His 122 ch 24 america and the great war fall 2013

AMERICA AND THE GREAT WARCHAPTER 24

WILSON AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Idealistic Diplomacy

Wilson had 0 experience in foreign affairs

Wilson and Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan

“Spread democracy around the world”

Intervention in Mexico

Mexico Revolution

Tampico Incident

American soldiers captured while obtaining supplies in Tampico

American commander demanded that Mexican soldiers salute the U.S. Flag

Pancho Villa invaded Texas and New Mexico: 17 Americans killed

Army invasion of Mexico never captured Pancho Villa

INTRODUCTION

A twentieth-century war

The expectations and reality of war

THE JULY CRISIS

Alliances Triple Entente (Allied Powers): Britain, France, and Russia

Triple Alliance (Central Powers): Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

Threats to peace Economic, military, and political advantage

Scramble for colonies

The arms race

EUROPEAN ALLIANCES ON THE EVE OF WWI

THE JULY CRISIS

Summer 1914 June 28, 1914: Franz Ferdinand and his wife assassinated at Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip

July: Austria issued an ultimatum

A punitive campaign to restore order in Bosnia and crush Serbia

The demands were deliberately unreasonable

THE JULY CRISIS

Summer 1914 The Serbs mobilized their army

July 28, 1914: Austria declared war

Austria saw the conflict as a chance to reassert its authority

Russia saw the conflict as a way to regain the tsar’s authority

July 30, 1914: Russia mobilized its troops to fight Austria and Germany

THE JULY CRISIS

Diplomatic maneuvers Germany

Detailed war plans

Kaiser Wilhelm II sent an ultimatum to Russia

Germany demanded to know French intentions

August 1, 1914: Germany declared war on Russia

THE JULY CRISIS

Diplomatic maneuvers August 3, 1914: Germany declared war on France

August 4, 1914: Germany invaded Belgium

The British response

Secret pacts with France

August 4: Britain reluctantly entered the war against Germany

THE JULY CRISIS

Diplomatic maneuvers August 7, 1914: Montenegrins joined the Serbs against Austria

July: the Japanese declared war on Germany

August: Turkey allied itself with Germany

A “tragedy of miscalculation”

Little diplomatic communication

Austrian mismanagement

The lure of the first strike

THE MARNE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The Battle of the Marne September 5, 1914 The Western Front

The Great Powers dug in

Trench warfare

The importance of the Marne

Changed Europe’s expectation of war

The war would now be long, costly, and deadly

STALEMATE, 1915

The search for new partners Ottomans joined Germany and Austria in 1914

Italy joined the Allies in May 1915

Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915

Expanded the war geographically

STALEMATE, 1915

A war of attrition The nature of modern war

The total mobilization of resources

The Allies imposed a naval blockade on Germany

Germany responded with submarine warfare

Germans sank the Lusitania (May 7, 1915)

Almost twelve hundred killed (128 Americans)

Provoked the animosity of the United States

Wilson refused to enter the war but asked the army and navy to prepare for war.

“Let Us Act without unnecessaryRisk.”

“Let us Act without unnecessary Delay”

STALEMATE, 1915

Trench warfare New weapons

Artillery, machine guns, and barbed wire

Exploding bullets and liquid fire

Poison gas

Physically devastating and psychologically disturbing

War: Old and New

SLAUGHTER IN THE TRENCHES: THE GREAT BATTLES, 1916–1917

Verdun (February 1916) Little strategic importance

Verdun as symbol of French strength

Germany’s goal was to break French morale

By June, four hundred thousand French and German soldiers were killed

The advantage fell to the French, but there was no clear victor

SLAUGHTER IN THE TRENCHES: THE GREAT BATTLES, 1916–1917

The Somme (June–November 1916) Britain on the offensive

The idea was to destroy the German trenches

German trenches withstood the attack

Brutal fighting

Hand-to-hand combat

Neither side won—“the war had won”

AN UNEASY NEUTRALITY

The Election of 1916

Woodrow Wilson won re-election “He Kept us out of war”

Last Efforts for Peace

Wilson attempted to broker a peace deal between the European powers

Germany broke pledge for restricted submarine warfare

Wilson armed merchant ships

Zimmerman Telegram (February 1917)

German foreign minister to Mexico: if Mexico joins German war effort, following victory, Germany will force U.S. to give back to Mexico land taken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona.

THE HOME FRONT

The costs of war: money and manpower

 Mobilizing the home front Single goal of military victory

Civilians were essential to the war economy

Produced munitions

Purchased war bonds

Tax hikes, inflation, and material privation (rationing)

THE HOME FRONT

Women in the war Women as symbols of change

Massive numbers entered the munitions industry

Women entered clerical and service sectors

New opportunities

Breaking down restrictions

The “new woman”

Symbol of freedom and a disconcerting cultural transformation

THE HOME FRONT

Women in the war Long-term changes

Women sent home after the war

Governments pass “natalist” policies

Encouraging women to marry and raise children

Birth control

Universal suffrage: Britain (1918), United States (1919), France (1945)

THE HOME FRONT

Mobilizing resources Propaganda

Important in recruitment

Films, posters, postcards, newspapers

The absolute necessity of total victory

Committee on Public Information: Conveyed the Allies’ war aims

Witch hunt against German Americans

Sauerkraut =liberty cabbage; German Measles= liberty measles;

Espionage and Sedition Acts – 1,000 convictions of disloyalty

Financing the war

Military spending rose to half a nation’s budget

Allies borrowed from Britain, who borrowed from the United States

Germany printed its own money

THE HOME FRONT

The strains of war, 1917 Declining morale of the troops

Troops saw their commanders’ strategies as futile

Rise in number of mutinies

On the home front

Shortages of basic supplies (clothing, food, and fuel)

Price of bread and potatoes soared

German Kaiser as theBeast of Berlin (1918Universal Studios)

RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS

February 1917 Tsar Nicholas forced to abdicate and Duma (Congress) took power Russian military was losing badly against the Germans and was basically in a state of mutiny

Between February and October there was some sharing of power between the liberals, republicans and the socialists/communists.

October 1917 Bolshevik Party (Lennin) and the workers’ militias (Red Brigades) overthrew the provisional government in Petrograd

Treat of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918) Bolsheviks signed a peace treaty with Germany and ended Russia’s participation in WWI

Germans now free to turn full military resources to the Western Front

AMERICAN OPINION BEFORE 1917

Strongly favored staying out of WWI

Changing perspectives Sinking of Lusitania

German atrocities in Belgium

Zimmerman Note

German submarines sank 7 U.S. Merchant ships

April 6, 1917 Congress voted to declare war against Germany

1918 Liberty Bonds (PD)

U.S. Soldiers fire artillery gun in Argonne, France

AMERICAN PREPAREDNESS

American troops played little role in WWI prior to 1918

October 1917 Italian forces overrun by Austrian forces

“Race for defense of France”

March 21, 1918 German Spring Offensive

May 1918 1 million fresh U.S. troops in France

June 1918 U.S. Forces (Marines) blocked German advance at Belleau Wood

U.S. Army took Vaux and opposed Germans at Chateau-Thierry

September 1918 U. S forces participate in the Meuse-Argonne offensive

1.2 million U.S. troops (117,000 American casualties, including 26,000 dead)

Salvation Army worker writing a letter home for woundedSoldier (1918, PD)

AMERICA AT WAR

The Fourteen Points

Wilson’s idealistic proposal to prevent future wars and spread democracy

Allies viewed these points as a starting point only

Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Italy dropped out of the war in September, October and early November 1918

Armistice (November 11, 1918) cessation of hostilities at 11:00 AM (11/11/11)

THE FIGHT FOR THE PEACE

Domestic Unrest

Wilson hailed as the victor of the Allies when he traveled to Paris Peace Conference

January 18, 1919 6 months abroad

Told Americans to vote only for Democrats in 1918 Congressional elections alienating Republicans who had supported the war effort.

Did not appoint a prominent Republican to the staff of peace commissionaers

Republicans took back both the House and the Senate

Wilson discovered that the allies not interested in the 14 points

The League of Nations

U.S. Senate refused to ratify the League of Nations

Key piece to Wilson’s post war program

“The League of Nations Argument in aNutshell”

THE FIGHT FOR PEACE

Territory and Reparations

France demands

Germany pay reparations

German territory reduced and new nations created as buffers

Wilson’s Loss at Home

League of Nations proposal

Article 10 pledged member nations to impose economic and military sanctions against “aggressors”

Executive Council: US Britain, France, Italy, Japan + 4

Teddy Roosevelt opposed “substitute internationalism for nationalism means to do away with patriotism!”

Henry Cabot Lodge: “League would usurp Senate’s Constitutional authority to declare war.” Signed by 39 Senators or Senators-elect

SELF DETERMINATION

Wilson’s ideal that ethnicities in Europe be permitted to determine it’s own fate proved unworkable

4 Empires fell following WWI: Germany, Austria Hungary, Ottoman, Russian Hundreds of millions of people clamoring for self determination unworkable

Victors drew borders based on their own best interests rather than ethnic or cultural similarities

War guilt clause: Germany accepted responsibility for the war and for its entire expense

Treaty of Versailles presented to Germany on May 7, 1919 Allies continued naval blockade

French threaten to move troops to the Rhine valley

German population starving because of Allied blockade

June 28, 1919 Germany signed

THE FIGHT FOR PEACE

IRRECONCILABLES & RESERVATIONISTS

Irreconcilables: 14 Republicans and two Democrats who refused to support American membership in the League of Nations on any terms

Reservationists: mainstream Republicans who wanted to limit American participation in the League

October 2, 1919 President Wilson suffered a severe stroke which left him paralyzed on his left side, delusional and emotionally unstable Wilson’s wife Edith, aides and cabinet members ran the Executive office

Original Treaty of Versailles failed (38 to 53)

Revised Treaty failed (38 to 53)

LURCHING FROM WAR TO PEACE

The Spanish Flu

Began in Army barracks in Kansas January 1918

500 million people infected

50-100 million people died

Flu killed healthy young adults rather than very young or very old

The Economic Transition

Workers strikes

U.S. Steel Strike (340, 000 workers)

LURCHING FROM WAR TO PEACE

Racial Friction

Race riots

367,000 African American veterans moved to new areas, developed careers

White fears

Whites in Longview Texas invaded black side of town to search for a man accused of dating a white woman (July 1919)

Washington D.C. riots started by false claims of sexual assaults on white women (July 1919 African Americans fought back and whites claimed a race war.

Chicago riot (July 1919) 38 African Americans killed, 537 people injured

Elaine Arkansas: up to 100 African Americans killed

25 race riots and 80 lynchings in 1919

The Red Scare

What had occurred in Russia could occur in the U.S.

Militant bombs (Italian Anarchists)

November 7, 1919 Immigration agents rounded-up 450 “alien radicals” (Russian immigrants looking for work) deported to Russia without trial or judicial review

January, 1920 Police arrested 5,000 more suspects without warrants

100% Americanism and restriction on immigration