War and the American State, 1914–1920

1. War and the American State, 1914–1920

2. The Great War, 1914–1918 • War in Europe • The Perils of Neutrality • “Over There”

3. How and why did World War I began? • Evaluate and discuss President Wilson’s decision • to enter the war in 1917. • Why World War I was considered a “total war”. • How he war affected economic affairs and social • relationships in America? • How and why President Wilson attempted to • shape the Treaty of Versailles? • The failures of the Settlement of • 1919–1920 to achieve a lasting peace in America • and in Europe.

4. The Great War, 1914-1918 War in Europe

5. When war erupted, most Americans saw no reason to involve themselves in the struggle among Europe's imperialist powers; the United States had a good relationship with both sides. • Almost from the moment the Triple Entente was formed in 1907 to counter the Triple Alliance, European leaders began to prepare for an inevitable conflict. • Austria's seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 enraged Russia and Serbia; Serbian terrorists recruited Bosnians to agitate against Austrian rule.

6. On June 28,1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian, assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife in the town of Sarajevo.

8. After the assassination, the complex European alliance system drew all of the major powers into war within a few days. • The two rival blocs faced off: Great Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and Italy formed the Allied Powers, while Germany, Austria­-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria formed the Central Powers. • Because the alliance system encompassed competing imperial powers, the conflict spread to parts of the world far beyond Europe, including the Middle East, Africa, and China. The worldwide scope of the conflict came to be known as "the Great War," or later, World War I.

9. World War I utilized new military technology, much of it from the United States, which made armies more deadly than before. • Trench warfare produced unprecedented numbers of casualties; between February and December of 1916, the French suffered 550,000 casualties and the Germans 450,000.

10. World War I could be considered the first "modern" war. Aside from the debut of the machine gun (seen here), it also marked the advent of air forces, submarines, tanks, and chemical warfare. Casualties skyrocketed accordingly, due mostly to the new, ruthlessly efficient weaponry, but also because armies continued to use 19th century tactics like trench warfare.

11. The Perils of Neutrality • After the war began in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson made it clear that America would remain neutral; he believed that if America kept aloof from the quarrel, he could arbitrate and influence a European settlement. • The United States had divided loyalties concerning the war; many Americans felt deep cultural ties to the Allies, while others, especially Irish and German immigrants, had strong pro-German sentiments.

12. Progressive leaders opposed American participation in the European conflict, new pacifist groups mobilized popular opposition, the political left condemned the war as imperialistic, and some indus­trialists, such as Henry Ford, bankrolled antiwar activities. • African American leaders saw the war as a conflict of the white race only. • The British imposed a naval blockade that in effect prevented neutral nations, including the United States, from trading with Germany and its Allies.

13. American Neutrality (cont) • Loans to Britain and France, but not to Germany • Little protest to British violations of U.S. neutral rights • German submarine warfare • Designed to combat British dominance of the seas

14. The resulting trade imbalance translated into closer U.S. economic ties with the Allies, despite America's official posture of neutrality. • The German navy launched a devastating new weapon, the U-boat, and issued a warning to civilians that all ships flying the flags of Britain or its Allies were liable to be destroyed. • On May 7,1915, the British luxury liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland; 128 Americans were among the 1,198 people killed.

15. Led to sharp protest from Wilson • Government refused to yield unless Britain allowed cargo to reach German ports • Seemed to show that war with Germany was inevitable

16. In February 1915, Germany announced that it intended to sink on sight enemy ships en route to the British Isles. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers, 128 of them U.S. citizens. American newspapers featured drawings of drowning women and children, and some editorials demanded war. Propaganda posters like this one were used to encourage military enlistment once the United States entered World War I in 1917.

18. Arabic pledge • Germany would warn non-military ships 30 minutes before they sank them to make sure the passengers and crew got out safely. They broke this pledge on March 24, 1916

19. The Sussex • March 24th 1916 a German submarine in the English Channel attacked what it thought was a mine laying ship. • French passenger steamer called 'The Sussex' and, although it didn't sink and limped into port, fifty people were killed. Several Americans were injured and, on April 19th, the US President (Woodrow Wilson) addressed Congress on the issue. He gave an ultimatum: Germany should end attacks on passenger vessels, or face America 'breaking off' diplomatic relations.

20. Germany promised to alter their naval and submarine policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships. Instead, Merchant Ships would be searched and sunk only if they contained contraband, and then only after safe passage had been provided for the crew and passengers.

21. American Neutrality (cont) House-Grey Memorandum, February 1916 The so-called 'House-Grey Memorandum', noted in memo form by Grey, involved the U.S. 'inviting' German participation in a U.S. inspired peace convention; the failure of Germany to attend would lead to U.S. military involvement.

22. Won applause from many Americans • American Union Against Militarism • Campaign in 1916 based on his peace efforts • Plans for international organization to maintain peace • Laid out principles for a lasting peace in early 1917 • Constituted new world order based on equality of all nations

23. Despite repeated attempts to mediate an end to the European conflict through his aide, Colonel Edward House, Wilson worried that the United States might be drawn into the conflict; in the fall of 1915, he endorsed a $1 billion buildup of the army and navy.

24. Public opposition to entering the war made the election of 1916 a contest between two antiwar candidates-Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes; Wilson won by only a slim margin that limited his options in mobilizing the nation for war. • The events of early 1917 diminished Wilson's lingering hopes of staying out of the conflict.

25. German Escalation • German push for victory on land and at sea, early 1917 • To counter effect of Russian exit from war • Zimmerman telegram

26. The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, in conjunction with the Zimmermann telegram, inflamed anti-German sentiment in America.

27. coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917, to the German ambassador in the United States of America, Johann von Bernstorff • January 19, Bernstorff, per Zimmermann's request, forwarded the Telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.

28. Zimmermann sent the Telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by the German Empire on February 1, an act which German High Command feared would draw the neutral United States into war on the side of the Allies. • The Telegram, intercepted by the US, instructed Ambassador Eckardt to propose a military alliance between Germany and Mexico against the United States. • Mexico was to receive material aid in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican-American War, specifically the American states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eckardt was also instructed to urge Mexico to help broker an alliance between Germany and Japan.

29. German Escalation • Benevolent nature of war demonstrated by overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia • Helped Wilson justify intervention on side of democratic powers • April 2, Congress voted to enter war

30. Wilson war speech, April 1917Grand experiment to remake the world • Throughout March 1917, German U-boats attacked and sank American ships without warning; on April 2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war. Many Americans accepted Wilson's claim that America had no selfish aims and that U.S. participation in the war would make the world "safe for democracy."

31. The United States formally declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, although the vote was far from unanimous.

32. "Over There" • Many Americans assumed that their participation in the war would be limited to military and economic aid and were surprised to find that American troops would be sent to Europe. • To field an adequate fighting force, the American government conscripted almost 4 million men with the passage of the Selective Service Act in May 1917; women joined as navy clerks or army nurses. • The Selective Service system combined central direction from Washington with local civilian-controlled draft boards.

33. Images of women have been used to represent the United States since the nation was founded. Posters used female representations to give a feminine face to war aims. A beautiful woman flanked by the United States flag or dressed in "the stars and stripes" represented the patriotism of a nation at war. This poster depicts a beseeching woman wearing a cap that clearly echoes the American flag. In the backdrop is a European city with its church towers in flames, a potent reminder to Americans safe at home of the devastating war across the Atlantic.

34. Women's efforts were central to the nation's call for patriotism. In the midst of the final stages of their drive for citizenship, many women saw themselves, if not quite as regular soldiers, as members of a volunteer army that blanketed the nation in support of various wartime mobilization drives. These activities required exceptional administrative skills, and for some leisure-class women, this became full-time work. Given the eagerness with which women rushed into the public sphere to support the war, it is ironic that the majority of these images depicted traditional notions of womanhood. This poster features a female form to indicate that America's honor needed fighting men to protect it.

35. War posters traded on images of female sexuality. The saucy young woman dressed in a military uniform in this an image created by well-known artist Howard Chandler Christy, provocatively exclaims, "I Wish I Were a Man." What does this image suggest about modern notions of female sexuality emerging in the prewar years? Consider how the cross-dressed figure communicates the proper roles of men and women in wartime.

36. Hollywood joined in the government's efforts to work up war rage against the "brutal Huns,” as Germans were often called. In a film made for the British and French governments by America's leading filmmaker, D. W. Griffith, a hulking German is about to whip a defenseless farm woman (Lillian Gish, one of the nation's favorite stars) innocently carrying potatoes from a field. When the film premiered in Washington, D.C., in 1918, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson wrote Griffith pleading with him to cut or soften the violent whipping scene. Her plea was one of the few acts coming from the nation's capital that sought to moderate the hate campaign.

37. About 16,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I. This magazine cover, entitled "The Warrior's Return" offers a romanticized reconstruction of one homecoming. The young soldier, still in uniform and presumably fresh from France, rides his painted pony to the tepee of his parents, where they proudly welcome the brave warrior. Their tepee even has a star, a national symbol that families with sons in the military displayed on their homes. The painting sought to demonstrate that all Americans, even those on the margins of national life, were sufficiently assimilated and loyal to join the national sacrifice to defeat the enemy.

38. After the triumphal parades ended, attention turned to the question of what the heroes would do at home. The Department of Labor poster tries to convey a strong image of purposefulness and prosperity by portraying a soldier in front of a booming industrial landscape. The U.S. Employment Service had little to offer veterans beyond posters, however, and unions were unprepared to cope with the massive numbers of former soldiers who needed retraining. As workplace conditions deteriorated, the largest number of strikes in the nation's history broke out in 1919.

39. Before the war ended, some 25,000 American women made it to France, all as volunteers. Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed war the "Great Adventure,” and some women were eager to share in it. About half became nurses, where as one said, they dealt with "a sea of stretchers, a human carpet.” Women also drove ambulances, acted as social workers, and ran canteens for the Red Cross and the YMCA. One YMCA worker, Mary Baldwin, hoped that a few hours in her canteen would "make life, and even death, easier ‘out there.'” A handful of female physicians worked as contract surgeons for the U.S. army. Dr. Loy McAfee wore this uniform in France.

40. Nothing could make living in the trenches anything better than miserable, but a decent shave with a Gillette safety razor could offer temporary relief.

41. While trenches could be dry, rains brought mud so deep that wounded men drowned in it. By the time American doughboys arrived in Europe, troops had faced one another for more than three years, burrowed into a double line of trenches, protected by barbed wire, machine gun nests, and mortars, backed by heavy artillery. A pair of dry boots was perhaps one of the greatest comforts a soldier could experience in the trench.

42. General John J. Pershing was head of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), but the new recruits had to be trained before being transported across the submarine ­infested Atlantic. • The government countered the U-boats by sending armed convoys across the Atlantic; the plan worked: no American soldiers were killed on the way to Europe. • Pershing was reluctant to put his men under foreign commanders; thus, until May 1918, the French and the British still bore the brunt of the fighting.

43. Their burden increased when the Eastern Front collapsed after the Russian Revolution in November 1917. Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the new Bolshevik regime surrendered about a third of Russia's territories in return for peace with the Central Powers. • At the request of Allied leaders, Pershing committed about 60,000 Americans to help the French repel the Germans in the battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.

44. American and Allied forces brought the .German offensive to a halt in mid-July; by mid-September 1918, American and French troops had forced the Germans to retreat. • An intense campaign in the Argonne forest eventually broke the German defenses, at the cost of over 26,000 American lives.

45. American Fighting Force • Impact of American entry • U.S. troops separate from Allied forces • American Expeditionary Force • John J. Pershing • Eased pressure on British and French on Western front

46. Wilson’s Fourteen Points, January 1918 • To encounter effect of secret Allied treaties • Demonstrated that war was being fought for just purposes • Germany launched huge offensives in March and April of 1918 • War ended in November 1918

47. The American Fighting Force • The United States lost 53,000 American servicemen in the fighting, and another 63,000 died from other causes; the Allies and Central Powers lost 8 million soldiers. • The ethnic diversity of the American military worried some observers, but most optimistically predicted that service in the armed forces would promote the Americanization of immigrants. • The Americanization of the army was imperfect at best; African Americans were in segregated units under the control of white officers and were assigned to the most menial tasks.

48. Racial violence erupted at several camps. The worst incident occurred in Houston in August 1917, when 15 white soldiers were killed by black soldiers in retaliation for a string of racial incidents. • A group of former AEF soldiers formed the first American Legion in 1919 in order to preserve the "memories and incidents" of their association in the Great War. War on the Home Front

49. War on the Home Front • Mobilizing Industry and the Economy • Mobilizing American Workers • Wartime Reform: Woman Suffrage and Prohibition • Promoting National Unity

50. Mobilizing Industry and the Economy • The cost of the war to America eventually reached $33 billion. The government paid for the war by enacting the War Revenue Bills of 1917 and 1918, and by collecting excess-profits taxes from corporations. • The central agency for coordinating wartime production, the War Industries Board (WIB) under Bernard Baruch, epitomized an unparalleled expansion of the federal government's powers.