Essential Question

• What were the causes of World War I?

The U.S. and World War I

The Balkans

• Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and Slovenes pushed for independence

• Called themselves the Yugoslavs

The Assassination

• June 1914

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo

The Assassination

• Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian revolutionary, shot the couple in their car

Beginning of World War I

• July 28, 1914 – Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia

• Russia mobilized to support the Serbs

Beginning of World War I

• August 1 – Germany declared war on Russia, then France

• France supported Russia

Allies

• England

• France

• Russia

• Italy (after 1915)

Central Powers

• Germany

• Austria-Hungary

• Ottoman Empire

• Bulgaria

A Bloody Conflict

Western Front

• Network of trenches (2500 miles)

• Space between opposing trenches was known as “the no man’s land”

Trench Warfare

• Troops used modern rifles and the rapid-fire machine gun

Poison Gas

• First used by the Germans in 1915

• Fumes cause vomiting, blindness, suffocation

Tanks

• Introduced by the British in 1916

• Slow, easy to destroy

• Rolled over barbed wire and trenches

Airplanes

• First use of airplanes in combat

• Observation

• Small bombs, machine guns for dogfights

U.S. Response

• Wilson tried to keep the U.S. neutral

• “We must be impartial in thought as well as in action.”

German U-Boats

• German subs used to get around British blockades

• 1915 – announced they would sink any boat in British waters

Lusitania• May 7, 1915 – British

passenger liner

• Sunk by the Germans

• 1200 passengers, 128 Americans killed

Sussex Pledge

• Germany promised to sink no more merchant ships

Zimmerman Telegram

• British intelligence intercepted the message

• Contents leaked to the press

Zimmerman Telegram

• January 1917

• In a telegram, Germany proposed that if Mexico became an ally, Germany would help the country regain lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona

German U-Boats

• Feb. 1, 1917

• Resumed unrestricted submarine warfare

• Sank six American merchant ships

U.S. Declares War

• April 2, 1917

• Wilson asked Congress for a special declaration of war

Wilson before Congress

“It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war . . . But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest to 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.”

The Home Front

Selective Service

• Conscription = forced military service

• Required all men between 21 and 30 to register for the draft

Food Administration

• Run by Herbert Hoover

• Responsible for increasing food production while reducing civilian consumption

Fuel Administration

• Introduction of Daylight Savings Time

• Manage nation’s coal and oil use to conserve energy