World Class Educationwww.kean.edu

1914 - 1919

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Topic 12

Powerful military forces – arms race

Nationalism

Imperialism

System of Alliances

Collective guilt of the great powers

2

Sinking of Lusitania, 1915

German unrestricted submarine warfare, 1917

Allied propaganda

Hostility toward Germany

American economic ties to Britain

Historical / Cultural ties to Britain and France

American idealism

American long-term strategic interests

3

Main Points

Open Diplomacy

Freedom of the Seas

Removal of trade barriers

Arms reduction

Adjustment of colonial claims

Nation / Ethnic self-determination

League of Nations

First Page of Wilson’s Shorthand Draft

4

Economic mobilization – War Industries Board

Military mobilization – Selective Service Acts

Espionage Act (1917)

Financing the War – new taxes / Liberty and Victory bonds appeals

5

American Expeditionary Force – 2 million

soldiers – General Pershing

Contributed to defeat of German 1918

offensive on Western Front

6

Woodrow Wilson

Georges Clemenceau

“The Tiger”David Lloyd George

7

Covenant of the League of Nations

New German boundaries

German military limits

Reparations (Article 231- war “guilt” clause)

Redrawing - map of Europe and Middle East

8

End of the Progressive movement

The “Red Scare”

American isolationism – rejection of the Treaty of Versailles / League of Nations

Emergence of America as the world’s creditor

America emerges as a Great Power – but what will be its role?

9

James L Stokesbury, A Short History of World War I

Edward M. Coffman, The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I

David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society

Margaret Macmillan, Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World

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