WORLD WAR I
I. The Great War rages in Europe
A. Beginning of the Great War
1. June 28, 1914, Serb nationalist,
Princip, killed Austrian heir Archduke Ferdinand
and his wife while visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, an Austro-Hungarian
province.
2. Austria issued a warning
to Serbia to let Austrian investigators examine the
evidence. If Serbia did not agree, it would be war.
a.Serbia backed by Russia.
b. Austria backed by Germany eventually declared war on Serbia.
3. Serbia, backed by Russia,
initially refused to accept Austria’s terms.
4. Germany declared war
on Russia and France in early days of August.
5. Germany launched massive
invasion of France through Belgium (Schlieffen Plan)
a. Objective was to knock France out early so they could concentrate on
Russia.
b. Britain, seeing its coastline jeopardized by invasion of Belgium, allied
with France;
declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914.
c. A year later, Britain, France, & Russia lured Italy on their side
d. Four long years of bloody trench warfare in the west would ensue while
savage
fighting would occur in eastern Europe.
-- 10 million soldiers would die; 20 million civilians (mostly in Russia)
6. Central Powers:
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and later Ottoman Empire & Bulgaria.
-- Also called the Triple Alliance
7. Allies: France,
Britain, Russia, (later Japan, Italy, and the U.S.)
-- Also called the Triple Entente
B. Precarious U.S. neutrality
1. Wilson called for
U.S. neutrality in both thought and deed.
2. Both sides in Europe
tried to gain U.S. support.
a. Britain enjoyed close cultural, linguistic, and economic ties with America
and had advantage of controlling most transatlantic cables.
-- Britain used propaganda to its fullest in U.S. denouncing the "evil"
Germans.
b. Germany and Austria-Hungary counted on natural sympathies of
German-Americans in U.S.
i. Americans with at least one foreign-born parent with blood ties to
Central Powers numbered about 11 million in 1914.
ii. Some openly in support of Germany but most were grateful to be
away from the European war.
c. Many Irish-Americans, German-Americans and Jews did not favor allies.
d. Most Americans anti-German from the outset of the war.
i. Kaiser Wilhelm seen as symbol of arrogant autocracy while
Germany seen as ruthless for its invasion of neutral Belgium.
ii. German & Austrian agents hurt image of Central Powers when
they resorted to violence in U.S. factories and ports.
e. Yet, most Americans eager to stay out of the war.
C. U.S. money flows to Europe
1. Initially, the war had
a disastrous impact on the American economy.
a. Germany, France, Britain, and Austria went off gold standard and quickly
sought
to exchange their American securities for American gold.
-- Heavy volume of sales and drain of U.S. gold threatened to sink U.S.
stock
market and the banking system worldwide.
b. U.S. plunged into sharp recession; stock market did not open again until
November.
2. U.S. economy received
a boost via British & French war orders by Spring 1915.
a. Trade with Allies reached $2.4 billion
-- J. P. Morgan and Company and other bankers lent the Allies over $3 billion
during period of U.S. neutrality.
b. Central Powers protested the massive trade between U.S. & the Allies
but this trade did not violate the international neutrality laws.
i. Germany technically free to trade with U.S. but was prevented by geography
and British navy’s blockade of mines and ships across the North
Sea.
ii. Lost trade with Central Powers only $169 million.
3. Britain began forcing
American vessels into British ports which, despite U.S.
protests, proved effective in virtually ending U.S.-German trade.
a. In response, Germany announced a submarine war area around British
Isles.
b. Submarine a brand new war technology which did not fit existing international
law.
-- Old rule of a warship stopping and boarding a merchantship no longer
applied as a surfacing sub could be rammed or sunk.
c. Germany stated that they would not try to sink neutral shipping
but warned
that mistakes would probably occur.
d. Wilson sternly warned Germany that it would be held to "strict accountability"
for
any attacks on U.S. vessels or citizens.
-- Hoped to keep up profitable neutral trading rights while hoping that
no
high-seas incident would force his hand to go to war.
D. Submarine warfare and the sinking of the Lusitania
1. In first months of 1915,
German U-boats sank about ninety ships in the war zone.
2. Lusitania,
a British passenger liner, was sunk off coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915
a. 1,198 lives lost including 128 Americans.
b. Lusitania carrying 4,200 cases of small-arms ammunition,
a fact that the
Germans used for sinking the ship.
c. Germany refused to apologize; U-boat commander lionized in Germany.
d. Significance: American public opinion turned against Germany; seen
by many
as beginning of U.S. road to entry into the war.
3. In response, Wilson,
who did not want war, attempted to sternly warn Germans
in a measured approach against further aggression against U.S. interests.
a. Sec. of State Bryan, a pacifist, resigned rather than get involved
in diplomacy that
might lead to war.
-- Angered Wilson did not order Americans to stay off belligerent ships.
b. Wilson: "There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight."
-- War-mongers like TR incensed and assailed Wilson.
4. When another British
liner, the Arabic, was sunk in August, 1915, with loss of
two Americans, Germany reluctantly agreed not to sink unarmed and unresisting
passenger ships without warning.
-- Signaled some success in Wilson’s measured approach.
E. House-Grey Memorandum
1. Early 1915, Wilson sent
Colonel House on unsuccessful visit to belligerent nations
on both sides to offer mediation.
2. Later, House returned
to London to propose Wilson call a peace conference.
a. If Germany refused, U.S. would enter war on Allied side.
b. Agreement signed in February, 1916 by British foreign secretary Edward
Gray
F. Sussex Ultimatum
1. March 1916, Germany torpedoed
a French passenger steamer, the Sussex.
-- Ship damaged but not sunk; 80 casualties including four Americans
2. Wilson informed Germany
that unless they stopped sinking merchant ships without
warning, he would break diplomatic relations -- an almost certain prelude
to war.
3. Germany’s response:
a. Reluctantly, agreed not to sink passenger & merchant ships without
warning.
b. However, U.S. would have to persuade the Allies to modify what Germany
saw as an illegal blockade.
4. Thus, Wilson’s diplomatic
victory precarious as Germany could renounce its
agreement at any time if the blockade continued to inflict damage on
her.
5. Wilson embarked on increased
preparedness.
-- Revenue Acts of 1916 & 1917 increased taxes on high incomes
-- Signifiance: Pre-war revenues-75% excise taxes and tariffs; war &
post-war revenues
–75% from income, estate and excess profits taxes.
G. "Watchful waiting" during Fall 1916 (election
season)
1. Wilson’s cautious stance
on Mexico and Europe became known as "watchful waiting"
2. Meanwhile, Germany had
finally proposed a peace conference on Dec. 12, 1916, but
without Wilson.
H. "Peace without victory" speech, Jan. 22, 1917:
Wilson declared only a negotiated "peace
without victory"
would prove durable.
II. German aggression pulls U.S. into war
A. January, 1917, Germany declared intentions of
waging unrestricted submarine warfare.
1. All ships would be sunk
including American ships.
2. Used their Sussex pledge
to justify policy as U.S. had not persuaded Allies to
stop "illegal" blockade.
3. Germans believed U.S.
would enter the war too late.
B. Wilson broke diplomatic relations w/ Germany
but refused to move toward war unless
"overt" acts were committed
against U.S. lives and property.
1. Asked Congress
for authority to arm U.S. merchant ships; Midwestern Senators
blocked the measure.
-- Illustrated isolationist sentiment in U.S.
2. Wilson had held Zimmerman
Note for a week and now used it as his ace in the hole to
get Congressional aproval to arm merchant ships.
C. Zimmerman Note
1. Intercepted by Britain
February 24th and published in U.S. on March 1, 1917
2. Contents:
a. German foreign secretary Zimmerman had secretly proposed an alliance
with Mexico
using the recovery of TX, NM, and AZ as bait if Germany won the war.
b. Japan would be invited into an anti-U.S. alliance.
3. Americans, esp. westerners,
outraged
D. German U-boats sank 4 unarmed U.S. merchant vessels
in 1st two weeks of March.
E. April 2, 1917, Wilson asks joint session of
Congress for a declaration of war.
1. April 6, America declared
war on Germany
-- House voted 373-50; Senate voted 82-6
2. Five reasons why Wilson
asked for a Declaration of war
a. Most important: Unrestricted submarine warfare; U.S. no longer
able to protect its ships
-- Wanted to preserve trade to Allied markets.
b. Zimmerman Note
c. Russian Revolution in March 1917 created more acceptable Russian democracy
than
a Czarist regime as an ally.
d. U.S. could end war quickly and insure itself a major role in ensuing
peace.
e. Moral reason: Germ. mass-killing of civilians; Br. harassment of U.S.
ships endurable
3. Later myth emerged that
U.S. munitions manufacturers and Wall Street bankers had
lured the U.S. into war in order to make handsome profits. (Nye Committee
in 1930s)
-- In reality, they were already making huge profits unhampered by wartime
gov’t restrictions and heavy taxation.
III. Wilsonian idealism
A. For over a century, U.S. had prided themselves
on isolationism from the Old World.
B. Wilson needed to instill burning idealism in
order to get Americans aroused to the war task.
1. Twin goals:
a. "Make the world safe for democracy" as a crusade
b. "A war to end war"
2. Wilson contrasted selfish
war aims of the Europeans with U.S. altruism.
a. U.S. did not fight for profit or territorial conquest.
b. U.S. wanted to shape an international order in which democracy could
flourish without fear of autocracy and militarism.
c. Wilson genuine in his belief in democratic ideals and U.S. as a world
model.
3. Result: Persuaded Americans
to embark on the crusade
IV. Fourteen Points
A. Delivered 14 Points Address to Congress on January,
8, 1918.
1. Made Wilson the moral
leader of the Allied cause
a. Inspired embattled Allies to push harder in the war
b. Demoralized enemy gov'ts by issuing alluring promises to their dissatisfied
minorities.
2. Provisions:
a. Abolish secret treaties (pleased liberals of all countries)
b. Freedom of the seas (appealed to Germans & Americans wary of Br.)
c. Remove economic barriers (comforting to Gr. who feared post-war vengeance)
d. Reduction of armament burdens (appealed to taxpayers everywhere)
e. Adjustment of colonial claims in interests of both native peoples and
colonizers (pleased anti-imperialists).
f. Promise of independence ("self-determination") to oppressed minority
groups (e.g. Poles, Czechs), millions of which lived in Gr. and Austria-Hung.
g. 14th point: International organization to supply collective security
i. Foreshadowed League of Nations
ii. Wilson hoped it would guarantee political independence and
territorial integrity of all countries, large or small.
V. Mobilizing for war
A. Creel Committee – Committee of Public Information
(CPI)
1. Committee on Public
Information created to sell America on the war and sell the world
on Wilsonian war aims.
a. Headed by George Creel, a young journalist.
b. Established voluntary censorship of the press.
c. Employed about 150,000 workers at home and overseas.
-- Sent out 75,000 "four-minute men" to deliver speeches (incl. movie stars)
d. Propaganda included posters, leaflets & pamphlets and anti-German
movies.
2. Set-up volunteer Liberty
Leagues in every community and urged members to spy on
neighbors especially with foreign names and to report any suspicious words
or actions
to the justice department.
3. Creel typified American
war mobilization which relied more on aroused passion
and voluntary compliance than on formal laws.
-- Liability: Oversold ideals of Wilson and led the world to expect
too much.
B. Restrictions on Civil Liberties during WWI.
1. Most serious attacks
on civil liberties since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.
2. Anti-German hysteria
swept the country, largely due to Creel Committee propaganda
(also Food Administration and liberty loan drives)
a. Rampant rumors of spying and sabotage resulted.
b. A few German-Americans were tarred, feathered, and beaten: one lynched
c. Orchestras found it unsafe to play Wagner or Beethoven
d. Teaching of German language discontinued in many high schools &
colleges.
e Yet, Germans proved to be loyal Americans
3. Espionage Act of 1917
a. Provided fines & imprisonment for persons making false statements
aiding
the enemy, inciting rebellion in the military, or obstructing draft recruitment.
b. Wilson also wanted broad presidential censorship powers; Congress refused.
4. Sedition Act
of 1918 reflected current fears about Germans and anti-war Americans.
a. Forbade any criticism of the gov’t, flag, or uniform (even if insignificant)
and
expanded mail exclusion.
b. Resulted in 1,900 prosecutions
c. Anti-war Socialists and members of radical union IWW especially
targeted.
i. Eugene V. Debs convicted under the Espionage Act in 1918 and
sentenced to 10 years in a federal penitentiary.
-- Speech at his party’s convention was critical of U.S. policy in entering
the war and warned of the dangers of militarism.
-- Debs pardoned by President Harding in 1921
ii. William D. "Big Bill" Hayward and 99 other IWWs also convicted.
d. Schenck v. U.S.
(1919)
a. Upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act
b. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., stated Congress could limit
free speech when words represented a "clear and present danger...
that ... will bring about ... evils that Congress has the right to prevent."
"A person could not cry "fire" in an empty theater."
c. Holmes recognized importance of protecting "the principle of
free thought -- not free thought for those who agree with us but
freedom for the thought that we hate."
-- Eventually became a landmark case for freedom of the press.
d. Mild press censorship ensued while some papers such as The Masses
and
Appeal to Reason were denied mailing privileges.
5. WWI Constituted an
ugly chapter in history of U.S. civil liberty.
a. After the war, presidential pardons freely granted.
b. Some victims stayed in jail into the 1930s.
c. 1920, Wilson vetoed a bill to abolish the Espionage and Sedition acts
i. Largely due to communist witch hunt of 1919-1920
ii. Wilson one of most nativist presidents in U.S. history
C. Mobilizing factories
1. Nation's economy initially
not geared for war
a. Wilson belatedly backed mild preparedness measures beginning in 1915
i. Shipbuilding program launched (more for trade than war)
ii. Beefed up the army which only had 100,000 regulars (ranked 15th in
world)
b. Ignorance regarding war preparedness was major stumblingblock.
i. No one knew how much steel or explosive powder the U.S. was
capable of producing.
ii. Traditional fears of big gov’t hamstrung efforts to centralize the
economy from Washington (states’ rights Democrats and businessmen)
2. Bernard Baruch appointed
to head the War Industries Board in March,1918.
a. Formed by Wilson late in war after significant political battles with
Congress.
i. Response to lack of centralized control due to political opposition
ii. Military refused to cooperate with the civilian agency in purchasing
supplies.
-- Domestic war effort almost collapsed in December 1917.
-- Wilson responded by taking firmer control under his emergency
war powers.
b. Aimed to control raw materials, production, prices & labor relations.
c. Never had more than feeble formal powers; disbanded within days
after the armistice.
i. Most heavy equipment and munitions used by U.S. produced by Britain
or France.
ii. U.S. business’ desire for laissez faire and for a weak central
gov’t strong.
iii. Wilson’s defeat in 1918 Congressional elections forced him to abandon
any plans
for reconstruction or ordered demobilization.
d. Set precedent for future gov’t-industry cooperation for 1920s and New
Deal
agencies of 1930s.
3. Encouraging workers for
the war effort
a. Slogan "Labor Will Win the War".
b. Women encouraged to enter industry and agriculture (called "farmerettes")
i. Women’s contributions prompted Wilson to endorse woman suffrage
as "a vitally necessary war measure"
ii. Over 1 million women shifted from home to industry.
-- Worked in munitions plants, ran elevators, delivered messages.
iii. Many women worked because inflation reduced husband’s earnings.
iv. By 1920, however, fewer women worked for wages than in 1910.
v. 19th Amendment passed in 1920.
c. Thousands of African Americans in the South migrated north to work
in
war-related factories (far more Southern whites migrated North)
i. Significant sociological significance: Race riots occurred in 26 cities
ii. W.E.B. Du Bois supported the war effort as a victory would improve
life for blacks in a democracy.
d. "Work or fight" rule issued by War Dept. in 1918: required able-bodied
men to
regularly employed in some useful occupation.
e. Mexican-American workers also replaced workers who were on the front
line.
4. Grievances of labor
a. WWI inflation kept
pace with 1918 wages (which had 2X since 1914).
b. About 6,000 strikes during
the war (many by IWW)
c. National War Labor
Board created to oversee labor disputes
i. With Taft as co-chairman, finally established as the supreme court for
labor disputes;
presided over 1,000 cases.
ii. Essentially prohibited strikes but encouraged progressive reforms:
higher-wages,
8-hr day, and unionization.
iii. Samuel Gompers a board member; gave loyal support to the war effort.
-- Promised to prevent strikes during the war.
iv. Signficance: recognition of workers’ right to unionize revolutionized
labor relations.
-- Union membership up from 2.5 million in 1916 to 4 million in 1919.
d. Left-wing IWW
(popularly known as the "I Won’t Works" or "Wobblies"
used crippling labor sabotage (including 6,000 strikes) to undermine war
effort.
i. Many were transient laborers in fruit or lumber industries and were
victims of the
worst working conditions in the country.
ii. Many "Wobblies" arrested, beaten up, or run out of town
VI. The War Economy
A. Herbert Hoover and the Food Administration
1. Quaker-humanitarian already
a hero since he had successfully led a massive
charitable drive to feed the starving people of war-torn Belgium.
2. Preferred to rely
on voluntary compliance rather than formal laws.
a. Deliberately rejected issuing ration cards (practice used in Europe)
b. Used propaganda with posters, billboards, newspapers, pulpits, and movies
to gain support.
c. Proclaimed wheatless Wednesdays and meatless Tuesdays -- voluntary basis.
d. "Victory gardens" popped up in backyards or vacant lots.
e. Fixed high prices to encourage production of wheat, pork, etc.
3. Congress severely restricted
the use of foodstuffs for manufacturing alcoholic
beverages.
a. Spirit of self-denial helped accelerate wave of prohibition sweeping
the U.S.
-- Many leading brewers were of German descent which made this drive more
popular.
b. 18th Amendment, passed in 1919, prohibited sale, transportation,
manufacturing, and consumption of alcohol.
4. Results:
a. Farm production increased by 25%
b. Food exports to the Allies tripled in volume.
c. Hoover’s methods imitated in other war agencies.
i. Fuel Administration: "heatless Mondays," "lightless Tuesdays," and
"gasless Sundays."
ii. Treasury sponsored monster parades and used slogans like "Halt the
Hun" to promote four great bond drives.
B. Bond Drives ("Liberty Loans")
1. Parades and slogans used
to promote four great Liberty Loan drives followed by
a Victory Loan campaign in 1919.
a. Each drive oversubscribed: resulting increased money supply caused
terrible inflation.
-- Like Civil War, gov’t partially financed war with inflation.
2. Coercion used on German-Americans
to buy Liberty Bonds
C. Combined efforts netted 2/3 of current cost
of the war to the U.S.
--Remaining $10.5 billion raised by increased taxes (16th Amendment in
1913)
D. Government enforcement
1. Took over nation’s railroads
following horrible traffic problems in late 1917
-- Gov’t paid owners rent and spent over $500 million in improved tracks
and equipment.
2. Seized enemy merchant
vessels trapped in America’s harbors and orchestrated
a gigantic drive to construct new merchant ships.
a. Shipbuilding program too late to make a substantial impact.
b. Over 1/2 of U.S. troops sent to Europe transported on foreign ships.
3. Major U.S. contribution
to war effort was food, money, and above all, men.
VII. Mobilizing the army
A. April & May, 1917, Allies claimed they were
running out of manpower; Western Front
would collapse.
-- Hitherto, Americans hoped
their navy would tackle most of the fighting and that
loans and war materials would be their primary contribution.
B. Wilson proposed universal male conscription to
raise an army.
1. Proposed bill ran into
much criticism in Congress.
2. Selective Service
Act passed in May 1917
a. Required registration of all men ages 18 through 45.
b. No "draft dodger" could purchase his exemption or hire a substitute.
-- Yet, many exemptions for men in key industries, such as shipbuilding.
C. Results:
1. Conscription proved effective
a. Within months, army increased from about 200K to over 4 million.
-- 400,000 blacks drafted or enlisted (segregated units)
b. For the first time, women admitted to the armed forces: 11,000 to the
navy
and 269 to the marine corp.
c. No bloodshed
d. Yet, 337,000 "slackers" escaped the draft and about 4,000 were excused
--10,000 prosecuted before the armistice.
VIII. American "Doughboys" in WWI
A. War at sea
1. 1917 -- Germans sank
6.5 tons of Allied and U.S. shipping
-- Only 2.7 million tons were built in the meantime.
2. U.S. began convoy system
in July 1917; British navy greatly resisted German U-boats
-- Losses fell from 900,000 tons in April to 400,000 tons in Dec. 1917
and
remained below 200,000 per month after April 1918.
B. Communist Russia’s quick withdrawal from the
war eased Germany’s eastern front.
1. Germany quickly re-deployed
battle tested German divisions to the front in France
where for the first time, they enjoyed superiority in numbers.
2. Germany correctly calculated
U.S would be late in coming into war.
C. America’s "Unknown War" against Russia
1. 1917: Wilson secretly
sent aid to White Russians fighting the Bolsheviks.
2. Summer of 1918: Wilson
ordered a naval blockade of Russia.
3. Archangel expedition:
(summer 1918) U.S. contributed about 5,000 troops to an
Allied invasion of northern Russia at Archangel (Murmansk) hoping
to keep
Russian stores of munitions from falling into German hands.
-- Soon, aided anti-Bolsheviks and stayed until June, 1919.
4. Wilson sent nearly 10,000
troops to Siberia as part of Allied expedition.
-- Purpose: prevent Japan from gaining a stranglehold on Siberia, to rescue
about
45,000 marooned Czech troops, and to snatch military supplies from Bolsheviks.
5. U.S. involvement help
prolong Russian civil war resulting in thousands more casualties.
6. Russia long resented
these "capitalistic" interventions as trying to strangle
their communist revolution.
7. Wilson believed spread
of communism was greatest threat to peace and international order.
-- Made him reluctant to dispute too much with other leaders at Versailles.
D. Western Front: France, 1918
1. Spring 1918, Germany
launched its massive drive on the western front.
2. American Expeditionary
Force enters the war
a. AEF composed of soldiers and Marines sent to France under Pershing
(small initial force increased to over 2 million by Nov. 1918.)
b. First U.S. trainees used as replacements in Allied armies and were generally
deployed in quiet sectors with the British and French.
c. Some Americans fought in small detachments in Belgium and Italy.
3. Late May, 1918, Germany came
within 40 mile of Paris.
a. 30,000 U.S. troops thrown into the breach at Chateau-Thierry,
in the
heart of the German advance.
i. First significant engagement of U.S. troops in a European war.
ii. U.S. headlines boasted (exaggerating) Americans saved Paris.
b. By July, Germany’s drive spent and U.S. forces participated in French
counteroffensive in the Second Battle of the Marne.
-- Significance: Beginning of German withdrawal never to be reversed.
c. Sept 1918, 9 U.S. divisions joined 4 French divisions to push Germans
from the St. Mihiel salient, a major German stronghold in France.
-- 15,000 Germans captured; set stage for Allied offensive
4. General John J. ("Black
Jack") Pershing assigned head of a separate U.S. army.
a. Americans had been dissatisfied with merely bolstering British and French
forces and demanded a separate army.
b. Army assigned a front of 85 miles, stretching northwestward from the
Swiss border to meet the French lines.
c. Pershing’s army undertook the Meuse-Argonne offensive, from Sept.
26
to Nov. 11, 1918.
i. Part of last mighty Allied assault involving several million men.
ii. Largest battle thus far in U.S. history: 47 days and engaged 1.2
million American soldiers; 10% casualties (112,000)
E. End of the war
1. Germany suffering from
desertion of its allies, British blockade’s causing critical
food shortages, and Allied assaults.
2. Germany’s surrender spurred
by Wilson’s 14 Points
a. German generals warned their gov’t of their imminent defeat.
b. German gov’t turned to seemingly moderate Wilson in October 3, 1918,
seeking a peace based on the 14 Points.
c. Wilson demanded Kaiser’s removal before an armistice could be negotiated.
d. Nov. 11, 1918, Germany laid down her arms.
F. Segregation in American army
1. Blacks initially divided
on whether or not to support the war.
-- W.E.B. Du Bois issued editorial in The Crisis for blacks to support
the war.
2. Most blacks did labor
duty.
3. 400,000 U.S. black troops
not allowed to march for victory parade in Paris in 1919.
-- Black and brown colonial troops who fought for Britain & France
allowed.
G. Casualties
1. Americans lost about
112,432 men total: 48,000 battle deaths; 62,000 dead of disease;
230,000 wounded
2. About 10 million soldiers
died on all sides
3. About 20 million civilian
casualties resulted: most as a result of the Russian Revolution,
many as a result of influenza epidemic, over 1 million Armenians at the
hands of the Turks; 750,000 Germans due to Allied blockade.
IX. Wilson loses Congress at home.
A. Wilson’s post-war popularity in the world unprecedented
-- President seen as a savior by millions in Europe.
B. Republican victory in Congressional election
of 1918
1. Wilson broke the bi-partisan
truce held during the war to appeal for a Democratic
victory in the 1918 Congressional elections.
2. Move backfired when Republicans
regained their majority in Congress.
3. Having staked his prestige
on the election, Wilson returned to Europe a diminished
leader.
C. Wilson infuriated Republicans by personally going
to the Paris peace conference.
1. Hitherto, no President
had traveled to Europe.
2. Further infuriated
Republicans when he excluded Republican Senators in peace delegation.
X. Versailles Peace Conference (beginning Jan. 18, 1919)
A. Big Four: Wilson -- U.S., David Lloyd
George – Britain;
Premier Georges Clemenceau
– France, Premier Vittorio Orlando -- Italy
1. Drove the peace conference;
each had his own agenda.
2. European leaders did
not embrace Wilson’s ideas despite his overwhelming
popularity among the European masses.
a. Feared he might jeapardize their imperialistic plans and prompt the
masses
to overthrow their leaders.
b. Masses also sought retribution against Germany included in treaty.
3. Meanwhile, Europe seemed
to be slipping into anarchy; esp. Bolshevist threat
B. Wilson’s goal was a world parliament to be known
as the League of Nations.
1. Wilson forced to compromise
on self-determination of Central Powers’ colonies.
a. Mandates -- Victors would not receive conquered territory outright
but only as
trustees of the League of Nations
b. In reality, solution little more than old prewar colonialism.
2. Europeans agreed League
Covenant, the Constitution for the League of Nations
a. Collective security was chief aim: Called on all members to protect
the
"territorial integrity" and "political independence" of all other members.
b. Article X of Versailles Treaty provided for the League of
Nations
3. Five permanent members
to be U.S., Fr. Br., It, and Japan
-- 42 Allied and neutral countries would meet in a general assembly
-- Germany and Russia excluded.
C. Versailles Treaty
1. Article 231 of the
Versailles Treaty ("war-guilt" clause)
a. Placed sole blame for WWI on Germany.
b. Germany obliged to pay reparations to the Allies = $31 billion over
30 years.
c. Germany forced to accept severe military restrictions and loss of territory.
d. Germany left out of League of Nations (Russia also)
2. Self-determination
granted to Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and the Baltic
states of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Yugoslavia.
-- Self-determination failed in Africa and in India
3. Opposition to treaty
at home when Wilson returned with the treaty draft in Feb. 1919
a. Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge threatened to kill the treaty
if Wilson did
not provide provisions for preserving Monroe Doctrine and providing a means
for
U.S. to leave the League if it so desired.
-- "Irreconcilables": Opposed a League in any form; included Hiram
Johnson
of California and William Borah of Idaho, both isolationists.
b. Wilson’s Allied adversaries at Versailles now in a stronger bargaining
position
D. Completion of treaty
a. When Wilson returned
to France, delegates had separated League from the Treaty due to
growing unrest in Europe and certain colonial regions.
b. Final signing ceremony
at Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on June, 28, 1919
c. Germany had agreed to
armistice on a peace based on the 14 Points but was now forced
to sign a treaty containing only about 4 of the original 14 Points.
-- Cries of betrayal swept Germany.
d. Wilson forced to compromise
away some of less cherished 14 Points in
order to salvage League of Nations.
E. American reaction
1. Isolationists opposed
entanglement and the League of Nations (esp. Republicans)
a. Future role of U.S. in Latin America created enormous controversy.
b. Anti-German critics charged treaty not harsh enough against Germany.
c. Liberals like the New York Nation thought the treaty too harsh.
d. German & Italian Americans outraged that treaty not favorable to
their native lands.
e. Irish-Americans (many in gov’t) complained it gave Britain too much
undue influence
and felt it could force U.S. aid to Britain in order to crush rising for
Irish independence.
f. Many African Americans angry peace conference dicated fate of former
German
African colonies without African representation.
g. Jews only large group that favored the treaty wholeheartedly.
-- Treaty provided for eventual British control of Palestine; Zionists
saw this as
step towards Jewish homeland.
XI. Defeat of Versailles Treaty (1919)
A. Americans initially favored Versailles Treaty
with the League of Nations.
B. Republicans opposed to treaty
1. Senator Lodge
wished to amend it but had no real hope of defeating it.
-- Republicans could then claim political credit for the changes.
2. Lodge opposed treaty
as infringement of U.S. role in Western Hemishphere.
3. Lodge bogged 264-page
treaty in Senate Foreign Relations Committee
C. Wilson’s speaking tour, Fall of 1919
1. Wilson feared any senatorial
modification to Treaty would encourage Europeans to
also make modifications and amend the League out of existence.
2. Wilson decided to
appeal over the heads of the Senate to the people by going on
an ambitious speechmaking tour.
a. Physicians and friends advised Wilson against it as his health was in
question.
b. Believed correctly public in favor of Treaty but miscalculated public’s
interest in a
treaty w/o modifications: Wilson obsessed with treaty
c. "Irreconcilable" senators Borah and Johnson followed him
in each city a few days
later with the Republican spin. (La Follette also); opposed treaty in any
form.
D. Wilson collapsed from physical and nervous exhaustion
in Pueblo, CO on Sept. 25, 1919.
1. Several days later, a
stroke paralyzed one side of his body.
2. He did not meet his cabinet
for 7.5 months.
E. Lodge Reservations
1. Lodge unable to amend
treaty outright, came up with 14 formal reservations to it.
a. Reserved rights of U.S. under the Monroe Doctrine and the Constitution
and
otherwise sought to protect American sovereignty.
b. Focused on Article X of League as it morally bound the U.S. to
aid any
member victimized by external aggression.
-- Congress wanted to reserve war-declaring power for itself.
F. Wilson rejected the Lodge Reservations as
they "emasculated" the entire pact.
1. Ordered Democrats to
vote against treaty with Lodge Reservations attached.
-- He hoped that when these were cleared, the path would be open for ratification
without reservations or with only mild Democratic reservations.
2. Nov. 19, 1919, Loyal
Democrats in the Senate along with the "irreconcilables"
rejected treaty with Lodge Reservations appended, 55-39.
-- U.S. should not be a member of the League under any circumstances.
3. Ironically, 4/5 of
senators favored the treaty, with or without, reservations.
4. Wilson again urged treaty
to be defeated a second time in 1920.
a. Yet, Wilson’s solution was to make the Presidential election of 1920
a
"solemn referendum" on the treaty.
b. Many historians believe Wilson’s health made him intransigent
c. Democrats lost the presidential election in 1920 and League was never
ratified.
G. Separate peace with Germany ratified on July
25, 1921
-- War officially
ended by Congress on July 2, 1921.
XIII. World War I political results
A. U.S emerged as world's economic & political
leader (notwithstanding its isolationism)
B. Russian Revolution ultimately instituted communism
(tremendous impact until
1992)
C. Britain, France, Austria and Turkey went into
various states of decline.
D. Germany devastated by Versailles peace conference
-- Led to the eventual rise
of Hitler and World War II.
XIV. Election of 1920
A. Republicans nominated Warren G. Harding
of Ohio.
1. Platform was effectively
ambiguous on the issue of the League.
2. Harding spoke of returning
America to "normalcy"
B. Democrats nominated James M. Cox of Ohio
who strongly supported the League
-- Running mate was assistant
navy secretary Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
C. Result:
1. Harding d. Cox
2. First time full-suffrage
for women in national election.
3. Results displayed public
desire for change from idealism, moral overstrain, and
self-sacrifice.
4. Isolationists turned
results into a death sentence for the League of Nations.
a. Later, the U.S. would bear part of the blame for WWII as it undercut
the League of Nations by refusing to join it.
b. Security Treaty with France also rejected by the Senate.
i. France then undertook to build a powerful military in the face of
increased German power and lack of U.S. support.
ii. Germany, fearing France’s buildup, embarked on an even more
vigorous rearmament program under Hitler.
c. U.S. thus spurred an opportunity to emerge as a world leader and to
shape
world events for the benefit of peace.
5. Two main causes for the
failure of peace:
a. The Great Depression (precipitating cause)
b. "War psychosis" (dubbed by Wilson and others): hatreds raised up in
Europe by
a war that lasted so long that Europe’s leaders lost all perspective
Bibliography:
Bailey, Thomas A., Kennedy, David M.: The American Pageant, 10th
edition, Lexington,
Massachusetts: D.C. Heath, 1994
College Board, Advanced Placement Course Description: History --
United States, European
History, College Entrance Examination Board,
1996
Foner, Eric & Garraty, John A. editors: The Reader’s Companion
to American History, Boston:
Houghton MifflinCompany, 1991
Gilbert, Martin, The First World War: A Complete History, New
York: Henry Holt & Co.,
1994
Heckscher, August, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, New York: MacMillan,
1991
Hofstadter, Richard, The Age of Reform, New York: Random
House, 1955
________________, The American Political Tradition, New York:
Alfred Knopf, 1948
Kennedy, Paul, Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change
and Military
Conflict from 1500 to 2000, New York: Random
House, 1987
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American
History Textbook
Got Wrong, New York: The New Press, 1995
Nash, Gary : American Odyssey, Lake Forest, Illinois: Glencoe,
1992
Painter, Nell Irvin, Standing at Armageddon: The United States,
1877-1919, New York: W.
W. Norton 1987
Schultz, Constance G., The American History Videodisc Master Guide,
Annapolis, Maryland:
Instruction Resources Corporation, 1995
Trask, D. F., "Woodrow Wilson and the Reconciliation of Force and Diplomacy,"
in Madaras,
Larry and SoRelle James M., Taking Sides: Clashing
Views on Controversial Issues in
American History, Volume II, Guilford, Connecticut:
Dushkin Publishing Group, 1989
Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States, New York:
Harper and Row, 1980