 6
European powers compete for colonies
Nationalism increased in Europe.
Arms races develop
Hostile alliances form.
World War I
Allies defeat central powers
Old empires break up
Europe is economically devastated
League of Nations is formed
U.S. becomes economic giant
Treaty’s harsh treatment of Germany helps lead to WWII
 President Wilson was opposed to imperialism.
 He wanted a world free from revolution and war.
 He refused to recognize the new Mexican government
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led by General Victoriano Huerta, who had seized
power.
Wilson sent U.S. marines to Mexico to overthrow
Huerta.
When Anti-American riots broke out in Mexico,
Wilson was forced to accept international mediation
over the dispute.
Venustiano Carranza was made Mexico’s president.
His Mexican policy ultimately damaged U.S. foreign
relations.
 How might alliances cause tension
between nations?
1860s, Prussia began a series
of wars in order to unite the
German states.
Nationalism = intense pride in
one’s country
Self-determination= the idea
that people who belong to a
nation should have their own
country and government.
Balkans – groups within the
Ottoman and AustroHungarian Empires began to
seek independence.
1871 Germany united, enemies
with France
Germany formed the Triple
Alliance with AustriaHungary and Italy.
Great Britain began an arms
race with Germany in early
1900s. Britain joined with
France and Russia, forming
the Triple Entente.
Russia and France formed the
Franco-Prussian Alliance
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
was assassinated by a Bosnian
revolutionary.
Austria declared war on
Serbia.
Germany and France became
locked in a stalemate along
hundreds of miles of trenches
(3 years).
Germany declared war on
Russia, then France.
 Wilson declared the US neutral. He did not want to be
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pulled into a foreign war.
Americans began showing support for one side or the
other with many immigrants supporting their
homelands.
Wilson’s cabinet was Pr0-British.
British used propaganda to gain American support.
Companies in the US had strong ties to the allied
cause. Many banks loaned $ to allies. As a result,
American prosperity was tied to the war ($ only paid
back if Allies won).
 The British cut transatlantic telegraph cable from
Europe to the United States to limit news about the
war to mainly British communication.
 Outrageous reports about German war atrocities
convinced many Americans to support the Allies.
 Germany deployed U-boats to get around British
blockades of supplies.
 Germany threatened to sink any ship that entered the
waters around Britain.
 The Lusitania, a British passenger liner, was hit by the
Germans, killing almost 1200 passengers – including
128 Americans.
 The US instructed Germany to stop U-boat strikes.
Germany made the Sussex Pledge to stop sinking
merchant ships (they wanted to keep the US out of the
war).
 A German official, Arthur Zimmerman, cabled the
German ambassador in Mexico, proposing that Mexico
ally itself with Germany.
 In return, Mexico would regain territory it had earlier
lost to the US.
 The Zimmerman telegram was intercepted by British
intelligence and leaked to American newspapers.
 February 1917 – Germany went back to unrestricted
submarine warfare and sank 6 American merchant
ships.
 April 6, 1917 – The US declared war against Germany.
 The government passes out propaganda through the
Committee on Public Information to unite public
opinion behind the war effort.
 The CPI ran a full-page add in the popular magazine
the Saturday Evening post, asking American citizens to
notify the Justice Department if they encountered,
“the man who spreads the pessimistic stories…cries for
peace, or belittled our efforts to win the war.”
 Selective Service – resulted in about 2.8 million
Americans being drafted. Men between 21-30 had to
register to be drafted for war. A lottery randomly decided
the order they served.
 African American soldiers faced discrimination and
prejudice within the army, where they served in segregated
units.
 WWI was the first war in which women officially served.
The navy enlisted 11,000 women, whose jobs included
clerics, pharmacists, and photographers. The army did not
enlist women, but hired them as temporary employees.
 Army nurses were the only women to go overseas during
the war.
Trench Foot
 One Allied report recounted that many trenches were
“waist deep in mud and ice water, which clogged a
large number of rifles and rendered them useless.” The
wet conditions encouraged diseases such as trench
foot, which rotted away the foot’s skin and usually led
to amputation. Rats invaded the dank and cramped
trenches at night, and feasted by day on the dead that
lay outside the trenches. The trenches were also filled
with the bodies of dead soldiers. One Allied soldier
remembered, “the bottom of the trench was springy
like a mattress because of all the dead bodies
underneath. At night, the stench was worse, we tied
material around our mouths and noses…the flies
entered the trenches at night and lined them
completely with a density which was like moving
cloth.”
 1917 – War Industries Board was created to
coordinate the production of war materials.
 The Food Administration was responsible for
increasing food production while reducing
consumption. Director Hoover asked people to plant
victory gardens to raise their own vegetables.
 The Fuel Administration encouraged people to
conserve coal and oil. Daylight savings time was
introduced to conserve energy.
 The government sold Liberty Bonds and Victory
Bonds to raise $ for the war.
 National War Labor Board (1918) – in exchange for
wage increases, an 8-hour workday, and the right to
organize and bargain collectively, labor leaders agreed
not to disrupt labor production with a strike.
 Women took positions in shipping, manufacturing,
and railroads. Women returned to old roles after the
men returned from war.
 The war stopped the flow of immigrants, which
allowed African Americans to find wartime jobs.
Between 300,000 and 500,000 left the South to settle
in the North. This “Great Migration” changed the
racial makeup of many Northern cities.
 Many Mexicans moved north, providing labor for
farms and ranches in the American Southwest.
Mexicans also moved to cities to take wartime factory
jobs. They faced discrimination and hostility from
Americans.
 (spying to acquire government information)
 Set up consequences for people who aided the enemy.
 The Sedition Act of 1918 went a step further by
making it illegal to criticize the president or the
government.
 Suspicions of disloyalty led to the mistreatment of
German Americans. Anti-German feelings sometimes
led to violence.
 Radical labor activists, socialists, pacifists, and anyone
appearing disloyal also came under attack.
 1919 the Supreme Court ruled limiting an individual’s
freedom of Speech if the words spoken constituted a
“clear and present danger.”
Work with a partner to complete the following questions:
What were the Espionage and Sedition Acts?
2. Were the Espionage and Sedition Acts a violation of
civil liberties? Why or why not?
3. What was the Supreme Court’s decision in Schenck v.
The United States?
4. Was the Supreme Court wrong? Why or why not?
1.
 Soldiers dug trenches as protection from modern
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weapons.
“no man’s land” was the space between the trenches.
Soldiers would charge the enemy by scrambling out of
trenches. This inefficient military strategy made soldiers
easy targets.
By 1917 WWI had claimed millions of European lives.
Americans believed their troops could bring the war to a
quick end.
Poison gas caused vomiting, blindness, and suffocation.
Tanks were unsuccessful.
Airplanes dropped small bombs and engaged in air
battles.
 “Doughboys” was a nickname for American soldiers.
 In September 1918, American General Pershing put
together the most massive attack in American history,
causing one German position after another to fall to
the advancing American troops.
 In November 11, 1918, Germany finally signed an
armistice, or cease-fire, that ended the war.
 January 1919 – leaders of the allied nations met to
resolve issues caused by war.
 Eliminating the causes of war through free trade and
disarmament, open diplomacy instead of secret
agreements, and the right to self-determination.
 Required the evacuation of the central powers from all
countries invaded during the war.
 14th point known as the League of Nations, called for
member nations to help preserve the peace and
prevent future wars.
 Other Allied governments felt that Wilson’s plan was
too lenient toward Germany.
 The Treaty of Versailles, signed by Germany,
weakened Wilson’s proposal.
 The treaty stripped Germany of its armed forces and
made it pay reparations, or war damages to the Allies.
 Rapid inflation increased the cost of living (food,
clothing, shelter, other essentials)
 General strikes – strikes that involved all workers
living in a certain location – worried Americans
because they were common in Europe by communists
and other radicals.
 In the summer of 1919, race riots occurred in many
Northern cities. They were caused by the return of
hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who
needed to find employment.
 African Americans, who moved North to work, were
now competing for the same jobs as the soldiers.
 The worst violence occurred in Chicago where whites
and African Americans entered each other’s
neighborhoods and attacked one another. This lasted
almost 2 weeks.
 Americans associated communism with disloyalty and
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unpatriotic behavior.
Numerous strikes in 1919 made Americans fear that
communists “reds” might take over.
Mail bombs
General Intelligence Division (FBI today) was set up by
A. Mitchell Palmer. Headed by J. Edgar Hoover.
Palmer organized raids on various radical
organizations and deported immigrants.
 Warren G. Harding won the election of 1920 with a
campaign that called for a return to “normalcy”, or a
return to similar days before the Progressive Era
reforms.