1. UNITED STATES
IN WORLD WAR I
Making the World Safe for
Democracy

2. PRE-WAR WOODROW WILSON
 Woman Suffrage
 Federal Reserve System
 Panic in 1907 caused failure of
several major financial
companies. J.P. Morgan used
his personal wealth and
connections to restore
economy.
 Federal Trade Commission
 FTC established to investigate
unfair trade practices such as
monopolies and price fixing.
New businesses were being
shut out of markets by these
unfair practices.

3. WILSON AND MEXICO
 Mexican revolution in 1911. Pro-business
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dictator Porfirio Diaz overthrown by
Francisco Madero after Diaz disallowed
the votes that would have legally elected
Madero.
Madero assassinated in 1913 by military
leader Victoriano Huerta. With behind the
scenes support from American mining and
oil interests.
Wilson administration would not
“recognize” Huerta government and
Wilson sent Marine Corps to Vera Cruz.
Mexicans outraged. Mexican Civil War
continued into 1916 and in that year
Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New
Mexico killing 17 Americans.
Wilson sent 10,000 U.S. troops to Mexico.

4. AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 1914-1917
 Americans divided on war
 Many Americans linked U.S. and
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England as protectors of world’s
liberties and freedoms.
Irish-Americans HATED England,
especially after the violent
suppression of the 1916 Easter
Rebellion.
German-Americans split, but most
did not want war against their
homeland.
Women & male Progressive
reformers thought war would
derail efforts for social change at
home. (it did)
Jewish refugees from Tsarist
Russia did not want to ally with
Russia!

5. LUSITANIA AND SUBMARINE WARFARE
 Germany sinking any and all
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vessels headed for combatant
nations.
Warning signs posted across
Europe. This was not a secret or
stealth attack.
British Cruise Ship Lusitania sunk
by torpedoes May 1915. 124
Americans died.
America outraged. Wilson begins
military preparedness and warned
Germany against killing neutral
citizens.
German government imposes
restrictions on submarine activity
in May 1916.

6. ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM MARCH
1917
 Germany, hoping to keep U.S.
OUT of war proposed support
for a Mexican invasion of the
United States.
 Russian Revolution in same
month eliminated one of the
other roadblocks to U.S.
involvement.
 Without Tsarist Russia, war
could be seen as a war “To
make the world safe for
Democracy.”
 Wilson addressed Congress
on April 2, 1917. Congress
declared war on Germany.

7. WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918

8. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 Schlieffen Plan attacks
slowed by Belgian
resistance.
 German plan called for
speedy attack through
Belgium. Germans were
brutal in their effort to reach
France, and Paris.
 “The Rape of Belgium”
became one of the major
Anti-German propaganda
themes.

9. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 German commanders altered
Schlieffen Plan in the face of
Belgian resistance and
French counter attack.
 Germans retreated to a line
near the Marne river in
Northeastern France
 French military requisitioned
nearly 600 Parisian taxi cabs
to transport troops to the
front.
 They actually paid the
drivers!

10. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 Germans dig trenches to end
retreat.
 French cannot penetrate
German machine gun fire.
 French dig trenches to stop
any German counter attacks.
 STALEMATE 1914-1918

11. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 1st Battle of the Marne,
September 6-10, 1914.
 In a 5 day battle,
French/English listed over
260,000 casualties
 German casualties, although
no official numbers were ever
released, are said to have
numbered more than
250,000

12. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 By 1916 each side had
suffered more than a million
deaths.
 Ideas of war fare were based
on previous wars and the
glory of the offensive.
Defensive warfare lacked
style.
 This led to the ironic reality of
repeated and fruitless attacks
against entrenched
defenders.

13. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 Battle of Verdun. February-
December1916. German
offensive captured several
key fortifications but failed to
break through French lines.
 French counter attacks over
the next several months were
undermanned because
overall French Commander
Joseph Joffre wanted to save
troops for a French
OFFENSIVE.
 337,000 French Casualties
370,000 German Casualties
 “Front Line” moved roughly a
mile.

14. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918
 Battle of the Somme, July-
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November 1916. British led
assault supported by French.
Massive artillery barrage
intended to destroy German
trenches did not succeed.
On the first day of the assault
Britain suffered over 58,000
casualties…almost 20,000
dead.
420,000 British Casualties
200,000 French Casualties
500,000 German Casualties
British claimed a victory after
capturing 7 miles of former
German Territory.

15. WORLD WAR I, 1941-1918

16. WORLD WAR I, 1914-1918

17. PEACE AND THE 14 POINTS
 U.S. Involvement made
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outcome inevitable.
Woodrow Wilson saw himself
as the peacemaker.
14 Points offered Germany
an honorable exit.
Germany approached U.S.
for peace terms on October
5, 1918
Armistice signed November
11, 1918
England/France unhappy
with Wilson and 14 pts.

18. PARIS 1919, BIRTH OF A NEW
EUROPE
 Germany “defeated”
 Under the peace
settlement, Germany was required
to pay reparations eventually set
at $33 billion; accept responsibility
for the war; cede territory to
Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denma
rk, France, and Poland; give up its
overseas colonies; and accept an
allied military force on the west
bank of the Rhine River for 15
years.
 Empires broken by World War
I:
 Russia, 1917
 Austria-Hungary, 1918
 German Reich, 1918
 Ottoman Empire, 1922

19. REDRAWING THE WORLD MAP

20. TURKEY AND ARMENIA
 Ottoman Empire ruled by Islamic
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Turks
“Young Turks” took control in 1908
and began an expansionist policy
to link Turkic peoples
This effort brought Ottoman Turks
into conflict with Russia
1914 Ottoman Empire joined
Germany and Austria Hungary
1915-1923 approximately 1.5
million Christian Armenians died
from systematic Turkish abuses.
Very limited outside assistance
and almost no internal Armenian
resistance.

21. WORLD WAR I AND THE MIDDLE EAST

22. POST 1919 WORLD PROBLEMS
 New International boundaries
created ethnic conflicts in
Europe, Middle East and Asia
 Soviet Union as a
Socialist/Communist state
ultimately led to Cold War and
massive military spending across
the globe
 Re-establishment of Colonial
government in French Indochina
increased anti-Western ideas. Ho
Chi Minh turned to Communism
 Problems, real and imagined, for
Germany allowed Adolf Hitler to
exploit fears among Germans
and rise to power.