Isolation v. Globalization in World War I

SSUSH15a-c, SSUSH16a

SSUSH15 The student will analyze the origins and impact of U.S. involvement in World War I.

a. Describe the movement from U.S. neutrality to engagement in World War I, with reference to unrestricted submarine warfare.

b. Explain the domestic impact of World War I, as reflected by the origins of the Great Migration, the Espionage Act, and socialist Eugene Debs.

c. Explain Wilson’s Fourteen Points and the proposed League of Nations.

SSUSH16 The student will identify key developments in the aftermath of WW I.

a. Explain how rising communism and socialism in the United States led to the Red Scare and immigrant restriction.

Origins of World War I

• Causes– Balkan nationalism– Militarism– Entangling alliances

• Early war in Europe– Assassination of Archduke (June 28, 1914)– Mobilization– Invasion of France, development of trench lines

Origins of World War I

• U.S. Neutrality– Wilson’s Declaration of Neutrality

• August 19, 1914

The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of

impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned…

…The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in

thought, as well as action…

World War I

• Submarine warfare– February 5th, 1915 –

Germany announces submarine blockade of Britain

• Why?

– May 7th, 1915 – Lusitania sunk

• 1,198 civilians, includes 128 Americans killed

• Takes 18 minutes to sink

German warning to American passengers

The Lusitania

• British ocean liner– Carried articles of war (up to 1/2 of cargo)

• 1,250 cases of shrapnel shells; 18 cases of fuses; 4,200 cases of Remington rifle cartridges (1,000 to a box); 50 cases of explosive powder

• U.S. Response:– Wilson issues demand

to stop sub attacks– William Jennings

Bryan resigns in protest

Aftermath of the Lusitania

• Sussex Pledge– Germany promises not to attack any more

ships

• National Defense Act– June 1916– Basically doubles size of army, spends $313

million to improve the navy

• Woodrow Wilson– “He kept us out of war” - Slogan– Supported U.S. neutrality officially, while

building up the army & navy and loaning money to the Allied powers

– Argued for a “peace without victory”

• Central Question of the time:

1916 Presidential Election

Isolationism v. Globalization

• Isolationism– William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State,

argued for neutrality• No loans to powers that were fighting, U.S. should

stay out of the war

• Globalization– Theodore Roosevelt and others argued that the

U.S. should intervene on the side of the Allies• Germany attacked the U.S. by attacking British ships

Road to War

• Submarine Attacks– In desperation, unrestricted submarine warfare

began again on February 1, 1917• Germans hoped to defeat Allied before U.S. could

impact the war

• Zimmerman Telegram (1917)– German foreign secretary Zimmerman sent

telegram to Mexico asking them join war in return for New Mexico, Texas and Arizona

– Intercepted by British and leaked to American newspapers

Zimmerman Telegram

Declaration of War

• April 2, 1917 "The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty… It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in, the balance.  But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free…"

U.S. in World War I

• Soldiers called “doughboys”

• Major battles:– 2nd Battle of the Marne– St. Mihiel– Meuse-Argonne Offensive

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

• Domestic Impact: How the war impacted Americans at home

• Ways the war impacted America:– “Great Migration”– Espionage Act & Privacy– Eugene Debs & Socialism– Changing Workforce Demographics

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

“Great Migration”(1890’s-1920’s)• Mass movement of African Americans to

northern cities

• Why?– Escape negative

aspects of Southern life

– Economic opportunities

Black Population Trends

  1890s 1960s

Southern 90.3% 10%

Rural 90% 5%

Northern 9.7% 90%

Urban 10% 95%

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

“Great Migration”(1890’s-1920’s)• African-Americans created separate

communities within northern cities– Best example: Harlem in New York City

• Helps lead to the Harlem Renaissance• Race relations deteriorate

– Northern resistance (residential segregation)

– Marcus Garvey: racial pride and self-help

– Rise of the 2nd Ku Klux Klan

Eugene Debs and socialism

• Eugene Debs (1855-1926)– Helped establish Socialist

Party of America– Ran for President in 1904,

1908, 1912 and 1920– Served 5 years in prison for

violating the Espionage Act

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

Socialism: system of government that argues the workers should control the government and that government should own industry, ex. Communism

Espionage Act and Privacy• Espionage Act of 1917

– Made it illegal to interfere with military recruitment or operations, or to openly support America’s enemies

• Most famous violator: Eugene V. Debs

– Schenck v. United States (1919) – Constitutional, not a violation of 1st Amendment [freedom of speech]

– Still in effect today• Some want Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, charged

under the Espionage Act for his actions in releasing classified military documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

Debs was a pacifist. He, along with many other socialists, argued that the United States should not enter World War I

Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

Red Scare

• Nationwide fear of communists

• Why?– Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (1917)

• Goal: Worldwide Communism [Comintern]

– Anarchist bombings throughout U.S.– Rise of labor unions/workers rights advocates

Red Scare

• Palmer Raids (1919-21)– Series of attacks on American communists

• Began after series of bombings targeting important Americans

– Led by A. Mitchell Palmer, U.S. Attorney General

– Many arrested / deported• Most poor immigrants

Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

Red Scare

• Sacco and Vanzetti– Two anarchist immigrants charged

with murder in 1920• Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti

– Little evidence, but sentenced to death anyway• Executed August 23, 1927

Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

Judge Webster Taylor, speaking about Vanzetti: “although he may not actually have committed the crime attributed to him, is nevertheless morally culpable [guilty], because he is an enemy of our existing institutions…The defendant’s ideals are cognate [associated] with crime.” [as quoted in The Year the World Went Mad, by Allen Churchill]

Communism and Socialism in the U.S.

Immigration Restriction

• Immigration = problem– Solution? Quotas

• First limits:– 350,000 persons/yr., no more than 3% of

current population

• National Origins Act of 1924– Quota reduced to 2% and 150,000 total– Banned Asian immigration

• Changing workforce demographics

– Great Migration = more African-American industrial workers

– World War I = more women employed

Domestic Impact of U.S. during WW I

Wilson’s Fourteen Points

• January 8, 1918 – Speech to Congress

made by President Woodrow Wilson

• Set out U.S. war goals– Idealistic– War was moral and

continual peace was the main goal

1. Open Treaties

2. Freedom of the seas

3. Equality of trade

4. Reduction in armaments

5. Self-determination

6. Reestablishing Russia

7. Restoration of Belgium

8. Alsace-Lorraine to France

9. Adjustment of Italy’s boundaries

10.Breakup of Austria-Hungary

11.Freedom for Balkan states

12.Breakup of Ottoman Empire

13.Freedom for Poland

14.League of Nations

League of Nations

• Extra-national organization founded after World War I

• Purpose: – Eliminate future wars by settling disputes

between nations by negotiation and arbitration

• U.S. fails to join– Does not ratify Treaty of Versailles

Return to Isolationism

• U.S. does not join League of Nations

• Returns to isolationism