Apush Ch. 30

Chapter 30 Study Guide – The American Pageant
“The War to End War” – 1917-1918

Major Themes: Wilson, forced grudgingly into war, took the heel-dragging American public with him. The war would forever alter American history.

1. Recommendation: If you want a more thorough account of World War I, you should read the Enduring Vision.

2. Assess the final catalysts for American involvement in WWI AND the textbooks assertion that Germany had dragged America into the war. * On January 22, 1917, Woodrow Wilson made one final, attempt to avert war, delivering a moving address that correctly declared only a “peace without victory” (beating Germany without embarrassing them) would be lasting. * Germany responded by shocking the world, announcing that it would break the Sussex pledge and return to unrestricted submarine warfare, which meant that its U-boats would now be firing on armed and unarmed ships in the war zone. * On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war, which it did four days later; Wilson had lost his gamble at staying out of the war. * The Germans also began to make good on their threats, sinking numerous ships. Meanwhile, in Russia, a revolution toppled the tsarist regime. * Then, the Zimmerman note was intercepted and published on March 1, 1917. Written by German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman, it secretly proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico. It proposed that if Mexico fought against the U.S. and the Central Powers won, Mexico could recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona from the U.S.

3. To what extent did Wilson transform American involvement in WWI into a crusade? * Many people still didn’t want to enter into war, for America had prided itself in isolationism for decades, and now, Wilson was entangling America in a distant war. * To gain enthusiasm for the war, Wilson came up with the idea of America entering the war to “make the world safe for democracy.” * This idealistic motto worked brilliantly, but with the new American zeal came the loss of Wilson’s earlier motto, “peace without victory.”

4. List Wilson’s main points (not all fourteen). * The Fourteen Points were a set of idealistic goals for peace. The main points were no more secret treaties, freedom of the seas was to be maintained, a removal of economic barriers among nations, reduction of armament burdens, adjustment of colonial claims in the interests of natives and colonizers, “Self-determination,” or independence for oppressed minority groups who’d choose their government, and a League of Nations, an international organization that would keep the peace and settle world disputes.

5. How did George Creel sell WWI to the Americans and Wilson’s ideas to the world? * The Creel organization sent out an army of 75,000 men to deliver speeches in favor of the war, showered millions of pamphlets containing the most potent “Wilsonisms” upon the world, splashed posters and billboards that had emotional appeals, and showed anti-German movies like The Kaiser and The Beast of Berlin. * There were also patriotic songs, but Creel did err in that he oversold some of the ideals, and result would be disastrous disillusionment. * The Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, was created to “sell” the war to those people who were against it or to just gain support for it.

6. Analyze the reasons and methods that Americans stifled dissent and enforced loyalty. * Germans in America were surprisingly loyal to the U.S., but nevertheless, many Germans were blamed for espionage activities, and a few were tarred, feathered, and beaten. * The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 showed American fears and paranoia about Germans and others perceived as a threat. * Antiwar Socialists and the members of the radical union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were often prosecuted, including Socialist Eugene V. Debs and IWW leader William D. Haywood, who were arrested, convicted, and sent to prison. * Fortunately, after the war, there were presidential pardons (from Warren G. Harding), but a few people still sat in jail into the 1930s. * In Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court affirmed their legality, arguing that freedom of speech could be revoked when such speech posed a clear and present danger to the nation.

7. Evaluate the American Industrial effort and the role of workers during the War. * America was very unprepared for war, though Wilson had created the Council of National Defense to study problems with mobilization and had launched a shipbuilding program. * In trying to mobilize for war, no one knew how much America could produce, and traditional laissez-faire economics (where the government stays out of the economy) still provided resistance to government control of the economy. * In March 1918, Wilson named Bernard Baruch to head the War Industries Board, but this group never had much power and was disbanded soon after the armistice. * The National War Labor Board, headed by former president William H. Taft, settled any possible labor difficulties that might hamper the war efforts. * Antiwar Socialists and the members of the radical union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were often prosecuted. * The Chicago Race Riots included black and white gangs the roamed Chicago’s streets, eventually killing fifteen whites and twenty-three blacks.

8. In what ways did WWI create a conflict in the women’s suffrage movement and in what ways did WWI benefit/hurt the suffrage movement? * Women also found more opportunities in the workplace, since the men were gone to war. * The war the split women’s suffrage movement. Many progressive women suffragists were also pacifists and therefore against the war. Most women supported the war and concluded they must help in the war if they want to help shape the peace (get the vote). * Their help gained support for women’s suffrage, which was finally achieved with the 19th Amendment, passed in 1920. * Although a Women’s Bureau did appear after the war to protect female workers, most women gave up their jobs at war’s end, and Congress even affirmed its support of women in their traditional roles in the home with the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act of 1921, which federally financed instruction in maternal and infant health care. * This group found a voice in the National Woman’s party, led by Quaker activist Alice Paul. However, the largest part of the suffrage movement was represented by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).

9. What was the character (nature) and success of America’s War economy? * Herbert Hoover was chosen to head the Food Administration, since he had organized a hugely successful voluntary food drive for the people of Belgium. * He spurned ration cards in favor of voluntary “Meatless Tuesdays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays,” suing posters, billboards, and other media to whip up a patriotic spirit which encouraged people to voluntarily sacrifice some of their own goods for the war. * The wave of self-sacrifice also sped up the drive against alcohol, culminating with the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the sale, distribution, or consumption of alcohol. * Money was raised through the sale of war bonds, four great Liberty Loan drives, and increased taxes, followed by a Victory Loan campaign in 1919.

10. Analyze the debate and results of conscription for American soldiers. * European Allies finally confessed to the U.S. that not only were they running out of money to pay for their loans from America, but also that they were running out of men, and that America would have to raise and train an army to send over to Europe, or the Allies would collapse. * Luckily, patriotic men and women lined up on draft day, disproving ominous predictions of bloodshed by the opposition of the draft. * African-Americans were allowed in the army, but they were usually assigned to non-combat duty; also, training was so rushed that many troops didn’t know how to even use their rifles, much less bayonets, but they were sent to Europe anyway. * Doughboy was a boy that got enlisted in the army to fight. Conscription was the only answer to the need for raising an immense army. * The Selective Service Act authorized the federal government to raise a national army for the American entry into World War I through conscription.

11. “American military efforts in World War I saved the Allies from certain defeat.” Assess the validity of this statement. * In the spring of 1918, one commander, the French Marshal Foch, for the first time, led the Allies and just before the Germans were about to invade Paris and knock out France, American reinforcements arrived and pushed the Germans back. * In the Second Battle of the Marne, the Allies pushed Germany back some more, marking a German withdrawal that was never again effectively reversed. * The Americans, demanding their own army instead of just supporting the British and French, finally got General John J. Pershing to lead a front. * Sgt. Alvin C. York became a hero when he single-handedly killed 20 Germans and captured 132 more; ironically, he had been in an antiwar sect beforehand. * Mademoiselle from Armentieres was a famous song written about the war.

12. Why did peace finally come to Europe? * Finally, the Germans were exhausted and ready to surrender, for they were being deserted, the British blockade was starving them, and the Allied blows just kept coming. * At 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Germans laid down their arms in armistice after overthrowing their Kaiser Wilhelm II in hopes that they could get a peace based on the Fourteen Points. * It was the prospect of endless American troops, rather than the American military performance, that had demoralized the Germans.

13. What three political mistakes did Wilson make that hurt his chances for successful peace? * At the end of the war, Wilson was at the height of his popularity, but when he appealed for voters to give a Democratic victory in 1918, American voters instead gave Republicans a narrow majority, and Wilson went to Paris as the only leader of the Allies not commanding a majority at home. * When Wilson decided to go to Europe personally to oversee peace proceedings, Republicans were outraged, thinking that this was all just for flamboyant show. * When he didn’t include a single Republican, not even Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a very intelligent man who used to be the “scholar in politics” until Wilson came along and was therefore jealous and spiteful of Wilson, the Republicans got even angrier.

14. What were the specific provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and how did they lead to another World War? * At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Big Four—Italy, led by Vittorio Orlando, France, led by Georges Clemenceau, Britain, led by David Lloyd George, and the U.S., led by Wilson, basically dictated the terms of the treaty. * Conflicting ambitions ruled the conference. Britain and France wanted to punish Germany, Italy wanted money, the U.S. wanted to heal wounds through Wilson’s League of Nations. * The War Guilt Clause was passed doing two things, (1) it formally placed blame on Germany, a proud and embarrassed people, and (2) it charged Germany for the costs of war, $33 billion. * The Treaty of Versailles was forced upon Germany under the threat that if it didn’t sign the treaty, war would resume, and when the Germans saw all that Wilson had compromised to get his League of Nations, they cried betrayal, because the treaty did not contain much of the Fourteen Points like the Germans had hoped it would.
15. What were the challenges, opportunities and obstacles facing Wilson and how did he respond? * When Wilson returned to America, at the time, Senator Lodge had no hope to defeat the treaty, so he delayed, reading the entire 264-page treaty aloud in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held hearings for people discontent with the treaty to voice their feelings, and basically stalled, bogging the treaty down. * Wilson decided to take a tour to gain support for the treaty, but trailing him like bloodhounds were Senators Borah and Johnson, two of the “irreconcilables,” who verbally attacked him. * However, in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions, reception was much warmer, and the high point came at Pueblo, Colorado, where he pleaded that the League was the only hope for peace in the future.

16. How did the Treaty of Versailles die in the U.S. Senate? * Lodge now came up with fourteen “reservations” to the Treaty of Versailles, which sought to safeguard American sovereignty. * Congress was especially concerned with Article X, which morally bound the U.S. to aid any member of the League of Nations that was victimized by aggression, for Congress wanted to preserve its war-declaring power. * Wilson hated Lodge, and though he was willing to accept similar Democratic reservations and changes, he would not do so from Lodge, and thus, he ordered his Democratic supporters to vote against the treaty with the Lodge reservations attached.

17. To what extent was the election of 1920 a “referendum” on World War I, League of Nations, or Wilson? * Wilson had proposed to take the treaty to the people with a national referendum, but that would have been impossible. * In 1920, the Republican Party was back together, thanks in part to Teddy Roosevelt’s death in 1919, and it devised a clever platform that would appeal to pro-League and anti League factions of the party, and they chose Warren G. Harding as their candidate in the “smoke-filled room,” with Calvin Coolidge as the vice presidential candidate. * The Democrats chose James M. Cox and Franklin D. Roosevelt as VP, and they also supported a League of Nations, but not necessarily the League of Nations.

18. Assess America’s betrayal of the Great Expectations Wilson had claimed. * U.S. isolationism doomed the Treaty of Versailles and indirectly led to World War II, because France, without an ally, built up a large military force, and Germany, suspicious and fearful, began to illegally do the same. * The suffering of Germany and the disorder of the time was used by Adolf Hitler to seize power in Germany, build up popularity, and drag Europe into war. * It was the U.S.’s responsibility to take charge as the most powerful nation in the world after World War I, but it retreated into isolationism, and let the rest of the world do whatever it wanted in the hopes that the U.S. would not be dragged into another war, but ironically, it was such actions that eventually led the U.S. into WWII. * No less ominous events were set in motion when the Senate spurned the Security Treaty with France.