A Global Power The United States in the Era of the Great War 1901-1920

1. 22 A Global Power The United States in the Era of the Great War 1901-1920

2. A Global PowerThe United States in the Era of the Great War 1901-1920 • Becoming a World Power • The Great War • American Mobilization • Over Here • Repression and Reaction • An Uneasy Peace • Conclusion

4. Chapter Focus Questions • How and where did the United States expand its role on the international scene? • Why did the United States move from neutrality to participation in the Great War? • What methods and techniques did the federal government used to achieve wartime mobilization?

5. Chapter Focus Questions (cont’d) • How did U.S. entry into the war alter the political landscape, especially with respect to dissent? • How can we explain Woodrow Wilson’s failure to win the peace?

6. France and Verdun

7. The American Expeditionary Force in France • Meuse-Argonne Offensive • largest American operation of the war • Pershing hoped to end the war with the stamp of the Americans. • Common experiences of AEF • The Meuse-Argonne Offensive brought to life the harsh realities of mechanized war.

8. Becoming a World Power

9. Cartoon portraying President Theodore Roosevelt

10. Becoming a World Power • In the early 20th century, U.S. foreign policy became more vigorous and aggressive both in Asia and the Western Hemisphere. • Inspired by Progressivism and moralism, economic expansion and foreign policy set the stage for American involvement in World War I.

11. Roosevelt: The Big Stick • Americans believed that they had a God-given role to promote a moral world order.

12. Roosevelt: The Big Stick (cont'd) • Theodore Roosevelt’s “big stick” approach called for intervention. • He secured a zone in Panama for a canal, completed in 1914. • He expanded the Monroe Doctrine to justify armed intervention in the Caribbean where the United States assumed management of several nations’ finances.

13. Roosevelt: The Big Stick (cont’d) • In Asia, the United States pursued the “Open Door” policy toward China. • TR mediated a settlement of the Russo-Japanese War and negotiated the Root-Takahira Agreement recognizing Japan’s new status as an Asian power.

14. MAP 22.1 The United States in the Caribbean, 1865–1933

15. Taft: Dollar Diplomacy • Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, favored “dollar diplomacy” that substituted investment for military intervention. • Taft believed that political influence would follow increased U.S. trade and investments. • American investment in Central America doubled.

16. Taft: Dollar Diplomacy (cont’d) • Military interventions occurred in Honduras and Nicaragua. • In Asia, the quest for greater trade led to worsening relations with Japan over the issue of ownership of Chinese railroads. • After a 1911 Revolution, the Open Door with China closed.

17. Wilson: Moralism and Intervention in Mexico • Woodrow Wilson had no diplomatic experience before becoming president. • He favored expanding the Open Door principle of equal access to markets. • He saw expansion of American capitalism in moral terms. • The complex realities of power politics interfered with his moral vision.

18. Political cartoon depicting President Woodrow Wilson as a schoolteacher

19. Wilson: Moralism and Intervention in Mexico (cont’d) • Unable to control the revolution in Mexico, Wilson sent troops to Vera Cruz and northern Mexico. • When relations with Germany worsened, Wilson accepted an international commission’s recommendation and withdrew U.S. troops from Mexico.

20. The Great War

21. Patriotic marchers carry an over-sized American flag past spectators

22. The Great War • World War I, originally called the Great War, transformed world power relations and redrew the map of Europe. A reluctant belligerent, the U.S. played a supportive rather than a central role in the military outcome.

23. The Guns of August • Competition between Britain and Germany had led to competing camps of alliances. • The Triple Alliance (Central Powers): Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary • The Triple Entente (Allied Powers): England, France, and Russia • The alliances prevented small problems but threatened to entangle many nations in any war that erupted.

24. The Guns of August (cont’d) • The assassination of the Archduke of Austria by a Serbian nationalist in 1914 escalated into a general war. • Germany had pushed Austria to retaliate against Serbia. • Serbia was under the protection of Russia. • By August alliance systems brought all the great powers into the war. • Few expected the long and bloody struggle which would ensue.

25. American Neutrality • Wilson and most Americans wanted to stay neutral. • Many Americans had Old World ties and divided loyalties. • The English and Germans bombarded Americans with propaganda.

26. American Neutrality (cont'd) • Economic ties hurt American neutrality. • Wilson opposed the British blockade of Germany but did not trade with the Germans. • Trade with the Allies increased dramatically. • The U.S. had become neutral in name only.

27. Preparedness and Peace • Germany declared the waters around Britain to be a war zone and began submarine attacks. • In May 1915 Germans sank the Lusitania, a British passenger ship secretly loaded with armaments, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans.

28. Preparedness and Peace (cont’d) • In March 1916, Germany changed its submarine policy, but Wilson pushed for greater war preparation. • Opponents mobilized on the streets and in Congress. • In 1916, Wilson won re-election with the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War.”

29. Safe for Democracy • Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917 gambling that they could destroy the Allies before America intervened. • Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany.

30. Safe for Democracy (cont'd) • The White House publicized a note from the German foreign secretary to Mexico which proposed an alliance with Mexico if the United States entered the war.

31. Safe for Democracy (cont’d) • The Zimmerman note provoked an outpouring of anti-German feeling. • Wilson issued an executive order authorizing the arming of merchant ships and allowing them to shoot at submarines. • In one month German U-boats sank seven merchant ships. • On April 6, 1917, Congress declared war.

32. American Mobilization

33. Navy recruiting poster

34. American Mobilization • Public and press alike initially supported Wilson’s war message, but the president still took steps to muzzle dissent and mobilize the country for war.

35. Selling the War • Wilson appointed George Creel to head the Committee on Public Information that tried to promote public support. • Creel enlisted over 150,000 people to promote the cause.

36. Selling the War (cont'd) • The CPI: • published patriotic literature; • sponsored huge rallies featuring movie stars; • portrayed America as a unified moral community engaged in a crusade for peace and freedom; and • depicted Germans as bestial monsters.

37. Selling War

38. Fading Opposition to War • Progressives, intellectuals: defense of democracy • Women’s suffrage leaders: after opposition threw themselves behind war effort • Women leading roles: • selling war bonds, coordinating food conservation drives, working for hospitals and the Red Cross. • Many hoped that supporting the war effort would help the suffrage cause.

39. Fading Opposition to War (cont'd) • Only a minority maintained their opposition to the war.

40. “You’re in the Army Now” • Draft—only scattered organized resistance • On the first day, nearly 10 million men registered for the draft. • By the end of the war, 24 million had registered, 2.8 million had been called to serve, and 2 million had volunteered. • Psychological and intelligence tests • Praised for the army in promoting democratic equality among the troops.

41. Racism in the Military • Black troops were organized into separate units and subjected to white harassment. • Most had non-combat jobs, but those African Americans who did fight served with distinction, and were well treated by the French. • The contrast between French and American attitudes would be a sore point with returning black veterans.

42. African American officers pose with a girl in France

43. MAP 22.2 The Western Front, 1918

44. Americans in Battle • Pershing insisted that American troops maintain their own identity. • Pershing believed the object of war was total destruction, much like Ulysses S. Grant.

45. Americans in Battle (cont'd) • Approximately 112,000 Americans died—half from disease —and twice that number were wounded. However, these losses were far less than the millions of losses suffered by European nations.

46. The Russian Revolution, The Fourteen Points, and Allied Victory • 1917: Bolshevik victory • Wilson refused to recognize the Bolshevik regime. • August 1918: Wilson sent American troops into northern and eastern Russia, purportedly to protect railroad connections. • Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

47. The Russian Revolution, The Fourteen Points, and Allied Victory (cont'd) • The massive influx of American troops hastened the end of the war.

48. A Food Administration poster

49. Over Here

50. Over Here • WW I became the ultimate Progressive crusade as the size and power of federal government expanded. • Although some of the changes were temporary the war left long lasting impacts on American life.