2. 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
4. 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
6. 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
8. 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. 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
14. 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.
16. ―Let Us Act without unnecessary
Risk.‖
―Let us Act without unnecessary
Delay‖
18. STALEMATE, 1915
Trench warfare
New weapons
Artillery, machine guns, and barbed wire
Exploding bullets and liquid fire
Poison gas
Physically devastating and psychologically disturbing
20. 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
21. 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‖
22. 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.
23. 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)
24. 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
26. 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)
27. 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
30. 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
33. 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
34. 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)
36. 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)
38. 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)
40. 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
42. 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
43. 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
45. 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)
46. 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)
47. 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
Notas do Editor
When elected to the presidency, Wilson admitted that he had no experience with foreign affairs, and that would be where he would spend most of his time during his administration. What he lacked in experience, he believed he made up for in ideals. He and his secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan, believed that it was the job of the United States to spread democracy across the world. Mexico had been undergoing a revolution for almost three years when Wilson took office. Presidential assassins became president until they were assassinated, and the cycle repeated itself. Wilson expressed sympathy for the Mexican citizens but at first took no direct actions. In the Tampico incident, American sailors were captured while obtaining supplies in Tampico, Mexico. The situation was diffused, but not before their commander demanded that Mexicans salute the U.S. flag, a grave insult to Mexico. Then, in 1916, Pancho Villa invaded Texas and New Mexico and killed seventeen Americans. Wilson dispatched the army to find him in Mexico, but they never did.
The July Crisis It can be argued that the twentieth century began with the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. The ostensible cause of the Great War was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo on June 28. However, there were other, more subtle, reasons behind the outbreak of the war. The Bismarckian system of secret alliances had broken down. The Second Industrial Revolution created the chemical and electrical industries; it also introduced changes in management that dramatically increased the speed of production. The end of the nineteenth century was also the period of new imperialism in which the great powers of Europe and the United States made a desperate bid to colonize new territories in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. An arms race developed as well. On the cultural front, the grand system of values referred to as Victorianism had finally succumbed under its own weight. Something had to give; in some sense, Europeans welcomed the war when it finally broke out in August 1914. It was to be a glorious war and over by Christmas. However, it was not.
The Lusitania Americans were outraged when a German torpedo sank the Lusitania on May 7, 1915.
Stand by the president In this 1915 cartoon, Woodrow Wilson holds to the middle course between the pacifism of Bryan (whose sign reads, “Let Us Avoid Unnecessary Risks”) and the belligerence of Roosevelt (whose sign reads, “Let Us Act without Unnecessary Delay”).
Peace with honor Woodrow Wilson’s policies of neutrality proved popular in the 1916 campaign.
Roosevelt desired to be the Republican candidate in 1916, but because of his actions in the 1912 election, the party chose Charles Hughes. The Democrats nominated Wilson again. Running on the slogan “He kept us out of war,” Wilson won a second term. Following his reelection, Wilson yet again tried to broker a peace, to no avail. When Germany broke its pledge to only wage restricted submarine warfare, Wilson countered by arming merchant ships. Then in February 1917, the Zimmerman Telegram was revealed. Zimmerman, the German foreign minister, had instructed his ambassador in Mexico to have him tell the Mexican government that should it join with the Central Powers and attack the United States. In return, Mexico would receive back all the land that had been taken away.
Women aid the war effort Women working at the Bloomfield International Fuse Company, New Jersey, 1918.
The Beast of Berlin A scene from the movie The Beast of Berlin, which gave audiences a propagandistic view of World War I.
American casualties A Salvation Army worker writing a letter home for a wounded soldier.
Wilson hoped to impose on the victorious Allies and the defeated Central Powers a series of agreements designed to prevent such an occurrence again. The German government desired to adopt the Fourteen Points as part of the peace treaty, but the victors only viewed them as a foundation on which to begin negotiating. While this was occurring, the war was still being waged, although the end was in sight. Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Italy all dropped out of the war.
Allied victory Celebration of the armistice ending World War I, New York City, November 1918.
Wilson was the first president to leave the country for an extended period, which he did to attend the peace conference. While he was gone he would lose touch with the American people while at the same time being hailed as the victor for the Allies while in Europe. He would alienate Republicans who had helped win the war by openly requesting the citizens only vote for Democrats in the 1918 election. When he arrived in Paris, Wilson found that many of his allies were not interested in the Fourteen Points. The cornerstone of the Fourteen Points was the League of Nations, a place where nations would settle their disputes by diplomacy, not war. When the treaty approving the League was finished, Wilson returned to a defiant Senate, which refused to ratify it.
“The League of Nations Argument in a Nutshell” Jay N. “Ding” Darling’s summation of the League controversy.
France demanded Germany pay reparation for the damages the war had caused. This would also keep Germany weak and unable economically to rise again. Germany was divided into new nations with areas that would serve as buffer states if they were to become aggressive again. The German delegation was not allowed to partake in these talks but rather was presented with the finalized document. The Senate still would not ratify the treaty. Wilson decided that he would apply pressure on the senators through their constituents, and he began a whistle-stop tour of the nation to drum up support. Eventually, it would lead him to a stroke, which left him paralyzed on his left side for the rest of his life. Finally in 1921, the treaty was ratified, but Wilson was long out of the office by then.
Why was self-determination difficult for states in Central Europe? How did territorial concessions weaken Germany? Why might territorial changes like the creation of the Polish Corridor or the concession of the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia have created problems that would surface in the future?
With the war over, society and industry had to revert to their prewar levels of activity. But with the returning soldiers came a new problem: the Spanish flu. Before the spring of 1918, 22 million would die globally from this virulent stain of influenza. Released from wartime constraints, workers began to strike for their demands. The largest strike was the U.S. Steel strike in 1919, which resulted in 340,000 workers walking off the job. Eventually, the workers won and returned to work.
The year 1919 was marked by race riots in the United States. Whites in Longview, Texas, invaded the black side of town to find a black man who was accused of allegedly dating a white woman. Washington, D.C., was mobbed by white and black gangs for four days until soldiers and a rainstorm ended it. The fear that what had occurred in Russia could also occur in the United States promoted the first Red Scare. Wartime hysteria over everything German soon found another roost in all things communist. Militants mailed bombs to prominent members of the government.