Austrian Archduke, and heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand
visited the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo in June 1914 A man shot the
Archduke and his wife and the Serbian government knew about it They
wanted a war to bring down the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary joined Germany against France, Russia, and Serbia
Germany declared war on Russia who had been sending troops to the
German border and WWI began
Slide 3
President Wilson believed that the US should avoid being drawn
into a foreign war by remaining neutral American citizens were on
both sides of the fence Some supported Britain because of our
strong English heritage Some supported France because of our
historic links to them and their aid to us during our
Revolution
Slide 4
President Wilsons cabinet and military leaders supported the
British British officials worked to win American support by using
propaganda to influence the public Britain cut the transatlantic
telegraph cable from Europe to the US so we could only get British
reports American banks began lending money to the Allies, so
Americans had an interest in their success
Slide 5
Germans knew Allies depended on food, equipment, and other
supplies from the US To get around the British blockade of the
North Sea, Germany used their U-boats (submarines) and announced
they would attempt to sink any ship they found near Britain without
warning This violated an international treaty The Lusitania, a
British passenger ship, entered the war zone and a German submarine
sunk it 1200 passengers, including 128 Americans, were killed
Germany attacked a French ship and President Wilson demanded that
the German government stop using these methods of submarine warfare
or risk war with the US
Slide 6
A German official, Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to the
German ambassador in Mexico (which was already involved in conflict
with the US) proposing an alliance that would give Mexico its lost
territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona after the war British
intelligence intercepted the telegram and leaked the information to
American newspapers The next month Germany resumed unrestricted
submarine warfare and sank 6 US merchant ships within 45 days
President Wilson finally had no other choice but to declare
war
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Army had 100,000 men, but General Pershing said it needed 1
million within a year and 3 million the following year Selective
Service Act authorized the draft 11,000 women served as volunteers
in America, 14,000 served abroad in government agencies Training
was often cut short to save time All ships began to travel in
convoys (a group of unarmed ships surrounded by a ring of
destroyers, torpedo boats, etc.)
Slide 17
The more than 300,000 African American volunteers/draftees
served in segregated units and most never saw combat The marines
did not accept African Americans at all and the navy only accepted
them for basic tasks and manual labor An entire unit known as the
Harlem Hell Fighters convinced their officers to loan the regiment
to the French The French integrated them and allowed them to serve
All men in the regiment received Frances highest combat medal:
Croix de Guerre
Slide 18
Germans negotiated a peace agreement with Russia after helping
Vladimir Lenin gain control there They could now focus on
conquering the western front and taking Paris The Americans stepped
in and began to push the Germans back
Slide 19
The tank was a new weapon that allowed the Allies to cross
trenches and roll through barbed wire to break German lines We
manufactured hundreds of planes to keep up with the technology of
the Allies Airplanes were used to scout enemy positions, but later
flyers engaged in dogfights with pistols and machine guns German
zeppelins (blimps) killed more than 1500 civilians in London alone
Later, planes would be used to drop bombs to destroy railroads and
enemy targets
Slide 20
The Allies pressed on and Germanys allies (Bulgaria, the
Ottoman Empire, and Austria- Hungary) began to fall apart and make
peace individually with the Allied powers German commanders begged
for peace, but the Allied refused German naval command ordered the
fleet to leave the port and confront the British Navy for one last
battle, but the sailors mutinied and this revolt quickly spread to
other ships, ports, factories, and industrial cities until Kaiser
Wilhelm fled to Holland and the government of Germany signed an
armistice
Slide 21
Flu killed more people worldwide than all of the wartime
battles A strand first detected at a training camp in Kansas was
taken overseas by American Troops It caused severe pneumonia within
a couple days and people literally suffocated The virus spread
easily in crowded, unsanitary conditions The death rate in some
units reached 32% Before it ended, over 500,000 Americans and
nearly 30 million people worldwide died of the flu
Slide 22
Americans lost 50,000 soldiers in battle and many more to
disease Total European death toll is over 8 million soldiers and
sailors (more than 5,000 every day) Many soldiers had their feet
amputated because they developed trench foot Soldiers were
permanently blinded and had lung damage from poison gas attacks
Millions of civilians died of starvation, disease, or war-related
injuries
Slide 23
Wilsons Fourteen Points were a way to make and keep peace after
the war He hoped they would be the basis of peace negotiations and
Germany assumed they would as well Allies cooperated in the
beginning but they started coming up with their own plans and
discarding his
Slide 24
Wilson shared power with the leaders of Britain, France, and
Italy who wanted to make the Central Powers pay for their part in
the war with land, livestock, goods and money They also wanted to
divide up Germanys colonies in Africa, China, and the Pacific
Wilsons only goal was to create an agency to allow countries to
work together to resolve disputes peacefully Wilson convinced the
other powers to create the League of Nations and came back to the
US to convince us of his plan Part of the plan pledged that members
would regard an attack on one country as an attack on all The plan
was rejected because 39 senators feared the plan could be used to
drag the US into wars
Slide 25
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The conference created 9 new countries out of he territory of
Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany New borders created new ethnic
minorities in several countries, causing new problems The Ottoman
Empire was all but destroyed and what was left became Turkey
Germany was forced to pay reparations in the form of $33 billion,
which they were unable to pay Germany never forgot or forgave this
humiliation The Germans at first refused to sign the treaty, but
gave in when threatened with French invasion
Slide 27
Many Americans, including politicians, were unsure of the
League of Nations provision of the Versailles Treaty Wilson toured
the country to get support and suffered a stroke that paralyzed one
side of his body, leaving him an invalid for the rest of his term
The Senate voted on the treaty in several forms, but could not
agree On May 20, 1920 Congress voted to disregard the Treaty of
Versailles and declare the war officially over Wilson vetoed it and
the next year another resolution was passed, but this time with
Warren G. Harding in office (who signed it)
Slide 28
Inflation after the war was rampant because businesses that had
been regulated by the government were no longer regulated Workers
wanted higher wages because of inflation, companies wanted lower
wages This led to strikes
Slide 29
75% of the police force walked off the job, riots erupted, and
the governor had to send in the National Guard Strikers tried to
return to work and the police commissioner fired them and hired new
workers instead
Slide 30
Thousands of American soldiers returned from Europe and needed
to find jobs White and African American soldiers returned to a
heros welcome, but African American soldiers were discriminated
against when it came to housing and jobs Many African Americans who
had moved north during the war were also competing for jobs and
housing In the summer of 1919 over 20 race riots broke out across
the nation The worst violence happened in Chicago African Americans
had gone to a whites-only beach and both sides began throwing
stones at each other, setting off a riot that lasted for 2 weeks
and left 38 people dead and over 500 injured
Slide 31
Labor riots did not help the fear of communism People became
afraid of anarchy The postal service intercepted more than 30
parcels addressed to leading businesspeople and politicians that
were triggered to explode when opened In June, 8 bombs in 8 cities
exploded within minutes of one another, suggesting a nationwide
conspiracy The agency that would eventually become the FBI was
created to conduct raids on the headquarters of radical
organizations Most raids were unsuccessful and did not turn up hard
evidence
Slide 32
Warren G. Harding ran on a platform of a return to normalcy,
the simple days before progressive reforms This struck a chord with
voters and he won by a landslide against the ticket of Ohio
governor James M. Cox and Secretary of the Navy Franklin D.
Roosevelt who ran on the platform of continued Progressivism