What part did the United States play in World War I?ecampus.matc.edu/mulvennk/pdf/ww1.pdf · What part did the United States play in World War I? ... Out At first, the United States

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The 369th Regiment, a segregated unit, won the highest French militarymedal in World War I. Not until the 1950s, did the U.S. military becomedesegregated.

Looking at Key Terms.Allies. Central Powers

.draftee: a person inductedinto military service

Looking at Key Words.alliance: a group of'coun-

tries that work together.neutrality: not taking

sides in a war.submarine warfare:

using submarines to sinkships bringing supplies tothe enemy

What part did the United Statesplay in World War I?

In September 1918, U.S. Army PrivateMarcelino Serna (SER-nah) found him-self on a battlefield in France. From histrench, the young Mexican Americancould see the German lines. From time totime, a helmeted head would pop up.Then shots were fired in his direction.

Serna waited for the right moment toshoot back. He squeezed his trigger.That instant an enemy bullet hit hischeek. He did not let the wound stophim. He pumped more bullets towardthe enemy trench. Then he threw ahand grenade.

Twenty-four German soldiers climbedout of the trench. Their arms wereraised in surrender. Serna marched hiscaptives to his unit's headquarters. Forhis brave action, Serna received theDistinguished Service Cross. It is one ofthe army's highest awards. He alsoreceived a Purple Heart for beingwounded. By the end of the war, heearned another Purple Heart and amedal from the French government.Private Serna was one of almost 4 mil-lion Americans who served with honorin the armed forces in World War I.

alliance is a group of countries that worktogether. In one alliance, the main mem-bers were France, Great Britain, andRussia. The members of the other wereGermany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.Austria-Hungary was an empire thatruled much of Central Europe.

A murder in June 1914 led to the war.Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shotwhile visiting the town of Sarajevo (sah-rah-HAY-voh). The archduke was nextin line to be emperor of Austria-Hungary. The murderer was a youngSerb who opposed Austrian rule of Serbterritory. Serbia was an ally of Russia.

Austria-Hungary demanded thatSerbia be punished. They were stronglybacked by their ally Germany. WhenSerbia refused to meet all the demands,Austria-Hungary declared war.

Tangled alliances Now theEuropean system of alliances led othercountries to war. Russia started to helpSerbia. So Germany declared war onRussia. Two days later, it also declaredwar on France, Russia's ally. ThenGermany's armies invaded Belgium toget at France. So Great Britain, whichwas friendly with France and Belgium,declared war on Germany. In a fewdays, almost all of Europe was at war.

The two sides in the war were calledthe Allies and the Central Powers.The Central Powers were Germany andAustria-Hungary. The Ottoman Empire(Turkey) and Bulgaria joined theCentral Powers later. The Allies at firstwere France, Great Britain, Russia,Belgium, and Serbia. As the war wenton, they were joined by several othercountries, including Italy and Japan. In1917, the United States joined theAllies. A number of Latin Americancountries also joined the Allies.

In the summer of 1914, war broke outin Europe. The war lasted more thanfour years. Most of the fighting tookplace in Europe. But there also wasfighting in all parts of the world. So itwas called the "World War." Later, aftera second, similar war had broken out,the 1914 war was called "World War I."

The roots of the war The largestnations of Europe had formed alliancesthat divided them into two camps. An

The U.S. Stays Out At first, theUnited States tried to stay out of the

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Why did the United States take part inWorld War I?

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D Reading A Timeline How many years after World War I began did D Ithe United States enter the war? When did World War I end?

carrying a secret cargo of weapons. Theship blew up before many of its passen-gers got into lifeboats. Among the deadwere 128 U.S. citizens.

war. For more than two years, it suc-ceeded. When the war broke out,President Woodrow Wilson proclaimedU.S. neutrality. That meant that theUnited States would not take sides inthe war. Nor would it offer help to eitherside. It did allow U.S. companies to selltheir products to countries at war. Theseproducts included weapons. The Alliesbought far more from the United Statesthan the Central Powers did.

Germany used submarine warfareto keep U.S. supplies from reachingGreat Britain and France. Submarinewarfare meant that German sub-marines attacked and sank cargo ships.

In some of these attacks, manyAmerican lives were lost. The attackthat caused the largest loss of life wasthe sinking of the British ocean linerLusitania in 1915. The Lusitania was

No longer neutral In February1917, German submarine attacksbecame more fierce. In the next twomonths, a number of U.S. ships weresunk. Anti-German feeling built upra pidly. Then Germany made thingsworse. It suggested to the Mexican gov-ernment that the two countries join in awar against the United States. Mexicosaid no. But President Wilson wouldtake no more from Germany. He askedCongress to declare war.

On April 6, 1917, Congress declaredwar on Germany. Among those votingagainst the war was RepresentativeJeannette Rankin of Montana. She had

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Reading a Map. This map shows the nations of Europe during World War I. Whichnations were Allied Powers? Which ones were Central Powers? What countries wereneutral? Which side had more countries, the Allies or the Central Powers?

been the first woman to serve inCongress. But she was not reelected.

In 1941, she returned to Congress.Later that year, Congress again voted todeclare war. Her vote was the single no.Jeannette Rankin was the only personto vote against both world wars.

All Allericans Help in the War Effort.How did the United States raise an almY?

Soon after war was declared,Congress passed the Selective ServiceAct. This act required all men betweenthe ages of 21 and 30 to register for mil-itary service. The first draft took placein early June 1917.

About 2.2 million men becamedraftees. A draftee is a person whomust go into military service. In addi-tion, many others volunteered for thearmy, the navy, and the Marine Corps.

By the time the war ended, the totalnumber of Americans in military servicewas about 4 million.

country. The percentage who volun-teered was greater than that of anyother ethnic group in the nation.

The armed services did not quiteknow what to do with their Latino vol-unteers. Many could not speak or writeEnglish fluently. Therefore, they did notfinish their military training. Theyremained at the training centers. Somewent to the front in Europe.

Most Native Americans were not U.S.citizens in 1917-1918. So they were notsubject to the draft. Even so, many vol-unteered for service.

Mrican Americans in the serviceAmericans of all groups served in WorldWar I. Yet they were not all treated inthe same way. African Americans, inparticular, received unequal treatment.The Marine Corps barred them fromservice. The navy took them only ascooks, kitchen helpers, and boiler-roomworkers. Only the army used them asfighting men. It did not use as many asit could have.

The U.S. Army trained more than370,000 African American soldiers forcombat. Yet three out of four spent theirtime in the army in labor units. Theyhauled supplies. They built roads. Theyalso set up fortifications. About 100,000,however, did see combat. They served inall-African American units led mostlyby white officers. Only 1,400 AfricanAmericans became officers. Nonereached above the rank of colonel.

"It is not an army that we must shapeand train for war," said PresidentWilson. "It is a nation." In April, 1917,the United States was not prepared tofight. Within a year, it was ready.

Building a war machine It was noteasy to turn the U.S. economy into a warmachine. Yet it was done quickly.Congress gave President Wilson the rightto take over entire industries. He couldalso claim supplies of food and any othergoods. He could control prices. Wilsongave these powers to special boards.

The results were amazing. Besidesguns and tanks, the United States sentto France entire railroads and entire

Latinos and Native Americans inWW I There were also large numbersof Latinos in the U.S. Army. When thewar began, enough Puerto Rican menenlisted to form their own unit. Later,235,000 Puerto Rican men registered forthe draft. About 18,000 of these werecalled up for service.

Mexican Americans faced other prob-lems during World War I. First, manyU.S. citizens doubted the loyalty ofMexican Americans. This happenedpartly because Germany had tried tomake Mexico its ally in the war. Peopleforgot that Mexico had rejected theGermans. Anti-Mexican feelings alsoarose from Pancho Villa's raid on NewMexico. (See page 77.)

Yet thousands of young MexicanAmerican men decided to serve their

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How did the US. people contribute to thewar effort on the lwme front and in Europe?

During World War I, these young women worked on a farm, guiding tractors. Sincemany men served in the war, women were needed to take over the men's jobs. Betterjobs

gave women a strong sense of independence.

hospitals. In the first year of the war,more than 30 million pairs of shoes and131 million stockings were sent toEurope. By 1918, the United States wasexporting three times as much food as ithad before the war.

wages. Many took advantage of thechance. Entire families moved north.

At the same time, thousands ofMexicans moved from Mexico to the U.S.Southwest. They knew that the war cre-ated new opportunities in the UnitedStates. Mexican immigrants worked inthe cotton fields of Arizona. They pickedsugar-beets on farms in California andColorado. They also worked in the cop-per mines of New Mexico. They builtrailroad lines throughout the U.S. west.

The war opened new opportunities forwomen. Women worked in steel millsand weapons factories. They worked aslawyers and doctors for the government.

Most of the new opportunites lastedonly until the end of the war. Women,African Americans and other groups

On the home front To achievethese results, new sources of labor hadto be found. Nearly four million workershad gone into military service. They hadto be replaced.

In the factories and mills of theNortheast and Midwest, many of thejobs were taken by African Americans.They had just arrived from the South.Times were very hard for Southern farmworkers just then. African Americanslearned that the factories of Chicago,Detroit, and other cities paid good

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were thrown out of work once the sol-diers returned.

bers of troops in 1918, not one troopshipwas sunk by submarines.

In July 1918, the German army begana new attack in France. The Germanshoped to knock out the British andFrench armies once and for all. Theynearly succeeded. However, 275,000 U.S.troops arrived just in time. This was thefirst large group of American soldiers inEurope. They helped to turn the tide ofthe war at the battle of Chateau-Thierry(shah-TOH tee-REE). German generalslater said they knew then that they

Action in Europe Meanwhile, awar was being fought in Europe. TheUnited States entered the war in April1917, on the side of Great Britain andFrance. During 1917, the main U.S. con-tribution to the war was at sea. The U.S.navy started chasing German sub-marines. In about a year and a half,more than half of Germany's sub-marines were destroyed. When theUnited States began sending large num-

Reading a Map. What is the subject of this map? Which new nations were formedafter World War I? What countries gained land? How does this map differ from themap at the beginning of the chapter?

were beaten. However, the war went onfor four more months.

Together the Allies pushed theGerman armies almost entirely out ofFrance and Belgium. The German gov-ernment asked for peace talks. OnNovember 11, 1918, the fighting ended.

In Europe, Americans helped win thewar. A number of women served as nurs-es with the Red Cross. African Ameri-cans, Latinos, and Native Americansfought with courage. Many won medalsfor their bravery, from both the U.S. andthe French governments. In some cases,entire units were decorated.

the treaty of Versailles (vehr-SYE), theyforced harsh conditions on the defeatedGermans. The Allies would regret thisin a few years. However, the treaty didinclude plans for setting up the Leagueof Nations.

When Wilson brought the treaty hometo the United States, he met a newsource of opposition. A group of senatorsdid not think that the United Statesshould become involved in the League ofNations. The Senate refused to approvethe treaty. That meant that the UnitedStates would not be a member of theLeague. Wilson, meanwhile, had suf-fered a bad stroke. He finished his termof office as a defeated and ill man.Wilson's Fourteen Points Earlier

in 1918, Wilson had listed FourteenPoints that peace would be based on. Ifall the countries agreed to the points, afair peace would follow. One of thepoints was a peace treaty that did notpunish the losers. Another was settingup a "League of Nations." The League ofNations would work to preserve peace.

The leaders of Britain, France, andItaly did not accept Wilson's ideas. In

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